On Mon, 01 May 2000 22:09:04 -0400, John VanSickle
<van### [at] erolscom> wrote:

>The criteria should be photorealism and artistic value.  IRTC
>winners should be considered first, of course.

"Of course," you say? 

That's nonsense, of course. IRTC winners are no more sacred than
anyone else. Placing special emphasis on a select group would be
unwise. Important works can easily be created outside the IRTC, or any
other similar group. Quality work should be recognized no matter where
it originates. Emphasizing one group of people - any group of people -
is unfair to everyone.

It seems that photorealism is one possible criterion, if only because
so many raytracing enthusiasts are trying to achieve it. However, it
certainly isn't required to produce a great work of art, or a valuable
rendering. In fact, when raytracing achieves *total* photorealism,
watch the value of photorealism drop into the gutter. It has it's
place, but it certainly isn't the only reason to value a work.

Artistic value is hard to define. Sort of like that old comment on
pornography: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." The
trouble is, artistic value is totally in the eye of the beholder. So
how does one go about selecting the works with the best *intrinsic*
artistic value? Do we ask a large group of people to vote on which
works have the most artistic value?

Voting brings up the concept of popularity. All too often when a large
group of people choose something, it's based upon nothing more than
popularity. It's perhaps the easiest quality to measure, but perhaps
the least deserving of additional recognition.

You seem to have overlooked one other quality that is often mentioned
when trying to rationalize what to honor in a hall of fame: Images
that represent an important historical breakthrough. One example of
this might the image that Ron Parker created with his custom
motion-blur patch of POV-Ray. As far as I know, this was the first
motion-blurred image created strictly with POV-Ray and no external
utilities. I think it was also an IRTC winner. It's the one with
mousetraps and yellow balls flying everywhere.

I don't really have a conclusion for all this, other than to say that
intelligently picking candidates for a hall of fame isn't an easy
task. I feel it's too easy to stick to some over-simplified rules and
miss out on a real gem of an image, simply because it didn't fit into
someone else's notion of greatness.

As always, please view my comments as fuel for discussion, and not the
final word by any means.

Later,
Glen Berry

( Remove the "7" from 7no### [at] ezwvcom to email me. )

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