Model Making, is it good to use ones imagination ?

As the title says. I will explain

On a website off Roleplay Gateway, Several people like ot design starships in some form of 3D model making software to make their own fleets. if you look up on DA you'll find loads of starship models, be it from Stargate, Star trek or Star Wars or anywhere really. Sometimes people want to work outside the box and make a really big starship, they want to make make it not just a dream of sheer size alone, but a realistic dream of something large enough to fill a role they have in mind.

Now, this is not a bad thing, I know of three people that make starships for their factions and fleets. I do it too! However, there are some that think it is all what is termed "Fanwank" which means it is seriously over the top, or some other crap.

All because the model makers use their imaginations. That is not right, bashing someone because they used their imagination and they thought it looks right to themselves.

For example, A new person, new to the whole model making road to fun, posted up the specs and some pictures to his models in progress. Which personally I like. Another user started bashing the new modeler and ripping his models apart with really baias logic. I do not think that user, the guy ripping the new modeler apart and bashing the new modeler, even knows what Imagination even is or how useful it can be.

So I stepped in. And I offered a pretty good argument; I used one of barney fife's Aschen Rev IIs and one of my Felinus Breederships for examples of ship sizes to fill set roles. Once again t he idiot started bashing not just me, but the hard work that barney fife put into his own ships and faction. Saying it made zero sense to make such a large ship, even if you got a fleet of them, I may repost the whole convo here.

But here is where it hurt

He called the Multiverse, and all our factions within it, "Fanwankerverse." Which I think is a insult to our hard work at making these starships our technology, etc.

Now I wonder; did I do the right thing in stepping up for that new model maker by putting myself in the mean users target lock ? Because right now, I do not feel like I did the right thing.

Fanwankerverse? The cynical side of me says he's got a point, but for the sake of encouraging friendly treatment I have to agree with you, Awi. If he was bashing the new model maker, my money says he's a hidebound has-been whose imagination sputtered out years ago and now can only remake products of other people's vision and effort...truly a sad sight.

Still, as a hobbyist, he's entitled to his own opinion--that doesn't mean he gets to belittle the views of others on the same subject.

QB: I think you are right, his imagination sputtered and died some time ago and he keeps bashing, and worse, insulting us Multiverse writers constantly, I mentioned this guy to Patchie and metioned I'm tempted as hell to send a link to the Multiverse here and tell him to see it for himself, ask questions, etc. And learn just why we need such large ships, barney fife did lots of work on his ships, his faction, everything, I did work on my factions {Underlundian Empire and Felinus Fedetron} and planned out everything carefully. What really hurts is that he keeps insulting us and the Multiverse by calling it fanwankerverse which is an insult.

However, I have had enough of the guy and pretty much ended the conversation then and there and called up the new modeler and asked him to start posting more becaiuse I want to offer advice to the new guy and help him along.

But yeah, as a hobbiest he is entitled to his thoughts, as long as he doesn't rip apart others models with beaten up logic

As someone who actually does model making as a career, (I'm graduating this month and working on some voluntary jobs for indie games at the moment.) I'd say that's a very peculiar attitude for someone to have.

Of course I'm not sure of the exact details of the argument, but having talked to people who are professional (and ridiculously skilled) modellers who work in games and film, there is a great deal to be said for imagination and artistry. A lot of the time the job of a modeller is to take a brief and some rough concept work, and make it 'function'. It's generally considered the sign of a rookie if they require every single detail mapped out for them by the 2D department. If anything they like people who can take an idea and run with it.

The indie project I'm helping out with right now is an example. I'm making assets. No concept art, my brief is 'Make a bottle of eyedrops.' If I had no skills in working out a design, well, I'd be in trouble.


Of course there's a lot to be said for being able to recreate things, that was what we were taught about first, but trying to claim that a modeller should not be creating is not only silly, but encourages an over-dependence on pre-made concept details which is ultimately, a bad thing.

That's my opinion, anyway.