Chveya

Daaaaaaaaamn. Good job slowing the car down, guardrail!

Except that ... .... Oh.

But our characters didn't speak to moogles. An NPC did.

I've apologized to you twice now. What do you want, blood? I don't see any reason to go into mad-specific details when I post a piece of artwork. If you -want- them, ask for them. You didn't. You asked how long it took. I'm not a mind-reader; I have no idea what you really MEAN when you ask me something. All I can do is answer what you ASKED. I don't need a disclaimer when I'm posting a -picture- that I created, using a program and resources that I own. That's like posting a painting, and adding "Oh, but I didn't make the paint, or the canvas! Sorry!"

Tadir, this is very simple. You have no right to judge ANYONE'S art, but your own. You have the right to decide if you like it, or not. You have the right to choose if you wish to look at it. You have the right to raise a stink if I paint a picture EXACTLY like the Mona Lisa and try to claim it's mine. But you DO NOT have the right to say, "This isn't art", and moreso, you haven't got the right to say I'm giving anyone a bad name because I choose to make pretty pictures as a hobby in my spare time. What one man considers graffiti and an eyesore, another considers art. What one man considers yet another trite photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge, another considers art. What one man considers a crappy photoshop job, another considers art. None of those people MADE their medium. But they all created something from it that spoke of who they are, and neither you, nor I, nor f'in' God himself has the right to judge that. And if you -really- went to any sort of reputable art or design school, you'd have had that hammered into your head before your freshman year was over. Now, as I said -- I may not have been clear enough. I'm used to people understanding immediately that I am using pre-created materials. I apologize to anyone who hasn't been exposed to these sorts of creations, or had anyone explain how they're made. But I will never apologize to you -- ESPECIALLY not with your sort of attitude -- because I make something that makes me HAPPY. You will never have the right to tell me I am not creating art. Even if all I'm doing is setting a dandelion on fire and taking a Polaroid -- art isn't something anyone else can dictate. It comes from inside you, and you alone.

Terribly sorry if you're feeling butt-hurt that I'm utilizing tools that are provided and sold for the program. But I do not agree with you that I am not creating art; until you can convince me that a photograph is not art, I will continue to abide by that belief. You are correct, I did not create the model or texture the items. But I put them together in a way that -I- chose, and I chose and arranged lighting, pose, camera angle, cropping, and postwork -- which is more work than any idiot with a camera (which includes me) puts into half of their photos. Convince me that someone's photograph of a famous building or bridge or landmark isn't art, and you might have a leg to stand on. Until then, you're getting yourself tied in a knot because "omg people are doing what I do only they don't have to work at it". It's a hobby. Tough shit if I don't put the amount of work you do into it. I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression. I didn't think I was that vague, but I'll be more clear in the future. I assumed specifying that my set-up included choosing models and items, and not texturing and modeling (as well as specifying that I'd need to obtain resources, instead of create them) got the point across.

I use Daz Studio, which is essentially Poser. Tell me; how am I being made to look bad, by creating art which makes me happy? Is it "not real art"? Does it "take no talent"? Or are you somehow offended that I take models which are pre-created and sold, and use them for their intended purpose -- to create a digital, 3D image? Please, do tell me what I'm doing wrong that so offends you. Nothing entertains me more than being told my art isn't up to someone else's standards. I don't make it for you, so tell me why I should care.

I'm going to add this one as an attachment (if the filesize works) and see if that's easier than spoiler-ing them.[attachment=0] Have to save it at a lower quality than I like, but hey.

I'm an amateur nublet, so I'm gonna say -- I have no idea.

If I have everything I want / need for a piece, each one takes me anywhere from 1-3 hours. If I don't have what I need, and I have to go find it (I mean, pay for it! Yes!) it can take longer. The initial set-up part usually only takes me about 30-45 minutes total. Getting a model dressed, pick a skin, hair, eyes, pose, props. Usually I know what I want to do when I go into it, so that part is pretty quick. Usually, it's lighting and postwork that kicks my butt. Lighting can look GREAT in the pre-render, and look like crap later. So if I get lucky, I may only render the same piece three times -- one of those is usually to fix something I should've caught before, like in this one, I managed to miss her fingers clipping into her sleeve twice before I noticed it. I've had bad days, where I'll render something a dozen times before I get the lighting I want. And then postwork, if an image needs any -- anything from fixing a clipping issue, to adjusting lighting, to adding filters. This can take as long or as short as you want. The real time-sucker, when all is said and done, is getting your start-up materials. That takes ages. Now, people who really put time, money, effort and more time into this sort of thing can take 8-24 hours per piece. Sometimes the rendering alone (hair and shadows really makes it take forever) can take hours. I don't get quite that picky, nor do I have a program / machine that'll go to those lengths, so I'd say my average piece runs 2.5 hours per.

Thank you both. I'm working on a second for her.

I'm not sure I understand your comment, but in the blind assumption which artists are renowned for, I'll just say thank you.

I has taken it. (Freakin' ginormous pic placed behind spoiler for sanity's - and slow connection's - sake)

This is a key line, I believe. IF you are an RPer who prefers to mainly RP within your LS -- and that's awesome if you are! No judgements! -- then you may never see a problem. But IF you are an RPer who interacts with a broad spectrum of people, it's going to wind up being very limiting to, as the OP said, It's going to wind up being limiting more to yourself, than anyone else; but moreover, it's just rude. How do you know that their RP conflicts with yours right away? You don't. So if you and I, for example, are in an RP interaction, we might interact on and off casually for weeks before a conflict of storylines comes up. Do you suddenly *blink* that RP out of existence? However, if - as I said above - you prefer to limit your RP primarily to your LS and very close friends, you may never experience a problem. Just be aware that problems could arise, and you're just as much responsible for handling them respectfully as anyone else is.

I will never speak to you again.

To offer a different standpoint: I have a hard time taking too much of the games storyline as IC. Don't get me wrong -- I love game stories. But let me give an example. We'll use everyones love-to-hate stepchild, WoW. Shortly after the last expansion came out, my then-BF and I busted tail to get the leveling going. As is usually the case almost anywhere, you get better exp through quests, so we did those like crazy. There was a pretty important one, which earned you a snazzy and pretty awesome cutscene, an achievement, and was just plain badass. We enjoyed the crap out of it. Two months later, another couple in our guild was overheard ICly stating that they'd JUST COME FROM that event, and partaken in it, in-character. You can see where we ran into some troubles. How could my character have said it took place in her personal storyline, if someone else claimed it happened later? If my entire guild had experienced it at the same time, what made our storyline better or worse than another guild we might interact with, who placed said incident at a different point in their personal timeline? It started to make my brain do somersaults. So the point is, I love love love story-driven quests. But I absolutely cannot incorporate most of them into my characters story. Because it just plain feels stupid to me to say, "Oh my gosh I just came back from !!" when the rest of the group stares at me, because they did that EXACT SAME THING last week. That's a whole lotta 2 cents worth. >_> Sorry. I guess the short version is, I've never done what you're describing. But it does sound like it could be fun.

I do this a lot, too. (Though to be perfectly honest, half of that is because once I started, I'd sit there and read all of them, like a fat kid with a box of Honey Buns, until I'd gone through every single post. >_> )

If you say so. Awful lot of typing to insist you don't care about your blanket generalizations. Carry on.

on the right.

whole damn forest.

Ohgodcan'tbreathesendhelplololololol