Where Do You Go?
frogimus
Posts: 200
in The Commons
Is there an active forum for 3D somewhere that is not tied to any single store or platform/software? Someplace for D|S, Poser, Blender, Carrara, etc users to just share information (legally) and tips?
Hopefully this thread doesn't violate TOS.
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Comments
Not really...almost all of them, even if they start out 'unbiased' end up that way.
That's awful. My other hobby (miniatures painting/tabletop wargaming) has tons of sites and each has a lot of users. it's a shame 3D is so platform-biased.
this is so true
I have myself tried looking for such a place using 4 main programs Carrara, iClone, Poser, DAZ studio but all are program specific or store specific not allowing links etc like here.
Actually makes sense to me. If you have a general forum where everyone uses a different program, people and topics will get lost in the chaos. Renderosity has forums for a variety of programs, worth checking out.
What irks me is going to general model forums with lots of kids and everyone has copies of high end software and most haven't a clue how to use them, what a waste
Yeah...student editions suck...
When I was eligible for them, such things did not exist. Now every clueless kid gets one...
I can see your point to an extent. But there are forums that succeed in doing similar. enworld.org is a site for RPG's, of which there are a lot. Their forums are divided by game system (and subdivided by edition) but they have general forums for system-agnostic stuff. Their "what's new" and "posts within past 24-hrs" have an icon by thread title showing what game the post applies to. They are one of the largest sites for their hobby, possibly because they also relay relevent "news" about the industry.
Studio, Poser, Blender, zBrush are all tools, not religions. It just seems a waste for the 3D hobby to be so fractured and antagonistic.
They aren't?
Sometimes I think there is less strife between Shia and Sunni than some of the 3D camps.
hey frogi
i was so used to your frogikitty
miss it
Actually this has zero to do with the various merits of the software applications
themselves and more to do with the basic human need for group affiliation that results
in such online tribalism.
This tribalism is further fomented by artifical"cultural identities"
that humans insist on adopting both in the "real world" and in online
"Communities"
IMHO the most mentally paralyzing influence on the human being today
is this thing called "Culture"
Renderosity is probably Poser biased but they do have forums for DS and lots of other types of 3D and other software.
Yeah, but they still do not want links for competing stores (understandable).
Facebook is very active in 3d discussions now. Many of the users have migrated to unofficial Facebook groups to share images and discuss 3d rendering, animation and content development. Many 3d art groups are general while the name of other groups may contain the application software (Poser, DS, Maya etc) they are not necessairily managed by the software vendor but rather the user community.
When logged into facebook, search for 3D Art Group, 3D Render Group, and the names of software like the DAZ, Poser, Vue Groups.
I like to follow "Vue Gallaries", "DAZ+Poser Community", the "Unofficial Content Paradise Forum", "DAZ Product Critique Forum", "3d Modeling and Animation", "Poser DAZ Project and Learning" and "2D & 3D Animations, Game Designs & Development" groups.
But the father of CG Forums is still CGSociety (http://forums.cgsociety.org/) which has been hosts industry leading SIGRAPH confererences.
Just for modelling software alone, I have Blender, Hexagon, Bryce, Carrara, and even an old old old copy of Truespace. So I am a member of several tribes, although some of them are or will soon be nothing more than anthropological curiosities, like the ruins of Pompeii and Herculinium. They were such thriving centers of culture and trade, until that terrible day when Vesuvius blew its top.
I will trend toward the tribes who's totems are active. For example, the "People of Blender" have small-to-medium sized campsites everywhere in the world, where people with the hearts and souls of teachers gather to lend their wisdom and encouragement to young braves and squaws, as well as experienced hunters, farmers, and horsemen alike, so I show up there from time to time to build my shaping and carving skills.
The tribe dancing around DAZ Studio's bonfires is very large due to the vast quantity of content available and the huge discounts to be found at their bustling 24/7 bazaars, so I spend much of my time here. But if we are to believe the village council of "Wise Ones of the Commons", we could be seeing the onset of a canker called "DRM", which was actually intended to kill "only the pirates". Or just make them sneeze; it's unclear which is the case. But the Wise Ones warn us that if the canker grows into a full-blown blight and is allowed to spread to all corners of DAZ Nation, then we may soon witness the twilight of this once great civilization, with nothing left to hunt or farm, ultimately followed by the desertion of the bazaars.
For over two weeks now the war drums have been sounding day and night in the Commons gathering place. The skies are congested with smoke signal conversations about whether or not the citizenry has been heard. Eagles call even at night, the lonesome coyote howls not just at the full moon, and all members of the tribe continue to wait anxiously for any sign from the base of the mountains in Utah where the DAZ Elders convene in an understated brick structure to pore over and count their legumes. The Wise Ones have noted that the DAZ Elders include a caste called "Marketing", who are revered as all-powerful by some and reviled as near-sighted by others. Around the bonfires and smoke signals of The Commons, there are many self-appointed firebrands, soothsayers, and fortune tellers, but it is not yet evident if any one person really knows the future.
Outside of the stormy skies of the Great DAZ Studio Civilization, there are other notable DAZ "Precursor" civilizations. The great plains have been quiet for several years now with no big game left. Because of this, I rarely go hunting with Clan Carrara. They are still there, but I've seen their smoke signals too and I know they desperately seek new tools for farming and hunting.
The Bryce people have been wandering the great 32-Bit wasteland for several years with no upgrade in sight or in rumor. Many of them have incredible visions of parallelism and huge worlds and they even sing folk songs of greatness once in their grasp, but the world has grown larger and these tireless tribesmen and tribeswomen are still limited only to carvings and inkings that will fit within a 3GB stone tablet or sheepskin.
Elsewhere, the Hexagon Hegemony's fishing boats keep crashing and sinking, often without warning and usually requiring partial or complete rebuilding before relaunch. Once they had an amazing navy, but today they are limited mostly to spearfishing for small prey in shallow 32 Bit waters close to shore. Some still feed and clothe their families from their catches along these shallow beachfronts, which shows the highest order of toughness, persistence, and determination posessed by these amazing tribemembers.
My most recent visits with the good and patient people of the House of Bryce and the Isle of Hexagon were tinged with disappointment and sadness. Not with the people who continue to live in those places and eke out a meager existence from nothing more than silence and tumbleweeds, no. The disappointment is in the DAZ Elders who seem to have abandoned the community centers and taken with them all of their administrators, carpenters, and security officers. Rumor has it that these elders left the tribes for a plush and comfortable place called "Accounting".
Hey, it could happen!
You could try Hivewire, the software wars and divide isn't really present there at all.
A bunch of places... Most are too serious or people like to misconstrue your meaning so they can get upset... I suppose when I'm not here I'm at HiveWire... There are a bunch of nice folks that used to be here for years and it's all very friendly. They have a section for learning... It was going pretty good, but their site got crashed by a radical group and they had to start the forums over again from scratch... So, at the moment it might not be as well stocked with info as it was a couple of months back, but I'm sure starting a thread about something you are interested in would be fine... The problem with the well known "professional" CGI sites is they tend to look down on software that is not on "their level" so asking questions that are too noobish or about stuff they don't care for, tends to get ignored or answered in a halfassed fashion, like they didn't really read the post... But that's my opinion/observation.
@ Subtropic Pixel... Nice. I appreciate the visuals and crafting!
You're right @Subtropic Pixel - I'm looking to leave the bizarre.
I looked at cgsociety. I sorta feel that any group with "society" in their name would require a waistcoat. I have none (well...err...the bright purple one? That's for halloween). I'm really just a t-shirt and jeans person. If I need to dress up for something, I wear the jeans without holes.
So from tribalism to jeans. I can grok that! I would prefer to buy my jeans without holes already in them. And I don't mind fading them myself. Gardening, building a workbench, doing my own oil changes, fixing my own roof. That is what gives a good pair of jeans their spirit and soul. The only jeans with holes that I would want to buy would be those for sale in the DAZ store. But then again, my Vicki does her own oil changes too. It's just impossible for her to wear out the meshes of her jeans.
But Michael. He's gone Full Potato on the couch; never even lifts a finger to help poor Vicki out around the house. She just told him either he has to mow the lawn or go back to living in his mom's basement...
No, wait; that was my next-door neigbors, not Vicki and Mike...
Heh. That's a pic I found on the internet a long time ago. Finally changed my avatar to match my gravatar (why doesn't this forum automatically get gravatars?) which is something I made myself so I don't need to worry about possible copyright issues.
Google "CG Forum"
Be prepared to be mocked if you mention Daz Studio or Poser.