Hello all

Ive been a member of ROsity for a while now, although I have never posted in the forums. But I feel the need to do so now.

Like DE, Id been playing with Poser for close to a year at present, with Bryce for 3-4 monthsand that is ALL my artistic background. Never even doodled as a kid. I came to Epilogue several weeks ago, submitting 6 or 7 pictures. 2 of them (done in Bryce) got accepted right away, the rest were rejected for obvious use of digital tools.

Stubborn person that I am, I submitted another image, one I thought to be better than those previous ones. Againobvious use of digital tools. I took it to the WIP forum and received and reasonable and objective explanation of the editors reasoning (from the rejecting editor herself). And then all hell broke loose

well, not really, as the discussion remained more or less civilbut I did receive quite a few derisive comments toward Poser people who use to create the non-art. But here is the thing: AT NO POINT DID SUCH COMMENTS COME FROM ANY OF THE EDITORS/EPILOGUE STAFF. On the contrary, here is a quote from one of the Epilogue editors during that discussion:

The "obviousness" we don't want to see includes things like badly interlocking meshes (I have never used a 3D program and may be using the wrong terminology, but what I'm talking about is when parts of the image seem to go through other parts or overlap them inappropriately), poorly made texture maps with obvious seams all over them, Poser dolls with little or no postwork, stiff or anatomically implausible poses--in general, poor use of the software which results in a shoddy-looking image. There's nothing wrong with well-done 3D art. We did try to make that clearer with the explanation page, but I'll say it again--we have NO PROBLEM with computer art that looks like it was made on a computer. We have a problem with computer art that was done badly.

After that discussion, Id resubmitted the original image (reworked) several times. Still it was rejected, though reasons were now different. Another image submittedand rejected as being not Epilogue quality. Naturally, I began to feel that I am being picked on, in light of my loudly stating I do indeed use Poser to create my art. It did not help that, looking through the Epilogue galleries, I saw several pieces that, to my eye, seemed to be just full of same flaws as my own faulted on (thankfully, I had the good grace to keep that opinion to myself). Another discussion in the WIP forum followed, again with quite a few forum members restating the all-familiar Poser is too easy to be considered art yet Poser art looks like crap unless heavily painted-over opinion. It was annoying, to say the least, and the rejections were certainly painful.

But guess what? Being a fair person (I should like to think), once my initial frustration blew over, I had togrudginglyJ--admit that every comment on the technical aspects of my rejected images which came from the editors had made sense. Some of them could be considered quite nitpicky, but nonetheless, they had all made sense. So in the end, the entire affair served one purpose: I now look at my own work with a much more critical eye, especially when it comes to composition and perspective, the lighting and the overall finish. Is that bad? I think not. And another thing the upshot of that was almost immediate: the latest image Id submitted to the Epilogue gallery got approved on the first tryand no, I did not at all change my style to hide that it was done in Poser. One can still tell, relatively easily, that indeed Poser was my base tool.

Interestingly enough, someone whose writing style very much resembles Bellas (though she is denying it) left the following comment under the said imageand right before the entire discussion broke out in the forum:

ohh noooo no "obviouse use of digital tools here" gawd when is epilogue going to at least attempt to give the appearance of fairness and start being consistant?

Just for the reference purposes, here is the link to the image in question:

http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=516707&Start=1&Artist=yulia&ByArtist=Yes

I dont know about you guys, but I would not tag an entire community as elitist, bigoted and so forth on the word of someone who trolls other peoples galleries.

Yes, Epilogue has frustrated me more than onceand, I suspect, it will happen again.Yes, some people there are very much against 3D tools in general and Poser in particular. But, having had my share of unpleasant experiences, I honestly do not see Epilogue in its entirety as anti-Poser. And it DID do my work a world of good to be judged severely, even if a few people were intentionally cruel in their remarks about it.