How much do you think about your audience when creating?
ngon master
This topic seems to be one of the most important aspects when it comes to what you are creating and why. But it seems very rarely discussed.
Every project has a difference goal, and a different audience. Artists here create projects for themselves, for school, a contract, for their portfolio, or for a game. Often times I see the goals of an artist and their audience are not aligning. Sometimes their school wants things done one way, but their personal experience, portfolio goals, or what they want to do is contradicts what the school wants. Another common reoccurring conflict is with a few members that are determined to do things their own way, and not conform to what other members of the forum think. It seems obvious that creating for an audience will give you the best results if success and approval from your audience is the main goal, and not doing so can create extra conflict.
Does the audience play a big role influencing what you create and how you create it?
I know most 3d artist don't have a real following, but have you ever had any negative reaction to your work after changing styles or doing something your audience might not like?
When you create work for your portfolio, how much of the influence is what you want to do versus what you think will land you a job?
Do you feel creating work designed for your audience has given you more success?
At a certain point every large passion project, studio, show, band, blog, youtube channel, etc, seems to have a change when it becomes about the current audience, and will often change the direction of the content. Anyone else notice this?
Every project has a difference goal, and a different audience. Artists here create projects for themselves, for school, a contract, for their portfolio, or for a game. Often times I see the goals of an artist and their audience are not aligning. Sometimes their school wants things done one way, but their personal experience, portfolio goals, or what they want to do is contradicts what the school wants. Another common reoccurring conflict is with a few members that are determined to do things their own way, and not conform to what other members of the forum think. It seems obvious that creating for an audience will give you the best results if success and approval from your audience is the main goal, and not doing so can create extra conflict.
Does the audience play a big role influencing what you create and how you create it?
I know most 3d artist don't have a real following, but have you ever had any negative reaction to your work after changing styles or doing something your audience might not like?
When you create work for your portfolio, how much of the influence is what you want to do versus what you think will land you a job?
Do you feel creating work designed for your audience has given you more success?
At a certain point every large passion project, studio, show, band, blog, youtube channel, etc, seems to have a change when it becomes about the current audience, and will often change the direction of the content. Anyone else notice this?
Replies
Because of this uploading Brushes, Tutorials, Alphas and other resources gives a disproportionate amount of reactions. I don't know, these things aren't artistically impressive to me, but I guess artists will always look for new tools and techniques so it makes sense that Artstation works this way. How many times haven't you heard " What brushes do you use? ", " What matcap do you use?", and NO questions about what was required to create the piece in question?
I often feel a disconnect between what I think is awesome and what gets reactions, haha, so maybe I'm just out of touch!
Does it influence what I create? Yeah, probably to some extent. I enjoy uploading process and breakdowns and I wish more people did it.
People who look at your art only knows what you're GOOD at creating, not what you ENJOY creating. So if you start putting shit into your portfolio even though you don't enjoy creating that stuff then you'll be stuck there. Stuck creating things you don't enjoy just to get validation. And you'll get job offers for work in styles you don't enjoy creating aswell, I don't think it's a good idea!
I think it's a super interesting topic and I think some forms of art has an advantage of public-appeal that others don't. This can easily turn into a discussion about tits and ass or fan art or whatever. Hopefully this doesn't turn into that but I think most artists just create what they enjoy creating, and some of that stuff just happens to have a broader appeal. I think there's actually a very tiny amount of artists that would start creating stuff they don't enjoy just to get publicity.
P.S. I think it's very easy to look up at talented artists with huge followings and feel jealous. And attribute their success to only 1 attribute "Ah well they're just famous because they do X." and that's stupid and hurtful to all artists so stop doing that shit. Myself included!
But I no longer feel the need to self censor myself. After seeing other game developers push decisions fans disagreed with, I want to have that same freedom too. It's now a case of making art and just improving.
I personally put my goals first. I don't have the urge to be an 'artist'/create 'art', but I enjoy the work that goes into creating realistic characters. You will hardly see me work on props in my spare time nor creating stylized 3d art. When you are going to sit 2-4 months on a project you better make sure you are going to enjoy it. So its about doing something that makes sense for my ambitions while keeping me passioned about it to get the highest quality out of it. I just try to get a balanced portfolio at the end of the day in the style I'd want to work. This gives me still enough room to do just things I like.
I guess if I ever make it to the kind of job I am looking for I might be a bit more relaxed about it, but as beginner its about getting the practise necessary to improve as fast as possible. At least for me.
If it's an aspiring artist that wants a job, I'd say it's pretty safe to tell them what not to do in order to get a job. Most people need a job to have a sustainable income to support their lives. So at some point you'll have to stop fucking around and start creating art that gets you a job.
"How much do you think about your audience when creating?"
Not a jot!
I'm comfortable doing my own thing, passion is the primary driver not conformity, besides which there's something to be said for stepping beyond the bounds, Minecraft and Flappy Bird are a couple of obvious examples that immediately spring too mind.