Model Rejected.... WTF!!!!!
We get a lot of models here at Blend Swap. On average you guys upload around 20 models a day. Unfotunately, a lot of those models get rejected for one reason or another and as is totally resonable, we also get a lot of "WTF, my model is better than some on the site", "Why was this rejected....?" and my personal favorite. "If you don't like this model, then close my account, I'm done."
So I'm going to walk you through some of the most common reasons why models are rejected everyday and how you can fix them to make sure your model has a better chance of being accepted.
Having a model rejected is nothing personal.
When we reject a model there is no underlying personal feelings on our part; we're not saying "you suck, your a terrible artist, you're stupid" or anything else along those lines. We are simply stating that the model you uploaded, in it's current state, may not be helpful to the majority of our users. That's it.
Now, I personally know that rejection of ones art is a very personal thing for an artist. I've been working in the art field for over 13 years and have had many of my ideas, designs and animations rejected, squashed and literally ripped apart. Ya, it's kind of personal, but it's also a fact of this field and the quicker you realise that and accept it the more sussesful you'll be as an artist. But I completely understand, it feels bad and sometimes it's very hurtful.
So lets look at some easy things you can do to get your models through moderation. I'll be using some of the models that I've uploaded to show you the correct things to do and what not to do.
Make the preview image interesting.
So this is a mailbox model I uploaded three years ago and this would not make the cut on Blend Swap today, for a couple reasons.
First, the preview image is not centered, this image is really the only thing that users see that help them decided whether or not to download your model.
Secondly, there's no materials or textures it's not even a clay render. Add some kind of color/texture to your model, if you suck at texturing like me just add simple materials to give the model more interest.
Ambient Occlusion is your friend, ya it's also a crutch but if your not good with lighting AO offers nice even lighting and shadows.
So lets take a look at this model with these changes that would give it a better chance at being accepted and published.
Now this would have a much better shot at being accpeted, it's also a better starting point for other artist that use your models. So I've centered the render, added an AO factor of .75, added very simple materials to the flag and mailbox and just used a texture from www.goodtextures.com for the wood using cube projection. Very simple changes that make a big differance.
Please, please remove doubles.
Another thing that is done quite often when we are looking at a questionable model is checking it for double vertices. Double geometry bloats the file size and it's just a good house cleaning move for other artist. When I downloaded the mailbox model I checked the model for doubles and sure enough there where over 200 duplicate verts. Now this isn't a lot but it's still too many for this particular object. I've seen models uploaded to the site that had tens of thousands of duplicate verts and while removing them really didn't affect geometry of the model that much, it did affect the performance of blender when navigating and using the model in general.
Make sure your textures are packed.
I don't know about you but I just love seeing an all purple render when I download a kickass model. This is such an easy thing to do, in Blender just go to File -> External Data -> Pack into .blend file. DONE. No more ugly purple renders.
Check other models of the same subject on the site.
So I've just uploaded my epic coffee cup model that took me forever to create. But it was just rejected, why!!
Well if I would have done a quick search on the site for coffee cups I would have seen models like this published:
I could have guessed that mine would need more work before it was approved.
Ask questions.
If a model of yours gets rejected and we don't give you much feedback. Just ask, we are more than happy to help you improved your model so that it will be published on the site.
Auto-criticism will help you
Being good at looking at your work with impartial eyes will help you a lot to improve the quality of your models, always demand the highest quality from yourself. For example with the coffee cup example, you should be able to see why your models may be rejected; and you should work on getting them to a production-ready state.
Edited January 23, 2015 by mofx
17