Chapter A. Hi everyone, hello family... how are you? It's a long time, I know, but whenever I can I browse the galleries... missing you and the B-Forum a lot :) Chapter B. I'm still without a house (I'm living with a friend right now) so my connection time is very limited. I simply don't have anymore the time to browse all the galleries like I used to, sigh. That's why I'm adding some of you in my fav's list, so I'll get e-bo(o)ted whenever you post something. It's really the only way I have to follow the work of people that I know I like (both for their art approach and their ideas). I'm still straining my head off to learn Maya, but now the agency I collaborate with (ok, the one I use to watch real animators work - I think it's a more proper definition of my tasks there, LOL) is seriously thinking to switch to XSI, so be prepared to see some really crappy XSI stuff in my gallery soon. And, by the way, thanks to all the lots of you who take the time to open the Maya gallery and comment on my works there. Really thanks: you know that I appreciate it, and even more if you have comments and or crits to share. And this brings the matter out to: Chapter C. It's a long time since I decided to disable the ranking on my gallery images. This is blatant, because when you go there, you see that you cannot rank it. But maybe it's more subtle that I don't give anymore any ranking at all when I comment an image. I received angered IMs for a "Great", and I think it's really stupid. I'm having the feeling that nobody (or near nobody) is enough "prepared" to receive constructive criticism, so I'm limiting my comments to the images that I like... and it's sad, because criticism is really important. Please, take a look at my gallery. Go down to the first postings. I was AOM in august, but I think there was at least Flakmonkey in the Maya gallery that was absolutely superior to me in technical skills... and I voted for him. Not that I was displeased, mind you! It was one of the most exciting days in my rendering life. But this is not the matter here. Go down the gallery and take a look at my first crappy Bryce images. I'm not falsely modest, so I'll say that I improved a lot in these two years and change... but it was so because of all the critics and suggestions I received here and mostly in this Forum. But this seems no more possible when you comment some image... reactions are too much heated, so I stopped giving out crits and advice. But -- and I want to say it out loud -- feel free to criticise my images anytime, because it's so precious and I'm not offended a tiny bit by critics, I've never been and I'll never be. Finished ranting. I know that Draculaz (hi dude!) has a way better ranting style than mine, but I'm working on that. ;) Have a wonderful week, family. :)

I very rarely have anything to suggest in one of your images. I think the only thing that may come to mind is the need for some "dirt" in your latest (the alleyway image). It just seems a little too pristine. Does maya have a procedural like Dirt from C4D? (DirtyNuts from older versions). Regardless of this I LIKE the image greatly as I said in my comment.

Always a pleasure to hear from you, DC. I feel I must thank you: your work has always been an inspiration to me, and I am certain, countless other beginning artists. I have no doubt that XSI will prove no difficulty to you. :)

Hi, DC! Chapter A: We miss you, too. Chapter B: Thanks for including me, I'm honored. Judging by your track record, I'm sure you'll do very well with any 3D program. Chapter C: I have to agree with you about rankings and criticism. It's hard to tell who is serious about receiving criticism.

Hey,hey,DC! Nice of you to drop in! I agree with you about crits. It's very hard for an artist to grow and improve in a vacuum. Outside input, even if it is negative, can help us to see things we might not notice because we are too close to our creation and thus we lose our objectivity. I have no doubts that you will be able to do outstanding work in XSI eventually too!

@Incarnadine: You're right. The Anti-Alias washed all too well the procs. I still have to learn Maya adaptive anti-aliasing, where I can set a unique AA level on every single mesh and accompanying texture/shader. I'll attach an image of the non-AAsed picture, as you can see the walls were a lot more scabrous and the ground a bit dirtier. And thanks for the comment, by the way... but: you *can* criticise the image in the comments section :) I think that, hey, someone could look at it and learn something from your critic (not mentioning me, of course), like, i.e., that when you are striving for realism, you simply *have* to go dirt, dirty, dirtier. That's what I was saying in my "ranting" above :) S.

Doublecrash your absolutely right on nearly everything you've said (except the part about flakmonkey, you were a lot better IMO) and in regards to the lack of good costructive criticism, please know that WE'RE WORKING ON IT.

Good to hear from you DC! The learning curve seems never endning, I sure that's what keeps us striving for the next level. 2D has caught my interest, and I find myself in a space of learning once again. Rants on critique(grin)? I appreciate them too, yet I've been swatted at when lending a helping thought. I just don't do it publically anymore, and only to those which seem to understand the effort. Drop in Soon p.s. You're on my favs...enjoy your creations. ICM Rod

Stefano- I see what you mean. This has a more lived in feel to it IMHO. I believe you can set individual AA in cinema as well. Everyone else- If anybody has thoughts on any of my images, I would be more than happy to hear them. Richard

Hi Stefano! Good to see you around the Bryce Forum even if it is just for a fleeting moment. 8) I think there are quite a few of us that have been lashed out at for leaving a constructive crit... It is sad really. I appreciate getting constructive criticisms. Good to hear from you. Take care friend. 8) Wade

Hey, today I just got me a bunch of new favs :) @ICM, I had the old ICMGraphics on my list, that's why I wasn't getting anymore ebots (this shows how long I'm not here on a regular basis, LOL). @Incarnadine. Yes, I share your opinion. More lively and "real". But, as you can see (but I had to compress heavily to put in the forum), with that level of AA many things (specially edges, look at the cables, at the balcony rail and at those horrible artifacts near the close-up window border) came out badly scaled. Time to learn the single meshes AA overrides, I think ;) I used C4D for only a couple of months, so I really don't remember that function. Wanna bet that Bryce6 will have it? :) I was so excited when I heard that Bryce wasn't dead. @Wade: So, agreed: you feel free to criticise my works openly in the comments section (so everybody can see it and learn) and I'll do the same :) So good to be here "talking" after this long a while :) Stefano

I rarely leave crits either, save for the people I know pretty well. Everyone went and got too damn sensitive.

Message edited on: 10/10/2004 22:37

Hey DC, nice to meet you, sir, I'm member of this community for many years, but we never officialy met, nice to hear from you, and that you still consider us (brycers) your familly, hope to see ya arround more often !!! :)

Being too sensitive impacts on comments and votes IMO. If I leave a comment and get a peeved PM about it....after that I never bother my arse looking or voting for that person's images. Doesn't happen very often though :o))

pfft.. my ranking style is top notch :P and great to hear from you :) drac

Great to see hear from you Stefano, I try to pop into your gallery regularly to see what's going on in there. Maya is no easy package to learn, didn't get on with it myself, I prefer Max but there you go....

Maybe there should be two separate check boxes on Gallery Images? One called "Comments" like we have now and an additional one called "Critiques" so if you have the ability to turn it on and off people will know you're looking for Critiques as well when you enable critques. Comments does seem more of a word for praise seekers than critiqe seekers. JMHO

I hang out at this other site, (I won't name it so the innocent can be protected). They have multiple levels: No critiques, critiques welcome, critiques ecouraged. The other thing about critiques is they seem to come in 2 flavors. 1. absolute, stuff that is error based, (floating trees, no antialiasing, etc. 2. Style based: This is the stuff that is like: "If I was doing this picture, I would do...". Have to be careful about the differences between the absolute and style based. Not everyone can critique the right way because that includes trying to understand what the artist is trying to do and giving tips on how to get there. I will accept praise because someone took the time to say "Good picture" or "Me, likes" and they did not just pass on by. If someone without a gallery points out an absolute error like floating objects when you did not intend to have floating objects, then thats a legit comment.

This site seems cool... I'd like a lot Rosity to have something like this. At CGTalk there's a "serious critiques" thread with the caption "not for the faint of heart", LOL... :) And I agree with most of you, it's not difficult to understand on-the-fly the difference between "nasty trolling" and "criticism". S.

For the most part, it seems you have two types of critics; the sincere and the peevish. The sincere critics will always acknowledge the effort that is put into a piece, but will not fawn over it. They will provide worthwhile criticism (e.g. "move the light to the left"). The peevish have issues; their own art probably bites, they may have small winkies, whatever. I look at most criticism in either of these two lights. So peevish criticism rolls off of me like water on a duck, the sincere I try to accept with modesty. Personaly, I don't see how anyone can knock your work, Stefano, it's just great. BTW: Welcome back to the Bryce Forum, you've been too long absent!

@Nukeboy: Thanks, it's sure a very good feeling to be back here, even if now I use some other software.

You say:

Quote - Personaly, I don't see how anyone can knock your work, Stefano, it's just great. [endquote]

But, you know, this is the problem. It's not great, otherwise I'll be working at Pixar or somewhere else and not as an hobbyist like I am. I'm an amateur just like 99% of us, so I just need critics to improve. Like Incarnadine said, i.e., my last one was too clean, and he was absolutely right. This means that the next one of similar subject I'll try to do, I'll try to do it dirtier, because from his crit I learned something.

What I ranted about was that it seems every day more difficult to pose a crit on someone's work without him/her getting over-heated about that. That's why I stopped altogether to give out rankings to the images I comment: I simply don't see any point in giving out only "excellent" ranking because if I give a "great" I get someone upset...

I don't know if this is a recent issue, but I think so... because when I begun posting here (2 years ago) I thought a "Good" ranking was absolutely beautiful... now I see only "excellents" and nothing else.

And I wonder... what would've happened to my 3D art if I took Alvin's (it's the one I remember most at the beginning) advice like personal offence?

Maybe I'd be still making shiny sphere on checkered planes.

So (and now I refer to another thread, started by Doug), if Doug says something about a politic image, or if I say something about the lighting in another, why nobody seems able to stand a technical criticism or a politic disagreement?

This is what worries me most. How someone can just think of improving without considering critics and disagreement as part of his/her artistic growth?

Fact is, this "everything is beautiful" policy that rules here is not true. And if you post something on HighEnd or at CgTalk you immediately get a cold shower on how the real things work. I've begun to see Rosity as a sort of "limbo", where you can get your ego boosted up a bit just when you need it to be boosted up, but is this really useful?

After all these months of forced leave, I've become to think that

Forum is More True than Gallery.

[BTW, can you say "Truer" in English?]

Because here in the B-Forum I can have, i.e., tjohn's comment about my wrong use of light or Incarnadine's crit about my all-too-clean alley walls, or Drac saying me that I'm modeling in Maya like I'm using Wings and so on... and, at the end, all this is way more useful.

And it's just too cool that you're taking me seriously even if I don't use Bryce anymore, because the other forums are not like this one, and you all know it :)

S. Message edited on: 10/12/2004 19:46

I didn't comment about your "wrong use of light", Stefano. Must have been someone else. :^)

But that's just it. I don't think that folks in this forum will blindly agree or accept any piece of art. For the most part, I think that, when asked, you'll get an unbiased, learned opinion.

And, yes, you can say "truer" in english. I'm still working on my Italian lessons... As far as working for Pixar, yes we would all love to do that, but we also know (I speak just for myself) that we do what we do do because we love it. When I retire I'm going to open a restaurant, just because Wolfgang Puck hasn't hired me doesn't mean I don't know food; just because you don't work for Pixar, doesn't mean you don't know art...

Actually, Nukeboy, I am not sure that you can say truer. True (and False) are absolute states. Just as one cannot have absoluter, how could one have truer. True, unlike (perceived) truth does not have degree. It either is or is not. At least this is the way I understand it. I have thought of several examples, but after a bit of examination, it becomes obvious that the exaggeration is being done to emphasize a point. I would take each possible case in its context. In this case Stefano, I would suggest the forum is more truthful than the gallery. As for myself, I have never (except once or twice, and then by accident) allowed ratings on my images. For some reason, I am just not comfortable with the idea of art as a competition and that is what the ratings idea makes me feel that it is.

I am also of the belief that amateurs get to enjoy what they are amateur at, more.

You speak word of truth, Nuke and Inc. Couldn't agree more. TJohn, I was using you as an example, just because I know that usually you say what you think ^_^ And thanks for the "truer" heads-up :) S.

Stefano, if you keep posting replies we're going to get used to having you around here again (grin).