Kickstart CGPainting.com

[Vyoma]

This is a call for suggestions from all you early adopters. :)

I have not yet mentioned about CGPainting.com anywhere else. I had been working on setting up the forum, working on the gallery (http://cgpainting.com/index.php?action=gallery), and setting up some sticky threads, so that we have all ready for the members when they come. Most of you who have joined till now is through 'invitations' by me or some of my friends.

Being not that good with getting the word out, I would like to know what your suggestions are for the following:
- What else do we need to setup here at the forums?
- How do we get the new members to join CGPainting.com?

We are basically looking at people who want to learn digital painting and CG; and also some who are good at it. How do we bring CGPainting.com to their notice?

Update: A small note. We will try and accommodate as many suggestions as possible. Every suggestion given will be considered. But in some cases, it might just not be possible due to various constraints.

[ID Conceptart]

Hi Vyoma,

I don't know if you like the idea and if your gonna use it but I miss the speed painting contests :o

First let me explain it a bit.
what I mean by a speed painting contest is, and what it needs in my opinion:

* a theme
* a time limit
* explination about the way of presentation
* the format of the image
* a little discription about your work
* and last but not least the program(s) that you used

hope you like the idea :D

[Vyoma]

Nice suggestion ID Conceptart. davincio too had suggested (http://cgpainting.com/forge/need-something-to-paint/0/) for a similar activity.

Just to have a bit of background from the past, we did start workshops (http://cgpainting.com/forge/workshops-'before-cgpainting-com'/0/). Check it out for now. ;) I am actually working on some topics and will post them soon. :)

Good suggestion. Your inputs are greatly appreciated. :)

[Vyoma]

In view of attracting more members, I did a video tutorial (http://cgpainting.com/tutorials/(video)-how-to-apply-textures-in-gimp/0/).

This might help in getting people's attention to CGPainting.com. It is a video potraying simple texturing technique for GIMP, that I have put up in YouTube. And I mention CGPainting.com in the video.

It would help a lot if you could start writing simple tutorials on things you already know - tips and tricks of sort that help to do better digital painting. We could syndicate it at other places and mention CGPainting.com there. :)

Let me know your thoughts on this.

Also, I am open to ideas you might have.

[Vyoma]

Ok. As you all know, CGPainting.com spawned out of LoreleiWeb Forum (http://www.loreleiweb.com/forum). It started of as an experimental board there.

I would soon be making announcement and invitation of members of that board to join us - who ever is interested in digital painting.

I would display some of the artworks of our members there - to show what we have in store for them. :) Let me know if that is an issue of concern.

And of course, any ideas on how we get new members?

[Vyoma]

Ok. So we have had a record number of people online (http://cgpainting.com/chat-corner/record-online!/0/) - around 468 guests, and most of them found the List of Links to Digital Painting Tutorials (http://cgpainting.com/tutorials/list-of-links-to-digital-paiting-tutorials/0/) interesting. I guess some one had put a review on StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/cgpainting.com/tutorials/list-of-links-to-digital-paiting-tutorials/0/) and that sent a stream of visitors.

I am actually glad that people are finding something useful. But I was actually wondering how we could attract these visitors, and grow our community.

Any suggestions? On improving the Tutorial section? Or anything general?

[Steve]

Need more works in progress. People will be looking for how we do what we do, and we can show them our processes.

I've got something up my sleeve and I'll get to it ASAP.

[Vyoma]

Need more works in progress. People will be looking for how we do what we do, and we can show them our processes.

I've got something up my sleeve and I'll get to it ASAP.
That is a good suggestion, Steve. I think I need to do that more. Instead of posting final - or near final works, I will post more intermediate stages of the painting. There is a lot we can learn when we see how the paintings are done layer by layer.

[Dreleen]

Ill start posting inbetweeners too then ^_^ Not that Ive been getting much comments on my sketches up till this point

[Vyoma]

Hey! I stalk you all around here. :P

[Marklar]

well I got here by the invitation of Dreleen at the art pages of wtfcomics.com, and among the reasons that i joined with this merry band were; the discussions about works in progress, the duel of the witch princess, and the great feedback and support you all gave each other. and so far you all have been lots of fun to work with.

the nature of the Internet- we will get far more viewers than joiners, so to increase joining, I would try to appeal to those viewers who look at our pictures and say to themselves "I could do that".

that said, my suggestions are
-more contests(perhaps their own section)
-more tutorials(any body done one on how to make a tutorial? how does one get the picture to include the program window?)
-perhaps links to other art pages in the hope that they would in turn link to us.
-more final work making it to the gallery.
-oh and of course more WIP.

I think that covers all my suggestions, all and all I really like the place. so what can i say besides - Keep up the good work.

[Vyoma]

I am glad you liked it here, Marklar. :)

Now for the suggestions - excellent ones.

Ok - I guess I have to up a bit on the Contest/Challenge stuff so that it drives people to practice and create more artworks.

And tutorials - I keep adding links to stuff I find. I guess, we will have to put in some 'with in site' tutorials. How to make a tutorial? :P That I guess is a personal style of everyone here. Dreleen writes good tutorials. And I know Steve does it too. For capturing the screen shot, just use [PrintScrn] button and it will capture the full thing. Copy it into the graphics app - crop it and do whatever with it. :)

Hmmm. Links tot other art pages. I think that would be helpful - I am trying to pitch in about CGPainting.com from my blog, and also through Facebook and Twitter/Pownce. Members could do the same too. :)

Gallery - come on guys. I know you are creating great works and posting it here. Submit it to the Gallery too!

WIP - yup. Steve is already leading by example with his 'Spine of the world' painting.