ive noticed a trend in multimedia students of this course over the past few years or so to apply the 'smooth' modifier everything... for the most part these students all have the bizarre mentality that this will make a model look better in some way, shape or form. all i can say is this should just be avoided AT ALL COSTS. im not saying dont create models with smooth surfaces, just be aware of what you are smoothing, and do so only when needed.
if you were, say, modeling a spaceship for example, and you wanted sections of the hull nice and smooth (as was the brief) then fine, just dont throw a smooth modifier over the entire mesh, all it will do is reduce said artwork into 'tacky 3D' category.
there are various techniques one can use to move away from the straight and hard edged look of polys without defiling a model with a generic smooth. one would be to simply bevel the edges of a model (as in creating a smooth EDGE on a model). another would be to select only the faces of a mesh that need the smooth and applying it directly and specifically to those faces. and if a model is constructed with various meshs (things like a 747 are not a single flying blob of lambert), then smooths can be used on specific things like the hull, while detail/more mechanical objects can be modeled separately, and saved from that appalling old bastard... the SMOOTH!
these might be simple and obvious suggestions, but i would strongly encourage all budding young 3D students to take heed of them!
