Caemgen

That much cuteness and attitude makes a very fiery combination....

I think I'll just gently say "Happy Birthday" and then slowly back my way out before I get burned.

Congrats to both lucky winners!!!

Of course now Fibber MacGee is going have to put one of those infamous leprechaun curses upon Crescent Blade and his blades!!!

((Sets the drum machine up and then hastily modifies his typical Rain Dance into a Random Number Generator Influencing Dance...))

Don't ask about the process, all I can reveal is that it involved stuffed monkees and pudding pops.

((Woohoo, broke a hundred views. A modest milestone but I'll take what I can get... 'Course I can't help but wonder if I have one fan just checking in every day to see if there's a new installment or not

As for new installment - It is coming soon. It's started and I should be able to knock it out once I force myself back into it. Hopefully it'll round things up and point Alpha/Clayton Michaels onto a more coherant storyline... I tend to feel I have been warbling around a bit so far. I may break one of my cardinal rules and actually write an outline for the rest and try to stick to it.... Err, sounds like work. Maybe not.))

I doubts that all the cool people are going to be playing at 8am eastern so I'm out on two counts I do, however, approve of the concept!

Well I am coming at it from the white male point of view and undoubtably that affects my viewpoint just as all my life experiences do but I would pay it no attention whatsoever. I think the more rep (either way) and comments I get the less likely I am to even notice them.

But I do see how it could be bothersome to some.

Overall though, I more meant that caring if you have a high or low rep in general is silly, not the specific comments themselves. I also meant that the whole system of Rep is silly for a board such as CoX's. I could see a purpose if it was an advice board, or a how to board... But this is pretty much just a social board... And I think one can easily base how tto judge the worthiness of each post pretty much by that post. On a board about how to fix cars I could see rep being handy so you would know who tended to give good or bad advice but here?

All in all, I think these boards having the system in place is silly. I think that if it takes time from the moderators at all, it's even sillier to have... Of course anything bigoted, racist, etc should be dealt with but in my opinion giving people what they think is a totally anonymous way to "influence" others only encourages such repugnant comments and behavior and should thus just be eliminated.

I'm probably going to commission my first artz soon and started looking of Thor's Assassin's list to see what was available... So much great art it made me feel like I was about to eat a potato chip. That was when inspiration hit - Why settle for just one?

No. The great whammy of inspiration wasn't to purchase multiple pieces. That would hardly be inspiration worthy.

My idea was why not have a contest? Caemgen's Commission Contest, to be exact?

The idea is I would post some reference screenshots, maybe suggest a thing or two about what I'd like to see (nothing too restrictive beyond the subject itself) and then let anyone and everyone who wanted submit entries.




At this point the cynical are thinking to themselves that I am looking to grab lots of artz cheap. Being a bit cynical myself I understand that viewpoint. However that is not the case... If anything I'm just too lazy to properly comparison shop like I should. (Trust me, I really am that lazy. I bought my last new car without ever having bothered to test drive it... I made my brother do it so I could just sit back and relax.) Anyway, back to point: I'm not planning on going cheap on this contest. Second prize would be about the most I would have been looking to spend on a commission in the first place... So I'm looking at an outlay of 3.5 times what I was planning on spending. (Prize ratio would be standard 4:2:1 type deal...)

The even more cynical are thinking that I won't pay up after getting the artz. I have little way to prove this other than to say that honor and integrity are very important to me and I keep my word when I give it. However, that is also why I'm willing to dish out the extra in prizes - The artists may see me as a pay risk so I'm trying to make the risk worth it on the first contest so that if I do this again I have a proven record of paying. Because I could see me doing this every couple-four months or so but if I did do it anywhere near regular I would unfortunately have to lower the prize pool...

Still thinking as a cynic the question of me choosing just those I know/like and duping the others into giving artz when they have no chance came into my head... Well 1) I don't have anyone I'm particularly friendly with yet around here. 2) Easier than getting people to believe 1 is getting a panel of judges besides myself to decide on the prizes. My thought is I would get somewhere around 3 or 4 volunteer judges from the board here and they would vote on the entries and their top 2 winners would get the top 2 prizes. I would reserve 3rd prize for my own favorite but if my favorite was one of the judges selections then I would send 3rd place prize to the judges third place selection.

Is there selfishness in this? Yes, of course. If I was being totally generous I would have a contest to see whose character to use rather than just using mine. But hey, I'd be doing this in lieu of a straight commission so I think that is fair. But I'm not totally selfish... Like I mentioned above, I could see doing this every 3 or 4 months maybe (at a reduced prize pool from the first) and I am not an altaholic... I'm thinking maybe the first two contests would star my two mains as the subject and then I would alternate between someone elses toon and one of my direct selection (maybe my own, maybe a friends, maybe a random person again - my choice.). Not sure how I would choose a random person to be subject of the alternate months yet... Maybe a trivia question, maybe some contest in game, maybe something different each time... Let's see if the first contest ever happens before we look too far ahead.






So, to sum up:

• I would put up prize pool
• I would pick the subject for the artz
• I would ask for volunteer judges and pick 3-4 randomly to oversee prize awarding
• then we'd wait to see what artz poured in...

Questions I have:

• Do we think there would be enough entrants? This really isn't just an art-grab but a contest with 3 prizes isn't much of a contest with just 3 entrants.
• What would be a suitable timeframe from announcing contest to closing it to submissions?
• Would peeps from this board be willing to judge? (I'm assuming they would but *shrug* ya never know)
• Should the contest if/when it happens be posted elsewhere? DA perhaps? I very much like the idea of rewarding the artists around here who share so frequently but should those without accounts be excluded? (Sudden thought, maybe 3rd prize could be best of CoX players submissions that wasn't in top 2 so peeps here were gauranteed at least a taste?)

And finally, a question to the artist people: What would the prize pool have to be in order for you to consider entering such a contest? I have numbers in mind for prizes for the first contest which I think are sufficient but of course I can't be sure without input. Also, as mentioned, if I did make this even a semi-regular thing I would have to lower prize pool because I just can't shell that much out ever 3 or 4 months so I'm wondering if making with a regular thing is even feasable... So, if you're an artist and would consider entering such a contest, and would be willing to share what you think reasonable prizes would be, please be kind enough to send me a pm of that info? (No numbers on boards is the rule, I believe?)





All in all, I think a contest like this would be much fun for everyone since they would get to see the submission as they came in, discuss which they like best and why, etc etc... And become even more fun if I can afford to do it again and again and we get to randomly select a subject...

At least that's my view. Perhaps everyone else thinks this is a tacky idea and that I should never have darkened this forum's doorstep?

Whatever your thoughts, I'd be interested to hear (read) them. Feel free to say if you think the contest as a whole is a good idea or not. If you think people would enter or not. Shout out any suggestions you may have for improving the framework (nothing is set in stone) or questions that I haven't answered yet...

I think this would be fun but if the community at large here thinks otherwise I have no problem slinking away and going the normal commission route for my artz.

Not exactly an action shot but can someone explain why I always get the worst seat in the Vanguard helicopter???

I don't see where he is leaving anything behind... He appears to be walking alongside his troubles/burdens/habits/whatever. Did you consider instead having the shadow turning away from the footsteps to say the left and the person turning to the right instead?

Edited after seeing Wassy's post above mine:

I hadn't even really noticed the cities myself. Oops. I was focused on the figures. I still think that having the figures (the colored and the shadowed) diverge paths from the collective footprints may be a way to go... But I am now thinking maybe the shadow could be stopping at the dark city limits while the color version keeps going. Perhaps the color version even having to shrug off the shadows restraining hand or such.

The Swan cutout works fantastic with this...

What we need is someone who can turn these into actual paperweights or something

That due to this post: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...54#post2223854

((Climbs off his high horse and supplicates himself before his anonymous correspondant.))

Please forgive me. I am so very sorry. It will never happen again.

((wonders if they got the sarcasm or not...))

Well, ok, it probably will... But I will promise everyone one thing - I will always be willing to put my name on my words and not insult, criticise, besmerch, defame, taunt or be negative in any way behind a shield of anonymity.

Mind you, I do not mind the negative reputation... I love the fact that it currently reads "Caemgen has a little shameless behaviour in his past." I mean seriously, how classic is that??? If I could swap out the Trainee under my avatar and replace it with that I would do it in a heartbeat...

But I must admit I find it totally amusing that from a discussion which has been suprisingly civil regarding praise and criticism that there are those who not only feel the need to be critical but feel the need to do it in hiding.


Edited to add this PS - Pyro, if I was a Hippy I would absolutely think the above art was the greatest!! Not being a hippy it's still very well done, just not something that speaks to me!

I can dishonestly say it was I. :P

I give nothing away! That'll be three-fiddy!

Neat thing about the Pyro button is you almost have the illusion that the figure is within the button, a 3Dish effect...

Just as my first girlfriend told me years ago: "Keep trying, you'll get it eventually."



Nice use of existing material... I hadn't seen that particular pic but probably would have taken just as long if I had... My eyes naturally strayed lower.

Are we talking the anchor itself or the button as a whole? I could see the button as a whole being a pocket watch, perhaps...

The anchor itself... a tattoo??

But I have now had about fifty guesses so unless I somehow got smacked with the dumb luck stick I shall now sit back and allow others to have a chance.

Was just wondering if perhaps you had a specific use in mind... Anyway, very cool.

Hmmm, more guesses: The anchor is what is used to keep a boat from floating away. The Anchor is a bar in Buffalo often credited with "inventing" chicken wings. Hmph... ok, color me stumped.

Like I say elsewhere, if it comes down to a choice of Praise Fest and Bash fest, Praise is much preferable. Personally I wouldn't mind to see a bit of critique amongst the praise. Heck, I'd welcome it for my ongoing story attempt in the roleplaying section... But I do fear that the regular inclusion of it could lead the board here down the Bash Fest route and I would hate to see that happen. There's been times when I want to post replies that would have been along the lines of "Great work, love this, love that, but I do think your backgrounds could use a bit more attention" (or whatever) but refrained since I do not see that happen very often and didn't want to step out of bounds...


As for whose criticism has merit, I personally refuse to listen to the opinions of anyone who isn't in management. If you're just a lowly worker, or worse - a student, unemployed, or outside the normal workforce structure - then you comments, opinions, feelings, beliefs or existance mean nothing to me.

Ok, maybe I'm being a tad sarcastic there...

All I know is that if I am hiring an artist I want that artist to care about what I think about the piece they are producing for me. I want them to care enough about what the lowly "non artists" think that they try to produce pieces that those people like, appreciate and enjoy. If you truly don't care what non artists think then I hope you don't try to sell to non artists for I believe one should be trying to please their audience...

Of course I believe a distinction can be made between the criticisms and critiques of someone "in the field" and someone not... And that someone in the field's opinion should obviously carry more weight on technical matters and such. However, a whole hell of a lot of the appreciation of art is about things that are less technical and more about feelings, emotions, reactions and interpretations.


As for the plumber comparson, I must say that to me is kind of silly. Show random person on the street A and B the same piece of artwork and ask them if they like it. They can disagree and neither be wrong or an idiot. Show them both a pipe that is leaking, the one who claims it isn't is the idiot.

Art, and the enjoyment of it, is subjective. Preference of styles, of uses of colors, of reality versus interpretative... So much of the enjoyment varies from individual to individual. Comparing it to something that is either right or not, such as plumbing, kind of misses the point of art to begin with in my opinion....