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Let me start by saying that the products most likely to get the most benefit from this one extra promo are clothing products. Because those are the most often kitbashed.
Let me also state that 90% of all new clothing products in the store (and I'm only leaving that 10% because I'm not going to check them all) have a clay render of the clothing in their promos already.
Now, I'm going to agree that the forum posters are a small part of the buying public. I'm also going to agree that *not* having a material zone promo does not hurt sales.
But since the majority of clothing products in the store do not have material zone renders, the data on whether or not they help is... well, it's not there, except for those posting in this thread. Because very few PA's make such promos. So there's not a lot of data on how helpfull they are, just that not having them isn't a hinderance. I can see that some PA's who don't provide a lot of material zones might be worried that it may hurt sales.
And while I understand that it's extra work the PA could spend working on something else ... the clay promo is already on the list much of the time for clothing at least. This is just that one with some diffuse colors added in. On average, about another 15-20 minutes. (Again, I'm talking mainly clothing products at this point, not super huge settings and such.) And there has been more evidence presented in this thread that such a promo would be accepted than rejected. (That is, the one PA who has posted here and regularly supplies such a promo clearly identified as such has never had any problem with it, and no PA has provided yet personal feedback that their Mat Zone Promo was rejected. Just concerns that it would be.)
Should PA's *have* to make such an extra render? No. Would it be apreciated enough to generate enough extra sales to justify the time? I honestly can't say, though I don't think the data is there to categorically say otherwise either. But if having several material zones *could* be a selling point for the product, wouldn't it make sense to show that off, rather than leave it burried in the text that even fewer people read than these forums? It's something that I think PA's who actually make clothing items should keep in mind. (Sets and vehicles are usually too big and complicated. Props and hair are a bit grayer of an area. I'd apreciate them when they're a potential selling point, but many are too simple for it to be helpful. PA's who make mostly characters and textures obviously would never need to consider it, since their products don't even have material zones.)
(To check my time estimation, I grabbed the fiddliest, most material zoned item I could find (Arki's Rune outfit for G2F) quickly that wasn't the Supersuit. Opening Daz to saving the render was 27 minutes)
That's a very good image, and it makes me consider that item more than I did before (it's by MEC4D, right?). The dress being divided into panel-like sections is something I actually needed a while ago and had to use transparency maps for in the end.
The arguments against this are so ridiculous that they're barely worth responding to. 10, 15, or even 27 minutes are not schedule-breaking amounts of time for something that could lead to increases in sales. I'm almost tempted to not buy any more clothing items that don't at least mention the material zones in some way because this is so simple that it simply should be done.
That's Arki's Rune outfit for G2F, actually.
The thing is, most folks want to see what the items look like, and often the PA will provide indirect examples of the material zones by providing renders with different texture sets on them. There is also the possibility that some buyers might mistake the material zone image for an example of provided textures, which is not going to be helpful to those folks.
For the same reason people try real clothes on, most likely, for one thing. Another thing is that DAZ wants to see these kinds of images, if you're going to say that it fits a specific character.
Yes. We do want to see what the item looks like. Including what are options are going to be for changing it, and kitbashing it with other products. Exactly. This is not in place of any existing promos. This is one more promo, and one that takes only a few mintues more to set up after creating the clay render that most PA's currently provide, that some of us would apreciate it if more vendors provided, because it would give us more information, and often would be a selling point in getting some of us to buy the item earlier - like durring the intro sale, rather than waiting for a Daz Super Sale 6-12 months later.
Honestly... texture sets tell me squat in terms of showing off material zones. I have more than one outfit I've purchased where all the texture sets, including the ones from other artists, textured a particular element (usually a belt or some kind of trim) as if it were a separate zone, but in reality it was all a single material zone. No trim options, no belt options, no options for changing the bodice and skirt separately. Just one material zone that I couldn't even recolor with a basic shader because all those elements were modeled into the base model. It was use the commercial textures or make my own, and my digital painting skills are not up to that task. Heck, the Royal Guard outfit that SnowSultan used to start this off... every texture available has a sheild with a rampant lion on the sash. That shield is not a separate material zone, despite appearing exactly the same on all five available textures sets. So, my experience has been that different texture sets do not show off what the material zones are, even indirectly.
As for mistaking it for a provided texture set... a few words on the Material Zone Render ("Material Zones Render. Not an actual texture") and it's the buyers fault for not reading / geting it translated.
I'm with SnowSultan. The effort involved seems minimal, the 'cost' is maybe one of a half dozen promo pics, and the benefits seem pretty evident.
Um, kay.
I mean, that material zone map above of Arki's thing? That actually excites me about the product in a way I wasn't ever before... still not quite a style I like, but I'm much more likely to consider it now, imagining putting gold or silver edging on some of the segments, etc.
+1 to everything Da Water Rat said in the post at the top of this page.
My primary motivation to buy any product is for use in shader preset promos. I know that puts me in a group of about 30 people total. Add the kit-bashers in that buy my products, and the number increases to a few hundred. Small potatoes compared to the thousands of people who shop here.
Answering the question of "Would you find these promos useful?" I have to say, "Yes, I find them useful." Yes, seeing the material zones and preferably the UV has influenced me personally to buy. Not seeing the material zones has influenced me to not buy. Whether Daz and/or other PAs find this information useful, worth the return on invested time, or influencing at all in deciding if these types of promos should be included is up to them. They have to do their thing, and I have to do mine.
Where I most want to see the material zones, and know it is completely unreasonable to expect any PA to do this, is on sets. I buy an insane amount of living room and bedroom sets. Swearing fits have happened when I discovered the perfect item, presented with 3 or 4 different materials in the promos, turn out to be all one material zone. Yes, I know I can regroup the materials, but if we are talking "time is money" I'm going to delete the item and use a different one.
+100,000 to Fisty for showing me material zones and UVs. You rock my friend!
SnowSultan, Xyero pointed me to this thread in response to a Material Zone render I posted, asking that I let you know I "heard your cry". I'm grateful for this tip about Material Zone renders because I wouldn't have remembered to do one otherwise. I recognise that it may not be effective for others under certain circumstances, but for most of what I do it is value added. Thank you also for your continued contributions to this community over the years, especially your seam guides and your marvelously sassy art!
That's a great material promo and I'm sure it will be helpful to some potential customers! Thank you for considering what I had to say and for the kind words as well!
What if it's one of a dozen submitted? Heck, Arki submitted at least 10 promo images each for the Rune Outfits based on what DAZ put on the store page and several of those show off the main material zones of the body suit, as well as showing how it fit some of the supported DAZ characters. I still feel that if the benefits of providing it were as evident as SnowSultan and others claim they are, DAZ would require one, but that's not the case. I guess when I release my first two outfits I'll submit one without it and one eith and see which sells better.
I don't know how many UK customers Daz has, but their spending power has taken a 20% hit over the last few months due to the
This is awesome and may be a postive deciding factor; seeing all those zones, I see posibilities for what my vision will be.
You renders (as awesome as they look) present your vision. It isn't a criticism, as it seems reasonable that your product displays your vision.
It also does more to show off the complexity of the model than finished renders.
Simple outfits like Pearl of the Night can get away with fewer images, and I suspect that's why fisty includes one with material zones and it is permitted. When you have a complex outfit like Rune by Arki, it's a lot harder to show all of the parts and show the required images and include one.
It might help me decide to buy some products that I have been ignoring. eg, hero or heroine armoured clothing I don't buy although one of those styles that came free with the Genesis 3 Female makes a nice corsett blouse on it's own. I had been ignoring that product completely until I noticed I really like the corsett. For the two images you posted I might buy that product based on the shirt & pants although I have no interest in most of the other parts of that product.