Axis
Guard Skill: Harmonics

Argh, sorry for the late reply. Been having problems.

Where are you exactly in the US, btw? I have quite a bunch of friends living there, but I keep mistaking their locations, haha.

Ah, each to their own, I guess. During my freshman year, I was like forced to digest all the lessons there were, and was quite stressed. I ended up doing most subjects poorly. When I got to being a sophomore, I got into social programme, and had since left most science subjects except math (though ever since I got into literature for bachelor I stopped studying math as well, lol).

What do you mean that they don't work?

Hehe, have fun then.

Yup, for me, that's the essence. Well, if I end up making something nice, then it will of course be satisfying. Though otherwise, it won't feel nice, lol.
Intending to get back to PS myself as well someday. Thanksgiving, eh? Are you in the US?

Oh, I see. My sophomore year of highschool was the most relaxing lol.

Thing is, they do render often, but rarely per my request, lol. Would be nice if I could have my own renderers I could bother anytime, too. Yep, I used many of those renders, especially the BlazBlue ones (particularly Rachel and Noel).

Haha, yeah, and the bunch of skilled artists around me ain't helping either in gaining confidence. I sometimes requested GFX pieces from them, though I also often thought like, hey, most of the fun related to signatures lies in making them, and simply using pieces made by other people isn't so fun (for me at least). Same here, I did have pride in some of my signatures, but yeah, they were like seasonally good.

Senior year of high school? I take it you're a freshman now?

At least that's how it is for me, though I have some friends who seem to be very eager in rendering, and they do the job fast.
Apparently, the tag is transparent_png (I think it was changed again recently). Almost all the renders there are very nicely done.

In my case, I guess the becoming lazy part was because I got a little discouraged as well since I felt that I couldn't really improve. Same with you, I felt that my signatures were monotonic and getting boring over time, despite the many signature makers that kept surrounding me. I just couldn't seem to find my own style and way to do it :| Then I had connection and computer problems, and pretty much stopped using MSN since ~_~

I don't think it's exactly cool, lol. Yeah, I do, and it's not really hard, but it does require lots of patience and time, which I somewhat lack. Particularly when rendering pics with lots of hair strands or the likes that require extra attention. Hence why I often get too lazy to render on my own. I often surf through pics in moe.imouto when bored too, but if you search for "transparent" tag (I think that's it, since it was "extraction" before but got phased out), you'll get renders.

Ah, I see, they indeed are very similar. I used to chat a lot about GFX stuff on MSN; got asked to give comments, and share my pieces to be commented on as well. I still remember how I used to be lectured a lot about my pieces and all. But yeah, since I don't use MSN anymore and am hardly interested in siggies anymore, so yeah~ It's kinda a pity if I think about it though.

Yeah, quality aside I also am often so picky in choosing what is portrayed in the renders. And most of the time I'm too lazy to render myself, os yeah lol. I often used moe.imouto for getting renders too, though - theirs are usually very HQ like 3000x3000 or so.

Indeed, it's sad that motivations can be so easy to lose yet so hard to regain. Same with you, back then I used to be very excited in making them, for myself, for showcase, for friends; as well as giving comments and criticisms on others'. Nowadays my avatars are plain cropped, yes, with black borders. The two siggies I'm currently using were made by two friends of mine too.

Indeed, though me being very selective, there aren't so many characters I fancy having been rendered. But if we talk about the quality itself, yes, their renders are top-notch.

Kinda the same with me - was so eager back then, and then exams came bursting in and all, and even after they all passed I kinda lost the motivation, lol. I haven't even used PS for months.

Mmm, AR eh. I used to leech quite a lot of renders back then too. You were an avid signature maker? Are you no longer into it?

Ah, I see. Too bad, she looks so sweet. Where did you happen to find that picture? One of the boorus, perhaps?