Production of the Disco Dragon 3 is coming along nicely (ignore 2016-2018), but its going so well that the projection is over 600 pages!! So I think I'll need to split it up. Don't worry, I won't make you wait for part 4. I will wait until both parts are done, and then release them a week apart or something. I'll make sure that the pricing is fair.
(edit: the initial plan was actually to have four parts, but because of the massive delay I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer than needed. But since the production flows over directly into the intended part 4, I might as well keep it that way. It won't be long now!!)
Getting there. Eeesh, again it was hard to pick nice pics for a promo like this because there's just sex and genitals everywhere (I need it to be Deviant Art-safe, naughty promos will come soon), and like said before there's also a surprise cameo by a Renderotica favourite OC. I say its part 3 but I might split it up into part 3 and 4 because I think I might go over 600 pages even! You know how like in the DD2 you have Rox and Lali's little adventure, and the Julie interrupts, and then Rachel interrupts and then Xtina walks in? This is that but tenfold. I'm actually designing software to help me keep track of everyone in possible future comics like this. But like I said before I need to tone it down after this comic so that I can get more comics out this year lol.
I think it will be fine though because the main reason this comic took so long is that I took a massive detour down the Poser figure rabbit hole and it took me a really long time to dig myself out. I'm probably still a little affected by it, but I'm beginning to have those fun sleepless nights of writing down story ideas by torchlight, so things are good.
What I'm also beginning to realize is that being a content vendor I need to grow a thicker skin, but that just doesn't work as a comic artist who has a very personal relationship with his fans. Those two modes of PR just don't mix. So I'm definitely taking a massive step back from content creation. If I do sell content, it will only be small things, not figures.
I will try to extend some (long overdue) support to my TaB and PE customers, but I'm doing my best to hand over those projects to other more reliable people. TaB for DS seems to have several contenders, and there's even a prospect for a geografted TaB now. Names and details will follow as soon as I have something set in stone. I've even been asked if I would mind if someone would convert PE to work in DS. I really don't mind, since all my friends and colleagues use DS anyway.
A little something for my comic fans (as a distraction from my previous post, which you can ignore if you're a comic fan! No more Poser figure nonsense, just comics <3 ). Check Deviant Art for more!
Lali:
Laila:
Laila:
Maria:
Annabella:
And this is a little concept I recently thought up, based on a song by Type O Negative "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend". This will probably become a future comic!
As some of you know, there's a new Poser girl available at Renderosity. In the short time she's been out I've already received a fair number of emails and messages asking what I think of her, if I'm going to make gens for her, what this means for Evolution etc etc. Let me quickly get this off my chest.
Edit: Updated my FAQ
La Femme
So, what do I think of her? Honestly no idea and I'm probably gonna keep it that way. I haven't downloaded her and I am way too busy nursing my comic career back to life to care at the moment. But if you really insist, also then I think I'm not the right person to ask. I will probably be very biased, as I made Evolution for a reason. So am I going to make gens for her? nope (I heard she might already have them btw).
Evolution?
What does this mean for Evolution? Nnnnnnothing. I made Evolution for a myriad of reasons, and one of them is to provide a foundation of a female human Poser figure that looks and bends like the real thing, with the limited resources I have, to the best that I was able to. As far as I am concerned, I succeeded in that. I'm happy with the result, and I've often considered switching to Evolution myself (from my own comic figure). So Evolution still stands.
Edit: obviously plenty of room for improvement, but I'm happy with the foundation.
But?
Unfortunately I can say what I want about how successful I think PE is, that doesn't mean that she's taking over Poserland. This is because of content. If you use dynamic clothes, PE is fine, but traditional conforming clothing is an issue. At the risk of repeating myself, as most of you know, to achieve said bends, I utilized JCMs for that, next to traditional Weight Maps. We have many Poser figures that work with WM only, but their bends are very limited and don't look human when doing rather basic bends (lets not talk about yoga bends). PE can do the full range.
We don't care for yoga
The common counterargument to such bending abilities is that very few people would need them. Ok, so here's the thing: by that argument, most features in software and software assets can be dropped since the vast majority of the PC using world never uses such features. 3DSMax could be stripped down to a 40Mb application in that way. Hardly anyone uses a piece of software to its fullest. The other more simpler argument is that we're not even talking about yoga poses mostly. Even a simple squat will need JCMs in the calfs and thighs. In other words, its just an excuse, laziness, unwillingness to go the extra mile for what the entire f*%#^g world of CGI is striving for: realism... and it might explain why Poser is not doing too well at the moment.
Realism, yeaaaa... oh wait.
So in other words, since Poser's main selling point is 3D figures, it would be obvious that they would prioritize the realism of these figures, and support for the technology that makes it work. Now, as far as I can tell, the only thing that in Poser can achieve flesh squishing and modified behaviour of vertices between angle intervals, is JCMs. If they have an alternative rigging system coming in Poser 12, then great, I'll be the first in line, but somehow I don't see that happening yet. So I chose for JCMs, and hoped that SM would be so impressed that they'd stop everything to support this figure.
Nope. Or at least, not yet (PE has been out over a year now). Maybe PE utterly sucks and I'm actually living in an asylum talking to myself, which is very possible, but somehow I doubt that.
JAY SEE EMS!
Anyway, because of JCMs, its just not easy to rig clothing for her, as many people struggle with transferring the JCMs to their clothing items. Now, there are things that I have planned when I have the time, but I am afraid that they won't really help much unless Poser's vertex data transfer and editing is improved (morphs and weight maps). With Poser morphs (JCMs or not), it is imperative that the vertexes in the clothing follow the very same path as the neighboring vertex in the underlying figure, otherwise you get poke-throughs, especially with JCMs. Now, unless the morph is simple, to imitate these delta paths is impossible to get accurate manually. Poser needs to do it for you, or at least, the most of it. And here is where the problem lies:
Bumps everywhere!
As it stands now (and since 2016), Poser's vertex data transfer system can only successfully transfer the displacement to clothing if the clothing is equal or lower resolution than the host mesh. But when the clothing is higher resolution, spikes and irregularities form. You can test this yourself with Pauline and her Business Camisole that gets shipped with P11. Load the Camisole onto Pauline, dial in the pregnant morph, bend her abdomen, then compare the bending before and after transferring weight maps and morphs from Pauline to the Camisole.
Frills n stuff
Now, the big problem with this is that the large number of clothing items will have things like buttons, hems, frills, belt loops, especially for female fashion. In other words, the vast majority of content for ANY Poser figure will encounter this issue. Now, you can edit the morph to correct it, smoothing etc, but yeah, this brings other issues with it. Ever tried to smooth a button without it disappearing into oblivion? That's one issue, the other is editing morphs when the figure is posed, its pure hell.
Append, biaatch!
There is such a thing as appended morphs and prepended morphs, and ALL POSER MORPHS only work properly appended. But the problem is that morphs designed to correct bends, are best edited in the angle they're meant to correct, and in Poser, this means you first need to convert it to prepend. And that makes everything even more confusing. And I am not making up excuses not to fix it myself, trust me, PE in itself is one big massive fix. Poser needs these two issues fixed urgently, or even figures like La Femme will simply not succeed either, even if they're more tailored for simple rigging.
Loyal rustbucket
But I do need to confess one thing, and that is that my confidence in Poser has pretty much hit rock bottom, which might also explain why I couldn't care less about La Femme. (edit: Chuck Taylor himself once said in an interview, something like: 'If you see the inside of a sausage factory, you'll never eat sausages anymore'. That's what it feels like for me. I also want to distance myself from this mess because it started to affect my comic work. Its hard to do something fun using a tool that you've grown to hate. I love my comic work too much to let that happen.) I still use Poser though, for now, it does the trick regarding comics. Poser is currently like a good old car that has brought me from A to B for years, and can still do that for now, but I feel a need to get a new car some time soon. I do hope it will be Poser 12, because it will mean less work for me. But I'm not holding out. I am not jealous of the Poser team, it must suck to be them with the shit they've been burdened with... but I hope they work miracles. Let's start by making priorities, eh?
Evolution's future
If you're into dynamic clothing, the Evolution will be a piece of cake for you. Go to the Smith Micro forums and check out the kick-ass renders of many of the artists there.
But if you depend on conforming clothing, a lot still needs to happen. There are some things I will try, but I wanna make comics, and they now take priority, I never wanted to get mixed up in this endless Poser figure drama. I genuinely wanted to help push Poser forward, to a place that actually has meaning in the world of CGI (hint: realism) and not constantly re-inventing the wheel.
So anyway, without promising anything, I will update the mannequins as soon as the Disco Dragon 3 is out (they're actually already done, they just need testing). The original beta mannequins are botched and needed fixing. I might also make a script available to help prepare PE for editing the JCMs in the right order. This might make things easier. But things will get much better the moment SM fixes those two issues I mentioned previously.... much much better, and then I might get a little more enthusiastic about Poser again (because my comic figures will also profit from this).
In Conclusion
So, in short, if La Femme brings the Poser community back together, then fantastic. If it brings us back to the good old days of V4 and everyone sinking their teeth into a figure, then brilliant. If it makes SM put its full weight behind a figure, and finally start tailoring the app towards better more advanced rigging that looks like human flesh, then awesome. I was hoping that would be PE, but it doesn't look like that happened (yet). If they managed to get La Femme to do what PE can do, then my hat is off to them...
Guys, the whole reason I made PE is to help you with your art and your comics. If La Femme can do that for you, then I have no issue there. But my vision still stands, and that is a realistically moving Poser figure. Evolution is my result.
But in the meanwhile, I'm making comics!
Getting there. Eeesh, again it was hard to pick nice pics for a promo like this because there's just sex and genitals everywhere (I need it to be Deviant Art-safe, naughty promos will come soon), and like said before there's also a surprise cameo by a Renderotica favourite OC. I say its part 3 but I might split it up into part 3 and 4 because I think I might go over 600 pages even! You know how like in the DD2 you have Rox and Lali's little adventure, and the Julie interrupts, and then Rachel interrupts and then Xtina walks in? This is that but tenfold. I'm actually designing software to help me keep track of everyone in possible future comics like this. But like I said before I need to tone it down after this comic so that I can get more comics out this year lol.
But?
We don't care for yoga
So in other words, since Poser's main selling point is 3D figures, it would be obvious that they would prioritize the realism of these figures, and support for the technology that makes it work. Now, as far as I can tell, the only thing that in Poser can achieve flesh squishing and modified behaviour of vertices between angle intervals, is JCMs. If they have an alternative rigging system coming in Poser 12, then great, I'll be the first in line, but somehow I don't see that happening yet. So I chose for JCMs, and hoped that SM would be so impressed that they'd stop everything to support this figure.
