Pose Rant

A small rant, and I am sure anyone who takes photos in SL will appreciate this on some level.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of pose makers, in SL.

I have always been a fan (and my work reflects this) of poses that were built into prim props. Those props have a way of adding a natural look and dimension to your images. It's no longer just an avatar standing in front of a backdrop, positioned a certain way. It's something "more."

High quality prim poses are not exactly cheap, nor should they be. For the pose maker, they are spending time designing the prims, the textures, the menus, and the animations themselves. They are aware of the fact that whoever buys these is going to use them for something specific, and if they happen to be a photographer, the tool the pose maker provides is going to going to act as a source of income.

I have no issue paying for poses. I am not saying they should be cheaper. I think for what we receive, and what we can ultimately do with them makes the prices more than fair. Over time, they really do wind up paying for themselves.

My problem is this:

9 times out of 10, I am not the one sitting on it. The client who I am shooting is.

There is a specific pose maker in SL who I absolutely love. Their animations and prims are really well done, very nicely textured, and they have a massive variety of selections. This is not some small, hole in the wall place - this is one of the top pose makers in SL.

The built in menu system of their poses, however, leave something to be desired. It is only accessible to the person who is actually sitting on the prop.

That means, as the person shooting them, I cannot control their positions. I cannot easily switch back and forth between poses. Instead of being professional, and having an actual conversation with my client, every few moments, I have to ask them to "switch to the next pose please." "Please type this command into local, so you can adjust upwards."

I have a studio in SL so that I can control over as much of the image elements as possible. When some of that control is taken from me, it's frustrating at best, and unprofessional at worst. I don't want a client to be thinking "This guy doesn't even know how to adjust his own stuff!"

I know that there are other pose makers who have circumvented this problem. VP&P, specifically, comes to mind. The subject can sit, and at the click of a button, the photographer can switch them around.

There are also places like Fotoscope, who truly have some of the best designed, and easiest to use HUDs I've ever seen.

Now, you may have noticed that I did not include the name of the pose maker I am talking about, and I did that for 2 reasons:

1) I don't want to start a war with a large company, whose products I will continue to purchase and use.
2) So that any pose maker might wonder if it is them who I am discussing.

I am not a builder. I am not a scripter. I am not an animator. I don't know what it takes to design these elements into things. If I had to guess, based on my limited knowledge, it's not simple...but it cannot be super hard, either, especially for someone who makes their living doing things just like that.

My point is this: while having great animations, and well built prims is a wonderful thing that will keep people coming to your stores, having additional built in functionality for the users will turn your great product into an exceptional one...one we, as the users of these poses, would be willing to pay more for.

Just some food for thought.