Yeah, the question "Is it Art?" can always be countered by the question "But what is Art?" - it's a very boring circle.

Now, the proposition that Poser Based Art is looked down upon is correct - it's apparently creeping into the publishing world too (someone has suggested that it's a response to the "dead eye" look).

I can only suggest that the best way to make your poser art better is to first try and tell a story with your image (if you're going for illustration as your thing) and/or secondly to try and create an emotional or intellectual response in your audience - pretty much anything else is a "test render" (a practice piece more than a finished work).

For publishing in print purposes - put in more post work in a paint programme to get it away from a default 3D Render sort of look. Also, I've noticed that a lot of the time something that looks fine and rich on a screen can look dead/lifeless in print. The RGB of a 3D render will look amazing on screen essentially because it's backlit and mixing up into luminous shades - but when it's transfered to CMYK for printing a lot of those rich colours are dropped into a mix of black to create tone - It can actually look "dirty".  You'll see high end print shops/services will offer extra colours and metallic inks so your poster will look more "alive" and suffer less from the CMYK curse. So knowing where your work is going to end up should be foremost in your mind during the planning I guess.

Re: "Porn IS ART"

"Erotica" is the correct term for artistic filth and naughtiness, heheh. "Porn" is unartistic filth and naughtiness." "Pron" is the stuff stored in your husband/boyfriend's "stuff" folder on the harddrive. "Pjorn" is any image depicting the act of love between two overly blonde people in a pinewood sauna...in the 70's...on a fur rug.

Cheers