The guys at work are sharing
this link, which displays the work of artists using a computer program to add detail to their CG models.
OK. I like detail as much as the next guy. As an artist, I do believe one of the hallmarks of quality is an attention to detail. But I need to clarify. There’s detail, and then there’s detailporn. Detail for the detail-obsessed, people who get off on detail alone. These guys feel the need to model every pebble in a scene, every brick in a wall, every wrinkle and pore on a face. That is the bar to these guys, the indicator of Quality. It’s got lots of wrinkles. Therefore, it must be good.
There is a lot of skill that goes into building all that detail, sure, but at some point you cross over from being an artist to being a technician, and beyond that, into someone that’s left the artistic process behind. You might as well be a camera.
Quality is in the details, but so is the devil. You have to choose what details to put in and which ones to leave out. 5 well-placed bricks represent a brick wall much more effectively than every single brick with every single crack and mortarline. A few wrinkles around the mouth, nose, and eyes will convey age. You don’t need to wrinkle every square inch of skin as in the example above. You can go too far.
See the examples below. On the left are the original photos. On the right are versions I put through a filter to make the details stand out. Does MORE detail = MORE quality?
Blech. I much prefer the ones on the left. And it’s not that I object to wrinkles, mind you. I have quite a few myself. But when it comes to detail, a meal is as good as a feast.
But when I say things like this, it’s easy for me to get branded the Anti-Quality guy. I deny it. Quality comes through the decisions you make as an artist. Remember, you can’t keep everything; where would you put it?
