In any case, everyone needs to put visual watermarks on all the art they care about, right through the middle, with your name or website. If you don’t have Photoshop, you can use free phone/tablet apps like Snapseed or PS Express to do it. Don’t stop showing your art, just protect it and it’s actually great marketing for you too!
If someone really wants to steal your art, the watermark isn't going to matter.
Just look at the artwork that was stolen from a DA artist, that applied a watermark, and used for a recent Magic the Gathering card.
I've also had Executive Assistants call me up and say "We have this picture and the boss wants to know if you can remove the watermark from it."
People think of watermarks as an inconvience barely understanding why its there.
Well, I use my website as my watermark so it can be good marketing. Someone recently told me that someone at a comic convention was showing a video they had put together of my art. I was in shock. But my name was all over it. It can look kind of tacky but I rather it looks tacky if it can make art theft more difficult. In your case I would have asked how it would be used then given them a price and sent them a contract and only remove the watermark after receiving payment. Anyone who can afford an “executive assistant” can pay for art or assets.
Oh, you misunderstand... The exec found a picture online that they wanted to use for something. Neither they nor their assistant thought anything of asking "hey can you remove this watermark?" like it was routine business.
They were shocked / appalled / offended when I told them it was immoral and potentially illegal and I wasn't going to do it.
I still think it would have been a better move to just say,”Sure, no problem! This is how much it costs, I’ll email you a contract.” They couldn’t get offended about that. It’s just business...
Unfortunately I only summarized the conversation. It was a much slower affair... Attempting to educate them about why that shouldn't be done, how much work would be involved even if I did, the ethical and legal ramifications... All I got was the glazed over "why isn't this peon doing what I told them to do?" looks.
So the end of the conversation was closer to "I'm not doing it. And if someone else does it, I will report this whole conversation to the ethics department."
Sadly I have had to use that same phrase ALOT.
I thought they wanted you to remove it from your OWN art. That’s very different.
....sadly don't have PS for creating watermarks or posting a copyright, only Gimp, an old version of PSP, and Krita.
You can do it with any paint program that has layers and an opacity setting. You make your watermark graphic, add it to your image on the top visible layer, reduce opacity to somewhere in 15 to 35% range. You want it to show up without overpowering your art. I would make the graphic with black and white elements (white figure with black ground or vice versa). That way, it shows up regardless of the image behind. Making it big makes it harder to remove.
I’d prefer they’d fix all the products I already purchased that still aren’t working correctly for months than all this NFT stuff. We, as artists, can already list our art as NFTs if we want to, why do we need Daz for this? They say they won’t sell our art without our permission, but who is going to give permission unless they get paid? Unless Daz acts as some sort of NFT agent, like a talent agent, taking a percentage? But it costs over $100 to create an NFT. I don’t really understand what exactly Daz is pushing that’s so important it took over the forums section on the header...
They're pushing for non-Daz users who want to get in on the NFT gold rush to adopt Daz Studio and buy products from the store to make them with.
This helped me articulate what bothers me so much about claiming this is good for Daz artists in particular. There's a piece up on Nifty right now where the high bid is $20k, and I recognize all the hairstyles the characters are wearing.
There's still a kind of mystique to 3D, where it can look like wizardry to people who don't do it and don't know what the workflow looks like. I've seen artists strategically avoid mentioning that they use premade assets when people praise them for their skill, because fans may not even begin to imagine how you could turn a cube into a sculpture, but they can definitely imagine themselves being able to easily put a wig on a digital doll. It's easy for someone to go from "Wow, I could never do that!" to "Ugh, anyone could do that" without having any idea of the skillset involved in making a render.
This evasiveness frustrates me because Daz gave me the tools to envision how I could make 3D pictures. That eventually led to me being able to envision how I could sculpt things in Zbrush or paint them in Substance or edit them in Blender. I talk about Daz because I know there are people who, like me, need immediate feedback and constant incremental successes to wrap their brains around something, and a dressable figure is a better entry point for some people than a gray cube. Talking about it also helps audiences understand what skills render artists have, which means art that incorporates other people's assets gets appreciated for what it is and not as a magic trick.
As a marketplace, Daz is also largely artists supporting artists within a community. I don't want to speak for the people who made those hairstyles, and more users of course means more sales; artists selling assets are usually fully aware that someone could buy their pack of clip art icons for $5 and go on to use them in an app that pulls in millions of dollars they'll never see a penny of. But artists with the skill and clout to sustainably command high NFT prices are very much already aware of Daz and combine the assets they use with their own work, which is often done in very expensive pro software. Daz has not been up front about this. (Edit to be fair: the quotes from Shudu's creator touch on it, but it's also the first time I've seen him allude to using Daz--usually statements just say that he taught himself 3D modeling.) It feels really bad to imagine someone who's never done 3D before coming in and thinking they're just a few $15 purchases away from a massive payout because the assets offered here are already so high quality.
The thing that's been nagging me that I couldn't put my finger on is: If NFTs are a fantastic way for artists to get paid big money reliably, every single asset creator here is better served by selling the promo renders for their products than they are by selling beeplesque hopefuls NFT supplies.
IIRC, most PAs don't make their own promos. They send the files off to professional posers (as in, model posers, not people trying to seem cool) on places like DeviantArt. Which, come to think of it, would explain why so many products don't list what assets were used. The PAs themselves may not know.
I agree with a lot of what you said, generally. Daz assets are a useful tool, but anybody who thinks they can purchase an asset pack and instantly create a high-quality render is fooling themselves.
Between this and the game-ready bridges, lately is very much seems like Daz is reaching out and saying "See? Look at all the things you can do with Daz Studio besides 3D porno!"
...ah thanks. So useless then as I don't have a render server.
I was under the impression Daz was setting up an in house render service. That would be much more valuable to and useful for the community than selling NFTs, particularly as the NFT thing along with cryptomining and a silicon shortage has made getting new powerful GPUs a trying and expensive venture.
There are render servers available for hire.. google is your friend :)
...ah thanks. So useless then as I don't have a render server.
I was under the impression Daz was setting up an in house render service. That would be much more valuable to and useful for the community than selling NFTs, particularly as the NFT thing along with cryptomining and a silicon shortage has made getting new powerful GPUs a trying and expensive venture.
There are render servers available for hire.. google is your friend :)
In terms of gallery posts being used without consent of the poster by DAZ 3D, that would contravene the spirit of DAZ's policy on intellectual property.
"Daz 3D respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects it's users to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), Daz 3D will respond quickly to claims of copyright infringement committed using Daz 3D service, software and website, when such claims are reported to Daz 3D's Designated Copyright Agent as outlined below." - https://www.daz3d.com/terms-of-service
Therefore I can not envision DAZ using your images posted in the DAZ Gallery for NFT or for advertising without you prior consent.
It feels really bad to imagine someone who's never done 3D before coming in and thinking they're just a few $15 purchases away from a massive payout ....
Oh come on. When the Nyan blocky cat gif meme sold for half a mill of course some will think there's a pot of gold at the end of the Daz rainbow.
An anology of how NFT works. I play a shopkeeper game with my class. She buys something and taps my palm saying here's 20 dollars and I pretend to put it in my pocket. While we both agree with these rules the game can continue. But it only takes one of us to question these rules, ask for something more substantial than a tap, for the whole game to come to an acromonous end, and quite possibly in tears. The game is entirely reliant on a convergence on trust and confidence that the tap represents an agreed value. In 1929 (and 2007) one side lost confidence in the rules. Groucho Marx went to his broker’s branch office in Great Neck to find that his NF tokens (stocks) were now worthless. He lost his entire fortune. Considering that those stock shares actually represented solid saleable objects, but NFTs don't represent that or anything but some mecurial and capricious right of so-called ownership of something which you don't own, the likelihood of the NFT thing falling flat on its face is entirely more likely than 1929. At some point people will realise the emporer has no clothes and they've been gamed.
It feels really bad to imagine someone who's never done 3D before coming in and thinking they're just a few $15 purchases away from a massive payout ....
Oh come on. When the Nyan blocky cat gif meme sold for half a mill of course some will think there's a pot of gold at the end of the Daz rainbow.
An anology of how NFT works. I play a shopkeeper game with my class. She buys something and taps my palm saying here's 20 dollars and I pretend to put it in my pocket. While we both agree with these rules the game can continue. But it only takes one of us to question these rules, ask for something more substantial than a tap, for the whole game to come to an acromonous end, and quite possibly in tears. The game is entirely reliant on a convergence on trust and confidence that the tap represents an agreed value. In 1929 (and 2007) one side lost confidence in the rules. Groucho Marx went to his broker’s branch office in Great Neck to find that his NF tokens (stocks) were now worthless. He lost his entire fortune. Considering that those stock shares actually represented solid saleable objects, but NFTs don't represent that or anything but some mecurial and capricious right of so-called ownership of something which you don't own, the likelihood of the NFT thing falling flat on its face is entirely more likely than 1929. At some point people will realise the emporer has no clothes and they've been gamed.
Yes, I know people are credulous where money is involved. To use another analogy for why it makes me uneasy here: a number of GameStop short squeeze latecomers convinced themselves and each other that this was only the beginning, and by buying in they'd be at the start of something big. They didn't realize they were actually at the end of something big, and the moment to make money was before everyone had worked out what was happening. Those people are responsible for their own choices, but I still would have been appalled if a company I supported had suddenly spun up a whole thing about how to invest in the stock market and take advantage of the squeeze to appeal to them.
...... In the absence of any idea of what is going to be offered pretty much any non-general comment seems pointless.
This doesn't seem to be a project thought through very well. Might I say like the encrypted content one. Perhaps the Diigitals timer should have been extended a few week/months until the project's details were finalised. We watched the clock go to zero but there's little clarity in what is being offered, hence the confusion and complaints.
How is the quote related to the comment? The fact that I, as a member of the fiorum team, didn't have any advance details doesn't mean there wasn't considerable planning behind the undertaking, and in fact I have every reason to believe there was considerable planning.
Why on earth is "NFT" a top level menu item in the main navigation for DAZ 3D??
And what does "DAZ NFT" Powered by Tafi have anything to do with DAZ??? ...and especially Tafi?!
What is Tafi "powering" — a EULA modification for NFTs to distribute 3d assets that would otherwise be in violation of the DAZ EULA?
This is just tarnishing the DAZ brand (and Tafi for that matter)... NFTs couldn't be more contrary to Daz 3D's established business model.
Something that is "one-of-a-kind" that can only be accessed by one person has no value here.
People are here to purchase non-exclusive software licenses to 3D content that they can freely modify,
and make supporting content for that content within the same inclusive ecosystem.
NFTs are exclusive, and being non-fungible assets makes them useless in the DAZ ecosystem.
Happy to see Daz being open-minded about changes in tech and art. Will NFTs last? who knows. I do know over the last decade plus here I've seen every change or new thing Daz has done be greeted by sky-is-falling handwringing, anger, and calls to abandon ship. In the end little actually changes for most of us. A few people depart and new people arrive. Threads have a way of becoming echo chambers in any forum which may not always reflect the views of the entire community. Returning to quiet lurking.
If NFT's aren't your thing, this changes nothing in how the site or content works for you.
Sorry to necro this quote from ...oooh... a whole day ago, but this isn't true. The site design has been changed so that I can now one-click from any page to this NFT nonsense, but if I want to access the forum or the gallery I have to go though a submenu (which is apparently totally inaccessible on some hardware). Plus there's the matter of the resources expended on this that could have been spent on something more useful (frankly, I don't see how they could have been spent on anything less useful).
Setting aside the ethical and environmental issues around NFTs, which are considerable but well covered above, let's just talk about business logic for Daz.
Daz is in this to make money, and the things they do should (generally) work to improve the bottom line. That's fine, I work for money, so why shouldn't Daz? They operate a "razors & blades" model where they give away a frankly pretty amazing piece of software, then sell things you can use within that software. It seems to have worked pretty well for them thus far.
So the people visiting this site are primarily looking for assets that they can use in their own renders. I personally doubt that many come here mainly to look at other people's pictures in the gallery (and Daz claarly doubt it too, else they wouldn't have taken the gallery offline for months for no good reason). It seems vanishingly unlikely that any of them are going to want to buy somebody else's renders, bundled with some vaguely specified 3D content that isn't covered by Daz's usual refund policy. It's like the old Ready to Render scenes that Daz used to sell until they realised that nobody would buy them (but worse in a rich variety of ways that I'm not going to go into).
So what has been displaced by this pot of snake oil?
Forum: I have definitely spent money and bought products because I have seen them discussed in the forums. I bet you have too. The forum drives a non-zero number of sales and should not be demoted.
Gallery: I don't remember having bought anything solely as a result of seeing it in the gallery, but I bet some people have. I defnitely use the gallery to see what a product looks like in real users' renders instead of promos, and really missed it when it wasn't there. So the gallery needs to be prominently displayed too.
What else might be a better use of Daz's time and money?
A search engine that works.
Sales that work, rather than requiring a whole lot of CS time fixing them.
Better quality assurance on the products sold, to trap the myriad of annoying little errors that seem to creep into them these days.
Incorporating (at least some of) the features of the Daz Deals plugin into the core site.
Documentation on how to use the products they sell
A gazillion other things that would make them more money than NFT ever will.
Look, I get it, somebody saw the headlines about millions being paid for digital images via NFT and thought "Hey, we're in the digital images business - this ought to be really good for us. And our customers are into digital images too, so it could be good for them too." But it really isn't, all it's doing is pissing people off.
I’d prefer they’d fix all the products I already purchased that still aren’t working correctly for months than all this NFT stuff. We, as artists, can already list our art as NFTs if we want to, why do we need Daz for this? They say they won’t sell our art without our permission, but who is going to give permission unless they get paid? Unless Daz acts as some sort of NFT agent, like a talent agent, taking a percentage? But it costs over $100 to create an NFT. I don’t really understand what exactly Daz is pushing that’s so important it took over the forums section on the header...
They're pushing for non-Daz users who want to get in on the NFT gold rush to adopt Daz Studio and buy products from the store to make them with.
This helped me articulate what bothers me so much about claiming this is good for Daz artists in particular. There's a piece up on Nifty right now where the high bid is $20k, and I recognize all the hairstyles the characters are wearing.
There's still a kind of mystique to 3D, where it can look like wizardry to people who don't do it and don't know what the workflow looks like. I've seen artists strategically avoid mentioning that they use premade assets when people praise them for their skill, because fans may not even begin to imagine how you could turn a cube into a sculpture, but they can definitely imagine themselves being able to easily put a wig on a digital doll. It's easy for someone to go from "Wow, I could never do that!" to "Ugh, anyone could do that" without having any idea of the skillset involved in making a render.
This evasiveness frustrates me because Daz gave me the tools to envision how I could make 3D pictures. That eventually led to me being able to envision how I could sculpt things in Zbrush or paint them in Substance or edit them in Blender. I talk about Daz because I know there are people who, like me, need immediate feedback and constant incremental successes to wrap their brains around something, and a dressable figure is a better entry point for some people than a gray cube. Talking about it also helps audiences understand what skills render artists have, which means art that incorporates other people's assets gets appreciated for what it is and not as a magic trick.
As a marketplace, Daz is also largely artists supporting artists within a community. I don't want to speak for the people who made those hairstyles, and more users of course means more sales; artists selling assets are usually fully aware that someone could buy their pack of clip art icons for $5 and go on to use them in an app that pulls in millions of dollars they'll never see a penny of. But artists with the skill and clout to sustainably command high NFT prices are very much already aware of Daz and combine the assets they use with their own work, which is often done in very expensive pro software. Daz has not been up front about this. (Edit to be fair: the quotes from Shudu's creator touch on it, but it's also the first time I've seen him allude to using Daz--usually statements just say that he taught himself 3D modeling.) It feels really bad to imagine someone who's never done 3D before coming in and thinking they're just a few $15 purchases away from a massive payout because the assets offered here are already so high quality.
The thing that's been nagging me that I couldn't put my finger on is: If NFTs are a fantastic way for artists to get paid big money reliably, every single asset creator here is better served by selling the promo renders for their products than they are by selling beeplesque hopefuls NFT supplies.
IIRC, most PAs don't make their own promos. They send the files off to professional posers (as in, model posers, not people trying to seem cool) on places like DeviantArt. Which, come to think of it, would explain why so many products don't list what assets were used. The PAs themselves may not know.
I agree with a lot of what you said, generally. Daz assets are a useful tool, but anybody who thinks they can purchase an asset pack and instantly create a high-quality render is fooling themselves.
Between this and the game-ready bridges, lately is very much seems like Daz is reaching out and saying "See? Look at all the things you can do with Daz Studio besides 3D porno!"
My understanding is that there's sort of a barter ecosystem where artists provide promo renders and get to keep the product, and that this works out because it's a close-knit system where everyone is supporting each other's goals. But in the case of artists who don't do their own promo renders, if you could concievably sell a turntable render of a model for thousands of dollars, why not just do that instead of brokering it? (This is a rhetorical question.)
In the few years I've been doing this I've seen Daz present their software primarily as an animation suite, and it always gave me the impression that they want to distance themselves from Poser--a more recognizable brand for static renders, even if it's in extremely online jokes about Poser porn--and look more current and cutting edge. I think the bridges are a good way to stay relevant since more robust 3D software is getting really accessible, but it strikes me as counterproductive to almost never talk about the main thing most people seem to use the software for. It's not like they've exhausted the potential userbase for people who would want to make nice images to use in any way they like.
...ah thanks. So useless then as I don't have a render server.
I was under the impression Daz was setting up an in house render service. That would be much more valuable to and useful for the community than selling NFTs, particularly as the NFT thing along with cryptomining and a silicon shortage has made getting new powerful GPUs a trying and expensive venture.
There are render servers available for hire.. google is your friend :)
Google is absolutely not your friend.
The use another search engine, I don't think Jack was suggesting that Google hosts Iray server services.
- What I like to add is the insidious nature of the beast that is proof of work blockchain. That is to say, once you are invested, you are invested. Once you start mining, or buying NFTs it becomes harder and harder to back out and NOT defend it. Your investments start to rack up and it Can Do No Wrong (at least untill the next crash)
...ah thanks. So useless then as I don't have a render server.
I was under the impression Daz was setting up an in house render service. That would be much more valuable to and useful for the community than selling NFTs, particularly as the NFT thing along with cryptomining and a silicon shortage has made getting new powerful GPUs a trying and expensive venture.
There are render servers available for hire.. google is your friend :)
Google is absolutely not your friend.
The use another search engine, I don't think Jack was suggesting that Google hosts Iray server services.
Jack says Google is your friend. I disagree. That's all.
DAZ_Jessica said that another article/blog was coming that would explain how to create and sell our own NFTs though. I'm a little curious to see what that entails - I still don't think this is something DAZ should be getting involved in, but I'm open to seeing what's coming next.
what does the unlockable content mean ? you get everything in the image ?
Not everything, certainly - I'm not sure where the information was but soemone did find that some came with an OBJ of the one of the items used and in one case the marvellous Designer file. Possiobly some of the Daz NFTs may have native content. We have asked for a bit more information on this (and how it works)
Happy to see Daz being open-minded about changes in tech and art. Will NFTs last? who knows. I do know over the last decade plus here I've seen every change or new thing Daz has done be greeted by sky-is-falling handwringing, anger, and calls to abandon ship. In the end little actually changes for most of us. A few people depart and new people arrive. Threads have a way of becoming echo chambers in any forum which may not always reflect the views of the entire community. Returning to quiet lurking.
NFTs are not a change in technology, or in art. It's not new technology for creators and it doesn't change how art is made. NFTs are, at their heart, about financial engineering. They're about money. It's about the same as if Daz had teamed up with a bank to issue Daz credit cards. That's about how much it has to do with technology and art.
what does the unlockable content mean ? you get everything in the image ?
Not everything, certainly - I'm not sure where the information was but soemone did find that some came with an OBJ of the one of the items used and in one case the marvellous Designer file. Possiobly some of the Daz NFTs may have native content. We have asked for a bit more information on this (and how it works)
For each of the NFT's there is a detail section that describes what the unlockable content is. E.g The DAZ Studio NFT "Time to Let Go" lists
Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render.
....whatever that "3D assets inspired by or used in this render" is.
Happy to see Daz being open-minded about changes in tech and art. Will NFTs last? who knows. I do know over the last decade plus here I've seen every change or new thing Daz has done be greeted by sky-is-falling handwringing, anger, and calls to abandon ship. In the end little actually changes for most of us. A few people depart and new people arrive. Threads have a way of becoming echo chambers in any forum which may not always reflect the views of the entire community. Returning to quiet lurking.
NFTs are not a change in technology, or in art. It's not new technology for creators and it doesn't change how art is made. NFTs are, at their heart, about financial engineering. They're about money. It's about the same as if Daz had teamed up with a bank to issue Daz credit cards. That's about how much it has to do with technology and art.
I would have prefered if Daz had issued a credit card, with a bonus system like Amazon Card (get $1 in-store credit for every $25 paid with that card. PC+ members get 3$)
Happy to see Daz being open-minded about changes in tech and art. Will NFTs last? who knows. I do know over the last decade plus here I've seen every change or new thing Daz has done be greeted by sky-is-falling handwringing, anger, and calls to abandon ship. In the end little actually changes for most of us. A few people depart and new people arrive. Threads have a way of becoming echo chambers in any forum which may not always reflect the views of the entire community. Returning to quiet lurking.
NFTs are not a change in technology, or in art. It's not new technology for creators and it doesn't change how art is made. NFTs are, at their heart, about financial engineering. They're about money. It's about the same as if Daz had teamed up with a bank to issue Daz credit cards. That's about how much it has to do with technology and art.
I would have prefered if Daz had issued a credit card, with a bonus system like Amazon Card (get $1 in-store credit for every $25 paid with that card. PC+ members get 3$)
Yeah, I think they would have been a better idea. They'd probably only be available in the U.S., so no use to me, but yeah, they'd have better received. NFTs are like the vaping of the art world.
Happy to see Daz being open-minded about changes in tech and art. Will NFTs last? who knows. I do know over the last decade plus here I've seen every change or new thing Daz has done be greeted by sky-is-falling handwringing, anger, and calls to abandon ship. In the end little actually changes for most of us. A few people depart and new people arrive. Threads have a way of becoming echo chambers in any forum which may not always reflect the views of the entire community. Returning to quiet lurking.
Oh, just stop it with the 'echo chamber' business. If a majority of people are voicing legitimate grievances and concerns about something... chances are, it's an issue that really needs to be addressed. If this truly was an "echo chamber", then the mods would have deleted every critical post about this business move and kept it limited only to positive/supportive posts. THAT is an echo chamber.
If you know of people who support this NFT snake oil, then by all means, invite them here to defend these shady and unethical and environmentally destructive practices.
So what happens if that bubble bursts like it did for cryptocurrencies a few years ago? Do they write this off as a "business loss"? "Stunt" seems a pretty appropriate word for what was done in that video.
The bottom line is I just wish we as digital artists had a way to protect our work.
You could argue there are mechanisms to protect digital artwork already.. you could also argue that it's not perfect, but nothing in life is. I think we've had this conversation previously, too.. but speaking as a digital artist myself, whos seen his work ripped off left and right, it's never put me off putting it out there.
It's annoying, sure.. but such is life.
Ok Jack. I think you lot are setting up an elaborate April Fool's on us. If I'm right, next time I'm home, you buy me a pint!
I AM interested in NFTs, but this is a little close to April 1 & you lot got me last time, so...
I don't think this is a joke. If it is it is an expensive one on Daz cause you have to pay approximately $150 to list the image for sale, then pay some rediculous "gas" fees for other images, and they have more than just 1 image up under their belt.
I thought they wanted you to remove it from your OWN art. That’s very different.
Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't real clear in my initial message. My fault.
My only point being is that generally people are dumb creatures and just want what they want without thinking it through.
So you can do all the watermarking in the world, and I am not advocating to or not to, they will still be people who can't fathom why its there. Sadly I think that is most non-artist people.
I have four more instances of the same thing happening as proof, just with some of the details changed.
...ah thanks. So useless then as I don't have a render server.
I was under the impression Daz was setting up an in house render service. That would be much more valuable to and useful for the community than selling NFTs, particularly as the NFT thing along with cryptomining and a silicon shortage has made getting new powerful GPUs a trying and expensive venture.
There are render servers available for hire.. google is your friend :)
Google is absolutely not your friend.
The use another search engine, I don't think Jack was suggesting that Google hosts Iray server services.
I think maybe you missed the meaning behind the statement "Google is absolutely not your friend" (of which I wholeheartedly agree).
...ah thanks. So useless then as I don't have a render server.
I was under the impression Daz was setting up an in house render service. That would be much more valuable to and useful for the community than selling NFTs, particularly as the NFT thing along with cryptomining and a silicon shortage has made getting new powerful GPUs a trying and expensive venture.
There are render servers available for hire.. google is your friend :)
Google is absolutely not your friend.
The use another search engine, I don't think Jack was suggesting that Google hosts Iray server services.
I think maybe you missed the meaning behind the statement "Google is absolutely not your friend" (of which I wholeheartedly agree).
Google is never anybody's friend for a multitude of reasons. There's a reason why doctors absolutely loathe it when someone comes into the office and says they read about their symptoms on Google, after all.
Shudu: Flamingo - ETH 0.1 ($182.98) - 1 bid (FullMuffin) / Reserve not met
"This one-of-a-kind NFT unlocks an OBJ fileof this fabulous dress along with an uncompressed 4096x4096 AVI video version of the artwork." https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/10
Time to Let Go + Unlockable - ETH 0.03 ($54.91)
"Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render." https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/5
Aiko + Unlockable - ETH 0.03 ($54.91)
"Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render." https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/1
SC20 + Unlockable - ETH 0.02 ($36.61)
"Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render." https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/2
Edward Extra! + Unlockable - ETH 0.03 ($54.91)
Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render. https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/3
Nazgul + Unlockable - ETH 0.025 ($45.76)
Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render. https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/4
First Collection Bundle - 20% discount - ETH 0.22 ($402.71)
"A bundle of each of the items in our first collection." - Time to Let Go + Unlockable, Aiko + Unlockable, SC20 + Unlockable, Edward Extra! + Unlockable, Nazgul + Unlockable https://opensea.io/bundles/first-collection-bundle-20-discount-stM
Comments
I thought they wanted you to remove it from your OWN art. That’s very different.
You can do it with any paint program that has layers and an opacity setting. You make your watermark graphic, add it to your image on the top visible layer, reduce opacity to somewhere in 15 to 35% range. You want it to show up without overpowering your art. I would make the graphic with black and white elements (white figure with black ground or vice versa). That way, it shows up regardless of the image behind. Making it big makes it harder to remove.
IIRC, most PAs don't make their own promos. They send the files off to professional posers (as in, model posers, not people trying to seem cool) on places like DeviantArt. Which, come to think of it, would explain why so many products don't list what assets were used. The PAs themselves may not know.
I agree with a lot of what you said, generally. Daz assets are a useful tool, but anybody who thinks they can purchase an asset pack and instantly create a high-quality render is fooling themselves.
Between this and the game-ready bridges, lately is very much seems like Daz is reaching out and saying "See? Look at all the things you can do with Daz Studio besides 3D porno!"
Google is absolutely not your friend.
Agreed!
And NFT does not benefit real artists.
In terms of gallery posts being used without consent of the poster by DAZ 3D, that would contravene the spirit of DAZ's policy on intellectual property.
"Daz 3D respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects it's users to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), Daz 3D will respond quickly to claims of copyright infringement committed using Daz 3D service, software and website, when such claims are reported to Daz 3D's Designated Copyright Agent as outlined below." - https://www.daz3d.com/terms-of-service
Therefore I can not envision DAZ using your images posted in the DAZ Gallery for NFT or for advertising without you prior consent.
Oh come on. When the Nyan blocky cat gif meme sold for half a mill of course some will think there's a pot of gold at the end of the Daz rainbow.
An anology of how NFT works. I play a shopkeeper game with my class. She buys something and taps my palm saying here's 20 dollars and I pretend to put it in my pocket. While we both agree with these rules the game can continue. But it only takes one of us to question these rules, ask for something more substantial than a tap, for the whole game to come to an acromonous end, and quite possibly in tears. The game is entirely reliant on a convergence on trust and confidence that the tap represents an agreed value. In 1929 (and 2007) one side lost confidence in the rules. Groucho Marx went to his broker’s branch office in Great Neck to find that his NF tokens (stocks) were now worthless. He lost his entire fortune. Considering that those stock shares actually represented solid saleable objects, but NFTs don't represent that or anything but some mecurial and capricious right of so-called ownership of something which you don't own, the likelihood of the NFT thing falling flat on its face is entirely more likely than 1929. At some point people will realise the emporer has no clothes and they've been gamed.
Yes, I know people are credulous where money is involved. To use another analogy for why it makes me uneasy here: a number of GameStop short squeeze latecomers convinced themselves and each other that this was only the beginning, and by buying in they'd be at the start of something big. They didn't realize they were actually at the end of something big, and the moment to make money was before everyone had worked out what was happening. Those people are responsible for their own choices, but I still would have been appalled if a company I supported had suddenly spun up a whole thing about how to invest in the stock market and take advantage of the squeeze to appeal to them.
How is the quote related to the comment? The fact that I, as a member of the fiorum team, didn't have any advance details doesn't mean there wasn't considerable planning behind the undertaking, and in fact I have every reason to believe there was considerable planning.
Wait, squirrels are on opiates now? Or meth?
You get an Epic Games grant and then blow any goodwill with this NFT horse hockey.
Theres still time to reconsider this.
How does this benefit artists?
Why on earth is "NFT" a top level menu item in the main navigation for DAZ 3D??
And what does "DAZ NFT" Powered by Tafi have anything to do with DAZ??? ...and especially Tafi?!
What is Tafi "powering" — a EULA modification for NFTs to distribute 3d assets that would otherwise be in violation of the DAZ EULA?
This is just tarnishing the DAZ brand (and Tafi for that matter)... NFTs couldn't be more contrary to Daz 3D's established business model.
Something that is "one-of-a-kind" that can only be accessed by one person has no value here.
People are here to purchase non-exclusive software licenses to 3D content that they can freely modify,
and make supporting content for that content within the same inclusive ecosystem.
NFTs are exclusive, and being non-fungible assets makes them useless in the DAZ ecosystem.
Happy to see Daz being open-minded about changes in tech and art. Will NFTs last? who knows. I do know over the last decade plus here I've seen every change or new thing Daz has done be greeted by sky-is-falling handwringing, anger, and calls to abandon ship. In the end little actually changes for most of us. A few people depart and new people arrive. Threads have a way of becoming echo chambers in any forum which may not always reflect the views of the entire community. Returning to quiet lurking.
Sorry to necro this quote from ...oooh... a whole day ago, but this isn't true. The site design has been changed so that I can now one-click from any page to this NFT nonsense, but if I want to access the forum or the gallery I have to go though a submenu (which is apparently totally inaccessible on some hardware). Plus there's the matter of the resources expended on this that could have been spent on something more useful (frankly, I don't see how they could have been spent on anything less useful).
Setting aside the ethical and environmental issues around NFTs, which are considerable but well covered above, let's just talk about business logic for Daz.
Daz is in this to make money, and the things they do should (generally) work to improve the bottom line. That's fine, I work for money, so why shouldn't Daz? They operate a "razors & blades" model where they give away a frankly pretty amazing piece of software, then sell things you can use within that software. It seems to have worked pretty well for them thus far.
So the people visiting this site are primarily looking for assets that they can use in their own renders. I personally doubt that many come here mainly to look at other people's pictures in the gallery (and Daz claarly doubt it too, else they wouldn't have taken the gallery offline for months for no good reason). It seems vanishingly unlikely that any of them are going to want to buy somebody else's renders, bundled with some vaguely specified 3D content that isn't covered by Daz's usual refund policy. It's like the old Ready to Render scenes that Daz used to sell until they realised that nobody would buy them (but worse in a rich variety of ways that I'm not going to go into).
So what has been displaced by this pot of snake oil?
Forum: I have definitely spent money and bought products because I have seen them discussed in the forums. I bet you have too. The forum drives a non-zero number of sales and should not be demoted.
Gallery: I don't remember having bought anything solely as a result of seeing it in the gallery, but I bet some people have. I defnitely use the gallery to see what a product looks like in real users' renders instead of promos, and really missed it when it wasn't there. So the gallery needs to be prominently displayed too.
What else might be a better use of Daz's time and money?
Look, I get it, somebody saw the headlines about millions being paid for digital images via NFT and thought "Hey, we're in the digital images business - this ought to be really good for us. And our customers are into digital images too, so it could be good for them too." But it really isn't, all it's doing is pissing people off.
My understanding is that there's sort of a barter ecosystem where artists provide promo renders and get to keep the product, and that this works out because it's a close-knit system where everyone is supporting each other's goals. But in the case of artists who don't do their own promo renders, if you could concievably sell a turntable render of a model for thousands of dollars, why not just do that instead of brokering it? (This is a rhetorical question.)
In the few years I've been doing this I've seen Daz present their software primarily as an animation suite, and it always gave me the impression that they want to distance themselves from Poser--a more recognizable brand for static renders, even if it's in extremely online jokes about Poser porn--and look more current and cutting edge. I think the bridges are a good way to stay relevant since more robust 3D software is getting really accessible, but it strikes me as counterproductive to almost never talk about the main thing most people seem to use the software for. It's not like they've exhausted the potential userbase for people who would want to make nice images to use in any way they like.
The use another search engine, I don't think Jack was suggesting that Google hosts Iray server services.
- What I like to add is the insidious nature of the beast that is proof of work blockchain. That is to say, once you are invested, you are invested. Once you start mining, or buying NFTs it becomes harder and harder to back out and NOT defend it. Your investments start to rack up and it Can Do No Wrong (at least untill the next crash)
Jack says Google is your friend. I disagree. That's all.
DAZ_Jessica said that another article/blog was coming that would explain how to create and sell our own NFTs though. I'm a little curious to see what that entails - I still don't think this is something DAZ should be getting involved in, but I'm open to seeing what's coming next.
Not everything, certainly - I'm not sure where the information was but soemone did find that some came with an OBJ of the one of the items used and in one case the marvellous Designer file. Possiobly some of the Daz NFTs may have native content. We have asked for a bit more information on this (and how it works)
NFTs are not a change in technology, or in art. It's not new technology for creators and it doesn't change how art is made. NFTs are, at their heart, about financial engineering. They're about money. It's about the same as if Daz had teamed up with a bank to issue Daz credit cards. That's about how much it has to do with technology and art.
For each of the NFT's there is a detail section that describes what the unlockable content is. E.g The DAZ Studio NFT "Time to Let Go" lists
....whatever that "3D assets inspired by or used in this render" is.
I would have prefered if Daz had issued a credit card, with a bonus system like Amazon Card (get $1 in-store credit for every $25 paid with that card. PC+ members get 3$)
Yeah, I think they would have been a better idea. They'd probably only be available in the U.S., so no use to me, but yeah, they'd have better received. NFTs are like the vaping of the art world.
Oh, just stop it with the 'echo chamber' business. If a majority of people are voicing legitimate grievances and concerns about something... chances are, it's an issue that really needs to be addressed. If this truly was an "echo chamber", then the mods would have deleted every critical post about this business move and kept it limited only to positive/supportive posts. THAT is an echo chamber.
If you know of people who support this NFT snake oil, then by all means, invite them here to defend these shady and unethical and environmentally destructive practices.
Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't real clear in my initial message. My fault.
My only point being is that generally people are dumb creatures and just want what they want without thinking it through.
So you can do all the watermarking in the world, and I am not advocating to or not to, they will still be people who can't fathom why its there. Sadly I think that is most non-artist people.
I have four more instances of the same thing happening as proof, just with some of the details changed.
I think maybe you missed the meaning behind the statement "Google is absolutely not your friend" (of which I wholeheartedly agree).
Google is never anybody's friend for a multitude of reasons. There's a reason why doctors absolutely loathe it when someone comes into the office and says they read about their symptoms on Google, after all.
Here's a summary of the current offerings for "NFT and the Future of Digital Content"...
Shudu: Cosmo Rewind - ETH 0.15 ($274.57) - 2 owners (ClaireSilver and Tafi)
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/8
"The NFT also unlocks an uncompressed 4096x4096 AVI video version of the artwork."
Shudu: Africa - ETH 0.11 ($201.35) - 2 owners (CD315F-Unnamed and Tafi)
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/6
"This Limited Edition NFT unlocks an OBJ file of the earrings in this piece."
Shudu: Heart of a Lion - ETH 0.1 ($183.05) - 10 owned by Tafi / No offers yet
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/7
"This Limited Edition NFT unlocks the hand-painted texture map files used in the original image."
Shudu x Dagny - ETH 0.15 ($274.57) - 5 owned by Tafi / No offers yet
"This NFT also unlocks an uncompressed 4096x4096 AVI video version of the artwork."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/9
Shudu: Flamingo - ETH 0.1 ($182.98) - 1 bid (FullMuffin) / Reserve not met
"This one-of-a-kind NFT unlocks an OBJ file of this fabulous dress along with an uncompressed 4096x4096 AVI video version of the artwork."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/10
Shudu: 24k - ETH 0.1 ($182.98) - 1 bid (FullMuffin) / Reserve not met
"This rare NFT unlocks a working anaglyph 3D (retro blue and red 3D glasses) AVI version of this video! Resolution of 3840x2160."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/13
Shudu: Rose Petals - ETH 0.1 ($182.98) - 1 bid (FullMuffin) / Reserve not met
This exclusive NFT unlocks a Marvelous Designer .zprj file of the fabulous “Lotus” dress from the video.
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/14
Shudu: Retro Portrait - ETH 0.28 ($512.54) - 5 owned by Tafi / No offers yet
"This Limited Edition NFT unlocks a 30 minute 1-on-1 video call with creator Cameron-James Wilson."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/15
Shudu: 32-bit Sprite - ETH 0.1 ($182.98) - 1 bid (FullMuffin) / Reserve not met
This NFT is one of a kind and comes complete with a full character sprite sheet!
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/16
---
Time to Let Go + Unlockable - ETH 0.03 ($54.91)
"Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/5
Aiko + Unlockable - ETH 0.03 ($54.91)
"Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/1
SC20 + Unlockable - ETH 0.02 ($36.61)
"Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render."
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/2
Edward Extra! + Unlockable - ETH 0.03 ($54.91)
Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render.
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/3
Nazgul + Unlockable - ETH 0.025 ($45.76)
Unlockable content includes: 1080p uncompressed video (.mov), original high resolution PSD (3840x2160 pixels) leveraged for the animation, as well as 3D assets inspired by or used in this render.
https://opensea.io/assets/0x63e0eab409f1c1e737aad225003d709b57dbe9e5/4
First Collection Bundle - 20% discount - ETH 0.22 ($402.71)
"A bundle of each of the items in our first collection." - Time to Let Go + Unlockable, Aiko + Unlockable, SC20 + Unlockable, Edward Extra! + Unlockable, Nazgul + Unlockable
https://opensea.io/bundles/first-collection-bundle-20-discount-stM