"Neil Kolban" <kol### [at] kolbancom> wrote in message 
news:41eb07ef@news.povray.org...
> Folks,
> I have bunches of ideas for rendering projects that I would like to
> experiment with.  My question is kinda subtle ...
>
> Do you consider it "cheating" to use 3D models from the web that are other
> peoples work as part of your composition?  For example, there are many 
> great
> models at www.3dcafe.com and others.  Is it common practice to take these
> models and combine them with our own to build scenes?  Is that considered
> poor practice and that to be considered a "good POV-Rayer" we should be
> building our own models?
>
> What about for competitions like the IRTC?
>


The quick answer is "no".  From what I've seen, it's not considered cheating 
to use 3rd party models.

The longer answer is that it depends on who you ask.  If you read Gilles 
Tran's list of 3rd party models for "The Wet Bird", which is probably the 
most popular POV-Ray image ever created, you'll see a lot of 3rd party 
models were used 
(http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/gt_city.txt).  However, the 
image itself is not simply based on 3rd party models.  He had to do a lot of 
work.  One cannot simply throw a bunch of things into a scene and have it 
look that good.  So, obtaining and using free models (or pay models) is not 
generally frowned up, but it's also not lauded.  Using that same example, 
some of the people in the IRTC did not like the fact that Gilles did not 
create his own models 
(http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/comments/gt_city.comments).

My personal feeling is that a lot of the models available from the Web 
aren't very good, though there are some exceptions.  Then there are some 
things that I simply cannot seem to create by myself, like humans, in which 
case grabbing a 3rd party model is the only real option.  I like to make 
things myself because I enjoy the experience, and because it gives me more 
flexibility.  If I can't do it myself, or don't want to spend the time, then 
I'd grab a model.

Overall, I would suggest that you don't simply grab a model and make it the 
main focus of your image, but even then, there are exceptions.  Many people 
here have used Poser models as the main subject of their images.  So, in the 
end I guess it depends on what you do with the model.  Redoing the textures 
on the '57 Chevy , and putting it on a flat surface isn't going to impress 
very many people here, but this 
(http://www.oyonale.com/ldc/english/chevys.htm) will.

As with most things, it's subjective.  Use your best judgement.

-- 
Jeremy
www.beantoad.com

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