I see so many artists who have had their image(s) viewed literally thousands of times. Yet my own, and other artists out there have to struggle to get 50 people to view our images. The question is, however, why? Is it because of the textures they use? Photorealism seems to have a great impact on an excellent render. The more real a render looks, the higher the average number of viewings / ratings. Nudity, perhaps? Being the human species, nudity tends to distract the mind, drawing attention to itself. It's not a common thing to see nudity, and therefore it attracts the eye...? The title has a bit to do with the "score," too, right? If an image has an interesting title, an enigma perhaps, it will get more viewings; this is out of curiousity, if nothing else.

;)

I suspect that the key to marketing even free graphics. There are thousands of graphics in the galleries so to increase your hits, increase your visibility. Someone suggested if you finish a graphic to post an announcement on the appropriate forum and you will get better comments and probably more "hits". Personally I've yet to figure out why anyone who isn't a friend of mine would look at my graphics (though I appreciate those who do...they are generous of nature) but I have found the hits went up when I added thumbnails and titles to the graphics, (yes, it is probably true if you put Poser 5 and your hit rate is bound to go up, until the gallery is flooded with the images). I hope it doesn't always have to be a naked warrior woman. It all depends on who is cruising and sees something they like. No one who wants warrior women would look at my graphics...but then I don't do graphics for people who enjoy naked warrior women pictures. I do my graphics for myself and anyone is welcome to view with no expectations on my part. If you want viewers, they need to know you're there. When you post on the forums, add a link to your graphics. People will follow it to see what you're about. That's my guess, anyway. But keep in mind, this comes from someone with very low hits so I am an expert at what NOT to do. :) (My highest hit was only 146 so I'm not exactly red hot on anyone's score card...actually that's okay with me.)

I took a look at your gallery. Since it takes R'City so long to pull pics down to my cable-fed PC, I didn't look at all of them. I'll offer my humble comments: (1) Dialyn is right about "advertising" yourself, I think. The most-viewed pieces in my gallery were accompanied by a post to the Poser forum when I was starting off. And people took a look to see how a newbie was doing, I think. (2) More of your posts are in the mixed medium gallery. If you take a look at the entire site (galleries and forums)as a whole, Poser users make up about 75% (rough guess) and the rest of the different areas make up the rest of the 25%. So, it's easy to see where all the traffic is, "Poserville"! So, I think that plays into number of views, too. (3) Female subjects garner more interest than male subjects. And more nudity, the better. Nature of the beast. But I remember a very good and touching piece of art done a few months back...one of a mother explaining to her child why she had to go somewhere (she was a fighter pilot). The WIP was posted and comments suggested. And the artist returned later with changes and people "swooned". And I had to fight back a tear. Just like right now, remembering it. That's my way of saying meaningful pieces of art CAN get attention and hits. If there are done technically well and with thought (a message, so to speak). (4) Not sure of your money situation and computer speed, but I'm sure detail (read: anything approximating photorealism) also garners more interest. It appears you are using the P4 figures. Don't get me wrong. I've seen some incredible P4 figures posted and read with disbelief that they WERE P4 figures. I think that takes some textures. And some talent. (5) To a lessor degree, I think the thumbnail and the title bring a viewer in. (6) And finally, the reputation factor does it. When someone has displayed damned fine talent, it's only natural people will remember the name and take a peek when they see that name again. I still remember the first person to "lock" in my mind--Cin. So, there is my opinion. But, as you can see, I'm no viewer magnet, either. I'd like people to look at my stuff, as, I suppose, most anyone posting would like. But, in the end analysis, I like it when I finish something that I saw in my head and was reasonably succesful in creating. So, do what you like to do, try to do a good job at it (or the best you can), and take comfort in having even a few amount of views if you can find that one (or two) viewers that "connected" with it and left a wonderful comment. Does this make any sense? Perhaps on of the "real" artists should comment. Your question was nicly asked and seemingly with good intent. Therefore, as you can see, you "captured" my interest and time for about 15 minutes.

Also, djdj, it appears you have some sort of vocabulary at your disposal. Come by the Writer Forum and take a peek. You'll find some nice people there. And perhaps an opportunity to investigate that avenue.

It's hard to find anything to add to what Chuck had to say since I agree with him, but I contribute this modest addedum. Don't worry about the hits, because they don't really mean anything. Focus on doing work that pleases you rather than trying to predict what will please other people. When I submitted my first miserable attempt at Poser, a kind person suggested that I try focusing on what I wanted to accomplish and that person was right. Why are you creating graphics in the first place? I hope it is to express your ideas, your special vision, whatever that means to you. Let that come through and the attention will follow, if that's important to you. That's much more satisfactory than copying the people that are having a lot of hits. It's fine to copy someone to learn from them...but at a certain point, let go of the copying and trust yourself. Even if no one looks, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you were true to yourself. My bet is, though, that people will look because they enjoy discovering a new talent, enjoying seeing something fresh through your eyes, something original that wouldn't have existed if you hadn't created it. But that's just my opinion, which doesn't mean much.

My very firs poser graphic was named center stage. It was the mil girl in a dance costume dancing at a recital. I didnt have a thumbnail & it managed to pull in a decent amount of hits. l Bet it was mistaken for a pole sliding vicki.

Well, said, Dialyn! Better than I said with the time I spent in my closing paragraphs. I just read something from a person who took writing in college. His teacher told him to find out what the readers wanted and write to that topic (paraphrasing). I guess if you want to sell books, then that is good advice. I suspect the same goes for getting views in the gallery. Then you gotta ask yourself: "Do I want to write (or "draw") what the masses are interested in (even though it's NOT what I want to create)?" If the answer is "yes", then make a spread-eagle Vicky lit up so the world can see her "runway". Get 800-1000 hits. And see if that pleases you. Not trying to be mean or insult the other people who may be doing just exactly what they want to be doing. My biggest hit count is on the figure showing the most private areas. It was not really artistic. I just made it to show off the very nice product I had purchased from BlackHearted and what a good job he had done (in my opinion). And to do that, I showed her without much clothing. Of course, one comment told me to feed her...grin. That's cool ! I like ANY comment.

I really appreciate all of the suggestions - and Mr. Evans, I WILL be checking out the writer's forum, as you suggested. Now for my next question - Does anyone have any hints or tips on creating photorealistic textures? I'm fairly decent with mixing and matching actual photos for textures, and blending them, etc. However, what I'm truly interested in is getting as close as possibly to a render looking REAL. I noticed with a couple of my renders, the scene looks incredibly fake, like the "old school" CG graphics. How can this be fixed? May I inquire of any hints / tips / links to tutorials from anyone? Thanks again!

The people who do photoreastic textures are using photographs of real people. There are tutorials on creating skin textures (you might want to start a new thread asking for that information to get better response to your question) and information on the forum that is wonderful. For example, Cake One has a good tutorial on using a photograph to do a face on the web http://www.cakeone.com/ and just yesterday someone posted a method of making Poser skin in Photoshop (same thing could be done in Paint Shop Pro or another program: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=860391 I'd also take a look at a tutorial like http://poseworks.8m.com/tu-tmskguide.html to see how to work with the templates. This is not a comprehensive list. You can find more on your own by running a search on Poser tutorials using your favorite search engine. I'm afraid I can't help much right now...my online service is cranky and I can't access all my bookmarks. One thing I do as a beginner is use existing textures (there impressive ones available if you do a little searching around for them) and experiment with lighting and adding details (hair, beard) to see how different it makes the characters. It's going to take time to learn how to do everything that Poser can do, and even more time to do things from "scratch." I'd suggest, mildly, to take advantage of the generosity of the Poser community in sharing their talent and utilize some of what is existing until you learn to do your own. I have found ones I like at www.creed3d.com and http://members.fortunecity.com/texturesbytuesday2/and there are others both have wonderful textures available for for free (and for sale) on their sites. I'm not not saying they are the only ones available...just that I happened to use their textures and found them to be beautiful and useful.

Attached Link: Download Problems

P.S. If it is any comfort, the link attached for "Download Problems" is a graphic that has gotten 100 hits in two days. Not any kind of record...I doubt if it will get much more than that...but it is a good number for me (I probably average around 50 hits per graphic, not exactly brilliant numbers) since I haven't advertised it (up until now and this is more of a point of reference...no one here need feel obliged to look), and it doesn't have nudity (unless you fancy that one of the ladies is one a vacuous warrior woman whose scanty armour failed to protect her) nor does it have photorealistic texturing on all the figures (though I did use one of Tuesday's excellent textures on the man) nor does it feature sex or violence (maybe anticipated violence, but nothing overt), nor is it one of those enormous pictures that takes two computer screens to view it. It is a modest effort...but it is my modest effort, and I think it is better for being something I tried to do as an original vision than doing something else that would get more hits, and I hope the kind 100 who paused to view it were not completely disappointed at having made that stop. You just never know what picture will attract someone to look at it and why another won't. I'd say just persist, and do graphics that interest you. I know I keep repeating that but I really think it's true.

I was one of the people who looked at it. I also think the title, as mentioned way above, helped it out. Because all of us use PCs and download things...so it was a natural thing to expect some curiosity. Now, IF you really want to get views, post a picture of a dam on a river with an animal gnawing on some wood and make the title, "Beaver". Hehe.

LOL! Have you noticed there is a small trend to posting thumbnails with provocative titles which have nothing or little to do with the graphics they link to? At first that was amusing, but now I'm getting a little annoyed by the false advertising. The original title of the graphic, by the way, was going to be "Wired" but the skin texture did NOT work at all the way I hoped it would, so I went another direction. I guess it was fortuitous. :)

One last tutorial that may help: http://www.infinitee-designs.com/Portrait_Tutorial.htm

Okay, I lied...I do have one more thing to share. This isn't a tutorial but it is pretty interesting about the textures if you want more detail and extreme close up of one that is excellent: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12413&Form.ShowMessage=862819