1. I'm no prude, but
2. I think all the Poser Porn is kinda ruining things for us acceptance-wise as Deviant Artists (which, considering the name of the place, is a bit ironic, admittedly...)
This whole line of thought started last summer when a Poser-Hater thread bubbled up to the top of the Journal Portal list. "Oh, no" I thought. "The traditional artists are breaking out the torches and pitchforks to go after the New-Media-On-the-Block." Pretty inevitable. Tends to happen every time someone builds a better mouse-trap. The second reaction after "Wow!" is almost always "What? You too good to buy a cat?" Part of the job description of Old Media is to smack New Media around enough to keep it from getting too stuck on itself. You'll remember the tongue-lashing old Socrates gave his star-pupil Plato for wasting all his time on that new-fangled "writing stuff down" fad.
However, watching a good "What is Art?" debate seemed like fun that morning, so I clicked the link. I was surprised to find, however, that the role of "Old Media Taking New Media to Task for Not Putting Enough Originality and Effort into their Art" in this case was not being played by fiber artists taking a break from looming wool they'd lovingly sheared from the sheep they'd raised from little lambs and then hand-dyed with blackberries from their backyard. The role of skeptical curmudgeon steeped in tradition, sweat, and lore in this case was being filled by people who use a different 3d graphics program.
After taking the requisite break time required for the mandatory rolling of the eyes and uttering of sufficient repetitions of phrases like "oh, please," "as if" and "spare me," I read on. Upon visiting the home pages of some of the most vocal Poser-haters and groups that refused to sully themselves by displaying Poser-generated art, I found I could understand and even agree with a few parts of their argument.
The easiest part to understand was the stance of some of the administrators of 3d modeling groups. In their mission statements, these groups defined themselves as being dedicated to displaying the work of 3d modellers. I can see why 99.9% of Poser Art would not be appropriate for such groups. I mean, there's a reason why the program is called "Poser" not "Modeller." It's a crappy tool for modelling. I know this because I have tried. God knows, I have tried. Very, very, very, very, very, very few of us do anything that could be called "modelling" in Poser even using the loosest definition of that term you could imagine. So, yes, if I was the moderator for a 3d modelling group, I would probably just blanket-ban Poser artists to make life simpler for us all.
[So here's our first way to stem the tide of vitriol, fellow Poser artists. Don't submit to 3d modelling groups when you have not actually 3d modeled anything. That's just annoying. Stop that.]
Less understandable were the accusations that Poser-generated images inherently do not constitute original artwork because Poser artists do not create all, most, or even any of the models they render. Now had the Haters sculpted the gnomes, robots, and '67 Chevys in the renders they proudly displayed in their galleries from clay they dug up in their backyards, I might have been tempted to hang my head in shame at this point. However, let me put it this way -- Look, kewl dude, we're both using programs to make little pixel pictures that can be destroyed by a mis-aimed bulk magnet. Unless you knitted your computer and power it with a team of gerbils you trained, don't get artier-than-thou on me.
If you use a computer program to create your art... no, let me back that up even further, if you're using a computer to create your art, you're borrowing on the talents of others. A valid point to meditate on is how much credit are you obliged to give to those many, many people who made your art possible. If you use a Mac, do you need to give a shout out to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? If you use a PC, do you have to list Bill Gates and all the employees of the start-up Microsoft bullied out of business after they created the app that runs your desktop clock?
Was Van Gogh a plagiarist because he didn't scrawl the names of the companies who made his brushes or constructed his easel under his signature?
For computer artists, a knife to cut through this Gordian Knot is held in the hands of good old Eula -- the End User's Licensing Agreement that comes with every piece of software. According to the EULAs for Poser and all the models, textures, hair, set pieces, lights, cameras, and poses that I have purchased for my digital Barbies and their virtual Dream Houses, I have also bought the rights to compose, render, and publish pictures using that program and all those things. If I say that I created DAZ's Victoria 4, then that is false. If I try to sell the program code that makes her appear on my computer screen (or even give it away) then I am breaking the EULA that I agreed to when I installed the model on my computer and DAZ will come after my butt with a butcher knife. However, I have purchased the right to claim any picture I render of her as my very, unambiguously own.
So, did you get that, haters? The reason that I and all other Poser artists are not just a bunch of plagiarists that you need to be very upset that Deviant Art does not hunt down with the ban-hammer is because we have paid to license the virtual people, clothes, textures, poses, hair, gnomes, airplanes, and '67 Chevys that we use in our pictures. If we are using those resources in accordance with their respective EULAs, then we're good. Just like you.
And for those of you who think that Poser users need to conform to the same rules for crediting that digital artists do when they use stock footage -- no, not exactly. Standard licensing agreements for Poser and Poser accessories don't require crediting as a condition of usage. Some freebies do... sometimes.. but usually not.
I credit items when I want to give a shout out and some free publicity to my favorite content creators. I also credit when I think other Poser artists are going to be asking, "What outfit is that?" or "Where did you get that ship?"
[So we reach our second recommendation for Hater-non-baiting -- Credit stuff. I know I just explained why we don't have to, but it makes everybody happier when we do... especially Steve Wozniak's grandma.]
And another thing that really stuck in my craw was the notion that creating works in Poser was no more original than tracing. Tracing is copying someone else's work and passing it off as your own (or at least that was the way it was being using in this particular context). Exactly duplicating work another Poser artist has done is actually fairly difficult because we're manipulating so many different variables. This is true for the same reason that even though you can copy her recipe exactly, your peanut butter cookies never taste as good as the ones Grammy makes. There's just too many variables to account for. Things that she'd never think to write down (like fact that she lets her little poodle lick her bowls clean (sorry, but you know it's probably true..)) can give the final product a nuance your taste buds may register but your brain can never figure out.
To prove this, I've prepared the following demonstration.
I promise I'm giving the notion that you can use Poser to "trace" someone else's work as fair a shot as I can. I chose a circumstance where I would have far more access to the creative choices made by an outstanding Poser artist than is usually ever possible. Still what I came up with is discernibly different than the original I'm copying. Good Poser art is just too rich and complex to copy.
[Now we come to my third antidote to Poser-Hate, dear Poser Pals -- Create rich, detailed images that are too nuanced and complex to copy. We have the technology. We can do it. Also, while it's fine to be inspired by another artist's work, don't try to reproduce specific images -- even when you own all the props, morphs, and costumes to be able to try. It makes us all look like freaking "tracers."]
This thought finally (and perhaps a little surprisingly) brings us around to the issue I promised I was going to be talking about -- the porn. It is my considered opinion that Poser-Haters do not look at the work of digital artists like
or 
and think, "Oh, I could sit down in front of the computer and pump out something better than that in the first five minutes." However, when confronted with the teaming oceans of sorry-ass, low budget porn-crap that wash up on the beaches of Deviant Art each day like the stinking overflow of a leaking technicolor waste disposal plant, it's easy to see where the thought might occur (Right after thoughts like, "Sweet Jesus, what's that octopus doing to that lady?" or "Is that supposed to be boobs or two blimps colliding on her chest?" of course.)As I said, I'm no prude. I don't mind a well-executed bit of erotica every once in a while, but, Poser-pal, you and I both know that's not what we're talking about here. I realize that inside every male of the species who opens Poser for the first time, there seems to be a naughty thirteen-year-old boy who rises up and proclaims in Scarlett O'Hara-like fashion, "As God is my witness, I will never go without porn again!" But that doesn't mean you need to share every masterpiece of gynecological wonder you produce with the world. Develop some discretion -- That's all I'm asking. For practice, look at examples of photography on this very site. You can see a difference between the shots that creatively celebrate the human body and those that celebrate the owner of a camera's ability to slap his junk on the kitchen counter and snap an all-too-candid documentation of the event, can't you? One is art and one is best left in that special folder you've got hidden away inside the data folders for your copy of Quicken... especially if you're planning to run for public office.
Speaking of folders, let's create clearly labeled folders in which to store our bargain basement porn if we do decide to upload or favorite it so that casual visitors don't need brain and eyeball scrubbing after they drop in. I've visited many homepages of lonely fellows whose blogs bemoan the lack of female interest in their gentle, loving, Christian selves. Here's a thought, sport -- Maybe all the otherwise likely lasses have visited your gallery and are too busy wondering about your interest in seeing the favorite female comic book heroines of your youth sodomized by robots that vaguely recall '67 Chevys to go out with you.
Speaking of labeled folders, stop submitting poorly rendered pictures of the favorite female comic book heroines of your youth with their bosoms enlarged to proportions that are no longer recognizably human tied up and being violated by the glorified kitchen appliance of your choice to groups unless that group has a folder that unambiguously calls for works of that description. Despite the fact that there's a lot of similar stuff out there, what you have produced is not run-of-the-mill digital art that is of general interest to the viewing public. It has appeal to only a specific, select, niche market. Seek out like-minded individuals and spare group moderators the embarrassment of having to explain that we are declining your image because it makes us want to hit ourselves in our faces with clubs and despair for the future of the human race.
Speaking of labeled folders in groups (and this was the incident that inspired this entire lecture), I ran across an innocently titled group for 3d science fiction renders the other day. Its gallery consisted of three -- and only three -- folders labeled: Featured, Violent, and Explicit. This was an entirely new way of breaking down the genre into sub-categories for me. I left wondering if Larry Niven and Issac Asimov's works were more violent or explicit. Maybe "I, Robot" and "Ringworld" are lucky enough to just be featured...
To be clear, let me reiterate, I've got nothing against pictures with nekkid folks in them. However, featuring nekkid, violent crap in your images that does little more than explore how high you can dial the boob-size controls and how well you can pose kitchen appliances makes the crappiest of your crap even crappier. This is not the stuff you should share with the world.
In conclusion, as the sage has said, haters gonna hate. Nothing we can do about that. No matter how impressive our art gets, there are going to be people out there who are never going to accept it. Ask American Soccer and Women's Basketball -- some folks are just never going to take us seriously. However, let's stop going out of our way to stoke the flames of their distaste and disdain.
Live long and Poser!