In 2003 a little girl stumbled onto the Poser scene and began
snatching the heartstrings of unsuspecting souls. Brought to life
by DarkWhisper and given residence at Daz, Sara has become one of
the most popular characters of all time. Struck by Sara's
incredible versatility and sweet look, three people rallied
together to save her when it was learned that she was to be
retired. A small fan club quickly grew into 3DSaraCreations where
Sara was catapulted to a diva-like status within the Poser
community. Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax as we talk to
the creators of 3DSaraCreations.
France~~~~~~~~~~~~~NeilP~~~~~~~~~~~Realmling
We'd love to hear about the people behind 3DSaraCreations so
let's start with Who are they? France [Franise
Roy] : When I bought my first "modern" computer (AMD-K6,
266CPU) in 1998, I started using Corel Photopaint and then in 2002
I moved on to Jasc Paint Shop Pro. In 2003 I joined a PSP Yahoo
Group, and we started having problems with copyright issues. At
about the same period I heard of Poser for the first time and I
bought Poser 5 in March 2004. I intended creating PSP tubes for my
group, but, I was soon hooked on Poser and I still am. I like
giving and I have a certain talent to make people believe in
themselves so I used this talent to recruit members first for
Sara's Fan Club and then for 3dSaraCreations. My wife is happy that
I have something to do that I can still actually do because I am
retired on disability and I can do a lot less than I used to. She's
always encouraging me and admiring my work, buying me Poser stuff
and computer accessories and, well, let's just say I am happily
married! NeilP [Neil Palfreyman] : I have always been
interested in animation and was put on to Poser by a friend of mine
I have been addicted ever since. The engineer in me took over and
I started wondering how all these models were created, rigged and
mapped. For the last 18 months I have been learning to model in 3d
Studio Max, learning to map with UV Mapper and Deep UV, and jumped
at the chance to help France when she posted her cry for help in
the Poser Forum here at Renderosity. I try to balance my addition
with spending some time with my Wife and three daughters well I
try. Realmling [Rachel Savage] : I guess I'm the baby
of the 3dSC family. I've dinked with Bryce for quite a few years
making silly images that weren't all that great. But I was having a
lot of fun. Then I got Poser last year and it's been downhill ever
since. I don't think my husband fully understands my Poser
addiction, but he does have to agree that computer art, models and
all that mean the house is much less cluttered than it could be.
France, NeilP, Realmling: Of course, we three are the
founders of 3dSC and we run the forums but without the team there
would be no 3dSC. Who is this wonderful lady named Sara? In your
opinion, what is it that makes Sara so special? France: Sara was modeled by DarkWhisper and
offered for FREE at DAZ. She is a beautiful toon girl and poses
very well. When The GIRL was about to appear at DAZ, DarkWhisper
"decided" to change the face of Sara because she looked too much
like GIRL and after that, only Sara 2 was available. Shortly after
I started Sara's Fan Club, Sara became very popular and DAZ was
going to remove her completely from the Poser scene. There was
quite a battle in DAZ forums about this and DAZ finally accepted to
let her be. She is special to me because she is free, she measures
up with any other toon gals and since DarkWhisper gave us (SFC) the
morph to make Sara2 look like Sara1, we can still enjoy both lovely
faces. NeilP: Everything I know about Sara I found
out by modeling for the SFC (Sara Fan Club). She is a really high
quality model and I still find it amazing that DarkWhisper decided
to offer her for free. Everyone should download Sara now as we have
created and will continue to create lots of new things for her.
Realmling: What makes Sara so special? I think it's
that she's a rather versatile figure. She can be sweet, she can be
mean, she can be sexy, she can be toony, or more realistic. And
this great gal is free. I lived off free Poser stuff for quite some
time when I first got started. Still do to some extent. A person
can go a long time and create some great art with just Poser
freebies. That's why Sara lives in the top 10 on my list. How
did 3DSaraCreations get started and why? France:
It all started on the Renderosity Poser Forum. I had bought 3
clothing packages for Sara and there wasn't even one pair of pants
that covered her navel. I asked in the Rendo forum if someone could
create some. After seeing the replies, I threw the idea of a
community effort to model, texture and give away clothes and
accessories for Sara. This is when SFC was born. After a few
months, SFC became so popular that it was very difficult to really
work on models. So, NeilP and I discussed the possibility of having
a "workshop" for Sara, distinct from SFC. We invited Realmling to
join our discussions and then the three of us founded
3dSaraCreations. Then we recruited AngelSpirit as an admin and
later on, MacDubhgal. 3dSaraCreations.com was launched on November
6, 2004 Six weeks later, we released our first project "Christmas
Sara". Where do you get your ideas from? Do you take requests?
Once you have an idea, do you work collectively as a team to make
the idea a reality or does one member of the team take on the
project? France: We have Suggestions for future
projects forum and our members post their suggestions there. Up
until now, when we finished a project, we started a poll to decide
which theme we'd work on in our next project, the poll being based
on the suggested themes. But this method did not prove to be the
best so from now on, we'll consider all our members' suggestions
but we (admins) will make the final choice. And we don't take
requests because we work only on large projects. All our projects
are created as a team. We have a group of modelers, a group of
testers and a group of texturers. After we agree on a theme, we
(all members) make a list of the models that should be included in
that project then we all look for reference images for those
models. Then NeilP post the list in the Modelers forum and the
modelers pick the models they want to create... until there is no
model left in the list. Once a model is ready, it goes to testers.
After it passes the tests, it goes to texturers. Then the textures
go to testers again. As the Project Manager, I distribute files to
testers and texturers, contact the modelers if there is something
wrong with their models, the texturers for same reason, etc. Then
when everything is ready, I prepare the project to upload it.
Realmling: It is a team effort. We find our members
strong areas and put them to work. Some really like to model and
some really like to texture so it works out that everyone has
something to do and no one person is saddled with doing everything
by them selves. We all try to help each other as well. If someone
is having problems getting their model to cooperate, the rest of us
help them through that same with texture makers. We pool our
resources and share tips and tricks to help get the job done.
Let's talk about the Fairytale Project. How long did it take to
complete the project? How many artists worked on the project? Did
you make a list of all the items that were to be offered and stick
to that list or were you adding as you went along?
France: It took approximately three months to
complete the project. We had 22 members working on this project.
Realmling: We make a list of items that seem feasible
for everyone to do based on the ideas from our members. We stick to
the list as closely as possible since there is generally more than
enough to go around because there are just too many great ideas.
NeilP is very good at some great surprise extras, and occasionally
people add some extra stuff they've done above and beyond the base
list. If you had to choose your favorite item from the Fairytale
Project (besides Sara), which would it be?
France: I simply cannot answer this question. I
cannot choose. All the items in the Fairytale Project are my
favorite. Realmling: I only get to pick one? There
were so many great ones it's hard to just have one favorite. I'd
have to say my absolute favorite that I contributed is Magic Morty
the Mirror. He turned out much better than I expected (even if I
could do his morphs better now that I know more, he's still a great
guy). NeilP: I don't know about a favorite. I really
enjoyed modeling the "Fairy Wings," because it gave me a chance to
draw a design to model from. I rarely have the time to sit down and
plan like I did for those wings. Last year you had a significant
event with your Christmas Give Away. What was the inspiration
behind this? France: We founded 3dSC on November
6, 2004. A week later, we were ready to start working on a project
and Christmas was nearby, so it went without saying we worked on a
Christmas Project. And we had to do it fast too if we wanted our
"customers" to use our stuff for Christmas. We released the whole
project on December 10. Phew! But the atmosphere within the team
while we worked on that project will probably never be the same. It
was rush, rush, rush and all members were so enthusiastic, we all
had a feeling of achievement and of course we were full blown into
the Christmas Spirit. How many people worked on this project and
how many items did you eventually have? Can you give us an idea of
the amount of time and planning that went into it?
Realmling: We had 22 members contributing to the
Christmas project. We ended up with so many great things I can't
remember now exactly how many items we ended up with 80MB worth
of models and textures says it all to me. France : As
I said before, the Christmas Project was launched on an impulse and
as we were a new team and nobody had experience in project
managing, there wasn't much planning done. We drew a list of items
we'd like to include and jumped right in creating them. We learned
a lot during that project. Realmling: It was a great
first project though and helped us set things up better for all
future projects as we found out what did or didn't work through the
whole process. Big Question now Are you planning to do
anything this year for the Holidays?
France: We will probably release another project just
before Christmas but it won't have a Christmas theme. There isn't
much we could add to what we offered last year and our 2004
Christmas Project is still available to everyone. If someone was
interested in joining the team, who would they contact?
France: There is a registration form at
3dSaraCreations. If they want to join the team, they fill that form
and we communicate by email with them to see if they are at the
right place for what they're looking for. At the moment, we have
enough testers but modelers and texturers we can never have too
many of. The biggest problem we have with new registration requests
is that not many people know that 3dSC is exclusively a workshop
and that we work as a team all the time. We have had modelers and
texture makers registered in the last year who expected to be
working on their own Sara projects while getting the resources they
needed for them. This is not the way we work. We always work as a
team. If our members create a freebie for Sara and don't have space
to host it, we host it for them. But, while we are working on a
project, the whole team works on that project together.
Realmling: Anyone interested should go to 3dSaraCreations
and look at our past projects. Then if they feel they would like to
join the team they should contact France and chat with her. She's
our best recruiter. I'm just the genie in the bottle she lets out
from time to time when I behave. NeilP: Yes, this is
not a place to work on your individual Sara ideas but a workgroup
forum. Between projects we do run schools for our members in
modeling, texturing and mapping. We encourage all our members to
learn as much as possible and this has produced some good modelers
from members who joined initially as Testers. Anything else you
would like to say? France, NeilP, Realmling: We
would like to thank the following current and past
3dSaraCreations.com members for their dedication and hard work
[please forgive us if we have missed anyone out]: AngelSpirit,
Anniebel, archie10, Barbarossa, BE, Beachnut, Bluis, Calalene,
ccmarie, cedarwolf, chohole, Contajen, Destinie, dpanzee (Pam),
DragonessD, Fugazi1968, Grann_E, Groingrinder, Hawktoey, Humble,
Jaqui, Joyce, MacDubhgal. Netta, ParkerUnfolded, pbnj, Phauxxee,
PickersAngel, Posfan, seneri, Shoshanna, Styxx, Sueya, Tigger,
Twygg, WolfiesAngelBear, Wraith #1, Wraith #2, Xantor
We invite you to visit:
Lynn [Angel1] is a member of The Renderosity Front Page News
Writing Staff We invite you to visit Lynn's Renderosity Home Page
November 7, 2005 |
