This is Damien, back from my "vacation" at the inlaws, and I decided to ask a very important question.
How am I doing in my job here? I know there are people who like my stuff and my efforts on Jeff's behalf, to keep comments posting regularly and stuff like that. But what of you nay-sayers? Are there those among you who don't like me, or think I'm a hack writer? Maybe think I'm too pretentious? Obviously those who are ignoring me wouldn't be reading my posts much, so I'll ask right here. Am I doing ok? What needs to change?
(Loyal fans, please let them have their say and not start a flame war, okays?)
Next weekend or before is going to be a special "Females ONLY!" Poses Post, so tune in next time!
Let me be the first to say that you are doing a wonderful job. Keep up the good work and keep the info flowing.
One last thing (nag nag nag !!!!) I didn’t want to sound to mushy.
Thank you HK.
When I redid a character I followed your tips and he came out much better. Thanks for the masking instructions.
yeah, u helped me alot and ..stuff
The tip you gave me for digitigrade legs was very useful, and I appreciate that. So far, you’re doing excellent!
It’s a helluva job, really. Your little tutorials are so helpsome. Thanks for that.
I think your tutorials are good as far as they go. What I mean by that is, although you have all or most of the pertinent bits of info included, some of them are almost too wordy. Case in point is the masking tutorial where you had the guy buying a costume (you know, Mr. Poofy Sleeves). It was a cute story, and entertaining, but I kind of think the actual helpful info might have been buried a bit.
Maybe that’s just me though; I could see how some folks might actually like it better that way.
All in all though, I think you’re doing a good job, dude.
You’re doing a great job, Damien. Your blogs have really helped in expanding my creativity.
Thank you 🙂
@ Imp: I’ll be honest, dude. That one just kinda…got away from me. It wasn’t going to be anything close to that, but once I touched my toe in the pool of creativity, some crazy guy ran up and pushed me in the deep end.
And I apparently drowned. Go figure.
Damien is there something we need to know about you if you are going to write “female only” post????????????
I don’t think it’s a course on cross-dressing, sorry HK. 😀
Someone asked after the Poses post when Jeff was going to get around to female parts. I realized afterward that I had completely neglected to include any advice on creating realistic-looking female poses. So I figured that I really should cover that so there’s something to tide the crowd over until we get the females section put in. Hence, Females Only Poses Post.
I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a nay-sayer. It’s not because I’m always content, but mostly because I don’t see the point of making pointlessly-critical remarks. That said, I do have one issue that I will raise, seeing as you have asked the question…
Your posts sometimes come across as a wee bit self-inflated. You have some great pieces of art and when I saw your wolf-woman pic(whose name I CONSTANTLY forget), I was very impressed. However, using the same pic in SEVERAL posts on “how to create awesome characters”(you didn’t have that as the topics’ names, but it sometimes seemed that way), seemed rather…egotistical.
Now, don’t get me wrong, just cuz I say this, it doesn’t mean I think your posts are bad. You have a lot of good advice in most every post. Your last post on dynamic/subtle posing was very good, as I mentioned in that thread. Just maybe try and come up with different material as examples of how to use stuff, instead of using the same ones over again. If *I* came across myself doing that, I’d probably punch myself out. 0_o lol
So there you have it! I hope this post doesn’t come across as combative or insulting. I’d rather not rock the boat, but you asked, so I answered.
I feel you provide extremely useful tips explained in a more or less entertaining fashion.
Overall I think you’re doing a great job, however, I do find your post-modern depiction of metaphors lacking in depth of underlying writing archetecture.
@ DarkVatican: I’ll be honest, you’re right about the overuse of that one character. But I also said something of the same thing in those posts after awhile. It’s also why I started creating those “throwaway” designs, like the Mr. Blank the Poofy-Sleeved Avenger or whatever.
As for ego, I swear it’s not. I have explained this before, but basically I didn’t feel right trying to extrapolate on other people’s feelings or ideas. I knew how and why I did what I did, so it was only natural to use my own stuff. Besides, I also critiqued my own stuff. The only time I’ve done that openly to someone else was Marx’s Spell Weaver (the Super Poses Post, Turned Faces, bottom) and I had his express permission before doing so. Also, we both did the faces the same way, so I was still criticizing myself, sorta. I’m pretty sure that eventually there’d be an outcry if I was picking apart everyone’s stuff, wouldn’t there? As egotistical as using my own stuff might look, isn’t it better than “Well, so-and-so did a decent job, but what I would have done is more like THIS…” Even with the best of intentions, I don’t think I’d have lasted past the second week.
So. My attempts to validate my positions. And no, you didn’t come off as insulting, and I would have accepted it if you had. I’m trying to find out what I do that might be ticking people off, and this was the way to do it. So thank you for your honesty. (And politeness 🙂 )
@ Mr. Vampire: whatidadizzat? Even I didn’t understand anything past “however”…
I think he was making a joke, trying to sound like a critical writing prof.
Joke or not, I wanted to know what the heck he actually said. That’s the kind of thing I usually pull on people–it’s weird when it happens to me!
Major LOL!
I have to “in part” agree with Dark V. I must admit that after one or two of your posts, I had pretty much given up on reading any more of them, as they all seemed to come across as “look at me and how great my characters are.” Having you explain some of that in the above post #15 clears up a little of that, but still, there it is. I also have to admit (a little sheepishly), that I made a character of you on one of my forum posts, *looks embarrassed*, with a larger than life head. sorry but it got away from me. Anyway, you have had some tips that have been helpful to some people, so I guess, keep it up.
And like DarkV i don’t mean to sound insulting or, what was it? Oh yeah, combative.
you very creative at creating characters.
easier and faster way to help most people who cant or dont understand your tips/advice is to make a step by step video on to create masterpiece
a few tips were confusing like how did you made the legs look like animal legs,how, to mask three objects at once without screwing everything up,or how did you made a person hold something behind their heads.
you never should us a step by step on how you create a mercenary,furry,etc
i had troubles seizing the head or the body=tip i sized and shrink the head to 180% then i rotate it to 95% = i tried that and it didn’t work out so well
the positives of your tips are:the character looks,the finishing touches,a very well done and highly imaginative selection of unique characters.
you could maybe ask the fans what next tip that they would like to see.
you seem like mini Michael DE Angelo
keep up the good work
@ Kyle: Behind the head is actually really simple. Put the head in the forward-most layer after that, everything is, by definition, behind it 🙂
As for the beast legs, you can find a quick but detailed how-to here at one of my original posts where I have pretty pictures and everything. If you need more than that, just ask!