Yeah, Firebird's hot.

[hollow]

Seriously, she looks perfect. That pinup reminds me of WB's pose in the water.

I think I like the boots in the casino better than the pumps in the pinup.

The casino pictures look kinda low-quality. There's JPEG artifacts visible around her, and they look really blurry. Speaking as a modem user, I wouldn't mind having to wait longer for higher quality pictures - would a redo be possible?

[Ronald]

I checked the shockwave compression setting and it was set a bit too low...

You'll need to clear your cache folder and then close your web browser and log back into the strip casino and play Firebird again!

We've also bumped up the resolution on Psionic and SpiderBabe!

Enjoy!

-R

[Benjamin]

As usual, Jeff, you have turned out a masterpiece! Firebird looks great. She also "feels" like she belongs with Rascal, Psionic, and Thunderstorm on the Franchise X team. I guess they "hang" together well. :)

You do water really well! Both the Firebird and Psionic water shots (not to mention the Heavy Water ones) are really beautiful.

But behind every silver cloud lies a dark lining. I have mentioned this before but I do not recall the answer (of if I even got one). Do all of the boobs on all of the characters have to be the same down to the exact nipple size and location? I can't tell with Firebird, but pretty much all of the other "new" girls even have the same little mole (or dot?) just below their right nipples. Unless the women are intended to be modeled on silicone-implanted gals, they shouldn't looks so much alike. There is room for variety in this department! Let's have some large nipples, or such well-endowed ladies that they hang lower, and so on. I can't think of any real woman with breasts the size of Wonder Broad's that has hers sitting that high up. Also, they shouldn't look like little pencil erasers (except maybe on Flasher and Psionic).

I apologize for the frankness of my post. I am writing in a hurry and want to get the main points down quickly. If the poser gals are modeled on "Victoria," isn't there some variety kit or something. With the possible exception of my favorite JB Wonder Broad, there is NOT a single model that I feel is anatomically incorrect. My problem lies in the fact that they are so similar to each other. Alone they are perfect but when put side-by-side, their resemblence is too alike. And that brings up apoint I think raised by Hollow a while back. They are supposed to be individuals, yet they all appear pretty much the same size and physique. The most distinctive JB is Flasher. she has a unique body type (and a yummy one at that!). Don't get the wrong end of the stick. I adore the JBs and intend to be a member for long time. Not being an artist, I do not understand the complexities involved in character rendering. Since the new Wonder Broad looks a bit like Brandy from Liberty Meadows, maybe Frank Cho drawings are a good place to start for boobie ideas! :)

[Jeff]

Firebird has a completely different body texture than we've used on any of the other girls, and a bit of a different body morph too. There shouldn't be any mole! Likewise, the upcoming Silver Stalker pictorial is a completely new character with a unique texture and face morph. Over time, the 2004 versions of some of the girls may adapt a little to have more variety, so have faith - we hear and we're putting effort into making each of the girls a bit more unique in appearance, so they're not all the same model with a different wig slapped on.

Up close, Firebird has a nice freckled redhead appearance that works really well with her. The carpet matches the drapes, too! The pinup of her in the water is pretty detailed, so you should be able to notice her attributes

Silver Stalker's shots came out very well, also, so I can't wait for you guys to get a look at her. Her pictorial has a special twist to it, so after just a little bit more touch-up work, you'll have her to check out.

Thanks for all the great comments, and hopefully the new girls will live up to the member's expectations!

Thanks!
-Jeff

[hollow]

Thanks for the redo, Ronald! And pretty quick, too; glad to see it was easy to do. I checked out one of the first pics, and it looks great. (Boots still look a bit blurry, but that might be just my monitor...) I honestly didn't notice a drop in quality on Psionic and Spider-babe, but better quality's always welcome, especially when it's free. =)

BTW, how easy is it to add a new shot or so to one of the casino ladies now and then? Not that I want to take away time from the other features. But, if Jeff gets a sudden hit of inspiration, say, for a quick picture, and it fits one of the casino themes, he could just pop it in there. And it'd increase the replayability of the games.

Some added features to the games would also be welcome. The jokers in Blackjack are a bit weird, and that's fine, I suppose. But what about insurance and doubling down?

I'd love to see a version of poker where you actually play against the dealer. I don't know how much poker you actually play, but there's a great deal of strategy one could put in involving betting style. Each dealer could have her own approach (Flasher plays fast and flighty; WB is conservative; CK will semi-bluff a lot; etc.); the fun part becomes discovering how each dealer plays. Hmm. This is more ambitious than I thought at first. I'll think about it.

As for body types - there's good and bad. I kinda miss Supes' original model, but it seems to have migrated to Full Moon, so that's good. Actually, they seemed to first share the same basic model (along with Shanghai, I think), so I guess this is just strictly higher diversity, which is even better. Speaking of shared models, Kicker and Bulk (and Daisy Cutter) also appeared to be almost the same at first. And then they both changed. I -loved- She-Bulk's original look (from her BotM feature), though the current build fits her character more; she now looks as strong as she's supposed to be. I also miss WB's BotM model, which looked pretty close to Voodoo's. There's something about the way you can see all of the skin below the breasts, that gives them an almost inflated look. (And yeah, the raisins are growing a little high on the hills.) However, she lost some of the "monkey face" she first had, so that's good.

Speaking of Voodoo, I definitely hope she doesn't change looks much from her BotM, except perhaps to improve the polygon count. I find I can stand by what I said back in September 2002 when her feature (and that short movie) came out: that model's a winner. It dates well. There's been marked improvement in the tools and models available since, and yet that feature still looks hot as hell.

[Ronald]

Regarding Poker- I've actually been formulating a new Strip Poker engine that is more interactive.
A play against the dealer rather then the "video poker" style.. Instead of the dealers dealing you cards like version we have now- and you paying them to strip-

It will be more of the conventional style where they actually hold a hand, ante, bet etc.

It will be interesting to program various playing styles for each of the characters. Some characters are more likely to call your bluffs. Others will fold more if they don't have a good hand... Some characters might be more choosy on which cards to get rid of (going for Flush more) others might be conservative and stick with the pairs going- etc..

This will be slightly ambitous- But alot of fun.

-R

[Benjamin]

Yes! You are right, Jeff. Sorry I didn't really talk about Firebird so much. I did mention that I greatly approve of her but I cut my comments kind of quick because of time constraints. I did notice the absence of the mole when I looked. :)

I didn't mean to sound picky or anything. Believe me, I couldn't draw my way out of a paper bag, let alone render Poser models! I just found an area of concern and wanted to share my 2 cents. Apparently, Hollow and the boys are far more knowledgeable about 3D artwork, or so it seems from their posts.

Oh, and thanks for updating the casino. That is my favorite feature. I know it is stupid, but whenever I play against a JB, I keep hoping for a surprise new pose. Ha! Talk about coming back for more!

Thanks for the fast response.

______________
Firebird has a completely different body texture than we've used on any of the other girls, and a bit of a different body morph too. There shouldn't be any mole!

[hollow]

Just to keep the record straight. I haven't done a single bit of 3D artwork, unless you want to count the toy Pascal programs I wrote for my IBM clone (with EGA monitor) way back in the 80s. I don't own Poser, Bryce, et al., or even a computer that could run them reasonably, though some day I hope to. I've looked at a lot of 3D art, though. From time to time I read articles on Renderosity.com. And I used to draw a lot of amateur art (some of which won prizes). I've never written, drawn, inked, or colored a professional comic book, unlike Jeff. Main reason: I work too slowly.

So take anything I say with some salt. After all, that's what -I- do...

[HSHP]

...talking about the Silver Stalker pictorial reminded me about the still missing text in Psionic's pictorial. I know I bugged about this before, but I'm just hoping we'll see the text images before Stalker's pictorial goes up.

[Ronald]

Actually- if you noticed none of the "Franchise-X" Babe of the Month has text....
I think Jeff is still working out some sort of background info- that would make sense and consistent for all the Franchise-X characters....

Rascal, ThunderStorm, and Psionic are all Franchise-X babes with missing text..