I wouldn’t say Darkness is an inspiration for Tom, but definitely an influence.
Tom had seen Legend (and Labyrinth), and he’d also seen the original ADD Players Handbook with the budha demon on the cover…plus minotaurs, satyrs etc.
Yes, DAZ’s content creation is a bit weak…they have/ate Carrarera which they drastically reduced the price on…but haven’t done a lot to advance and that does creation better and Hexagon as well I believe.
They started out selling models and are probably the biggest or second biggest model store, http://www.renderosity.com being the major competitor as is http://www.runtimedna.com And of course ContentParadise for the Poser crowd…