*tries to think of something controversial to talk about*

Uhm, I'm gonna be 18 soon...?

No ignore that one lol. Here's a topic:

Is the highlighted section too slow?

By this, I mean that the highlighted pieces on the front page have been there for a few days already. I've seen a few proposals on other works- so is highlighting being too slow (because it's not as dynamic as it should be) or is it just right? Or on the contrary, is it too fast? How long do you think highlights should stay up on the front page? How often do you think they should change? Daily? Weekly?

Discuss

PS: this has like nothing to do with UA, but it's just a temporary topic to discuss because I'm so dead on Mt !

@Evo unless you put tinted shiny stuff over the signature(s) it will fade in the sun

I just bought the aquarium desktop - instead of a screensaver. The fish in a cute green weedy setting swiming around on your screen. It should be either really cute or really, really annoying. Also spent money and bought new software I'm really going to have fun when they all arrive. *drool* new software

Hello everyone.
I hope you guys don't mind but can I join this group?!? At times I do feel like good honest commentary that can help me improve on my quality of my work is rather missing from the site and I could use some help with my drawings and artwork from time to time.. ;__; Thankies guys... =^^=

i can see that the excitement is still with you, good times. i wish i could run a track, but it would be kind of funny to race around in an suv.
i can roll over, YAY! \(^o^)/

So far I havent had a show heheh and im still wearing the shirt that I wore yesterday...ok I really have to shower soon hehehe. I almost ripped the head off one of the in stores who I gave a lift home to today cause he touched my dash were I have thier signatures grrrrrr I havent had time to put some clear shiny stuff on them yet his greasy hands would have damaged them *shakes fist*

aww, great story evo, it brightened up my day, that's for sure.
but yes, use baby wipes. x:

merged: 05-16-2006 ~ 01:19pm
i could go for a good drift right about now.

*runs around insane* I had driver training today with the guy I have worshipped since I was 15 years old...Craig Lowndes aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh today was the best day ever. He sat in my car while I drove it around the track and then he drovemy car around it. I will never wash my seat covers ever again *sighs* Nor my hand...or my car. Evo will definatley be smelling after a while

*twitch* Did somebody mention vector and trendwhore in the same sentence *twitch*

I can't add any walls to current comps as i'm de-caffienating cold turkey style. I can bearly stay awake neverless think of something artistic. I think my skills have gone a little rusty, I must branch out into a new style since vectors are apparently in fashion now.

Humm I have always wondered how many artists alter a stock photo to fit with the style of an anime character. I can only alter a stock photo to look like a watercolour painting, it's really pretty thou

Must start messing around in PS.

*sneeze* darnit the previously high level of caffiene in my system must have been keeping the viruses at bay, now I've caught a cold.

this is a screen shot. x:
click me

merged: 05-13-2006 ~ 01:33pm
omg! i misplaced that one guys application! D:

@misa

classic windows > You all D:

or more like I don't want to tax my PC's ram too much. Photoshop and Illustrator are RAm whores already.

Hello, sorry I haven't been around during the last days. I am a little sick. I am shocked to read that Misa is sick too. We also had rain again and it became cold, when it was so warm already. And now the heat is back. I guess that was too much for my rather stressed body.

However I find this list really interesting and it is giving me a few ideas. But I must still do this trendwhore thing so I don't think I can try around there too much. I will in the future.

Okay then I will see you around! Hope all you others are well and healthy! Let's find our own styles. *lol* Yeah it's tough but I think it's fun too!

whooo~ your post will really take my attention, misa...
well, I hope you will get well soon!

humm... about our own style... like ephemeral-said, kinda hard to actually discover our own style... the other people that like it must be trying to do the same...

like vector...

Quote by misa * Large watchlists.
We can tell if your watchlist is generated by random adds or through careful stalking, because most of the time the stalkers either have advertising on their page (clearly saying ADD ME TO FL), or an extremely high posting guestbook.
Some people have active guestbooks but not a large watchlist (for example, k1ru's gbook is very active, but her watchlist isn't very large) - so her lists are generated through more of a real friendship bond rather than going around and making everyone add in return.

I stand by k1ru. ^^ I believe I did that before... just for the sake of getting people's attentions. I think it was really annoying to keep posting recorded message to everyone who happened to just drop by and commented on my wall. Can't believe I did it, but I sure did.

Hmm... it's really kinda hard to actually discover our own style.. unless you don't like exploring new stuffs... this is tough...

PS: I also wanted to add that if I'm away for a few days it's because I'm currently sick and I'll be either sleeping or rushing to do work.

Basically yesterday (before that monstrous rain came down and contributed to this horrible sickness) I was sitting there thinking about all the possible things we could do. As like suggestions.

So I decided that there was no use in teaching everyone the "one style" and instead I compiled a list of questions to answer to either help people consolidate a style or even explore new territory.

And here are some categories- there are more on deviantart (which is what I've got open in the other window, and picking out interesting categories as suggestions), so yah.

Here we go:

Things you can do with a scan:

* extract
* collage (ie if you had the body of a chara, you could wipe out the body, get some interesting paper or cloth, cut it in the shape of the body, scan that material in, and replace the body with the material you scanned. It's tedious work, sure, but I've seen some really excellent art doing that, so I decided to mention it anyway)
* Vector
- refine quality
- blend/ match background
* Texture
- overlaying tectures over certain parts of a scan
* Paint
- smudging perhaps
* manipulate it
- add or remove things
- change colour balance
- translate, rotate image
- concentrate on one section, or use up the whole thing or extend it
* Brush/ grunge it

There are more but I can't think of any.

When you wall, are you interested in...

* Form (how your wallpaper takes shape)
* Colour (pale, dark, monochrome or bright?)
* Shapes/ geometry (the use of shapes- NB this is diff to form)
* Quality
- Vectors
- Cell shading (no lines): more simplicity, more emphasis, dramatic, more realistic.
- Lineart (with lines): more of an illustration, complicating things more than they are perhaps.
* Textures (or lack of texture)
* Perspective (or lack of)
- Perspective is an element that can make a wallpaper very interesting and unique. It's a hard thing to do, but it's also very rewarding in the end.

The above are elements of a wallpaper.

QUESTION
Do you see a different interpretation of the scan? Or is it just how you see it?

Genres or styles to consider

* Abstract
* Scenic
* Grunge

Reality vs Fantasy; Interior setting vs Exterior setting

Are you interested in showing something known, unknown?
Are you interested in the macrocosm/ microcosm?

* Popart etc.

UA MISSION
Find your style through trying as many different styles as possible and asking the above questions. I already have a style in mind I would like to try out. Unfortuntely I don't have the time to do anything in it at present, but I'll keep on trying.

Toodles, all. I hope that that little brainstorming activity helped at least some people consider trying something else- or at least, helped others think twice about the next time they approach any scan

aaaaaaaargh she is trying to poke me in the eye

*kicks Kozu in the butt*

Your computer theme sucks! u__u;;

MISA, it's true! D:

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5485/haruhi0ft.jpg

btw, UA sucks.

>_>
<_<
*runs away*

Quote: * Large watchlists.
We can tell if your watchlist is generated by random adds or through careful stalking, because most of the time the stalkers either have advertising on their page (clearly saying ADD ME TO FL), or an extremely high posting guestbook.
Some people have active guestbooks but not a large watchlist (for example, k1ru's gbook is very active, but her watchlist isn't very large) - so her lists are generated through more of a real friendship bond rather than going around and making everyone add in return.

so... do you mean like... we advertising ourself by write on someone's guestbook? like what you said, 'add me to your fl'?
I'm sick with this kind of people...
well, okay, to be honest, i'm doing this things before, when i'm just a newbie here....
i'm trying to get other member's attention... but now, i dont think its a good idea... that was annoying... i know that.

Quote: * Popular submissions
We can usually tell if a top submission was once a top submission or not simply by looking at the watchlist and the comments on it. If most of the names are recognisable, it was a top submission. Sometimes we recognise them. Without a highlight, these still make it to the popular section- we don't need these kind of members. They aren't underappreciated.
We'd be more than happy if people from UA (or not UA) were appreciated through highlights, but probably a bit disappointed if it was through a watchlist.
So once you're up there, you're there.

popular submission? like wallpaper with scenic background? what you said is a true, they arent UA, coz many people like this kind of submission... ;;

Quote: * We recognise your name and see it pop up everywhere

This isn't such a big deal, but we do keep an eye on the top submissions. Even if we haven't checked out the whole gallery or the watchlist, just by remembering the name is enough for us to just ignore applications, provided we are sure we didn't get it mixed up with someone else. This usually doesn't happen at all, because, well, there are only a few big names that hit the popular section.

is that right? @_@
whoooaaa, i dont know the staffs do a really hard job like this...
plus keep an eye with member's activity... that was a hard thing.... really!
salut...

Well, the bottom line is that if you don't have much of a watchlist and your top gallery item isn't that many favourites (the usual average we get is about 30-40 or even more, but we tolerate up even past 100 if it's a really good piece of work, or has been highlighted) and these are the kind of people who DEFINITELY get accepted.

EASY ACCEPTANCES:

* You just joined Minitokyo

You don't know anyone and we can manipulate your brain wahahah jk jk this just means that your gallery is relatively empty and that you won't have a very large watchlist thus far.

* Your gallery is full of either vectors or doujinshi

These usually get direct acceptance, because these ARE overlooked things. We do check how many faves they get, but usually not more than 20. And that's just about right. Most lie significantly under 20 (like 3, 2, 1 or even no faves).

THe only things that prevent someone from being accepted:

* Large watchlists.
We can tell if your watchlist is generated by random adds or through careful stalking, because most of the time the stalkers either have advertising on their page (clearly saying ADD ME TO FL), or an extremely high posting guestbook.
Some people have active guestbooks but not a large watchlist (for example, k1ru's gbook is very active, but her watchlist isn't very large) - so her lists are generated through more of a real friendship bond rather than going around and making everyone add in return. This leads to the second point:

* Popular submissions
We can usually tell if a top submission was once a top submission or not simply by looking at the watchlist and the comments on it. If most of the names are recognisable, it was a top submission. Sometimes we recognise them. Without a highlight, these still make it to the popular section- we don't need these kind of members. They aren't underappreciated.
We'd be more than happy if people from UA (or not UA) were appreciated through highlights, but probably a bit disappointed if it was through a watchlist.
So once you're up there, you're there.

* We recognise your name and see it pop up everywhere

This isn't such a big deal, but we do keep an eye on the top submissions. Even if we haven't checked out the whole gallery or the watchlist, just by remembering the name is enough for us to just ignore applications, provided we are sure we didn't get it mixed up with someone else. This usually doesn't happen at all, because, well, there are only a few big names that hit the popular section.

* No gallery items

Once there was a guy with no items and he applied.
Needless to say, he never made it in the group

Don't worry, you all are truly in the group and have been selected all and well. You should probably all know where you lie, and probably nobody's on the verge of losing UAness. I don't think we want to kick anyone out of the group either because everyone's been such good UAers We once thought about making a graduates of UA group, but that's just weird

@Kozu

ZOMG!111111111111

@Ephemeral :
sounds weird but interesting~ mix all the things wont be easy, maybe we should try it sometimes.~

@misa-san:
I know, that was such a wonderfull wallpaper, misa-san~

UA...
well, I'm join UA just wanna know, since I know UA hardly accepted people, and really wanna know, is this group gonna accept me or not?
and then, when misa said that i'm now a member of UA, i'm sooo sooo happy!

about being underappreciated, well, maybe some people thinks that 'this is not a cool things for being underappreciated! I dont want to join this group'...
well, everyone have their own thought, but... maybe they dont know how hard getting accepted in this group...

So many posts here, it took me somewhile to read them. @.@

Hm... underappreciated... well, I join UA the first place cause I wanna know just at which level my standard is at, and in the meantime improving... I wouldnt deny that I really kinda take faves and pageviews seriously.. but not anymore. Just when I'm kinda used to low fave and low pageviews I just got used to it.

By the way, ignoring trendwhores and vectors... how about trying on a genre which tends to go extinct? Like.. abstract and grunge? I've been wanting tolearn them properly, never get the chance.

Something which is not trendwhore eh... hmm... have anyone considered mix all types of genre into one piece of artwork? Never tried that before... sounds fun, don't you guys think? ^^

Quote by kuroimisaI think the problem is that we accept people who ARE underappreciated, not because they FEEL underappreciated. These are two things- and some people thinking "I'm underappreciated" feel smaller than they are....? Lol it doesn't make sense to me! If you're underappreciated that means that you have a lot more potential and are a lot better than what people see you as... right? And that's meant to be a GOOD thing. Having overappreciation to me is something that's a bad thing, because you'll never really improve (that is if you get lots of "WONDERFUL +FAVE")- unless most of the overappreciation was critical (highly doubt it).

I don't have much time, but I wanted to write something about this. When I thought of joining UA... I really wondered whether I would actually be accepted in the group or if I even have the right to apply? Why? Because I saw how much better the wallpapers of other people were. So I wondered do I have the right to call myself "underappreciated"... *lol* And when I got accepted I felt honored! And thought "wow"... So yes I also think it is a good thing to be underappreciated...

what's all this text? EWWWW..

someone summarize it in 2 sentences or less. I'm too lazy..

here's what I wanna say:
I've been a member of MT for quite a while now. And my walling career longer than that. I just joined UA because I realized I wasn't getting the appreciation I felt was needed. (Back then MT was ravaged by friendwhores) Many of my walls didn't get much exposure. This in turn started to discourage me from making walls in general, hence my long waller blocks. Still to this day I feel that i'm very much "underappreciated"(my last wall didn't recieve much attention even though it was.)
<./emo>

btw, ZOMFG KOZU IS DOING A NEW WALL!111 za world iss gone

@Regenbogen

Well, if we can't get other members to post, what active ones we have now is a good thing. And I'd be happy that even if we had a few active members, we'd keep them here rather than see them waffle away and melt into the darkness Hopefully after a few rounds of these active guestbook waves, the guilt will kick in and they'll post something :P

As for the genres I suggested, they were just off the top of my head I'm not saying that vectors are to be completely vanished- some people can only do vectors and that's fine- it's really what you do with the vectors that makes it trendwhore or not. I have to use vectors for my background design to blend everything in, and that can't be helped. Another thing about vectors is that you feel like you're doing something on the wallpaper- if you took a stock and just manipulated it, it seems like "hmmm am I doing enough?" lol.

Maybe we can perhaps find another say 'use' of these vectors?
As for the Renaissance part, we could try doing painted wallpapers (I don't actually know how they are made but I presume they are done by smudging).

Overall, I'm just as confused. Maybe we should just leave this later and see what happens @_@

@k1ru
Yes, line art is a bit like my born from the water wallpaper. It has popped up with a recently highlighted wall.
I don't know if I should be like "yay someone's doing something following my footsteps" or "well this person happened to do something I did first". Well obviously I wasn't the first person to have done it... but I don't think Minitokyo would want a whole heap of just line art works :P Maybe if you used it more interesting as a background (like one of those architectural plan like drawings) then that'd be quite interesting.

*pokes Rah* hehehe

We'll just ignore the highlights for now, because well, there's not much we can do about them. If 6 UAers have made it to the highlights before, I'm sure there'll be more in the future and the number should grow. But who knows what'll happen? We'll just wait and see... not have too many high hopes, and just go with the flow

merged: 05-08-2006 ~ 08:39am
oh one last point, about being underappreciated~~

it is a shocking idea and I never thought of it like that either. There are some active members here who felt shy because of that when they first joined But after knowing that everyone was in a similar situation and had a somewhat similar feeling, the group kicked off.
We still want the group to appeal to people, and some just applied for the competitions o_O We've had these pro wallers applying because of either- 1. rallying against top faves 2. competitions 3. no idea why, because they never posted or 4. they felt they were underappreciated.
I think the problem is that we accept people who ARE underappreciated, not because they FEEL underappreciated. These are two things- and some people thinking "I'm underappreciated" feel smaller than they are....? Lol it doesn't make sense to me! If you're underappreciated that means that you have a lot more potential and are a lot better than what people see you as... right? And that's meant to be a GOOD thing. Having overappreciation to me is something that's a bad thing, because you'll never really improve (that is if you get lots of "WONDERFUL +FAVE")- unless most of the overappreciation was critical (highly doubt it).
Lots of people joined UA because they were like <3 with the UA collab and believed we were here for a good cause.
I think since Mt3 probably about 10 people or so have applied (possibly more). It's mostly through competitions and userpage advertisements... and mostly the collab. TREC stole some attention too. Arete could have, but we were individuals more than as "groups", and now I'm looking forward to the NWP Olympiad, actually.
Maybe if there is another W.A.R we might steal some attention, lol. But who knows if there'll be another one.
We're one of the groups with a slow membership rate probably also because of selection criteria and our lack of invitations to individuals.
I'm sure the group is very tempting to join (you know you want to join UA ), but it's either people feel they can't pass criteria or something like that. Who knows- but things will improve. As always