Ashen Portfolio
patreon
Q and A
🕑 Added 2024-08-04 09:50:17 +0000 UTCHi Everyone,
Yesterday we lost a Patreon but overnight gained two more!
Over the past few months we’ve received a lot of feedback from you guys and it’s all been so overwhelmingly positive.
One thing we do worry about is over posting and updating, but we just like to keep the releases coming and you all in the loop.
We’ve had a few questions so we thought we’d just answer them below:
What have you been up to the past few days, it’s been quiet for almost a week?
Here in the UK it’s peak summer right now and while it’s not the 38-40 degrees it was a few years back, the humidity and temperature indoors is grim. We don’t have air con here in most places (as we only need it for 2-4 weeks a year) and it’s a hot sticky heat. Due to this I haven’t had the PC on for the last 3 days.
This week it’s back to the happy 20’s so after a few days of no creative productivity we will be bouncing back with more releases.
Why do products get released on Patreon and sometimes not on RenderHub?
This is because we require promo images which take time for Renderhub, hence the later release dates.
However some things just would undervalue our products (like G9 morphs of our full characters) so we do not release them.
We do also like to give free content, but regretfully we found on Renderosity that people that often download freebies give us a thousand times more grief than buyers and supporters.
As a seller we’ve only ever had three legitimate complaints in two years in over a thousand sales, but from freebies we get often very dumb and angry messages for little to no reason.
So while we love to give things away, In general we find giving stuff to you guys is the better method :)
Why only Patreon and RenderHub?
Our experiences on Renderosity a sellers really put us off ever having to deal with admin on a storefront ever again. Not even due to product quality, mostly due to racism and their perceptions of what a woman should be).
RenderHub there is no admission process if you do the job well. Due to this all we get is love and praise from the admin team. It’s a great environment and for now, we are very content just selling there.
Patreon was introduced as a cheap alternative to our fanbase who wanted our releases but couldn’t afford them all. Even if we just still had those three Patreons, we’d keep it going all the same.
In this day and age it’s nice not to have to pick and choose between what to buy if you can pay the price of one thing and get everything a month.
What’s next?
A couple of geoshells will hit Patreon maybe by tomorrows end. Both fantasy themed but they could easily work in other settings.
G8F Leo Tattoos will also be here next week and maybe, finally Aslog G9…
Will you continue to support G8/8.1 as I’m seeing a lot more G9 content.
Really nothing has changed. When we started patreon we wanted to get into G9 as it is the current model, yet G8 still has many perks and benefits.
G9 has the realism and ports to and from other programs far more easily, such as unreal engine. It is massively popular with game porters such as Dazwraps, shinteo, Adventfather and more, as it is far easier to convert game models and content to G9 than it is G8. However you’ll notice most do not create G9 males, and that’s because the default male shape changes the form.
Due to the mouth and eyes being seperate it can make posing harder and some poses simply break G9 models, while newer poses don’t seem to do this, even some by established Daz sellers will pop those eyes out of the head.
Many core Daz artists still avoid G9 like the plague. Especially those that create visual novels, use their work for their table top RPGs etc. This is most of our fanbase on RenderHub. There is around 6-7 people that buy pretty much every release without fail if it falls into their wide area of interest, all of which only want G8/8.1 content.
While our G9 content is climbing and the popularity as G9 creators is growing, we will still be supporting G8 for the long haul.
For the Too Long Didn’t Read Section:
Thanks again for the massive support you all give.
A huge welcome to our two new Patreons!
Expect to see 3-4 new releases this coming week!
Much love,
Asha and Lewis x
Comments
theashenportfolio
Thanks Jerome! I am glad there isn't ever too many posts that we can be pushing out. For the most part we try to just keep you in the loop and fill up your Harddrives with new content as often as we can.
theashenportfolio
We couldn't agree more with your points. I see why it was created and I understand why certain people prefer it for the set things they require or desire.
Jerome Johnson
First off I love all that you all do. Second, there is no such thing as over posting. You are the only one I see posting properly! I support a few Daz creators here on Patreon and I have had to prompt them to do posts sometimes. You've done what the plan is posts (which I love, because it makes me look forward to what you have coming out...those kind of posts should be available to everyone...it would make more people want to join your Patreon membership in my opinion). I check your Patreon daily to see if there's something new. (I know Patreon has a notification system; I like going straight to your page) Third, I have several friends in the UK, so I understand the "heatwave" you have for a few weeks a year. I'm in the US, and I tease my UK friends. Fourth, I know a few Daz content creators who have moved away from Renderosity over the last year or so. I know they have some new leadership but I think there's something in their foundation that is broken. Fifth, when your products go live on Renderhub, I click the like button. I'm not sure if that does anything to generate traffic for them, but it doesn't hurt either. TLDR: I love what you're doing, keep doing it!
Captain Klutz
Thanks for the update. Always nice to hear where things are headed. As a fan of ultra realism, my main interest is in the G8 / 8.1F characters you make. My main gripe about G9 is twofold. Firstly, I think it was a mistake to repeat the Genesis androgynous base. The base mesh requires enhanced density in different areas for female & male. I know things are improving for vendors with familiarity, but the base line is you tend to get either butch females or effete males. That's fine if that is what you are after. Secondly the G9 bloat. This is not assisted by the variable resolution. I see that now they have gone back to selling HD add ons? That defeats the object of variable resolution. There is nothing wrong with a decent base resolution, with HD add ons for those that have need of it. On a related issue, I know you have not ventured into clothing, but I feel that generally the quality of G9 clothing has fallen. There were a few vendors from the V4 era who sold dynamically morphed, functional, well optimised products. The first Genesis through to G8 on average was generally good too. Normally I am an early adopter of new things, but G9 has just left me cold. I hope that G10 if/when it arrives will return to male & female base meshes.
