Kelley,

We are both throwing away an opportunity to get rich.  ;)

Take a look at this Substance:  https://share.allegorithmic.com/libraries/23

If you have a moment, drop it onto an avatar and see what happens when you press "Play" in iClone.
I honestly don't know for sure what it will look like, but in iC7 it should do "something."

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Oh, and let me address one more thing -- I know you said "I'm looking to have this character created for me" and I understand that 100%.  What you need to know are your own limitations, and what you actually need to learn in order to get your vision completed.  No one can know it all, or even most of it, and it's foolish (IMHO) to try and be an expert on everything (particular at an advanced age -- I only have so many years left!).  What you can do is understand enough of the fundamentals, though, to know what you can and can't do.

In the case of this character it's not very much to ask you to get most of the way there, if I do understand what you're trying to do.  It will teach you a LOT of things you really do need to know, and while the temptation is just to say "give it to me!" I think you'll find that getting most (or all) of the way there with this one thing will be beneficial in the long run.  If nothing more it will teach you what you really shouldn't mess with (with me it's modeling -- I've learned enough to know I'll never be talented enough to model what I can buy.  But I AM glad I know enough to get by on some very simple things).

So take at least a day or two to try and get there with this and it will pay off in the long run.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

LOL -- yeah, my wife tells me that all the time ("If you're so smart, how come we're not rich?")

But you know as well as I do that taking money for this we'd feel WAY too guilty (besides, some day this guy will help us.  I've learned that the hard way).

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Oh, and thanks Viking -- that does look pretty cool (not sure how it will look in iClone either, but there are times I need a good caustic and I haven't had time to look -- even forget I had an account there until it logged me in automatically :>).

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Hello justaviking,

Your advice is well taken.  After reading some of the responses to my posts, I had to put my hands in my pockets, tilt my head down, and slowly walk away kicking the ground, muttering, I thought that I was ready; now, I have to go back to the YouTube training videos; again!

Apparently, I am one of those two weeks into animating numskulls, trying to cut corners, thinking I can manage to get by.  I hope this phase passes quickly or I might have to take up drinking.

If there is a skin texture that I can apply to a character to get that result, that would probably be the best direction to go.  I thought that I needed a specially created character to do that, but ignorance has a way of misdirecting one over the cliff.  At my age, I have lots of experience of walking over the edge; it's a hobby...

Thanks again, and looking forwards to conversing with you until you start your next project,
Mark

Mark - I think your last post was meant for Kelley.

I agree with what he said.  We can't know or do it all.  For myself, I greatly enjoy learning enough to where I can better understand the effort that goes into modeling/texturing/animating/lighting/editing/everything, and have a deeper appreciation of other people's talent and skill.

If I get a chance to apply a caustic material to a character, I'll post some results (unless Kelley or someone else does it first).

Good luck, and remember you're having fun.  :)

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

The glass lamp shade. This was done very simply by bringing the opacity of the shade down between 5-20 % and then by turning on the reflection and refraction buttons and playing around with the sliders. This picture doesn't do the video justice it looks very realistic, but you can at least see the distortion of the background through the glass. If you are looking for a glass looking figure I suggest importing in a Daz character ( I tried doing it with an iclone character but as soon as I tried adjusting the opacity slider nothing happened until after the 50 % mark, and then the character completely disappeared ), and doing to her body parts what I did to the glass shade. You will have a very realistic looking glass figure walking around.
Then, if you need the surface of the character to have planes on it ( to give that crystal look ) instead of it being smooth looking, Daz has many morph packages you can buy to turn a basic genesis 2 character into any form you want.

Just got out of bed and found Just a Viking  and Kellytoons (which is good to see) have already taken this where I was heading if I found that this was something like what you were after.
This is all just texture mapping and is pretty simple to do, try it yourself, I think you will find it is not as difficult as you thought.

As for removing the nipples use the mesh editor in CC to smooth them out and then whichever texturing suggested by Just a Viking  and Kellytoons that gets the character looking how you want

Here is the basic mesh editing process I mean

i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

I shall try re-wording what I am trying to say to see if I can make my point more obvious.
I didn't mean to go to the marketplace to find this character your after now (but if you do ever happen to find the character you want then great)

What I am trying to say is in response to your initial question "Who can I talk to about having (buying) a complex iClone character created for me?"
Rather than give you a name I was trying to say go to the marketplace and see which developers make characters that look good to you.
Then you will know some developers who make nice looking characters to your own opinion and preferences.
Then go to their store and ask them if they can make the specific character that you want.
Most developers have a request section at their store for that very purpose, so people can request something that hasn't been made yet.

And seeing as I and others have shown this character your after at the moment is easy enough to make I don't mean to go and ask someone to make this one for you.
I mean in the future, when there is something you need someone to make for you. Goto marketplace to find good developers and ask them.

Be aware, they will most likely ask you for images of what you mean though.


i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Hey Delerna, Kelleytoons, justaviking, and michael7; good morning...

I am still looking to make someone rich creating a special character for me.

I have been spending most of the last two-weeks choreographing realistic character motion in timelines, stage creation, and working with animated props.  Once I start my project, I will then take on learning detailed camera and lighting effects, and working with complex facial expressions.  I think I am ready to start my project now, but I do not have my main character yet; I am still trying to find someone to create her for me.  I did send an email off to FashionAlley, but they have not replied yet.  Any suggestions?

Anyway, happy animating,
Mark