Well on CGhub yes, Mostly because i was younger and starting and not sure. With artstation no, But i gain confidence, I love my work and Artstation feel like a Deviantart but without all the DA crap and drama.
I don't think you have any reason of being shy of your work so it's probably not what you mean by being intimidated by it.
Anyone else ever get really intimidated to register to sites like cghub and artstation?
I don't think you should ever feel intimidated uploading work to places like ArtStation. If you look at the Latest section, it's clear that there are artists of all skill levels submitting work.
It's also a very good exercise in putting yourself in a vulnerable position. It teaches you to keep some detachment from the work you do so that you don't feel as bad if other people don't like it. That's a very important skill to have, and arguably much more important than producing excellent work all the time.
Anyone else ever get really intimidated to register to sites like cghub and artstation?
Register your username for now and think about if you want to post on it later. Everyone starts somewhere, getting past the registration page can be the hardest part, intimidation happens less the more you put yourself out there.
I'm surprised this thread is still going (over a year now). I wanted to address some stuff that's being brought up.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Leo. I'm the Founder of ArtStation.
1. Please report stuff directly to us when it's broken or when you have feedback including negative feedback
Unfortunately posting publicly about bugs or issues on Polycount and Facebook doesn't help anyone. It needs to come to us directly so that we can address the issues. Some of things I've read publicly, we weren't even aware they were problems and it's so disappointing to have to read about them on public forums as it's so easy to contact us.
We're not some big corporation that doesn't listen. We're bare metal guys just like you working to improve this industry. We respond to all issues and many times, we've improved features because of direct feedback and collaboration with artists.
Please just contact us.
2. "I wish they had X feature"
Again, many times if you contact us, we'll respond and tell you why X hasn't been built yet.
For example - Forums. Some people have asked about forums. While we do intend on building discussion forums in the future, the reason we haven't yet is because we feel that there are other priorities where we can make a larger impact. For example, we just launched the Artist Search feature which is the industry's most powerful recruitment search engine, and next week we are launching the Collections feature where you can collect and manage artworks/projects for easy reference. There are so many forums that already exist such as Polycount, CGTalk, etc. While it's something we'll get to, it's a lower priority as it doesn't give us much sustainable advantage. Please feel free to state your opinion on this, and we'll happily rethink it.
I guess I'm here now, so this can be an AMA (Ask Me Anything).
Anyone else ever get really intimidated to register to sites like cghub and artstation?
Well, not really. My "problem" is exactly the opposite: I found that getting exposure in Artstation is extremely hard, and the only people getting views and interacting with others are the top notch (front page). This makes sense if we understand this community as a place for skilled professionals, but it's a shame that everything below there (amateurs, students or junior artist like me) doesn't get any exposure.
And I'm not claiming for followers, this is not about ego or "likes" but about building a community and interacting/learning. For instance, even though Deviant Art have crappy curation, there's a lot of populated sub-communities and every artist can have a group of DA friends commenting, sharing and giving feedback on their works. It's great that you don't need to be in front page to have some interaction.
There are so many forums that already exist such as Polycount, CGTalk, etc.
True, but these are consolidated communities and at some point you need to build your own, not feed from others. Artstation it's nice but kind of hieratic, aristocrat (that's why some users find it intimidating?). Sites like Polycount, CGTalk or DA are cities on the internet, because people dwell them interacting, communicating, sharing at different levels (comments + private messages + forums). Sadly, Artstation is a muted community, a showcase, and it desperately needs an agora.
This feedback is intended to be friendly, I really like what you are doing with Artstation and I know it will grow even better in the future
@mariomanzanares thanks for the feedback. It's quality feedback like this which is intended to be constructive that really helps.
@soulstice, which part of the search function is frustrating the most?
A couple of notes:
1. The current search system will be deprecated for a better one in future. The current one really is just a simple search as we didn't have one at all when we started.
2. Searching for artists should be done using the new Artist Search tool. This was a big need. For example, you can now search for Substance Designer artists using that tool, and it's much more robust than using the standard search tool and typing "substance designer".
3. Searching for artworks - there is a known issue, where some artists are abusing tags by tagging their works into unrelated categories. In addition to being annoying, this also screws up searching. If you find these, just report abuse on them and we'll recategorize them.
Here's something I would be interested in. On the personal website (as opposed to community profile) I would like to be able to make specific URL galleries but not have them linked to directly on my webpage. Sometimes when I am applying for positions I feel like certain artworks are best grouped together based on job requirements, but I don't want to have 5 pages visible with the similar art pieces between them. Allowing "private" pages that you could link to directly via URL but would otherwise be invisible would be great.
I like Artstation because I can see cool art without being exposed to the personal views of artists behind them. I'm fine with a forum but please don't add journal entries! It's like when you discover that Chevy Chase is a real dick in person, it's disappointing.
@ leonardteo I feel like the search function for artwork can be alot more robust if we can actually sort by, amount of views, favourites, likes, etc.
Also the way that search results is listed single image down, seems very inefficient. Would be nice if thumbnails tile across more of the space (ie google image search results), that way we can view more artwork as oppose to scrolling down across one single thumbnail tile and having to constantly click on "Load more artworks!"
Other than search function, the site is awesome!! I love spending time just gawking at art.:)
This makes sense if we understand this community as a place for skilled professionals, but it's a shame that everything below there (amateurs, students or junior artist like me) doesn't get any exposure.
I know quite a few people that got front page as students/amateurs/juniors/not in the industry.
I think it just comes down to quality of work and of course whatever style is popular helps.
I know quite a few people that got front page as students/amateurs/juniors/not in the industry.
I think it just comes down to quality of work and of course whatever style is popular helps.
Im not sure if he's talking about community, trending or picks...
But as far as community is concerned, this is one thing that I really appreciate about artstation compared to cghub. Theres a chance for everybody so long as your work is good. Ive seen a lot of work on the community page with as few as 200 views sitting right next to stuff with 8,000 views.
I dont know how the backend stuff works but I think community does a pretty good job of picking a wide variety of stuff while keeping the quality high.
Trending is just decided based on how many views after an initial post and Picks is a curated selection of the best of trending from what I can tell.
As far as Im concerned you guys can take as long as you want with forums.
@MrHobo is right about the Trending wall and its usefulness. The Trending algorithm is very similar to most Trending algorithms you'd find in other sites such as Twitter. It is (currently) based on Likes and publish date. So artworks that get a few likes immediately after publishing tend to trend upwards.
There are many stories of beginners who have had work featured on Trending and on the Top Row. E.g. Khyzyl Saleem was 19 years old when he first posted on ArtStation last year and ended up getting 2 job offers, and now is a Concept Artist at EA.
Picks are Community Picks. We generally try to stay out of it except a final moderation. Currently the way it works is that anything over 50 Likes gets shortlisted, and then we moderate them (the usual stuff: overly-sexualized content, violent and offensive content). Then it goes into Picks. We're working on badges to put up soon as this is something that's been asked for.
Top Row is selected by internal staff / admin, and is usually just the really notable items (lot's of Likes). It's subjective and is based also on featuring a wide variety of styles and work - e.g. we wouldn't feature all character or all 3D work across the Top Row - we'd try to find perhaps 2x 3D pieces (1 character, 1 non-character), 2x 2D pieces, 1 character, 1 non-char). Top Row is also used for featuring sponsor/partner content.
To be honest my understanding of idea behind each page was almost completely wrong.
For example I was sure that 'picks' means artworks picked by staff and yet it turns out that it's pretty much the opposite.
I'm still not quite sure what's the difference between 'trending' and 'community'.
I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to put a short description on each page so that people know what they are all about.
To be honest my understanding of idea behind each page was almost completely wrong.
For example I was sure that 'picks' means artworks picked by staff and yet it turns out that it's pretty much the opposite.
I'm still not quite sure what's the difference between 'trending' and 'community'.
I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to put a short description on each page so that people know what they are all about.
I agree - I'm working on a FAQ that should clarify this.
Trending and Community serve different purposes:
Trending is an infinite scrolling wall.
Community has sections such as the mosaic, featured jobs, featured articles.
The Community Mosaic essentially takes the top 10,000 Trending items (taking into account filters) and randomly selects ~120 projects to show. This gives you a good range of artwork to look at, and means that many people get visibility.
I also really want to repeat the request for the search function, make the search look just like how it looks in on the trending page, a wall of pictures, and a way to filter it by category and number of likes etc.
at the moment it's not really useful and if I really have to search for something I go to google and search Artstation + what im looking for.
I also really want to repeat the request for the search function, make the search look just like how it looks in on the trending page, a wall of pictures, and a way to filter it by category and number of likes etc.
at the moment it's not really useful and if I really have to search for something I go to google and search Artstation + what im looking for.
Yup thanks. I'm planning to redo the search this way. The current search is to be deprecated.
But i'd really like to see a way to categorise work. So i could have a "featured" place for best work. This would be the pieces people see first when they visit my page. I could also create other folders, like "sketches", "speedpaints" etc.. The "sub categories" would probably be accessed using a drop down on the gallery tab? Or they could be folders below the featured thumbnail gallery? I suppose a bit like DA category system...but make it better ;P
Could it be possible to arrange my thumbnails on my gallery page to look like the main page "community" thumbnails. With large and small thumbnails mixed? Either I could arrange them as I see fit or when I upload I can select the size of the thumbnail preview. So I could select 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 2x3 and 3x2. (2x2 being the default). Possibly I could arrange the thumbnails by dragging and dropping in a "gallery edit" mode?
Also, when I post a group of images the thumbnail should indicate that there is more than one image to be seen rather than just showing a preview of the first image. Either by adding smaller thumbnails or some kind of Icon to make it known to people that there is more to see?
Just a few thoughts. If any of these features exist then please let me know, if they do exist then i'd suggest they need highlighting better.
But i'd really like to see a way to categorise work. So i could have a "featured" place for best work. This would be the pieces people see first when they visit my page. I could also create other folders, like "sketches", "speedpaints" etc.. The "sub categories" would probably be accessed using a drop down on the gallery tab? Or they could be folders below the featured thumbnail gallery? I suppose a bit like DA category system...but make it better ;P
Could it be possible to arrange my thumbnails on my gallery page to look like the main page "community" thumbnails. With large and small thumbnails mixed? Either I could arrange them as I see fit or when I upload I can select the size of the thumbnail preview. So I could select 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 2x3 and 3x2. (2x2 being the default). Possibly I could arrange the thumbnails by dragging and dropping in a "gallery edit" mode?
No unfortunately this is too challenging for us to tackle.
Also, when I post a group of images the thumbnail should indicate that there is more than one image to be seen rather than just showing a preview of the first image. Either by adding smaller thumbnails or some kind of Icon to make it known to people that there is more to see?
Yes, we are resolving this shortly with a thumbnail row at the bottom of the page, and clicking on a thumb will scroll you to the correct position.
Ah, great thanks. Hadn't noticed the albums feature will start using it. Shame I can't make my thumbnails look a bit less uniform on my own page with varied thumb sizes though. Even just having 2x2's and 1x1's that arrange themselves as best they can would be pretty cool. Good to know you're fixing the multi upload thumb.
Just got the update message about the "Collections". Seems like that is going to be a very cool feature as I love collecting reference. I generally link images from Artstation to my Pinterest to categories into different folders.
Not a search request, but a "Medium" request. Could there be a Medium for "Marmoset" pieces and Marmoset pieces by art type (3D Characters, 3D Props, 3D Environments)?
Not a search request, but a "Medium" request. Could there be a Medium for "Marmoset" pieces and Marmoset pieces by art type (3D Characters, 3D Props, 3D Environments)?
We're working on it and trying to wrap our heads around what the best way to do this is. This is something that the Marmoset as well as Sketchfab folks have asked for. Unfortunately we also have a ton of other higher priority items that we have to get to.
leonardteo I think the shown album/number should only show what's set to show up in on the Community Profile only. (some are only shown on the website instead)
Like in this example; number says 17, but I have only 4 are set to show up on the Comm. Profile page. 17 should really say 4 here. /// The rest are WIPs, and I don't want them clogging my neat looking page.
Hi Leonard. For custom thumbnails, is there an ideal dimension and file size that prevents them from getting re-compressed?
Every site/system I know of should do a re-compression in order to normalize the format and strip out unnecessary meta-data from uploaded images. The difference is usually in what is output from the compressor.
Our compressor is the standard ImageMagick compressor used by pretty much every site on the planet that does this kind of thing, as it generally does a good job. We've set quality to 85% which in most cases provides very good quality and the data usage is not absurdly large (it's better quality than Facebook, but I guess when you're the number 2 site on the planet, bandwidth becomes a bigger concern).
I'd just upload a large square image for the thumbnail (800x800), JPG or PNG and let it figure it out. If you upload JPG, give it a good quality like 85-100%.
leonardteo I think the shown album/number should only show what's set to show up in on the Community Profile only. (some are only shown on the website instead)
Like in this example; number says 17, but I have only 4 are set to show up on the Comm. Profile page. 17 should really say 4 here. /// The rest are WIPs, and I don't want them clogging my neat looking page.
This is a bug. Thanks for reporting it! I'll log it for fixing.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet or not, but it sure would be nice to have a direct/private messaging system put into place.
Yes that's a 'nice to have' that we're planning in future. But what's interesting is that we've validated with employers & studios that they won't use it. The reason is security and privacy. They would much rather be able to email you directly.
So all Private Messaging system is useful for in that context is to establish contact, then take the rest of the conversation using email - which is exactly how our current HIre Me messaging system works (it just ends up emailing the user, who can hit reply and respond directly to the other user).
We're still going to build a messaging system in future (we already have the basics in place), but there's definitely other areas where we can make a larger impact right away.
Can anyone tell me why my thumbnail spacing is different than the rest of the website thumbnails I see? Is there a padding or margin option for thumbnails in ArtStation?
Replies
I don't think you have any reason of being shy of your work so it's probably not what you mean by being intimidated by it.
Even if i don't have time for them often XD
Incredibly intimated. It took me a long time to actually register and put artwork on cghub, and then not long after is when it shut down.
The site needs way more sonic the hedgehog erotica for me to feel comfortable.
I don't think you should ever feel intimidated uploading work to places like ArtStation. If you look at the Latest section, it's clear that there are artists of all skill levels submitting work.
It's also a very good exercise in putting yourself in a vulnerable position. It teaches you to keep some detachment from the work you do so that you don't feel as bad if other people don't like it. That's a very important skill to have, and arguably much more important than producing excellent work all the time.
Also marmoset viewer is soooo good! I cannot wait until everybody has access to it!
Register your username for now and think about if you want to post on it later. Everyone starts somewhere, getting past the registration page can be the hardest part, intimidation happens less the more you put yourself out there.
Seems rather odd that information isn't being mentioned a loud anywhere for those (like myself) seeing all these marmoset uploads take place.
The Marmoset Viewer is still being tested and only accessible to select people. For now, you just have to upload screenshots.
In a few months it will probably be amazing but right now, I'm tired if running into this...
At least you get to look at some cool art when it screws up.
I've never had any bugs with artstation personally.
I'm surprised this thread is still going (over a year now). I wanted to address some stuff that's being brought up.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Leo. I'm the Founder of ArtStation.
1. Please report stuff directly to us when it's broken or when you have feedback including negative feedback
Unfortunately posting publicly about bugs or issues on Polycount and Facebook doesn't help anyone. It needs to come to us directly so that we can address the issues. Some of things I've read publicly, we weren't even aware they were problems and it's so disappointing to have to read about them on public forums as it's so easy to contact us.
We're not some big corporation that doesn't listen. We're bare metal guys just like you working to improve this industry. We respond to all issues and many times, we've improved features because of direct feedback and collaboration with artists.
Please just contact us.
2. "I wish they had X feature"
Again, many times if you contact us, we'll respond and tell you why X hasn't been built yet.
For example - Forums. Some people have asked about forums. While we do intend on building discussion forums in the future, the reason we haven't yet is because we feel that there are other priorities where we can make a larger impact. For example, we just launched the Artist Search feature which is the industry's most powerful recruitment search engine, and next week we are launching the Collections feature where you can collect and manage artworks/projects for easy reference. There are so many forums that already exist such as Polycount, CGTalk, etc. While it's something we'll get to, it's a lower priority as it doesn't give us much sustainable advantage. Please feel free to state your opinion on this, and we'll happily rethink it.
I guess I'm here now, so this can be an AMA (Ask Me Anything).
Fire away.
Leo
Linksies!
Got an update to Marmoset which let me create viewer files, and Artstation had it as a regular upload option.
Well, not really. My "problem" is exactly the opposite: I found that getting exposure in Artstation is extremely hard, and the only people getting views and interacting with others are the top notch (front page). This makes sense if we understand this community as a place for skilled professionals, but it's a shame that everything below there (amateurs, students or junior artist like me) doesn't get any exposure.
And I'm not claiming for followers, this is not about ego or "likes" but about building a community and interacting/learning. For instance, even though Deviant Art have crappy curation, there's a lot of populated sub-communities and every artist can have a group of DA friends commenting, sharing and giving feedback on their works. It's great that you don't need to be in front page to have some interaction.
Thank you for building Artstation. We needed something like this and It's great to see how big it's growing so far.
True, but these are consolidated communities and at some point you need to build your own, not feed from others. Artstation it's nice but kind of hieratic, aristocrat (that's why some users find it intimidating?). Sites like Polycount, CGTalk or DA are cities on the internet, because people dwell them interacting, communicating, sharing at different levels (comments + private messages + forums). Sadly, Artstation is a muted community, a showcase, and it desperately needs an agora.
This feedback is intended to be friendly, I really like what you are doing with Artstation and I know it will grow even better in the future
@soulstice, which part of the search function is frustrating the most?
A couple of notes:
1. The current search system will be deprecated for a better one in future. The current one really is just a simple search as we didn't have one at all when we started.
2. Searching for artists should be done using the new Artist Search tool. This was a big need. For example, you can now search for Substance Designer artists using that tool, and it's much more robust than using the standard search tool and typing "substance designer".
3. Searching for artworks - there is a known issue, where some artists are abusing tags by tagging their works into unrelated categories. In addition to being annoying, this also screws up searching. If you find these, just report abuse on them and we'll recategorize them.
Leo
Also the way that search results is listed single image down, seems very inefficient. Would be nice if thumbnails tile across more of the space (ie google image search results), that way we can view more artwork as oppose to scrolling down across one single thumbnail tile and having to constantly click on "Load more artworks!"
Other than search function, the site is awesome!! I love spending time just gawking at art.:)
I know quite a few people that got front page as students/amateurs/juniors/not in the industry.
I think it just comes down to quality of work and of course whatever style is popular helps.
Im not sure if he's talking about community, trending or picks...
But as far as community is concerned, this is one thing that I really appreciate about artstation compared to cghub. Theres a chance for everybody so long as your work is good. Ive seen a lot of work on the community page with as few as 200 views sitting right next to stuff with 8,000 views.
I dont know how the backend stuff works but I think community does a pretty good job of picking a wide variety of stuff while keeping the quality high.
Trending is just decided based on how many views after an initial post and Picks is a curated selection of the best of trending from what I can tell.
As far as Im concerned you guys can take as long as you want with forums.
Thanks for the feedback.
@MrHobo is right about the Trending wall and its usefulness. The Trending algorithm is very similar to most Trending algorithms you'd find in other sites such as Twitter. It is (currently) based on Likes and publish date. So artworks that get a few likes immediately after publishing tend to trend upwards.
There are many stories of beginners who have had work featured on Trending and on the Top Row. E.g. Khyzyl Saleem was 19 years old when he first posted on ArtStation last year and ended up getting 2 job offers, and now is a Concept Artist at EA.
Picks are Community Picks. We generally try to stay out of it except a final moderation. Currently the way it works is that anything over 50 Likes gets shortlisted, and then we moderate them (the usual stuff: overly-sexualized content, violent and offensive content). Then it goes into Picks. We're working on badges to put up soon as this is something that's been asked for.
Top Row is selected by internal staff / admin, and is usually just the really notable items (lot's of Likes). It's subjective and is based also on featuring a wide variety of styles and work - e.g. we wouldn't feature all character or all 3D work across the Top Row - we'd try to find perhaps 2x 3D pieces (1 character, 1 non-character), 2x 2D pieces, 1 character, 1 non-char). Top Row is also used for featuring sponsor/partner content.
Leo
To be honest my understanding of idea behind each page was almost completely wrong.
For example I was sure that 'picks' means artworks picked by staff and yet it turns out that it's pretty much the opposite.
I'm still not quite sure what's the difference between 'trending' and 'community'.
I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to put a short description on each page so that people know what they are all about.
I agree - I'm working on a FAQ that should clarify this.
Trending and Community serve different purposes:
The Community Mosaic essentially takes the top 10,000 Trending items (taking into account filters) and randomly selects ~120 projects to show. This gives you a good range of artwork to look at, and means that many people get visibility.
Leo
I also really want to repeat the request for the search function, make the search look just like how it looks in on the trending page, a wall of pictures, and a way to filter it by category and number of likes etc.
at the moment it's not really useful and if I really have to search for something I go to google and search Artstation + what im looking for.
Yup thanks. I'm planning to redo the search this way. The current search is to be deprecated.
Cheers!
Leo
But i'd really like to see a way to categorise work. So i could have a "featured" place for best work. This would be the pieces people see first when they visit my page. I could also create other folders, like "sketches", "speedpaints" etc.. The "sub categories" would probably be accessed using a drop down on the gallery tab? Or they could be folders below the featured thumbnail gallery? I suppose a bit like DA category system...but make it better ;P
Could it be possible to arrange my thumbnails on my gallery page to look like the main page "community" thumbnails. With large and small thumbnails mixed? Either I could arrange them as I see fit or when I upload I can select the size of the thumbnail preview. So I could select 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 2x3 and 3x2. (2x2 being the default). Possibly I could arrange the thumbnails by dragging and dropping in a "gallery edit" mode?
Also, when I post a group of images the thumbnail should indicate that there is more than one image to be seen rather than just showing a preview of the first image. Either by adding smaller thumbnails or some kind of Icon to make it known to people that there is more to see?
Just a few thoughts. If any of these features exist then please let me know, if they do exist then i'd suggest they need highlighting better.
thanks Leonard, great site!
We do have an albums feature.
Check out Ivan Santic's gallery to see it in action:
https://www.artstation.com/artist/moth3r
You can also reorder your projects. Just go here https://www.artstation.com/myartstation/projects and drag and drop the order, so that the ones you want to be shown first are at the top.
No unfortunately this is too challenging for us to tackle.
Yes, we are resolving this shortly with a thumbnail row at the bottom of the page, and clicking on a thumb will scroll you to the correct position.
Thanks for the feedback!
Leo
Just got the update message about the "Collections". Seems like that is going to be a very cool feature as I love collecting reference. I generally link images from Artstation to my Pinterest to categories into different folders.
We're working on it and trying to wrap our heads around what the best way to do this is. This is something that the Marmoset as well as Sketchfab folks have asked for. Unfortunately we also have a ton of other higher priority items that we have to get to.
Leo
Like in this example; number says 17, but I have only 4 are set to show up on the Comm. Profile page. 17 should really say 4 here. /// The rest are WIPs, and I don't want them clogging my neat looking page.
Every site/system I know of should do a re-compression in order to normalize the format and strip out unnecessary meta-data from uploaded images. The difference is usually in what is output from the compressor.
Our compressor is the standard ImageMagick compressor used by pretty much every site on the planet that does this kind of thing, as it generally does a good job. We've set quality to 85% which in most cases provides very good quality and the data usage is not absurdly large (it's better quality than Facebook, but I guess when you're the number 2 site on the planet, bandwidth becomes a bigger concern).
I'd just upload a large square image for the thumbnail (800x800), JPG or PNG and let it figure it out. If you upload JPG, give it a good quality like 85-100%.
Leo
This is a bug. Thanks for reporting it! I'll log it for fixing.
Leo
Yes that's a 'nice to have' that we're planning in future. But what's interesting is that we've validated with employers & studios that they won't use it. The reason is security and privacy. They would much rather be able to email you directly.
So all Private Messaging system is useful for in that context is to establish contact, then take the rest of the conversation using email - which is exactly how our current HIre Me messaging system works (it just ends up emailing the user, who can hit reply and respond directly to the other user).
We're still going to build a messaging system in future (we already have the basics in place), but there's definitely other areas where we can make a larger impact right away.
Leo
In future - could you please contact us at ArtStation support? We'll be glad to help you!
http://support.artstation.com
Thanks,
Leo
K sry bout that
I wish we could upload gifs to our portfolio. Or just image-link them from other sites.