Conrad bundle breaking new ground?
TriCounter
Posts: 558
in The Commons
For me it's always been the case that Daz Originals charge extra for HD and little extras and PA's include HD and little extras, making them great value.
Conrad breaks the mould a little for me.
https://www.daz3d.com/conrad-bundle-for-genesis-81-male
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I was really excited about his release today and ready to buy from promos I had seen elsewhere. After seeing the pricing and how they split him up I am torn. Love that PA's work and have other assets from that PA so I know qualitywise he will be great and I want to encourage more male content being brought to Daz but came in expecting to pay a lot less (~$20) for the character+HD+tattoos/skin effects and maybe extra for clothes, hair, and poses. It seems like every thing is being split these days at Daz and usually I do the math to decide if it is worth it to get the individual items I want or the 'bundle' at a discount and usually by the time I've finished I just decide to not get any of it.I dislike how the individual items clutter my library and I wonder how this would work with a character- will all his tattoos if purchased be available under his one tab in the smart library or spread out under accessories or somewhere else easily forgotten. Also at that price other bundles usually include clothes, textures as well as tattoos/skin effects, and accessories. I'm all for PA's being paid well for their hard work so I don't know if these new changes are happening for that reason and I don't mean this as a bash on them but I am not a fan of how bundle splitting and pricing is happening and being implemented in my Daz library. So as much as I like this new character he will probably be on the wishlist for a while if I end up getting him.
Ooooo, I really like this guy. Not sure I like the price tho ;). Decisions, decisions. LOL
Laurie
Gorgeous, but dayum that price. Sorry, I can't. $20 and I would have purchased. I get that creators need to make money, but these days I need to watch my spending because everything is so inflated.
Really? To me, this seems like a very excellent price for such a wonderful, detailed character.
The bundle came down to $32 with additional purchases.
Thank you everyone for the feedback!
It's always nice to see how well my creations are received and used by all of you!
Here I explain better why I made this first character bundle and the reason to split it into more products.
Regarding the pricing, for sure I will have it in consideration for future products/bundles.
I knew having the HD addon in a different product was going to be polemic, hehe, but in defense of this product, its another kind of HD details in comparison to my previous characters (that had HD morphs) This one is following the standards of a core figure, sculpted in at level 4 of subdivision that gives much more realism, depth, and definition. (Vs my previous characters that were done at a level 2). That means much more work and made sense to have it separately as also some people is not interested in that. That being said, in general, tried to balance not having that in the main character by providing a better base character including a good amount of customization and assets for the anatomical figure prop (that often is forgotten by PAs)
Great character. Better than many Core Figures. Splitting up the HD and tattoos/facial hair from the character is shrewd but understandable.
Thank you xyer0!
In a world where my food costs have increased 50% in the last six months due to *insert non-political comment here*...yes, that's a lot for me. Everything costs more, yet I still make the same...the math hurts.
Unfortunately, this will need to wait for a flash sale. The character is really nice.
Can you explain a little more about this? Does this mean there are four levels of HD detailing vs the prior characters' 2 or....? Also if we get Conrad will all of his items (tattoos, eye colors, etc) be grouped together in the Smart library or in 2 or more product entries? And congrats on the new guy being out.
The Conrad bundle is organized as:
Conrad, the figure, brow, morphs, and textures,
Conrad HD, a figure like every other HD character,
Conrad poses, which can be applied to other characters,
and the tattoos, and beards, which can be applied to other characters,
There isn't any strange split; the divisions are sensible and allow you to purchase each piece if you want and have a completely usable product.
Hey! In regards to the structure of folders.
About the way this is delivered (bundle), I just want to clarify this is not a general thing about all PAs, is a personal decision to put in my store more complete characters, with more things associated with their style and personality and giving everyone the possibility to get everything or decide which products would like to have.
Important: None of the products is required for each other. The plus, HD details, and poses can be used with any G8.1M, without Conrad base figure.
Please let me know if you have any other doubts about him.
Thank you
Thank you nemesis10! you've explained it much better than me lol
He looks really good. Trying to decide which bits to buy, now.
Thank you- the picture and explanation answered the file organization question and hopefully the smart library groups him the same- but good to know the content library does for sure. He's definitely on my wishlist and will be in my happy-to-render-him hands eventually :)
The Conrad HD won't give the Conrad shape, though, will it?
I would
a) start with the figure or the hair/tattoos since the figure is a fine character and the hair/tattoos can be used on other figures
b) follow with the poses; Faberinc poses are some of the best
c) finally, the HD figure... it is one one of the better ones withlots of detail baked in if you do closeups
No, the HD Details add-on what it does is add definition, high-res texture to the mesh without the use of any map. It doesn't change the character's features (like the eye, nose, mouth, or body shape) it adds definition, volume, depth, and skin texture to the topology of the base figure you are applying to. If it's applied to Conrad it will look one way, if you apply it to Michael, another. Adds realism to the topology without using any map. In the comparison promos, you can see the difference with and without.
https://www.daz3d.com/conrad-hd-details-add-on-for-genesis-81-male
You can see that directly from the viewport and set the level of detail from 1 to 4 (4 is the max).
Some promo images from Conrad plus and Conrad base are using the HD addon at level 2. In the HD addon promos it's set to the max (level 4)
Conrad isn't a Daz Original.
Thanks. I just ended up buying the whole bundle, because I am weak. LOL.
You twisted my arm ;)
The quality seems excellent as ever with FaberInc, and I actually like how the products are split into parts for more flexibility for the consumer. The poses looks really good, too!
I will echo what many have said re price, though. A standard character is usually about $20 and often includes HD, tattoos, facial hair, etc. A character with a lot of extras usually goes for $25-30. The Conrad bundle looks very generous in content, so it might go for even more than $30... but the current full price of the bundle seems a little steep to me, no shade.
Core characters with HD are $85, but you can't ignore how these frequently are sold at very, very steep discounts, and are therefore kind of useless as a comparison.
Conrad's quality compares favorably to all of the black male Core Figures, and there is little doubt that he, too, will eventually be on steep discount. But Conrad's basic character was $11.28 at release.
Consider this: For a decade, $17.95 has been a standard price for a non-HD character with few or no extras (simply go to the vendor page of any PA, such as Raiya, that has been releasing characters since V4). And that's what Conrad for Genesis 8.1 Male gives us for a dollar more (what inflation?). The HD Add-On is extremely well-done---compare it to the Core Figure HDs---and it doesn't have those annoying nasolabial creases that instantly age any character you use them on. Conrad Plus may seem an outlier, but Core Figures don't always include their facial hair and tattoos in the main character package either, and the price is low enough to ease the pain.
It's still cheaper than an official core character.
Any G8/G8.1 core character is USD 44+, USD 30+ with a discount for a character alone. May or may not come with fibermesh eyebrows. HD addon not included - needs to be bough separately and also subject to discounts.
Depending on what sales are up, you might end paying far more for a single character and a separate HD addon only (extras in character bundles often aren't that useful and character bundles usually don't contain HD addons).
This bundle is nearly USD 42 with everything in it including hair and HD addons. Comes with fibermesh brows. Everything there is usable with other G8.1Ms.
Tattoos are L.I.E. which is not given with any tattoed characters in the store.
Joining this discussion a little late.
The morning Conrad was released, I added Conrad, his HD add-on, and the Bon Vivant pose set to my cart. After taking another look at the Conrad + add-on set, I emptied my cart, added the Conrad Bundle, and purchased it. The value was too good and there were things that I really wanted in all 4 items.
After working with Conrad and the add-ons, I am 100% satisfied with everything in the bundle. For me, buying the Conrad Bundle was money well spent. :)
Lee
Let's talk about the pricing
First, thank you for bringing this up! I agree with all the things mentioned here, and be sure I'll have it present for my upcoming characters/addons. I'm also going to review this product in particular with the team and see if after the sale time there's a possibility of adjusting the price. As PAs, we don't have full control over pricing changes in our stores, so I'm not sure if it's going to happen.
Regarding the pricing definition, there are many variables involved. Despite it being something defined by each PA, it could also be adjusted by Daz in order to be aligned with other similar products.
Whether the price is fair or not is pretty subjective. I understand in the shoes of the consumer (who has the last word), It will depend on how much value you find in the product and probably compare it to other similar products in quality and assets included to make a decision.
On the other side, as a creator you would probably have in mind besides all of that, the amount of time put into the product, plus additional costs involved if you used assets (like stock, merchant, render farms/render artists, etc) to build/showcase your product.
That being said, I'm going to talk about me and the value I think I deliver with my products. Personally, I don't like justifying my pricing reasons with words when my work should talk by itself, but anyway...lol
With my products, there's a lot of handcrafted making and maybe that's why I don't deliver products as often as others creators. I prefer something good and solid rather than mass-making of products that could feel empty and reused.
For the textures, I don't use any merchant resources. I only use a mixture of photo references to achieve realism in certain key areas, that at the same time are not referenced to a single resource (so I avoid accidentally using the same assets as other artists/creators).
With morphs (base and HD) is pretty the same, but at the same time, there's a lot of hidden work behind a character (as many other products) that is not going to be listed in the features descriptions. Joint corrective morphs (JCM) besides correcting errors also are custom-made morphs to personalize the way the character adjusts to certain poses and expressions. With Conrad, there's tons of that, just to make sure he will look good in any expression and body posture possible. I also want my character to be anatomically correct ;) and include the necessary elements to look like a human and not just a doll. I'm not sure if all the creators do the same, I just talk about what I know, and being told that is not something that common.
Finally, I try to align to the standards of a core figure. I've been there and kind of know how things are done, so with the little I know I try to deliver it with my own characters as well.
Anyway, my intention with this statement (sorry about the length) is to let you know that the pricing decision is not random and there are some things that depend on the value we think we add + the overall market + other factors we don't have full control of.
From a consumer POV, I totally agree is a lot of money and is perfect to fully review and make sure of what you are going to get with that product before making a decision.
If you read everything, thank you! I'm here to explain any other thing I might have missed.
I saw him and just shoved the bundle in my cart, along with a DAZ+ item. Then shopped further. His picture in the email grabbed me and that was enough. It has been a long time that I have had that reaction to a character. Thank you Faber for your efforts.
And just yesterday as I was walking my dog around the apartment complex, I heard a noise and looked up, and I swear I thought I saw Conrad standing on a third story balcony above me, enjoying the morning. Even his hair matched the one in the promos. Both the man and the character are gorgeous.
That said, the whole DAZ+ sale got more money than I planned and for the next few months, more things will be going onto my wishlist.
Thank you memcneil70
Hehe so funny, please don't tell that guy he has a 3D doppelgänger around, he might sue me!