such work, but most of them underestimated the^
amount of time 3D work takes, or wanted me to
work for just an artist credit. I couldn't see
taking time away from personal projects to do
unpaid work for someone else.
DAL: I see. And now you create high quality
prints of your work. Tell us about the research
you did into high-quality printing, please. I
think that research was fifteen years ago, now?
And if that work has paid off in the long-term,
enabling you to keep on selling your work?
CD: I worked in marketing and graphic design,
initially for high tech companies, and then later
for commercial printers. In that time, I learned a
lot about printing, and digital printing in
particular. I had been receiving requests for
prints, and decided to research and buy a high
quality inkjet printer to print my own work for
sale. I have since moved to using commercial
printers with larger and better quality equipment
than I could ever afford.
DAL: So you sell at prints at... print fairs and
regional events? Other places, stores? How
does your online store at http://www.curious3d.com do
in terms of sales?
CD: Galleries, actually. I sell in three galleries,
one here in Asheville, and two in surrounding
towns. But, yes, also online. I sell from my
website. In the beginning, I was happy if the
artwork paid for itself in terms of printers, ink,
and software. As interest in my images grew, I
was able to cut back my hours at my regular job
and then eventually quit altogether. I have been
creating and selling artwork full time since 2005.
DAL: Impressive. I was listening to an EconTalk
podcast the other day, on a segment of the
American working-age population that had
dropped off the radar in terms of employment.
The rather data-befuddled expert thought that a
good many people were staying home to play
videogames all day. I suspect that many are
actually running nice little online businesses.
Anyway. Which version of Vue are you using
these days? Are you happy with it? Are you
tempted to upgrade?
CD: I have kept up with the Vue Updates. You
get a break on the price by upgrading, as
opposed to buying, a whole new version. And
Vue, while affordable by most 3D standards for
what it offers, is still a significant investment.
I'm currently using Vue 2015, v.13, I believe,
and I'll probably upgrade in the spring. Overall,
I'm very happy with this build, although there
have been some features added that I don't take
full advantage of (photometric lighting, for
example), and some features I wish were more
efficient (rendering). Then again, I use Vue
differently than many of my Vue artist friends. I
rarely do landscape or purely environmental
images, which is where Vue truly shines.
DAL: And I hear that you have a super render
farm at home that makes Vue rendering easy, I
hear? How is that going these days? Have you
had cause to slot anything new into it recently?
Or has it been all replaced by online cloud
rendering?
CD: Same farm, but individual machines have
been upgraded along the way. As in most things
related to computing, I don't know if it's possible
to ever have too much power. I have yet to set
an image to a remote render farm, but I know
people who do — especially those who work in
animation — and it's saved them time and
money to outsource.
DAL: And you use Poser for figures and animals?
Do you have any favourite “go-to” content
creators whose work you keep up with on the
stores, or any favourite “go-to” items in your
Poser runtime?
CD: I rarely render humans, I'm not very good
at them. However I use a lot of animals, birds in
particular. I have used Noggins’ various bird
species and textures for years. I also love
Stonemason's architectural models, and have
spent many happy hours kit-bashing his lovely
sets, taking parts and pieces and re-purposing
them to suit my ideas. Because I render at high
resolution, I almost always re-work or recreate
textures for the models I buy.DAL: There have been faint rumours that Poser
12, the next version might change the interface
or have a dual ‘skinned’ interface (so you could
use either the old one or the new one, and
switch between them). How would you feel
about a new interface for Poser, or Vue?
CD: Honestly, I have just the most tenuous grip
on Poser. I barely know how to use it. I open a
model, either create or use morphs to suit my
idea, pose the figure or animal, slap on a
rudimentary texture and export it. All the
texturing happens in Vue. I'm thinking of trying
DAZ, but I've put it off because I use humanoid
figures so infrequently and my good old Poser
still does the trick.