Yes! My BG's are 3D... Problem?...

[mugenjohncel]

Nothing ruins a good morning mood than having a fan (love) mail in your email inbox...

Long story short, I got this rather nasty email criticizing me and my usage of Sketchup, Autocad, Maya and other "Exotic" renderers in my BG's. That I am nothing but a lazy fraud looking for shortcuts rather than doing it like the rest of the people here in lemmasoft (he/she SPECIFICALLY said LEMMASOFT!!!) That I rely too much on textures and google images and to put the final nail... he/she said my writing SUCKS and you should just stop doing VN's since you're obviously not talented enough... P.S. stop abusing ellipses and go back to selling printers...

Well now Mr/Ms whoever you are... you were right... my writing sucks! That I admit but to tell me to stop?... Excuse me?... Who are you again?... Now I know it's pointless to post the whole email here since you probably just used a disposable one... But I don't think I can agree with you on backgrounds Mr/Ms elitist purist or whoever you are... seriously, do you even know what I do for a living!?... Fine! Your creations may blow out everyone's out of the water because it's soooooo shiny, so anime like that mine pales in comparison... so now let me ask you this...

How long did it take you to make yours?

If you say a few hours maybe I might be impressed but if it is a few days then I'M NOT IMPRESSED!!! though I still have to see ANY of your works... Oh me?... I do it in under an hour and a half with about 1/3 of the time doing nothing but waiting for the render to finish.

Now I wanted you to have a rather good look at these!



So what if I'm using textures from Google? So what if I'm using the same sky texture? So what if I'm using 3D to speed things up instead of doing it manually like what I assume the way you do it?...

Listen whoever or whatever you are... it's all about the outcome NOT the method... if you put yourself in a client shoes, do you think the client will care how you did it?... OF COURSE NOT!... THE CLIENT is only interested in the FINAL PRODUCT!!! C'mon... the tools are there why not use them... which is exactly what I did to do what I am set to do which is to create decent BG's at the least time possible. I repeat DECENT... for serious, what is it with you elitist? Are you perhaps compensating for your failures in life by trying to impose your strict rules and morals?... Now let's go back to the other question... who are you to tell me to stop doing what I love doing?... As far as I can see you are nothing but an Anonymous hiding behind a "disposable" email. Who knows, maybe the real reason you're doing this is because you are insecure about something... perhaps jelly?... I don't know nor do I want to know... I am a busy person but I don't want to give up my hobby (I REPEAT, HOBBY) so I have to resort to techniques that may be frown by elitists like you but still does the job... fast...

Oh and yes... I sell printers... I sell printers and printer inks at wholesale level in the truckloads... problem Sir?... I also sell and fabricate steel studs for construction and distribute wall cladding systems currently employing 70 people. I also occasionally do company and product brand development for Lulz... Now ask yourself Mr/Ms Anonymous?... What do you do for a living?

No don't tell me, I'm not interested... please enjoy your poverty...

"POOF" (Thanks for ruining my Morning... you FUCKING TROLL!!!)

[Rewritten Ennui]

it's all about the outcome NOT the method... if you put yourself in a client shoes, do you think the client will care how you did it?... OF COURSE NOT!... THE CLIENT is only interested in the FINAL PRODUCT!!! C'mon... the tools are there why not use them... which is exactly what I did to do what I am set to do which is to create decent BG's at the least time possible. I repeat DECENT...

Sometimes the method used to create a product is important when it comes to marketing. It's like the difference between a cheap hamburger and a deluxe hamburger. The first has probably been frozen for who knows how long, while the other is hopefully from fresh meat. Doesn't mean that it's true, but the chances are high. However, if the cheap burger tastes good and is eatable, then it's fine. If the deluxe burger tastes the same as the cheap burger, then what was the point of paying the extra money?

In today's world, many people place emphasis on the outcome and the speed it took to get it done. I really admire all artists since they can draw beautiful animu in an hour while in the same time I can draw some crude stick figures, given that we were both using the same tools. I might be able to draw something nice with more advanced tools, and that's not considered cheating at all (unless it was a contest of skill with one tool, but that's a completely different thing). So I will agree with you, Uncle Mugen, that the troll was being a snobby elitist. Who cares if the background was done completely by hand? It probably took a week, and a background of the same or higher quality could be done in half the time with a computerized tool.

Really, in the end it doesn't matter what tool you use to make your bgs. As long as it looks aesthetically pleasing and serves its purpose, no one should have a gripe about it.

[MaiMai]

Wow, they actually complained about that? I can see why they would complain, but really in the end it's a pretty useless complaint. Unless you have a button that magically makes BGs, there's still time and thought put into them and it's not like there's other nuances (such as lighting, the weather, objects) aren't put into consideration.

There are people who will prefer certain BGs so that they can fit an atmosphere, but I always did like your method Mugen. I have yet to learn to utilize Google Sketchup myself.

[SusanTheCat]

Huggles!

Oh darn! he * POOFed * before I could give him a hug.

You do totally awesome stuff and I am totally jealous.

Susan

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Sometimes the method used to create a product is important when it comes to marketing. It's like the difference between a cheap hamburger and a deluxe hamburger.

This.

Your emailer was most certainly a troll, else he would not have made personal attacks, but if his criticism were more constructive, I believe he/her was offended not by the fact that the backgrounds were 3D and used photo-sourcing, but that he/she could TELL they were made in 3D and photo-sourced.

3D is certainly a very fast and effective way to do backgrounds - in fact, Ken Akamatsu uses 3D for nearly every background and environment in his Negima! manga . . . but you can't tell. They all look hand-drawn. (He uses the Ink and Paint shader in 3ds Max.)

Your backgrounds look quite good to me, but I think are too clean, and the complex nature of the photo-sourced clouds fights with the simple clean lines of the 3D. They could be improved, but your troll is just that - a troll. I personally applaud you for not just running a Photoshop filter over a picture.

Don't let it get to you, some people let anonymity turn them into [insert very impolite word here]. You know the theory.

[LVUER]

Hahaha, relax Mugen. There are people like there. Internet is a wild jungle after all. So just ignore them.

Beside, they often use 3D BG in commercial Japanese VN.

[Stripe]

You don't even know me but I love your stuff and envy both your 3D and drawing skills forever SO THERE B| haters gonna hate

[Auro-Cyanide]

I like your backgrounds. Yes, I do prefer painted backgrounds, but there isn't anything obviously jarring about your 3D stuff.

...Plus, you can do 10 in the time it takes me to do one, so THAT definitly has something going for it. I would use 3D stuff for at least the bases if I knew how to use it T^T

[Anarchy]

Your backgrounds are awesome. Ignore the troll. -huggles- :/ (I personally just run filters over pictures because I have absolutely zero art or rendering skills, so. ;___;)

[Marcelo_Orlando]

Whoever this person was is just jealous of your skills. Yes jealous.......there's a lot of that on this forum.

Oh and for all those people who think that it's so much easier to just throw together a 3D render than creating hand drawn images....you have no idea.

[J. Datie]

Wow, as someone also using (realtime!) 3D for backgrounds, I can't help but share in your offense-having. So I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna give 'em that one response trolls hate the most. Yeah, that one. Here it goes, in the spoiler tag:

...

Don't look directly at it!

Right, now that that's out of the way, I feel like I should link to a relevant article that was, coincidentally, posted today. It's about learning Japanese, but it's pretty general advice. Their Freedom To Hate → Your Freedom To Become Great.

Some people aren't going to like what you do. Sometimes it'll be lots of people, maybe even entire groups. It doesn't matter, you don't their permission to create anything. Actually, I've noticed quite a few people worrying about what other people like, or if people won't like certain things, or even just adding "I guess people/X-group/everyone will hate me for no reason because of what I make" to the end of their post, so I guess this kinda applies to all of us. But seriously, barring anything illegal, these people can't stop you. In fact, Nothing Can Stop Us Now!

So yeah, it's easy to chalk it up to jealousy or hatred of loud Hawaiian shirts, but it's even easier to not do anything.

[Cidz]

Wow, that person should just chill and not go off on you, it's a background. I mean why do they care, I'll assume that you didnt make any backgrounds for them and they are just some random person angry at life and wanting to take it out on someone.

Anyways, I love your backgrounds I once was inspired by you and read a few of your posts to try and learn how to use google sketch-up then i realized that its way too hard for me and I have no skill in it what so ever I mean even if you use programs they still take skill and know-how. Sure you dont sit there and hand-draw them but im pretty sure you can easily do it by hand if you wanted, because you have the know-how and the skill to do so. That's all that matters. If I were you I'd ask to see that persons backgrounds since they seem to be such an expert on them.

[Sapphi]

Right, now that that's out of the way, I feel like I should link to a relevant article that was, coincidentally, posted today. It's about learning Japanese, but it's pretty general advice. Their Freedom To Hate → Your Freedom To Become Great.

Wow, that was really... empowering... "Once you allow other people the freedom to hate you, you become free of the restrictions, distractions, distortions and contortions involved in trying to make them like you." I think I'm going to have to write that on a post-it note, stick it to my computer, and stare at it every time I sit down to write.

BTW, Mugen, your backgrounds are awesome. Not only does that person sound incredibly jealous, but I also find it really sad how they felt the need to take a chunk of time out of their life to insult someone like that. That says a lot more about them personally than it does about your artwork, your writing, or your job.

[VenusEclipse]

If I say anything, it'll probably be a repeat of the same responses above me.

All I want to say is the troll noticed your presence and must have felt your BGs are too awesome.

That's why he spent effort to write that long email. If he didn't care, he wouldn't have bothered to waste his time.

It's just a thought.

[Samu-kun]

I ADMIT IT! I SENT THE EMAIL!

just kidding.