Well Umm im alive... I had a really rough time a few years ago had a complete break down and got myself into a heap of trouble, im really not prepared to go into details on it...
Im now starting to put myself back together and having come online and came here. found my account had closed. not sure why. Maybe timed out... But what happened to Scifi-meshes? It kinda seems to have died...
Like most online communities, it's quieter than it used to be here- guess pretty much unlimited alternatives for creating and sharing content will do that... Still a core of people posting regularly, but a lot of the "old gang" grew up and got jobs and families and stuff. :shiner:
As for your account, it wasn't voluntarily closed, but it looks like you missed the last "great server crash"- where the database went pop and we lost the lot. That's the "abridged" version of events, anyway.
Ahh haa... yeah i remember what jobs were like Around the time of my break down i had finally seriously broken into my graphics career and starting making serious money... Sadly it wasnt enough to sort my head out. Many other things where going on for me....
Anyway, yeah server crashes happen... Thats fine... Im still new to coming back online and computes... its going to be a little while before i start posting art again. But Im glad this place is still here
Well, any forum-based online community will suffer a decline in activity over the while. Smaller forums will completely die out, bigger forums will receive lesser visits and posts but still have a few trusty people who come over and do stuff.
I think the idea of blogs and other social media like facebook, twitter, etc. plays a great factor in these losses...
I feel for you nutsy. Went through something similar about 4 years ago. Had a break down, spent 2 months in hospital learning to release a lot of feelings that had been buried very deep over the years. Will be on meds for the rest of my life now. Things are going very well now, so there is hope. My wife and I worked out some issues and we celebrated our 30th anniversary last September.
I feel for you nutsy. Went through something similar about 4 years ago. Had a break down, spent 2 months in hospital learning to release a lot of feelings that had been buried very deep over the years. Will be on meds for the rest of my life now. Things are going very well now, so there is hope. My wife and I worked out some issues and we celebrated our 30th anniversary last September.
Im sorry to hear it, what i went through is a bit different. i did make some serious life changing mistakes in my break down. Im on anti depressants now and it helps. Though I hope i dont have to stay on them forever... Im not a huge fan of some of the things they do.
I'm still here but I became a lurker more than a contributor. Real life, marriage, and a near death experience redefined my priorities and the wind is just not in my sails for 3d anymore. Still happy to admire and critique though
I still have your old videos on my hard drive too, Sudden Strike was one of my faves, still is.
I'm still here but I became a lurker more than a contributor. Real life, marriage, and a near death experience redefined my priorities and the wind is just not in my sails for 3d anymore. Still happy to admire and critique though
I still have your old videos on my hard drive too, Sudden Strike was one of my faves, still is.
I could never understand why getting married and having kids could take one away from their digital hobbies.
Until I had my own
Just getting 5 minutes to play with my photoshop stuff is rare.
That's funny, I was just thinking the same thing - activity has really fallen off recently, it's too bad. Even the headers are a year old, I guess no one is doing anything worthy anymore lol.
Well i guess, at some point im going to be making a super high detailed galaxy class that i promised to irml ill do. partly to replace the aztek that i traced off his model. But also ive been thinking about it the last couple of years...
In my time off i written the screen play for the trek story I envisioned back when i was making the borgifide nebular class. Ill never be able to make the film but I do want to do some of the key visual effects shots.
The reason for never making the film is multiple. But basically, i don't have the patience to take on such a big project, nor the commitment right now to do something that big. Not to mention the skillset... i can model and do effects animations but character animation for a full blown CGI movie... I just don't have that level of skill. Not to mention i cant make anything thats going to be too high profile....
But small steps. I need a new work station currently on a mac book, cant do anything on that. And i need to get my software back. But some good news hopefully getting a work station in the coming months. And were getting fibre installed in the next month or two as well. (currently on a terrible barely better than modem connection atm)
I was just coming in here to post a similar question. Wondering why activity on this forum has almost crawled to a stop. Sure, ok, people grow up and get married and may not have time for 3d modeling at much, but what about the fresh blood? Where are the late-teens early-twenties folks who can take up the mantle in their free time? I used to love to come here and see updates on people's projects everyday, but it is slow slow slow these days.
Yeah, what happened to all the insanely talented teenagers that made me feel inadequate (yet oddly pleased)? And what happened to the Mods? And the challenges? Hell, I even miss watching the occasional flame war.
I was just coming in here to post a similar question. Wondering why activity on this forum has almost crawled to a stop. Sure, ok, people grow up and get married and may not have time for 3d modeling at much, but what about the fresh blood? Where are the late-teens early-twenties folks who can take up the mantle in their free time? I used to love to come here and see updates on people's projects everyday, but it is slow slow slow these days.
All busy pushing buttons and burning retinas and being consumers. Living in the ADD future where if it cant be done in a hour it aint worth doing, or is too much trouble to do. Look at how many cannot even sit at a street light and not pull out the damned cel phone to tweet **** or facebook the booger they just picked.
It is not just art forums or 3d forums. Anything that was high traffic a few years ago is petering out for social media crap.
Only fix I guess is to just post stuff, be it a small project or something quick. A while back there were speed modeling threads where everyone would do a quick one day one session model. That might be a way to get some more people participating.
I think one way to be relevant is to try cross promoting with some other scifi forums (TrekBBS comes to mind) and on Facebook; just posting some of the gallery or header material, for example. It was this forum that inspired me to try playing with 3D (not very successful, unfortunately) as well as my older brothers early modeling which pushed him into an art career (Software interface/design).
I'm back as well. Although I never really posted. I was more of a lurker. I have made many sci-fi models for various shows, including my own 1701 ( TOS ). But I never posted any of my work to this forum. Its nice to see people are still here though.
There have been discussions amongst the staff on ways to revitalise the site, but as you have probably noticed, most of the staff don't have the time any longer to appear here very often. We're all older and have other demands on our time, and as Koi says, the world as a whole has moved on, leaving forums increasingly a thing of the past. For more niche interests, they are still popular, but something like this has enough coverage elsewhere and in other forms that most people that even still do this kind of thing in their spare time have moved on.
To be honest, I see a stagnation of ideas. I come around looking for new and original concepts and there aren't very many.
I pop in The TrekBB now and again as well, and I think they are thriving because they do one thing. If you are posting Trek art, you want to go where the largest audience is. SFM is a mixed bag catogorized by medium instead of subgenre, and I think many of us work in different media on a single project, so there would have to be a thread for concept drawing, a thread for modeling, and a thread for animation. Wouldn't one thread encompassing all that be easier? Not that I think reorganization would increase participation. For that, SFM would have to offer something the thriving boards don't, or follow their model and go niche.
Well, I found for a while I was no longer on computers, I was on a smart phone, and forums on a smart phone, not great. Then time just sort of forgot it. It's nice to see some names in this thread that I fondly remember chatting with, exchanging ideas with and basically being more sucky than all of you. Social media doesn't feel like 'community'.... This place did.
Ok, so if forums are being replaced, what is taking their place? I don't see scifi 3d modeling anywhere on the web except for here and Foundation 3D. Where is the audience going?
all isolated onto things like twitter, facebook, tumbler etc. There is a fair bit on DA but much of that are not modelers. There is also a lack of creation or creative building going on in the hobby aspect as well.
There are a few of the large commercial 3d forums out there too or ones that just conjoin art. cgiosity? conceptart etc
View count out of the forums is still high here least relative to forums I frequent or post on f3d, trekbbs, 3dscifi. Just a lack of feedback per view.
Kind of like votes on pixiv it is a 10 to 1 ratio no matter how popular a person is it is always near that ratio of who will rate a image to views. Just here is is more like 1000 to 1 <_<
Kind of like votes on pixiv it is a 10 to 1 ratio no matter how popular a person is it is always near that ratio of who will rate a image to views. Just here is is more like 1000 to 1 <_<
If it weren't for evil_genius_180 the ratio here would be even more dismal.
Posts
Like most online communities, it's quieter than it used to be here- guess pretty much unlimited alternatives for creating and sharing content will do that... Still a core of people posting regularly, but a lot of the "old gang" grew up and got jobs and families and stuff. :shiner:
As for your account, it wasn't voluntarily closed, but it looks like you missed the last "great server crash"- where the database went pop and we lost the lot. That's the "abridged" version of events, anyway.
Anyway, yeah server crashes happen... Thats fine... Im still new to coming back online and computes... its going to be a little while before i start posting art again. But Im glad this place is still here
...And assorted pseudo-islamic script kiddies with horrible taste in music.
lol really?
Sorry to hear you and life had a throwdown. Glad to hear you're coming back on top.
I think the idea of blogs and other social media like facebook, twitter, etc. plays a great factor in these losses...
welcome back Nutsy!
Im sorry to hear it, what i went through is a bit different. i did make some serious life changing mistakes in my break down. Im on anti depressants now and it helps. Though I hope i dont have to stay on them forever... Im not a huge fan of some of the things they do.
I still have your old videos on my hard drive too, Sudden Strike was one of my faves, still is.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
I could never understand why getting married and having kids could take one away from their digital hobbies.
Until I had my own
Just getting 5 minutes to play with my photoshop stuff is rare.
I still remember the fun we had back at SFA when I was Trooper13 xD
In my time off i written the screen play for the trek story I envisioned back when i was making the borgifide nebular class. Ill never be able to make the film but I do want to do some of the key visual effects shots.
The reason for never making the film is multiple. But basically, i don't have the patience to take on such a big project, nor the commitment right now to do something that big. Not to mention the skillset... i can model and do effects animations but character animation for a full blown CGI movie... I just don't have that level of skill. Not to mention i cant make anything thats going to be too high profile....
But small steps. I need a new work station currently on a mac book, cant do anything on that. And i need to get my software back. But some good news hopefully getting a work station in the coming months. And were getting fibre installed in the next month or two as well. (currently on a terrible barely better than modem connection atm)
I've been mostly silent on this forum, but I do miss the hyper busy days of sfm.
Most of the 3d work I ever did was just for fun. Though it is nice to get some positive feedback now and then .
I remember your galaxy (nightwatch ?) and Atlantis.
There, happy?
All busy pushing buttons and burning retinas and being consumers. Living in the ADD future where if it cant be done in a hour it aint worth doing, or is too much trouble to do. Look at how many cannot even sit at a street light and not pull out the damned cel phone to tweet **** or facebook the booger they just picked.
It is not just art forums or 3d forums. Anything that was high traffic a few years ago is petering out for social media crap.
Only fix I guess is to just post stuff, be it a small project or something quick. A while back there were speed modeling threads where everyone would do a quick one day one session model. That might be a way to get some more people participating.
I'm back as well. Although I never really posted. I was more of a lurker. I have made many sci-fi models for various shows, including my own 1701 ( TOS ). But I never posted any of my work to this forum. Its nice to see people are still here though.
Cheers
I pop in The TrekBB now and again as well, and I think they are thriving because they do one thing. If you are posting Trek art, you want to go where the largest audience is. SFM is a mixed bag catogorized by medium instead of subgenre, and I think many of us work in different media on a single project, so there would have to be a thread for concept drawing, a thread for modeling, and a thread for animation. Wouldn't one thread encompassing all that be easier? Not that I think reorganization would increase participation. For that, SFM would have to offer something the thriving boards don't, or follow their model and go niche.
There are a few of the large commercial 3d forums out there too or ones that just conjoin art. cgiosity? conceptart etc
View count out of the forums is still high here least relative to forums I frequent or post on f3d, trekbbs, 3dscifi. Just a lack of feedback per view.
Kind of like votes on pixiv it is a 10 to 1 ratio no matter how popular a person is it is always near that ratio of who will rate a image to views. Just here is is more like 1000 to 1 <_<
If it weren't for evil_genius_180 the ratio here would be even more dismal.