This is a Rant, you have been warned...

Cavalier · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:06 am Post subject:

Okay someone explain this to me please. Why is everyone and their brother jumping on the Victoria and Michael 3 bandwagon?

I have never seen this much stuff here or at Daz or any other site come out for Michael 2. Or for that fact, how about the virtually unsupported Stephanie 1?

I mean let's face it, there is still alot of potential in the Class 2 millenium people, but virtually no one is even bothering anymore, most of all DAZ 3D. And frankly that torques me off something fierce.

Oh sure, Victoria and Michael 3 are great and highly detailed models, and if you try to do a picture with more than one with anything less than a cutting edge system, then you are going to have great renders that never finish in any time less than it takes the super bowl to be played.

I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of transferring a pz3 with more than one of these great POLYGON heavy figures into Vue, terrifies the hell out of me.

I guess I'm just extremely pissed with all the new stuff Daz is releasing because basically it means all the models I"VE sunk my money into are now nothing more than bargain basement throw offs to them and frankly, that SUCKS. What's worse is the number of people and sites jumping on the bandwagon making us users that choose the 2's over the 3's out in the cold.

Thanks DAZ... I hope Vic 4 frotzes your mainframe.

ArgoForg · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:22 am Post subject:

Okay someone explain this to me please. Why is everyone and their brother jumping on the Victoria and Michael 3 bandwagon?

Because everyone wants to curry favor with Daz? No? Maybe because Daz offers computers that can run their higher-end models without dragging to 386 speed to site-vendors who plug their newest stuff? No?

Hm. I'm out of reasons.

Anyway, I agree. That bites, but it's also, in its own way, the way of things. Look at what happened to the third party sites when Koshini came out. Suddenly every place I get e-mail newsletters from are offering new textures, clothing, expression sets and pose sets for Koshini, whom I still think was actually an April Fools joke from Daz gone horribly awry.

The saddest part is that if you look at some of the Japanese sites, they're still doing stuff with P4 femmes and Vicky One that are absolutely astounding. So it's not like the modelers and artists around the 3D scene ever have taken the 2's to their own cutting edge. It's just like when the Playstation 2 came out... programmers had barely touched on the full potential of the original PS, and every 3rd party immediately began plugging PS2 games to fill a niche in the market, and a lot of those early games were crap.

_________________
"It is perfectly easy to be original by violating the laws of decency and the canons of good taste."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Cavalier · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 am Post subject:

And since I am in a ranting mood... (bodes well doesn't it?) let's jump on other things.

Like just how dead the forums have been here as of late. Now I am partly to blame for that seeing as how I haven't posted here in ages, but still. I remember a time when you came here and there was almost a new topic daily.

But that was months ago. Much like the formation of the Video Game Review page. I did send a contribution... that was a year ago. It's still not there. I'm starting to wonder if Animotions is going the way of Vicky and Mike 2.

GhostofMacbeth · Forum Member Joined: Sep 21, 2001 Posts: 616

I think part of the reason merchants are doing stuff is because it is new and they can do something that will sell money. Also, DAZ wants stuff for the 3 class figures. They might take good stuff for M2 but if they do it will not be that often. It is sort of like M2 is a cassette and M3 is a CD with the Dork being an 8Track or something. The new thing comes out and the other fades away. You can sell things for M2 in other places but they have never been that big a money maker. It seems most people want stuff for the women.

BillyBob · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 9:23 pm Post subject:

Rant #1: I agree wholeheartedly with the anger over Mike 1/2/3. I don't play with Poser that often any more, but dropped the cash for Mike 2, only to find a month or so later that Mike 3 was coming. I'm hoping that people around here will continue to develop for Mike 2, but I'm guessing that we'll see less and less stuff for him because of the marketability issue. I understand that DAZ wants to create new, fresh stuff, but it's still hosing people.

Rant #2: For whatever reason, this site has never enjoyed the kind of conversation traffic that the old 3dcc did. There are a handful of people who use the boards regularly, but little beyond that. I must admit that I don't contribute often because I have nothing to say. I'm hoping that when we shift to the new Web site, the BBS system will encourage more people to post. Until that time, I guess we all have to post when we can. Oh, and POST COMMENTS ON IMAGES!! I try to make at least a quick comment on things in my galleries, but it would be nice to see everyone else do the same.

End rant

Dana3d2k · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:26 am Post subject:

Well, I will be honest that I don't give a whoolahell about koshini, mike 3 (he looks like a pansy), steph 3 (her feet are too f'n big), and victoria 3 has her uses, but anyhoo.

As far as not being here to stir up trouble, I been in a car accident, battled asthma, stayed in school, working on a comic for sale, and producing a damn movie.

_________________
Dana Haywood
<a href=heresyproduction.com>Heresy Studios</a>

Aremis · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 12:12 pm Post subject:

Maybe if Daz started doing something along the lines of "You bought figure A 18 days prior to our release of Figure B, so we are extending a free upgrade to Figure B for the next 7 days". Sure it's nice to buy an update at a lower price, but I failed twice. First I bought Mike 1 & Vicky 1, only a few days before they launched the Vicky 2 character.
When I finally purchased M2, it wasnt long before they came out with M3.
If you purchase something within a specific amount of time prior to a release of an update, I believe you should get the upgrade to the newer model free.

But then, I just needed to feel like I belonged by ranting =)
_________________
=============================
New World Media/Muskateer Graphics
~Live the dream, experience the nightmare
=============================

Cavalier · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:29 pm Post subject:

Well Daz has probably lost my bussiness as far as I am concerned. What they are doing is akin to a Car Manufacturer releasing a new car model and then basically telling most of the mechanics that they really shouldn't fix last year's model. And then stop producing parts for it.

It's bloody freaking irritating. Especially when you consider the fact that putting more than one, two at the most of the Version 3's in a pic is all your going to get before your render engine tells you just how far you need to jump to fall into hell.

Now as for other things, I do comment on the pics that I like, case in point Orca's Darkseid pic. 8)

But it has seem, Billy, that this website has seen less and less talkative as time went on which is why I hang out at another message board now. After all the person that got Argo and me here in the first place hasn't even said boo in the forums in I don't know how long...

OrcaDesignStudios · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 5:14 pm Post subject:

I think part of the reason this site isn't as active as others is that there's no reason for people to stick around once they've downloaded the free stuff. One of the biggest draws for a site like this is a tutorial section, where people can learn how to do different things -- Animotions doesn't have a tutorials section. I see a post in the "Web Site Contact" forum as far back as mid-2002 saying they were going to add a tutorials section, but nothing ever happened. Same thing goes for the "new software" BillyBob mentioned -- that's been talked about since 2002 as well. Even the "Headline News" on the front page is a year old. It could be just me, but it sort of feels like the site has been abandoned by its operators.
_________________
Jim Harnock - ODS
www.OrcaDesignStudios.com

BillyBob · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 6:31 pm Post subject:

And in all honesty, I have to take some of the blame for this. Back when we were the 3dcc, I tried to do a lot of updates to the home page, which seemed to make the site more active. I've never investigated how to post something to the main page here, so the only things that are posted are the occasional administrative postings. I can't speak for Doug or Immortal, but I haven't been nearly as active on this site as the old one (beyond posting comments in the galleries). I will try to be better in the future. As for the software update, I agree; it seems as if we've been promised stuff for a long time. I will ask about it again and see if I can get a better idea of when it will happen.

Until the update, why don't we do our own tutorial section? Just create a tutorial and post a link to it in the BBS. Maybe in the 3D Comics forum? Maybe in the Comic News and Discussion Forum?

Ironbear · Forum Member Joined: Nov 06, 2001 Posts: 1038

Modelers and artists are still supporting Mike and Vicki 1/2, although I agree that the primary support for them is from Japanese sites now, and oddballs like me and Questor who preffer M2/V2 and Stephanie 1 to the newer figures.

Merchants want to cash in on the new bandwagon before Daz renders it obsolte with M4 and V4, pure and simple.

As for Daz... This has been a major gripe with Daz going back to the beginning: Victoria is their "money model", and it's the only one they support at ALL with add-ons and clothing items. ALmost everything for the Michael figures and Steph figures, except for a few morph packs and one or two clothing pack update, comes from Daz brokers and from community merchants.

That's the way it's always been: Daz itself pursues a really narrow line of support for it's models.

Tutorials section... probably doable without a major problem.

Home page updates. Umm... you mean front page? Let me look at it.
_________________
"I'd add a legitimate comment here, but that would mean reading everything, which I have no patience for." - Slynky

Click Here.

BillyBob · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:57 pm Post subject:

Hola! We now have a tutorials section!! Just go to the new Tutorials folder in the Comics area!

BillyBob

Aremis · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:38 pm Post subject:

Good job, BB.
_________________
=============================
New World Media/Muskateer Graphics
~Live the dream, experience the nightmare
=============================

Aremis · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:43 pm Post subject:

Good job, BB.
_________________
=============================
New World Media/Muskateer Graphics
~Live the dream, experience the nightmare
=============================

ArgoForg · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:15 am Post subject:

Great Job, BB!

(now, I don't suppose you can do something about everyone plugging M3 and V3 to the exclusion of all else? ^_^)

Oh, and thanks, IB, for showing me that there are still some people (even if we are kinda quirky) who still support models that can be pumped two and three into a scene without necessarily grinding a computer to a halt if it's not a cutting edge system.

I wish like hell I could model. There's gotta be a huge market niche out there for V2/M2 stuff for people who refuse to switch up to the unimesh crap.
_________________
"It is perfectly easy to be original by violating the laws of decency and the canons of good taste."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes