Quote -
In every discussion of CG art, we observe that pursuit of realism is not going to make a great render. Got it - and driving a car with three good tires and one flat tire isn't going to get you where you're going, either. This seems kind of obvious to me. Of course you pull over and repair the flat tire, not one of the inflated ones.

So, the four wheels of our CG artist car (ok more than four) are shape (geometry), color, and texture (materials), lighting, pose, expression, composition, and of course the story. When I see that materials or lighting are distracting, i.e. they are such a departure from reality that we can't even appreciate the expression or story, that needs fixing. By "fix" I mean removing distractions - departures from reality that are so obvious and disturbing the harmony of the piece that you might as well not tell a story at all. Once all the tires are inflated, then we can worry about where we're going.  

 

Good analogy. I get easily frustrated when I get hung up on the technical stuff when I just want to get on and tell the story. I should know better, being a painter, how long it takes to master a medium.

 

PoserPro2014(Sr4), Win7 x64, display units set to inches.

                                      www.danielroseartnew.weebly.com