I have been around the 3D art forums for not quite two years and have always
felt out of place in almost all of them.
I didn't and haven't learned anything to improve what I do by being a member, past or present in any of them.

This leads me to finally come to the conclusion that I am truly wasting my time
posting images all over the place.
Ever since I started posting images, they were seen as entertainment in the sea
of other images.
This was great for the longest time, but I can't see myself doing this for much longer.

I have some options :

(1) Take a lengthy break from Poser. There is the possibility that I will never
      go back to it.
(2) Find a true cartoon forum where I will be with "my own kind"
(3) Start my own website where people would willingly go to see my efforts rather
     than have the bitchers and moaners silently saying "not another stupid
     cartoon" and putting up with it.
(4) Keep going as before (not likely)...

I don't see the point to hang around merely as a source of entertainment for a number of lurkers. I tried disabling the comments over at Renderosity, but I received PM's saying that they should be left on. I turned them on again, but it's
always the same comments.
What I am trying to say is that I really don't need people to tell me that what I do is funny. I already know that it is. I do this all the time.
It's not like someone, Ken for instance, who does 99% serious images and then does a cartoon. People would find that funny, because he doesn't make funny images all the time.

Maybe multi-panel images are a bad idea and waste of time to be shown in the
various galleries. I have been dropping hints here and there as well as PM's about
not posting any more images.
Perhaps my images will be missed by some of you, but that's the way it goes.
I think that I have done too many for my own good.
On Wednesday I will wrap up the current series and decide what to do after that.

Den Tracy";p="5794 wrote: 

It's not like someone, Ken for instance, who does 99% serious images and then does a cartoon. People would find that funny, because he doesn't make funny images all the time.

Problem there is, people don't take my serious images serious after awhile.
So when you do a serious image, it usualy leaves a bigger impression.

You know your images will be missed. But I understand if you decide to stop.
I've wanted to several times too, and still think about it.
But if I stop, who'll then take the role as the deviant? The one who'll pump in the seriousness, the originality, the pieces that make you think?
Sure, I'm not the only one. But there aren't that many of us either.
As you Den, you're one of the few that does these comic panels. You give us a much-needed laughter after (or before) a hard day, and reminds us we need to take things less seriously sometimes.

It feels like the 'head honchos' around here are the 'Poser outcast'. We don't go with the flow. We don't go wit the NVIATWAS and the 'half naked chick with arms out against a dark stone wall' (god, there are more of those than there are of those bloody NVIA's...)

Well, enough ramblings..  in the end, it's your choice

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Every night will have a day.
Even forever must come to an end. I think...

Hi Den, I really don't remember the number of you retirements   ...

I don't understand what's your expectation from you artworks, I suppose you want to become famous: ok, then you've to paint about 1000 of your multi-panel pictures, make a book, send it to a lot of publishing houses and wait for a reply...

About commenting your pictures, imagine this scene: I buy a comic book and I've to comment every single multi-panel page... It's boring, on the contrary  I can criticize the whole book. I'm a friend of yours and I usually comment your pictures, but a "common" lurker simply see it, smiles and go.

My suggestion for you is to build a portfolio site with a guestbook for comment your whole work, and post your pictures on Renderosity without allowing comments, saying that if they like your work they can write something to your guestbook and place a link to your portfolio site, where are all your pictures.

In this way you can measure the level of agreeement that people have to you and decide what to do.

I don't understand this kind of problems because I paint only for my own amusement, if people like my works is ok, if they don't like them is not a very big problem. In the real life I've my work as a bus driver and I have not a lot of ambitions, I need only a peaceful life, if I want I make a picture or do nothing for months. Also I made this place only for amusement, if it has success or not it's not a problem for me: in any cases I'll earn nothing from it (and I want to earn nothing). So Den, I can't understand you, or I don't share your ideas. I'm not saying that they are wrong but that we have different points of view and I can't understand yours.

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A book is something entirely different because you buy the book to read it and the publishers believe that the book will sell.

Renderosity, to me, is a waste of time.
People there are only interested in images with big breasts, period.
The more suggestive or nudity content, the greater the views.
If I left up the ballerina pic, it would have been the image with the most views for me.
It was put up to prove a point. Close to 400 in less than 2 days. Anything else barely makes
a hundred after several days.
When (*NUDITY*) is mentioned in the title, they flock to it like flies around a shitpile.
Anybody can do nudity. You don't even have to know anything about Poser. All you have to
do is load in a default female character with arms out and click Render. If you want to be "creative"
add some props and voila, you are the "Ooooo and Ahhhhh" master.
That's bullshit  

If you are not on someone's favourite artist list, nobody looks at what you do over there, no matter how good it is.
I don't have anything against Renderosity, but I find most people very immature over there.
There is no "problem" that I am aware of. I have mentioned things in the past concerning my views on the 3D art scene. It appears to be crawling with thieves trying to make money from someone else's efforts.

What I was trying to say is that I have learned NOTHING from the mainstream 3D forums, absolutely nothing, because there were/are not any individuals to tell me how I could improve any of my images.
Postwork is a waste of time because of the speech bubbles covering up the props and a lot of other things.
The forums were supposed to be a place where I thought that I could get feedback from people who looked at my efforts. The group of people in all sites combined was quite small out of hundreds of people.
This is not about me getting comments, patting me on the back or feeding my ego or becoming famous.
I have asked for opinions on images and received little or no feedback whatsoever.
You won't get famous on any Poser site.
Your images might make people look, but they also make people ignore you.
I don't have any expectations from my work and maybe that is the problem.
All the images that I have posted were for the benefit of my friends.

The only way I know to improve my skill is to read a lot of tutorials, only Virtualsite gave me some good suggestions at the very beginning. The truth is that the "arts" world is full of egomaniacs. If you suggest something to the author of a picture that looks like crap usually you can offend him, who fell him/herself like the new Michelangelo... So the reaction is to say nothing and live happily.

(I'm not saying that your picture are crap   )

P.S. Where is your old avatar    ?

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P.P.S.

The real purpouse of the "Poser" sites is not to teach something but to sell a lot in their store, so you told me nothing new saying that you've learned nothing, all is finalized to the store and the bannermania.

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I know that I haven't told you anything new, it just doesn't make a whole lot of
sense, that is all.

What old avatar ?  
Hmmm...there have been many of late...

Me banging my head in the corner wearing a dunce cap ?
or...
The John Holmes one with two interested females probing around "below the equator" ?
(my personal favourite which YOU, Tormentor, put in...)
or...
the dead Godzilla with the R.I.P. ?

You'll have to tell me which one, cuz I don't know which one you are talking about.

Quote:

my personal favourite which YOU, Tormentor, put in..

ME ?  :?

  I made nothing, maybe the norwegian guy who has access to the administration panel   ....

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Or a ghost  

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Sigh.... Sigh... I'm not guilty of everything wrong here   !

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Ken likely doesn't know who J. Holmes is...
(If he finds out, he might be ruined pschologically)

However, you do...so don't try and BS me, "Dave"  

I can confirm that my close friend TORMENTOR did nothing, you've to trust me...

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keep your friends close, and your enemies closer

I got Capone and now I'm gonna get you Corleone...

If history has taught us anything, it's that you can kill anybody

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keep your friends close, and your enemies closer

Mmmh... Tormie Tormie... You are earning a lot of candies in your casino'... And you said me nothing    ... It's not good.... Where is my percentage ?

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keep your friends close, and your enemies closer