I was browsing my e-mail's inbox and there was the latest DAZ ad. I looked through it and there wasn't anything I really wanted, and through a complex, inebriated thought process, I had an epiphany-question thing:

Why do I do 3D?

I do it because I have stories that I'd like to tell and it's much easier to, as an example,  create an exploding helicopter inside of a computer than to rent a real helicopter and apply real explosives to it. Plus as if life isn't stressful enough, I choose a hobby that requires a Calculus For Dummies book so that I can appreciate the nuances of differentiation and integration for shader programming.

So as a kind of way to get to know the community, what's y'all's reason for working in 3D? Thanks in advance for your responses.

I started because I can't draw a straight line with a ruler ... LOL ... but I can create pretty pictures using my computer.  It kind of went from there.  Now I create content.

lol replicand. I started with version 1 of Poser, just because it was a computer program that I hadn't seen before. Got Aldus Photostyler, (old name for Photoshop), and Painter. Pretty much the same reason, wanted to be able to create worlds and folks that don't die if  they fall off a cliff. Now addicted...lol

'cause internet porn costs too much.

Because I care i am in an effort to understand your thoughts working to duplicate your state of mind,
....the first book i read was about King Arthur. my mom read to me from Bullfinchs Mythology. Ive relished artwork, story, and music that takes me to another place. Sometimes we can understand and express better what is going on inside of our lives by putting it into another world, myth and legend have been around forever.
 Sometimes ideas nag and percolate. Sometimes they bug me until they literally rip my head off and sit right in front of me demanding to be rendered.
 love/hate.....hate Poser, always have and always will. It never seems to work right. But when it all comes together the world stops spinning and I go Ooooooh!
 Heh, could no more quit this, no matter the intense frustration than i could stop breathing. My sadness is that I so need to get on with it and yet the software is holding me back.

er, no, porn is cheaper than 3D models lol.

I render for fun. I don't do as much as I used too tho.

I no longer waste any of my money on models.

Nope. Freebies is what I use these days.

Pretty much like yourself, I had images floating around my head all the time, can't draw to save my life so Poser/Vue seemed like a good way to get my images out!!!
I spend W-A-Y too much on it though!!! [ROFL].

Because it's there...

B.

I started doing this crazy 3D stuff because I used to work long hours on a night shift. During the week I would have nothing to do, I haven't a family & my friends would be at work. It was either do something creative or lose my sanity.
Thing is, I still ended up losing my sanity.

most of the above, I couldn't draw a straight line to save my life. I have an overactive imagination (at my age, I'm glad something is overactive...;) and I like to make things.

I try to make the pictures I wish other people would make (to be honest, they do...and better...;), or I'll hear a phrase (or see a misspelling give an ironic twist to a pic), and something will pop in me head. I like modeling, and have to use all these beautiful characters so that people will look at the models...;)

And with 4 cats and a grandchild underfoot, I don't have room or time for music anymore...

I've always loved drawing and when I first saw computer art I immediately decided I wanted to learn to do it. from there it was just a matter of finding the software I needed and learning to use it. I started out with Terragen, Universe and Paint Shop Pro.

It is good to know that I'm not the only one around with a twisted mind ;) I appreciate all your responses, particularly pakled, stormchaser (you probably have more / better friends than you realize) and scottI - dude, with utmost respect, you need counseling LOL.

BTW, took a drawing class before I dropped out of art school (they only had one math class and I wanted more) and who knew I could draw? I didn't know.

Cuz I have too much time on my hands and need to do something that will keep me out of trouble.

Because I have CAD background, because I've always loved art and graphics, because I like to make things. If I'm not doing this then I'm trying to remodel the house or rebuild furniture... doing it virtually is a lot less expensive... and because I'm trying to make a living with aspects of 3D too.

3D. Sort of Virtual Plastic Surgery?

:)

i started 2 years ago and fell in love with 3d women. rendering is like a diary for me, i can put all my thoughts, fears and desires into them.
i hate it when people use 3d girls like sex barbies - looking like dolls with dead eyes.

the art of 3d is, to give the characters personality and feelings, but not using them as toys.

i'm so amazed how real 3d characters can get nowadays. you can make nearly everything what comes to your mind, without paying ^^

3d is future! let's make the future better ;)

For me Poser is therapy. I have borderline personality disorder (not to be confused with multiple personality disorder) and don't handle stress well, I need some form of escape. Poser works great for that. I love to be on the computer, I love to create things and Poser is relitivly cooperative and when I have problems with it I know a great group of people who are willing and able to help me out [thank you everyone :) ]

3d is a new medium and easy to distribute unlike traditional art but I do some sketches once in a while.

I used to draw art when I was a kid.

Much easier than 3D. To me, 3D is not your

own but someone else's that you are rendering

when you draw it's 100 percent yours.

(MHO)

Dajadues - 3D is not your own because you're using a program developed by a company? Because you are using content created by someone else? Please clarify.

Quote - 'cause internet porn costs too much.

Naw because we want to create internet Porn!

The real reason I got into 3d cause of a 3d wallpaper and thought I could do better.... Well 10 years later I am still trying!

I have allways drawn soft- and hardcore pinups.It is not just sex ,it seems to be an obcession for the Body - especially the female Body.But drawing was somehow to few.I wanted to go 3D.Real modelling was to dirty .3D apps have the advantage of have a undo button.So no wast of clay and paper.This is how I became an addict.

I have a lifetime of art background,  so 3D computer art has always had the same pull on me that charcoal, acrylics or pastels used to have.  I'm not anywhere good enough to sell my creations or even call myself an "artist" but for me it's a release.   I get a very nice feeling of accomplishment when I finally figure out that render, or that set of dramatic lights, or that texture that will really set my scene off.

I never have to show anyone what I did, that's not necessary.  It's like going fishing -- the object isn't so much to catch fish all the time.  It's to divert your mind from your stresses and problems.

I went into it hoping to do some reference images for lighting effects for the figures I paint.

I threw myself into it whole hog when something came up that kept me from painting for almost two years (couldn't hold a brush stable to paint)... I'm the type that HAS to be creating something, and didn't have room at the moment for sewing.

Back into painting and sewing (and jewelry making and drawing and......) now, but wouldn't give this up for the world.

I  do it because I want to see what happens when I combine Poser (not art) with comics(not art). Who knows... When I combine these 2 negative forces , I might actually create something so unnatural and vile  that it will bring forth the destruction of the entire universe.  So if a black hole (or something similliar) appears next to you tomorrow, you know who to blame.  Sorry..I had to do it. It's Apocalypse now-ish baby!

I've always been interested in this type of thing. When I was a kid, I had an 8mm camera that could expose 1 frame at a time and made animated movies. I always liked movie SFX and such.

Bought a PC mag with Poser 2 on it .. went downhill from there :)

Now use poser (and vue) for a lot of things, from photo manipulations, artwork, toon's, video and video presentations, making poser freebies and products, as a base for over drawing things, pretty much anything really.

Most importantly though as with all art, or artistic tools, it's about seeing the pleasure your work gives to other people.     

Back at the beginning of the nineties I needed artwork for a CD cover, and I thought some of that new-fangled 3D stuff might look cool. Maybe some reflecting spheres over a chequerboard, something like that. :) So I downloaded POV-Ray from the You Can Call Me Ray BBS in Chicago, since the Internet hadn't been invented yet (don't write in, I'm exaggerating for humourous effect, okay?). One overnight render on my work 486/DX66 later, I gave up music and took up computer graphics instead. (Still exaggerating - but the CD was dropped by the record company, so I didn't feel like doing any more music just then.) See those little people standing around the base of the letters? They were made from primitives. I can draw - a bit - but getting human proportions correct was always hard for me, so what I really needed was a computer program that would take the place of the artist's lay figure. It could be called, say, Poser... The rest, as they say, is history.

I used to dabble in sculpture and pen-and-ink ages ago, but now I  "do 3D" to illustrate my writing, or for mousepads/calendars/etc. to give as gifts (or someday sell, who knows)!  Also, in an attempt to make abstract movies that I can compose the scores to (I compose soundscapes/dark ambient/cinematographic music).

Takes up less room than clay, even though I'll sometimes rough out an idea in clay before trying to get it into the computer!

i do it cause my mind responds way happily to depth and shape and color.
i shoot 3d pics too and i always feel immersed in this stuff
hell often i like the wireframes better than the render, especially if you make them 3d viewable too.  breathtaking!
this is sculpture, a superior art if you ask me...but ours can move! 

I do it because my main hobby is role-playing games (mostly D&D, but others as well), and I wanted to be able to depict my characters better. Since then I've gotten to enjoy it for its own sake, but most of my images still deal with games I'm in, have been in, or are running.