Best Character Artists/Vendors?

[UnboundConsciousness]

What Character Artists/Vendors are considered the best in regards to texture and model uniformity?

When they list their items and put HD in the title of the character, is that just a marketing thing or is that indicating it's a higher model/texture quality than their other items?

Just trying to get a subset of must-have artist releases and who to avoid as far as poor textures, etc.

[eelgoo]

HD over at Daz usually refers to detailing morphs for close ups.

This has to be really subjective, as it depends on your preferred genre of characters.

Are you into ultra-realism, fantasy/fae , anime, horror or what?

🙂

[UnboundConsciousness]

I would say more on the realism side. Say for example Mousso has characters with HD in the name. Is that just indicating that the 3D morph is more detailed?

[eelgoo]

Yep, that is about it.

Few merchants excel at both texturing & morphing.
Mousso's strength is on the morphing side, using Merchant Resources for the base of the textures.
There is nothing wrong with that per se, as it speeds production for such a prolific merchant.

After you have mooched around this world for a little time, you will probably be able to recognize
which vendor has made the character, as they often exhibit a 'family' resemblance.
This is particularly evident amongst the more prolific merchants.
Examples that spring to my mind are FW ( often FWSA collaboration )
Twizted Metal, Tempesta3D and probably many others.

This is not necessarily a bad thing.

[eelgoo]

Further information:

I am into ultra-realism & these are my current favourite merchants:

Bluejaunte at Daz

Brahann at Daz & Renderosity

Darwin's Mishap at Daz & 'rosity

DTHUREGRIF at 'rosity

Freja at Daz & 'rosity

Godin at Daz & 'rosity

Hinkypunk at Daz

IST at Daz is also KobaAlexander at 'rosity

Lyoness at Daz

Mousso at Daz & 'rosity

Raiya at Daz

Raziel at Daz

Saiyaness at Daz

Sangriart at 'rosity

Second Circle at Daz & 'rosity

Tempesta3D at 'rosity

Twizted Metal at Daz & 'rosity

Virtual World at Daz

Zoro_D at Daz and 'rosity

Just because a character has a poor texture should not necessarily put you off.
I feel it is useful to be able to look beyond the texture to the morphing.
You can always use a favourite texture from a different model on her.

Da Yin / DYYS does some excellent ultra realistic looking Asian characters, but their texturing is poor.

' https://zonegfx.com/forums/topic/other-dy-asian-characters/ '

Some of their items are already on site here.

Some other honourable mentions go to:

3-DArena at Renderosity.
3DSublimeProductions at Daz & 'rosity
Aeris19 at 'rosity - Texturing not too hot, but nice morphing.
Belladzines at Daz & 'rosity
Cherubit at Daz
Cynder Blue at Daz & 'rosity
Deva3D at 'rosity
Digital Touch @ Daz. A bit cookie-cutter, but nice quality morph & texture.
EmmaAndJordi at Daz
Essentials at 'rosity
Faber at Daz
FWSA at Daz & 'rosity
Morghana at 'rosity
Pixeluna at Daz
Silver at Daz & 'rosity

Up & coming to watch out for:

DOrdiales at Daz

Bu-Es at 'Rosity

That lot should keep you going a while! 😉

[La_Pucelle]

Thumbs up @Eelgoo!
I wish there was a 'like' button or something. Eelgoo, you often have really great insite.

[eelgoo]

Thanks for the vote of confidence @lapucelle .

I have just been around a long time & know what I like. 😉

[eelgoo]

Another honourable mention.

VYK at Daz & 'rosity

[Anonymous]

Silver, Godin, Mihrelle are my personal favourites

[Corbeau]

Eelgoo practically pointed what is important. However these things are always debatable as the notions of beauty or realism are VERY relative. For instance My favorite character has been Willow G3F from MRL (Mihrelle) for a long time in spite of some texture shortcomings. Generally the promo pic is what gives me a desire to look further and potentially download or even buy (when it is really appealing or different). I am somewhat puzzled by vendors putting out very poor promo pics (bad lights, poor positioning and even ugly smiles or weird morphs). My opinion is that if they are unable to make it attractive I should not waste my time trying to do better. I know I am really influenced by the hair used in the pic (probably as in real life....), sometimes hair are not good on some shapes but fantastic on others. I suppose we are all different for this kind of approach (and yes culture and ethnicity play a major part).

[eelgoo]

@CDK

Silver & Godin are listed.

I agree, Mihrelle is worthy of honourable mention, I think. 🙂

[Anonymous]

My favorite character has been Willow G3F from MRL

Totally agree. Kind of reminds me of a few Gen-4 characters of old.

Raiya also gets my vote but sadly most of the products are looking the same.

Maelwenn does some outstanding textures IMO, probably some of the best when properly lit in DS.

[EvilMonkey]

I thought that if you had a character with a "HD" designation over at Daz it would have utilised the proprietary Daz HD Morphs tool. You'll find everyone of them has a ".dhdm" file in the morphs folder.

I do like Mousso and Sangriart but I think every artist has a few ropey characters, so just take them as they come.

[EdnaCloud]

@eegloo excellent list and words, as usual 🙂

@Corbeau I agree, I see some 'promos' and wonder if the vendor has even tried to make their product appealing. So they think that folk will buy it because it is new no matter what it looks like in their images ?

I used to post a lot of renders to the poser NG including one of the weekly freebies that were on offer at Daz and quite often people would tell me that my render of said product was better than their 'official promos'

I have noticed now that some vendors appear to be using higher resolution images for their promos, but that doesn't always mean that the product looks its best 🙂

[eelgoo]

Yes, promos can be very hit or miss.

Make them too good & either it shows up flaws or folk will complain that they can't get the character to look that good.
Make them too ropey & you put off potential purchasers.
From time to time a merchant might use promos made by their testers.

What really does bug me is when items used in the promos aren't credited, as often my eye is taken by something they are not directly marketing.
You really would have thought that it would be worth their while to do that, as the 'cross-pollenation' might benefit all of the merchants!! :0E

🙂

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