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Next week + A Few Thoughts...
10 years ago
As I mentioned, next week I'll get back to my regular art, especially the commissions, devouring my soul with absolute guilt. The current ones are 
kogitsune 's, which had the lineart 90% done and now it's reduced to my last backup sketch ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wzxx44qr.....lPass.jpg?dl=0 ) and 
sandyn 's, which, at least, is at the same stage I left it before crashing ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kqiqtjra.....ramed.jpg?dl=0 ), although it'll probably change a bit, as it's not the final sketch. Other than that, just two pieces of personal art and one I can resume from a screenshot (I can resize the sketch, since the detail loss isn't important on those). And hopefully get to the other ones afterwards, before I start getting epic notes of rage. D:
On a second note, since my psych profile indicated I have an extreme difficulty starting tasks, even if I'm very enthusiastic, My mom's been pushing me into things lately. The first one, as most heard, are the rowing classes/training, 3 times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays), which I have an extreme resistance to waking up for, leaves me mashed in pain afterwards, but also makes me really satisfied with it all. The second one, which started last week, is a game developer course, which lasts for two years. It's not like college-level or anything, but it's promising. According to the modules, goes from story planning, concept art, 3Ds Max modeling/animating/rigging and bringing it all together with UDK (a.k.a. Unreal Development Kit) and Scaleform. The first class was kind of amusing (a minecraft-addicted 14-year-old, a guy that literally didn't know who Mario was), but the teacher's methods and opinions led me to some 'philosophing'. Or ranting, more likely.
Mainly the fact his focus is 'mobile games are better to learn because they give more money'. You know, the kind of person that believes microtransactions and shitting out 12 games a year are good solely because you get cash. It's true, since most mobile games are shovelware with a ton of ads. The example he showed was a really shitty local game with a horrid soundtrack (think of the crappiest, cheapest gangsta rap ever made) and clipart-like graphics. Except it had 1.2 million downloads. Free, but with ads. Mathematically, the creator got around 180k BRL (Brazilian Reais) out of it. And the teacher encouraged others to make games in 1~2 days for that reason, actually going as far as praising the game known as "Era's Adventure", which is a rather shitty platformer with a very, very clearly copyright infringing character (youtube it and you'll know what I mean) that he somehow maneuvered around the legal issues. Made a pile of cash. Amusingly, those games reminded me heavily of the trash seen everyday on Steam Greenlight. Most of the stuff I laugh at madly on youtube (and particularly, Jim Sterling's "Best of Greenlight Trailers" videos) would be average or even 'great' games on mobile devices. This also reminded me of TotalBiscuit's "Why we can't have nice things" videos I watched just the day before the class, showcasing devs/games that didn't 'sacrifice' their vision or wishes with a particular game, which then became considered to be an innovative, unique classic...but also failed terribly in terms of sales. So I ended up discussing with myself, typically visualizing this slider, with one end being 'profits' and another end being 'originality' or 'artistic vision'. And how that also applies to other things...like my own art. I could be shitting out average-quality porn and TG comics almost daily, maybe even selling those for twice the price I do at the moment. But I guess I'm too enslaved by my own vision to do that. The downside, of course, is that I'm pennyless most of the time, though profit and vision occasionally merge together (would kinda be the case with that "Office Days" comic). In fact, I'm scared of even doing that, since exposing my visions and ideas to many people is -incredibly- discouraging, to say the least. One of my intended ideas for 3D art is making a few pictures showcasing a TFTG aftermath, which is incredibly easy in 3D. Maybe even making mini comics with those, since morph sliders and adapting gender-specific clothing is damn easy in 3D (slide a morph slowly every picture to see the character slowly, as the name implies, 'morphing' into the intended form). But I didn't yet becaaause, you guessed it, insecurity. Hell, if I drew every TG comic idea I've had, this gallery would explode. And it's far worse if it's different themes or stories. That, hilariously, happens with RPing. I take a -long- while to get into it, but once a sense of security sets in, I go all out. |D
So yeah, I'll cut my rant short here. Safe to say, I'm trying to work out this 'insecurity' shit at the moment. A good example is: if I try playing a game, say, Dark Souls, without cheating, I'm quite...reluctant to even start. If I use cheats, or, placebo-style, 'think' I'm using cheats, that gives me a sense of security that allows me to stride all over it or even get addicted. It's the same thing with art. I suspect that, after showing my 3D renders to others, the insecurity creeped in and my production was -severely- diminished. Argh.
Anyways...yeah. That's that. Achievement points to you if you managed to endure my senseless wall of text. |D
kogitsune 's, which had the lineart 90% done and now it's reduced to my last backup sketch ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wzxx44qr.....lPass.jpg?dl=0 ) and 
sandyn 's, which, at least, is at the same stage I left it before crashing ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kqiqtjra.....ramed.jpg?dl=0 ), although it'll probably change a bit, as it's not the final sketch. Other than that, just two pieces of personal art and one I can resume from a screenshot (I can resize the sketch, since the detail loss isn't important on those). And hopefully get to the other ones afterwards, before I start getting epic notes of rage. D:On a second note, since my psych profile indicated I have an extreme difficulty starting tasks, even if I'm very enthusiastic, My mom's been pushing me into things lately. The first one, as most heard, are the rowing classes/training, 3 times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays), which I have an extreme resistance to waking up for, leaves me mashed in pain afterwards, but also makes me really satisfied with it all. The second one, which started last week, is a game developer course, which lasts for two years. It's not like college-level or anything, but it's promising. According to the modules, goes from story planning, concept art, 3Ds Max modeling/animating/rigging and bringing it all together with UDK (a.k.a. Unreal Development Kit) and Scaleform. The first class was kind of amusing (a minecraft-addicted 14-year-old, a guy that literally didn't know who Mario was), but the teacher's methods and opinions led me to some 'philosophing'. Or ranting, more likely.
Mainly the fact his focus is 'mobile games are better to learn because they give more money'. You know, the kind of person that believes microtransactions and shitting out 12 games a year are good solely because you get cash. It's true, since most mobile games are shovelware with a ton of ads. The example he showed was a really shitty local game with a horrid soundtrack (think of the crappiest, cheapest gangsta rap ever made) and clipart-like graphics. Except it had 1.2 million downloads. Free, but with ads. Mathematically, the creator got around 180k BRL (Brazilian Reais) out of it. And the teacher encouraged others to make games in 1~2 days for that reason, actually going as far as praising the game known as "Era's Adventure", which is a rather shitty platformer with a very, very clearly copyright infringing character (youtube it and you'll know what I mean) that he somehow maneuvered around the legal issues. Made a pile of cash. Amusingly, those games reminded me heavily of the trash seen everyday on Steam Greenlight. Most of the stuff I laugh at madly on youtube (and particularly, Jim Sterling's "Best of Greenlight Trailers" videos) would be average or even 'great' games on mobile devices. This also reminded me of TotalBiscuit's "Why we can't have nice things" videos I watched just the day before the class, showcasing devs/games that didn't 'sacrifice' their vision or wishes with a particular game, which then became considered to be an innovative, unique classic...but also failed terribly in terms of sales. So I ended up discussing with myself, typically visualizing this slider, with one end being 'profits' and another end being 'originality' or 'artistic vision'. And how that also applies to other things...like my own art. I could be shitting out average-quality porn and TG comics almost daily, maybe even selling those for twice the price I do at the moment. But I guess I'm too enslaved by my own vision to do that. The downside, of course, is that I'm pennyless most of the time, though profit and vision occasionally merge together (would kinda be the case with that "Office Days" comic). In fact, I'm scared of even doing that, since exposing my visions and ideas to many people is -incredibly- discouraging, to say the least. One of my intended ideas for 3D art is making a few pictures showcasing a TFTG aftermath, which is incredibly easy in 3D. Maybe even making mini comics with those, since morph sliders and adapting gender-specific clothing is damn easy in 3D (slide a morph slowly every picture to see the character slowly, as the name implies, 'morphing' into the intended form). But I didn't yet becaaause, you guessed it, insecurity. Hell, if I drew every TG comic idea I've had, this gallery would explode. And it's far worse if it's different themes or stories. That, hilariously, happens with RPing. I take a -long- while to get into it, but once a sense of security sets in, I go all out. |D
So yeah, I'll cut my rant short here. Safe to say, I'm trying to work out this 'insecurity' shit at the moment. A good example is: if I try playing a game, say, Dark Souls, without cheating, I'm quite...reluctant to even start. If I use cheats, or, placebo-style, 'think' I'm using cheats, that gives me a sense of security that allows me to stride all over it or even get addicted. It's the same thing with art. I suspect that, after showing my 3D renders to others, the insecurity creeped in and my production was -severely- diminished. Argh.
Anyways...yeah. That's that. Achievement points to you if you managed to endure my senseless wall of text. |D
The biggest are those like your teacher - very little originality, just spit something out and try to tie to to as many ads or spondserships as you can. They're not really in it for the game, they just want the money.
The next group are those who want to make a good game and are much more of a perfectionist. They know how to make a game playable, spent a lot of time getting the graphics, sound and movement right and while they won't put out as many games as the first group, the ones they do release tend to be more memorable.
The third group are pretty rare. They're the ones that have an idea of a game in their head that doesn't fit the mold of any other games and they have to do a lot of work to make it work. We had a small group at the university who did that, wrote their game from scratch and it was pretty cool with a different style of game play, but they never got past a beta version. An example of someone who fits into this group and did get past the beta level is Notch with Mindcraft. Highly original and very successful, but others who have been highly original didn't get the success, which is part of the quirk of that position.
A TGTF would be rathe cool. And I thought your 3D renders were all pretty cool, so have a marshmellow from me in celebration :)
And yeah, even when the theme is art, I tend to follow my ideas rather than what's popular. If I didn't, I could do some anime-styled porn/TG comics with shitty quality daily, but that wouldn't really satisfy me as an artist. I'm always trying to balance what's 'pop' with what I envision, but doesn't always work out. |D
I think there are some compromises in being an artist and doing what you want to do and combining it with what the public/market wants. The trick is finding a position in which you're comfortable, once you find that, hopefully it is a good thing.
To me, I suspect this is more in line with what Notch did. He shipped a working product, it was very successful, there were tweaks around the outside but it wasn't the same as working on something from scratch. When MS offered him a large amount of money (I suspect a lot more than he expected, because I think they hugely overpaid) I think he saw it as an out. Or maybe he just grabbed the money and ran.
And welcome back to art :D
I mean, if I actually do get into dev-ing, I'd probably start at mobile, since the games tend to be simpler and don't require that much work in terms of graphics, gameplay, sound design, etc. But to make dozens upon dozens of uninspired, paid-cobbled-assets clones of more popular stuff...Nope. I can't betray myself like that. :P
At least the barrier to entry is low for mobile, so just about anyone can get into it. Which is both good and bad, for the previously mentioned reasons.
but it is very true for the art world too, generally the artists that are the popular and make the most money are the crap out average pics of pore or fan art of some popular kids show on a regular bases while the ones that don't are left barely making ends meat. it's kind of sickening artists basically make themselves into machines producing the same generic stuff just so the mass public will like their art and make money of it. while the artists that seek out bigger and better things are left with no one giving a dam about them and not a dime to their name.
Steam is probably a better choice for more reliable games that are actually games.