I think I do remember seeing some of them over there! I will have to look around and see what I can find. Also, Just saw in an email Poser is going to release the .2 models soon.
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Show Us Your Dawn Renders!
- Thread starter HiveWire3D
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- dawn dawn special edition
Did you notice they started the email with "Poser is not dead" and "It's not on life support"? This is a good sign that SMS seems to have woken up to reality, and started to think about what is being said at the other side of the wall. I don't have much faith that they finally started to understand what a good figure is all about all of the sudden, but it's a beginning. At some point they HAD to realize they are no longer alone in the market, and that some action must be taken towards that. The rushed up and unfinished Paul and Pauline were proof of their lack of commitment to this goal, but maybe now they will take it seriously? Maybe it's a good idea to disconnect the release of new figures from that of Poser.
Just so magical. Love the crystals SO MUCH!
Just for fun, morphing Dawn into Luna, then into Dusk, and then back to Dawn in Poser Pro 11 while keeping the rig and pose. They all share the same mesh, so why not? Both Poser and DS have the ability to retarget the rigging to different figure morphs, and that's what I used here (1-click operation in PP11). Thanks to automatic retargeting, the whole thing took about 20 seconds to do. 
The retargeting doesn't do a very good job on the shoulders with Baby Luna, but I can just copy the values from the Luna CR2. If Poser supported multiple UVs, these could be a single figure like the original Genesis. I am not sure how compatible the UVs are. But then, making clothing for an androgynous figure would be a problem.
quietrob
Extraordinary
Elsa and her own Gundam! Either Anime Blasphemy or the coolest thing ever!
quietrob
Extraordinary
I think it's simpler than that. Someone realized that as a business there was still potential for profit. DAZ certainly proved that (though I don't know their inner workings they seem to be successful) to be true. When I worked in Sales I was told some nice little pointers from the old timers. A very basic rule is that it's four times easier to keep a customer than to get a new one. DAZ lost some customers but they also retained a good core, some of who frequent this forum. Perhaps. Just perhaps. They (Smith Micro) listened. Heck even DAZ listened to a point. They still provide some figures for Poser. Adam Waithes certainly listened. He still provides Poses for V4 and Props for Poser. For Free.
As far as new figures. I rarely hear upon a new figures release that it's the best ever. People point out this flaw and that flaw. Yet the best selling figure of all time Victoria 4 was full of flaws. The community still supported it like crazy and it also included opportunities for fixes by some enterprising artists. It still keep chugging along today. Paul and Pauline can do well but it all depends on support. Just my humble opinion.
Ken, you know I'm a member of your fan club so I will ask you. What is a good figure all about? I don't mean that as derision but a teachable moment in a forum that is a garden, not a jungle.
Me195
Extraordinary
Very cute HaiGan. Great render.
Very nice. The facial expression, the pose and the dynamics make it all look so lively.
Very cool render. I've never seen the movie, and I instantly recognized the character. Great job making the 3d assets your own.
An early Christmas image - Happy Holidays everyone!
Fantastic Holiday render complete with little kitty getting into mischief.
When it comes to DAZ, yes, they profit from selling contents that rely on base figures they provide themselves. But when it comes to SMS, they provide these figures, but make no profits from selling contents for them. Of course, the have CP and take a share of every sale, but that store has been neglected for so long that sales went down the drain long ago - mostly because they refused to even maintain the site until now. Repenting all of the sudden may not bring CP back to what it once was. There are many out there who resented CP for the poor service and general store experience for so many years - they now refuse to buy there. All this because SMS motto has always been "we don't make contents". That's the bottom line, even if they have recently decided to excavate the remains of CP and bring it back from the ashes. I have a store there, so I know the drama. For the record, I am not condemning or praising either sides - I am just stating the way it is.
As for new figures, there is a certain new female figure for Poser around the corner that has turned some heads. She's currently in beta, and looks promising based on all the hype. I welcome any new potentially decent figure for Poser at this point. Once this figure enters the market, I believe it might divide the Poser side if all the hype is true. When I say hype, I mean people praising it so much based on mere test renders, which on my book is 2nd hand information. I'd rather be skeptical, but yet hopeful.
So what is a good figure all about? I see 3 different sides of this question:
1. A figure that has a lot of support from vendors. As proven by V4, this doesn't require the figure to be technically good, as long as she has plenty of contents from the best vendors, who also happen to sell all sorts of fixes for the technical quirks.
2. A figure that is technically good. As proven by Dawn, I don't have to work so much to work with her, and that is a big plus to me. I can do all I did with V4, and then push the limits even further without breaking the joints or morphs, without having to go to surgery to put her back together. Dawn responds well to all my morphing and scaling, and that's a major reason why she's the one in my renders, even if V4 has a wardrobe the size of a Chinese phonebook.
3. A figure that is easy to create contents for. I am, of course, referring to Mil4 figures. When all pesky JCMs were replaced with magnets, it may not produce the best posing, but it certainly makes content creation a breeze. This became especially evident when Mil3 figures that preceded them had so many JCMs that made rigging nightmarish. In other words, I can make conforming outfits for V4 in a fraction of the time it takes to make one for any existing weight mapped figure we have nowadays, to include Dawn and Genesis. Instead of spending days painting weight maps on JCMs, it's a 1-click "magnetize". I am pretty sure this is a big factor for why people are still making contents for Mil4 figures nowadays. This, plus the fact that most of us still have a huge wardrobe for V4. Like inertia, it's easier to keep moving something that was already in motion.
I think you have the Crystal Rock? If so, try the Daz 4.10 diamond shader on them. It takes......... well quite a while for them to render, but I usually render at 2500 x 2500.
Hornet3d
Wise
While I am interested in any new figure I doubt that a new figure for Poser will actually generate a lot of profit on it's own. I certainly would not pay the price of a Poser upgrade on the basis of a new figure, well other than one that had a 3D hologram feature. There would have to be a lot more for me, then again I did not upgrade to Poser 11 so perhaps I am not their target audience.
At this point I am not even sure if that figure will be sold or given away for free. Truth is that money comes from content, not the figures. Whoever makes a figure is not dreaming of getting rich on that alone, but instead [hopefully] create a market around it. That is certainly where DAZ gets their profit from. However, SMS insists on making figures, and yet refuse to make contents. That's most likely where the "Poser is dead" allegations came from, and SMS is recognizing that in their recent email. However, the sudden CP rebirth was too little, too late, unfortunately. You can only neglect something for so long before it collapses on its own. A market is something alive that needs to be nurtured, and CP died of natural causes long ago, as SMS was looking the other way. That has been the story of my CP store after over a decade.
Personally, I wouldn't be happy having to live in the past with only V4 after the market split. Many of us recognize we would had quit this hobby if HW didn't bring Dawn into the game back in 2013. That's how crucial new Poser figures are at this point, so I welcome whoever wants to give it a try. Even though Pauline was a fiasco, I have supported her at CP when she was first released. Now there is this other new Poser figure around the corner (not from SMS), and I welcome her too. I hope all the hype is justified.
Yes, I believe that was one of the deciding factors for going back to 2 separate figures for Genesis 2.The retargeting doesn't do a very good job on the shoulders with Baby Luna, but I can just copy the values from the Luna CR2. If Poser supported multiple UVs, these could be a single figure like the original Genesis. I am not sure how compatible the UVs are. But then, making clothing for an androgynous figure would be a problem.
Yes, and HW was the wiser to follow suit and keep Dawn and Dusk their own figures. But it's still amusing to morph between them while keeping the rig. We couldn't do this with Poser 9 or 10.
quietrob
Extraordinary
@Hornet3d Perhaps you are. My upgrade was from Poser 9 to Poser Pro 11. That skipped Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014. I don't know what version you use but their still might be an upgrade path for you. In my case, Poser Pro Upgrade from Poser 9 was $49 bucks. Considering what you gain in technology upgrades and figures, it's worth the price. Of course you deal in Pounds rather than yankee bucks so I'm not sure what your cost might be. To me, the target audience should be anyone that has Poser 7 and above. A price search to qualify my statement found Poser 7 on sale at Amazon for 250 dollars american or 14,780 Russian rubles. P.S. It's cheaper to buy Poser 11.
@Ken1171 Thanks for the information. Everything you said made sense. For the uninoculated, JCM means Joint Controlled Morphs. Speaking from Ignorance I think that means when the joint bends it mimics what happens on the human body. Bend my forearm forward and my bicep increases in size. Straighten my forearm and the opposite happens. To be honest I thought that weight mapping was to keep the various vertex's from distorting through movement. Hmm, Alisa, please feel free to move this to another forum if things get too technical. I'm just grateful that Ken took the time to explain what a good figure, like say Dawn, is compared to the early millennium figures. I missed a lot of that as I came in toward the end of Generation 3 and still love Aiko 3 and the original Sadie from 3D Universe to this day.
The things mentioned about the CP store was obvious to anyone except for SMS. Even though I'm not a DAZ user, their store front still is exciting as soon as you get to the first page. First step in getting someone to click on a deal is to make it as irresistible as that Tea and Crumpet set is for @Mythocentric or Chocolate bars for us. I complained about the state of the site years ago but nothing was done except to charge us for storing backups of things bought. While the store is almost dead, I remember seeing a great movie that said, "Mostly Dead is Slightly Alive." That makes all the difference doesn't it? I think it's time for some wheeling and some dealing and someone that KNOWS how to make the site as interesting and enticing as DAZ's is. (Yes Rendo and Hivewire, I still love you guys too. Don't be jealous.)
I've gotten the Email from SM but I haven't seen hide nor hair of a new figure. If anyone has a link, I'd be interested.
Keep the Internet Free.
It's that guy (Erogenesis) who recently moved from South Africa to the UK, which is why the figure development got delayed. I believe the beta program has started recently, after having missed the original release date in the first quarter of 2017. I like some of the design decisions, but I need to see the results myself before I jump to conclusions. Like I said, I am a hopeful skeptical.
The updates for Paul and Pauline are being beta-tested at SMS, and are not open to the public at this time. I personally believe the issues with these figures are at design-level, so updates might not help at this point. But we all know how important they are to SMS, to the point of them emailing us claiming that "Poser is not dead". Perhaps they forgot that HW has provided us with much better figures, and therefore I personally don't believe such Paul/Pauline updates are coming to "save Poser from dying" as they put it.
To me the problem is much simpler and straight-forward. Historically speaking, DAZ used to be the content provider for Poser. After the market split, SMS was left with no contents to offer, which put Poser in danger. Since then, they kept the "we don't make contents" posture, while ignoring the fact that DAZ was departing from the Poser market, and offering a free alternative to Poser. I still remember the claims that DAZ was a different company that had nothing to do with them. In other words, they refused to recognize DAZ as competition. That was their demise based on poor management decisions. They had more to gain by joining forces with HW, but as Chris has explained, they couldn't come to an agreement because SMS had incompatible marketing strategies.
Ironically, it has nothing to do with Poser itself. Superficial updates to the CP store or figures are not addressing the real problem. SMS simply doesn't know how to place Poser in the market. Maybe they think of it as just another of the many different softwares they sell, ignoring the fact that it carries a very particular history, market, and context that comes with it. In my humble opinion, it all comes down to lack of long-term vision and poor management.