Of course if people posted to the mixed media gallery instead of Poser, then there would be no necessity of adding yet another Poser gallery. But they don't. And the fact is, you could have a Poser Medium gallery and people will still post their mixed media graphics to it. I'd be willing to bet money on that one.

I believe you are correct about that. ;-)

What a fun little debate! Here's my two cents: I think we should do away with all of the Software categories and sort all of the images by subject matter or lack thereof. It really shouldn't matter what tools you use to create an image - just so long as you are satisfied with the end result. Maybe just list various tools/software used in order to better educate the viewer.

I would tend to agree with you, schmoopy, but I think we're in the minority.

Well I'll be, I agree with you two too! :D I like to search by subject matter myself. Some days I just want to see cute critters. Other days I just want landscapes and nature at its best. It would certainly put an end to debates like these anyways. :) All of these software programs are just handy tools.

Well, we always could fall back on the "is it art" debate no matter how we sort the galleries. ;)

Well, the Genres are supposed to be doing just that - providing a means to sort by subject. But I agree that having no software topics would be better than having ones that are so misrepresented. As long as there is a way to distinguish and sort 2DCG from 3DCG I'd be happy too. Some people view galleries not only to appreciate the work but also to learn about technique. Sadly there is not much 3D technique one can learn from a photoshop image no matter how good it is.

I think we've drifted from the teaching aspect...very few people tell how they created a graphic. I can't learn by staring at a graphic how it is done....I need some additional information. And I would be the first to admit I don't have that information on my graphics either; mainly because I don't do anything special, and secondly because I don't know that anyone cares. That probably says more about me than about them.

about photorealism, postworking "policy" or pure poser policy", i would report the following exemple: about taking the guts out of poser to achive the best results without postowkr (or few, compositing mostly), i always was amazed and puzzled abotu most japanese poser related websites and galleries, where people out there seems to have a "policy" about pure poser renders, with few postwork, and yet achieve stunnign results i would damn myself to learn how to do the sae... see most pictures (guest or from the site owner) on batlab, or studiomaya, or yamato's work... most are pure render ! some are even close to photorealism, provided they use a very good texture first and ipressive ligthing.. Most surprising: many people out there only use p4 or propack, not p5, and so cannot benefit tfrom some material, illumination or other features of p5 lets meditate on that but i respect too photorealis through postwork. the only thing i would find a bit dissapointing would be to use poser simply as a base "ocedar" mannekin to give yourself the outlines or such, and paint most over it.. while then not learn directly to draw everything in the paint software itself ?

If I'm not mistaken Poser was originally conceived as an artist's aid for anatomy when working in other programs. I'm a bit confused as to how it's use as such came to be frowned upon. Am I wrong about this? By the way, I commend the artists that are capable of creating photorealistic art by just using Poser. I'm not one of them, I don't have the patience to play with dials and settings. I much more enjoy making the fixes in a photo editor. To me it seems to be a more direct approach.

I think the real problem here is a case of momentum. Renderosity and/or Poser seem to be very cyclical in nature. For a while there, 3D photorealism was the style of the day, or at least on par with fantasy. Now momentum has swung back to 2D painting, which interestingly enough is where poser has its origins. So its hard to be critical about the current state of "mainstream" poser art. But for those of us who have held our interest in photorealism we have been marginalized. Its a good deal of tension and chances are we will form our own community within the current poser community of move onto other apps. To be honest, there has been nothing in the galleries, hot 20, MP or at DAZ in the last couple months that has interested me in the least.