Talentless Bronies?

[Astral Blitzen 469]

Well considering what happened last time...

 

As a starting artist you should be thankful and grateful if anybody takes time out of their day to pay attention to your work. That's how it is for anybody.

I've been playing piano for nearly 12 years and been making digital music for about 5 years and writing for about 4 years.

I seem to notice that unless you have pro-quality works or a lot of friends, no one cares. When they do say something, they hold you to a professional standard, but give no pointers on how to improve. (This isn't always the case, but more often than not.) Then you see someone post something that looks like a kid drew it or someone whining about how much they suck and it gets tons of comments and encouragement. *flips table*

It makes you wonder why you bother posting it at all.

I had this sort of discussion about artists on Derpibooru.

[Ribbonfree 2,383]

I've been playing piano for nearly 12 years and been making digital music for about 5 years and writing for about 4 years.

I had this sort of discussion about artists on Derpibooru.

 

But you haven't been posting much of it. You need to be regularly be putting it out there.

[Flash Fire 386]

I had this sort of discussion about artists on Derpibooru.

To what end did this conversation come to?

[Astral Blitzen 469]

But you haven't been posting much of it. You need to be regularly be putting it out there.

I don't want to look like an attention whore though. 

[Tired Brony 89]

Its supply and demand. Theres a high demand in the fandom for new animations and music. And voice actors are more like the celebrities.... they are always famous. Look at fan fiction. There is a such a high supply of writers its imposible for me to keep track of any of them. Likewise if we were to supposed there were a million animators all pumping out dozens of mlp animations everyday, they wouldn't be as famous.

 

Not like being an animators is easy fame, I can personally tell you that. But it never hurts to be good at what you do.

[Astral Blitzen 469]

To what end did this conversation come to?

The moderator locked the thread. 

 

We were talking about how simpler drawings usually end up with the most up-votes most of the time compared to quality drawings like this.

 

34 upvotes 

[Freewave 1,145]

It was easier in the past when there weren't SO many people all tryin to do the same thing. It's much harder to be noticed now but on the other hand in some ways its easeir then ever to get on EQD if it's in the music scene. When EQD started in 2011 they would feature a lot of music and some of it wasn't always the greatest quality (even by some well known bronies who've gotten better over the years). They had much tougher standards in 2012 and it was HARD to get a single music spot (as you could get only a feature or little else).. Then by 2013 you had music of the day come in and at least the smaller individuals get small nods compared to the larger spotlights. W/o places like EQD or shout outs by people far more popular its very hard to get views at all but there's still new people all the time coming into the scene with lots of talent. But every year that goes by it will be harder and harder for new people to ascend if they aren't doing something truly special.

 

The best bet is to do something different then the rest of the herd, find ways to stand out. People love stories about the show, lyrics, great thumbnails, and semi professional quality. That takes time and effort., It also takes a few years to get good. Just remember that you have to be happy with what you put out. If you are completely dependent on being seen to enjoy your own work then that's a problem, but there's nothing wrong with liking what you do, and wanting recognition for your efforts. I've seen plenty of people FAR more popular leave because they felt that love or inspiration come up short so it's not uncommon to want more than you're getting. That's just part of being a musician or an artist. When people leave they still open a spot that someone else new can fill so don't give up if you truly want to create something in this fanbase (especially if its not being done yet). Just enjoy the creation even if the reception to it is less than you hoped.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Freewave

[Stormbringer 346]

 

 

However, the same can be said for filmmaking, you're not gonna remember that one movie with the high school kid running around through time in a flying car because Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis wrote it, you're gonna remember it because Michael J. Fox, was in it and it was directed by Steven Spielberg and had a decked-out DeLorean. . . 

> mfw I'm a huge Back to the Future fan

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

There are two (well, three) aspects needed to have your work recognized and appreciated. The first is knowing your audience. No matter how good you are in your field, you won't appeal to your target demographic unless you present it in a way that interests that group. If you can't do this, you either need to target a demographic that would appreciate your work, or change your presentation to suit the taste of the audience. 

 

The second element is marketing; it's not about what you're doing it, it's about how you sell it to the audience. Some people can do it through merit, others use targeting, and there are the ones who have connections. Sometimes someone with an established reputation may point out a skilled but unknown artist to generate traffic, or the artist may specifically present the work in areas trafficked frequently by the target demographic. Titles and album art are additional marketing methods for music. It's not about what you're selling, it's about how you sell it.

 

The third aspect is technical proficiency, to which there are four fundamental stages: 1) Utter garbage, ignored, 2) Garbage, encouragement and maybe a little pity, 3) Good, you did so good, but why not better? Ignored, 4) Damn good, too good to ignore in fact, spread the word! The second and fourth stages are the ones that can draw attention and support, but the fourth is where you want to be. Realistically, only a few can achieve 4, leaving all those poor threes out in the cold. If you want to earn renown you have to, well, earn it. This aspect of recognition is iffy, but skill is still important to develop.

 

The best thing you can do is have fun. Do what you enjoy, and with time you will develop the skill and people will notice. If it's just for popularity, the drive to improve just won't be there. If you love doing what you're doing, then it will feel worthwhile, and lack of recognition will be less frustrating. Fuzzy feelings may seem worthless, but they're definitely more enjoyable than frustration and misery.

 

Tl;dr: too effing bad. If you want to know what I said, read the whole damn post.

[Teabee 59]

I don't want to look like an attention whore though. 

There are two (well, three) aspects needed to have your work recognized and appreciated. The first is knowing your audience. No matter how good you are in your field, you won't appeal to your target demographic unless you present it in a way that interests that group. If you can't do this, you either need to target a demographic that would appreciate your work, or change your presentation to suit the taste of the audience. 

 

The second element is marketing; it's not about what you're doing it, it's about how you sell it to the audience. Some people can do it through merit, others use targeting, and there are the ones who have connections. Sometimes someone with an established reputation may point out a skilled but unknown artist to generate traffic, or the artist may specifically present the work in areas trafficked frequently by the target demographic. Titles and album art are additional marketing methods for music. It's not about what you're selling, it's about how you sell it.

 

In the business world, what you call attention whoring is called marketing.  Frith is right, you need to be strategic in where and how you plug your work.  If you come across as being obnoxious, I wouldn't call you an attention whore.  I'd just say that you did a bad job at selling yourself and you need to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate how you do that.  If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

[Dattebayo 2,850]

Well...yeah.

If you don't produce content from a fandom that demands it, you aren't gonna be famous, or even recognized.

 

Also, whenever I draw something non-pony on dA, no matter how good, it always gets ignored.

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

 

 

Also, whenever I draw something non-pony on dA, no matter how good, it always gets ignored.

Marketing, my friend, marketing. On a large site like DA if you want to stand out you either need to be really damn good or have a group of followers to start the wave and help bring attention to it. Smaller (at least relatively speaking) communities are a good way to earn some supporters before moving into more open waters where it is easy to be lost, drowned out by the sheer volume.

[Freewave 1,145]

It's sad how many people have gotten big in the music fandom and then left them to do non-pony work. I mean if the inspiration is not there anymore then certainly don't fake it. But it often seems on the music side that its become cool to quit or that people expect their audiences to walk with them as they walk out the door. I can't say that holds up.

 

I actually see a lot of newer musicians that hang out in the brony community but say "i don't make pony music" which always makes me wonder....well why are you here? Free handouts of music feedback? Can't figure out how to write with the show in mind? Or they just slap a pony image on their random dubstep and expect an EQD feature. I can say its much harder doing marketing when you don't operate within a small community that's willing to check out your content based on the pony focus. Or even if you can't figure out how to do it within that fandom if you choose to.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Freewave

[Jeric 46,852]

If you produce quality, are prolific in your medium of choice, have a personality, can market said personality, and engage with the fandom -- then you increase the chance of being recognized.

 

I've read a few really well composed stories on fim fiction, and found myself disheartened to realize that there were only a few short fiction pieces with a large gap in between. If that person gets lost in the crowd, that is why.

 

The animation and music are not my thing, and I assume that production time is much longer so meeting a fast production schedule would be harder.

[Not_active 732]

A talentless brony...that would be me, I guess

[Dayrs Monelth 13]

I feel like music in this fandom is a bit underpracticed. While yes you can find quite a few diamonds in the dirt, there are some that honestly have much more room to improve. In my oppinion, artists like TheLivingTombstone REALLY could use the time to improve. I'm not saying he's bad, I'm just saying he's the skrillex of the brony fandom and he needs a wider range of sounds to work with. Maybe he could use the resoruces provided by lapfoxtrax? I think he could probably do something good with that. Outside of music, fanfiction. That's all I have to say. Fanfiction has a bad rep in a lot of places simply due to the ill-composed. I'm not trying to put anyone down but when it comes down to the brass and tacks there's the well composed and the ill-composed. One is more the majority than the other.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,621]

Honestly, the expectation that one needs a talent like those needs to die in this fandom. Granted I put pressure on myself in many ways but that is just a personal thing. I know I will never be recognized much, because I am not really talented, though I don't need to be. I just don't feel that useful in life as a whole, not in this fandom.

[Arctic Night 884]

I don't really contribute to the fandom because I am interested more in practical studies and the sciences than art, and I just don't get it when people say "you need to contribute something." I have a lot of respect for artists, but I'm not one.

 

 

Honestly, the expectation that one needs a talent like those needs to die in this fandom. Granted I put pressure on myself in many ways but that is just a personal thing. I know I will never be recognized much, because I am not really talented, though I don't need to be. I just don't feel that useful in life as a whole, not in this fandom.

 

I know you won't believe me if I say that you're talented, so let's just say that you are clearly more artistically inclined than me and leave it at that.

[Duster Dawnhorse 248]

Being a fan of art, music, writing, etc is just as important as producing it! I'm an artist but if there weren't appreciators of art out there, I wouldn't have inspiration to create in the first place.

 

Let me tell you from the perspective of someone who was fandom famous elsewhere; it kinda sucks. Random people bugging you to give them free stuff, pushy people who feel like they can dictate what you draw, those people who flip a lid if you don't reply to them specifically, and (if female) weird dudes trying to hit on you and show you their mature art collection. I wish I was making up that last one.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Math, and social science are my only talents.... I'm not artsy.... But that's dosent mean im untalented.... We all gots talent bro