On several occasions, I have mentioned to you that I was going to quit 3D art.
I thought about that and came close  a few times.
What I am about to say has nothing to do with the number of views or comments that
I have received over the course of time while posting to several forums.
It has been rewarding to see that my characters and series have been enjoyed and accepted by many different people and conversely, rejected  by a greater majority for whatever the reason.
Last year I had something to prove to just about everyone.
Almost immediately,  I had a fan club which was very flattering and I was eager to please these new found friends.  I am not speaking about my friends here on this site or PoserPros, but another site.
The ideas were coming into my head faster than I could render them out. There seemed to be no end to what scenarios and what lengths that  I would go to put my characters into a scene.
 To make my renders as unique as possible, I made special models that took many hours of work, that only showed up in my own art.  Some thought that it was selfish and that I should give something back because I used other people's free models in my renders.  I gave something back to these model creators and that was by using props and characters that were unpopular or considered useless by others and gave them some new life by not stereotyping them.
Godzilla is  a good example.
I also chose the P4 woman as the basis for my characters, just to be different.
Over time, Connie, Bonnie and other characters developed their own personalities.

Anyway, what I say next may sadden some people, but it is a choice that I have made.
After October 31, my characters will no longer be appearing as frequently as they have done so in the past. In fact, they may show up around Christmas or never again.

I still enjoy making the images, I am just not eager to  show them in public forums as I have in the past.
Nobody has "gotten" to me or anything like that.
The amount of enjoyment is the same whether I share the images  or I do not.
There is nothing for me to prove to anyone out there and less for  me to gain by posting everything that I do.
It is always gratifying to receive views and the comments from my friends.
At some point you begin to feel that others merely look at you efforts for ideas or for other less obvious reasons.  My frequent post have likely  caused people to become bored and tired of my  posts.
I guess I will never know.

I will still bug you guys to death and will still be around whenever I can.
You will just have to make do without my images in the galleries.

No more gas tanks   ?

No more gas tanks, knockers, balloons, boobs, juggs, hooters, headlights, coconuts, baps, puppies, funbags, bazoomers, bazookas, melons, nips, yabos and winnebagos, just to name a dozen and a half terms  

I will continue to make images with my existing  and new characters along with  new props and models.
I have put too much time and effort into Poser and Anim8or to simply walk away.  That would be foolish.

It is good to share, but I should  have content that remains unseen except for  selected individuals receiving something in their email.

Would that explain the mysterious 'I give up...' in your sig?  :

It's not mysterious at all. I change my avatar and sig from time to time or add to it. Most people don't even notice. If they do, they don't say anything.
It goes with the territory I suppose.

The world will not fall apart or come to abrupt end if I don't post any more of my art.  I know some who will be elated by this.

The site wars with the merchants and artists competing for dollars is boring and takes a lot of the fun and meaning out of art for me.
What I have observed over the last few months has made me think very differently about some of these communities.

I believe that you Ken,  GP and Tormentor can make money at this someday because your art touches a lot of people with its sometimes controversial content and other artists are slowly accepting you for your abilities.
Ozy could do so as well, if he could find the time.

I raise my glass to Tormentor for having the balls to make a non-commercial
site and keep it a fun place to escape to.  We don't have a lot of members, but the members who contribute here make it a worthwhile place to hangout.

Thank you Den   , very little time before the "gallery emergency", I was writing something about the commercial wars site against site.
It's ok for me to have some banners or a shop if they are useful to mantain the forum or the gallery (not here anyway   ) but, on the contrary  *ALL* the forums and/or galleries I know are made only to sell more and more in the shop or to make you look at the banners. When I understood that the owners of these sites built them *NOT* for the love of art but only to use art for making money it hurt me: I want to discuss with my friends without having to see banners, and it is why this little place was made. I invited a lot of persons here but only few ( ) are stll active users but I'm having a lot of fun anyway and I've learned a lot from the particular kind of art of everyone here, even if my specialty are dirty jokes, dark humour, surrealistic situations and teasing    ... It's pleasant when one meets persons who understand his/her way of thinking (if they agree or not it's not too much important for me)

Talking about your pictures, simply paint them when you're inspired... I passed a long time without doing nothing because I didn't have the time or uninspired because of "concrete" problems...

I don't have problems with a site making money on the products that they offer for sale. I have noticed that if you are not a merchant, mod or admin on some sites, you won't get anywhere no matter how hard you try unless you have something in the "shop".
You will never make it to artist of the week. I have noticed that only mods and merchants are showcased as the big stars.
There is nothing wrong with that philosophy, but I don't think that it is fair to the non-merchants.
Also, if you are  a non-merchant, the merchants will have little or nothing to do with you.
This is what I have noticed on pretty much every site, so it is not just on one or two of them.

I stopped partecipating in "official" contests because I suspected the same thing. And because most of my pictures are made with free stuff I think it's hard to win something for me  

Well Den. I for one will be sorry to see your lovable (and not so lovable) characters less. Your sense of humour is often irreverent and usually sharp and gives me a good chuckle on most occasions. And your serious art is very good.

But do keep hanging around. Maybe if I can finally get my business to go broke, I'll get the time I want to spend on my hobbies and try to fill the considerable void you'll leave just joking.

As for the site wars and merchant battles, etc I can't be bothered to participate of even care for the most part. Sometimes the banter is amusing for a while, but it gets personal and looses any fun very quickly. And I'm here for the fun. People take all this way too seriously. I know for some it's their business and their livelihood, but if I treated my associates and business opposition the way these guys do, I'd be run out of town in a few months. There is no respect, it seems to me.  

Anyway, that's my two cents worth. I don't see me ever being a merchant or running a Poser store, so I guess I'll remain with you guys as one of the great 'unwashed' and observe from the sidelines.  

I'll also be missing seeing your art [less frequent]. You don't go with the hype, keeping your pics original in one way or another, and that's why I like them.
You'll hopefully chuck up one every now and then to keep us happy though  

Thanks Ken, Ozy and Tormentor.

Remember...Pictures have a habit of showing up in emails      

This decision was made last month, after I showed Micky the "goings on", refusals to post some of my images and other things.
Not being a merchant or buying anything means that commercial sites  can do without you because you are using up valuable bandwidth and not supporting the site.  
Why bother to publicly show images to the majority of people who don't like you and have zero interest in what you do, no matter what it is ?
...and give all of your content away for free ?

Too many non-contributing lurkers and people with their noses out of joint for me.

I believe that if there was someone like Simon from American Idol giving critiques, 90% of the "artists" would never post again.  
(I can be so bad at times     )

Hate to stop when I'm "on a roll", but I am using up valuable bandwith !
     

Quote:

Hate to stop when I'm "on a roll", but I am using up valuable bandwith

No problems Den, You know I accept dollars, euros, gold, checks, butts  


eheheh! No bandwidth problems here ! We're about at 10% of the availability  

I was only kidding about using up bandwidth.  

Will miss your work...but admire your taking the course of 'doing what you feel like doing' stand.  I have often thought of trashing it all, even had thoughts during my long down time after the computer crash of just setting up a work station and forgetting online and the Internet....no reason, but just got the thought that "Hey, I can live without it".
As to the Store Wars, this BS has been going on and off, switching from one location to another...and It is splitting up the 3d graphic community with it's childish tantrums.  When I first joined the Poser communities, I don't think there was much of a store at all. If I remember right the 'Rosity store more or less built up from some of the creators offering to sell some of their items to help defray some of the cost of keeping the website up and running. First thing you know it is a commercial site and the wares of the store  rule the way things are done.
I have done full circle and am navigating back to the basic Poser4 characters and the great items made for them. I spent big bucks for some of the Millenium characters, but no more...I very seldom use them anymore.
I think I am getting off the thread so will just close off and wish you luck and success in whatever course you take, Den.

MondoJake:

It's good to know that one's efforts will be missed.  Things never used to
be the way they are now, until the sites could make money by offering items for sale. This led to competition and greed. Art was a secondary interest and now appears to be of no interest at all.  
At one time I used to enjoy sharing, but today I posted one last pic. I was going to do a few Hallowe'en pix but that won't happen.
Your comment about "Hey, I can live without it" fits perfectly.
I never used commercial products because there was enough free stuff available and I could make my own models when necessary.
Don't worry about being off topic, we are all experts in thread derailment.