Create Your Own Sonic Character

[Robotwo]

Robotwo, the raw images look just as good as the final product! I'm a bit of an art nut and always like to see what tools other artists use to produce work online. I've got to get out of this mindset that Photoshop is the be all and end in terms of image editing software. Sometimes a free program can produce stunning results!

Good ol' GIMP! Why do I doubt your capabilities so much! Maybe it's because you are free, free, free!

Yeah I just couldn't get my head around the layout of Photoshop,
so I settled with GIMP instead and I gotta' say I like it a lot

Haven't really tried that much of digital artwork yet though,
but I might have to venture further into that territory later on.

[kool kitty89]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rfd_8dPLYw
This is what I thought was an awesome cartoon.

Other awesomeness included Samurai Jack, Spawn, Batman the Animated Series, Jackie Chan, Gargoyles, etc...

Yeah, MIB was a good one . . . there's dozens of good 90s era cartoons out there, the whole revolution of the 70s/80s (relatively) low budget shallow kiddie stuff (granted, some of that is still cool in its own right, but not so much the stuff you'd enjoy for the content as much as nostalgia or curiosity). I think Ren and Stimpy followed by Tiny Toons and Batman in the early 90s started that new wave of relatively high quality, well acted, and well written animated TV shows in the 90s trickling into the 2000s. (it tapered off and more or less died in 2008 IMO, particularly in terms of broadcast network/syndicated shows of that quality -when 4kids took over as the main/only broadcast cartoon supplier, that was pretty much it . . . there was a handful of shows on CBS that lasted a little longer iirc, but I think that faded too, and then 4kids's got dropped from CW as well -the heyday was when you had Fox, WB, CBS, NBC, and ABC all competing with some variables in target market segment as well, plus weekday shows as well, and a handful of syndicated shows -UPN got a lot of that)

You've got a handful of shows now that arguably fit into similar categories, but nothing like the sort of breadth that we had even a decade ago. And, again, I'll point to the state of kids programming on broadcast TV, and especially the competitive environment that pushed things prior to this. Pretty much all we've got now is Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network along with a scant smattering on some other stations and some adult-oriented ones . . . and the sorry state of Fox's Sunday night animation lineup.
Then there's the Japanese stuff coming over of course . . . which also fills a chunk of several of those existing channels' lineups and deflates the interest in original western series further. Honestly, it's not that surprising that there's dedicated anime fans are so much more prominent than any sort of western animation currently ("kid" oriented or not) simply given the general state of quality and quantity of western animation in general. (and, honestly, a big chunk of the popular anime series are no deeper, more interesting, or more complex than average 1990s/2000s era kids shows . . . and that's on top of a lot of the anime series specifically being more adult oriented vs the western stuff which had to target kids -and meet realistic standards for that- and still managed to include a lot more than just that "kid stuff" -and appealing more to the odd kid who actually appreciated that complexity . . . )

There's also certain directions popular anime stuff has taken that's gotten a bit annoying in recent years as well . . . some of it is just common (but relatively shallow) genres/styles being popular (or transitioning shows with initially more interesting plots towards that), and the fact that there's a lot more "adult" oriented stuff coming out without being tempered for a wide audience. (and the latter tends to also temper things in terms of tactful subtlety and good taste . . . actually limiting the artists/writers in that respect can make for some really interesting directions to take things, but those problems aren't strictly limited to kids vs "adult" shows either, and hardly limited to anime either, or animated series in general --in fact, that IS one of the things that's still interesting to see in the handful of good quality "kids" shows that are still out there)

I'm assuming you haven't even watched the show, forgetting the fandom, the show itself is actual quality for an animated TV show in this day and age. It's better than pretty much any animated show on TV right now (though I do like Adventure Time and Regular Show bout the same). There's a reason why people love it, and it's not like Nickeloadeon is gonna provide better animated shows. I suggest that you give the show an honest chance.

I think this may also play into the relatively limited quantities of good quality (or any) western developed animated series in general. Again, there were tons of "kids" shows in the 90s and early 2000s that appealed to far more than kids. And that stuff is very scarce these days, at least in terms of western animation.

That and I'm certain FIM is a much more complex and well-written series than the preceding 1992 series or (especially) the original 1980s series (I'm not deeply familiar with any of those though) . . . thinking in terms of Hasbro licensed TV series, it's kind of natural to jump to the G1 transformers compared to the relative depth and complexity (let alone general writing and acting quality) of Beast Wars, with the exception that that appeared in the middle of the whole wealth of good quality 90s/2000s kids shows rather than the handful of recent ones. (and Beast Machines ruined that trend for the series though . . . the acting was still decent and character development was OK, but the story was just all wrong and had none of the charm of Beast Wars that lent itself so well to new fans and those who appreciated faithfulness to the G1 continuity . . . of course there's also the wealth of generic and shallow Anime Transformer series roughly on par with the complexity of the G1 series -sometimes worse- and with constant reboots to the universe)

Classic Who has it's place, it's part of British pop culture. The new Who is just pure bullshit through-and-through living on the legacy of the old show.

I grew up watching the old series thanks to my parents and PBS, and I've always liked it . . . the new series is good in its own right (haven't watched past the Tenant stuff though). Honestly, the new series is about as hit and miss as the old ones, though the budget is obviously much higher and the "hit and miss" is mostly up to writing for the most part (acting, set, costume, and effects are far more consistent), then again, if you like the charm of the low budget originals, it's mostly up to the story/writing there too. (granted, the really early ones kind of fall into a different category in general . . . especially the ones that really focused on the originally intended semi-educational "kids show" aspect -it's probably best that I watched those as a little kid too ) That and there's some consistently bad periods in the old series later on. (most of the Colin Baker stuff comes to mind, and the initial transition to Sylvester McCoy -though he managed to turn that character around big time)

If you didn't really like the old show (beyond thinking it "had its place" as such) and only like it for the nostalgia, that's another thing entirely . . . and not liking the new series kind of goes along with that.
Actually, I can think of more people who got into the new series and took no interest in the old ones than the other way around. (in terms of seriously liking the show)

That mid 90s Fox collaborated TV movie/pilot thing sucked though . . . that was overly dramatic crap without any of the charm of the originals.

I'm honestly surprised so many people have nothing against seeing their fav ponies getting horribly mutated/zombiefied/mutilated/assimilated etc.

There seems to be plenty of sick minds hidden deep within the new MLP fandom.

Well, since basically 100% of the fandom so to speak (and I mean the entire spectrum from the normal to crazy fanboy types) are geeks in general (depending on the definition), it's not at all surprising that you'd see a lot of cross over into that sort of surreal horror themed stuff. In fact, I know a couple friends who are into the whole MLP thing and also into horror stuff. (actually, one's a writer with predominantly surreal/supernatural horror themed stuff he's been making since adolescence at least, among other interests -general sci-fi, fantasy, comics/graphic novels, etc, not getting into specifics . . . I will say he's a Doctor Who fan too though )
Actually, he'd got a ton of art in that surreal horror style in general too . . . I forget if it's in his DA favorites too, but I know he has a lot of it saved as a personal collection. (I remember he used to have it as his desktop background too)

I agree. Both bronies and sonicfags can be annoying, but sonicfags are consistently more annoying that bronies. I have a friend in real life who is a brony and isn't weird or annoying about it at all. but sonicfags are pretty much always weirdo pervs from what I've seen. Weirdo perverted bronies seem to be part of a small niche within the group of "normal" bronies. while weirdo perverted sonicfags seem to be more widespread, as in a larger percentage of sonicfags are actually fags.

Actually, doctor who fans are much more annoying than bronies. Why does everyone seem to overlook that?

Fans of any of those can be annoying, though I've seen the most of the sonic fanboys (of many, many flavors beyond the "sonicfag" type) more than Doctor Who or Bronies (in fact, I don't really recall having specific problems with either of the latter). Well, that and there's that friend I just mentioned above who's an MLP fan and a Doctor Who (new series) fan. (then again, not the obnoxious fanboy type . . . otherwise he probably wouldn't be my friend)

And I consider myself a Doctor Who fan, but I'm not prone to "fanboy" type behavior in any category as such, so that wouldn't be the same sort of context you're thinking of. The fact that I haven't gotten around to watching the last few series of Doctor Who would probably show where that is priority wise too. (OTOH I've seen pretty much every single episode of the entirety of the original and new series -with the exception of some of the lost ones and a few of the specials- and I've been watching it for pretty much as long as I can remember -my parents were watching it on PBS when I was a little kid . . . and I think my dad originally got into it in the mid 1980s while working at Metacomco in Bristol)