I agree with your comments, Emily is an amazing piece of work, I do feel though that the attempts to create realism within the confines of the one program are far deepr reaching than we first imagine. Taking the example of Poser for example, I wonder in all sincerity how many people have been drawn to it in recent years because of it's advances in shaders, SSS, the application of nodes to create semi realistic materials, If I were to put myself in the shoes of a first time user that wanted a program that was A) not mega expensive B) Versatile C) with a good stock base of content, I think I would be still drawn to poser becuase of exactly these points.

I do believe that the improvements (or not depending on your perspective) have opened the doors to many who otherwise might have skipped cg art entirely in the belief that you needed to master a handful of programs to create something you were proud to put your name to.

Whether much of what is created is art, is a matter for the broader base of users to decide amongst themselves.

I think every piece of art still carries something of the creators personality with it, whether it be a modernist sculpture, cubist painting or mesh figure, I sort of equate it to the human equivalent of the pantone pallette, some use similar shades, others use a more vivid selection, yet each in its' own way becomes an extension of its' creator.

The reason for creating it et al the motivation behind a particular work being created in a particular style are individual to each artists, but the future of it is in my opinion only really of any consequence to the professional artist who hews a living with mallet scarred hands or brush or keyboard calloused fingers or other digits or orifices.

I guess  what I am saying in my usual long winded roundabout way, is that for the majority the future usefulness of any piece matters not if the initial reception of it invokes the kind of discussion we are having, whether it be an exercise in adroitness or just a combination of learned skills displayed well.

OS: Windows7 64-bit Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)  6GB Ram
Poser: Poser Pro 2012 SR3.1 ...Poser 8.........Poser5 on a bad day........
Daz Studio Pro 4.5  64bit

Carrara beta 8.5

Modelling: Silo/Hexagon/Groboto V3
Image Editing: PSP V9/Irfanview
Movie Editing. Cyberlink power director/Windows live movie maker

"I live in an unfinished , poorly lit box, but we call it home"

My freestuff   

 link via my artist page