Chit-Chat: "L'art pour l'art" - DCC

[Skip Class]

Are we allowed to make requests here? I see lots of talent and not too many shops open! I'm looking for someone who'd be able to draw an original character from a fic of mine. In exchange I can write a fic about whatever for you, or if you're into the games, I have literally every shiny available.

Unfortunately you can't really make requests in this thread (since this is more about art, design, graphics etc. discussions) or request threads in this section. Only other way is to personally ask by VM/PM, but most people wouldn't really be interested in taking requests or commissions because it is a lot of work and if they were interested they'd already have a shop opened up.

Kinda sad that the Official Request Thread doesn't exist anymore since I see so many individual threads cluttering the section and having to be locked since they're not allowed. Same with the Graphics Giveaway thread since that was one of my favourite old threads in this section.

 

[Fairy]

Kinda sad that the Official Request Thread doesn't exist anymore since I see so many individual threads cluttering the section and having to be locked since they're not allowed. Same with the Graphics Giveaway thread since that was one of my favourite old threads in this section.

Actually! Small requests are totally allowed in the DCC. Simple sprites, concept sketches, little stuff so long as an artist is willing. :) It's hard to have an entire thread dedicated to requests now that A&D has A.) taken a hit in activity and B.) been merged with Pixel Art. They end up being nothing but request after request and the only thing that brings me down more than closing a polite request thread is seeing them stack up and neglected for months at a time.

But yeah, diamondpearl876, pitch your request. I cannot promise someone will take it, but it's certainly okay to ask. :)

 

[Skip Class]

Actually! Small requests are totally allowed in the DCC. Simple sprites, concept sketches, little stuff so long as an artist is willing. :) It's hard to have an entire thread dedicated to requests now that A&D has A.) taken a hit in activity and B.) been merged with Pixel Art. They end up being nothing but request after request and the only thing that brings me down more than closing a polite request thread is seeing them stack up and neglected for months at a time.

It's really good to see that A&D has been getting a lot of activity lately. Until I decided to come back to PC a few weeks ago, it was nice watching from afar, seeing it build up again from the few active threads it had a few months back.
Though it's interesting to see the pixel and graphics section now merged into one since that didn't happen till after I left. I never really looked into the pixel art subsection so it's really awesome seeing a lot of pixel art!

 

[Ninja Paladin]

Whelp I've wandered back so that's a thing and I have to admit I miss the old request thread as well, it was fun to dive into for boredom fillers.

 

[Skip Class]

I have to admit I miss the old request thread as well, it was fun to dive into for boredom fillers.

^ this pretty much. I've held shops here (but more on other forums) over the years and they got more and more stressing. Especially with that old thread and back when it was popular, I'd like to dive into it and do sig or icon request for people without having to feel pressured that it was my shop or anything.

 

[Kyoe]

Yo, guys, sorry for disappearing for a bit.

@3D Printing Topic
Huoa! Man, good for you Fairy! I'd love to be able to play around with one of those! Unfortunately I don't have any experience with them at all so far, though.

I'll be looking out for those photos, too!


@Official Request Thread Topic
I can understand closing it for lack of activity, but it's still sad to not have one. It could potentially raise traffic to A&D, and more importantly create a level of interaction amongst everybody too. Personally I can't see a way to emulate or change it to remove the danger of stacking requests, though.

The nature of the thread sort of creates a market for free commissioning, but leaves it to the artist to pick what they want to do. Anything more individual would carry a level of obligation or expectation, which wouldn't be good, but when it's that open you can't really soften any sharp edges easily....

Anyone have suggestions? It would be really cool to resurrect it.

 

[faf]

I can't believe I haven't posted here yet.
3D prints are actually really cool but really expensive to own. Though it's handy if you don't feel like physically sculpting.

As for the request thread, maybe we could reward users who do requests (I'm unsure if there's an emblem for that)? I do think it miiight help to resurrect the request thread. Another idea is a Secret Santa type of thing somewhere around Easter? And for increasing activity perhaps some art games such as "add something to the drawing" or a "battle free for all".

So, I'm going to go to my art classes tomorrow. I'm currently working on my triptych for painting (Xerneas vs Yveltal) and unsure what we are doing in printmaking.

 

[Ice1]

A dutch forum were I used to be active had an art game were multiple people would work together to make a fakemon, by placing a piece of line-art one by one, coloring is done piece by piece by different people, and even the shading. It's a great practice for starting pixelartists, and a fun way to engage with the community. Maybe we could set something up?

 

[Skip Class]

I'd love to set up having a Sig of the week/ icon of the week like we used to - even if it's only fortnightly or monthly even. That was the thing that caught my eye when I first tried learning GFX here, I wasn't able to enter as much, but from the few I did learn a lot.

The graphic giveaway thread is back, but isn't getting much activity as much as it used to. I mean, if we do start things, you'd have to make sure they are going to get active.
We've had a lot of cool projects over the past like the PC Art Pokedex, review thread and graphics/photography schools. Of course we can't bring everything back, but we can definitely start new and different projects this year. Just gotta make sure they get that activity running.

 

[faf]

@MortallyIncorrect- So like a collab thread but with Fakemon? I would love to see it and making Fakemon is a lot of fun! Having some groups work on different Fakemon and then letting the community judge them to determine the winner sounds like an idea too. That is if there are a number of people interested.

@zappyspiker- While I don't do graphics, I do know that there are people who are interested in graphics and it can also be handy to increase activity. And I agree that the events shouldn't be used at once because of activity. I'm thinking doing them one at a time and then introducing more can be helpful. And I concur having something new can help too.

 

[Ice1]

I don''t think another try at an competition or something would work that well, I think a collaborative effort would work better.

Also, I think we've decided that a request thread is a good option.

 

[CJBlazer]

Hey everyone. I'm no artist but I was wondering where do I go about requesting sprite work for my hack game? I'm sure its in Arts and Design but I don't see a request thread. I really need these sprites done of my custom trainer.

 

[Ice1]

Well we are discussing opening a general request thread, I guess it would start-up soon enough, once the basic rules for it are decided.

 

[Fairy]

Hey, if you guys can come up with a good, solid way of bringing back the request thread, I'm all ears. Some of these things were well before my time on PC, let alone as a mod, so I don't know exactly how they operated. I'd need the help anyway. If y'all got a plan, I'll make sure it gets heard.

And we used to do this totally awesome thing, the "one line drawing" but with fakemon. Another tragic loss of the PA and A&D merge. Members would start with one line, and the next person would gradually add to it until there was a completed sprite! It was so, so much fun to watch and participate in. If you think it will generate activity, or at the very least some laughs, I'm all for bringing it back! :)

All you gotta do it reach out to me, I'm always happy to hear any suggestion for A&D. Most of you have been here longer than I have.

 

[CJBlazer]

I think a request thread would be nice. There are only two shops from what I can tell but they do specific types of art. The request thread could be for any art.

Also another suggestion I have. What if we opened up a chatroom for this department where artists can discuss things live and if you have a request being done you can talk with the artist and observe them as they complete your request.

Just a suggestion from me.

 

[Fairy]

I went ahead and made that sprite thread I was talking about. :x

http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=8569889#post8569889

I think a request thread would be nice. There are only two shops from what I can tell but they do specific types of art. The request thread could be for any art.

Also another suggestion I have. What if we opened up a chatroom for this department where artists can discuss things live and if you have a request being done you can talk with the artist and observe them as they complete your request.

Just a suggestion from me.

Ideally, yes, but my concern is about the requests that will -- and it's not necessarily anyone's fault -- add up, be ignored, disrespectful remarks, spam in the form of bumping, etc. The fact that there are so few shops is usually an indicator that there's very few people willing to do requests right now; and those shop owners aren't going to stop making graphics to make a custom trainer sprite, you know? A skill they may or may not have in the first place.

So I worry about these things, needless or not. It just feels like inviting bad juju for A&D while it's so inactive. But like I said, with a convincing enough argument and a well composed model of operation, I'm more than willing to hear you out and give it a shot.

And that's what the DCC is for! We had an Oekaki (spelling?) but it fell into destitute a few years ago and never picked back up. So anyone, creatively inclined or not, can talk about art and establish connections for requests or just chit-chat! :)

But hey, thanks for posting your suggestions! Maybe I can talk to Steve about bringing the Oekaki back?

 

[Somniac]

Hey, if you guys can come up with a good, solid way of bringing back the request thread, I'm all ears. Some of these things were well before my time on PC, let alone as a mod, so I don't know exactly how they operated. I'd need the help anyway. If y'all got a plan, I'll make sure it gets heard.

And we used to do this totally awesome thing, the "one line drawing" but with fakemon. Another tragic loss of the PA and A&D merge. Members would start with one line, and the next person would gradually add to it until there was a completed sprite! It was so, so much fun to watch and participate in. If you think it will generate activity, or at the very least some laughs, I'm all for bringing it back! :)

All you gotta do it reach out to me, I'm always happy to hear any suggestion for A&D. Most of you have been here longer than I have.

I never managed to participate in the previous request thread but I frequent them on other websites.

I feel like the concept of a request thread works better in practice when the requests are generally just quick doodles rather than anything larger which would require a bigger commitment. Clearly I can't speak for others, however I know that If I were to browse a request thread it would most likely be because I'm bored and want something to kill an hour or two with (and giving others a good laugh is always a pleasing way to do so).

There are other social-based websites which often have threads about drawing, and they always go down well when the requests are just 'Draw this character riding a dragon because lol'. A shorter time between the request and something being posted is another benefit as the person who requested is less likely to get bored and wonder away, and thus can respond as soon as the request is fulfilled, which personally is most of the reason that I enjoy doing requests; the reactions from everyone else and the requester when you do a really good job or just come out with something really silly / amusing.

On another note. After I came home from a party I woke up to find I drew this. I really have no words other than 'What?'

Spoiler:

 

[Loki]

The only thing about request threads is that when I was around, there were a ton of people requesting things but nobody fulfilling those requests, you know? And the problem with an emblem would be that once you get the emblem, you don't need to fulfill requests anymore, cause the incentive ran out. It'd have to be a continuous reward system of some sort. (Although I think people should be doing it from the heart, but that's too optimistic I'm sure.) I remember I always sensed a bit of disappointment for some of the requesters as well, when they got things that weren't exactly the quality they'd hoped for.

Ultimately the request thread of my time died because there was simply no point in requesting anything at all; Nobody would actually do it anyway.

As for signature and avatar competitions-- those would definitely be fun to see around again, though I haven't been paying enough attention to the level of GFX in this section lately to know whether it could actually get off the ground or not. As a suggestion for starting out small though, I always found that 1 v 1 challenges with a pre-selected stock between graphic artists of about the same skill level and on good terms were always the most fun!

The graphics giveaway thread was fun too when we first brought it around... I think I left before it died though, why did it disappear...?

 

[Ice1]

I know 1 on 1 challenges usually bring a lot of incentive. Only problem is that if you don't localize it to one thread, it'll spam a subforum to hell. You really need a special sub for it if it catches on. And if you can match the skill of people it becomes a lot of fun and a great way for beginners to practice and receive criticism.

 

[Loki]

I don't think it ever really caught on so much to start spamming the forums though-- even when it was more popular. I think subs are dangerous territory, because I remember half the reason the competitive threads died was when I proposed branching them off into the Graphics and Design Competition sub. Before the sub forum was made, we had almost every kind of competition you could think of but ultimately, they all died because organizing them into a subforum killed the amount of aimless traffic that's necessary to get uninvolved voters....