I just want to wish each and every one a Happy Holiday season. May these days at the end of this year be filled with family fun and joy, and if you are alone - well, enjoy your own company, do something nice for yourself, and spend your day with online friends. No one is ever truly alone if they have internet!

Enjoy!

judee

I've decided to close two of my stores. As of december 31, my stores at Poser Pros and CG Odyssey will be no more. It was very difficult to write the letters, but it's done and it had to be. I just can't keep up.

I might even close all four - I don't know yet - I'll probably try making a product or two and see how I'm feeling and then decide. Maybe I can properly keep up with two, maybe not.

This d@mn body of mine is forcing me to make some difficult decisions. I've always enjoyed making the products, and I certainly don't mind selling - but when I start preparing for packaging and look at 4 stores with 4 sets of promos (different sizes, different "looks" for the stores) I just get exhausted and bogged down.

I can't even remember the last time I did a render that wasn't store related. I know I've said that before, but now I'm doing something about it. Maybe with just 2 stores active I can handle it. If not, I'll just close them all and satisfy my wish to make things by creating freebies.

Freebies are so much easier. Not that I put less work into the actual textures, etc, but a free pack can contain just one or two texture sets, while putting the same up for sale requires a minimum of 6 to compete, and then trying to make the promos professional and competitive to catch the eye. Freebie promos can be simpler - just show the articles, people will be happy enough to see what's in the pack - and after all, it's free, and that makes people feel good and so makes me feel good.

I better stop or I'll talk myself out of my last two stores...

I can't believe it. I've been wanting to put a perso gallery on my site for years - was always afraid of the interface. But then I found JAlbum and it was easier than I thought.

My Site is finally complete!!!

I re-did the backgrounds, added another tutorial, put up proper menus (thanks to Xara Menu Maker) and I finally have a site that suits me. Granted, it's not your typical modern site - I have no idea what it looks like to others, all i know is that it suits me and who I am and so I am happy with it.

Anyway, the link is below, as well as direct links to the two (yes, two!!) tutorials. Organizing Content using External Runtimes is the latest. I really need to update the Daz Studio Beginners Tutorial, but I'm waiting until version 2 comes out. It's still workable, of course, but so much has been added to Studio that I really want to re-do it to reflect that - but I will keep it at the beginner level, of course.

Stop by the site if you have a moment, and the inclination. If not, well, don't. I'm happy to have it done - finally!

Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next... so many options, so little time!

All the best to you, my friends. Be well and happy this holiday season, and don't forget to take time out to just enjoy!

- judee

I've noticed a trend lately, at least in a certain marketplace, a certain progression in the size of textures used for both character skins and Clothing items - (this is in the Poser universe, for those who need clarity) While it's always good to know the size of the textures involved, it seems to have become a kind of competition, as if Bigger is Better, and "mine are bigger", more detailed, thus better than the average. The funny thing is, using clothing textures as an example, when the average texture size was 1024x1024, suddenly we started getting merchants displaying "2000x2000!" - bigger and better. Rather quickly (at least it seemed quick to me) this progressed to 3000x3000!. That one lasted awhile it seems - but now the "going rate" seems to have upped to 4000x4000.

Aren't we getting a little carried away here, folks? I mean, sure, 4000x4000 is a lot of room to put detail - but when it compacts down into the actual Poser dress or outfit, just how visible is that detail? HOw close do you think people are going to be in making their renders. And how big will these renders be?

Yes, I know - prints are better at 300 dpi, so you need a big render to make a good print, and the higher the resolution on the clothing items, etc, the better it will look.

But - is it really necessary to go so high? What does this do to our machines, our programs? Even if you are importing these characters and textures into a more powerful program for rendering, it seems it wouldn't take a whole lot of these textures to bog down the rendering speed, even the capacity of the rendering program. Oh sure, such programs are improving - but how fast? And how many of us have the funds to upgrade our computers and buy these new programs that are necessary for such high quality renders?

I'm a hobbyist. I like my art to be fun, enjoyable, maybe say something, maybe not. I want it to be accessible and easily rendered. The 4000x4000 textures are beautiful in most cases - but rather useless if my machine gets bogged down or Poser tells me I've got too much to render.

As a creator, vendor of clothing textures, I usually go by the templates that come with the clothing item - but even those seem to be increasing in size. Okay, so i can maybe handle a 3000x3000 if it's for a character texture - but I personally prefer the clothing textures I make to be smaller. Does that make my texture sets less desirable? So be it. I'm not in this to compete, I'm doing it for the pleasure - and I don't care for the idea of texture sets being judged by the size of their templates.

I'm just wondering where it will stop? I'm thinking perhaps the 4000x4000 may be the cap, the limit. I know I prefer smaller textures and if I see that all of the textures for an outfit are that size, well, I'm likely not to buy it no matter how beautiful it is - because I like my renders to render in a reasonable amount of time, and I like being able to manipulate characters and objects in the scene without the program slowing down to a crawl.

Yes, I do know that you can set the maximum texture size in Poser so that even if the actual textures are larger, it won't go beyond your limit. But in that case, whats the point?

I'm watching with interest. Either the next round will be 5000x5000, or, perhaps some will begin to realize that bigger is not always better, and we'll start seeing it move back and stabilize at 3000 or even 2000 (well, I doubt that, but maybe 3000).

Meanwhile, I'll just continue making mine as i please - and hope that the templates come in reasonable sizes.

Have a great weekend,
judee

... when you have nothing to say?

Every now and then I get like this - it's so easy to withdraw, to dive into my computer and work on organizing and doing busy stuff. Gives me a good excuse to stay away - "Sorry, been so busy!"

Well, I have been busy! Busy getting my computer set up like I want it, finally getting Runtimes organized in yet another way, much easier to work with, and trying to work on my site.

But... do I have nothing to say because I lack the time? Or do I manage to create so many things to do, so I have an excuse to say nothing?

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy communicating. I love the friends I've made here and elsewhere on the net. My fingers can literally fly across the keyboard, expressing my thoughts almost before they form in my head.

But sometimes I just feel ... silent.

So if I'm not posting much at the moment, well, yes, I am busy, but also, I just need to be "away" for awhile.

And I guess that's all I have to say about it.