How I choose Daily Deviations

This is something which I know confuses a lot of people, so I thought it might help to give you guys an idea of how Daily Deviations are chosen so that we all understand the process a bit better, so here's a step by step of how an image becomes (or doesn't become) a Daily Deviation in the 3D category.

I apologise for the long-winded explanation. I wanted to make it as clear as possible exactly how the process works so nobody is confused anymore. Feel free to ask questions though, I'm absolutely happy to answer any you have.

You can also enter this month's Gallery Contest: Making Suggestions, the information in this article will be very useful for it!

The following is my personal process. Not all volunteers select their features the same way I do, and that goes for not only the volunteers for other galleries, but also the 3D volunteer that came before me, KeremGo, and the volunteers who will come after me. Although there are rules we all follow in selecting Daily Deviations, the processes are different because we all have a different way of working that is natural to us.

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Before we start (Or step 0 if you will)

A Daily Deviation is not an award. It's not selected by a panel of judges, it doesn't make a featured deviation necessarily better than one that hasn't been featured, and it doesn't mean the image should automatically be accepted into a group gallery, that's still totally up to the group.

A Daily Deviation is a piece of art which a community volunteer considers to be all of the following:
Inspirational to other Deviants
Unique in some way
Technically well made
of a similar or better quality to other Daily Deviations

Each community volunteer is allowed to feature at most 1 Daily Deviation per day. This means that sometimes a volunteer might not have anything they feel would work that particular day, or they may have something. No volunteer will ever feature more than one per day. This feature has to be from a category they are the volunteer for. In my case, I can feature anything from the 3-Dimensional Art and Stereoscopy categories (though I haven't yet had a chance to feature stereo, it's quite a new gallery and doesn't have as many deviations in it).

After a community volunteer serves 12 months (sometimes a bit more or less), a new volunteer takes over for the next year. Each volunteer brings a different flavor to the process, which is why you won't always get quite the same features when someone new takes over. Art is of course, subjective, and something one person really loves may not quite work for someone else.

The community volunteer does however usually have strong ties to the gallery they are volunteering for. Either they are a professional artist, or have spent a lot of time with the community and the category before becoming a volunteer, and as such have experience to draw on for picking their features, which is why you'll rarely find a volunteer which features something that isn't from their designated category.

Step 1: Finding an Image

The first step of an image being featured is for it to be found (I can't feature what I don't know exists ). Finding a deviation to feature can happen in a number of ways:

Someone sends Cymae (me) a note featuring either their own or someone else's work, and a few words about why it should be featured.
I browse through the latest and popular every few weeks and spot an awesome piece of 3D art in DA's category system
An awesome piece of art is submitted to one of the many 3D groups out there, many of which I have on my watchlist, so it goes through my message centre (send me a note if you believe you know a 3D group I'm not watching and should be)

Step 2: Checking the Rules

So now that I have an image I'm considering for a feature, I check the specific rules for featuring it:

Is the image in my category? I get a lot of work that's not under Stereoscopy or 3-Dimensional Art sent to me. If it's not under these categories, I usually can't feature it. If it COULD be under these categories however, I can still consider it and consult with the volunteer whose gallery it does fall under. Occasionally (very rarely) I can feature 3D Art that is in another gallery, so sometimes it's worth sending it to me, but also send it to the volunteer who's gallery it does belong in. For this, check out FAQ #18: Who selects Daily Deviations and how are they chosen?

Does the image belong in this category? I get a lot of miscasts, very many of them fan art. It's a very common and easy mistake, but Any image based on or in copyrighted content which you do not have the rights to work on, is considered fan art and belongs in the fan art category. Similarly, if it's 3D for a game, it belongs in Game Development Art, and your suggestion should go to WillowXD, those are just two examples of common things that happen.

Has the artist had a Daily Deviation in the last 6 months? Each deviant can only receive a Daily Deviation at most once every 6 months, so if the artist has received one more recently, I can't feature it.

Is it tagged correctly? This is a big one. I can't feature things that are mature but not tagged as mature. Similarly, I'm very careful to make sure the artist created the work themselves and it wasn't stolen. This includes asking questions in the deviation description about the process, comparing the quality of work to the rest of the artist's gallery, finding out if they used stock without credit, or collaborated without credit. A piece which uses stock or a collaboration is still able to be featured, but credit must be given where it's due.

Step 3: Should it be Featured?

Once it's established that something is eligible to be featured, I have to consider whether it would be appropriate as a Daily Deviation. Here are the questions I ask myself:

Is the overall image aesthetically pleasing? This means I look at it overall, forgetting it's 3D and how hard it must be to have made, and just think "Is it a nice picture?". I look at the lighting, composition, colour and subject and how they work together.

Is it technically well produced? If it's a character, I tend to pay attention to the eyes, hair and skin, making sure the eyes aren't dull, the hair isn't bent strangely and actually looks like hair, and that the skin has some subsurface scattering and doesn't look grey unless it's supposed to, that the model is well proportioned and the textures don't stretch or look strange. If it's a scene, I check to make sure there aren't any perfectly sharp lines that are jarring, that I can't see any faceting unless it's a low polygon model, that the textures and displacement work properly, and that any stock that is used has been credited as far as I can see (sometimes it's hard to tell).

Is it glaringly obvious how it was made? I have a fair amount of experience looking at 3D work. When I am considering a piece, I first look at the image without a glance at the comments, and see what it can tell me. I don't tend to feature anything with default Maya Sun and Sky, Photoshop filters or shapes that I can name, unedited Utah Teapots, default poser characters without any work done to them, or other things like that. This doesn't mean they can't be used, I've featured things that use these techniques, but they should always be worked and massaged to make their use a bit more subtle.

Can I find many images very similar in quality, style and technical level to this? I tend to feature art that stands out from other work in the gallery. This means that I will make sure there aren't many images of similar quality out there (even if the quality is very good). For example, an abstract image consisting of boxes and shadows is not technically challenging as a piece, but the idea and use of shade is very unique. However a character render which is really well done could still be similar to many others in the gallery. Quality and uniqueness are key.

Step 4: The Pile!

Once I've gone through my list of 'can it be featured' questions, and my list of 'should it be featured' questions, a piece can go one of three ways. I've got a Maybe folder, a No folder and a Yes folder. I read and receive note suggestions as soon as I get them, but sometimes it takes a wee while to reply, because I do a batch of replies at a time, so I let them stack. I won't tell a suggestor if their suggestion is going to be featured or not, for two reasons. Firstly, it often goes in the Maybe pile, which means I can't give a definite answer of whether or not it will be featured. The second reason is that I think it's unfair for me to critique a piece of work to anyone but the artist who made it. Artists who self suggest are told whether or not their work will be featured, and receive critique if they'd like it.

The No Pile
The ones which definitely fail the above criteria go in the No pile. This gets cleared out regularly. If it was a self-suggestion, I also give the artist an honest explanation of why it won't be featured. I also critique any self-suggestions which ask for them. If it was suggested by someone other than the artist, I won't give an explanation.

The Maybe Pile
Out of what's left, 98% of it goes in the Maybe pile, where I browse every time I line up Daily Deviations. I usually arrange several at a time and set them in advance. A deviation can sit in the Maybe pile indefinitely, sometimes for a few days, weeks or months, or sometimes it just never quite gets featured because I'm not perfectly confident about it.

The Yes Pile
This pile is very small, and usually empty. If I find something I'm definitely going to feature, but don't have time to do it right that moment, I'll pop it on the Yes pile and get back to it later.

Step 5: Featured!

I usually browse through things I've featured at the end of each month and read the comments posted on the deviations. This gives me an idea of the community response to my feature and lets me know if it was well received.

A big reason it's so important to be careful about what gets featured is because featuring a piece which isn't quite right can unfortunately get negative feedback, and getting 200 odd comments on your Deviation page from people who don't like the work despite the fact that you've been featured can be very unpleasant and quite demoralising for the artist. This has never happened with the work I've featured, and I will continue to work hard to make sure it never does.

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Well, that's it, there's my process (it's very long isn't it?). Please post your questions below if you have any, I'd be glad to answer them!

You can also check out This month's gallery bulletin and This month's DD roundup!