JV-Andrew

I suppose my approach to the ethics debate of AI art is that the genie is now out of the bottle, so what are you gonna do?

Use the technology to assist your art creation, or feel good that you stuck to your concept of artistic purity while the chances for business opportunity sail away on the AI user's boat?

Of course, if you do art for therapy or pleasure and making money from it is not your objective, than you have the ultimate freedom of doing whatever feels right for you.

If you think it's all about fairness then I want a word with your parents for not preparing you for how the real world works.

DAZ Forum mods locked the thread... https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/441452/ai-is-going-to-be-our-biggest-game-changer#latest

I don't think it was my comments as such that got it locked, as someone else mentioned that they look forward to when AI will generate 3D models on command, and I reckon that would be the thing to hit a nerve at DAZ rather than me saying the genie is out of the bottle.

I just see the AI as another tool, just like DAZ assets are another tool. So is Photoshop, Painter, Affinity etc... ...I've actually spent more money in the DAZ store after introducing AI into my workflow than my average spend before that, so that's actually something I didn't see coming at all.

Of course, a potential forum argument was a possibility based upon a couple of replies to my comments, but I don't argue on the internet as a general policy, so I wasn't going to rise to the bait anyway...

...But that having been said, LOL, no I won't say what I'm thinking, but let's just say the bitch-slapping I'd give them would be quick and severe.

AI is here now - you don't have to like it, and you don't need yo use it if you don't want to...

...But don't bitch at people who do use it in some shape or form, you're only hurting yourself in the long run. You do you and enjoy it, stop losing sleep over other people doing stuff that's nothing to do with you doing your thing.

I started a thread over on the DAZ Forums about the modular nature of the MIL Dropship and how the modular design could lend itself to the possibility of also including a heavy-class dropship...

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/469211/mil-dropship-and-others/p1

...but of course, my gut feeling is that it simply will not deliver the cargo capability that I'm looking for, so this evolved into kit-bashing a heavy drop ship of my own.

The problem revolves around my desire to have a cargo hold large enough to accept vehicles such as the Sci-Fi Rover https://www.daz3d.com/sci-fi-rover-titan and the HMCP https://www.daz3d.com/heavy-mobile-command-post and in all fairness to the artists selling in the DAZ Store, they think of helicopter/air taxi as the "correct" size for a drop ship, so the whole kit-bashing decision moced from idea to action.

I already had a cockpit/command deck in mind, so step one was to find something that would work as a suitable cargo hold and then build the ship around it. This came in the form of a building in Sci-fi Base 2 - it even has a built-in drop ramp... talk about ideal ! ! !

https://www.daz3d.com/sci-fi-base-2

I wanted a cockpit that had both an exterior and interior that can be used in renders, so I opted for Spaceship Cockpit by Coflek-Gnorg... while an old product, it can be adapted to my needs very easily.

https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/bcs/spaceship-cockpit/66293

I then started looking for shapes that I could use - I thought about including gas bottles from The Astra, but changed my mind (image above). I also scaled-up a couple of objects from Stonemason's Modular Sci-Fi Kits https://www.daz3d.com/modular-sci-fi-kit-01

(The trick with kit-bashing is to ignore the original textures if you know you will be applying your own textures later - you're looking for shapes that work for what you want and scale them accordingly - so it doesn't matter if the original item is the size of a mouse or the size of a house, if the mesh gives you the shape you want then it'll work.)

The rest of the objects mostly come from Acharya Polina's Modular Starship Kit https://www.daz3d.com/modular-starship-kit

Now that I was fairly happy with the shape, it was time to add my custom textures. Given the vast number of separate meshes in this ship, I decided it would be more of a headache than it was worth to take it into Substance Painter - Rather, I would apply seamless textures and adjust tiling on each shape as I saw fit.

Of course, my heavy dropship kit-bash still needs further refinement and detailing, but I thought I'd put together this journal so people can see what can be done using DAZ Studio, a fistful of assets and some creativity.

Change happens whether we like it or not, and that also applies to DAZ products...

...but the difference between real life and digital fantasy is that we can pick and choose what we like in digital fantasyland, and so just because new options become available, that doesn't mean we must go down that route if we do not want to.

With the release of Genesis 8.1 Female along with Victoria 8.1, we see a new kind of Vicky - more everyday and less supermodel... perhaps not to everyone's taste straight out of the box (smaller boobs, thicker waist), but she is now waaay more versatile for combining with custom morphs to make unique characters - and personally, I love that this is the case.

I'm an old-school heterosexual guy who likes his men masculine and his women feminine, and so while I may never use them myself, DAZ has introduced the ability to apply either male or female genitals to 8.1 as a standard option. Victoria 8.1 also comes with optional tattoos that can turn her into a head-to-toe instaskank, especially if you buy the piercings pack as well.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE

So DAZ has embraced wokeness in response to what?

Well, I have no insider information, but it could range from political pressure by activists to a growing demand from customers - after all, DAZ is in the business of making money, albeit there is a trend of companies receiving backlash resulting in crashing profits when they anger the majority of their customers with "woke-ism".

But as President Biden would say, "...come on man, here's the deal..."

You can hate every single new innovation 8.1 introduces, but unlike the real world, in the digital world you can choose precisely what you want and what you don't want i.e. just because new options become available, you're not being forced to use them.

So sure, DAZ has given us a trans-friendly, feminist-friendly, woke 8.1 female...

...but this is in addition to what we already have, and the last time I checked, extra options are not a bad thing in the digital universe.

Alrighty, enough talking...