When I go into Carrara's Gallery to look at the Best Ranked images I find in there some images which confirm to me that art is definitely a very subjective matter. There are some outstanding and fabulous images, but there are some in which maybe modelling, texturing and lighting were secondary to the message being conveyed, maintaining a minimalist or simplistic approach to the expression of an idea. Anyway, these images got great rankings and they have to be respected for that because it means that they have an appeal to a good number of people. But to me personally, aesthetically and technically, some of the images do not represent the best work that an artist can achieve with Carrara. In any case, who am I to judge... I just wanted to see if anybody shared the same feelings.

Hi vinividivinci, i agree, but don't forget that renderosity it's a community, therefore, some people vote for an image only because it belongs to a friend. I think that this is the only reason, if you read the comments in the images that you don't consider good you can probably find always the same persons. I believe also that a comment or a ranking for an image must be an encouragement or an honest critic for the artist, not a free compliment. I want to receive good rankings on my images only if the image is great, on the other side i'm happy when i receive real critics that can help me to improve my work. This is my modest opinion:) TOXE

Also, remember that the earlier images were done with Carrara 1 and 2, which are somewhat limited in both stability and functionality compared to version 3 AFAIK. So those early artists were battling against limited software that crashed all the time and was horribly slow. For example, trying to do a realistic GI render on a very fast machine in C2 takes several hours for a small (800X800) image. That kind of snail's pace can wreak havoc with any tweaking or planning that we'd need to get a Rubens-like result.

I agree with TOXE. While it's nice to receive compliments on images posted in the gallery I get the most help with a critical response. It makes me think differently when I approach my next project. Sorry Mateo I don't completely agree with you. While C3 is most likely superior software a good artist can make amazing work with the earlier versions of Carrara or even Ray Dream for that matter. Look at the galleries of Litst, Kixum, Mark Bremmer and so many others and I think you might agree. To your point Vin I think you will find those images that seem to be quite primitive but with many comments or high rankings don't compare with the others next to them in relation to the number of viewings. memaci

Toxe and Memaci: I agree with you. Also the things you noted give us hints of why the images are in the best ranked list and the fact that they don't have that many viewings speaks for itself. Mateo: I have seen some great work by several artists in Carrara 1 and RDS. I am of the opinion that a good artist can come up with excellent work regardless of the tool. And don't get me wrong good work for me doesn't imply GI and photorealism. 3D can be used to explore many art forms (abstract, cartoons, etc). My point was focusing on my subjective opinion about aesthetics and my observations on the modeling, texturing and lighting of certain images that I think do not portray the best a Carrara (1,2,3) or RDS artist can create.

I have seen some very good work that has no comments at all...but it blows away some with high rating....to me i dont care if i get a comment infact most of my work does not get comments..but i think my work is up there in quality ...but i whould like it if people told me what i could fix in my pics..to me this whould help more than a "that looks great" comment...I do 3d art for me and anyone who may enjoy my work. Kirk Saavedra www.shaders3d.com

I consider the ranking as a slight detail in what makes Renderosity, and the Carrara part of it, so very worth the visit. The comments are what make it nice to post a picture. But sometimes I don't even tick the particular box because I just want to show (off) something I did. A lot of times I forget to post things I create, a lot of them are for clits, or not what I expected.

The main reason why I don't give a flying duck about the ranking myself is because hardly anybody ever gives a bad one. And, besides that, I think only the top three choices are used, because it is a good way to express one's enthousiasm about a posted image.
But then again, the ranking is non-explainatory (huh? explain that?), so you don't know if someone ranks 'excellent' because they never have seen such beautifull clouds, don't have a clue how to ever do that themself, are totally awestruck by the originality of the concept or maybe the neighbour of the maker.

It is an additional way to express oneself, but I once was thrown off of Renderotica because I started to holler at the work that was way below something worth putting online (in my eyes) and everybody was applauding it in the comments. I did that for two nights, I was really annoyed by the content, but more by the low standard that was held for the quality (we are talking Poser here, so there is a difference, but I could not believe my eyes). If I see work that I do not like, I do not rank nor speak. When I think I can tell the maker something usefull, or if I am really blown away (happens often here) I tend to make a comment and maybe a ranking.

One can not see who the maker is, and how important the work is for him or her. Sometimes people seem so full of themself and almost bursting with pretentions, that I am almost seduced to throw a virtual egg. But who knows, maybe it is made by a 14-year old that is fighting puberty, pimples, parents and peer pressure (how's that for alliteration!) and found a way to express himself.

I enjoy applause, but I enjoy thoughtfull comments and hints and tips from people I consider mates, and that are making work that I appreciate. My last pic gave way to some comments that I used to make version 2 of the render, with some tweaked textures. This weekend version 3 will probably see the light because I still want to change something someone mentioned in the comments. Because I agree.

(now I have a dual G4 mac and Carrara3 I again manage to do over-night renders, 1500x1500 pixels, that make the end result something of a surprise. I guess one tends to raise the render bar faster than Arnie raises taxes)

One mans art is another mans garbage. But I do see what you mean. like many community's in life, success is more to do with popularity than content (school, work, politics, music, the media...you catch my drift). Unfortunately, I've always been in with the out crowd. I believe It's more important to be happy with your work & sincere about others than it is to indulge in friendly backslapping.