I've always been of the mind that stylized or "cool" is better. But that's just a personal thing because I've always thought that if I wanted photo-realistic I'd just take a picture and rather do things with dynamic silhouettes. Since being given a 3D tool I feel why be restrained to realism when you're really only limited…
I'm a sucker for outlandish designs that follow the rule of cool, but there's a very big spot in my heart for ultra realistic designs too. The thing is if it's a real world subject matter, such as soldiers, the world is saturated with images of soldiers, and art of soldiers that adheres closely to reality. If the "market"…