Your ideal artstyle (or other medium) for TF content?

[SketchyKnight]

So what has been your favorite type of artwork for this kind of material? Anime/eastern style, western comics, realistic painting, western cartoony, 3d graphics, etc. Could also be photomanipulation or costume design.

I know a general answer would be "whatever's done well", but let's just assume the content is what you've seen as top-tier for all categories.

[Vengeance1701]

Probably Western style art and storytelling.

[Anahki]

The more realistic the better. So in this order, typically could be: live action (prosthetics/costumes/bodypaint), photomanipulation, 3D graphics, and then drawing.
About the kind of material, I prefer video and then images (sequences). I don't really care about stories or audio concerning TF stuff.
And finally, about rating, I prefer uncensored material including unlimited nudity, sex and porn-like is ok, but I can live without that if the artwork is good. On the opposite, kids' related material really turns me off (cartoon oriented for children, like pokemon or digimon or even my little pony).

[GenYun]

Anything but captions.

I loathe captions.

[something-wild]

Originally Posted by GenYun

Anything but captions.

I loathe captions.

Agreed

[AdiabaticCombustion]

Originally Posted by something-wild

Agreed

Seconded.

[Amahain]

I'd have to say Western. Realistic is always cool but not absolutely necessary. A lot of my favourite artists, like this guy (who has posted recently! Yes! He's still around!) don't draw in a "realistic" style, but it's a style that appeals to me.

That said, content is the main concern, broad style classifications are secondary. For example, although I prefer hand-drawn art in general, I love Genyun's and Solone's stuff, mainly because they're both good artists who share my taste in smut.

As for other media, well done live action videos (ie. Missa's work) is great. I also enjoy well-written TF stories (though I'm picky; I've skipped over some stories after the first paragraph if I found the writing style grating).

[Ilovebe]

I prefer Western-influenced art, but I also like high quality manga style (e.g., Nojo). Unfortunately, it's hard to find commission artists who do the latter.

And yeah, captions always come off as lazy. Most captions out there aren't that well written.

[SketchyKnight]

Damn, all the lurking captioners must be crying in a corner right now :/

And Juan Valdez is a Hall of Fame artist from so long ago. Bringing him up kind of reminds of the biggest problem with the transformation community though: the trend of artists becoming so good and talented that they're more likely to disappear ._.); I'm guessing it's because they've become skilled enough to seek real employment, while others get so much attention and pestering that they've become fed up with the audience.

Content despite medium does it for me, too. I never thought I'd like writing since I've always preferred to at least see something, but those rare times I've found something with no spelling/grammar errors, believable/consistent characters, descriptive imagery, and mastery of pacing: *Pacha just right meme*

[sodacat]

PlayStation 1 CGI FMV.

[babblingfaces]

Usually I feel the best stuff I've seen (or at least, that which has gotten to me the most) was made in 3D graphics or Western-type comics. But at the same time I cannot say either are ideal, as done wrong they can be a horrible eyesore.

I am of a similar mentality when it comes to captions, too: they're very easy to make and thus are open to an overabundance of material being released, much of which can be very lazily done and outright exploitative merely by linking a few words to a hot pic. But there are also great captioners around who do excellent work with that medium. I for one have worked before with a captioner called Intoxiton, rendering some pics for him, and I was very happy with what turned out as a final work, largely for his contributions. Goldendawn, also known as a 3D artist, has also made a few cap sequences and I feel this facet of his is the one I like the most (though I also like plenty of his 3D sequences, and sometimes both mediums meet as well).

The one I can safely say is my least favorite is photomanipulation - despite some good work on behalf of some artists out there, I feel it's the one that is less likely to succeed with me and most often looks plain jarring. Also, rather ironically given its existence as probably the most explicit of all the above media on average, I find the usual run-of-the-mill manga posted up on exhentai to be utterly sexless, despite any degree of competence shown in the illustrations themselves. The ones that do work can be glorious, however.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts.

[Sutibaru]

It's really situational there. We have examples of western realism TF artists like Ranzab versus eastern cartoonish such as EDMOL. Both are excellent styles of TF for what they go for, but in definitely different flavors.