This is kind of weird, but I don't get enough feedback on our reviews. A few people have commented them, but there's hardly any flaming at all! Are you too shy to complain? Isn't there ANYTHING you don't like? Is there too much to complain about? We can't make things better if you don't tell us what you'd like changed.
One problem I always have is weighing artistry/technique. I've found that most people are more impressed by good technique, rather than artistry and originality.
But then, what is good artistry? There are a lot of known and acknowledge good artists out there that I don't understand at all. Simply, I think their art suck. Art is formed after the viewers eyes, so it's really hard to analyze pics that way.
Another problem is wether we should go deeper into the pics, or just describe them and tell you what we think. There are both people that appreciate long reviews, and those that want shorter reviews.. Come on! Speak to me!
By atom (haiti-92.ppp.hooked.net - 206.169.228.92) on Monday, March 1, 1999 - 04:06 pm:
haha... ive had one feedback... that was spro, saying he thought EXACTLY what i thought about the ice pack :) down to leos sig and stahlbergs spaceman. but yea, whatdya think, and mongi: what do you want for next month :)
By Leonardo.iCE (gatekeeper2.monsanto.com - 199.89.234.124) on Tuesday, March 2, 1999 - 10:48 am:
atom: I did NOT rip geocities!! they ripped me!! I swear! ;)
We REALLY need another reviewer for iCE, I like to see AT LEAST two opinions for each pack. Not that I wasn't happy with your review, atom. I agree with you that the alligator looked out of place. I was going to make his head and half his body in the water, and make him not stick out so much. But it didn't turn out right and I gave up on that approach. and yes that WAS a skunk and yes he IS stoned! :) It was kind of a rushed pic, it was originally created as a sticker for a friend of mine's car, and later I touched it up and colored it, it was supposed to look toonish with little detail.
I'd review some packs, but I wouldn't feel like rooting though hate mail everyday.
Leo
By atom (tibet-55.ppp.hooked.net - 206.80.9.183) on Tuesday, March 2, 1999 - 10:22 pm:
oh review. i have yet to get any hate mail :P)
By root88 ( - 38.212.238.35) on Wednesday, March 3, 1999 - 07:37 am:
Mongi, does that mean the Lice won't be reviewing anymore? I thought he just took a month off.
BTW: We need another reviewer that is NOT in ice. So we can have two opinions on the ice packs.
I have yet to get any hate mail (I would love some), but a few people were talking trash behind my back on IRC.
By mongi (dialup162-4-59.swipnet.se - 130.244.162.251) on Wednesday, March 3, 1999 - 09:22 am:
I haven't received any hate mail either..
Anyway, the current reviewers are:
Me - iCE
Root88 - iCE
Lice - HRg
Atom - HRg
And this month we will prolly have a new reviewer from ACiD, I won't tell you who yet, he's known anyway. And may be another one from iCE..
soo.. lice has not quit.
By BD ( - 198.64.44.36) on Friday, March 12, 1999 - 05:52 pm:
Ok Even though we do need a good hirez pack to come out this month I do think it is time for reviews to be made, without reviews done relatively early they are of little value when they come late in the month for if someone said bd instead of what your doing here you should do this and I am already done the benefits of these constructive opinions are wasted :) Sure maybe in april i would do something different but by god in april im working for stuff in may :)
So Acid turkeys get releasing #77 if F7 is still putting out the pack you can and you are cordially invited to bug him on EGN to get the damn pack out:) And Moonrise @!#! you get your damn pack out too :)
By SunnyJim (pm2-30.toms-river.ppp.csionline.net - 151.198.241.128) on Sunday, March 21, 1999 - 08:28 pm:
I just wana start off by saying I'm taking no sides in this matter. I beleive that having Atom review ACiD 77 was a mistake. As many of you already know, Atom and NCrawler (a fellow ACiD member) had a falling out of sorts which ultimatley lead to Atom's ban in #photoshop and also in #hirez I beleive. After reading his rather negative review of NCrawlers work, I can only think that his review was biased because of their falling out. It may have been perfectly honest, but there's no way to tell. Others said that they thought his review of my work as well as Sc00p's was unfair due to the fact that we are ops in #photoshop from which he is baned. I'll say it now that I had no problem with my review and I hope that this isn't true that atom is holding a grudge aginst me and Sc00p. To get to the point, I hope to not see this happen in the future. I think the whole ordeal was lame from the begining, I'd hate to see this happen to someone else. And I hope that Atom and NC can resolve their differences.
By BD (dyn38-t1.twistercom.com - 207.235.39.88) on Sunday, March 21, 1999 - 08:47 pm:
bah Night crawler is a no talent dick that blew a few people to get into acid let him reap what he sows, Personally acid got a pretty damn good review as far as the reviews go . I mean hell look at the reviews we got, Root has been all over subsonic's case left and right yet when acid released a few poser pics a while back they didnt get riden on like the town donkey. So I don't see were the bitchin can come from and hell yanno i didnt actually get a fair shake either imho.
Anyhow basically i dunno if ebveryone released earlier we wouldnt be here as it is with 9 days to go theoretically to the next release
By mongi (einsteinium.k.kth.se - 130.237.75.90) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 06:57 am:
sunnyjim:
I did not know of Atom and Ncrawlers disputes. I assigned the pack reviews just as I use to. Anyway, I thought that it was a bit inappropriate, but needed the review so I posted it anyway. I didn't have time to edit it really. But I put the disclaimer at the top because I knew it would get such reactions.
bd:
I have nothing to do whatsoever how the reviewers review. Root88 simply doesn't like Poser, and I believe a lot of people don't like it either. May be Root88 was a bit harsh, but that's life.. Atom gave CiA a pretty good score. That's why I'm trying to get at least 2 reviewers per pack.. which I failed this time with other packs.
By massive (ti18a23-0008.dialup.online.no - 130.67.225.136) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 08:48 am:
blah! atoms review of the acid pack was completely pro imo! like, wtf?! what are ya guys complaining about? if yer gonna get better, you need to learn from yer mistakes...and a review from a 'hirez d00d' who is into art, and knows his shit...well, it aint gonna be sucking up to artists who arn't elite...it'll be like atoms reviews, productive citique! and, yer all thinking that NC owns acid or something, that he's the only artists in the bloddy group..if atoms review of NCs pix were bad (but they were not, i think)...it's between them, NC prolly couldn't give a shit anyways, and atom would prolly neither..
i'd rather see posts like leo's earlier in this thread...productive.
-love.
btw, atom banned from #hirez because of NC ? bwhaha
By root88 / ice ( - 38.212.238.35) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 09:01 am:
BD: The reason that acid wasn't getting bad reviews for using poser is because it wasn't the main point of the picture. The textures that were added to F7's poser model were amazing. He merely used a poser shape as his canvas rather than a flat white background.
Using a poser model in an image as a centerpiece, without even bothering to texture it, shows no skill in my eyes. It's kind of like saying "Look how great I am at 3D, I can model so well", when all you did was use someone else's clip art.
By BD (dyn18-t1.twistercom.com - 207.235.39.68) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 09:37 am:
Point of the matter is simply this Sj has now been welcomed to reviews he needs to get use to it heh.
By SunnyJim (pm1-45.toms-river.ppp.csionline.net - 151.198.241.95) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 10:39 am:
I already said i didn't have a problem with my review. To put it in other words, if one guy is having a dispute with another guy, and he's reviewing that persons work, he shouldn't be reviewing it because of the chance that it may be biased. Plain and simple. It could of been someone other than Atom and NC. I know i wouldn't want my work reviewed by someone who doesn't like me. Would you?
By atom (sf3-64.ppp.wenet.net - 206.15.84.64) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 04:04 pm:
i tried to be as impartial as possible, even with NCrawlers work. I said what i thought was fair, and the only thing i couldve done about that review was not to mention my "falling out" with nc.
further more, I was assigned to ACiD 77 before this whole thing with nc happened.
btw, im not banned from #hirez, i have masters on the bots in there... in fact, NC is banned from #hirez, as I am from #photoshop
By tomi (darth.nls.fi - 195.156.38.2) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 11:22 pm:
personally i dont see nothing wrong with atom's review. critic is always good if it's fair.
By mongi (calcium.k.kth.se - 130.237.75.80) on Tuesday, March 23, 1999 - 07:12 am:
Yeah, I think atom had fairly constructive critisizm about ncrawlers work, so it's motivated anyway, and not just "this sucks" kinda thing.
By massive (ti18a23-0102.dialup.online.no - 130.67.225.230) on Tuesday, March 23, 1999 - 09:35 am:
yeah, mongi, tomi, exactly what i tried to say with my louzy english vocabulary/skills :P
By Leonardo.iCE (gatekeeper2.monsanto.com - 199.89.234.124) on Tuesday, March 23, 1999 - 12:22 pm:
Never take someone's reviews of your artwork to heart. Its just one person's opinion of your work. (which is why I really like to see 2 reviewers for each pack, I know thats not possible now, but I'd like to see it in the future) anyways... who cares if someone gives you a negative review, either learn from it, or if you really don't want to admit/agree to it, than just ignore it.
or show 'em whats up next month!
Leo
By blup (butcherbird.uq.net.au - 203.101.255.2) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 03:31 am:
Atom: um, FYI the staircase isn't rendered, but carefully airbrushed =].. and another thing, after I actually set my monitor gamma right, I discovered how shit my pic looks to you guys, hrm what a shame.
Mongi: Necro's pic with the giant spider in it looks distinctly like boris vallejo's stuff. I'm sure i've seen that spider somewhere before =].
By Leonardo.iCE (gatekeeper2.monsanto.com - 199.89.234.124) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 07:51 am:
"Necro's pic with the giant spider in it looks distinctly like boris vallejo's stuff. I'm sure i've seen that spider somewhere before =]."
I completely respect Necro's art. I think the pic was intended for a demoscene audience, and it makes it appropriate to do a boris vallejo copy because just about EVERYONE does boris vallejo copies. I'm sure the pic still took a lot of hard work and creativity (even if some of the elements were copied).
Leo
By massive (ti18a21-0067.dialup.online.no - 130.67.224.195) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 10:01 am:
who the fuck is boris vallejo ?
url?
-me.
By Funbaby (ip164.pom.primenet.com - 204.212.52.164) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 01:00 pm:
You're kidding, right?
Well, since you're not into fantasy art, you can be forgiven.
You've probably seen his stuff somewhere. His official homepage is http://www.borisjulie.com.
By God among Lice (bootp-231-230.bootp.virginia.edu - 128.143.231.230) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 04:12 pm:
What I don't like is that it seems like a lot of the time necro has drawn pixel art, and then converted it to jpeg and/or scaled up the size from the original (don't know if it's him or the ice staff). In any case, it really ruins the whole wonderful pixeled effect. I want to zoom in and check out the pixels, but when I do it looks like crap since it's been modified.
By BD ( - 198.64.44.111) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 05:02 pm:
Where has necro disappeared too?!
I haven't seen him for weeks now. :(
As far as other things go I would like to say Moonrise fufilled all my expectations once again except that it was sort of a small pack, I hope it wont be another wait for the release but it was definately worth it.
Breed, finally those bozo's that have been idiling in hirez have got of their duffs and released in a group, Cough Kuma, Cough Enzyme, Cough, Menticide, Cough beekay Cough . God damn that was a bad coughing spell. Anyhow breed did exceed my expectations, they are also a mirror to hrg as being mostly photo manips but hey they are retro! and not as traditional. It was good indeed. It wasn't fantastic but it wasn't half bad. Overall a good pack for a first release, now we will have to wait and see if they were a one shot or not only time will tell.
Fluid: hm Should we even acknowledge them as a legitamate hirez group? I mean with the leader being a notorious ripper in both scenes and practically all the members aren't on irc it makes you wonder. I personally don't think they should take the time or effort to review it , just like i dont think they should review purg vga for most of it being eyecandy, shrug.
I still will hold up my belief however that this month has probably been the worst in a long time for hirez quality, we can only hope inspiration from all the green beer and the winds of change will blow in great quality of vga from all groups being released back in april.
Another question I will present is how well do you have to be qualified to do pack reviews? I mean i'm no god nor am I half bad , I know what I see is what I like, Do you have to be someone of high caliber to be a reviewer or not?
Oh yeah one last final thing heh Fuel rules@#@ but they would rule better if they would code something that would work a little bit better on most computers and not just souped up ones ;)
By massive (ti18a24-0099.dialup.online.no - 130.67.226.99) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 06:25 pm:
"I still will hold up my belief however that this month has probably been the worst in a long time for hirez quality"
bd, yeah, we've been holding pix back for syn001 :PP 31-1st around there, it'll be out, phear!
oh and, yeah, why review those damn purg packs or fluid....like, dark1298 didn't get a review, and that was a damn good pack..and darkpacks usually are, whenever they come out :P so, stop using manpower on crap groups, and give the REAL groups attention :P
By BD (dyn90-t1.twistercom.com - 207.235.39.140) on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 06:58 pm:
HEh just food for thought, Considering No purg or fluid vga members have any involvement or active roles or bother showing in hirez they shouldn't be reviewed.
Oh yah and mas i guess jus in time for my bday
:P
march ends the 31st
By mongi (calcium.k.kth.se - 130.237.75.80) on Thursday, March 25, 1999 - 06:28 am:
We review all packs we have time with, it doesn't matter what quality it is. We've missed both HAL and Dark once, we simply haven't had time. Purg was missed for the same reason, not because its quality. We aren't reviewing the packs in chronological order, some packs are simply more interesting to review, thus they have a higher priority.
I know that Necro's pic is a Vallejo pic, but I don't think it's ripped. As someone said earlier, it's pretty common in the demoscene to do that stuff, and the pic was intended for the demoscene.
Fluid is a legitimate group, and it was reviewed for special reasons which I won't mention here (ask me about it on irc).
To be a reviewer on hirez.org you simply have to be good at writing and have constructive critisizm, be an artist yourself (any form of art that applies to "hirez art"). That is because you have to know something about art to "judge" art. You got the point.
Everyone has an opinion, and all opinions about art are valid, because there isn't any set standard for good art. But if you're familiar with art basics other people will have respect for what you think (probably). If you're a complete twit knowing nothing about art, chances are that no one cares about what you say.
By massive (ti18a22-0115.dialup.online.no - 130.67.225.115) on Thursday, March 25, 1999 - 09:19 am:
bd, yer bday is 31st ? nice :P
By BD (dyn72-t1.twistercom.com - 207.235.39.122) on Thursday, March 25, 1999 - 09:38 am:
Maszive gno its the 30th
:P
By necro (proxy.planetinternet.be - 194.119.238.166) on Friday, March 26, 1999 - 01:07 pm:
ok, I am back, I was for 2 weeks in France.
So that's the reason why I couldn't answer any quicker.
Yes, the girl-pic is a vallejo and No it isn't a rip
I have got 30 steps of the picture so if anybody has got doubts/is interested...just ask
(maybe mongi has got some space?)
And if you really do care, I took me about 35-40 hours:)