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Sorry to hear it's been a rough few days, Male-M3dia! Hopefully, it the rest of the trip will be better and you have fair winds and following seas.
Well it's over except for some quick questions, so my next big post may be in some bar... Though I have to be up at 4am to get to the airport, it's going to be a 4-day weekend because I'm not going to the office jetlagged.... I'll just be asleep at the desk.
Well, that is good. Check your PMs as I just sent you one.
Greetings,
I wasn't sure whether to address character creators myself, mainly because I don't own such a huge percentage of characters from any one creator like I do 'sets' or 'environments' and stuff.
Fred Winkler Art because Dan and Oliver (and more recently Quinn!). :) I joke, somewhat, but I'll always give an FWArt character a careful look, especially the guys. (I own 20 of their G2M guys, 42 of G2F and 23 G3F ladies, for around 55% of their catalog). Why no G3M love?!?
Lyoness's characters are striking, and I do own 22 of them, out of a smaller total collection, and I'll always consider them carefully. The place where those characters especially shine is the amazing addons, like the 'dirty' skins, and tattoos.
Raiya is often good, but I only own 27% of their catalog, even though Leon was my favorite Genesis (not G2M!) male of all.
Because I have a bias towards 'cute' (in women characters; in men, I tend towards 'slightly rugged') I do end up with a lot of Thorne's stuff. That is to say, 83 of their items (still less than half of their catalog!) but that includes morph kits, props, clothing, and even a shocking number of A3 and V4 items, for someone who started after Genesis came out, and only really uses Genesis tech characters.
All told, though, I don't own large percentages of any character artist's catalog. Part of that is that many of the character artists have been around since V4 days, and I just don't buy the older items, for the most part. (I did occasionally, when I was transferring stuff using GenX, but not really anymore.)
-- Morgan
I think Jack Tomalin would be the only artist who's products I'd buy without looking first, but that's because he's doing PC+ items, and those are affordable priced. When I have to pay list price, then I always look the promos, no matter who the artist is. I rank my favourite artists by categories, and in no particular order
1) Jack Tomalin. He makes amazing buildings, and the best part is, they are PC+ items, so they don't break my budget. Faveral is my second choice in this category. If somebody would make proper Iray materials for his older sets, those probably would be a must buy for me. Oh, and lets not forget about those ships. They really need an Iray update too.
2) ZEV0. Those utilities and scripts are so usefull, that after you get those, it just makes you wonder why DAZ didn't buy them, and made them part of the G3 family. Also younger/older morph sets are really usefull, and I just hope he gets to do that older morph set for G3 sooner than later. That's probably going to be a must buy for me, even without promo pics
3) Stonemason. In my opinion the best scene maker around here. Quality is always top notch, and I like that his products range from scifi to fantasy to nature to urban. So something for every situtation. Too bad, his products are quite expensive, so I don't usually buy them when they come out, but some time later when they are on 50%+ off sale. Also just like Faveral, I'd love to have Iray updates for those older Stonemason sets. If the original artists themselves are too busy, maybe somebody else could do those? I'm sure there would be a market for those.
4) Hongyu. I usually have high hopes after looking clothing promo pics, and still I've been pleasantly surprised with all of his products I've bougth. There's tons of morphs with his clothes, and enough material options without buying extra texture packs. Some even have wet textures!?!. All and all, I think Hongyu's gotta be my favourite artist when it comes to clothing. One of the few artists, that I wish would make more products for me to spend my money on. OutOfTouch is a very close second in this category, and very similar to Hongyu. Lots of morphs and quality stuff every time.
5) i13. For poses I usually go with i13. Especially those 50 essential collections, where G3 were doing something normal like cooking, arguing or what ever, were my favourites. You only need so many legs wide open or silly waving hands poses. But to be honest, I already have so many poses, that new pose collections have to be pretty spectacular, before they end up in my shopping cart. Maybe something for G3 male, but for G3F my limit is probably full.
Uhmmm, so that 7 favourites instead of 5. Oh well...
Nobody, because I don't get Genesis 3 stuff and I don't necessarily want EVERYTHING. But there are a few artists who are darn close:
ZEV0. I already own most of Zev0's stuff. I generally prefer to have a few models and then loads of morphs and generators to make characters my own. Skin Builder, Skin Overlay, Growing Up, Aging... some of my favorite stuff.
Draagonstorm. I don't grab everything, but I will give any of Draagon's stuff a good look over. I'm also gratified that they created a product I suggested (Instance Pro). Also partnered with Zev0 for a few products I really like.
Stonemason. I love complicated robots. I don't often get environments, but when I do, it's often Stonemason. High detail.
Jack Tomalin. Some of the best environments, particularly complex, detailed buildings. It adds so much to a scene to quickly plop in an intricately worked space for characters.
Rawart. I own probably 3/4 of Rawart's pre-Genesis 3 content. I love monstrous and warped humanoid figures, and that's something Rawart excels at. Cats, bears, elephants... Rawart creates all sorts of wondrous figures nobody else gets close to. In a market that's driven by the high demand 'skinny white chicks with giant hooters,' it would be incredibly depressing to try to do this stuff without people like Rawart.
Mec4d. Amazing shaders and content. While I could use shaders that weren't quite as good as hers, stuff like Unshaven provide REALLY useful and broad content.
There are other products I love from various artists, but the above are artists with LOTS of stuff I have and want.
I agree with this sentiment so much. It makes me so happy when someone releases 10 Sensual Victoria Poses for the nine hundred and billionth time and then Rawart is like "here is a mechanical tree with bears for legs."
Ix: I'm laughing so hard
And considering how to render that... ;)
I DID do a bear astronaut when I first picked up bear clans: http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Cosmomedved-582884530
Got 27 of yours if that can cheer you up...
I don't have a must buy list, but I have begged EmmaAndJordi and SickleYield to stop putting out so manythings that I want/need. I need to feed my family.
Zev0 is getting pretty close to buying without looking. And Mec4D shaders are a casual glance while adding them to the cart. For sets there's Jack, especially for PC items, and of course Stonemason, probably follwoed by FirstBastion. i13's set piece stuff is usually high on the list because she includes poses. Seriosuly -- props and sets with evcen a handful of poses are much more likely to make it into my cart (certain vespa based scooter being the most recent example). Charcacters are on a case by case basis, but there are several long time PAs here that I have biases towards, all of whom have been mentioned in this thread.
Lady little Fox. I have bought some of her figures full price.
Iron man 13 makes great stuff too so does rawart.
I have my favorite PAs, and I'm not alone with most of them; Stonemason, DzFire, 1st Bastion, and of course Jack. I used to say "will I use this". With the budget cuts we've all felt, It's now will I use it more than once. When I see a good model or structure, I know of one image it will appear in. But, will I use it a second time, or third, or... Things like Stonemason's "After the War" are great because with a twist of the camera you have many options for use. While I have the entire set, Dreamhome is limited to "The Rich Lady's House" (no fault of the excellent design.)
To LY's query; to purchase a character, it must solve two criteria. 1) is the person represented interesting, unique (or... completely mundane... both work), and NOT obviously a celeb knock off (though I realize that so many actually are. 2) if a criterion in 1 fails, but the skin textures or other technical aspects are great I get it. Otherwise I can dial in most of the characters I wish. I admit, that the main promo image can be the doom of a character.
To be frank, it's never occured to me to buy light sets, and often ignore those bundled. I typically light my images "manually". But I13's sets add nicely to my pose collection, at least as starting points.
My $0.02.
So many sets have nooks and crannies that even if you don't think you can use them more than once, you never know until you get the set. I made a jacuzzi out of a bowed-out window sill, so being creative can mean even more opportunities.
Many of the above, plus Mortum Vetus! I am not a horror fan, so I don't have Stan and some of the scarier stuff (clowns already freak me out) but I love their characters and have many of them. The details are absolutely amazing and truly works of art. I'm thrilled that all of it is for Gen 4. I'm enjoying watching RDNA come over with some of my favorite artists- Lady Littlefox and Traveler would also be on my list. Arki too, though she already had stuff here and it's all amazing.
One more- from Rendo and now here- Fabiana! Beautiful work!
There are so many other great vendors, it's hard to narrow it down! (I'd also add Aeve Nainan for the amazing clothes with morphs!)
Agreed! I'm talking more about things with specific purpose. Example: Stonemason's MECH 2012 Enforcer. I bought it, I keep it in my runtime, but I've made one image using it. It was just soooooo cool I had to have it. Now I take a second look at products like that to see if it does have repurposing potential.
X2 I don't have all of RawArt's products, but I've got over 130 of them... it's hard to tell exactly how many with all the discontinued ones that aren't in the store anymore. Even so, there are a few that I probably won't ever pick up for the simple reason that they're textures for older figures that I'll probably never own, like the biguana.
ooh a naming thread is always unfair somehow
sure you have your favorites, i have too
but "without looking at" smells like a fanboy/girl issue
and now
how many of your items you have bought without looking at
sleep well in your content library and have never been used ?
"Buy without looking at" is something of an exaggeration -- how I interpreted it is: if it's for the figures and/or genres I use, do I need to look at the details to decide whether I want it? So if it's, for example, swordfighting poses for Genesis, if it's by Feral Fey I don't need to look any further. If it's a hairstyle that fits the genre, and it's by AprilYSH, I don't need to know any more. If it's a set by ART Collaborations in a genre I can use, likewise.
Saiyaness is a character artist who's been rapidly growing in attention for stand out characters. I wouldn't say 'buy without looking' status but definitely someone who's name is becoming more known, and whose products I'd check out based on name alone.
.Nothing from DAZ3D goes into my cart without looking anymore. That connect thing has to be watched for and whether there are 3Delight materials or iRay only. Not that I refuse to purchase anything iRay-only because I have several items...but they have to be something I really really really like or something not too complex that I can convert.
Overall I have the most DAZ products by far (discounting DAZ Originals or Platinum Club) from 3 vendors: Predatron, 3DUniverse, and The Ant Farm.
I also have the complete stores of a few including Luthbellina, Dogz, and Sloshwerks and most of the likes of Flipmode, Stonemason, First Bastion, Kibaretto, RawArt and 3DJoji.
These are all vendors who have been around a while. And I'm finding some newer ones I like very much such as Indigo Jansen and IH Kang.
As you can see I'm more into props and scenes (also toons, animals, and nature) and not too much into characters except for the DAZ ones though I have tons of clothes and hair. I hunt for special skins and older or distinctive characters. I get many morph sets too so I can roll my own on the rare occasions I do a portrait or two.
There are always those who are special but you've forgotten to list...so I hesitated to write this. But I'm old so I give myself that as an excuse...and I'm sticking to it.
Edit speaking of having the vast majority of their catalogs and forgetting names: Andrey Pestryakov, Alessandro_AM, Denki Gaka
Edit again. Because another thread here had me going to a vendor's page to check out something I must add Collective3D to the above list. Only 2 prods I DON't have.
This is getting embarrassing....
Edit again....so I'd better add some smilies
There's no artist whose stuff I will buy without hesitation, although there are certainly some who will always make me look twice. There are, however, particular product lines that will leap straight into my cart with very few questions asked. For example, Mec4D's PBS Iray shaders are close to an insta-buy, and so are DZFire's Nurnies and Greebles (the second set of which just dropped today and is already in my cart).
Similarly, when RawArt puts out a new humanoid monster, that has a better than average chance of ending up in my cart. But Raw's more 'realistic' human figures don't grab me the same way. With all possible respect for RawArt (whose kids I have probably put through college, by the way, with all the content I've bought over the years), I think other artists do realism better. In my purely personal opinion, the monsters are where his/her real strength lies.
I find it very hard to resist Stonemason, although increasingly I feel that Stonemason's stuff is too perfect, too complete. With Stonemason, my 'artistic' process changes from "Here's something I made myself" to "Here's a piece of Stonemason's art that I dropped into a scene, set up some lights, and rendered. Voila! Isn't it great?" If the finished image looks good, that's not down to me in any way, but simply because -- unless you bury the camera in a wall -- it's practically impossible to make something Stonemason created look bad. Content that's too good makes me lazy. But even bearing that in mind, Stonemason's modular products are still pretty close to a must-have for me.
There are other artists who I won't necessarily buy instantly, but whose new products I will always try to find reasons to justify buying. For example, Luthbel will always get my attention, primarily because she puts out practical clothing that you could imagine people actually wearing, rather than something that looks like three postage stamps linked together by dental floss. On the other hand, I'm also a sucker for Aeon Soul, who are at the opposite extreme.
Exactly how I was thinking when I wrote the post! I had no idea it was going to be such an interesting thread to read when I first posted it. So, even with some misunderstandings of my intentions, it has been fun seeing everyone's thoughts!
Price has become an increasing factor for me. When chracterss and sets go into the 17-24 dollar range, I can no longer buy them without a higher discount. Yes, I know there are places which sell for more, and yes, I know they are wonderful models and the PA worked hard to produce them. I just can't afford 17 dollars a character tor 24 dollars for an environment, unless it is something I will use everyday.
So my days of autobuying, the cool stuff, seem to be behind me. And I have had to wishlist products I would normally pick up on first release.
*Sveva~ Nice to see Sveva here @ DAZ Big fan of her in another store! great artist!
*Jack Tomalin~ Love his work from my start @ DAZ
first I bought was Baroque Grandeur, In love since!
*Stonemason~ His models are
!
* Alessandro_AM~ The most adorable animals AND FUR!! Waiting for the elephant *tap *tap! :)
*Mec4d ~Love his figures, and textures
DimensionTheory and Zev0 are the two closest for me.
We don't have such a list. We do however keep a list of vendors we no longer buy anything from at all.
There really aren't any products I would buy without even looking at the promo images (mainly because I like looking at the promo images), but if it's by Jack Tomalin (like so many others!), then it's in my cart before the product page finishes loading!
hehe... I know I was mentioned by the OP, but just like the Galleries a lot of people forget about the uvs and legacy morphs (and M4 for G2M) that get used a lot, but are more or less invisible to the scene. I know the sales figures, so I know people buy them up. So, I'll just remember that most of my stuff is behind the scenes and seen but not noticed, so easy to forget about. :) This thread is amusing
It is kind of sad that the things we use the most like scripts, uvs and morphs are the first things we tend to forget when listing things in the gallerys with our images. I know I couldn't do half of the amazing things I've managed to do without all of those great add-ons. But, in a lot of cases, those are also the first things I'll buy before I buy a character or prop! Personally, I'm trying to get better at listing those things, but I know I'll probably forget some of them!