Daz3d Product Submission - Your Thoughts

PineCliff

Hi all.

I recently submitted a new product called Studio Stage for review and unfortunately it wasn't good enough to make the grade. This is a stage environment with lightling presets and set pieces, that I will be stripping down and reworking to resubmit. I have attatched the promotional material I sent for review. Critisism or comments on any aspect from the promo imagery to the content itself would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much for your time.

margrave

To be frank, the lighting setups aren't very good. The first image, all of those pictures are waaaaay too dark. There are no eyelights either, where the light glints off the eyeball, making them look a bit soulless and dead. Their expressions aren't terribly interesting either; the facial expressions should ideally also convey the same mood as the lighting setup.

The second picture is kind of anemic, and it also distracts from what the product actually is. Have a wide shot of the darkened stage, bathed in floodlights, instead of a guy standing around looking like he's trying to unpack. Put some Playbill-style font in big, bold letters. Have supplemental images showing models in a heated dramatic confrontation or doing a musical-style showtune. Save your shots of the individual props for later. 

In the third one, fix the typos in "Backdrop" and "Middrop."

The fourth has the same problem as the first: the lighting is way too dark and amateurish.

The fifth, I'm not even sure what this is? It's muddying whatever you're trying to sell. Either cut it or more clearly articulate how it relates to the stage environment.

PineCliff

Thank you margrave, that really helps me out :) I'm going to put the advice into practice as I rebuild.

margrave

Good luck.

nonesuch00

The lighting needs to be more dramatic. The characters need to be posed with expressions to create interest. The characters look like 3DL characters from 10 years ago in their drab flat look. The set peices themselves look generic and from about 10 years ago too. Textures that are too perfect wind up looking like that in bright lighting.

You have lots of competition and the ones I've bought lighting products from the DAZ 3D store have done a much more comprehensive and better job that you have here. Unless you can really up your game to be competivite with Colm Jackson, The Philosopher, and J.Cade (her Painter's Lights have been removed from the store but if you have them you know what I mean) then I'm of the opinion you should change the focus of your product completely. I don't buy many light sets and am picky so I wouldn't buy your light set. I could do that good myself so your product isn't really professional if that's all it can do.

All in all this product evokes the feeling that it is a modern day update of the old Multienviroments DAZ 3D made many years ago that were a combination of plane 2D images for walls and floor with a few 3D models for nearer the character(s) & camera.

So I have no problem suggesting you change your product to another theme, a theme by the way that there is a dearth of in the DAZ Store and that's 2 or more stage plays have their 2D stage sets and 3D things modeled for the stage play as the focus of your product. 

If you're going to have a chance to sell it I would:

1) Model the curtains so they have a pull that morphs the curtains open and close.

2) Model some modern day 3D modeleled stage lighting, speakers, microphones to include (or you could do retro instead). You'll need to research this.

3) Forget realistic backdrops and instead model 2D cutouts of "laminated wood" that are given a nice hand painted look to be used as stage sets. Find a long play or two and see how the sets were made for stage productions. Make the sets for all the different scenes for the particular play your product is using as inspiration. Consider incluing stage sets for 2 or 3 plays. Think Broadway plays with it's painted stage sets. BONUS: Youy can make more hand painted stage sets later as addons to your product.

4)  Finally according to the stage sets you have you'll need to make the appropriate 3D models and props the actors use during the scenes with the appropriate sets and the appropriate stage plays.

5) Make presets for placing it all, lighting it correctly, and so on.

6) Make many poses of the actors during particlar lines in the play script. Not the whole script but enough lines that you windup with 20 - 60 poses.

7) There are countless public domain stage plays and folk stories you could base your product on: Goldilocks & the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, many Shakespeare plays, and the list goes on & on.

Good luck.

PineCliff

Thank you nonesuch00. I like your ideas, this gives me something fresh and unique to focus on :)