the title says it all,
this website can be kind one moment and cruel the next.

Im not new to the furry fandom, I've been in it for over 15 years.
but recently I actually started to contribute to it, with 3D artwork.
Ill admit they were not masterful, but I felt they were decent.

decent enough that I wanted to share them and see what others thought.
Of course some people didnt like them, I expected that.
but a few others seemed to like them, i got a few hearts and a few upvotes and I was feeling good.
I started experimenting with lighting and rendering techniques, trying to find the best style to make my characters pop.
I felt like I was on the right track. my art still wasnt at the master level, but I felt like I was moving in the right direction.

then today I pull up the site and find that all of my pics have been deleted. .the reason given? "does not meet quality standard".
I feel crushed.
I liked this site because I had hopes of posting animations I was making.
I felt good that some people liked my work. I was over the moon when some people evn left comments.
Now they're gone. I still have the originals, yes.
But I dont if I want to keep working on them.

I guess I'm writing this to vent my frustration that this site has no examples of what they consider the "quality standard" for art.
especially 3D art.
had I known that my art would just be removed a week after I posted it, I wouldnt have bothered.

Im not a master artist.
Im not using a program that can render zootopia level characters.
I was learning and improving, having fun, and starting to feel welcome in the community.

Guess my mistake was thinking my art was good enough.

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you.

I encourage you to continue improving your artwork, as it sounds like you enjoy making it.
If you're still wanting to share your art, I'd suggest a site like FurAffinity. Their upload policies are less strict and should let you share your early work.
Don't let negative feedback feel like a personal attack, and remember to make art for your own sake.

Finally, I hope you know that you're still welcomed in the community. You're of the small minority that keeps this community alive through art, so thank you.

No, your real mistake is in thinking you are personally being rejected, if you'll pardon my lack of tact. You're not. We want your art on e621.

The more quality art produced can only enrich us all. If your art doesn't make it onto e621, it's not a punishment nor a rejection. It's because we know you can do better. We want your best art, not necessarily a Zootopia-level masterpiece, but something that shows off your skills to best effect. We want your good stuff, even if it hasn't been made yet.

I know what it's like to have my art not approved for not meeting site standards. I certainly went through quite a few stiffly-worded drafts before finally bleeding (hopefully) all of my hurt out of the final DMail I sent to the staff who'd not approved it to politely ask what had been wrong with the picture. They were kind enough to give me useful feedback, and you know what? They were right.

So, I did better.

First, I sincerely thanked them for the feedback and then took it. I remade the picture from scratch, and it was subsequently accepted. This can indeed also be you. Gopher it.

clawstripe said:
No, your real mistake is in thinking you are personally being rejected, if you'll pardon my lack of tact. You're not. We want your art on e621.

The more quality art produced can only enrich us all. If your art doesn't make it onto e621, it's not a punishment nor a rejection. It's because we know you can do better. We want your best art, not necessarily a Zootopia-level masterpiece, but something that shows off your skills to best effect. We want your good stuff, even if it hasn't been made yet.

I know what it's like to have my art not approved for not meeting site standards. I certainly went through quite a few stiffly-worded drafts before finally bleeding (hopefully) all of my hurt out of the final DMail I sent to the staff who'd not approved it to politely ask what had been wrong with the picture. They were kind enough to give me useful feedback, and you know what? They were right.

So, I did better.

First, I sincerely thanked them for the feedback and then took it. I remade the picture from scratch, and it was subsequently accepted. This can indeed also be you. Gopher it.

then I think they should have examples of what is the quality standard they set for 3D art.
yes my characters didnt have individual fur and hair foliculs, the program I use cant handle that.
not to mention that they were shorthaired black panthers mostly, so I didnt think I needed that level of detail and could get away with Just a 2D texture for their fur.

last night I also realized that some of the pics had actuallly passed the approval process but were still deleted, why is that?

I just feel that not enough info is giving as to what their quality standards are.
I felt like i had reached their goals only to have them pulled out from under me.

notuncommon said:
I'm sorry to hear that happened to you.

I encourage you to continue improving your artwork, as it sounds like you enjoy making it.
If you're still wanting to share your art, I'd suggest a site like FurAffinity. Their upload policies are less strict and should let you share your early work.
Don't let negative feedback feel like a personal attack, and remember to make art for your own sake.

Finally, I hope you know that you're still welcomed in the community. You're of the small minority that keeps this community alive through art, so thank you.

Thank you for the sympathy.

I do have an FA account already.
the problem is that I get very few hits since my art is 3D.
it at least felt like my art was reaching more people here.

Also FA has stupidly unreasonably small file limits for animations.
so anything other than flash or a 2 second video cant be uploaded there.
I have a rough animation that i had posted that is over 5 minutes long.

I probably wont stop making art, but Ill slow down for a bit.
as dumb as it sounds, this has been a bit of a blow to my ego

Well, I don't think I ever got to see your art, since I always browse with a "score:>24" tag, anyway, I am sorry to hear what happened, I hope it doesn't discourage you from making more and eventually making great stuff. Also, if you are looking for a professional grade 3d graphic engine, I suggest Blender, I can't tell you the amount of features it has, it can basically do 99% of the things you will ever want, and it is completely free, it is also open source, so even more features are available through the community.

For reference:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36505220/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37130299/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37979845/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39341564/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39797085/

These were listed as sources on the deleted posts.
While I do feel sympathy for you here, and I do agree that the "quality standards" are often vague and open to the approver's interpretation...
... I'm not terribly surprised that those were removed.

Did you make those models yourself, or did you find them somewhere?

bitwolfy said:
For reference:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36505220/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37130299/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37979845/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39341564/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39797085/

These were listed as sources on the deleted posts.
While I do feel sympathy for you here, and I do agree that the "quality standards" are often vague and open to the approver's interpretation...
... I'm not terribly surprised that those were removed.

Did you make those models yourself, or did you find them somewhere?

I made them myself.
i know theyre basic, but i didnt think they were bad enough to get removed.

azero said:
Well, I don't think I ever got to see your art, since I always browse with a "score:>24" tag, anyway, I am sorry to hear what happened, I hope it doesn't discourage you from making more and eventually making great stuff. Also, if you are looking for a professional grade 3d graphic engine, I suggest Blender, I can't tell you the amount of features it has, it can basically do 99% of the things you will ever want, and it is completely free, it is also open source, so even more features are available through the community.

blender is a bit out of my skill range at the moment, not to mention my computer would probably explode.
the post below you has some links to my FA page and the art that was removed, if youre truly curious.

gameguy199 said:
Thank you for the sympathy.

I do have an FA account already.
the problem is that I get very few hits since my art is 3D.
it at least felt like my art was reaching more people here.

Also FA has stupidly unreasonably small file limits for animations.
so anything other than flash or a 2 second video cant be uploaded there.
I have a rough animation that i had posted that is over 5 minutes long.

I probably wont stop making art, but Ill slow down for a bit.
as dumb as it sounds, this has been a bit of a blow to my ego

Gonna be blunt and honest here, your art doesn't get a lot of feeback on FA just because is 3D. Your render is pretty bad in general, the materials on characters still looks like plastic, the lighting is pretty boring, and the angles of each shot can be way better, if it cannot compete with the spam of gmods being posted there, its very hard it gets attention. And you don't need Zootopia fur textures to get something decent.

Now, im not saying you should stop working on it, im saying you still can improve a lot and here are some recommendations...

Study about materials in 3D softwares and learn what each parameter do.

Study about lighting and their parameters, a hint is studying about 3 points lighting, which includes the use and balance between "ambiental light" and "directional light" .

In the case your pc cannot support heavy renders, study about cel shaded / toon render.

Take a look at some good movies and study each detail of shots and scenes that gets your attention, the angle, the camera lens, the lighting, the position of charavters and elements of the background, what does the shot want to tell, what does the shot want to focus.

Another exercise is trying to replicate a movie shot having all these details in mind.

And something very important, look at other individual 3D artists that does a very good job in your opinion and think to yourself, how can you manage to do something like that.

gameguy199 said:
Im not using a program that can render zootopia level characters.

I took at look at those links bitWolfy posted of your renders.

3/5 of them look like a render from the viewport, with shading turned off. The other two look like rendering from a game engine from 2008. Saying it cannot render Pixar movie level quality is a extremely massive understatement. A more accurate statement is that it cannot compete with CGI adverts from the last millennium.

What program are you using precisely?

gameguy199 said:
blender... my computer would probably explode.

Unless your computer is also from the last millennium, your computer should be able to run blender. Your renders will just be slower. Google the system/recommended requirements for the software, and exceed them. Do without something to save up for upgrades or a new computer and just give that Gateway 2000 PC to your grandmother. (Don't actually do that, its a joke, buy your grandmother a real computer. She deserves better.)

gameguy199 said:
blender is a bit out of my skill range at the moment

This is precisely your issue here. Your skill level is too low. Address this issue instead of ignoring it. Download and learn blender. A program like blender should not perplex you to the point of full stop if you are competent. Competence is what the e621 administrators are looking for. The bare minimum, I.E, Minimum Quality Standards.

Examples of some famous alternatives, if you absolutely hate blender, are 3ds Max, Maya, Source Filmmaker, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, MikuMikuDance. All equally as hard as blender to learn.

Most of all, be patient. It will take you years, if not an entire decade to be competent, and constant maintenance of your skills after that.

What program are you using precisely?

Im using a Program called Virt-a-mate which was originally designed for just human on human porn, but i found morphs to adapt it.
the reason I use this program as opposed to others is because Virt-a-mate works with VR headsets, allowing me to move around the space Im creating in a way that is more natural to me, rather than draging a 3D shape on a 2D screen with my mouse.

gameguy199 said:
Im using a Program called Virt-a-mate which was originally designed for just human on human porn, but i found morphs to adapt it.
the reason I use this program as opposed to others is because Virt-a-mate works with VR headsets, allowing me to move around the space Im creating in a way that is more natural to me, rather than draging a 3D shape on a 2D screen with my mouse.

You can use Graphics Tablet, Pen display, or a 3dconnection Mouse as an alternative if you are that desperate to avoid using the mouse/keyboard to complete your work.

Frankly, Virt a mate is not good enough for standalone rendering. You still have a lot to learn anyway, and you are absolutely kneecapping yourself by using a program that is basically just an over glorified animator ui and morph sliders strapped onto the unity engine.

Your computer should be able to eat blender for breakfast if it can push a VR headset, especially if you use the Eevee render. Minus well learn to use the real thing, and get over your phobia of mouse/keyboard. Otherwise you will be extremely dependent on ONE software and rarely supported niche hardware. (hint: most artist use more than one software, and their mouse and keyboard is compatible with most/all of it) to do work at all until the unlikely or not very soon chance that the big boys will support VR past rendering 3d side by side video. On top of that, you will STILL have not only have to relearn a new program, but stuff that virt a mate is not capable of doing without other software, like complex shading, advanced rendering, UV mapping, Texturing, Actual modeling (Not just morph sliders) rigging, and even programing to a certain extent. Therefore wasting huge amounts of time, upto years of relearning. Meanwhile your art is below amateur level.

Also, I own a Valve Index. Yes, I do know how game changing Virtual Reality is. You don't have to bring it up.

leon_neon said:

this guy is blocked so recently… i mean now that i think about it at some point everyone who is banned is banned recently… anyway,

you would think it got grandfathered in, once i was talking about how really old posts were not tagged well, and they said they should be kept as they are. Personally, i don't like 3d, but I can sill feel where your coming from.

I really just began, out of curiosity, to look at older topics of the forum, like this one. I admit that it very intersting and I having a lot of fun... and on the process, I discover the "general ambiance" of this site.

(And I grateful of seeing this specific topic, to resist the impulse of posting my amateurish / "piñata" animations of mine done in Blender, until I can produce something better)

xD.

(Really, having a really good time reading all these topics... wealth of information, too).