Who is danae danae is basically me, Danae, born and raised (at most part) in Athens, Greece. I�ve been involved in Film making and Art Direction, Interior / Product design and Industrial design, before settling down as a 3D / CG artist. How long have you have you been rendering? I�ve been doing more modeling and texturing rather than rendering but I�ve been involved with 3D applications several years now but still not enough � only 3 or 4 years I think. What are you currently working on? Poser-wise: I must have over 10-15 projects waiting to be finished and actually become something. There are always a few characters or hair stashed away and waiting for completion. The process from concept creation to product release is not always smooth. As a matter of fact it�s a great test to check your sanity! That is because there are usually several things that just don�t make through. The first stages of making something are always the fun part, the creative part. When it�s time to check a texture�s seams, to make a model conforming but also to get it to work the way you want to , do numerous little itsy bitsy rsr�s and png�s and then erase everything only to start over again�then it gets challenging.. What software do you use and why? 3ds Max because I�m used to it, although I�ve been meaning to experiment with other modeling software but there just isn�t enough time to develop products and start a new modeling app from scratch. Photoshop � always - for doing all the texturing. I�m using Poser 6 for rendering Poser stuff but I find Poser 4 is more stable when developing and testing products. Numerous little utilities that make my life so much easier such as UVMapperPro and Hogsoft�s utilities. Do you have any advice for getting started selling 3D work? I think it would have to be the same advice I gave a couple of years ago (doesn�t time fly?): do the absolute best you can and be completely satisfied before releasing anything. Take your time and test and double check. Nothing will ever be perfect but it really pays back to try and make it the best you can. Where do you find inspiration for your products? Everywhere. From all the surreal scenes of everyday life and how this can be translated into a product or a potential render/image. And 3D�3d is an inspiration by itself. It makes you want to achieve �perfection� simply because you can. Part of the fun in being a CG artist is being able to create a world very much like your own, only when you look closer it�s perfect, too perfect. Then you can have fun by placing a grain here and a scratch there. It gets even more fun trying to capture the grittiness of real life. I think that small �deviations� from what is considered normal, attractive and beautiful - or even bigger ones - is what makes something unique and interesting. And this is what will take something beyond the immaculate �symmetry� that is so obvious in typical 3d / CG creations. It�s funny how many people in 3D try to make their conceptions look more real by using �faults� and real people are more and more trying to look like our Vickies. As far as hair is concerned�well, I guess the hair I make looks quite like my own sans the frizzy, bad hair days - although I do try and provide ample morphs to give you that if *that* is what you�re looking for :o) How has this online community (Renderosity) enhanced your work, relationships, and learning? I have met some amazing people here and I think they know who they are :o) Some of them I feel like they are life long buddies. Sometimes when I might be feeling a bit low, I get a mail from someone who I might not even know and they would just say a few sweet words and make my day. Renderosity is a huge data bank with people always eager to help and answer any questions. However, as a community I believe we should be even more protective of it. I know that most active members here that know how things are would never even consider acquiring warezed products. Unfortunately there are a few who don�t have any idea how hard it is to create a quality product and sell it in such good prices as they currently are at the MP. These are usually the people who log in with funny names and cloned identities, they buy stuff and then think they�re doing other Poser users a favor by giving them away. By stealing the products and giving them away for free, they are basically promoting the demise of the Poser community. It is hard enough to work on something for months and months, trying to learn new things to incorporate in the products at the same time and put a 10 dollar price tag on it. Merchants from outside the US �like in Europe- have it even harder due to the dollar � Euro relationship (i.e. earning even less when their profits are converted to their currency). Losing so many sales due to warez is only discouraging us more. It won�t be good for anyone if people either stopped making things or upped the price tag due to all these things. It would be even worse if the quality would fall because it won�t be worth it anymore. I wish they�re would be a way around this whole issue but I think that the only way of dealing with this is by having zero tolerance, especially outside this site. There are many people, especially new users, who might not even mean harm but they just don�t know and it�s our job to let them know. Do you have any final words? Yes, I�d like to shout a huge Thank You to all the people that have taken the time to let me know that they are enjoying a product or just say a nice word. Everyone who has shown their support, written in some nice and encouraging word and of course a big, massive, enormous THANK YOU to all my customers who make it possible for me to do what I love most and for awarding me this honor for the second time. Last time I thanked George for all his patience and now I�m thanking him for being my inspiration and my heeeroooo ! Last but definitely not least, thank you, to the wonderful moderators who always manage to remain calm and sweet despite what might be going on. Hi Debbie and Clint! *waves*