Something bad happened a few months ago. Not the end of life, but it was a bit of a setback, at least where my Brother Virgil project is concerned.

The laptop I was using for my Poser work got rootkitted. I thought the hard drive was completely broken (I mean hell, when you get blue screens booting into Safe Mode, what the hell are you supposed to think?), but thanks to tech support I was at least able to format and start off anew with a clean install.

Backups to the rescue, right? Standard practice. Save smart, save often and all that. Well, the short-short version is, I made a mistake when organizing my backups. And while I successfully saved my software and aftermarket items (characters, props, plugins and other gizmos), there was one tragic oversight... my original characters. I thought they had been backed up with everything else, safe and sound. But I was mistaken. They were lost.

What this basically means is that all of my more popular characters are going to have to be re-made if I'm going to do Poser work with them again. In some cases this is not that big a deal; after all, most of these characters use DAZ figures and aftermarket characters at least as a starting point, so there's not too much wheel-reinventing to do. But in some cases, I may not be able to make them look exactly like the originals. The human eye is a tricky thing and notices when things are a little off. But I'll do the best I can.

Two, three years ago I would have been livid. But I've been strangely calm and accepting about this. Probably because I've finally gotten some true 3D modeling software and have begun learning to make my own stuff from scratch. The learning curve is taking some time, and most of what I've done so far is not much to look at (I'm still at the "wax on, wax off phase," at least where modeling and texturing are concerned). But I am in the process of transitioning from being a Poser hobbyist to becoming a professional artist, so I've had an eye toward letting the "training wheels" go anyway.

This was not meant to be a boo-hoo, poor me post. Just thought I'd put you in the loop on part of my long silence for this year. The other reason has been school, but that's a good cause and I intend to make it worth it.

Hope you're all well and that you enjoyed this recent update.