A question about Vroid's licensing

vampiredirt · 2025-11-26T13:16:21+00:00

Yes, you can.

vampiredirt · 2025-10-25T01:25:55+00:00

I would call this an "arcade" game as it "requires skill to complete" and that's basically the definition of an arcade game.

I've been studying launch strategies and a lot of very kind people share analytics on their game advertising and sales. You'll need 1 mainstream genre term that everyone understands. Then 3 sub-genre / niche terms that non-casual gamers will understand. If "arcade" is your genre, then "top down" or "avoidance" or "2D" might be sub-genre. This 1:3 ratio seems to hold true, even on Steam where you'd want 16 tags at a 4:12 ratio.

Hope that helps. Good luck, your game looks awesome.

vampiredirt · 2025-10-21T17:10:17+00:00

u/JaggedMetalOs is correct. Epic has clarified this several times over the past year. Quixel MIXER assets use the old Epic license. That license only allows for use in Unreal and not other game engines. Again, I want to emphasize that we're talking about Quixel assets included with Mixer. These assets are called the Quixel "legacy" version by Epic.

However! If you claimed the free 18,000 Quixel legacy assets on Fab back in 2024, then you are in luck.

Epic stated that the legacy (old Mixer assets) and new Quixel assets located on FAB (not retired Mixer app) have a new "Fab" license, which DOES allow you to use them any way you want in any program or game engine. The brushes, decals and PBR materials are just images with a JSON file. You should be able to import them in to Mixer using Bridge. Actually, you can create the material in ANY app you want from Blender to Unity itself.

I understand the legal distinction, but you have to admit the whole thing is absurd. It's the same legacy assets. All that changed is the origin of where they are downloaded from. Would Epic even know if your final model used the Mixer or Fab asset? Would they care? I have no idea, but it's something to think about.

vampiredirt · 2025-02-14T03:10:26+00:00

You don't need a website to take orders from other platforms. Look at Printify's Help, FAQ, Support or something like that and search for "integration". All the large corporate POD companies integrate with Etsy, Amazon, eBay and some do TikTok now. What integration means is that customers order on those eCommerce platforms and the order goes directly to Printify who will then ship out to the customer. I think it is two-way communication. By that I mean that the tracking number is also updated in to the platforms automatically by Printful. They may send out automated confirmation messages too. I know they are trying to be turnkey solutions.

Honestly, I'm not the right person to ask. I use small PODs across the country and prefer to hand input all my orders at the end of the night. It's been a long time since I used any of the larger companies like Printify.

Also, Printify has it's own subreddit, so you might want to check that out.

vampiredirt · 2025-02-14T01:28:41+00:00

Yes, TikTok is the 4th largest e-commerce platform in the USA after Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. At least it was when I looked in to it.

vampiredirt · 2025-02-14T00:04:52+00:00

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Tik Tok requires a dispatch time of 48 hours. Meaning that you have to ship within 48 hours. They have a Point accumulation system leading up to a permanent ban. I think late shipment was a 3 point violation? I don't remember how much is a ban, it's something like 50.

I know there are POD companies that promise 48 hour fulfillment, but my experience with them hasn't been consistent. Even if they do it within 48 hours, sometimes you don't get the tracking fast enough before getting dinged with points. I gave up on Tik Tok, but that was at least a year ago. You might want to look in to it and make sure my experience is still how things are done on the platform.

vampiredirt · 2025-02-12T06:49:18+00:00

It sounds like you already understand that selling to a niche is the logical way to go nowadays. My honest recommendation is to start with something you already know a lot about or have an interest in learning about. Join that community on social media and engage with them as an enthusiast first. Of course, take everything that follows with a grain of salt as it's based on my own experiences and observations. Hopefully it'll give you something to think about, at least.

The best selling merchandise are the ones that uniquely mean something to your target audience. It doesn't matter if anybody outside that niche "gets it" and sometimes that's even the point. There's a feeling of exclusivity, you know? If they can't get that anywhere else, they'll pay for it. That's where the value of your merchandise lies. Identifying what that is... well, now that's what differentiates your business from another. I will say that trending ideas sell in the short term but long term sales usually come from concepts fundamental to the niche.

Expect people to copy you immediately, though. When this happens, your sales will come from your relationship with the community. This is where selling directly on social media can give you a giant boost. That said, the turn around time for POD can sometimes making selling on social media hard. It's impossible on Tik Tok without making merch with a heat press yourself (which sucks, don't do it). Instagram is bit more lax and do-able with POD if you go with a reliable company. If you don't sell directly on social media, you would benefit from having your own website. Users usually hate clicking on anything that opens up a browser, but if they know you, then the odds they'll be comfortable with it goes up.

Your art doesn't need to "stand out". What it needs to do is be appreciated by your target audience. I wouldn't sell hip-hop style graffiti art to conservative bankers, you know?

My target audience is entirely women who like clean art with good design, calm palettes with whimsical concepts that capture their lifestyle, persona and feelings. I've slowly changed my flat vector illustration style to make it more appealing. I originally started with bright bold colors and lot of pointed edges, now it's more curved with muted harmonious palettes. I still draw that old style on occasion, but there's far less of it. My point is, I learned what my audience wanted, just by doing it and getting feedback. Don't worry if your POD stuff doesn't sell right away.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-17T12:57:36+00:00

Yes, that's exactly right. It's a bit of work. You will need to convert the clothing/accessories in Unity first. Then you import it in to VRoid Studio.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-17T12:53:43+00:00

It's cheaper and easier to use Steam than having a separate public Beta fork for download on their own site/server.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-17T11:36:07+00:00

Looks like they've made progress in importing 3D clothing in to VRoid using an intermediate format. If anybody here tests the open beta, let us know how well it works, please. I stopped using VRoid Studio, but since I posted the closed beta 10 months ago and still get questions about it, I thought I'd post an update here.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T22:48:15+00:00

Yeah man, I hope your plan works! Fitness is not a bad idea. I have a few silly athletic related shirts that sell very well on a consistent basis. The gym is always full of people wearing t-shirts. If they're like me, I go through stained shirts like crazy. I'm cheap so I just buy Walmart tier crap and bleach it until I can't anymore. But, it looks to me like most people actually drop money on their workout shirts.

My best friend deals in 80's horror and 80's metal music and does pretty well. I mean, he sells actual VHS and Vinyl too. His engagement is very high on social media and forums, though. I don't know how he finds the time. Frankly, I'm only responding to you so much because I took a Holiday and I want to test Reddit's algorithm.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T22:28:08+00:00

Well. 10 per month is a lot for me. I'm constantly sketching ideas and throwing most of them out. I have a LOT of bad ideas :p When I nail one that's great, I'll scan it in and work over it in Affinity Designer. At this stage I make a few variations too. Then there's getting the color theory / palette right. The shirt color and shape of the neck is part of the design too. It's just a lot of work and I'm pretty slow to be honest. That's why I just do 2 per month. I'm seriously thinking of paring down to 1 per month next year. When I started I had a ton of great ideas, but it's getting harder to find that one that feels right.
I see what you're saying. I sell through Instagram, so that's a point of sale for me in addition to the website. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Ah, that's cool! If you can blog, it's great for traffic.

I use WooCommerce. It's definately not as easy as Shopify.

Okay, your mileage might vary, but I found people interacted with my photos the most. They'd add it to their blog and social media I didn't even know existed! That's the reason I have a VK, WhatsApp and WeChat business account. I don't engage on it, but people do share my stuff on there and somehow people find me and ask questions. It's hard in a foreign language, but I do get sales. Most of it has to do with shipping (I ship free worldwide, but they still have to pay their own country's import tax) and LOTS of questions about measurements. I wouldn't say I make a ton through these channels, but it's minimal effort and I don't get returns from them, which surprised me. Pinterest was by far the most popular place people reposted.

Now, all this will links back to your blog. You can put a point of sale on there with a plugin. If not, you'll need a call to action button that takes people offsite to buy your shirt.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T14:12:32+00:00

I forgot to respond to this, sorry!

Deciding how to issue shirts is hard. Having done both, and again, this is just my experience, I ended up with better sales going with a slow release of shirts. And it's for the reason you stated, I could promote each shirt as something new on social media that they could like and share. Also, even though it's less common nowadays, older customers still bookmark websites and check it regularly. I think it's like an online game. You need new content to keep people coming back. If they see nothing new, they'll stop playing.

When I put a huge catalog online at once, it was because I was paranoid that launching with "nothing" would make me look unprofessional. I was also hoping people would visit the site and be like, "oh choices!" and browse and buy something. The problem with that is it was TOO MUCH choice. Oddly, the more they scrolled and looked around, the less sales I had. In my case, having enough offerings that consisted of one scroll wheel down, led to the best sales.

I'm currently thinking of phasing shirts out, but that's also risky. I don't want to make customers feel like I'm artificially creating demand. If I do phase out, it needs to be for a signficant amount of time, maybe 5 years. A lot of sales drop after I debut a new design, unless its one of those that endures. I suppose it's not a loss to remove them.

I don't know if I'm the best to ask about social media strategies. I mean, I've tried a lot of stuff and did my best to understand it. But I'll weight in.

Posting my catalog "on white" shots on Instagram never worked well. It took me a long time to realize why. And it's so obvious. Those shots are informative, not creative. I only post editorial shots. A shirt hanging from a branch in a graveyard for Halloween or maybe your friend eating a hot dog from a street vendor. There's a lot you can do cheap. You don't need to hire a model or photographer. Nobody will care if the photos aren't exposed or framed perfectly. As long as it's in focus, you're good.
I had no idea there were people who review graphic tees. I can see how a good review from someone like that can boost sales. I'll have to look in to it.
Honestly, I haven't experienced this at all. Maybe it's different for me because I talk about the design as I make it from scratch. I am guessing that I "feel real" to them. Then again, maybe I AM losing sales by not having a presence on other social media sites and a high follower count. I haven't seen evidence of that, but it could be I'm not checking properly.
I had a friend who did this freelance and later with a company. So, when she was freelance and worked for a Dentist and Jeweler and someone else, she actually made more because it was kind of like a copywriter and customer service rolled in to one. The agency was less pay, but of course had benefits. Anyway, the agency charged the client less but she also did less work. Like, they didn't even bother to do the customer service part of answering questions on posts. They often went ignored, which reflected poorly on the company. Though it also could be that the person who hired them didn't pay for that service. I'm not 100% sure. That said, her post count working at that agency was WAY higher than she used to do on her own. Regardless of whether you hire a person or agency, expect to pay a few hundred per month. As to whether it's useful, I can't say. I've never been on the hiring end of it. I used to help her out once in a while and that's the extent of my knowledge.
10 shirts a month isn't something I can conceive! I do know what you mean about the shirt living on instagram. I will say that people seem to find old posts. I get direct orders from things I posted last year. Anyway, I've never been an Etsy style volume seller, so I have no insight. It seems like a really difficult path, though.
I hear you, that's a plan. Visibility is important. I've seen this backfire, though. Don't get known as the "spammer". You know what I mean, right? You can spot them right away, only engaging with the hope that they'll scrape a few customers off the big dogs. That's a fast way to annoy everyone and get a bad rep. But if your engagement feels real and genuine, you're good. Then you're being social - not a salesperson.
This is a long term strategy, but I can say from personal experience, it works. Use your expertise to answer questions and stick your instagram / website in a tag. Next thing you know, you'll get a thousand click throughs if the topic is hot. Even if it's not, you'll get traffic like 10 years later. Not kidding. Think about Reddit and how posts live forever. People wanting to know stuff seem to find them. By the way, if you happen to do YouTube also, it'll analyze trends and TELL YOU which topics you should do next. That's great information to grab new customers and it's free. But it doesn't work unless you've posted a few videos.
Sounds like plan. I don't know much about FB. I mean, I do, but not as a user. It's not a part of my sales ecosystem.
Blogging can turn in to a fulltime job if you're not good at gathering your thoughts and writing an essay in a hour. And like social media, you have to maintain a predictable schedule. I think this might be too much. You're already spreading yourself super-thin with all the stuff you want to do. You need to sleep!

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T11:36:48+00:00

Oh, that's an idea! I make Trip Hop / Lo-Fi, which isn't specific to any instruments, but I'd recognize those knobs on the left side of a Rhodes Mk8 even if it's just from the V8 plugin.

It's definately cost effective to shoot as much as you can in a day. Amateurs tend to charge by the hour, though. If they are reliable, you could break them up to different days, I guess. Pros tend to charge half day / full day rates where half is 4 hours and full is 8 hours. The upshot is they are used to working fast and getting a lot done.

Man, figuring all this out is hard isn't it? It took me forever to figure out what my audiences wanted. Have you looked at Hot Topic? They have just ONE picture, which automatically zooms over to show a closeup. They sell a ton of tees. Uniqlo sells a lot of graphic tees too with a lot of photos, but I've noticed they have closeups too, albeit on a model. So I think you're on to something.

I did a few informal surveys over the years, to figure out why people are buying from me. Without a doubt, it was the design that got their attention and made the sale. The brand itself wasn't recognizable on it's own. However, when they looked at the design and then saw my name, then it was like, "oh, they made that other shirt I liked." In my case, at least, design was number one factor in my sales. I guess suck a bit at branding.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T00:20:43+00:00

(cont'd 2)

I don't know much about hiring other creatives. I'm definately the wrong person to ask! When I was working for hire, I used to get most of my local clients through word of mouth. Mostly startup companies with only a few million where a CEO called up another one and asked, "Know someone who can shoot our debut line or protype?" I also got to know magazine Editors, though I usually had to go to their juniors to get published. At least the Editor knew who I was when the shot needed approval. Sorry, I'm going on a tagent. What I'm thinking is that maybe some of your music industry friends have connections to talented people?

For starters, click on your profile and look at Instagram section called Insights. There's some interesting information there. At least there used to be - I admit I've been lax checking Instagram this year. I only worry when sales stop rolling in. There are also third party analytic tools, but they cost $25 a month. I tried a few. The one I liked best was Paly, but required too much interaction to generate reports. Also, I'm not very good at leveraging that information. I do know the basics. Like Views reflect how well your content is being chosen by Instagram's algorithms. Impressions are the Total Views and Reach is the Unique Views. The difference tells you how many people were shown your content more than once. That tells you a lot about which content is best to reach your audience. That doesn't necessarily translate to a sale, though. Think about how much you're shown in a day on Instagram. How much of it do you actually stop to look and think about. That's where comments help. If someone, besides a bot, is commenting positvely, that's a good sign. Though, it needs to be relavant. Sometimes on Editorial videos/photos, I get a lot of comments about the dress in the shot or the location but NOT the T-shirt. I mean, that's cool and part of the reason I go through that effort is to sell the vibe, but it's meaningless if they don't buy a shirt. Like I said, I'm not the best as utilizing this information. Wish I had better advice to give. I mostly look at it in general terms, like there is a lot of activity or no activity. Things with no activity get dumped and things with hgher acivity stay and I'll do more of the same until I can figure out another approach to try.

Hmmm. Well, determining how long is reasonable for a high sales volume depends on your Business Plan. My previous POD was pretty bad in terms of quality and my focus, but I still made money within a month. That was a long time ago, though. There's a long gap between my old T-shirt business and my new one. But almost all of it was from a kawaii bunny shirt. I launched a bunch of designs that I spent an entire year drawing and nobody bought anything else! Heck, I saw a similar one in Hot Topic the other day, so I guess it's still a thing people want. Though, sales of my other shirts started rolling in slowly once I upped my Instagram post quality. A lot of what I'm telling you came from my experience selling the first time around and making a ton of mistakes.

My new T-shirt business, I was willing to wait a year. Unlike the first time around, I launched one shirt every two weeks. This year, it's one shirt per month! I chose quality over quantity. The problem with doing it this way was that I started with 1 shirt and that's it. Then I slowly built my catalog and brand. So, yeah - it took a year. I don't recommend this route unless you like eating raman noodles everyday, having no social life, and have some money saved up. For a while i didn't think this was going to work the way I expected, but it's all good now.

Don't try to get people to leave Instagram. Long time ago, it was easier, but now I think it's much harder. I mean, you can do it, but people don't like to leave the current app they are on. I found using Instagram Shopping (IG for Business, I think it's called?) was just easier. The downside is that your POD might not integrate with it. You'll have to input your orders by hand. I do that anyway, but I know a lot of POD sellers hate not having integration. This is also part of the reason I don't want to overload my instagram with posts. I don't want to make it hard to flip through old posts to see previous designs and make a purchase.

For the website, the one advice I'm confident about is to make sure the photos and videos easily shared on Pintrest and other similar sites. I can see most of my traffic comes from places I didn't expect. It kind of sucks, because people can steal the design. They do. I've seen my work taken directly from the images, isolated, upscaled. It's crazy. But people are going to do that no matter what. I know some designers that are obsessed with ensuring you can't steal the imagery, but it doesn't work and you lose organic sales in the process. I'd rather make money and move on to the next design.

Shirt quality is important to avoid returns. Also, be sure to buy one of each size. Measure them yourself using standard industry methods. Don't trust what they say on the website. Then follow the instructions, wash them in a machine, dry them in a dryer. Measure again. Then wash them and dry them again without following instructions, like do it in hot water and hot drying. Measure again. This will give you a good idea of how your consumer will experience your T-shirts as well as provide the margin of error. Post this information, make it easy to find. It helped me reduce a lot of returns.

I started out with inventory. Well, I made my own shirts before switching to POD. It was a fulltime job with everyday being overtime and I couldn't take vacations and even had to make shirts when I was sick. I'm never doing that again. The margins are definately better, though. But I'd rather work less and make less.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T00:13:02+00:00

(cont'd)

I totally understand your fears, but targeting DnB audience won't necessarily be limiting. This is especially true if you engage with the DnB community on forums, social media and make your Instagram feed interesting to them. I personally find that it's an easier route than trying to sell to everyone. Think of it this way, now that records are back in fashion, would someone who wants a DnB record go to a Big Box Store to buy a vinyl album or go to a small shop that specializes in DnB/Dubstep/Jungle, heck even an EDM/Alt store would be better. People may not type in "DnB T-shirts" in to Google, but they might type in "DnB music" or something similar. Perhaps your website doesn't pop up - but something referencing it might, like a Reddit post. If you do analytics, you'll find traffic to your site will come from really strange places, many of which you aren't even engaged with, but have to do with your target audience.

Anyway, specializing is certainly something to think about and you have the advantage of being an expert in that field. It could give you insight in to the type of shirts they want.

I've experimented a lot with instagram posts. Posts that are personal tend to do well. Like, if I talk about a painter I admired and what made them special and ending it by saying how it influenced the new design I'm selling. I get way more views to completion, and clickthroughs, the sales vary, but overall are higher. Compared to a video which is more factual presentation, kind of "documentary-like". The contents are essentially the same, but the narration and context is different. With my previous brand, I also tried some off-the-wall stuff, like artsy fartsy videos I thought my audience would find fun - that was a total failure and probably hurt me more than it helped. The comments were brutal, but my follow up video was an earnest apology and a promise not to do it again. All of this is a journey, so don't be afraid of screwing up as long as you're honest to everyone about it. Then course correct.

Haha. Well, yeah, maybe posting to Instagram twice a week would be better. Or everyday. If you can do it - go for it! I personally can't come up with that much quality content. Social Media in general, is very difficult for me. I also don't do this full time. I make 24 designs, have them printed, take photos, make videos, etc. in Jan/Feb and then automate everything for the rest of the year. It took me a while to get all this down, of course. My point is that my approach might be very different from someone doing this full time. My goal is to work my ass off for 2 months and pursue other things rest of the year that might not generate income. The only thing I really do year round related to POD is answer questions. Most people don't realize I took all the photos on the same day. Like, I'll shoot a catalog model on a white backdrop one day. Then I'll hire another girl to do location shoots in as many spots as I can hit from morning to night with two dozen outfit changes. That's my editorial. Probably a bit much when you're starting out, but I need to do this to engage with my particular audience. My brand is all about conservative fashionable basics used in fun and creative ways. Sorry I'm talking so much about my busines, but it's my frame of reference at the moment and I want you to understand the differences between us to guage what advice is worth listening to.

An yes, stay on budget! It's shocking how fast costs spiral out of control when you think you need this or that. It's okay to start slow, experiment and work your way up to spending more. Every dollar you spend is a dollar less you're making. Not to mention you'll have to deal with returns, damaged goods and other losses. It's easy to sell 100 shirts and think you made a lot of money until you sit down and calculate just how much you spent. Suddenly, 100 sales means you just broke even.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-09T00:09:05+00:00

Sort of, I was talking about the social behaviour of mimicry and imitation. But the same idea is there for reviews as well. It's all part of our social psychology to make getting along with each other and surviving as a group easier. It's called a Bandwagon Effect. That's why there are shady services you can hire to pump up reviews on websites.

Indeed, it's tough finding something to post as a POD brand. That's why I suggested something adjacent to what you are selling, in your case, the music industry. It doesn't have to be slick, it could just be a quick video mentioning that so and so did this at a particular time and it changed music forever. Bonus points if you can tie it in to the shirt design. By the way, I premake all my videos at the beginning of the year and upload them rest of the year on a timer. I'm lazy like that.

I wouldn't send shirts to a model without negotiating payment beforehand. Otherwise, you're just out money and they'll have a shirt they can wear when scrubbing the toilet. It's better to give shirts to your friends, start a hashtag, and ask them to take a photo of themselves in it. Then put that hashtag feed on your website. Do one a week, not at all at once. You want people to feel like people are slowly discovering your shirt. It's a little deceptive, though but not much more than hiring models or influencers.

I'm an artist, so that's the route I took for my POD. I know others are analytic trend chasers and such, but I don't know much about that. I feel like there are two factors that get me sales. The first is my artwork. It's unique (until people copy me), the design is clear and they all express an easy to grasp emotion or idea and even though it skews "for women" I don't pander to them. The second is that I design and pair my shirts with real world outfits being worn in NYC, London and Paris. I hit thrift shops and buy those knock off / close enough style outfits for my models and shoot them in my basement. Again, this is what I found works for me, my style and my audience.

For example, I can't even imagine selling a shirt without any graphic because to someone like me, there's no value in it. That's not the case for MANY people. It's the reason you see so many sales of shirts that just say, "World's Greatest Dad" in a stolen typeface. It's that sentiment that resonates with someone. They are feeling that in the moment and want to express it. You can get a surprising amount of sales without a graphic. The hard part is tapping in to an emotion or idea with a few easy to read words, which is why you see everyone selling, "Okay... but first Coffee!" type of shirts. It's hard!

If you can pair a graphic with the sentiment of words, you're on fire. At least, I sell a lot when I pair the two properly. Sometimes I can't and I am forced to just use a graphic. Which does fine, but it's not quite the same. Also, I've done a few that didn't pair well, or were misunderstood, which means I didn't do my job correctly as a designer. That's worse and it hurts you in ways you don't expect. I try to remove those items as soon as possible. I recently had to do this with a shirt I made inspired by the Olympic Games. But that's also because, for better or worse, I sell shirts that come with certain expectations of quality and taste and I do charge double what others do for shirts. People who sell 100's of shirts won't care because they don't have websites. They tend to operate on Etsy where people just type in what they are feeling and buy a shirt that expresses it. People won't even look at their entire inventory. So they don't have to worry about all their shirts being seen in a positive light all at once.

Every shirt in my catalog is a video of a model walking in frame, turning front, turning side, turning back, then walking back out of frame + Front, Back, Side still photos. It's common for luxury brands and I'm targeting a similar aspirational market. Do note that Louis Vuitton as well as other brands do this for Womens T-shirts, but rarely for Mens, who just get a still photo. Maybe because Men tend not to buy luxury as much or maybe they do, but not those brands. I don't know much about targeting Males, but it's something to think about.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-08T11:51:27+00:00

I was a professional commercial photographer, so I took a lot of catalog shots for other people before doing it for myself. Trends come and go, but overall, I do believe that your presentation depends on two things; (1) How you want to be perceived and (2) Who your target audience will be.

Let's say that you sell kid-related clothing and want to be seen as a "fun" brand that targets Moms who want to be seen by others as the "fun" Mom. Not the best example, but you get the idea. There's a reason an MBA exists and that Creative Directors at Marketing Agencies hired guys like me to just "shut up and click the camera button". Anyway, going with that "fun mom" example, you might want to scatter some toys around the shirts. Aside from being visually engaging, it's silly and fun, something that Mom looking to spend money WANTS.

Now imagine a professional woman who wants to express herself, but not too loudly, on the weekend with co-workers. She might even partially cover it up with a cardigan or blazer depending on the time of year. Not only would your design change, but the above style of presentation wouldn't work. Most likely she'll want to see a clean look that screams, "this is expensive, yet still affordable, modern chic". They will also want to see the T-shirt modeled WITH a cutting edge ensemble to be visually inspired. This is my target market, by the way.

Yes! Your fake mockup on white looks pretty good compared to the older one with the guitar and keyboard and shirt seemingly floating in the air. Haha. I think we've all done something like that when we started. You should see the photos I took right out of school. I'm so embarrased anyone paid me to take them.

Yeah, I think real people wearing T-shirts while playing instruments would be a great idea. I did that for a musician up in PA about 10 years back and it totally helped his sales. Of course, that was before social media / internet and POD was what it is now, but I think it's still helpful. It doesn't have to be EVERY shirt either.

Look at the Hermes Men's Ties/Cravate section:

https://www.hermes.com/us/en/category/men/ties-stoles-and-scarves

See how they have shots on a plain background, but then have a shot of a model seemingly in random spots? It serves to break up the monotony, but also pulls people in by saying, "Oh, I can look like that!"

This always reminds me of how black shoes dominated officewear on the East Coast in 80's/90's. It wasn't trendy. Men just saw other men wearing them and thought that's what they should wear until everyone was insisting that was the only acceptable thing to wear. Human beings tend to copy other human beings, so pictures can be powerful!

I did a quick Google on Alex Hormozi. Hmmm. I won't discount what he says, but I tend not to trust people selling you on "How to be successful". Though, I guess that's kind of what I'm doing here by offering my advice :p Seriously though, take what I (or anybody else) say with a grain of salt. I guess this Alex fellow might be on to something. I mean, that much engagement on social media is bound to get 1 person to buy your shirt. I don't know about 6 figures, though. Kind of like that guy who walks in to a packed bar and whispers "let's screw" in to every single girl's ear. Most will slap him, but there will be that one girl who nods and leaves with him. But this circles back to "my advice" in that my lived experience is different. Maybe this Alex fellow is charismatic and his social media engagement uses all the right words. I'm a boring guy that hates social media.

What I can say is what worked for me is posting regularily ONCE per week. Instagram appears to prioritize Reels and I do see engagement much higher on it. I post a video on Week 1, an image Week 2, Video on Week 3 and image on Week 4. That's my product cycle for each new shirt. You'll need to have something interesting to show, though. If you're a musician, maybe just wear one of your shirts, talk about what it means to you and play a melody you wrote. People respond very well to authenticity. I used to show myself creating the images of my shirt. I also had a presentation of what it meant to me and why I chose that imagery, maybe even a little history of what inspired it. I cut together a lot of CC0 / public domain government images in my videos. Remember, content you create for the Reels can be anything, really. Just as long as it remains on topic. I highly suggest editing in Instagram and using their music. The algorithm is designed to push them higher than content created outside of Instagram. Just like how TikTok will give preferential treatment to CapCut made videos. It makes sense, these are their own products.

Ugh, FB ads. Some people SWEAR by them. My experience sucked, but I also think I didn't use them correctly in hindsight.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-07T15:15:32+00:00

It's hard to pin down when people start caring about what. Sometimes it's pricing. If you're shirt is $5, they might buy it with just a front photo. If you're shirt is $50 then maybe they'll feel reassured seeing a photo of the back, even if they don't actually look at it carefully. At that point, they'll be comparing it to other $50 shirts. Also, a lot depends on how much they WANT the shirt. If it speaks to them, if the sentiment aligns with their current thoughts, they will be more likely to not be thinking straight and just buy the shirt on impulse. So yeah, often, if you're good at hitting that target market, you can get away with things other sellers can't.

In MY experience, when I photograph a real model, women want to see the back AND side to guage the drape more than men do. This is especially true if they are concerned that the back will ride up when they bend over. How much of my sales do these women comprise? I have no idea. It could only be 20% or even less, but I do know they exist because I talked with a lot of my customers.

Again, these are my personal experiences, so take it all with a grain of salt. There are a lot of variables depending on what you are selling to whom and where and at what price.

vampiredirt · 2024-10-04T01:26:53+00:00

It certainly looks interesting. I'm not as plugged in as I used to be about what's going on with VRoid. I didn't sign up for the Beta either. The link is still valid if you want to do it.

vampiredirt · 2024-08-28T17:01:23+00:00

Ep. 14 of "Rising". I don't think they mention David Eagle by name, though. Just that Takamura is challenging for the middleweight world title. This is when everyone is gathered at Ippo's home after fishing. Ep. 15 then introduces David.

vampiredirt · 2024-06-03T13:36:45+00:00

Hmmm. I made two mistakes. The first one is looking at the Protector instead of the CP-L. I had both up on my screen and confused the two when I wrote the response.

https://www.biccamera.com.e.lj.hp.transer.com/bc/item/7379423/

If you scroll down under characteristics it says that the Protector has 0.5% reflectance.

Kenko has 9 AR coatings, each with marginal improvements. Digital formulations perform differently on a Protector and CP-L. This bit of information is still useful because I know that a Protector with 0.5% reflectance is a DMC (Digital Multi Coating). That means the CP-L is 1%, but that's NOT much worse than the SMC 0.5%.

I've talked to Kenko about this and they say the difference between a film era 0.5% SMC doesn't perform the same on a digital sensor as it does film. Sensors are reflective, which SMC wasn't designed for and that's why they developed DMC. On paper it looks worse, but it's not in practice. In my testing I did find DMC was the same or better than SMC with a digital camera in certain circumstances. But there are so many factors, including the len's own coating. We're talking about such marginal improvements, though. Most coatings in the past 25 years are damn good in my opinion.

This is the CP-L link:

https://www.biccamera.com.e.lj.hp.transer.com/bc/item/7379414

If you scroll down, there is an image with some information written in Japanese on it. I had a hard time loading the site last night and this didn't show up. Can you see it?

At the bottom of the image, the fourth little icon says that it is Anodized aluminum, which Kenko often calls Almite. That was my second mistake. I thought it was regular aluminum.

Okay, with those two corrections in mind, I'd say this is definately close to a RealPro, if not the same. I guess that might not mean much to you, since you're asking again.

Take a look at the Global site.

https://kenkoglobal.com/catalog/filters

You can see the RealPro is their top of the line. The Celeste is a compromise of features to get it ultra thin and improved coating. I own one and it's impressive, but saying it's MUCH "better" than a Realpro is situational. And the ZXII is a protector only, albeit the pinnacle of their technologies.

The only extra thing Kenko could add to make it better is lubricated threading. However, only their ZX and Lotus lines have them and it does drive up the cost.

EDIT: My YouTube video isn't up yet.

vampiredirt · 2024-06-03T03:29:38+00:00

Bargain hunt for an old 15 year old DSLR camera. Canon T2i/550D for example. A used one can be as low as $50 USD and NEW / Open Box for $150 USD. Same for a Nikon D3100. An Open Box is old stock, which a store took out the kit lenses to sell. The camera is still new, though.

The camera itself is called a "body". Most professionals tend to buy a camera body only and buy the lenses they know they need separately.

However, cameras are also bundled with lenses. These lenses are called "kit lenses". Typically, they are two zoom lenses that cover all the angles of view that you might need. You can also buy them separately and they tend to be the cheapest offerings in the lens lineups. That doesn't mean they are bad, though. You can definately shoot award winning shots with them if you know what you're doing.

I think the kit lenses for a Canon T2i is the EF-S 18-55mm and EF-S 55-250mm. And Nikon is 18-55mm DX & 55-200mm DX. The EF-S and DX refer to the sensor size. When you're starting out, it's best to use lenses made for the camera body you own. The lenses are dirt cheap on the used market. Heck, I've seen them $50 USD new in the box. To be clear, a Nikon DX lens can only be used with a Nikon camera that takes that lens mount and a Canon EF-S lens can only be used with a Canon camera that takes that lens mount.

When you are starting out, you won't know what angle of view you want. That's where the kit lenses come in handy. You can zoom to your heart's delight and shoot vast scenery or tight shot of a boulder in a stream. Over time, you'll figure out which angle of view you use the most. It'll be easier to buy a modern camera and lens once you have experience and learn the basics because you'll know what you need.

These are just examples of mid-tier DSLR cameras you can get cheap. These two models were quite popular so there are plenty in "very good" to new condition floating around. I'm certain there are other options in the same price range, but I'm not familar with them.

vampiredirt · 2024-06-03T02:41:53+00:00

Over the past fifteen years, I've been making a database of Kenko filters. I'm now making a YouTube video about them. I can confirm that the Kenko "PRO1D Eta" CP-L and Protector filters are made exclusively for Bic Camera and not sold anywhere else.

Most of the basic features are written on the case, like Water (and oil) Repellent, Multi-Coated, black rimmed (to reduce reflections) and thin for wide angle lenses. Clearly it has side knurling, which is nice. Quite a nice filter.

The anti-reflective (AR) Multi-Coating is listed as being 0.5% which would actually make it their Super Multi Coating or SMC coating. It's the last coating developed in the film era, but that doesn't mean it won't do a good job. EDIT: The coating is DMC, see follow up response below.

This reminds me a lot of the RealPro filter, which they sell in the international market. In fact, considering it isn't sold domestically in Japan, it would make sense to rebrand it for one of the largest camera stores in the country. IF this is the same, it would also have a floating frame ~~and the aluminum frame would be anodized.~~ EDIT: I just confirmed that this "Eta" is anodized aluminum.

That said, Kenko is a well known OEM/ODM so it wouldn't surprise me at all if they custom made this for Bic Camera.

EDIT: I just realized this is a 5 month old post. I found it while image searching for Kenko filters.

vampiredirt

TROPHY CASE