Unusual real-world bodies.

lukon100

I'm curious how many folks have created characters with unusual real-world bodies, such as amputatees, people with down syndrome, people with Treacher-Collins syndrome, scoliosis and so on.

I myself tried my hand at modeling a face with Treacher-Collins syndrome using just the morph sliders I've managed to obtain. I think it looks fairly like the Treacher-Collins effect.

I'd also like to hear how people feel about the creation and use of characters with unusual real-world bodies.

I myself have the fantasy of one day being a proficient 3D artist who makes images of people with unusual real-world bodies doing everything that people with normal bodies would be expected to do in the situations I depict in my art. My Treacher-Collins characters, for example, is a cop in future fiction space, doing everything a heroic cop would do. Her face has no impact on what she does, one way or the other. It's just not important to the action, the drama, or the story in any way.

So ya, what do y'all think and do?

Worlds_Edge

My observation is that people often request variety, so I think your creation proposal would generally be welcome.  I have no idea, however, how lucrative it would be if you are thinking about selling.  That would depend on demand.  

Personally, as a purchasor, when, for example, I see a model that has a scarred face etc., I'm happy to see it is available. However I would only actually buy the model if either, it comes with a scarred/unscarred option (so it is versatile), or I already have a specific story that I need a scarred character for and it fits my concept.   

IceDragonArt

I am always happy to see a wide diversity of characters, and I personally love characters that have options like scars and tatoos.  I would love to see more art using the huge diversity of the human population as well.  I don't do a lot of renders that have to do with specific disabilities or conditions except for scarring, mostly because I have no real world experience with most of that and don't know what would normally be *normal* for a specific disability. If that makes any sense at all.

Linwelly

Hi lukon,

First of all I like your vision of future and I would like to encourage you to show it to the world.

I took some time to think about your question and it all ended into another question which probably only you can answer. When you decide to put your characters out there for selling, you need to be aware that not everybody will share your vision. So if you take a stroll through the galleries here, which are images that are in agreement with the TOS of the DAZ site and then go to deviant art for example, where the rules are giving a lot more freedom, and take a stroll through the 3d renders, are those stiuations you want your character used in? Are you ok with images that might ridicule your idea, or even worse?

I'm sorry for not giving you an easy answer, I am sure there are also people supportive of your idea and would buy your characters, even if not a large group of buyers maybe. I hope this helps your decision a bit.

lukon100

Thanks for your responses, y'all.

Well, my ambitions to become the artist who will portray unusual real-worl bodies isn't likely to pan out. It's just a fantasy. So I'm not really concerned about whether I earn money from it. I know that, ideally, I would not care whether I earn money. I'd give my illustrated stories away.

As for people taking my characters and making them do all manner of degrading things based on their unusual bodies, I would find that really sad, but not unexpected. People still love degradation by exotification (ooooo, midget sex!). But, fortunately, making unusual bodied 3D characters for others to use was never my plan. My plan was to make such characters only for myself, and to publish only 2D images generated from my 3D characters, as in the images of an illustrated story. This being the case, I would retain control over how my 3D characters are used. People might still alter my 2D images to degreade my unusually bodied characters, but it would be much more difficult for them to do so.

Worlds_Edge

Oh, I misunderstood you.  I thought you were asking from a future seller perspective only because you mentioned modelling.  On re-read I see you meant only for yourself in order to be able to write/illustrate your story.  I'm all for any story that has good/interesting characters and lots of tension and drama. 

Linwelly

Ah, I mistook your comment as well for future seller possibilities, so if its about your art, go ahead, I'd like to see it!

And if sombode takes your work and alters that, its art theft and can be followed up.

Oso3D

Here is one of mine:

http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Soldier-551678702

In my gallery, several versions of her (including a bunch with techno magic prosthetics) are in the sub gallery After

(which is basically post weird apocalypse)

harrykim

It is an interesting question, what one want to show with this characters. Splatter, pity, normality, sexuality ... In our political correct times we try to make no difference between handicaped and non handicapped people. However there is still a subtle fascination. I would be interested in uneven/unusual faces.

Attached is one of my renders. It is a copy of a still, and to be honest, ... if the guy had both legs, it would be exactely the same image. The prothetic does not thrill me in any way

lukon100

timmins.william and harrykim, those are cool pictures you made.

Here is the face of my future cop character with the Treacher-Collins syndrome. Her name is Lanni.

Linwelly

Very good work on that one! I'm surprised you managed to do that with the dials

harrykim

wow ...

now we see what we can get with what we have already in our character tools. Good job !

Mighty Mysterio

Dwarfism is one of those areas that I've tried to explore via morphing, largely because I've known quite a few people over the years who were born with different congenital conditions that affected their heights. That's quite a bit different from fairy-tale or fantasy dwarfs! Posture is different for starters as every dwarf I've known has had issues related to their spines. I never did try to create an extended render or story with such characters. That's because I usually dial spin as a form of relaxation for myself, with no other goal in mind.

Regarding the off-topic vendor question. Like any other form of niche product, it's either going to bring you top dollar or you're going to have to give it away for next to nothing. The closest thing I could compare accurate models of disorders to would be accurate models of human anatomy (brains, hearts, skeletons) and when's the last time you saw a new one of those for sale in a place like here?