Can older products be relevant?

Demone Hall 2.0

Every 3D model that I construct begins with an idea of how I see it in the final render. It is a process that over the years I have loved, there’s always a buzz when it’s time to hit that render button. When all the modelling, the UVs, the rigging, and the textures have all been completed I can get to the very process that started me out on this wonderful way to make a living, creating digital artwork. But I ask can older products be relevant? And are they worth the effort in revamping them?

Comparison of the main promos for Demone Hall

Since I’m a closet control freak, I prefer to use all my own work in any digital artwork I create. Because of time constraints, I sometimes have to use other artists’ products in art or promos in order to accomplish the task, and I do find that difficult. If a render requires a city scene or a large vista, sometimes it’s just not possible to model everything, so I either have to fake it or get something off the shelf from places like www.daz3d.com to get the right look. This approach, however, does not always suit my needs.

I can look back at past products and see if they fit into the vision I want to create. Due to my tendency to stick to particular genres, work I have done in the past often relates to newer projects I’m working on. An example of this is the difference between my own style of products and someone else’s.

Comparison showing newer features from the older version

I started out in 2003 using the software called Poser for creating my 3D products, and for a number of years I built most of my products to use on that platform. Almost around the same time, I did dabble with DAZ Studio from DAZ3D, but it took, I would say, a good 6 or 7 years before I began using DAZ Studio exclusively. Even today in 2021 it’s my go-to program for rendering out artwork.

My store at www.daz3d.com/predatron at the time of writing is around 450 products. Of those products, I would say around two-thirds of them use older technologies, either native Poser files or older DAZ Studio ones that use only 3Delight materials. Now, these can still be used today in DAZ Studio but they do fall a little short when using the Iray render engine in DAZ Studio. So I look at some of my older products I think over the 18 years I have been doing this there have to be many people who have never seen some of my older stuff. So by a little bit of upcycling and adding Iray capabilities, even updating the meshes, or adding extra features and newer modelling techniques older products can certainly be relevant today not only for myself in digital art but for customers new and old.

Demone Hall 2 comparing new and old versions

As a digital artist, I get to tap back into what inspired me well over 10 or 15 years ago and give those products a new lease of life and primarily to inspire me to create brand new projects. As with most processes developing an end product, it’s really down to time management, so that the end product is produced in the most efficient way. However when that end product is the child of inspiration, then sometimes, that can’t even be quantifiable. The choices of how to make a model, what it is used for and the length of time it takes to complete will often push you into decisions to best streamline each stage. So taking an older product and giving it a new lick of paint can often eliminate some of those early stages.

So to answer my initial question, can older products be relevant? I say wholeheartedly that the success of those I have already done is a resounding yes!

Even though there’s still a large roster of new products to finish in the months to come the task of revamping those older sets is, as I see it, a necessity.

The product referenced here is my Demone Hall 2.0 currently available here at my own store: https://predatron.com/shop/demone-hall-2-0/

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