I'm currently assessing the minimum outlay required to create some CC characters.

At the moment I have iClone6 PRO, but no 3DXchange6 PRO and no CC Essentials either.  As you can imagine, that's pretty limited, and while I've tried to develop characters I'm happy to vend with the basic morph set, it's just not going to happen cause there's not enough morphs around the eyes and mouth to get what I want.  So there's two ways I could do this.  I could buy either 3DXchange6 or the Essential Morph & Skin pack, but I need to know what the limitations are.  To be clear, I'll split them into scenarios, so if anyone replies, please treat each scenario as completely separate.


Scanario 1 (I have only iClone6 PRO + 3DXChange6 PRO) :
I export the CC mesh, custom morph it, bring that morph back into Character Creator and make a custom morph dial for it.  My morph is completely original, and the only morph the character uses is my own custom morph.  Does this mean that customers would be able to use my Character without having to buy any of the CC Essential packages?


Scenario 2 (I have only iClone6 PRO + Essential Morph & Skin) :
The only feature of the product I use is to add a custom texture.  Because I used a custom texture rather than an included one, does that mean the cutomer would be able to use my character without needing to buy the Essential Morph & Skin package?


Scenario 3 (I have only iClone6 PRO + any CC Cloth Base mesh I chose to buy individually) :
Because I used a base mesh that is also part of the Essential Clothing & Fabric pack, does this mean that the customer would still need to buy Essential Clothing & Fabric to use it, or will buying the same base mesh I used also be an accepted requirement?  Please read this one very carefully, cause remember, I bought a base that is part of a pack, but I didn't buy that whole pack.  I'm assuming that the only requirement would be that the customer still only needs to own the base mesh I'd used, but I'm just checking.  I suppose what I'm asking here is whether buying a product, no matter what pack it is in, counts as having that product and is not tied to owning a pack.

Scanario 1
You have to buy iClone6 Pro & 3DXChange6 Pipeline, if you want to export FBX to other software.
Actually, in Character Creator 1.42, you can export .obj to use, and import character back to create slider without using 3DXChange.

If you don't use any morph slider in Essential Pack, Yes, customer won't have to buy any Essential package. They only need to buy your back.

Scenario 2
You can not add custom texture to character or cloth without Essential Skin pack.
If you sell nude iAvatar, customer doesn't need to buy CC Essential pack. However, if you sell iAvatar with CC Cloth, customer have to buy base clothes.

Scenario 3
Yes, custom have to buy the same base that you used in Marketplace , they don't need to buy all Essential pack.  
When iClone check the content, we check that item not content pack. 

Thanks again, Luke, not too happy about number two but I appreciate the detailed reply

Go with scenario 1 if you want to sell your own stuff. Your texturing can be done with other software and loaded in iClone (by you, before you sell it).

As Luke said. You can already export OBJ, so get morphing, externally, and bring it back in as your own morph.

@Rampa
Cheers, but just so you know, although the OBJ export is part of Character Creator, it doesn't work without 3DXchange.
I think it's just there for convenience, so that you can skip a step.

Yes, that is correct. I think I mentioned before that you have to get 3DX no matter what. So I guess your really looking at scenario 3.

To re-import your morph, you must use the OBJ export from CC. It generates a checksum file that it needs to re-import it as a morph. That is because of the DRM it puts in it. That means your morph is yours.

I'm not sure at what point you can actually start making money vs points, but I suspect when you do that the $120.00 for your member-price 3DX is covered pretty quickly.

I seem to remember that for Market Place sales you're always paid in points. At least that was so initially. The rules may have changed.

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There is a certain level of developer, that when reached, allows you to cash in your points. Alley already outlined it very clearly for Pumeco a while back. I don't know the details off hand.

Sales are calculated in points & points are added to your DA points total.  For a CCD (certified content developer) to "cash out" (receive payment via PayPal) you must have at least 10000 points ($100.00 USD) in your bank.  RL retains 5000 points ($50.00 USD) in your account at all times (as their "buffer" should they have to refund a customer or something)...  So, for example, if you have 25000 DA points ($250.00 USD) in sales, the most you could request for payment would be $200.00....  all payments made are in multiples of 5000 points ($50.00 USD)....  so if you had 24999 DA points ($249.99 USD), RL will hold 5000 points ($50.00 USD) in reserve leaving a balance of 19999. Of that 19999 ($199.99 USD) you could request payment of $150.00 and the DA points balance of 4999 ($49.99 USD) would roll forward.

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iClone Certified Content Developer and Author of the Pinky Frink® Adventure Series & the Pinky Frink® Learning Books
site: Granny J's 3D Attic SKYPE = grannyjsplace email: grannyj@grannyjs3dattic.com
MY RIG: GPU: Dual GeForce GTX 970M | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)i7-5930K @3.50GHz| 32.00 GB RAM | OS: Win 7 Pro SP1 | DX11

@Rampa
Too be honest I think it's best I don't bother.  I appreciate all the advice given over this, both on the forum and privately from the RL peeps.  But while you're right that going scenario one would be the most flexible for me, I honestly don't think the amount of time I'd have to spend doing it all that way would be worth it.  And I have no idea whatsoever of the sort of sales I can expect, could be one, could be one thousand, I really haven't a clue.  If I did it that way, in order to make it work I think I'd have to charge more for the products that I really want to, or I doubt they would be worth the time.  On the other hand, if I went the other route and used the CC Essentials stuff, it's not as flexible as doing it the other way, but it might make it worth it time wise and it would mean the products would be cheaper.  The only problem there is I limit the potential customers to those that have the CC products, and again, no statistics anywhere as to how many own it, so from a business point of view, it's a blind as scenario one is.

At the moment, I can't afford to invest in stuff that isn't going to return significantly more than it cost me, that's the problem.  I'm not completely dropping the idea, I'll just have to wait until they have a sale and see if my account ever gets a bundle offer that would actually be of some use to me.  They're always padding my bundles out with CrazyTalk products, and I'm not interested in those or bundles that contain it.  I'm not paying for stuff I don't want and won't use.

BTW, I didn't realise Alley had posted something for me, do you know where it is?
Sorry Alley, if you read this, I never saw it



@Job
Granny has it correct, sounds to be in line with what Kai told me.  It's something I still intend to do, but I think it would be too much time for too little reward to work on right now.
If I'd started doing it about a year or even six months back, it might have been worth it.



@Granny
Thanks, that sounds right, though it would probably take me a month just to sell one figure, so even with a time-relative price I'd have to sell three (three months) just to break the deposit threshold, and that would be ridiculous and a complete waste of time.  I could be wrong, but I don't think this is the correct route to get me a Countach, which is a bit of a bummer really.

There's only one thing left for it, I'll just have to marry some 'Rich Bitch' with a yacht, that would solve everything, I could become a toy boy