here:
http://www.blenderguru.com/10-reasons-why-your-render-sucks/
:yes:
Some nice pointers!, and rendering tips… thanks for posting.
This is a vacuum blender, It blends and sucks too! 
this has created quiet the stir on cgtalk I wonder what it will be like here; personally I found it a little bit elitist and kinda of silly not my cup of tea
but each to his own I guess
Those are great tips. A must read if you ask me.
" If I see another cave troll or big breasted warrior I’m going to puke."
LOL! I agree 100% on that. Too many adolescent stuff floating around CG communities.
It might sound a bit elitist but I think those are great standards to adhere by in your work. And if you look closely at the pointers, they all require a bit of extra work from your part. Most people use the first (cliched) and fastest (first) approach to something they work on. I know, I’m a graphic designer and it takes some discipline to put in the extra mile. 
Pointless.
In the time he/she spent writing/typing that article he/she could have created a useful tutorial.
Oh yeah. And instead he gives you some useful advice… really pointless. 
I want my money back.
In my opinion, the only rule is that there are no rules…
Argh…why am I seeing this thing wherever I go?
I’m firmly in the camp that thinks this article is dumb and pointless…and yes, elitist too.
the are ‘rules’, and I call them rules for the lack of a better word, on how to make or produce better art open up any art theory book that covers the subject of compostion, light, colour. Read and understand them and you are well onto your way to making better art.
I just wouldn’t call what was presented here those rules. Take the silly and arbtirary rule on not using stock models for example models. I would wager that if you allowed a lighting and texturing master artist a full run at a site like turbo squid to grab what ever models the wanted they could throw them together and light them up amd texture them into a glorious piece of art and they wouldn’t have modeled a single bit. Hell that’s what the do when they are working on movies, games etc they light and texture stuff they didn’t make.
I really don’t understand how this is seen as elitist, I really and truly don’t…
The only comment I disagree with in the whole thing is the “stock content” one… It’s useful to have, allows you to get the result quicker… no problem.
Tyrant monkey, you’re right on the money about the lighting texturing master, but it IS poor when someone uses stock content and just lights and textures it really really badly…
I guess that the “danger” with stock content is when people try to run before they can walk…
Elitist though? maybe I am elitist and don’t know it yet!
as to being dumb and pointless, if you don’t undertand the content of the article already I guess you’d not pay this article much attention… If you do understand the content then you don’t need it…
maybe it is pointless, and perhaps the “elitist” part is feeling smug that you don’t need it???
This is the most worthless article about rendering I’ve read. And yes it is elitist too. If you need a good article about improving your renderings, then I’ll recommend you this one:
Thanks for the link…
But how is the original article elitist?
/rant
The article is elitist because:
it tells you how to become better, meaning there are people being “worse”, thus difference of levels. In our current society which tends to see anything difficult, challenging or intelligent as being for the “elite” the step going from criticism to elitism is a short one.
Asking people to do more, to take time, and to think for themselves is considered something only the elites do.
/rant
There, explanation enough for you?
Also, most of the things in there are true, however the comments I see on different sites linking to the article also have a point:
One can use stock stuff but only if one can make it better looking than "your average joe just discovered [3d in 5 minutes for dummies] ".
…on the other hand, I feel guilty now everytime I’m modelling a Dragon… Orcs and Dragons and elves and oooh soooo many cliché materials possible and I had to go for dragons sigh deletes file starts on something else.
Well, I don’t want to spend a lot of time listing all the reasons, so I’ll give just two.
- The title.
- Lets take point five for instance. ‘It’s Cliche’…well, it may well be…but that has nothing to do with whether or not your render ‘sucks’. Sintel is a prime example of supposedly cliche ideas that will generate amazing artwork.
And lets be honest here, most of those points have nothing to do with helping you get better renders.
Well, I understand if some people don’t like the tone of this article, but I still think the author makes some good points.
That your image (or animation) should tell a story, should be obvious, but to some it clearly isn’t, so I think for those people it’s a good advice. As well as the drawing on paper point.
As long as you still see a lot of renders (and I don’t mean test renders) around with the default blue background, whose creators do not think about composition AT ALL, I think it’s fair enough to make these points.
Still I understand if some people don’t like the tone, but calling it the most pointless article ever seems a bit overexaggerated…
MD
i’m reading the article right now… well, they’re some good tips, though i don’t think they apply to anything i’ve made so far…lol
oh, and i generally don’t use pre-made stuff in my projects… if i do, it’s a place-holder, or test…but i don’t have many pre-made things on my computer, apart from some files from the Blender for Dummies CD and a few Big Buck Bunny things, which i look at as reference 
or Ypoissant’s material library, i only downloaded it to see how he made the Materials, and haven’t used any of them in my own projects
oh, and i don’t necessarily agree with the “it’s poorly lit” thing…
i’ll take my Frublaz scene as an example. it tells a story, i didn’t use anything that i hadn’t made myself (execpt for Blender itself, lol), and ok, the lighting is a bit dark. but that’s part of the story!
and no, ok, i didn’t plan it out on paper… but i really didn’t need that for this one (and anyway, i tried planning it on paper, but i’m not good at drawing, even very-quick sketches. it didn’t look at all like what i had in my head, and the Render does, so… :D)
edit: woah, i’m on 519 posts! didn’t even notice my 500th go by…lol
this is why i hate blogging
Well, I understand if some people don’t like the tone of this article, but I still think the author makes some good points.
That your image (or animation) should tell a story, should be obvious, but to some it clearly isn’t, so I think for those people it’s a good advice. As well as the drawing on paper point.
What story would you tell when producing product renders?
As long as you still see a lot of renders (and I don’t mean test renders) around with the default blue background, whose creators do not think about composition AT ALL, I think it’s fair enough to make these points.
That I can agree with. However, there is nothing about composition or colour theory in that article. That’s why I’m saying it’s pointless. Points 1,2,3,5,9 and 10 have nothing at all to do with the quality of your actual renders.
blrender is suck yeah
you must use 3dsmax to make professional renders
but if you turn to 3dsmax, do not leave this forum. you have big work here. you must open topics with feature requests
blender needs more features