Things you learned from your own creations.

[bluestarultor]

This is a more serious take on the "things I learned" concept. What have you learned not from school, but from things you've done independently?

In my case:

- Being a video game player has no bearing on whether you can hack it as a video game maker.
- If you're making games, you'd better love spending years planning math and writing and drawing and making sounds and finally coding, or else you'll shoot yourself.
- The best software is neither friendly nor free in most cases.
- Layers are the best thing ever!
- Transparency comes in as a close second!
- 8x8 tiles are the standard for a reason. All resolutions are divisible by 8.
- Converting 14x14 to 16x16 to chop into 8x8 is a right pain in the ass.


What are things you've learned from your art, writing, music, dance, etc?

[krogothwolf]

Nothing ever ends up as cool on paper as it did in your mind!

[A Zarkin' Frood]

- No matter what, It's never too late to start
- No matter what you do, you'll never be as good as THAT guy.
- Unless you try.
- Would be so much easier to create greatness with a bit of help.
- You always get the most praise for the works you are the least proud of and those that were the easiest to make. This PowerPoint presentation isn't nearly as impressive as you think just because the concept of masters completely escapes you. It's alright I explained that to you now. But I'm also not the first one to not use silly transitions and sound effects, it's common fucking sense, asshole. And I took the logo for the background from your homepage, yeah, right, I had to screenshot it and recolor it, but it's not like any other half-decent user couldn't have done that. All I did was to design this lazy piece of shit, you provided the information. And now you're asking me if I can take pictures from your stupid flash site even though shitty businessman-mouthflap words fly in front of them. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE THOSE PICTURES! HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK THEY GOT ON THE INTERNET. I assume you took them yourself for fucks sake. It worked for the logo because that appears before your shitty corporate bullshit vocab 101 pollutes one's eyes. You know what, you should let me run this company for one day, I just wanna know if you really don't have to have any idea of what you're doing. Okay?

And that's how I lost my job (may not be at all how it happened. Also, I never lost a job, they just ended.)

[Loyal]

- The best advancements in artistic skill come through sheer accident, followed by hours of persistence in trying to repeat that accident.
- Just because you can make something look good once, doesn't mean it's an easy feat to repeat.
- No matter how proud you are of your work at a given point in time, you will be disgusted and ashamed by it five years down the line.
- White-out is not a "Band-aid" for errors in art. It's a topical cream of questionable quality that leaves permanent scarring.
- Just because it looks good on paper doesn't mean it'll look good on the scanner.

Also:
- You always get the most praise for the works you are the least proud of and those that were the easiest to make.This. This this this this this this this. Leading to a corrolary:
- If you spent days doing something that you can be proud of, you can bet your ass there's a way to do it much faster and easier, and it'll probably be just as popular if not moreso with your audience and/or clients.

[Doc ock rokc]

- No skill worth a penny to you is gained without blood
- there is always a faster way, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is the better way
- The artiest is his worst critic.
- You can never have enough help
- Opinions are NOT facts just because someone doesn't like one small thing about your art/game/whatever doesn't mean that it is the same for everyone..
- There is a time where you just have to cut your losses and pull out as staying in will just make things worse.
- get a Wide veritity of people to comment on your art. from fellow artiests to people that never even thought of drawing a stick figure. this will both boost your confidence as well as help you learn mistakes. after all the most balanced pillar is the one with the widest base.

[DarkDrgon]

- No matter how good a musician you are, if you don't play whats popular, no one will pay you

-Even if you're the best in your town at something, there will always be someone better

thats all I got

[Bifrost]

-If you want to do something, make sure you have the ability to follow through to the end before you show it to the rest of universe. They will not be pleased at the lack of updates.

-Everything good takes effort. That much is obvious. BUT! Rushing is not effort, and just makes the end result look like crap.

-People don't care about B&W drawings, especially if there's equally good stuff right next to you with pretty colors on it.

-Color is a wonderful thing and shying away from it doesn't make you better than the people who use it. Especially if you fail at greyscale.

-Flash hates you. Flash does not care if you dislike its random acts of petty spite. This is something you will just have to learn to work around.

-Your skill will never be enough for the stuff in your head.

-It's okay to feel pride about something you worked hard on. The world isn't going to end if you say you're proud of something that took months to make.

- White-out is not a "Band-aid" for errors in art. It's a topical cream of questionable quality that leaves permanent scarring.

This. It's the art equivalent of the white lead used in ye olde time makeup.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

- No matter how hard you work, there is no short cut to becoming a better artist in a day.

- Originality is over rated, that doesn't mean copy off of something else.

- Fuck the world, If your proud of your work then that's good enough.

- Working hard on something always pays off in the end, even a little.

And that's all I got for now.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

If you want to write a story, choose your audience carefully.

[Fenris]

V-bVI is a very cool sounding progression.

[Hanuman]

If DnD was more like life, Wisdom would be the only stat worth maxing, and nothing says you can't max out all your stats, skills and abilities.

[CelesJessa]

Homemade peanut butter shakes are flippin' delicious.

[Amake]

From my writing, I've learned I'm an awesome writer. That's the best revelation!

[Kyanbu The Legend]

- There a difference from being generous with requests and being a doormat. You don't have to say yes to every request.

- Don't post a lot of B/W or else people will start to think your lazy. Even if it's true sometimes.

- Twilight almost killed vampires, should you include Vampires in your story, don't turn to twilight for ideas. You'll thank your self for it in the future.

Might have some more later on.

[Green Spanner]

Trying to create a large, organic world only leads to it spiraling out of control, whereupon you have to wonder whether you are writing the stories or they are writing you.

You just find all these little things that make perfect sense, flow seamlessly together, and were never planned.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

God is horrified at my hubris.

[Nique]

-I am not good at math
-I am not good at art
-I need to be better at those things

[Savage Thinking]

That I wished every living creature never had feet, not even hooves. Just like... anything that wouldn't give me a hard time to draw connected to ankles would be fine, really.

[Nique]

Savage Thinking receives his wish with horrendous monkey-paw like consequences. Life is forever an unending hell for all living creatures but his artwork sells very well for capturing the essence of footless living.

[McTahr]

Suddenly I feel like I should be in forum games...

I learned from my creations that if your hints are not accompanied by blunt force trauma, no one shall get them.

[sophomore]

From an amateur writer's perspective:

For every ten sentences/lines written, maybe one is worth keeping. And that particular line is most likely about seven generations from being sufficient. So realistically thinking you're going to keep anything from the rough draft is a waste of time. Unless the work referenced is a school assignment, in which case I find B's perfectly acceptable.

If you ever have a decent idea, someone else has probably already had it. So be ready to defend against plagiarism questions.

Ideas with inflexible interpretations are awfully hard to come by. Ideas are best kept loosely guarded and malleable, as the only other alternative is to deny reason or be forced to allow them to shatter. Also - any time one writes about his or her own religion, be exceptionally ready to take criticism from all sides (the author not the least.)

The best progression towards a positive outcome is usually the harshest specific criticism you can come by.

If the current product readily resembles your initial idea, you've probably succeeded in wasting everybody's time. If it loosely resembles your original idea, then it's probably a good time to take stock of what was actually worth while and remember that no one else cares about the draft count.

When someone calls you a genius, it's most likely because you're willing to spend a lot more time trying something than they are. Don't take it personally.

If you've ever got an hour to kill, take someone's idea and put it through a couple quick and dirty drafts. Just because it is terrible doesn't mean it won't impress the ladies.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

- Never ever draw anything inappropriate even if it's a well payed commission. It'll bring you down a dark road without you knowing till it's to late.

- There comes a time where you have to butcher your artwork/writings or risk losing everything. If you want to continue what you love then you must harm it. Even if it destroys your work in the end.

[Loyal]

That is some hardcore exaggerating. On both points.

[Amake]

I was wondering, if you don't destroy your work you will lose it? Also I thought inappropriate pictures was the whole point of art.

Okay, maybe 70% of the point. http://www.nuklearforums.com/images/icons/fun.gif

[Magic_Marker]

You will always compare yourself to your betters.

Stop it. Be better than yesterday you and everything will be fine.

[TDK]

The other 30% being sweet action scenes. :3


Things I've learned from my own work:

-As much as I may or may not have potential in a particular area, it does mean that I enjoy doing things in that area.

-Often you will work long and hard towards a career in a particular area, but the thing you end up doing will be something you become interested in upon a whim or because of a chance encounter, will be at best tangentially related to your original area of interest, and will require a lot less effort for more payoff.

-Its ALL about the bitches. :cool:

[Fifthfiend]

I learned how to make gifs.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/820/peggybike.gif

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Kyanbu The Legend]

- There is always room for improvement, always.

- To succeed at something you must willing to fail. And failing sometimes is not alway a bad thing considering what you can learn from it.