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Yeah, the thread has definitely derailed . . .
The thread may actually be considered a success - it seems to have shown that there is a significant interest in the Steampunk theme, thus answering the original question.
I think I missed the memo where MC hammer pants and excessive Neon= cyberpunk. I think there have been 3 MC hammer diaper pants released for G8M and this does not make me think dystopian future, but 1980's retro.
I'm sorry, but how do you construe "100% of people must love it" out us talking about our struggles with using products in the themes they purport to represent? You are trying to create a strawman.
And here's a novel concept for you too think about: We can actually love a product and still consider it ill-fitting for what it is marketed as. Case in point: the various toddler models - they are certainly nowhere even close to actual toddlers but they make for amazing unholy abominations.
It would be great if we could have steampunk trains such as these...
Diversity is good. Diverse views and opinions are good. No need to get hurt feelings solely because others have diverse opinions that may not agree with you.
Diverse representation too since not everyone has the same experiences, challenges, or features
People just expressed how they feel
It's okay to like cyberpunk and steampunk but it's also okay not to like them
It's okay to like skimpwear but it's also okay to want other options too
In the DAZ vernacular and general usuage, cyberpunk and steam punk both boil down to basically the same conceit - take an item that already exists and re-engineer it by slapping a bunch of extra widgets and hardware on it. As such, it's a genre that obviously lends itself to the 3D equivalent of doodling and, better yet, things made in those genres don't actually have to make sense logistically or closely match somthing in real life. Not to knock the creativity and imagination involved, but it's generally easier to make something where there's no real world equivalent existing to hold up as a reference, and if your cyber rhino's legs don't move quite the way a real rhino's would or your steampunk airship is clearly not aerodynamically sound, who can say that it's "wrong"? By comparison, a figure of a real rhino is going to invite all kinds of scrutiny on the acuracy of it's skin textures and rigging, while a real vehicle will immediately just look wrong if it's not the proper shape or has weird appendages. So, from the PA's point of view, if there's someone out there who'll buy it, it sounds like a win win on the part of the artist.
For what it's worth, I'll toss in the post-apocalyptic look in as a similar situation, as it really annoys me that there are a number of burned out, shredded and/or massively rusted versions of things for which there are no "clean" versions.
EDIT - and one final thought - DAZ seems to be very against actually making direct representations of any real world items that might be covered by a design copyright, which may be another reason artists selling here often avoid trying to make things that look too real.
I'm a little surprised it's taken so long for there to be as much of a steampunk presence in the store as there is. The steampunk aesthetic has been on the ground for well over a decade, and it is one of those "things" that *isn't* confined to a single generation. It's definitely not just something kids are doing that annoys their elders. The elders are right there in the middle of it, too.
Yeah, it's a niche, but it's a surprisingly inclusive niche.
And it's harder to pull off than it looks.
I ask myself the same about the post-apocalyptic stuff. I hate it. But other artists like doing those sort of renders/purchasing that kind of content. Different flags, for different poles, I guess.
Personally, I love seeing a run on vampire content. Although, I'd be even happier to see Lilith 8.1/*a succubus character* 8.1.
...using some actual RL locomotives as a basis would be fitting.
One of the other issues is there are no appropriate carriages
The worst thing about this genre summed up in a single word.
Brown.
It just often looks like a big boring lump of beige/brown and even the metal is brown (though thats usually how people like to do "realism" too). Also, there tends to be rather a lot of people doing exactly what everyone else is doing. In basically the exact same way that someone else did 15 years ago. So though I don't have a problem with it, it does tend to clump into one big brown lump and become a bit stale, which doesn't hold my interest.
In VII you see the engines working using mako (magic) thingies. All of the Final Fantasy stuff is based on magic/crystals, so magi- or mako- I guess?
... on the surface that is true, but go beneath the glitzy neon and holographic veneer and there is a layer of society that has chosen to rebel against corporate influence, greed, and authority, who in a sense are seen by the less fortunate masses as the "resistance". This gritty shadowy underside of CP society is a significant part of the genre but is not well represented.
But the filthy underside is not part of DAZ' version of CP, which is the "corp glam" I was talking about.
One reason there is so much steampunk is that David Brinnen & ForbiddenWhispers love it! They are also the reason that there is so much high quality steampunk product in the store. These things stand up to closeups and scrutiny. I don't even do steampunk, but I buy their stuff because it looks so cool! And time is gonna come....
If they made clothes, you---or rather your characters---would be covered. I was able to resist the dog and ostrich as unusable, but I must admire this level of extremity and extravagance. Just LOOK at these things!
...it should be, as that is a pretty one sided view since most CP is rather dystopic in nature as the setting involves corporations usurping power, determining what the population is supposed to like and how to act, Daz has no trouble with the criminal "underworld" from both the past and present in RL. They have no issue with devils, demons, undead, witches, and vampires as well as evil rulers, wizards, & warlords in fantasy. .Why should the gritty side of CP any different? In much of the literature and lore, that "filthy" underside tends to be where you find the "white hats".
I don't know if we are talking past each other or what, but really, all I'm talking about is what IS in the store (with the implied disappointment in the fact that the "real" part is missing), nothing more.
Hail to the king
Yeah - I've often heard FF (not all iterations but many) described as Magipunk / Magic-punk
IX (a personal fave) is a bit more steampunk (or 'mistpunk' as they use 'mist' for the energy source) though it obviously departs from the base genre into magic-based things too. More fantasy steampunk than sci-fi steampunk.
I see loads of stuff in the store that is quite heavily, and obviously, inspired by copyrighted material. GFFA, WoW, etc.
I did a double-take when I first saw the Wind Runner Bundle. Sylvian? Sure. No one will ever make the connection.
I like cyberpunk. I tend to view stonemasons scifi urban stuff as being cyberpunk.
Obviously the store cannot do the seamier side of cyberpunk but I like that too.
...not sure why. Some of content, particularly when it comes to horror, tends to be more "startling" and even "questionbable" compared to what I've seen in CP literature and games.
That New York Central Mercury Streamliner was such a gorgeous train!
..Joe
I agree! For me steam punk, cyber punk, orks, hobbits,Vikings,Pirates, (although these may find its way back around ARRR), strange space suits, etc doesn't bother me as with many I buy what I like for my needs. However, yup there is an however, for me it's the poor tattoo work on what would be awesome figures. It pains me to say that much of the tattoo work I see looks like glossy stickers stuck on the body not just below the skin surface. I find myself drawing my own and using a technique I have been using, through trial and error, to give my tats that under the skin look. The closest character I've seen here in the store with awesome tat work is Sydney for G8. Her's look like they are under the skin and not glossy. And some V4 female figures by Jennifer Morris. Let's just say I see a lot of tats during the week
But this is just my opinion only and in no way am I dissing anyone's efforts.
Yeah, and there are a couple speeders in the store that made me do a double-take, I also bought them right away under the assumption they'd be pulled eventually due to copyright issues. There is also a set of guns from CyberPunk that even have the Militech name on them. I would have bought those too already if they weren't so damn expensive.
And then there are a couple promos that feature characters wearing outfits ripped from video games (TW3). Granted, the outfit isn't what is for sale, but I couldn't believe Daz would allow them to even be present in a store promo.
I lov Steampunk stuff. Having said that, its possible to go too far. The best Steampunk assets are those that don't stray too terribly far from our reality, yet are different enough to catch the eye. I like to view Steampunk as an alternate timeline where many styles, science and machinery have changed, yet not overly dramatically. And, while different, the products actually appear usable and functional, like a computer keyboard with old style typewriter keys. it looks different, its interesting, but its also usable. Its a fun timeline, not a completely alternate one and that's the problem. Many Steampunk products on Daz and elsewhere are essentially from a totally, vastly different universe. They don't make sense, and are often neither truly practical nor functional.
...I actually like the functional custom RL steampunk computers and notbooks people have built.
Wold love a good 3D model of a difference engine
Thanks @RorrKonn, this grandmother in a van kicks up the radio volume everytime that song comes on my favorite rock station.
Mary
I have actually used a handful of steampunk-themed tools in a much-more 60s Star Trek-asthetics space-opera setting... as objects left on the floor where someone had been trying to repair a StarTrek-esque bathroom fixture, and had left them there while he ran off to the hardware store to get replacement repulsor-units. The particular tools where a sort of brass-and-wood monkeywrench thingy, and a fancy brass-and-wood wratchet-action screwdriver. Though I also threw in a more general-space-opera-looking electronic-probe-scanner thingy, and a modern-day tablet PC to the mix. And those steampunk-styled blasters someone else posted a link to earlier, I bought those figuring they'd look just as plausible being waved around by someone at a space port or aboard a starship, but haven't used them in anything yet.
The point I'm making is, sometimes steampunk stuff,or cyberpunk stuff, or general fantasy stuff for that matter, can be as readily dropped into a completely unrelated era and not look at all out of place.
That said, I'd also love to see more Decopunk stuff. Decopunk is a relative of Dieselpunk, and covers more or less the same time period as Dieselpunk, but without that WW II military vibe going on, and instead is set in a world where things like the stock market crash of 1929, and WW I and WW II never happened. I tend to think of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" as being proto-Decopunk, though a lot of people place that one in the Steampunk catagory. Basically lots of 1000-storey-tall art-deco buildings, art-deco robots and machines.
But I'd also love to see more stuff with a Space: 1999 / 2001: A Space Odyssey sort of bent, and have snapped up everything I've seen that fit that asthetic, too.