We're proud to present this time around, one of the great character modelers in the 3D community - Dark Whisper.Visit 3D Universe to see more of Steve's work and upcoming products.

From as far back as I can remember Steve has been producing characters and props for the community. Ranging from the simple gals to extremely cool critters his products have found their way to most folks computers. Here now is the lowdown on Dark Whisper.

Tell us Steve, which part of the world do you call home?

I live in the beautiful country of South Africa. When I started in this community I used to live in Johannesburg, but once I got to the stage when I could go full time into 3D modeling, I moved down to a little village called Sedgefield down on the south western coast of South Africa (right near the tip of Africa).
I have often felt rather cut off from all the hundreds of modelers in other big countries and I miss out on all the big conventions and such, but online communities and the internet make the world seem much smaller.

Do you feel that being so isolated helps keep a better focus on your product development?

Absolutely - the beautiful scenery around here is awesome. I find walks on the beach with my wife and just the quietness here inspire my creativity to no end.
A man can really think in a place like this :-)

What other non-3d hobbies do you have?

Well most of my time is spent on computer related stuff nowadays.
I used to be an avid reader, and also played the trumpet (something my neighbours didn't appreciate). I have also always enjoyed creative hobbies, and have done pencil drawings, painting, clay modeling and even build miniature ships in bottles at different stages in my life.

When did you become interested in art?

I have always enjoyed in in one form or another. From the early days of finger painting, I have gotten a thrill out of creating something with my hands. I come from a very creative family and always had something to aspire to.

I also took art all through my school career although I never got very good marks because my art teachers didn't like some of the crazy methods of drawing and painting I used.

My interest in 3D art started with programs like Moray and Povray which sold me on the field of raytracing. Back then I used to spend weekends rendering a single picture (it really took that long back then!), and the pictures were always the standard glass ball on a chessboard type thing.
I then followed the Bryce range and loved the relative speed of the renderer and simplicity of the interface (compared with Moray). Poser was a natural progression as it was was also developed by Metacreations back then.

When did you join the 3D community and what was your first impression of it?

My first introduction to an online community was Renderostity.
I'd been following Renderosity since before it became Renderosity, but only really became part of it in 2000. Up until then I'd been a lurker,and never posted in the forums or submitted images. I was also under a different nick back then and Dark Whisper was only "born" on 31 May 2001.

My first impressions of the community was "wow!". I was blown away by the incredible talent, and hoped that some day I could be as good as some of the amazing artists I saw. It also opened up a whole new world for me - being able to communicate with other people from all over the world with similar interests made my little creative world suddenly expand incredibly.

Has that impression of the community changed much?

As with anything in life, once you really get to know something - you start to see the blemishes *lol*. Just like a real community, I have found the online 3D community to have some elements that really rub me the wrong way. There are people I love, and people I don't like at all, but ultimately it is each person that I've come into contact with that has molded me into what I am today - for that I am grateful to all of them.

When did you begin modeling and for what reasons?

Although in my first days in the community I spent hours downloading free stuff, I often had a picture in my mind that I couldn't actually create because I didn't have all the right elements for my scene.
It was really out of a need to finish off my images that I started to make very simple models.

Did you learn to model for the sole purpose of producing Poser content?

No - the models I made included Bryce models as well as Poser models.

What is your preferred modeling application and how long have you used it?

Most of my modeling has been in Rhino 1 and 2 which I've used for the last 3 years. I loved the automatic uv-mapping and nurbs concepts in Rhino, although the lack of control over the final mesh creation always bugged me.
I have fairly recently started using polygon modeling, particularly subdivision modeling, and I'm now getting into Lightwave 7.5.

Other tools that I couldn't do without would include: UVMapper, Ultimate Unwrap 3D, Photoshop, Poser Propack and many others.

What was your first distributed 3D model and how did the community respond?

The first model that I released as a free download was the Real Bikini, and I was amazed at how well the community responded to it.
To this day I still see it being used in images.

At what point did you decide to start selling your models and what was your first commercial product?

For a long time people were asking me where they could buy various items I'd made for my own scenes - this got my mind ticking over at the possibility of making my hobby pay for itself.

My first introduction to the marketplace was with a product called "Conforming Ivy". It was a clothing figure developed for Victoria 1 that sort of curled all over the body with leaves in all the right places.
Deciding to put this in the marketplace was really an experiment to see how many sales I'd get, and the response was such that I was hooked!

When was 3D Universe conceived and for what reasons?

3D Universe has been running for about 2 years now. I created the site to have a central point of contact for my customers. I never planned on creating a community, but rather a place where people could get all the answers to support questions, and also to see what my latest products were.
At the point that I developed the site, I was selling at Renderosity, DAZ3D and Poserpros, and I was finding that I answered the same questions over and over again. The site's traffic has grown tremendously and it is now used by many of my customers to find answers, download updates and see what projects I'm busy with.

I was sitting in the forum at 3DUniverse waiting patiently *chuckle* on Sara's release date with about 28 other Sara "wannahaves", the forum there was buzzing with anticipation. Do you get a similar rush with each character you produce now?

I remember that day (3am in the morning for me) - it was fun!
I don't tend to have that reaction normally. But then Sara was my first real custom figure that hit the market.

I have, however, been interested in the market reaction to my "Wacky World" and "Heavies" figures. Although the sales indicate that people are snapping them up, public comments and pictures are rather few and far between.
I think people are a bit embarrassed to admit that they like playing with such odd characters *lol*

Had you always planned on making Sara such a fantastic free gift?

No - that was Daz's idea. They felt that making her available for free would reach more people and increase the potential customer base for the add-ons.

When were you inspired to make Sara and why did the original Sara (2526 kb) change to the current version (4374 kb)? Was the mesh redesigned?

When I created Sara she was inspired in part by Kim Goosens "The Girl" figure. I still wanted her to have her own uniqueness and personality however.
Unfortunately many others were inspired by Kim's figure, and I felt that Sara didn't have the uniqueness I had set out to achieve.The head mesh was redesigned to get away from the similar look that she shared with other models.

Are there plans for any further Sara clothing, textures or addon packs?

Due to the original "The Girl" figure coming to DAZ3D in the near future, I probably won't be creating any more addons for Sara. I strive in my products to have a uniqueness that can't be found elsewhere, and I feel that Sara failed in that area.

I really love the new line of 'toon animal characters, are you planning on a long line of them or will you be moving along to another character style?

I will probably explore the Wacky World range with a few more figures as I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head for other crazy inhabitants.
I am also wanting to develop some set props and environments for the WW folk
to live in, and I also have another 2 (maybe 3) figure sets in the "Heavies" range that I'll be starting development on in the near future.

Care to drop a few hints on what types of animals? You can even make it a riddle and really make us guess for awhile. ;)

Well one of them is a Rhino. I've mentioned that in forums before, so there's no big secret there.
The other one that I'm definitely planning is just something that's been "lion" around in my idea folder since the first "Heavies" *lol*
The possible third one is still up in the air at this point.

When did you come up with the idea for the texture application, Universal Texture Converter, and what was the development process for that?

When Victoria 3 came out, DAZ3D released a version of her that was mapped like Victoria 2. This started me thinking: "What if I was to create a way of changing the texture itself instead of remapping the model?"
I developed the V2-V3 Texture Convertor as a stand alone application that could convert textures from Victoria 2->Victoria 3 and in reverse.
I then started experimenting on other figures, and eventually created the Universal Texture Convertor that could take add-on plugins to enable it to convert between other figures too.

Although I'd love to create plugins for every figure out there, the development of some plugins can take weeks of very tiring work (depending on their uv-mapping differences from other models), so I only develop plugins that I know will pay for themselves. I have a few plans for future plugins, but my schedule is very tight at the moment so it probably won't be for a while yet.

Are there any plans for a Sara plugin?

I did start working on one, but have shelved it because of a lack of time.
Also based on the length of time plugins can take to develop - I'm not convinced that it would be a profitable product.

Do you intend to keep up with all the newly released Daz characters?

Yes I do - especially figures based on the unimesh as they all have very similar mapping, and are therefore easier and quicker to make plugins for.
I haven't brought out a David plugin yet because his mapping seemed to be identical to Michael 3's mapping. I considered bringing one out anyways, but didn't want to confuse people who already have the Michael 3 plugin into purchasing the David plugin which would, essentially, be the same.
I am still undecided on how to handle this one.

Was there a similar development process for Injection Magic?

Injection Magic actually started as a tool for myself. I wanted to be able to use the injection morphs system that came out with the version 3 DAZ3D figures, and at the same time wanted to be able to create MAT poses and scaling poses quicker.
Before I developed Injection Magic I always did everything manually in Notepad and I wanted to save on some time.
As I worked on Injection Magic, I kept thinking of extra tools and features I could add, and it developed into a product that I felt many merchants would value.

Any more plans for software development or will you be staying with modeling?

I do have a couple of little tools that I use when developing my own figures - you never know when one of those little tools gets a life of its own and becomes a full-blown software program. I don't have any specific plans at this stage though.

Would you care to share any upcoming products with us?

Well I do have a rather big project that I've been working very hard on since Sal A. Manda. I have deliberately kept quiet about it to ensure it's uniqueness ;-)

What I can say is that it involves a toon female figure and a large series of add-on packs. She is in no way a replacement for Sara, but rather shares many of the personality characteristics of some of my Wacky World Figures.
Known simply as Staci, she is planning to be making her debut next week at
DAZ3D. There is a similar toon male range that I am also planning

What advice would you give to a beginning modeler?

Have fun! Too many people get far too serious about the modeling world.
I have always had fun with my modeling, and its brought me to a point where it supports my lifestyle.

Don't set out to be the best modeler out there - rather set out to be the best that you can be.

I'd like to say many thanks to Steve, this has been a very insightful interview and hopefully has answered some folks' Sara questions at the same time.
I appreciate your time and hopefully this will be an inspirationto future modelers.
I can't wait to see the full-blown release of Staci as the LE version is simply outstanding.
Here's wishing you the best of luck on her release.

Interviewed by Ben_Dover,
©2004, for PlanIT3D.com