Should I plug my site?

[tbumpkins]

Angelus, good to see you on the process. Been a fan of the robot for a while. Can't wait to see what the vial does to "Angelina Solie" ;P

[whackadoodle1]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

To be fair and play devil's advocate a bit, I'm of the opinion that, photomanips are kind of lame by virtue of the fact that it's doing very little with a pre-existing object. I can still, however, recognize the skill with which people like Galvatron work within the medium.

So while I might have the opinion that morphs suck as a genre, I can still say that Galvatron does great morphs without being hypocritical. That said, shadow was just being an asshole when he said he wouldn't "dirty my hands with that slop".

Quite the difference, yes?

Ah... Soylent. You make me sad. I unfortunately, being skilled ONLY in photomanip art, have to stick up for my fellow man here. Photomanipulation, as lame as it is, is a time-worn and hallowed tradition of the transformation/ BE field. I honor your opinion, but must also take up Galvatron's flank in defense of our art. He, among others, are my inspiration.

However, we can agree to disagree. You're a lot more polite than Shadow.

[SoylentOrange]

Well, half the problem is that it IS such a time-worn tradition, emphasis on "Worn". IT's so often the same models/celebrities, the same poses, the same old same old same old ever since the oldest of the ancient BE-ers got their first copy of SuperGOO.

Say what you will about the sea of mediocrity in the artistic side of things, with the sparse and unfortunately all too brief islands of real skill/talent among it, but I'd rather see a profoundly mediocre drawing to another photomanip of another top 20 Score model or starlet. After seeing the same people in the same poses so many times, you can at least say of art that it's an original work.

Even galvatron, as good as he is, brings very little new to the table. Were it not for the uncannily deranged prose Undead Robot provides, it would be little more than another collection of photomaniped celebrities that have all been photomaniped a thousand times before and will be another thousand times hence.

One of the few photomanipulation artists I really like is ProjectP, because he really takes the genre as far as it will go in a lot of his works, adding in so much as to make an entirely new picture out of his source, whereas most photomanips are simply "Person X in pose Y with attribute Z enhanced" and that's the lot of it.

I don't really mean for this to come off as hard on the genre and its adherents as it is, but you really can't avoid the fact that, for those of us who've been here for a long time, it's gotten pretty stale. Every time someone draws a new character to get BE'd, that's something new. Even if not particularly well done, there's always a difference at least. Look at Ryohji and Zabutoboz and Stuibaru- sure they're all doing BE but it's all done differently and the women look different. Then you go over to photomanips and hey, there's Maxi Mounds or Chelsea Charms or Jennifer Love Hewitt. Again. In the same photoset poses they've had for years. Whee. :twirls finger:

I'm sure if it's the first time you've seen that particular pose/celebrity/whatever that it could be pretty cool. But like I said, I've been around this block more than a few times, and by this point the photomanipulators are all airing re-runs while the artists are putting out new programming on a consistent basis.

I didn't mean to turn this into a dissertation on the merits of the two approachhes, but lately when I click most new threads and find out it's a photomanip artist, I just hit "Back" and keep looking, and I guess the reason is that I've pretty much seen it all before. I didn't realize that until I put it in words just now.

[siliconstag]

Amen, Soy.

I've just stopped registering photomanips as sexual in any way.

[Angelus]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

Well, half the problem is that it IS such a time-worn tradition, emphasis on "Worn". IT's so often the same models/celebrities, the same poses, the same old same old same old ever since the oldest of the ancient BE-ers got their first copy of SuperGOO.

Say what you will about the sea of mediocrity in the artistic side of things, with the sparse and unfortunately all too brief islands of real skill/talent among it, but I'd rather see a profoundly mediocre drawing to another photomanip of another top 20 Score model or starlet. After seeing the same people in the same poses so many times, you can at least say of art that it's an original work.

Even galvatron, as good as he is, brings very little new to the table. Were it not for the uncannily deranged prose Undead Robot provides, it would be little more than another collection of photomaniped celebrities that have all been photomaniped a thousand times before and will be another thousand times hence.

One of the few photomanipulation artists I really like is ProjectP, because he really takes the genre as far as it will go in a lot of his works, adding in so much as to make an entirely new picture out of his source, whereas most photomanips are simply "Person X in pose Y with attribute Z enhanced" and that's the lot of it.

I don't really mean for this to come off as hard on the genre and its adherents as it is, but you really can't avoid the fact that, for those of us who've been here for a long time, it's gotten pretty stale. Every time someone draws a new character to get BE'd, that's something new. Even if not particularly well done, there's always a difference at least. Look at Ryohji and Zabutoboz and Stuibaru- sure they're all doing BE but it's all done differently and the women look different. Then you go over to photomanips and hey, there's Maxi Mounds or Chelsea Charms or Jennifer Love Hewitt. Again. In the same photoset poses they've had for years. Whee. :twirls finger:

I'm sure if it's the first time you've seen that particular pose/celebrity/whatever that it could be pretty cool. But like I said, I've been around this block more than a few times, and by this point the photomanipulators are all airing re-runs while the artists are putting out new programming on a consistent basis.

I didn't mean to turn this into a dissertation on the merits of the two approachhes, but lately when I click most new threads and find out it's a photomanip artist, I just hit "Back" and keep looking, and I guess the reason is that I've pretty much seen it all before. I didn't realize that until I put it in words just now.

I can respect an opinion like this. I may not like it, but I can respect that you can express your personal preference and opinion without being flaming.

However, I'm more into visualization with morphs than I am with drawings. Someone mentioned an "illusion" before - I can't create that illusion in my head with poser, at least, a straight-up poser image.

What does that last paragraph mean? Well, for that, you'll have to wait and see.

[zabuzabotz]

angelus, unlike some people the i think others would love to see more of your stuff on this site ^^
some people just get spoiled and neglect the fact that you are willing to give some of your work to us, cause its a 'boring celebrity morph'.
i know theres an aura of 'been there, done that' around celebrity morphing, but like it was said: there are some good gems in the lot

[whackadoodle1]

I understand, Soylent. That's why I, to name just one example, have gotten into photomanipulating ANIME pics instead of celebrity or porn pics. There'll never be a shortage of new anime to manipulate, plus you can get away with a lot more. I think photomanipulation is going to start curving in that direction in the near future because it's an untapped resource for us shameless manipulators. It's fresh stuff, so hopefully I'm churning out shit that hasn't been quite seen before.

[Snowglare]

Personally, I care more about quality than originality when it comes to pin-ups, photomanips or artwork. If it's a celebrity I like, and the manip is sexy, then I'll gladly take more of the same. Not the exact same, obviously, but similar is fine by me.

Along those lines, I'd rather see a series of drawings by Ranzab that are basically the same TF over and over than some crudely drawn TFs that are different from anything that's come before. Or well drawn TFs that don't appeal to me because they don't include any of the things I like to see in a TF drawing. I can respect the latter, but they might as well not depict a transformation as far as I'm concerned. There's art, and there's process. I want a minimum level of quality, but beyond that, it doesn't need to be anything special.

Not that artists should just draw/manip the same things the same way over and over. Of course they should experiment and branch out. It's just... I know what I like, and I don't know that I'll like something new and different. Maybe, maybe not. I like a good mix of old familiar and new surprises.

[Bareon]

I.. I ... I.. wait.. uhm...
Where was this topic going again? Hmm.. from BE.. to... prefrence of artworks? I think that if you're going to continue this conversation, it should at least be in the general discussion area instead of here. I mean... it would be interesting to hold a conversation about prefrences... why you like stuff.. why you don't like other stuff etc.. hmm..
I'd write more on a particular opinion expressed here, but then I'd be even more O/T than I am right now! Nya~haha!