This is one of a series of 15 consecutive watercolour paintings called "An eyeT Story". The rest of them can be seen here:
Part 1
Part 2

At 8/16/09 07:13 AM, TheDaveAngle wrote: Hey you guys, I'm just in the process of obtaining a better art program. I looked at Art101's info and I'm thinking I'll try out ArtRage, but I'm just wondering if this will be any good for how I do things. I mostly just make comics and and don't ever do any animating so it makes sense to stay away from any flash programs, since I won't be needing it. I almost always draw by hand, scan, trace and then do all the colouring and shading digitally, so after I had done a bit of research on Artrage, it seems like it might be useful, but I'm just asking for a bit of input on this subject, just in case there's something otherwise that I could be missing.

ArtRage is fantastic. Intuitive interface. Great if you want your things to look like they weren't done on a computer. Also cheap ($20 I think). I used it for my Flash submission "One Quiet Winter Night" (all of the artwork was drawn in ArtRage, then exported as either GIFs or PNGs and imported into Flash).

Tom, if possible, I'd like to know how many people actually vote.

I'm sure that it's a lot less than 2000. Just curious.

The winners are pretty good, though I'm disappointed that Cuboy didn't get a spot in the top5.

By the way, what program do you use for your 3D stuff?

I like your 3D works much better than the others. They look great.

I think a problem with your 2D works is that you're not using the right program or the right tools or something... it feels like you're having difficulty getting the right results.

I'd recommend trying out ArtRage and seeing if that makes it any easier (there's a free version of it online that's quite usable). Just speaking from personal experience, I had a lot of difficulty painting with other programs - none of them were really intuitive. (for an example of my ArtRage work, see my Flash submission. Although it can do many other styles)

At 7/25/09 07:18 PM, ashman112 wrote: ok ur the first person ive heard of being warned for lack of skill, what happened to everything by everyone

That only applies to the audio portal (which has no blamming system), and less so to the Flash portal (which does have one, but a whole ton of awful stuff gets in anyway).

The art portal is more exclusive, and lots of people get descouted (i.e. one of my scouts, Timbatty, got descouted after submitting a bit too many quick sketches to the portal). I think that the Art Forum is the place where those who're not good enough for the portal can get critiques (or those who have an unfinished work that they'd like feedback on).

As for your drawing skills, I'll just say that you have to draw a lot. Eventually, you see what you like about your drawings and what you don't, and you get better that way.

I'm just hoping now that "Ballad" will get chosen as a staff pick at the next Tank Awards. A lot of people like it; it's #23 in the Top50 right now. It's one of the more interesting flashes that have been released this year.

What?

Ballad of Cripple Kane didn't even make the Top 5?

Ugh, that's... sad.

I think I'll try to actually vote next month, so that good movies like that don't just get buried. Maybe one more vote would've pushed "Ballad" over the line...

Yeah, this is a real pain.

I use the free program Irfanview to do it. When you re-save a GIF file, it allows you to choose transparency options.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Thanks for the comments, guys.

I don't think I want to change panel 3 (too much time spent on it already, and I like the drawing), but I can try putting a background behind panel 2. Though if it ends up ruining it, I'll probably leave it as is.

I don't know how to do textures to fill up white space, so I'm not even going to attempt that right now...

Originally, the comic only had the last 3 panels and most people I showed it to misunderstood it. I added the first panel in the hopes of making it clearer.

Higher-resolution version here of image:
http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs48/f/2009/1 77/f/9/Mad_Scientist_by_Niffiwan.jpg

I made this recently, but I'd like some feedback before I upload it. Is the progression of events clear?

Or should I add two more panels in the beginning, establishing that it's taking place in a typical dark mad-scientist-castle and that the mad scientist is trying to create a special gas in the beaker?

At 6/27/09 08:02 AM, ZekeySpaceyLizard wrote: The easiest way to fix the scouting system is to make it so only certain people can scout.

Admin approved people.

At a later date these people can then vote to add a new scouter to their ranks who is granted the same abilities as them.

But its a GROUP vote made by appointed individuals

either way its too late to fix now

That will greatly limit the growth of the Art Portal and will mean that most good works will remain in the unscouted section. Growth will be exponential, and no small group of people will be able to keep up with all of it. It needs to be at least somewhat automated.

Here's another suggestion: have a sort of "judgment period" for each new scout that requires a certain # of votes from other scouted artists: "yes" or "no".

At 6/27/09 06:03 AM, smbhax wrote: I think I'd prefer a Flash Portal-style "Judgment" admission system on the Art Portal over the "scout" system used there currently; that would alleviate the constant begging of people to be scouted, the cascading waves of people being booted from the portal when anyone they or their sponsor or their sponsor's sponsor etc gets booted (many thanks to Captain-Ben for re-sponsoring me out of the blue!), and the dictation and confusion about what types and styles of art are allowed. Just set the score cut-offs (ie anything below score x after y time gets deleted) to whatever level will maintain the amount and general quality level of art that's desired, and it should pretty much work automatically from that point on, right?

The scout system does have its advantages - for one thing, very importantly, it builds connections, which ratings do not do. Ratings have failed in the music portal, so I can see why they decided to try something new.

My suggestion for making the scout system work:

Make some sort of special category for people who were unscouted because they were down the chain - let them have a small grace period in which they are placed into a special category, apart from the people who were NEVER scouted, and established artists can choose whether to rescout them or not. If they do, then their whole chain of scouts stays intact.

...and if they don't, THEN they get unscouted and the artists one step further down the line get placed in the grace period. So that all the dominoes don't fall at once, but more slowly, and people can save the ones they like.

Seems like it would save a lot of wasted effort.

At 6/26/09 10:55 PM, Insane-metal-angel wrote: that pencil sketch stuff is bull shit.

Since Tom said specifically "sketches", I took that as meaning "don't make your doodles public". I'd like to think that that goes for quick doodles created with Photoshop, too.

On the other hand, fantastic things can be created with pencils:
http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/l3pra /cute-cat
http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/l3pra /pencil-dragon
http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/madco w/zombie-spongebob

At 6/22/09 09:15 PM, Esn wrote: Thanks. I hope nothing happens to get YOU unscouted, because then we're back to square one. :p

Pfft. We're back to square one. I wonder how many times this is going to happen.

At 6/26/09 07:57 PM, ZekeySpaceyLizard wrote: i'd rather have those under my journal entries than "favorite audio submissions" and "trophies"

just an idea

Yes, yes, listen to this guy!

Also, please:
-make our "art favorites" display as thumbnails rather than titles
-allow us to see our "art reviews" as with music and flash
-allow us to favourite unscouted art & artists, so that they stay there even if the artist is unscouted for some random reason later on

At 6/26/09 03:34 PM, Savory wrote: Hey, those of us 18-24 grew up with newgrounds. We're not going to abandon it just because of.. Responsibility or something silly like that

Same here. Though I don't watch as many Flashes as I once used to; Youtube and other sites have been eating into my time. Though there's the art portal now... which is very addictive...

I do find the overall immature level here annoying, but there are pluses too: a huge audience for animation that is much bigger than on ANY other website, the occasional mature film, the convenience of being able to showcase my animation, music AND art under one roof...

At 6/23/09 04:33 AM, LegolaSS wrote: not only have you got to look at the art that someone has made... but then judge them to see if..

A. its their art
B. they arnt going to go off on one and scout crap users
C. they arnt going to upload rubbish work

I've tried to keep that in mind. I also have just two scouts right now.

It's very hard to tell if something is stolen, though... I've tried to rely on common sense and intuition along with Google searches, but it's hardly a surefire method.

The quality of art seems to be pretty high, still... I'd cautiously say that the system is working, but I don't know how much moderation was needed to obtain this result.

I was unscouted once and got back in, but now Chronamut, the person who scouted me the 2nd time, apparently got unscouted himself for the 2nd time, only it didn't completely unscout him (system bug), just stopped people from voting on his submissions. So it looks like I might AGAIN get unscouted and again have to rescout the people I scouted.

At 6/22/09 11:32 PM, Chronamut wrote: well.. im not really scouted - I have all the perks for scouting OTHERS - but none of the perks that being scouted gives ME haha.. but ya my scouts remain intact.

I'm like a scout leader! Its like boy scouts hahaha

How did that happen? I did notice that I couldn't vote on your submissions... I thought it was a bug in the system.

For the record, I think some of your stuff is really nice and definitely belongs in the portal (eg. Angel Phoenix, Oval Dragon, Kate Moss face), while some looks a bit amateurish.

I've got to take a break from this... the Art Portal is far too addictive.

At 6/22/09 09:02 PM, Captain-Ben wrote:

At 6/22/09 08:55 PM, Esn wrote:

However, I cannot mark someone as a favourite artist, or favourite an artwork by them, if he/she is not scouted. So that alone makes that second portal no portal at all.

If your favorite artist isn't scouted than shame on you for liking shitty art!

I didn't say favourite, I said *a* favourite. In other words, something I liked. Sometimes I see a really nice thing done by someone whose other art isn't good - because he spent a lot more time on that one thing, and it shows.

A few requests:

1st REQUEST: Can our favourites be in gallery format, rather than in list format?

2nd REQUEST: Please allow me to favourite unscouted art and artists.

There are a number of reasons:
1) Sometimes I see interesting art in the unscouted section, but don't want to take the risk to scout that person because it doesn't quite convince me
2) If people I favourite get unscouted later (for whatever random reason), I assume that their works disappear from my favourites. This is really not ideal.

At 6/22/09 08:17 PM, Chronamut wrote:

At 6/22/09 08:08 PM, Esn wrote: Me three. I have no idea what happened, either. I feel sorry for the three people I scouted, too. If I get scouted again, do I have to search them out once more? I'm not entirely sure that I remember their usernames.

you might - you seem to have just been normally unscouted - I scouted you so you're scouted again - unfortunately it doesnt appear as if I can be scouted as it is already showing that I am, but obv. im not.

Thanks. I hope nothing happens to get YOU unscouted, because then we're back to square one. :p Also, no, the three people I scouted did NOT automatically get rescouted, so I have to search for them again. I found two of them.

At 6/22/09 08:52 PM, Esn wrote:

At 6/22/09 08:29 PM, MeMB wrote: So try to think of it like that. Think of it as if there are two Art Portals, not one portal that you need to get permission for. I think this is what the scouting system was set out to do. Just my thoughts.

However, I cannot mark someone as a favourite artist, or favourite an artwork by them, if he/she is not scouted. So that alone makes that second portal no portal at all.

Actually, if you want my thoughts, I think that a person should remain in your "favourites" whether they are scouted or not. If someone, by some fluke, gets unscouted, do they disappear from my favourites also? That would be really annoying and inconvenient, if true.

At 6/22/09 08:29 PM, MeMB wrote: So try to think of it like that. Think of it as if there are two Art Portals, not one portal that you need to get permission for. I think this is what the scouting system was set out to do. Just my thoughts.

However, I cannot mark someone as a favourite artist, or favourite an artwork by them, if he/she is not scouted. So that alone makes that second portal no portal at all.

...and I'm now unscouted myself, because my scout Anvilpinata got unscouted (no idea why he did or who scouted him... his stuff's minimalistic but I wouldn't say it's actually bad).

You know, I think that this is a sort of problem that should probably be fixed somehow, particularly when there are long chains of scouts. I also scouted 3 people yesterday - not sure I can remember their usernames now, though.

Maybe there can be a special subsection in the "unscouted art" section specifically holding those people who were once scouted but got stripped of it because of something higher up.

At 6/22/09 04:43 PM, Chronamut wrote: actually.. the unscouted page probably just went up a few pages because I have been slingshotted back into unscoutedness sicne their latest update - AGAIN!

is this going to happen every time?

I'm stuck now too, scouted, but unscouted..

Me three. I have no idea what happened, either. I feel sorry for the three people I scouted, too. If I get scouted again, do I have to search them out once more? I'm not entirely sure that I remember their usernames.

At 6/22/09 03:46 PM, Chronamut wrote:

At 6/22/09 02:56 PM, Esn wrote: 1) the "rankings" really are AFTER the scouting & gallery view - meaning, they're not on the front page & not so easy to find

but then who would want them?

That's the entire point.

2) there is a minimum # of votes before a submission can even appear on the "rankings". Like 250 votes (it should be high). Hopefully, artists who're that popular already will have better things to do than vote down the art of others, and single votes won't have much effect anyway.

DON'T underestimate the power of people to destroy other people on this site - your idealism has no place here compared to the cold hard facts that people will do anything to get ahead if they see the opportunity.

If you're so sure that there's absolutely no way to mitigate it, then don't have rankings. Period.

3) it's a "top 100 list" that is UNRANKED. Meaning that there is no jockeying for position - a work is either in the top 100 list (assigned a random position every time the page loads) or it's not. And it's impossible to tell if your work is about to drop out, because you can't see if it's in the bottom of the ranking or not.

a random top 100? That sounds a tad useless.. hit and miss popularity.. while it might work at the beginning - once you have over a million submissions is gonna suck majorly.

How so? And it's not useless at all - you won't be able to see who's #1 or who's #100, but that's the whole point - its purpose won't be to get people to vote down each other's submissions, but to present a small "gallery of our best work" for new users to see.

what I suggested is that the unscouted submissions have a shelf life of 2 weeks - if you';re not scouted by then all the unscouted stuff you submitted is purged from the system - and you have to try again - this might help keep the unscouted page at a manageable low - ive noticed it increasing day by day.. it never goes down..

Actually, I've noticed only one new page of unscouted submissions since yesterday. It seems to be very manageable so far. Also, there is ALREADY a limit of 20 submissions that you can submit if you're unscouted. So I don't think there will be a problem.

So... anyone up for starting a "Candidates for Unscouting" thread? Badly needed I think, but the forum does have a "no negativity" rule so I'm not going to be the one to do it.

Here are some people who I think... ahem... need to practice some more:

http://vibrotherapy.newgrounds.com/art/
http://leo5600.newgrounds.com/art/
http://xmarionettexincx.newgrounds.com/a rt/

At 6/22/09 02:25 PM, DaManginasfcwalb wrote: I think it would be cool to keep the scouting system but then after the scouting there is also a ranking system of some sort.I would hate to make it as political as the music section because people are very mean spirited.

The only way I can see it working is if

1) the "rankings" really are AFTER the scouting & gallery view - meaning, they're not on the front page & not so easy to find

2) there is a minimum # of votes before a submission can even appear on the "rankings". Like 250 votes (it should be high). Hopefully, artists who're that popular already will have better things to do than vote down the art of others, and single votes won't have much effect anyway.

3) it's a "top 100 list" that is UNRANKED. Meaning that there is no jockeying for position - a work is either in the top 100 list (assigned a random position every time the page loads) or it's not. And it's impossible to tell if your work is about to drop out, because you can't see if it's in the bottom of the ranking or not.

At 6/22/09 01:57 PM, DaManginasfcwalb wrote: for some reason the art portal is not working now.I wanted to chek out some artists I faved and that was gone too.I think you guys should keep it up! but you should also have a ranking system so the best art can be displayed for everyone to see as well as all the new art for people to see.That way there is freedom of artistic expression as well as a rewarding system for making quality art.

I am not sure that that is such a good idea, actually. If the music portal is anything to go by, that will just lead to politicization of voting, with people voting "0" on submissions just to see their own works go higher on the ladder. I much prefer the current gallery view, and being able to follow the chain of scouts of artists I like!

There needs to be a minimum number of votes (like judgment period) before such a ranking can work, I think. When there are just a few votes per submission, as it currently the case, it's really easy for one mean-spirited person to drastically change the results.