Little Art Rant

[GuyFreely]

Don't mind me, just something I find interesting. I didn't want to post in the Daz art thread and sidetrack it severely. So I posted the below picture in the art thread. It was just your regular 'let's piss around and make a little scene' kind of thing. It was actually miles away from what I intended to make when I started, but I hated the way the clothes looked, etc. So I gave up and just made this.

Anyway, to the point, this post got 'a lot' (imo) of likes. The thing I find funny about that is that I spent minimum effort on this shot. If you take away all the time I spent trying things I didn't like which you can't see in the shot anyway, here's basically what it is:

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If I had to recreate it from scratch, knowing ahead of time how it looked, I could probably do it in...five minutes? The thing I find interesting is that people post shots of custom characters in hand built environments with detailed lighting, etc. and get way less likes. Now I guess any discussion of 'art' and what people like is highly subjective, but it makes you wonder. I guess I just like to see effort rewarded and it feels like I just slapped this shot together and people liked it a lot. I know I've posted shots I spent hours putting together to less likes.

I guess working on a VN right now that I'm pretty sure will be fairly niche, it makes me understand why people who are trying to make a living from this stuff go for the low hanging fruit as it were. You could just pump out some cookie cutter crap more quickly and people will like it better in the end. Maybe I'm over analyzing this, I tend to do that. Maybe I should take my likes and shut up. Thoughts?

 

[uradamus]

If I had to guess, it's the face she's making that won people over; that's the only thing that stands out to me at first glance. The way she's looking at the camera with those eyes and that sly little smirk is really easy to fall for.

 

[GuyFreely]

If I had to guess, it's the face she's making that won people over; that's the only thing that stands out to me at first glance. The way she's looking at the camera with those eyes and that sly little smirk is really easy to fall for.

Okay, more sexy smirks, got it.

Just for you, @uradamus . Little grainy, but whatever.

 

[uradamus]

Heh, nice. To me, faces are always the most important. I can overlook most issues with a woman's body, within reason, as long as she has a face that appeals to me. Humans are basically hardwired to focus on faces and read their expressions for the subtle cues that give away their emotional state and reactions. So they should always be among any character artists top priorities as far as areas to put the most effort into getting right.

I feel a lot of Daz artists tend to slack in this regard and I think that may be one of the leading contributing factors in why it often has the uncanny valley stigma around it. So many renders have stiff or unnaturally overdone facial expressions that look like they belong on a really bad actor in a low budget community theater production.

It's a good idea for anyone looking to improve this aspect of their work to start collecting reference material specifically for facial expressions that get sorted by the emotions they are portraying. This can include images snagged from web searches, pics from porn sites, or even screenshots from games/movies/tv/etc when you run across facial expressions you really like. A small hand mirror is also a good investment that'll let you use yourself as a reference when all else fails. I picked up a cheap little plastic shaving mirror meant for camping that I always keep within reach here on my desk.

 

[HopesGaming]

The thing is, players of a game are not always artist themselves. They care if it looks good It can be 5 mins or 2 hours. Someone who doesn't work with daz3d can't tell the difference.

I noticed many times that the biggest critiques of renders are devs or other daz3d artists, and it's usually minor stuff which many consumers do not even care about.
Of course, they will know what is generic and not, and they can tell good quality from the bad ones. They just don't go into the technical level.

That's why it's best to not focus too much on how a technical marvel your renders are going to be. Just make them something you like and is going to be liked. No matter the time it takes to make it.

 

[thecardinal]

You could either go two ways with this

a) Like any true artist, you commit a well-intentioned deception, creating great works through experience and easy methods.

b) Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.

 

[GuyFreely]

You could either go two ways with this

a) Like any true artist, you commit a well-intentioned deception, creating great works through experience and easy methods.

b) Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.

I would never call myself an artist. I like to think I 'have an eye for it' in some sense. It's surely not the first well-liked post I've made there, but it may be my most liked post. I can say for sure it's the highest ratio of effort to likes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯