Possibly Distributing My Anthro Work If Interested Via The Daz Shop (Applying To Be A PA... Maybe)
Dark45
Posts: 77
Hello All,
This has been a topic of discussion for me before however I never really pursued the idea further. I make a lot of custom sculpts of anthro characters in more of a toon-esk simplistic form versus something like what Oso3D would make (his stuff is great btw, very detailed, just different). I try and scupt Gen 8 (could do G9 too if there is interest) into something more akin to what you would see browsing furry art websites. I think it could bring a bit of variety to the shop however I never really thought others would find them interesting or want to use them.
I guess that's my real question there. Is anyone interested in a style like this? If so what else could I offer the shop for you?
If there is interest I will be submitting 4 products for the shop. Canine Female, Canine Male, Feline Female, Feline Male. These will be for Gen 8 at first and then I will possibly do Gen 9 if I end of doing it. I will be including things like the proper JCM's for anthro based movement, fur, paw pad accessory, eyebrow hair, lashes, Skins, hair if applicable, eye colors, and some other morphs like for example on the felines, you could add a saber fangs morph to your character or for a canine if you want floppy or pointed ears.
Below are some examples.
NOTE: In these images I am using MMX Beautiful Eyes, Lashes Utility, and Ultimate Eyebrows which will not be part of the packages obviously.
Also for Tail Fur and Long Hair assets, I will be making the hair based on my Strand Based Hair, hair card approach to make the assets easy to simulate with Virtual World Dynamics or even Dforce depending on certain things. My hair assets are usually under 210k vertices to make them compatible with VWD for simulation.
EDIT : Added images as attachments since adding them to the post body seemed to not work for some reason.
Also Links
Game Cover Concept
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/76/6aec9d3f5a63b62e64e1d65ba979d0.png
Another Game Example (Used Push Modifier For Fur Under Cloths. I could include a mini tutorial for things like that.)
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/e4/a712b20823acf7f691fa9cdf560cf2.jpg
Older Work (No Push Modifier For Fur Under Cloths)
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/f7/4a92f4eb97445c128114bad8b21365.png
Collie Very Early WIP
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/44/0f6e119d819d800c94e616544f4e15.png
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/36/92689eb0a76bcad0a590184fb19093.png
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/f8/8d4a1f2f169d8b6f51f3f098ed43e2.png
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Comments
Moved to the Commons as it is not a Daz Studio topic.
All the pictures in the OP are broken.
Thank you Richard, I wasn't too sure about where to put it.
Added them as attachments since it didn't seem to be working. Worked fine for me but maybe attachments will be better anyway.
You will have more luck getting G9 assets approved by DAZ instead of G8 ones. I personally have no interest in anthro characters, but it looks like you are off to a good start.
Interested, but I use G9 more than G8.
Thank you, and I appriciate the feedback. I'm stuck in my G8 ways but I can work with G9 since yeah, it makes way more since why Daz would prefer that.
Roger that, and thank you for your feedback, much appriciated! I'll be sure to start off with G9 and then see if Daz will be interested in having the G8 morphs available on the shop as well.
There's a few great anthro products here, but few of them have the digitigrade feet you'd expect, which is a shame because I love chucking animalistic shapes onto non-anthropomorphised characters as well. So if your products have them I personally would be greatly interested, even just to mix into other shapes.
I really like the look of the equine/Cantren in the group concept (was that rendered in daz studio???), if it'd render similar to that then that would absolutely be a purchase for me. I like Oso's Horseman well enough but I *really* like the shape of yours! And the tutorials for push modifiers for fur under clothes would be great too.
Remember too that Render/osity/hub are viable options as well if DZ doesn't pan out! I've made a decent amount there (more than I thought I would anyway)
Thank you for the quite detailed feedback and I'm glad you seem to like the work I have been doing.
Digitigrade is a must for my projects so pretty much all of my characters contain not only the shape but also the JCM's to make the paws bend like you would expect of an anthro. Other JCM's are for example, the ears can be pinned back or tilted to the side to provide extra expressions that human characters don't have as well as the eyes are quite different and large on most of my characters so an eyes closed JCM is one of the others. These characters as you can image have a decent amount added to them and weight paint changes to make them feel and act more like anthro. The plan is to do like a lot of other creators and make a full body morph but also partial morphs, examples, head, legs, feet, etc..
As far as what you see above is all Daz Studio. I have decided after years of trial and error to work only with Daz Studio now as my 3D platform, if it cannot be done in Daz natively, I use that constraint to figure out a way to do it in Daz such as good liquid simulation with Fluidos or more cloth physics options with Virtual World Dynamics, rigid body physics, face animation with Facemotion3D, etc.. Animation is in every aspect of my work so everything has to be able to work well during motion. The characters I plan to distribute will be no different as they will be optimized for that purpose or still frame posing.
Another thing I could add is my render settings I use for some of the more complex work that require it. I have discovered some really nice render settings over the years for Iray, nothing magic obviously, but just something that works very good for most projects I work on when it comes to anthro fur / hair. The image with all of characters also has photoshop elements so I may have done some post work to the color / look, I don't remember, but I try to keep as many renders as unedited as I can to speed up my workflow. I am currently working on and off, on 5 different game projects for myself and others.
The above Equine is less of a showcase of a product and just more of the work I have done. The base of that Equine is actually Oso's so I would not sell that specific morph as that is not ethical in my oppinion or even legal. I just sculpted the base to fit more into the universe of the game being created. However, I do have plans if there is enough interest around these characters to make my own Equine model for G9, you can expect something very simular.
I would like to work with Daz due to some of the perks you get from being a PA here but I also appricaite the advice greatly. I would assume if something is available on the Daz store, it's not allowed to be sold elsewhere?
EDIT : Example of one of my G8 character morphs speaking using Facemotion3d. Hair simulation is done with VWD and the ears are moving using Spring Dynamics after I weight painted and adjusted them to move appropriately. Render was at a very low iteration, like 100 a frame since it was just a test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9ejiZ9REqA
A cropped render settings example straight from Daz with no post work of the Collie with no fur or anything since she is in early production.
https://i.imgur.com/iR2oxNu.jpeg
It may be worth reaching out to @Ethin by PM on this. Ethin does similar things with Micah and Melody (A3/A4 characters I believe) and has started to be a PA on another site with some similar items. It may be helpful for both of you to have an exchange of ideas/experiences relating to such furries.
Regards,
Richard
Thank you for the advice. I remember using Micah and Melody when I first started out and it would more than likely be a good thing to reach out to @Ethin about his experiences.
Your characters looks interesting, @Dark45
I also prefer Genesis 9 versions, if possible, and in Daz 3D shop.
If you can do both realistic and toonish, it would be even better for my taste.
Best way to find out if Daz is interested is make some great promos and submit. It is a niche genre but the quality would be appealing to customers.
Thank you for your feedback, it is greatly appriciated. Below this reply I am going to compile a list of what I am thinking I will do. As far as realistic. I can do that the problem with getting too realistic is that uncanny valley but I have done that in the past with people seeming to like what I came up with. One of the issues here is that I respect Oso3D alot and they already take a more realistic approach to their work. The idea thus far has been to add a different variety to the shop rather than encroaching onto what has already been made. With this said, if more and more suggest such an item, you can be sure that I would have interest in creating it for you guys.
Thank you, Molly. I will be adding some informotion under this reply with my thoughts of what I will be sending to Daz. The plan is do all G9 at first and maybe G8 later now that I have received feedback from several sources wanting the same as yourself. Kit bashing a bunch of morphs together and seeing what we can come up with is 90% of the fun ;).
That's the plan. I have a ticket in with Daz now about my use of SBH. With me not being a PA and having many SBH assets per character, I'm curious how they want me to package that prior to becoming a PA (for example, my submission for approval). Turning it into geometry and then making the hair or fur an attachment just isn't a very optimized way to do it as it's just too heavy at that point. Our workstations have 128 - 256 gigabytes of ram but I know most people use ~32Gb's so I try and keep it to where 2 - 3 of my characters + a simple environment can fit on that allowed amount of ram and render on a gpu with ~ 12 - 16 Gb's of ram. I guess in other words, I agree with you, and plan on submitting some really nice promo images to Daz once I have all the G9 assets built. Under this reply I am adding my thoughts of what I will be doing thus far if you are interested. Thank you for your feedback @FirstBastion , it's good to hear feedback from you.
Okay, so, I have recieved some really good feedback here on what I should and maybe should not or wait to do on here. I thank you all for your time thus far and it is extremely helpful. The more feedback, the better I can make assets for us all to enjoy. I have also made posts on some private discords that work more into this niche genre and both daz and non daz users are finding interest (so new comers to daz maybe!). It is seeming more and more apparent to me that maybe my work really would benefit other creators out there which is the idea behind this in the first place, to offer something to everyone that will benefit them with the art and creativity that they wish to explore.
Even though most of my work has been built around G8, everyone has since switched over to G9 (very understandably). Being able to have both sexes / genders (and more) on a single model is just too appealing not to explore, not to mention the quality of G9 assets. With this said, I will be converting and reconfiguring my assets onto the G9 architecture. It'll take some time but I believe that will be most beneficial for everyone including myself.
Below I am going to list some of the things I plan to do for those interested in this. If there is anything else you can think of, I love hearing the feedback whether postive, negative, or additive to what I am thinking. Thank you guys for that.
Things I will be adding to packages or releasing possibly in the near future if Daz approves any of the ideas / assets I have in mind.
- Anthro Characters - Canine, Feline, Equine, Vulpine, and Cervidea are guarenteed at this point for submission. Dragon Anthro characters may come next.
- With each package, full fur / hair assets will be included, as hair from the shop for human characters will not be compatible with my character morphs since the headshape is very different (the hair will go onto the ears if it were made for a human character). For each package, there will be a forum for people to request more hair styles if they would like. The fur assets included will be eyelashes, body fur, extra fur layers like cheek tufts, paw tufts, chest tufts, etc., fur for the tail, eyebrows, head hair (much like a humans), and whiskers. If / when I am approved for PA status, the longer hair / fur will be dforce compatible, until then, I will be making all of these assets Virtual World Dynamics ready for simulation. Please note that other assets like Ulitmate Brows, MMX Beautiful Eyes, and Lashes Utilities are used during the construction of these morphs so they will be compatible however you will have specifically created assets included in the packages as well hopefully giving you a bit more freedom to create your desired look.
- Since these characters are designed / sculpted very differently from your typical characters, I will be adding tutorials about their uses and how to make your own assets for them. These tutorials thus far are not planned to be sold as an extra item, instead, there will be a YouTube page for them so everyone can take a look, as well as I plan to transcribe all of the tutorials so those who do not wish to watch through a long video can skim through reading to find what they need. Those transcribed versions will be availble on the Daz Forum. Some will even be included with the packages. An example of a tutorial is how I make my hair assets to work with Virtual World Dynamics or Dforce and be optimized to run smoother than most other hair assets. Many have found interest in how I use push modifiers to blend the fur nicely with clothing so I will be making a tutorial for that as well as blending fur layers together (just in case you want to make somemore fur in areas I did not).
- These characters will work quite different from what you typically see. They have to have very specific changes to work correctly. For those who are familiar with anthro anatomy, feet and ears especially bend much different than a base G9. So the weighpainting and joint corrections will be applied already to make the paws bend naturally when you use the "Toes" bend slider or the ears rotate sliders. This will give users a range of freedom I'm not sure many other products approach to give much more emotion to your anthro based characters as well as realistic movement.
- Last but not least is that I am an animator (yes with daz). I know the typical consensous is to not use daz for complex animation but maybe I just like the challenge lol, or I'm just masochist. Face it, we are all here because Daz is the closest thing ( yes even over blender or iclone ) to giving us a full suite of design choices as artists that can be easily assessable but can be difficult to master. The last hurdle Daz has, if they are ever interested imo, is to add rigid, soft, and liquid physics directly into the software, but that may never happen and that is the Daz Studio creators choice. Whether we ever get that or not. My pursuit as an animator is to show that Daz is capable of such things. All of the assets I plan to release have animation in mind and it is something I have studied on how to do in Daz for several years now so rest assured that if you want to make animations with the assets I am planning to release, it will be possible but maybe difficult in some cases. Understand that, that is my objective as well and currently I have several methods of achieving most things directly inside of Daz thanks to several wonderful creators out there. Thank you all for you work.
And thank you all for your time. I look forward to hearing more from you all on this.