What are you doing here.

[Night]

[center][size=5]_________________________________________[/size][/center]

[center][size=6]WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN[/size][/center]
[center][color=#3366cc][size=8]SHOWCASE[/size][/color][/center]
[center][size=7]THIS IS A LOGO[/size][/center]
[center][size=7][size=5]______________[/size]SC[size=5]_______________[/size][/size][/center]
[center][size="4"]'Had to add something remotely gfx related[/size][/center]
[center][size=3]cnc.[/size][/center]


There is a question I'm sure has been on a lot of your minds ever since the day you stepped foot into this magical, colourful place we call showcase. Some of us got here due to past interests in this thing we call 'Yugioh', some of us such as raibread and Lz (even though he abandoned us) still dabble in the Yugioh world. However there are a certain few (I like to think of us as the true showcase breed who have not been tainted by the non-artistic and bland natures of the other forum members) who never dare set foot in the other sections on this forum, I'm pretty sure there are some of us who don't even know what a 'Kuriboh' is (as Ken reads this, I guarantee he's scratching his head thinking 'I don't remember Kuriboh being a pokemon?'). This is the thread to share your story.

I personally joined this forum back in '08 under a different name I believe, I first made cards and was a regular in the clubs and organizations section. I did this for about a year until I became extremely bored (I seriously don't know how some people find that even vaguely interesting). Took up RP and made a fic because I thought a change was in order, did that for a bit until I found myself in the same state I was in prior. The entire time I was on YCM I would visit the graphic design section and I would become completely infatuated by all of the 'really cool gfx'. I would browse every topic, and read every single post, regardless of whether it was a request or a thread. A couple of big names at the time were DeMeNTeD and CatMan, who would handle relatively every single request. I remember the topic titles would read '[REQ] DeMeNTeD ONLY, 15,000 points, no noobs. CatMan would do too I suppose'. Over in showcase Shad was still moderating, and the 'legends' (honestly too many to name) were there as well. For the entirety of a year mind you I was only browsing, I never posted because I thought 'I'm just a noob what do I know about gfx'. Eventually I built up the courage to download GIMP and see if I had even some 'gfx skill'. My first tag was atrocious, not even good for a first. I also picked relatively the worst time to get into the game, all of the 'legends' were complete dicks at the time who didn't really help much, that and they really didn't care. There were countless times when I wanted to quit, because I was honestly terrible until my third year. Regardless, my inadvertent mentor at the time was JG, and I only say that because he never really helped me, I just looked up to him and every tag I made he would say was terrible. This just made me work that much harder though, and I suppose eventually I did achieve what I wanted. 4 years later I'm still here, I've definitely improved greatly, and I give not a single f*** about this forum, however I have made some good friends along the way and I do care about the showcase section so I'll continue to be here until everyone is gone and/or this site is dead because[color=#333333][font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif][size=3] [s]he's the artist showcase deserves, but not the one it needs right now...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not an artist. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a low inter boss. [/s][/size][/font][/color]

Don't see how the batman quote even fits or why the sudden third-person, but it seemed like a cool thing to end my bio with so why not.
Walls of text aside, how did you end up here?

[LC]

Well back in early 2011 I was a huge noob. I found this site searching for the world's rarest yugioh card on the internet for the lulz and I was bored. I was searching Google Images when I came across some weird looking cards that didn't look real that led me to this site. Afterwards followed by that little nerdgasm we all had when we found out we could create your own cards. For a few days I made terrible cards and kept them to myself. Over the course of a couple months I revealed myself to the community. About a month since I had registered I started taking up pokemon splices and banners for C&O. Splices mainly were "lol crobat wingz on a scizor, i r epicz" and the banners were "*spam brush, spam brush,[insert render here], spam brush* what's a layer? lol". If anyone remembers him, Kuroda Kaito, got me into the tagging business after I was inspired by one of his pieces. Shops were basically full of booster packs and other stuff. Only two shops I remember that were selling tags and the like at the time were Madsen's shop and CM's shop. 25000 and Nw were workers at said shops respectively. After posting my banners and sh*t whenever I looked over at what other people were producing I honestly couldn't understand how it was possible for stuff like that to be made. Over the course of a year I saw people come and go while I improved only slightly every now and then. When site activity started to decline I began abandoning C&O and rarely went there anymore. I began to focus more on graphics as I felt I was drifting away from this site. I opened a few shops back then, none of them were very successful but I tried my best at the time. Today I'm still here. That hormone crazed teen you sluts know me as. <3

[chairman ali]

I ended up here after being ripped by one of your members here lol. Still remember it real well.
Honestly I was never thinking about staying nor I have ever cared about Yu-Gi-Oh. But when I saw the section was REAL bad with terrible artworks I stayed a bit and gave long ass critiques. I think I brought the ranking system here (?) I'm not sure but if I did then that was a terrible mistake. Honestly I saw some of your skills grow (as soon as you left this place and found other websites) and I see some of you where you begun, effect spamming. All I have to say is that it was awesome being here and honestly I wish you all the best. I'm taking my art to professionalism and not just being a hobby-ist. I'd love to see some of you studying to graduate and work in the design industry even if it isn't digital or illustration.
Perhaps the only reason I'm still here is to keep on helping, I'd probably never give up on the MEMBERS here since you guys are like a small family to me.
Keep up the good work, its been good knowing you folks.

[Simping For Hina]

I ended up coming here, to the forums, because I frequently made custom cards as a noob. I learned about issues that I have made, and wanted to see other people's perspective on them. I started out like most people on the webs making cards like every day that are so horrible. Then I met up to the Clubs and Organizations, here and that is about it. My fame on this site came from the Clubs and Organizations the more I started to frequent. I built up my own attitude, persona, and other characteristics. I made sigs in the Request section before I bothered in the Showcase. I started to post my work to get comments, to see how I was doing and push myself farther. I was still active in the general section, morely General itself during then. I just came to 10,000 posts and gave up on the site soon after because I was busy day to day with everything and only could spare a few minutes. But this is also where I took to photoshop and custom images too. That was when I took more pleasure in Graphics. When school started back up in September, I wasn't as busy and came back here. I rarely did anything, put looked to find my own style. Midterms came half-way through and I found interest in MtG which brought me to the Other TCG section. I ended up focusing on school and playing the game, didn't open up photoshop regularly. Maybe a sig ever now and then. Today, I still focus more on MtG and also on trying towards being one of the top five in my school.

I ended up always finding my way and question my reasons for still being here. Only because of people like you, keeping my hormones moving and my penis raging<3

[Night]

[quote name=''Alee' timestamp='1344731649' post='6004541']
I ended up here after being ripped by one of your members here lol. Still remember it real well.
Honestly I was never thinking about staying nor I have ever cared about Yu-Gi-Oh. But when I saw the section was REAL bad with terrible artworks I stayed a bit and gave long ass critiques. I think I brought the ranking system here (?) I'm not sure but if I did then that was a terrible mistake. Honestly I saw some of your skills grow (as soon as you left this place and found other websites) and I see some of you where you begun, effect spamming. All I have to say is that it was awesome being here and honestly I wish you all the best. I'm taking my art to professionalism and not just being a hobby-ist. I'd love to see some of you studying to graduate and work in the design industry even if it isn't digital or illustration.
Perhaps the only reason I'm still here is to keep on helping, I'd probably never give up on the MEMBERS here since you guys are like a small family to me.
Keep up the good work, its been good knowing you folks.
[/quote]

I actually remember that rip, I personally hated you at first, clearly because of the jealousy that ensued. Not only that but you were a massive ass back then, and especially to me. The problem was I had just gained the respect of all of the 'vets' only to be looked down upon by another. Regardless, you're honestly one of the most skilled motherf***ers I've ever met and I really hope you go far in life and find yourself here in NY with me, making stacks, and with that 'hot virgin chinese b****' of yours<3

That last part honestly got me worked up though, to think that eventually this all [i]will [/i]end. Theoretically i never thought it would effect me much but as you said showcase and everyone here is like small family to me, going to miss you f**s<3

[size=8]OFFICIALLY THE POUR YOUR HEART OUT THREAD. [/size]

[Elƒie]

[s][size=2]This will probably be the most boring story posted[/size][/s]

Lets see... I first joined up YCM so I can make custom cards and show my friend what they looked in my head when we did a LARP-like thing where we were characters in the show and still do it to this day. [s]Yes, I'm a big nerd[/s] Only went to this site a few times for the card maker and noticed there was a forum section. So I browsed through it, noticing the RP section and went AWWWWW YEAH and pretty much made my home there (the site I used to rp on died off so I didn't have a place to rp, so life got boring, fast). In one of the first RPs I partook in that lasted longer than 3 days (IC wise) was one of Kyng's first rps; Heaven S Soul Saga. I became friends with many of the people that were in it too, still am.

Time passed on and I wanted to open up a group (still do, now that I think about it) and I needed someone to make a logo so I put up a thread in the request section of the shops and got nothing. That's when Kyng made a comment about no one doing because I wasn't really known in the Gfx section of the site, so I said screw it and started to get more involved with the Shop section. Ran a render and (simple) tag shop for a bit. When that died off, I just took a render job here and there on the request section, having retreated back into my home in the RP section. Couple of weeks later, Night invited me to be his render-er for his latest shop, VII. Since Night's a big-shot (imo) in the gfx section and loved his artwork, I was all AWWWWW YEAH again and took him up on his offer to be his render-er (eventually became his secretary for the shop for a bit as well, lol)

Eventually, my jelliness of Night's work made me go, "That's it, I'm getting into this and I'm going to become just as good as Night and everyone else!" Having a gfx class starting up in a few weeks and wanting to have a head start on it is a nice motivator as well (can't wait!). So, after reading a few CnC here and seeing how helpful everyone was, I decided to post my works here and make this [s]one of[/s] the place[s]s[/s] where I'd learn and improve and so far, I've had a blast and the gfx section has become a second home to me on this site.

[.Rai]

Many a moon ago, in a sweet October of '09, the act of Googling occurred and *poof* I came on YCM. To cut a long story short:

> People make strangely coloured cards using this mysterious program called GIMP.
> After much, much researching using the help of a tutorial, I figure out how to make one. This is how I came about to Showcase.

The rest is a whirlwind of finding out about tagging, realising card-making is utterly awful, befriending a variety of who I respected in Showcase, joining EGFX, watching EGFX fail, watching Showcase die, watching its revival, and so on for many times.

And most recently: taking a trip down memory lane in the past 10,000 pages of Showcase and finding a variety of things (from a lost collab of 25 and Nw, Catman's first piece, Nw's first piece, gyfts with corrupted URLs so they were just stock pictures of cars, and, of course, the infamous rip that led Ken to this site).

On that note, Ken's existence is probably the one single best coincidence ever. I would refind the thread, but that took Night and me ages.

[b][i]Vive le Showcase.[/i][/b]

[Merci]

Well, I don't usually hang around in Showcase, but I like this thread (: For those of you who know, I'd have committed suicide a long time ago if you guys hadn't been there. [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/275009-this-forum-saved-a-life/"]For those of you who don't know...[/url]

I got to this site one day when I checked on Google Images and saw all these custom Yugioh cards, and naturally I followed them to their source: this very site. I joined in 2008, and for a long time I never noticed there was a forum section. In the beginning posted a few cards as well a decklist, and I was so heavily flamed that I was traumatized for [s]years to come[/s] one week. Then I went on making cards in silence. Later I joined the forum again, posted my cards...and BOOM! Got banned for a week by some mod, apparently I stole their artwork without even knowing... (couldn't they have asked me about it first?!) well, I came back pretty pissed, and went into roleplaying, which I quickly fell in love with.

Roleplaying helped calm me down dramatically. It was also a lifesaver, because in real life I was having a lot of problems and feeling suicidal, what with my parents starting a divorce and going bankrupt and me being constantly bullied by almost everyone in the school and my maid accidentally killed off all eighty+ fish inside the pond, even my favorite golden one which I now think was a koi.... so YCM gave me hope to continue living, basically~

The only person I can call a mentor in this entire website, I suppose, is the man called 'Dealer Umbra' who forced me through multiple bans and made me evolve into the person I am today. I suppose I have a personal vendetta against the guy...well actually I forgave him, AND the guy who gave him the idea, Shadius. I was banned a lot of times. Seriously. More than I can count. Why I'm still here now and not perma'd (permanently banned), that would take another five paragraphs on its own for me to tell. Haven't been banned ever since that large bombardment.

I had no mentor for drawing, nor for card-making and anything, or at least not on this website. Everyone is a friend, and their stories are interesting, but nobody bothered to mentor me ;_; I had to strive for myself... [s]You heartless bastards.[/s] My first post in the Showcase section was a drawing. See, I had started to learn drawing so I guess I'd post one of my best at the time. As I expected, it wasn't all that good, but it did have potential. So I was given hope and continued my drawings, and I liked it whenever people said they liked it, but still, one day I just gave up...

...And then one day, my first and absolutely beloved awesome crush suddenly found my old drawings stashed away in a sketchbook which I forgot somewhere during a field trip. And she ADMIRED them. I think I suffered a near-heart attack then. And so I picked up the pencil again and continued drawing, for her. I had somehow managed to advance in skill without doing anything, which was a big help. During late 2009 or 2010, I discovered GIMP and Adobe Flash, and then...[i]my destiny began to unravel.[/i] I learned how to render images, and how to recolor them. How to edit things, and how to create them. I even learned how to draw digitally, without the use of tablet. Actually, the main thing that taught me was tutorials, some from YCM and some from the internet itself, but I had to do everything solo without any mentor or teacher.

You know what I find really weird? I'm improving in GFX stuff by the month without doing anything, although I never post any of it in the Showcase section, instead just posting my recent digital drawings :/ anyway, it's like this: "Month 1= creates a horrible banner in GIMP, Month 2-7= gets bored of that stuff and never does it again, Month 8= returns to banner making and produces something awesome". I suppose I can assume that by learning from other stuff, my mind connects the dots sooooo.... I must admit though, I don't know anyone in this section. My school knows and recognizes my talent, I tend to include loads of those stuff in my schoolwork, [i]especially[/i] presentations, but I dunno...I just find the Showcase section a little dull, I guess, which is why I don't hang around here despite all the stuff I produce almost every week. It'd take a pretty long time to post it all here, and I'm lazy anyway.

In any case, I still love Graphics, and I like posting stuff on here sometimes so the more talented guys can help me improve on them

[Smear]

Joined back in '08 because I wanted to make stupid Yu-Gi-Oh! cards for some stupid ass reason. I stayed because of the members.

I ended up getting into GFX because I wandered into the showcase section once, and saw some tags. I was like, "How the living hell do they do that?". So, once I ended up making something in Photoshop. Dear god that was horrible. But later on, like 3 months, I was told about this program called, "GIMP". So, I thought why the hell not? After downloading it and playing with it for a bit, I made a horrible, horrible tag. I can't remember what happened in between, but about a month later, I met NW, I'm pretty sure. He was pretty much my mentor during the whole thing. Made this tag about TWEWY, and I actually still really like it. It's pretty bad though. I can hear NW yelling, "BASICS, BASICS, BASICS!" at me. I began to get better and better. I never once used fractals though. I didn't know what they were. I got banned for three months, and every since then I've sorta stopped GFXing. I eventually got to using fractals, made the tags work out a lot better than before, but my skill level hasn't really increased since then. And I haven't really made a tag in about 3 months.

I'M SORRY FOR STOPPING.
I really need to get back into it.

[Legend Zero]

Oh God, seems I'm disliked. =P

Well it all started back in the lovely year of 2008 when I discovered this place, and I literally have no clue as to how I came here. I made, like, half a dozen cards and dropped it faster than a bottle of mustard. After that I found my way to the C&O section and RP. There I met my first two friends, 4tutorialcom and *insertnameofpersonIforgot*. We were a chill group who actually finished the 3-4 RPs we were in, regardless of the difficulties. After that ended (or maybe during that time) I became interested in GFX, probably the same story as NW. So after trying and failing harder than possible I asked Showcase for help and I'll never forget the vague advice. Things along the lines of the ever popular "look at tuts". I pretty much gave up on learning from somebody and began to take my own path. I began lurking and eventually joining the TCG community and a few other forums. I believe it was around the time of "classing" that I just dropped it all together. I dropped it then for the same reason I stopped during what I call the "philosophy era" (the time in which people would ask what does this piece signify and why did you make it), I didn't like the atmosphere of the section. I'm not an artist by any means, I just make what I feel looks good to me with my limited ability. There has never been and never will be a deeper meaning to it, I just want to make pretty things. I ended up making mod by being voted in which was awkward all on its own. This with the whole growing up thing has me pressed all year round. Now my ins and outs of Showcase are all marked with real life difficulties that prevent me from ever staying continuously in Showcase, which annoys me to no end. I do believe I will make it back here [s]eventually[/s] soon, depending on how easy my classes are this semester.

I felt like I rambled and it probably makes no sense, but I don't feel like re-reading text wall.

Edit: Dammit, I forgot to talk about Yondy. Oh well, we all know that dude was awesome and a major reason for me even staying on this forum during my low activity point.

[Night]

Just realized I could have made my text wall so much longer, the people I met in showcase each individually shaped me differently. Not including them basically feels like I'm only telling a fraction of the story.

Regardless, didn't think this would get so many replies, much less actual walls of text (read them all, every story thus far is unique and I love that).

[Merci]

Indeed, it's very rare for a thread to be filled with walls of text, isn't it? Even in the threads about politics, they don't have things like that, do that? Ten continuous posts of walls of texts, each one by a different person...HEY! Maybe this thread hit a record! I'm not sure if there's such a record out there, but it's rare that so many people take the time to create their walls of text, without even a single person making just a tiny 'meh' one-liner comment...

[Seta]

[quote name=''Night' timestamp='1344728068' post='6004497'][center] I also picked relatively the worst time to get into the game, all of the 'legends' were complete dicks at the time who didn't really help much, that and they really didn't care.[/center]
[/quote]

Oh please

[Catman25]

I joined here for the Yugioh, and for that reason only. Granted that was more than 4 years ago, and I have moved on from Yugioh, I still look back and realized the impact Yugioh has had on my graphic career. I don't remember why I got into graphics. I liked shopping for like holos and recolors and stuff. I got gimp and made some crap for a couple years. Lot of people were pretty instrumental in my development, and I don't feel like listing them all. At one point I do remember quitting. I don't remember why, but I do know that's one of the stupidest things I could've done. This community whether inactive or harsh at times still has given me some of the best times of my life.

And Ken = Chaster? Someone link me to the rip.

[quote name='.Rai' timestamp='1344771244' post='6004976']
Catman's first piece
[/quote]
[img]http://i38.tinypic.com/eqxtld.png[/img]

['tyleR]

Remember Cyber Altair?

Remember how Haris, Seta, and I once attacked every thread in showcase with intricate CnC's that basically said "You suck."?

Those were the days man.

[Smear]

Wasn't there this one guy...
Uh, Kuro was it?

He was amazing.

WHERE ARE YOU NOW?!

[Legend Zero]

Nobody has mentioned [url='http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/user/60379-problematica/']problematica[/url]?

[img]http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s295/NZPBear/suck.png[/img]

I remember the feeling of true terror on being CnC'd by him.

[Catman25]

[quote name='Legend Zero' timestamp='1344884334' post='6006631']
Nobody has mentioned [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/user/60379-problematica/"]problematica[/url]?

[img]http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s295/NZPBear/suck.png[/img]

I remember the feeling of true terror on being CnC'd by him.
[/quote]
I was going to. Never actually saw a piece by him btw.

[Night]

I second that.

Most of the so-called 'legends' were relatively all talk and no game, we've easily surpassed them without the need to look down upon anyone else.

[Yondaime]

[quote name='Legend Zero' timestamp='1344778351' post='6005031']
Edit: Dammit, I forgot to talk about Yondy. Oh well, we all know that dude was awesome and a major reason for me even staying on this forum during my low activity point.
[/quote]

You haven't forgotten me<3

It seems like everyone started here back in '08. It's the same with me. I was actually trying to find a way to create some cards for me and some friends when I came upon this site. I later got into the clubs and organizations. I always liked the gfx section and Lz's work. His work made me want to get into it. I then was mentored by haris for a while and was off and on in the gfx game. I'm now taking a class in school for 2 hours and 30 minutes a day devoted to graphic design now and I hope to get back into it and start posting some stuff again.

['tyleR]

Polar was God.

[Tormented]

>Looks at all these people posting
>Doesn't usually see 50% of them.

Anyhow, I've always been doing some form of GFX work albeit mostly terrible stuff but it was still work, I was originally on the site at around the same time as other members also under a different name, alas I'll be damned if I can even remember such insignificant matters anyhow I did GFX under whatever name it was for some time before taking a very long years, two years to be precise, then I came back on another profile because I was a retard and forgot the password to this one but then I worked it out again *yay me*

After a couple of months of improving and honing my skills, I began to work with Custom Images and generally just looking at a lot of different .PSD files, although I've never actually got around to finding one which really helps me at all.

Then I came back into the fray and here I am today, still as terrible as ever.

[.Rai]

> Sees Yondaime alive
> /biggestpokerface

[Legend Zero]

[quote name='Yondaime' timestamp='1344920060' post='6006837']
You haven't forgotten me<3
[/quote]
I seriously had to do a double take to believe it. YONDY! If you're coming back I have to start making stuff again. >.<

[Seta]

[quote name=''Night' timestamp='1344913053' post='6006775']
Most of the so-called 'legends' were relatively all talk and no game, we've easily surpassed them without the need to look down upon anyone else.
[/quote]

You don't have to know a s*** about making movies to be a movie critic, yet you can just stomp the s*** out of someone's film. Same goes here. Of course it always makes the person more beliavable if he is also good in what he criticizes.