Jay Naylor's Blog, page 2
March 14, 2012
Mass Effect 3
I completed my first run-through of Mass Effect 3, using a paragon character created for ME1, designed to look as close as possible to Bruce Willis. I have a renegade character, as well, designed to look like Grace Jones. Unfortunately, because of Bioware's limited customization options, she looks like a bald black woman with caucasian features. But still cool. Nonetheless, when you import your savegames from ME2 to ME3, the new way they show characters will probably radically alter your Shepard's appearance. My Bruce Willis didn't look very much like Bruce Willis anymore, but he was still close enough to continue with and not spend an hour fucking with further customizing the appearance. Anyway...
It's not enough to say I finished Mass Effect 3. Someone who has a character imported through the prior games has the powerful experience of having completed an epic trilogy with a customized story line altered by your decisions from prior games. It's the first time I've played a series of games like this, and it certainly enhances the experience, the anticipation, and to a small degree, a level of customization based on personal preferences. I'm probably going to talk about some spoilers ahead, so you know...
There are a lot of great things about a game series like this, as well a lot of terrible things. By the time the third game in a series like this comes out, everyone's anticipation level is pretty high and their expectations are pent up like charged springs, and they're ready to launch their customized Shepards into a new set of challenges and wrap up an epic trilogy. This sort of pent-up anticipation is also a breeding ground for disappointment. It's a monumental hurdle for game creators to deal with these sorts of expectations. Not only are they living up to old games, they're living up to the integrity of their particular story against the millions of nuanced opinions and wishes of their customers.
The Good
Combat in ME3 is much more challenging than the prior games. I've played through all them on "normal" difficulty settings and I could fairly confidently walk through every battle in the first two games. The third game took me off guard and I had to really assess what I was doing in order to survive. It's a good kind of challenging. Not impossible, but you had to earn your victory in some areas. Surprisingly, fighting Cerberus troops early on was a much larger challenge than fighting Reaper forces.
The weapons modification aspect is back, though it's far less complicated and doesn't involve any inventory management at all. The only downside was a lack of diversity when it came to customizations, as far as I could tell. They were very basic - longer barrels for more damage, armor piercing modifications, scopes, greater thermal clip capacity, etc. Polonium rounds didn't make a come back, like I'd hoped, either, but that's a personal peck. Armor modification was less spectacular. You could deck out your existing armor with modified parts that altered the armor effects, or you could purchase other sets of armors that couldn't be modified, that came with a suite of their own effects.
I was surprised with how seamless Bioware made the customization of interaction with some parts of the game. Conversation pieces that depended on variable decisions made in prior games (even things like who you slept with) seemed to flow pretty naturally. It also left me aware of how there's probably a whole bunch of dialog and other things, that each unique player will never see simply because of the choices they've made. A lot of the conversations have tensions and emotions that feel palpable, and I enjoyed swimming through them.
The Bad
The worst part of the game, in my opinion, is what is required to earn the best possible endings, which necessitate a galaxy military readiness rating of 4000 to 5000. These ratings are only possible by playing the multiplayer game. For everyone who bolstered Mass Effect *because* they enjoy a good single-player experience, it feels like a creative stab in the gut to force them to fuck around with multiplayer hookups (something they may not like) to obtain a desired ending. Without engaging in the multiplayer game, the only outcomes possible involve the destruction of Shepard to save the galaxy. I despise "hero must destroy himself to succeed" themes, so this is especially odious to me.
The side-quest system is pretty slack. Side quests add to your readiness rating and lengthen the game, making it more interesting. Most side quests are picked up by overhearing conversations on the Citadel (pretty much the only place in ME3 where you can get out of your ship and roam around to talk to folks, now). Finding most minor side-quests involves going to a planet and scanning it and launching a probe. Everything else is handled off-screen. The difficulty lies in the Reapers zeroing in your position the more you "ping" a system with your scanner. Contact with a Reaper ship in the solar-system navigation screen is an instant-kill. The side-quest management system is dreadful, as well. Coming fresh off of Skyrim, which updates your side-quest log to show the next task to be performed to complete the quest, ME3 doesn't update the quest menu based on how many steps you've already performed to complete the quest. Due to the impersonal nature of just launching probes at planets and receiving notifications that we've picked up "things", I often forgot which items I'd already picked up for which existing side-quests. So my side-questing devolved into me just going out to systems I hadn't fully explored, yet, scanning everything, picking up as much as I can before death-by-Reapers, and skittering back to the Citadel to run around the same goddamned rooms to see if there was anybody who needed the things I'd picked up. This was a very sloppy way for the game interface to manage side-quests, and it put me off a bit.
I didn't feel this was quite an issue in ME2. I often received quests in gigantic bursts that were hard to manage, but if I slowed down and went through them methodically, I could take care of them. I suppose Bioware wanted to create an environment with a very real sense of urgency, with Reaper forces making their moves, closing in here and there, and I guess on that front they did a good job. I definitely felt more "rushed" about things in ME3.
Other bad things include some aspects of the writing. Well, ME writing has always been that way. The ME universe is the one your grade school teacher told you about. It's the kind of world where most, if not all conflicts, are the result of unfortunate misunderstandings that can be easily solved if both parties are properly appeased and cooler heads at the leadership level prevail. The ME universe is one where extreme freedom means legalized slavery, and the like. It's a world where megacorporations run out of control in some areas. It's a world of cliches in a lot of ways. Sometimes aliens seem way too human. It's a world where solutions to old (and very real) problems are vilified, despite the horrible fates we'd suffer if they weren't enacted. It's a world with an alien species comprised entirely of sexy females who just happen to share the exact same body shape as female humans (as opposed to say... female Turians). I wouldn't say the game writing is a leftist screed, but it does have overtones of modern cultural zeitgeist, where progress comes in the form of regulation and freedom solves nothing.
Overall, fun game, great epic, but disappointing conclusion given the multiplayer requirement for a more desirable ending. I may give the multiplayer a shot sometime, just to get my readiness up to a bare minimum required for these endings. But I'm not feeling quite so masochistic, yet.
It's not enough to say I finished Mass Effect 3. Someone who has a character imported through the prior games has the powerful experience of having completed an epic trilogy with a customized story line altered by your decisions from prior games. It's the first time I've played a series of games like this, and it certainly enhances the experience, the anticipation, and to a small degree, a level of customization based on personal preferences. I'm probably going to talk about some spoilers ahead, so you know...
There are a lot of great things about a game series like this, as well a lot of terrible things. By the time the third game in a series like this comes out, everyone's anticipation level is pretty high and their expectations are pent up like charged springs, and they're ready to launch their customized Shepards into a new set of challenges and wrap up an epic trilogy. This sort of pent-up anticipation is also a breeding ground for disappointment. It's a monumental hurdle for game creators to deal with these sorts of expectations. Not only are they living up to old games, they're living up to the integrity of their particular story against the millions of nuanced opinions and wishes of their customers.
The Good
Combat in ME3 is much more challenging than the prior games. I've played through all them on "normal" difficulty settings and I could fairly confidently walk through every battle in the first two games. The third game took me off guard and I had to really assess what I was doing in order to survive. It's a good kind of challenging. Not impossible, but you had to earn your victory in some areas. Surprisingly, fighting Cerberus troops early on was a much larger challenge than fighting Reaper forces.
The weapons modification aspect is back, though it's far less complicated and doesn't involve any inventory management at all. The only downside was a lack of diversity when it came to customizations, as far as I could tell. They were very basic - longer barrels for more damage, armor piercing modifications, scopes, greater thermal clip capacity, etc. Polonium rounds didn't make a come back, like I'd hoped, either, but that's a personal peck. Armor modification was less spectacular. You could deck out your existing armor with modified parts that altered the armor effects, or you could purchase other sets of armors that couldn't be modified, that came with a suite of their own effects.
I was surprised with how seamless Bioware made the customization of interaction with some parts of the game. Conversation pieces that depended on variable decisions made in prior games (even things like who you slept with) seemed to flow pretty naturally. It also left me aware of how there's probably a whole bunch of dialog and other things, that each unique player will never see simply because of the choices they've made. A lot of the conversations have tensions and emotions that feel palpable, and I enjoyed swimming through them.
The Bad
The worst part of the game, in my opinion, is what is required to earn the best possible endings, which necessitate a galaxy military readiness rating of 4000 to 5000. These ratings are only possible by playing the multiplayer game. For everyone who bolstered Mass Effect *because* they enjoy a good single-player experience, it feels like a creative stab in the gut to force them to fuck around with multiplayer hookups (something they may not like) to obtain a desired ending. Without engaging in the multiplayer game, the only outcomes possible involve the destruction of Shepard to save the galaxy. I despise "hero must destroy himself to succeed" themes, so this is especially odious to me.
The side-quest system is pretty slack. Side quests add to your readiness rating and lengthen the game, making it more interesting. Most side quests are picked up by overhearing conversations on the Citadel (pretty much the only place in ME3 where you can get out of your ship and roam around to talk to folks, now). Finding most minor side-quests involves going to a planet and scanning it and launching a probe. Everything else is handled off-screen. The difficulty lies in the Reapers zeroing in your position the more you "ping" a system with your scanner. Contact with a Reaper ship in the solar-system navigation screen is an instant-kill. The side-quest management system is dreadful, as well. Coming fresh off of Skyrim, which updates your side-quest log to show the next task to be performed to complete the quest, ME3 doesn't update the quest menu based on how many steps you've already performed to complete the quest. Due to the impersonal nature of just launching probes at planets and receiving notifications that we've picked up "things", I often forgot which items I'd already picked up for which existing side-quests. So my side-questing devolved into me just going out to systems I hadn't fully explored, yet, scanning everything, picking up as much as I can before death-by-Reapers, and skittering back to the Citadel to run around the same goddamned rooms to see if there was anybody who needed the things I'd picked up. This was a very sloppy way for the game interface to manage side-quests, and it put me off a bit.
I didn't feel this was quite an issue in ME2. I often received quests in gigantic bursts that were hard to manage, but if I slowed down and went through them methodically, I could take care of them. I suppose Bioware wanted to create an environment with a very real sense of urgency, with Reaper forces making their moves, closing in here and there, and I guess on that front they did a good job. I definitely felt more "rushed" about things in ME3.
Other bad things include some aspects of the writing. Well, ME writing has always been that way. The ME universe is the one your grade school teacher told you about. It's the kind of world where most, if not all conflicts, are the result of unfortunate misunderstandings that can be easily solved if both parties are properly appeased and cooler heads at the leadership level prevail. The ME universe is one where extreme freedom means legalized slavery, and the like. It's a world where megacorporations run out of control in some areas. It's a world of cliches in a lot of ways. Sometimes aliens seem way too human. It's a world where solutions to old (and very real) problems are vilified, despite the horrible fates we'd suffer if they weren't enacted. It's a world with an alien species comprised entirely of sexy females who just happen to share the exact same body shape as female humans (as opposed to say... female Turians). I wouldn't say the game writing is a leftist screed, but it does have overtones of modern cultural zeitgeist, where progress comes in the form of regulation and freedom solves nothing.
Overall, fun game, great epic, but disappointing conclusion given the multiplayer requirement for a more desirable ending. I may give the multiplayer a shot sometime, just to get my readiness up to a bare minimum required for these endings. But I'm not feeling quite so masochistic, yet.
February 2, 2012
Rule 34s
My latest little pony-themed comics have brought up some more questions about whether I'll ever do Rule 34s on these things. Well, no. I haven't fully analyzed the reason why I have an aversion to Rule 34 things in general. The more I know about a particular cartoon, either from the past or from a present following, the more of an "eh" reaction I have to fan-made adult images I run across. What I feel when I see it isn't dissimilar to seeing a celebrity's face photoshopped onto a nude body. No matter how well done it may be, there's a level of "I just know too well how fake this is" involved. This may seem surprising, since the jests that I draw are sometimes of an "after 9pm" subject. But these are just purely playing on embellishments of character, rather than a desire to elaborate on a cartoon character's personal sexual motions (or their genitals). I suppose as close as I've come was the human version of Zecora, which, while a nude, wasn't very explicit or sexual. It didn't show much beyond her bare rear end and a painted over breast. The intent was to be savage, not prurient.
I know it's one of the downsides of being known for drawing adult comics: whatever you launch into on the side, people expect it to eventually go in that direction. With my own creations, there are characters I create with the full intention of having them be sexually themed. Even characters in my free, non-adult webcomics will sometimes find themselves depicted in the adult comics. There's a whole different feeling involved when you have full control over a character and everything you write and draw, sexual or not, is canon to them. I like working with my own stuff so much, I can't imagine trying to fit my adult expressions onto mainstream creations.
I'm also fully aware that people who partake of comics and pictures do so from different levels of discernment, and many (not all) of those who look to me for adult work aren't interested in any deeper aspect of characterization, and just simply have a fascination with sex. I'm not knocking this. We all approach reading and partaking with different standpoints, preconceptions, and mental exercise. It's one of the reasons I draw comics instead of just pinups. The comics can create an elaborate context and give characters some life, which in turns makes the one-shot pinups all the more interesting. Whenever someone expresses an interest in having me draw Rule 34 ponies, I can't imagine they're really interested in an author's funny or serious take on little shreds of character here and there, so much as they are interested in just seeing the characters' naked bodies interacting. I have free reign to make my adult comics a combination of sultry, explicit, and meaningful as I want (or not). People may not take away from it everything I put into it, but so be it. That's perfectly fine. So many others will just say "it's porn, what else is there to it?" and that's cool. I don't mind. People can be on that level and I have no problem with it. But I think those who are really interested in the Rule 34 are specifically on that level. I'm not knocking it, I just don't enjoy dragging other people's creations into it, and there's also another part of me that thinks it could be construed as disrespectful.
I'm not saying I'm the Victor Hugo of furry porn. I'm not trying to insult anyone who may like something or not. But, despite some of the things I've put in the descriptions of my pony-themed images, I keep getting the same queries and insinuations about taking things "a step further". One person on FA even went as far as to confidently bet that I wouldn't be able to go a month without drawing pony porn. I was called "prideful" for looking forward to winning that bet. I suppose since I have a whole array of characters and worlds I can use of my own creation, it's staved off any desire to dabble in someone else's for explicit material. Not only is there a discomfort with doing Rule 34 material, there really is no temptation at all.
I may write about and draw characters who relish "delicious sins", but I don't believe in them myself. Some people live their whole lives believing it's perfectly fine to have your surging desires and temptations live in conflict with your mind, and can't conceive of this not existing in someone else. I don't hold back drawing what I want, and I never draw anything I don't.
I know it's one of the downsides of being known for drawing adult comics: whatever you launch into on the side, people expect it to eventually go in that direction. With my own creations, there are characters I create with the full intention of having them be sexually themed. Even characters in my free, non-adult webcomics will sometimes find themselves depicted in the adult comics. There's a whole different feeling involved when you have full control over a character and everything you write and draw, sexual or not, is canon to them. I like working with my own stuff so much, I can't imagine trying to fit my adult expressions onto mainstream creations.
I'm also fully aware that people who partake of comics and pictures do so from different levels of discernment, and many (not all) of those who look to me for adult work aren't interested in any deeper aspect of characterization, and just simply have a fascination with sex. I'm not knocking this. We all approach reading and partaking with different standpoints, preconceptions, and mental exercise. It's one of the reasons I draw comics instead of just pinups. The comics can create an elaborate context and give characters some life, which in turns makes the one-shot pinups all the more interesting. Whenever someone expresses an interest in having me draw Rule 34 ponies, I can't imagine they're really interested in an author's funny or serious take on little shreds of character here and there, so much as they are interested in just seeing the characters' naked bodies interacting. I have free reign to make my adult comics a combination of sultry, explicit, and meaningful as I want (or not). People may not take away from it everything I put into it, but so be it. That's perfectly fine. So many others will just say "it's porn, what else is there to it?" and that's cool. I don't mind. People can be on that level and I have no problem with it. But I think those who are really interested in the Rule 34 are specifically on that level. I'm not knocking it, I just don't enjoy dragging other people's creations into it, and there's also another part of me that thinks it could be construed as disrespectful.
I'm not saying I'm the Victor Hugo of furry porn. I'm not trying to insult anyone who may like something or not. But, despite some of the things I've put in the descriptions of my pony-themed images, I keep getting the same queries and insinuations about taking things "a step further". One person on FA even went as far as to confidently bet that I wouldn't be able to go a month without drawing pony porn. I was called "prideful" for looking forward to winning that bet. I suppose since I have a whole array of characters and worlds I can use of my own creation, it's staved off any desire to dabble in someone else's for explicit material. Not only is there a discomfort with doing Rule 34 material, there really is no temptation at all.
I may write about and draw characters who relish "delicious sins", but I don't believe in them myself. Some people live their whole lives believing it's perfectly fine to have your surging desires and temptations live in conflict with your mind, and can't conceive of this not existing in someone else. I don't hold back drawing what I want, and I never draw anything I don't.
December 26, 2011
2012 Project List
2011 is almost up and I'm going to go over the projects I know I'll want to work on, or begin working on, in the coming year. I figured I better cover them here before I forget! And also give people a glimpsy glimpse into what I have on my table at the moment. Not to say things won't be added as they blossom forth and catch my imagination unexpectedly.
Bad Love - Still in progress. I've been unable to abridge the stories I planned to include in this project, so I'm going to just end up releasing each one as separate projects, the first of which being about Sissy and Troy, within the context of her therapy. The project will be finished and released in early to mid January.
Friends with Benefits - Commission comic project that I've nestled into my production schedule. I tried doing it at the same time I do my current project, but it was just taking up too much time. If I work too late in the day, my drawing often suffers and becomes inconsistent, so I've put it into my ordinary working hours and will be doing it right after the completion of "Bad Love".
Selfless Love - This was the other story that was going to be a part of "Bad Love". It's about Pablo explaining his obsession with Mary Ann to his sister, Lupe, a much underdeveloped character. In fact, she did appear once very briefly, but I've disavowed that appearance as her, and am in the process of remaking her into a much more interesting person. This isn't really about Lupe at all, and she doesn't even get naked in this story. The majority of the visuals will involve Mary Ann with the painted horse I've been drawing lately, who I've yet to give a name. Of all the one-off bits I have planned for next year, I'm looking forward to this one the most.
After this part, the order in which I do the following projects is not set in the stone.
Samantha Struts (working title) - Samantha underwent a little metamorphosis in my mind and I have a comic I wish to do with her, and the details of it have changed accordingly. Going from a mindless sex maniac to a discriminating sadistic sex maniac has called for some plot tweaks which I think will make her a more interesting adult character.
Parole (working title) - There's not much I want to reveal about this one right now, other than to say it will make heads explode and I can't wait to feel the wave of wailing and gnashing of teeth wash over me like a tsunami of awesome. And y'all thought she was dead.
Goat's Goatly Goatery (working title) - A little more detail about Erzile's assistant and familiar, Goat, played out in a story that's still germinating in my mind. He actually has a pretty interesting origins story I want to touch on, as well. Erzile and Goat's presence in the Lumpkinville universe is the only place where I give the explicitly supernatural permission to reside in my stories.
Genwyn Must Die - A group of women conspire to murder a red panda who keeps dressing up like a girl and enticing their husbands to cheat on them. In the end, they all learn a valuable lesson about satisfying the sexual needs of the men in their life. With their anuses. Haha, just kidding. I'll never draw this.
Cottonwine - I want to spend a good bit of time running up to the first Cottonwine project. Part of my goal for 2012 is to get a lot of the other stuff out of the way so I can turn out a lot of Cottonwine material in a row, afterwards, stretching on into 2013 and beyond. As it is, now, I have a lot of stuff written and will be cementing it later. It will cover more about what happened between the humans and the wolves at the end of Red Riding Hood, while introducing the larger universe, and yes, even a theme. It's shaping up to be quite the project and, of course, the sexually charged bits will be turned into elaborate catalog projects. After a few other things, I plan to dedicate the majority of my sketching time to doing background drawings and prelims running up to the release of the first story. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Bad Love - Still in progress. I've been unable to abridge the stories I planned to include in this project, so I'm going to just end up releasing each one as separate projects, the first of which being about Sissy and Troy, within the context of her therapy. The project will be finished and released in early to mid January.
Friends with Benefits - Commission comic project that I've nestled into my production schedule. I tried doing it at the same time I do my current project, but it was just taking up too much time. If I work too late in the day, my drawing often suffers and becomes inconsistent, so I've put it into my ordinary working hours and will be doing it right after the completion of "Bad Love".
Selfless Love - This was the other story that was going to be a part of "Bad Love". It's about Pablo explaining his obsession with Mary Ann to his sister, Lupe, a much underdeveloped character. In fact, she did appear once very briefly, but I've disavowed that appearance as her, and am in the process of remaking her into a much more interesting person. This isn't really about Lupe at all, and she doesn't even get naked in this story. The majority of the visuals will involve Mary Ann with the painted horse I've been drawing lately, who I've yet to give a name. Of all the one-off bits I have planned for next year, I'm looking forward to this one the most.
After this part, the order in which I do the following projects is not set in the stone.
Samantha Struts (working title) - Samantha underwent a little metamorphosis in my mind and I have a comic I wish to do with her, and the details of it have changed accordingly. Going from a mindless sex maniac to a discriminating sadistic sex maniac has called for some plot tweaks which I think will make her a more interesting adult character.
Parole (working title) - There's not much I want to reveal about this one right now, other than to say it will make heads explode and I can't wait to feel the wave of wailing and gnashing of teeth wash over me like a tsunami of awesome. And y'all thought she was dead.
Goat's Goatly Goatery (working title) - A little more detail about Erzile's assistant and familiar, Goat, played out in a story that's still germinating in my mind. He actually has a pretty interesting origins story I want to touch on, as well. Erzile and Goat's presence in the Lumpkinville universe is the only place where I give the explicitly supernatural permission to reside in my stories.
Genwyn Must Die - A group of women conspire to murder a red panda who keeps dressing up like a girl and enticing their husbands to cheat on them. In the end, they all learn a valuable lesson about satisfying the sexual needs of the men in their life. With their anuses. Haha, just kidding. I'll never draw this.
Cottonwine - I want to spend a good bit of time running up to the first Cottonwine project. Part of my goal for 2012 is to get a lot of the other stuff out of the way so I can turn out a lot of Cottonwine material in a row, afterwards, stretching on into 2013 and beyond. As it is, now, I have a lot of stuff written and will be cementing it later. It will cover more about what happened between the humans and the wolves at the end of Red Riding Hood, while introducing the larger universe, and yes, even a theme. It's shaping up to be quite the project and, of course, the sexually charged bits will be turned into elaborate catalog projects. After a few other things, I plan to dedicate the majority of my sketching time to doing background drawings and prelims running up to the release of the first story. I'm really looking forward to this one.
November 8, 2011
All Them Communities
The issue of whether or not one should get a SoFurry account, as well as a Fur Affinity account, cropped up on twitter, recently. I think the issue for most reasonably popular artists is whether or not the extra time spent maintaining an account is worth the exposure. Fur Affinity obviously has a huge community, mostly by inertia. It's a default place for anyone seeking broad exposure and business in the shortest amount of time. It's not quite worth it for them to maintain accounts on sites that aren't going to expose them to a whole new possible audience in significant numbers. With the ease of getting a free account on FA, the community just isn't fragmented enough to justify ensuring you have an account on all sites. What would draw someone to maintain an account on both places would be a sufficient number of useful features and things that FA hasn't provided (I almost wrote "can't provide" but I think "hasn't" is more accurate). FA has quirks. It has issues, and the interface is from hunger, sure. The downtimes and issues aren't frequent enough (anymore) to cause people to leave in droves (yet). So it's a reality that artists have to take into account when they see a new site pop up that wants to host their stuff.
The whole equation boils down to this: Will this new account gain me enough exposure to new people to justify maintaining (yet another) account there, on top of FA? Or are most of the people there also on FA, and I'm simply, for the most part, showing my work to the same people twice?
On top of Fur Affinity, I maintain Deviant Art and Tumblr accounts. Tumblr follows my submission releases from FA pretty straightforwardly, though I often release sketches and in-progress works on Tumblr that I don't let out anywhere else. Aside from a submission blog, it's also taken over the role of my on-site sketch blog. Foremost, Tumblr also gives me possible exposure to non-furries and others without FA accounts. Deviant Art is largely the same. They have greater restrictions on erotic pieces, but the trade off is the exposure to non-furries. I've received more than a handful of comments and notes on DA from people who express their unease about furries but who enjoy many of the pieces I submit there. In the instances of DA and Tumblr, it's worth it to maintain accounts.
Inkbunny was a site that almost had it. They have a great interface and they had the thing that could have really turned them into a valuable site for popular artists: a straightforward commercial system where the artists could offer additional portfolios and comics for fans who liked their work enough to support it with money. It's basically the business model I have for my website, and have been making a living off of for years, now. It provided the incentive: If you're a popular artist, you now have a reason to maintain both an FA and an IB account. Sure, the site was started by some people who supported and produced some questionable and creepy material (publications which sexualized cartoon children), but the site didn't have to be about that if it drew enough traffic and accounts to make it a commercialized (read: financially profitable, growing, dynamic, outstanding) version of FA. The creepiness would have been a side-show, buried amid popular names and images offered by a host of artists inspired by making side money and producing more material than they would on FA for free. There would suddenly be a good reason for heavy hitting artists and their fans to go to IB, even as they maintained accounts on FA. When faced with their transaction service issuing an ultimatum, they chose to scrap the commercial system in favor of being able to host pictures of naked and sexualized cartoon children. Sure, they had the right, but the decision destroyed any real motivation from busy and popular artists to maintain an account in both places (unless they wanted to draw naked furry children). The decision took away the one thing they offered to people that made their site something more than just another FA.
I think before someone just thinks "let's make a BETTER art hosting site than FA!" they should really work on addressing these realities, looking at such sites from the standpoint of what makes them attractive to both artists and fans, beyond just little features, chatrooms, and slicker interfaces. The only thing FA has going for it is the sheer volume of traffic available, largely by inertia. Instead of just making a site that hopes to draw that traffic, give artists a reason to tell their fans to check out their gallery on your site, instead of FA. Give them a real incentive.
This isn't to say I don't dig how a lot of those other sites look. It's not to say I don't wish they'd become the dominant community art site. I think offering commercial options beyond donation buttons is the key. That being said, I may check out SoFurry's stuff in the future and see how I like it, but it doesn't look like it'd be a regular draw.
Just my thoughts on the matter. This isn't meant as a big smear or bitch toward anyone who chooses to run their sites a certain way. It's something I've talked over with a few other artists and have mulled about in my mind for a while now, so I thought I'd fill this journal space with it.
The whole equation boils down to this: Will this new account gain me enough exposure to new people to justify maintaining (yet another) account there, on top of FA? Or are most of the people there also on FA, and I'm simply, for the most part, showing my work to the same people twice?
On top of Fur Affinity, I maintain Deviant Art and Tumblr accounts. Tumblr follows my submission releases from FA pretty straightforwardly, though I often release sketches and in-progress works on Tumblr that I don't let out anywhere else. Aside from a submission blog, it's also taken over the role of my on-site sketch blog. Foremost, Tumblr also gives me possible exposure to non-furries and others without FA accounts. Deviant Art is largely the same. They have greater restrictions on erotic pieces, but the trade off is the exposure to non-furries. I've received more than a handful of comments and notes on DA from people who express their unease about furries but who enjoy many of the pieces I submit there. In the instances of DA and Tumblr, it's worth it to maintain accounts.
Inkbunny was a site that almost had it. They have a great interface and they had the thing that could have really turned them into a valuable site for popular artists: a straightforward commercial system where the artists could offer additional portfolios and comics for fans who liked their work enough to support it with money. It's basically the business model I have for my website, and have been making a living off of for years, now. It provided the incentive: If you're a popular artist, you now have a reason to maintain both an FA and an IB account. Sure, the site was started by some people who supported and produced some questionable and creepy material (publications which sexualized cartoon children), but the site didn't have to be about that if it drew enough traffic and accounts to make it a commercialized (read: financially profitable, growing, dynamic, outstanding) version of FA. The creepiness would have been a side-show, buried amid popular names and images offered by a host of artists inspired by making side money and producing more material than they would on FA for free. There would suddenly be a good reason for heavy hitting artists and their fans to go to IB, even as they maintained accounts on FA. When faced with their transaction service issuing an ultimatum, they chose to scrap the commercial system in favor of being able to host pictures of naked and sexualized cartoon children. Sure, they had the right, but the decision destroyed any real motivation from busy and popular artists to maintain an account in both places (unless they wanted to draw naked furry children). The decision took away the one thing they offered to people that made their site something more than just another FA.
I think before someone just thinks "let's make a BETTER art hosting site than FA!" they should really work on addressing these realities, looking at such sites from the standpoint of what makes them attractive to both artists and fans, beyond just little features, chatrooms, and slicker interfaces. The only thing FA has going for it is the sheer volume of traffic available, largely by inertia. Instead of just making a site that hopes to draw that traffic, give artists a reason to tell their fans to check out their gallery on your site, instead of FA. Give them a real incentive.
This isn't to say I don't dig how a lot of those other sites look. It's not to say I don't wish they'd become the dominant community art site. I think offering commercial options beyond donation buttons is the key. That being said, I may check out SoFurry's stuff in the future and see how I like it, but it doesn't look like it'd be a regular draw.
Just my thoughts on the matter. This isn't meant as a big smear or bitch toward anyone who chooses to run their sites a certain way. It's something I've talked over with a few other artists and have mulled about in my mind for a while now, so I thought I'd fill this journal space with it.
October 11, 2011
A World Unfolding
A while back I came up with the idea of an elf scientist exploring the Red Riding Hood universe, and I've since abandoned my original concept. I still have a knowledge seeking elven explorer in mind, but with a different plot, motive, and emphasis. I've had the working title name "Arcelius" for a while, but I'm probably going to end up calling the world "Cottonwine" after the clear ablution featured in the older Red Riding Hood stories, which had such a tremendous affect on the humans it came in touch with. Sounds a little more enigmatically story-like, and less like a Roman adulteress.
I did this little scale sketch on Sunday just to keep a bit of scale in mind. This is just a sampling of creatures. I envisioned the lapin to be quite large due to a variety of harsh environmental factors. They're quite interesting to me because they're a race motivated almost exclusively by two factors: fear and sex. It'll be fun depicting their society. The equine tribes will be very easy to depict, because I've been drawing horses for quite a while, already. I also want to draw up the porcine folks, and I took a stab at it a few times in my sketch book, but it's taking some time to get used to depicting a race that isn't supposed to be either "cute" or "regal" looking, which is how things usually turn out when you're drawing humans, wolves, and assorted furry folks.
For a long time, I wanted to leave the outcome of the human/wolf situation depicted in the Red Riding Hood series up in the air. When I start up the new story, I'll touch on it, the outcome of the inevitable battles that ensued, and leave open the possibility of exploring its unfolding nature in the future. I never talked about what the human armies were doing far from home, but when I created the map to the world, I intended to have them be in the North, containing incursions by the porcine tribes. It's a task they'll be returning home from in haste, of course.
I did this little scale sketch on Sunday just to keep a bit of scale in mind. This is just a sampling of creatures. I envisioned the lapin to be quite large due to a variety of harsh environmental factors. They're quite interesting to me because they're a race motivated almost exclusively by two factors: fear and sex. It'll be fun depicting their society. The equine tribes will be very easy to depict, because I've been drawing horses for quite a while, already. I also want to draw up the porcine folks, and I took a stab at it a few times in my sketch book, but it's taking some time to get used to depicting a race that isn't supposed to be either "cute" or "regal" looking, which is how things usually turn out when you're drawing humans, wolves, and assorted furry folks.
For a long time, I wanted to leave the outcome of the human/wolf situation depicted in the Red Riding Hood series up in the air. When I start up the new story, I'll touch on it, the outcome of the inevitable battles that ensued, and leave open the possibility of exploring its unfolding nature in the future. I never talked about what the human armies were doing far from home, but when I created the map to the world, I intended to have them be in the North, containing incursions by the porcine tribes. It's a task they'll be returning home from in haste, of course.
September 28, 2011
Naked Truths
The next project "Naked Truths" is in full stride. I had to get rid of a lot of other obligations before I could really start full speed on this one, but now I've got my rhythm. It's a brief introduction to some of the other denizens of Trixie's clothing optional private community. It reveals some of their secrets, their personalities, their little inner workings, and their nefarious schemes. Actually, it primarily swirls around the nature of Zoe, but it involves conversation from others, as well.
Normally, I use 9x12 bristol sheets for these comics, but for this one I'm using 11x17. It gives me a lot more room to cover little things, like "animation" key-frame style sections in a comic without running out of space. It also just lets me draw larger images when I want to, like the ones in the sample work-in-progress page posted here. Any nuditious "glimpses" are pretty tame on this first page, so I don't mind putting it on my LJ in its entirety.
The page count on this one will probably only be about six, considering how large the pages are and that they'll be full color when it's done. It's not really a plot that warrants more than that. I already have the next project planned out, but whether or not it's completed before 2012 depends on how much time I have in between holidays and MFF between now and then.
Normally, I use 9x12 bristol sheets for these comics, but for this one I'm using 11x17. It gives me a lot more room to cover little things, like "animation" key-frame style sections in a comic without running out of space. It also just lets me draw larger images when I want to, like the ones in the sample work-in-progress page posted here. Any nuditious "glimpses" are pretty tame on this first page, so I don't mind putting it on my LJ in its entirety.
The page count on this one will probably only be about six, considering how large the pages are and that they'll be full color when it's done. It's not really a plot that warrants more than that. I already have the next project planned out, but whether or not it's completed before 2012 depends on how much time I have in between holidays and MFF between now and then.
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