Actually, only 15. That's all I could think of for this essay. And yes, I did actually spell-check this. Alright, here we go!

Before you make that big push for your first ever picture to land in the Bryce Hot 20, here's some advice that you should consider first.

I am a typical gallery-browsing 3D art viewer. And I am picky.
You will NOT get my vote if I see:

1. Your image is titled something like '~~xX#$#$|Title|/#@Orz~~'. 1337 does not belong at Renderosity.

2. There is an excessive amount of nudity in the image and/or thumbnail. I'm not attempting to limit your artistic potential; it's just that I don't find big quantities of nudity tasteful. I myself am a horny 15-year-old; I don't think many of the older artists will be much more tolerant.

3. Preset textures from the Bryce texture library. Most Brycers here have quite a few years of experience and will recognize just about any preset texture out there. They generally diminished the perceived creativity of the artwork, taking it down a notch in my opinion. Take on the texture editor, create some originals. Get a digital camera and use some image textures. 'Tis the way of the masters. You think Rochr gets his textures out of the preset library?

4. You have covered more than 50% of the image in models or textures that you have not created yourself. Yes. I believe in sharing, and I extremely respect all the artists kind enough to share their artwork as freebies or purchasable products, but I believe art needs to have a strong originality. Which brings me to the next point ...

5. The main object of focus in your image is a freebie. Unless your image is a true tribute like Rochr's recent "I, Human", then you will simply violate my originality law discussed above. Now, I admit it, Bryce is just plain incapable of modeling on par with sub-d and NURBS programs, so if the focus is partly a foreign mesh and the rest is well done, I will continue to judge its worthiness of my vote.

6. The Bryce default sky. The default Bryce sky, as lovely as it is, is still an integral part of the primitive-over-water concept. It screams carelessness and will cause you to be labeled as a blundering n00b.

7. The Bryce preset Starfield sky. You should be smart enough to know that it sucks.

8. You keep the default POV. Now my particular style favors somewhat perpendicular set-ups similar to the camera POV in the default scene, but many Brycers will see that the horizon line has not moved from the default and you will be deemed lazy. Play around with the camera controls, those gray dots you've always wondered about let you save your viewpoints that you like.

9. I can find several instances where just a bit more detail would have brought it another step closer to greatness. Take a look at mrdodobird's gallery; every spare inch of rusty metal has a vent or pipe or ladder attached to it.

10. A watermark of any kind. They distract and can be interpreted as childish bragging. We all know of a few artists who go overboard with protecting their work from the scum of the internet.

11. Blatantly impossible physics or violations of common design sense. If the defiance of the laws of physics is a theme of your image, so be it. However, if I see a horse bigger than a tree or hovering primitives or ugly clipping or a steering wheel mounted on the bottom of the seat, I will literally mumble something about the image's likelihood of being created by a clown and dismiss it from the judgment.

12. Unintentional pixilation ANYWHERE. It simply isn't professional and again shows carelessness. Avoid resizing your pictures in postwork.

13. The only real 'zing' in your image comes from postwork. I will dismiss it as unworthy for the Bryce gallery altogether.

14. Your object mask is the picture's grayscale. If you don't yet know what this means, it's ok, but if you tend to use the gray scale instead of making an object mask, you end up with a low quality translucent object. Learn to use the magic wand tool.

15. I don't see the beauty. This is the hardest. If your image does not particularly speak to me and shows itself as an outstanding achievement in Bryce, I will probably not vote for it. This is primarily based in what people want to see, which you have to figure out for them. Make your attitude to produce an image that rules and knows it. There is a balance that I like to think of. It consists of the idea that you are trying to communicate with the art balanced against the quality of its execution. The first part is entirely subjective, but any idea is better than no idea. The second is simply raw skill. If the ratio is 1:1, it is vote worthy.

Well there you go. This is just based on me and what I've observed, but I will likely be true for some other artists. The best way to see what is well done is to simply browse the masters' galleries.

So go get pumped. Close the blinds. Dim the lights. Turn on some good soft classical guitar music. Take a deep breath, and immerse yourself in the world of Bryce.

An essay by Andrew Bloom.

MoonGoat
(Do remember to get out of the house once in a while)

Message edited on: 04/03/2005 01:32