Cheating or faking of what? A lot of concept artists and matte painters are using this technique to speed up their workflow.
You know, like you can buy some kitbash sets of some buildings, create a city in your 3D software, render it out and then make a cool paintover. This way you don't have to start from scratch every time.
No, shut your mouth. Tools are merely tools, some idiot thought photography was cheating 100 years ago. Do you want to be that idiot? Everyone cheats, you need to use the tools available to you to the best of your ability to stay current in the games industry.
However, using a very minimal workflow to focus on fundamental skills can be a very productive exercise."
Well I guess it depends on what you want to promote with your 3D stills, if it's for example meant to showcase your realtime 3d skills for employers it might not be a good idea to do a paintover on top of that and call it realtime.
Here is example... Lets say you finished a 3d character. By "finished" I mean you're done with modeling/sculpting,texturing,rendering. And you see there are some problems in anatomy for example or maybe in texturing, and you overpaint those parts in Ps. Thats kinda "faking". But yea, it's all about context and what is the purpose of it. If you do that for some company as advertisement ,web banner,something that goes for print ,nobody cares then. But I think purpose of 3d should be rigging and animation. If somebody want still images it can be done in 2d ,matte painting, illustration.
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You know, like you can buy some kitbash sets of some buildings, create a city in your 3D software, render it out and then make a cool paintover. This way you don't have to start from scratch every time.
Edit: Here's a better answer, from a stickied thread in General Discussion https://polycount.com/discussion/146495/how-to-post-on-the-internet
"Is X software/tool/workflow cheating?
However, using a very minimal workflow to focus on fundamental skills can be a very productive exercise."
No.
Why the question?
But as Jonas puts it - its all about context and what you are showcasing.
Lets say you finished a 3d character. By "finished" I mean you're done with modeling/sculpting,texturing,rendering. And you see there are some problems in anatomy for example or maybe in texturing, and you overpaint those parts in Ps. Thats kinda "faking". But yea, it's all about context and what is the purpose of it. If you do that for some company as advertisement ,web banner,something that goes for print ,nobody cares then. But I think purpose of 3d should be rigging and animation. If somebody want still images it can be done in 2d ,matte painting, illustration.