Help Clean up the Concepts Forum

[ColeJ]

so i think we're all in agreement that feedback needs to be improved.

how about we all just take it upon ourselves to comment on the good concepts on this board? leave some thoughts about what you like and dislike, and your overall impressions, and stop the excuses of "there's so much bad stuff i don't even notice the good stuff."

take the time to view everything, and comment on what you think deserves the comments. vote with your feedback. vote with your replies.

i know even if i did something everyone agreed was good and didn't need to be improved upon, i'd love to hear people say that. replies make this stuff worth our while. rather than complain that bad stuff gets a ton of replies and good stuff gets buried, we should reply to the good stuff and reward the artist with acknowledgment.

[JackFr]

I think the problem is that people are commenting too much on the crummy MS Paint stuff in an attempt to make the designer "grow", and ignoring the fantastic stuff with real potential. However, the emphasis on the good stuff is what makes younger designers inspired to do good work.

[IceCap]

Lets not lump all MS Paint users in together. I use MS Paint, and while my stuff isn't the most out-there, it's always clean and well put-together. MS Paint isn't a sign of a terrible concept. Like anything else it's all in how you use it.

[eliasrappaport]

i hate it when someone makes a great concept like the seahawks one from a few days ago and then like 2 people follow him and do their own ones, sometimes taking ideas from the original, especially when the new ones are done way to fast and are generic

[YessSir32]

Lets not lump all MS Paint users in together. I use MS Paint, and while my stuff isn't the most out-there, it's always clean and well put-together. MS Paint isn't a sign of a terrible concept. Like anything else it's all in how you use it.

I agree, I use MS Paint as well and I always put my best effort into it and clean it up as much as possible.

[TFoA]

Lets not lump all MS Paint users in together. I use MS Paint, and while my stuff isn't the most out-there, it's always clean and well put-together. MS Paint isn't a sign of a terrible concept. Like anything else it's all in how you use it.

I agree, I use MS Paint as well and I always put my best effort into it and clean it up as much as possible.

Same here. While MS Paint definitely isn't the best, you can still make good, clean concepts with MS Paint if you put in the time & effort to do so. If you treat MS Paint like a coloring book, of course it's gonna look like crap. But if you put in work, it'll look ok. MS Paint is no excuse for crap concepts.

[9erssteve]

Lets not lump all MS Paint users in together. I use MS Paint, and while my stuff isn't the most out-there, it's always clean and well put-together. MS Paint isn't a sign of a terrible concept. Like anything else it's all in how you use it.

I agree, I use MS Paint as well and I always put my best effort into it and clean it up as much as possible.

Same here. While MS Paint definitely isn't the best, you can still make good, clean concepts with MS Paint if you put in the time & effort to do so. If you treat MS Paint like a coloring book, of course it's gonna look like crap. But if you put in work, it'll look ok. MS Paint is no excuse for crap concepts.

I've got a question for Paint users. Why do you use it? Especially considering there are FREE programs out there that can give you far better results, in less time and with less hassle?

I can understand maybe using it for your first one if it's all you've got on your machine to begin with, but once you've done one or two seen what's possible with other software, and you know it's not gonna cost a penny, why insist on using sub par tools? Which is what Paint is, and that's not up for debate it's a fact.

To my mind it's a bit like entering the Indy 500 in a Punto, cos it was your first car and you dont want to change. But why not change when someone else will foot the bill and the performance will be INFINTELY better than what you're using now?

[YessSir32]

Lets not lump all MS Paint users in together. I use MS Paint, and while my stuff isn't the most out-there, it's always clean and well put-together. MS Paint isn't a sign of a terrible concept. Like anything else it's all in how you use it.

I agree, I use MS Paint as well and I always put my best effort into it and clean it up as much as possible.

Same here. While MS Paint definitely isn't the best, you can still make good, clean concepts with MS Paint if you put in the time & effort to do so. If you treat MS Paint like a coloring book, of course it's gonna look like crap. But if you put in work, it'll look ok. MS Paint is no excuse for crap concepts.

I've got a question for Paint users. Why do you use it? Especially considering there are FREE programs out there that can give you far better results, in less time and with less hassle?

I can understand maybe using it for your first one if it's all you've got on your machine to begin with, but once you've done one or two seen what's possible with other software, and you know it's not gonna cost a penny, why insist on using sub par tools? Which is what Paint is, and that's not up for debate it's a fact.

To my mind it's a bit like entering the Indy 500 in a Punto, cos it was your first car and you dont want to change. But why not change when someone else will foot the bill and the performance will be INFINTELY better than what you're using now?

Mostly for me, I don't have the time to learn a new program and mess around with it. Paint is simple and can give you nice results when time is taken.

[9erssteve]

Mostly for me, I don't have the time to learn a new program and mess around with it. Paint is simple and can give you nice results when time is taken.

Fair enough, I can understand that learning a vector based graphics program like Illustrator or Inkscape can be difficult or time consuming if you're not used to the priciples behind it, but when Gimp is free, and uses the same principles as paint, but allows for anti-aliasing which stops the horrific "jaggies" that Paint creates and would allow you to do more in less time with less hassle I just dont see why more people dont make the switch.

I mean to me it comes down to investment of time. Do I invest the time in producing better ideas or spend that time trying to do what other software does automatically just to make my work presentable? For me it's a no brainer, if there is software out there that will allow me to spend more time on the ideas side of the design and less on the artworking or on screen drawing phase I'm using it. Anything else seems like a waste of time, as it's a good idea that makes a great concept.

9erssteve

[Funkatron101]

Mostly for me, I don't have the time to learn a new program and mess around with it. Paint is simple and can give you nice results when time is taken.

Fair enough, I can understand that learning a vector based graphics program like Illustrator or Inkscape can be difficult or time consuming if you're not used to the priciples behind it, but when Gimp is free, and uses the same principles as paint, but allows for anti-aliasing which stops the horrific "jaggies" that Paint creates and would allow you to do more in less time with less hassle I just dont see why more people dont make the switch.

I mean to me it comes down to investment of time. Do I invest the time in producing better ideas or spend that time trying to do what other software does automatically just to make my work presentable? For me it's a no brainer, if there is software out there that will allow me to spend more time on the ideas side of the design and less on the artworking or on screen drawing phase I'm using it. Anything else seems like a waste of time, as it's a good idea that makes a great concept.

9erssteve

Agreed. The "learning" time quickly pays for itself when you are able to produce the results you are aiming for at a fraction of the time. To me it's like hammering a nail with a wrench. Yeah, you could do it, but why put yourself through all that extra effort, only to have a bunch of scuff marks on the wall.

I got scoffed at before by suggesting this, but I think it comes down to some artists taking pride in the fact that they made something using Paint. I can look at that and say "Yeah, that is a great job...for Paint." But most of the time, even if it is quality work, it's still easy to recognize that it was made in Paint and I think that detracts from the work overall.

[cjzilligen]

Pretty much agree with everything said above. Way back when I created my first concept, paint was the only thing I had, which already limited me to an extent. Then one of the users on here suggested Inkscape to me, and when I tried my hands on it, it wasn't so bad.

I still use Inkscape today. It's what I'm comfortable with, yet I probably only use a fifth of the tools on there (Bezier, Both Select Tools, and the shape tools) and that's it. There's so much more freedom and it really broadens your horizons when you take the time to learn a more skilled program.

It will by far improve the quality of your work as well. With scalable vextors, you don't lose quality when zooming/scaling (except if it isn't a vector file), thus giving you a chance to add more detail. Selecting and duplicating is an amazing feature that you don't really have the option of using in Paint. It'll literally cut the time spent in half.

Some people can really work well with Paint. Knhrvy's hockey league concepts awhile back were made in paint IIRC, and the quality was okay at best. But the ideas were amazing, and if he decided to use Inkscape (If he hasn't already), he would probably be one the great designers on these boards. I remember CAB and Bmac (I think it was these two?) used to do some of their uniform concepts in Paint, and now that they've gotten used to Inkscape, their work looks 10x better (CAB's baseball series in particular).

All in all, take andvantage of the opportunities to use a better, free program with a bunch of more tools. Of course you could go bigger with Photoshop and Illustrator (but they sure as heck aren't free by any means), but Inkscape, GIMP, and other free programs are the way to go.