Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: Apparent Age, The Science of Facial Beauty, and "Babyfacedness"

wikman opened this issue on Dec 29, 2007 · 78 posts


Stepdad posted Sat, 29 December 2007 at 7:59 AM

How do you properly determine the "age" of a digital character?  You can't.  I can't, no one can really.  There  is no objective standard by which such a thing can be judged,

I think Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court hit the nail on the head, in a concurring opinion he wrote in the case of Jacobellis v Ohio in 1964.  The case involved obscenity, and the justice wrote:

"I shall not attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced with that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.  But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture invovled in this case is not that."

So really, like obscenity the "age" a digital character is entirely a perceptual thing, not something that can be mathematically determined by how round the hips are or how narrow the face is, etc...

But for a board like Renderosity I can certainly understand why the moderators would wish to err on the side of extreme caution.  Renderosity is a business, after all, and the content stored here might not only negatively impact their business but could quite possibly at some point raise legal questions as well.

The law is quite unclear on these matters, and while I'm sure the are more intrepid souls out there who love to fight city hall I for one wouldn't want to risk putting my business in jeapordy and face possible criminal sanctions testing some rather murky legal waters as to how old a digital character is or isn't and when it should be considered child pornography.

So while I understand the point you wish to make considering your Utopia character, I think maybe your best bet from here on out would be to render her with all her naughty bits well covered if you want to post those renderings here at Renderosity.  

But hey, I guess I'm kinda old school when it comes to stuff like this, I think it's a woman or digital female character that is clothed and posed suggestively but properly is much sexier than the vast majority of nudes I've ever seen.  It's that hint of anticipation and wonder, that mystique that really does it.  

Oh, and just for the record, I don't care how old Kate Moss is, I'd much prefer she just keep her clothes on in public.  The thought of seeing her nude is a frightening thing, keeps flashing me back to those pictures I once saw of holocaust victims.  Emaciation is not sexy, IMHO.

Just my two cents worth,
Stepdad