who do you make your art for

[Thefirston]

ok guys this is a question i have been meaning to ask the polycount members for awhile. Who do you make your art for? I'm not talking about what companies you work for or anything like that, but who do you personally feel you are making 3d art for. let me give you an example.
For me I like to make 3d art for other 3d artists, because i know that they will be able to truly appreciate my work, and even if a 3d artist doesn't like my work i can still respect that because at least i know he understands what goes on into making 3d art, and how to do my stuff better. I however don't really care too much about everyday consumers because i know that is 3d artists like my work, the average consumer will probably just love it.


just as a note, i've posed this question at another site before but it kinda went in another direction due to the way i must have wrote it so here is the main thing that might help.
This question pertains to each individual's personal feelings, there is no right or wrong answer in this discussion just pure thought and opinion.

hopefully i explained it well enough for you guys to get the idea. all the right words i want to use seem to be out of my head at the moment. feel free to ask me to elaborate if needed, by then i'll probably have a better explanation.

[MoP]

i guess i make it partly for myself, and partly for other people. like you say, it's nice to have your work appreciated by people you respect.

i also just like games and see my art and work as one way of making games more enjoyable or accessible, and that's a benefit to everyone who plays games (myself included).

the rest of the time i guess it's just a feeling that i want to try and better myself (when it comes to drawing, painting etc).

guitar playing is pretty much a personal thing though, hardly anyone hears what I play, but I tend to spend a lot of time on it. not sure if that qualifies as art, i'd like to think it does occasionally :)

[Thefirston]

i was actually referring to 3d art, but now that you mention it, adding any type of art form in would actually be pretty cool to add onto here
so anyone if anyone else wants to add their two cents on what ever side of art go ahead

[Rens]

i never realy thought about making it for someone, like, i put this type of feeling into it, and try to get that out of people. only thing i did come up with is that i might sell a piece or two when im a bit better at things. ( but then i would be making it for the moneyz not for the people)

i do it because i like doing it, not that i want to bring my point across or share my feelings.

(yes im evil, i know)

[Thefirston]

like i said no right or wrong answers, what is your feelings is your feelings, and no amount of people bitching to you on here should really change that
i didn't start this thread so people could spoon-feed me a load of bs, just tell me how you feel

[Ruz]

I make it for the evil little man hiding in my teapot.

[rooster]

I make it for my teenage self who thought he would get to spend all day making robots

[Thefirston]

well i think your being sarcastic
which isn't really a problem as long as you make it funny
and if your not sure if its funny try complimenting it with a funny picture . . .. . please

[rooster]

I'm quite serious
edit: or do you mean RUZ?
he has a teapot, and it's filled with little men. true story

[MoP]

i'm pretty sure rooster is 100% serious... question is, DOES he now spend all day making robots?!
or is it just sweaty darts men

[East]

I make it for me, and anyone who looks at it.

Oh, and did I miss some new rule around here about not being allowed to be sarcastic without being funny?

BECAUSE THAT WOULD MAKE SO MUCH SENSE.

[illadam]

to stay young.

[Joao Sapiro]

Per told me its the only way to save my family from starvation.

[Joseph Silverman]

Per told me its the only way to save my family from starvation.



Isn't this why everyone makes art?

[JesterBox]

For great justice.

[EarthQuake]

is for ur mother

[palm]

I never show my gameart for people outside the industry. They just don’t know what they looking at and compare it to normal rendered stuff, classic art, movies etc.

I had this conversation with one of my brothers the other day.
Brother. - Those dudes look all boxy. How ugly.
Me. –The client gave me those specs, It wont get any smoother than that.
Brother. -?!
I later stabbed him to death with my wacom pen.

When I show stuff to my mother which I (against my better judgement) done a few times, she always says stuff like. –Why don’t you make pretty stuff instead of monsters? And then after a pause, she forces herself to say. It’s nice. As soon as I get a new wacom pen I’m going to stab her to death as well.

In short! I make art cuz its fun, and for food!

[o2car]

humanity

[Thefirston]

ok you guys sorry for not getting back to some of you sooner

first off, i was referring to Ruz not you rooster

secondly, in response to East, humor is subjective so saying that one thing is or isn't funny is a hard judgment. . . . . . . also i was being sarcastic when i wrote that out:poly108:

[IronHawk]

sex and glory!

[Jeremy-S]

I make my work for myself, mostly, but when I was working (I HATE being unemployed), I had to keep the client in mind. When it's like that, though, I always try and find something I can learn, and become better at.

But in all honesty, sometimes I just do it for the money.

[Jackwhat]

To quote Hideyoshi from the sijun boards;

For me, it's simply about being as skillful as I can. Portraying different things as realistically and technically impressive as possible. You can say, I am a craftsman rather than an artist and that's perfectly fine for me. Anyway, any concept 'artist' is more of an artisan...

- My opinion is pretty close to that but I would also aim to inspir people, theres been loads of times when im reading manga/watching films or just generally appreciating shit in games and it really motivates me. Thats something i'd really like to be able to do for others at some point too. I'd love to put together a graphic novel at some point too so I can throw all my years watching films and reading shit into.

[Microneezia]

to escape.

[Neo_God]

I would be hard for me to say I don't consider who I know and respect who may enjoy the work I'm working. Although I would say, that the work I do for myself is respected much more than than work I do for anything else.

Although I also do work to merely excorsize an idea from my head, which will lead me to quote Artaud:

"No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell."

Deep shit, no?

[Microneezia]

Dearest Antonin! nice quote!

[leilei]

I used to contribute art in the name of the GNU GPL and the Free Software movement, though i'm starting to lose faith in that stuff after all the exiling i've taken, so it's back to doing fan art for myself nowadays. One motivation was to frag as somebody stupid looking and seeing others being a stupid looking i've done out of pure fun, instead of just Sarge and Grunt.....

[dfacto]

I never show my gameart for people outside the industry. They just don’t know what they looking at and compare it to normal rendered stuff, classic art, movies etc.

This is exactly why I make art mostly for myself and somewhat for others who appreciate modern concept art or the mecha scene. I feel it, I draw it, I dig it. Show it to someone outside of the art world and they don't have the appropriate mindset to recognize a unique work for what it is. They're stuck in this "Oh, that's _____ from _____ right?"

No. It isn't.:susp:

I spent like literally 5 minutes with a friend convincing him that this sketch I was drawing was NOT in fact a protoss from starcraft, or some mage from warcraft, or some other bullshit, and that it was in fact an original work unrelated to anything else. Then he said I was crazy and had too much imagination. :P Which is correct, but still.

[PixelMasher]

personally I do it for the Bling and Bitches. and maybe a little bit so people can enjoy wasting time with the final product ;)

plus it beats a "real job" where you have to be serious and possibly deal with the dregs of society.

[danr]

i do it for the kids. Not my kids, THE kids

one of the reasons why in-jokes and easter eggs that no-one outside the company will get are works of the devil

[dejawolf]

i do it for the militaries of the world. oh and treadhead nutjobs.

[ScoobyDoofus]

I had this conversation with one of my brothers the other day. Brother. - Those dudes look all boxy. How ugly. Me. –The client gave me those specs, It wont get any smoother than that.
Brother. -?!
I later stabbed him to death with my wacom pen. ...
...In short! I make art cuz its fun, and for food!

One of my brothers did somethign similar recently. He finally came to Las Vegas and saw my artwork and said almost exactly "Yeah, but its not real art, because you use the computer and its just like pressing a few buttons"

I laughed and said "Thats the myth of the Make-Art button" and then proceeded to sculpt a quick head right there in front of him from a sphere. ...Then he's like "Whoah. I had no idea, so you're like....really an artist?" You can like actually draw & sculpt & stuff on paper & with clay too?"

Unbelievable. I do art because I love it. I've sacrificed my former career and most everything else to make this my new career. I didn't want to spend a third of my life working in a career or job or doing an activity that I didn't absolutely love. And shooting/retouching wedding pictures wasn't it. Art was, specifically 3d Art. I'm passionate about it. I'm passionate about games, both design and play. Its my dream to run & own an outsourcing studio Arthouse who contributes to other games, as well as makes our own.

Oh, and I do it for the throngs of Hot Gamer Groupies that assail me....:poly142:

[Farfarer]

I make stuff for me and hope other people think it's cool.

[Justin Meisse]

I make it for Gorlak the space slug, he demands it!

[greenj2]

I make it so I have something to taunt my concept artist mates at work with. Those godless no-third-dimension-havin' sons-a-bitches!

Then they come back at me with "you have to build what we concept", which makes me sad... :(

[Mark Dygert]

I make art... move.

[John Warner]

for the process. i love understanding myself and other people..

[nome_sane]

I make it for my teenage self who thought he would get to spend all day making robots
Me too... also for the lulz.

[Emil Mujanovic]

I primarily make art for myself, mainly to improve and to learn. Once I get to the level where I'm happy with will I start making art for others.
I also make art for fun, because if it wasn't fun then I probably wouldn't do it.

-caseyjones

[Ghostscape]

For 5 year old me who wanted to make videogames and liked giant robots.

Also for rent. It's nice to be able to say I pay the rent with giant robot monies :)

[Vailias]

I like the "get out of hell" quote.

I'd certainly say that the art I do, is to save my soul.
Creation is one of those things that makes me feel alive.

[palm]

ScoobyDoofus
Haha! People’s misconception about the industry deserves an entirely new thread. I dont know how many people over the years who actually thought I PROGRAM my art... like in c++ or something.^^

[Thegodzero]

I make art for the little green men.

[hobodactyl]

All of the above :)

[killingpeople]

I make art because it makes me happy usually. I think it's great others enjoy some of the things we do. I enjoy the praise for these odd talents we have. I think these types of things are what draw people toward their talents.

I don't like to hear when devs call customers idiots or worthless. I've heard devs say things in this vein, they're great people and do great work but, I don't agree at all. They may be right in a sense, but it doesn't seem productive or healthy to think that way. I feel it's a rather pretentious perspective and I don't think it's a positive way of seeing things for what we do. I feel that raising the view to see there is value in validating the importance of their viewer or customer's enjoyment of whatever it is, is important. I don't agree with whatever that is, a club or something, just accepting positive opinions or grant clout for experience when it comes to true appreciation or validated criticism.

Job titles and a track record of valued input and understanding is cool and all, but without the viewer there is no art. And furthermore, without a player, there is no game.

[Chunkey]

Bit of a weird one, I don't fully know who I do my art for these days.

When I was working at R*, I was making art for the company and rarely in my personal time (wtf is that?! :p ). Then I left and moved back down south and I was making art for future employers. Now I'm at the same stage but it's more for myself but with an eye to future work.

I fucked up big time when trying to get portfolio work sorted out as I was putting too much pressure on myself, but since I've started doing it for myself first, just to have fun, the love has started coming back. Last night I made one of the main characters from Gunstar Heroes just for a laugh and only a small part of the reason for it existing as a portfolio piece. Was the first time I've been able to sit down for more than an hour doing art and enjoy it in years, so something must be going right :)

[TWilson]

I make games for all the women.

like so:
http://www.starpulse.com/news/media/comicon_chewie.jpg

[Gav]

Tyler, i was SURE you were going to say "I do it all for the Wookie."

[ElysiumGX]

i do it for Jesus

[Richard Kain]

I make my work for my own enjoyment at the moment. Unfortunately, I am never going to be as satisfied with my work as other people are. Most people who I show my work to are considerably less critical of it than I am. Of course, most people I show it to aren't artists, so I suppose this is only natural.

Of course, I would very much like to be able to make art for other people. As pleasant as it can be to just make art that you like, it is way more motivating to make art for others. Well, maybe some day.

[rawkstar]

when i'm at work i make the art for the game, that sounds obvious but it isn't, i put a little bit of myself into it, but ultimately its the game, you have to have a certain amount of detachment with your work. Don't look at it in a negative way, you're clearly expected to be creative but ultimately the game is whats important, you're not creating a portfolio, you are contributing to a team project.

when i make stuff in spare time i'm not entirely sure who i'm making it for, on one hand i feel like i need to work on my skills and get better, on the other hand there are a bunch of artists i really want to emulate so maybe in a way i'm doing it for them.

i used to make it for praise, it was very satisfying when other people said they liked my work, it was almost addicting, i'd make new pieces just to show them off.

then i started making stuff to prove i could, prove i was better than others, alot of this industry is driven by egos, i don't think you can be any good without at least some kind of an ego.

and now... i think i'm just looking for a reason beyond the other two, looking for some kind of meaning to it, trying to work towards something more, its hard to imbue video game art with meaning without a video game :)

[TWilson]

Tyler, i was SURE you were going to say "I do it all for the Wookie."

That would have been awesome. Problem was I wrote it THEN I hit Google images.

I tried some different combinations ...I do it for all the bitches, your moms, hookers and blow, love of the craft, the crazy gnomes that look at all your stuff and laugh at you when you're not home, the free tea and coffee, and so forth.

[o2car]

We are here to create and procreate? What else?

[Talbot]

I make it for me... because I'm a selfless bastard. just kidding... but not really... currently I do use 3d art to relieve some of that high school academic stress. :)