I would like to thank everyone for their input. I was a little surprised by the over-whelming popularity of option #3 (its not cheating). I was thinking that option #2 (depends) was going to be the most picked.
You have told me what you think, now it is only fair that I tell you what I think.
I voted for option #2 (Depends. If used sparingly to "enhance" the model, it would be acceptable.)
Maybe its from looking at picture after picture, reading article after article, showing modeling of such a high degree and the unbelievably hard work that goes into it, that just made it seem a little “wrong” to me.
To those of you who are familiar with how I model, that probably sounds strange coming from me. I could never be accused of being a rivet counter, far from it in fact. The first couple of years, I couldn’t have cared less about “prototype” (I still don’t worry about it), but over the last year or so, I have been striving for more believability and not being so quick to say “good enough”. This last project that I have been working on is by far the most detailed and time consuming model I have ever done…..it seemed a little “cheap” (as my kids would say) to use a printed picture (it does look that good in person btw) instead of a 3D material.
As many of you have expressed though, It’s really not about “cheating”….it’s about doing the right thing for a given situation. I don’t want to spend the money on a commercial product and I darn sure don’t want to sit here and cut 1000”s of individual shingles
.
I will experiment on these prints and see if I can add a little hint of texture, so I can at least say I did SOMETHING!.......LOL!
I need to remember......"If you're having fun, you're doing it right!"
Thanks guys