I am a 3D artist here on and spend quite a bit of time browsing through the 3D galleries. I also, unfortunately, spend a good deal of time reporting miscategorized images that have been placed in 3D either by deviants who don't understand the definition of what is meant to go into these galleries, or by those who believe they do meet those qualifications, but are actually violating other policies.

First of all, lets start with the definition of the 3-Dimensional Art gallery. This is taken directly from the submission screen.

Gallery Info: 3-Dimensional Art

This section is entirely dedicated to 3-Dimensional Digital Art, therefore submissions here utilize the Cartesian coordinates (X,Y,Z) on a 2-Dimensional digital canvas. Such items include 3-Dimensional renders from a 3D program, or art where 3-Dimensional depictions account for the majority of the artwork.

What this means is that all submissions to the 3-dimensional art gallery need to be created in a program which uses coordinate based creation methods. This includes programs such as Maya, Blender, Terragen, 3dS MAX, Strata, Cararra, Hexagon and other such creation programs. It also includes programs which enable you to import items created in the other software to be posed and rendered, such as Bryce, DAZ3D or Poser just to name a few.

This does NOT include online games and chat groups that use a 3D engine with precreated imagery in which you download the images or take screencaps to save your creations to your computer for upload. Therefore, submissions from video games like City of Heroes, Worlds of Warcraft or Final Fantasy Online are not submissable here, nor are screencaps of Meez.com, SecondLife or IMVU characters.

For more information on this, you need to look at the FAQ. The information below applies to the entire site of course, not just 3-Dimensional Art.

Policies: Copyright Concerns
FAQ #578: What does deviantART consider to be a proper screenshot?

The various screenshots categories which we provide here at deviantART are intended primarily for the submission of desktop screenshots.

Valid desktop screenshots are those which display your current wallpaper, your desktop icons, your taskbar, and preferably one or more open programs. Screenshots which have been cleared in a manner which leaves only the wallpaper will be considered invalid submissions to these categories.

All users should be aware that the submission of plain or “cleared off” third party wallpapers, video game screenshots, and still frames from television programs or motion pictures will be considered violations of our copyright policy. Likewise screenshots consisting solely of official video game artwork, artwork ‘found’ on other websites and any other material created by another artist will also be removed from this section as violations of our copyright policy if they do not possess the characteristics of a valid desktop screenshot as described above.

What this means basically is that you are not allowed to submit screenshots of video games as you are not responsible for creating that artwork yourself from scratch.

FAQ #502: Can I submit 'Dolls' or 'Characters' which I made on certain websites?
Yes, the products of doll or character generators may be submitted providing that the original creators of the generator allow you to use them on other websites.

Please be aware that many of the most popular 'doll creators' have been reproduced on secondary, and unrelated, websites and that only the true owner of the doll creator may set its terms of use. Do not assume that the place where you found the doll maker is the website responsible for it's creation.

Since these creations involve no true artistic effort and are entirely prepackaged the only location they may be placed is in your Scraps. Any of these generated dolls or characters found in any other gallery location will be relocated to scraps without warning.

Generally, this pertains to pixel dolls, which oddly enough have been submitted largely to the 3D gallery as well, but what the above Copyright Policy means is that any dolls created on a website using character generators, are only allowed in Scraps, and not in your user gallery. This would include Meez.com, SecondLife and IMVU screencapped doll creations, just as it would pixel dolls created with a generator or the popular SouthPark character creations.

Traditional "3D"

There also seems to be a good deal of people who submit traditional art into the 3D category because it is drawn to mimic a 3-Dimensional image. I have also found some sculpture and artisan work in the 3D category.

It is important to note that anything created with your hands, i.e. with pencil and paper, clay, paper mache or other traditional means should be placed in the categories representative of that craft.

The same goes for Digital drawings created in Photoshop or some other computer based art program. Drawings done here should not be placed in 3-dimensional art, but instead in the category that best fits their form of digital art.

In Conclusion

Submitting your work to the proper categories not only helps save the gallery directors and volunteers from dealing with miscategorizations and violation reports, but also helps your work to be seen when it is submitted into the correct gallery. Too often people see miscategorized work and assume that they should also submit their similar work to these categories which creates more and more miscats and violations to be reported.

There is nothing more discouraging to a deviant than to find a large portion of their gallery deleted by an admin because of policy violations. The best way to avoid this is to read the Gallery Descriptions and learn the Copyright Policies. Remember that even the Gallery Directors are volunteers here, and many of these Miscategorizations go unnoticed without the support of the community to inform the staff.

And of course, this doesn't just apply to the 3D gallery, but to every gallery here. Please read your gallery descriptions before submitting. And if you notice a miscat, report it.

Thanks for helping keep it's galleries clean.