@Peter

yanno, i know that about your gallery, the story/images mix, but i had a brainspot i guess that didn't remember to keep that registered in my mind

deepest apologies

[the taste of foot is really no that pleasant] ;)

Giana posted at 5:09 PM Sun, 8 January 2023 - #4453441

@VedaD

if you like reading stories, he won't toot his own horn, but Peter does some really nice stuff too

this link will take you to his gallery, but filtered for only the stories, though check out his images, too!

Peter's Stories

Though as an interesting add in to what @Wolfenshire was saying when I first switched from Daz to Blender one of my first attempts using it found it's way into the staff picks too, at the time it was strange because to me my Daz work had been way better than my Blender but it drove me to keep digging deeper into that software and develop further so maybe becoming more like ambassadors for new members isn't a bad thing as just like everyone else I love seeing new theories and ideas cropping up, even if they aren't the best image, that doesn't matter as at least it's more interesting than something so refined to the point of utter perfection and well I guess with a decent comment then who knows how far someone may take something?

Thank you for selecting Happy New Year 2023 for this weeks staff picks

RodS posted at 3:29 PM Sun, 8 January 2023 - #4453437

@Giana - I'm just about in tears... Good to see folks from the good ol' days are still checking in now and then. I even saw a comment from Magnus073 on one of Diemamker's story uploads!

But keep flogging Rod because one day a gallery full of silent users is otherwise an inexorable end

Wolfenshire posted at 5:30 AM Fri, 6 January 2023 - #4453198

@PeterPixyHarrison

I understand your frustrations all too well. After working on a story for a month, and then seeing it buried under a flood of nonsense, it is disheartening. I haven't posted a story since October, and mostly because it got so buried under a flood that I stopped posting... grrr... not a happy camper. Anyway, your voice will be heard - your voice is important. Just remember, I don't write policy, all I can do is what they asked me to do, which was to collect suggestions. Maybe they'll find one or two that will help make Renderosity a better community. And there are some excellent suggestion here. Thanks to everyone for their well-measured and thought-out responses, all your suggestions in this thread will be viewed by those that do write policy to see. After that, it is what it is. I'm not jumping off the train, though. I might have to get out and push the train, but like so many others have said, this is my art home too, and has been for 12 years. I could have jumped to Wattpad at any time, but I like it here, even with all the stress Rod causes me. :P

From experience elsewhere I know that if a story based image gets 100 views then maybe 10 of those people will actually read the story attached to the image and I am aware in advance that the vast majority of views, likes or comments will be directed at the image rather than the narrative that goes along with it and truthfully that is something that I both understand and am okay with but I feel a sullen empathy that you as the moderator for the writing section for the forums have resisted posting for almost four months for the same issues raised in this post, that's both sad and rather telling all in the same statement. 

My decision to cease posting in the future for the time being is based largely on route to having my work published and as such that encourages or even forces me to approach things in a vastly different way, indeed there is a strange sense of sorrow that during August last year I was interviewed and openly named Renderosity as one of the outlets where I actively share my work only to a few months later find myself deciding that this no longer would be the case and I expect nothing to change just to suit my personal requirements but I do hope that for the community as a whole things should change, even if that means ruffling too many feathers among those calling for such action to be taken.

There is no personal resentment etc from myself and nor do I wish to see any medium either removed or negated in anyway from being explored by users of this site however better regulation I do believe could be a good starting point or at least some kind of proactive first step towards a more involved future for Renderosity and it's users at large and indeed the AI forum has been a good example of just how achievable this is with people openly and freely sharing different ideas to aid each other in discovery. As a further note it isn't just Renderosity experiencing this sudden upheaval in policy as many sites are now having to do the same and introduce new policies etc just to regulate things in a more balanced way and just like you Wolfenshire, Renderosity is some kind of home for me as Evelyn, Fae and indeed my entire writing journey as a whole came into being in these very forums and never would I actively remove, mask or change that heritage.

For the most part I stay out of these kinds of discussions as to me they often seem like a breeding ground for anger and needless hatred amongst users, however as I have seen this issue flowing through the forums and other places for at least four months now? I see it as time to speak up and it saddens me that four months on it is still an unresolved and largely untackled concern for many passionate long-term users of Renderosity.

At first when I saw this discussion heading up posts in the forums I didn't so much discredit the people who had raised it but more saw it as a transitional phase as the world of AI art became a mainstay of Renderosity (There is a strange irony in that concept alone) the gallery is often so overloaded with images of largely the exact same thing where quite often our own work is so submerged beneath a wave of images that there is very little point behind actually taking the time to share work in here. This isn't entirely down to AI art, indeed I quite openly welcome the inclusion of it and the new ideas and concepts that may subliminally influence or inspire others to create, in my mind no-one that considers themselves an artist whether they are a full time professional, an aspiring amatuer or hobbyist would willingly take a means of creation from anyone else. However as this discussion has remained a consistent point within the forums it becomes obvious that something deeper is at play and strangely enough something rather sweet in some ways, as what I'm really seeing is a growing collection of users who have been loyal to Renderosity for vast amounts of time who now are increasingly concerned that a site that they love and cherish is fading into it's own slow and self made oblivion. 

During December I decided to reduce the number of outlets that I use to portray my work, I wanted two sites where I could show not just the imagery, written element and scenes that I produce but also show the work that goes into building those scenes for which Renderosity should have been perfect as with the multiple images options should have been perfect for me as a Blender user, as I can show the work behind the scenes that goes into an image, the physical building stages of a scene, all those little props and things that are made from scratch, I love that feature and yet still it isn't enough to make me want to post anything at all. Make no mistake I'm no professional writer and work full time so the time that I invest into using any site to me is valuable and yet during December I decided that my post on New Years Eve would be my last for the foreseeable future, now I'm not openly chasing my own vanity and nor do I have much interest in that either but I see little point in putting such time into a post only to watch it be buried beneath a countless wave of the same "close the site and try again later" inducing stuff. 

As a writer (which I know that Rod and Wolf are too) it often takes hours to produce a single image and body of text, indeed yesterday I began writing a piece for my latest novel and thus far I have spent around two or three hours writing it and it probably needs another three hours to be ready to then type up, then I will spend around the same timescale writing it up and reconstructing it before I even begin assembling a scene to suit the piece, by the time I have done so, written it, composed it and the rendered it the timescale is likely to be around 30 to 40 hours just to make a single piece only to see it become buried and unseen, that is neither an incentive nor an aspiration of anyone of similar ilk to myself. While part of me wished to use this site alongside ArtStation to show the "How it's made" side of my work, deep down I just couldn't justify that investment of time and effort for very little or indeed nothing in return, I recognise that sounds incredibly shallow and in many ways it truly is but I love my work, my characters and the stories of them which I tell, in a strange my characters are like my children and just as any parent would I expect and indeed demand that they be portrayed in the best light and being strangled beneath nothingness is not befitting of neither them, their stories nor of myself at all.

While I am keen to avoid reducing the number of images someone could post over any given time period I also despise seeing galleries filled by the same thing, as that is neither inspiring nor a motivation to actively bother even looking beyond the first page and I would like to think that if I or anyone else posted the same image four or five times at bare minimum a question would be asked why I have done so? especially given that multiple images can be featured within the same post? Yet daily this almost ritualistic posting dump takes place without so much as even a single feather being ruffled? That for me poses yet another question which Is "How long will you just openly ignore your users questions or requests?" Maybe I am completely wrong and the question has been in an open and long running debate, yet four months later here we all are with the same question being posed in the aftermath of little or no decisive action being taken? 

I recognise that running a site like this amongst multiple moderators and users poses intricate challenges to keep the peace as such and in a blunt way I guess Renderosity is rather like a trainset and well if it's your trainset then you can do with it as you wish but those users who are raising these concerns if you wish are like passengers on that train, those users are entitled to get off at any time they wish, with many users like myself largely stay out of the forums, choosing to remain silent and out of sight and yet the risk posed is great as these people will never tell you that they are leaving, they will simply leave without uttering a single word to you, but then if you aren't really listening or at bare minimum making any noise that is conducive to you doing so, then why would they bother raising their voice to you at all?

Happy New Year to you too

No worries, let me know if that works, I'm curious to find out

I don't know if this will work but you could export your character as an OBJ or VFX complete with materials and then import it back into the scene to try rendering it with 3dl? You will probably have to tweak the material once you bring it back in and I'm not sure if that will work but the worst that can happen is that you try it and it doesn't work?

Thank you for featuring Wonderlust in this weeks staff picks.

Thank you for featuring Closer in this weeks staff picks

Thank you for the reply,

I just wanted to check as many writing competitions do not allow an image to be used to offset the written piece.

Can the piece include an associated image or is this purely text based?

Thank you for featuring the concept behind Scorpio in this weeks staff picks, much obliged :) 

Thank you for selecting "Chosen By Firelight" for the staff picks of the week,