Just an old fart sharing a old story:

 

 

 

About 8 years ago I came across a fledgling Runescape Beta and this very resourceful website. I went under the alias of silent009 and spent countless hours on the forum, namely the image gallery sub-forum where I devoted most of my time creating "sigs" and other images. Back then it was a much, much smaller community and pretty much everyone knew one another. People would have design services and contests from time to time -- I'm sure not much has changed since then. It might be a silly thing to say, but a lot of memories were made here, though they are far and distant now. This kept up until around 2004, when these forums underwent a massive overhaul and everyone had to register again. I was about ready to quit the game anyway. I signed up with a new user name, made one test post and never looked back...until one day I thought about it and wanted to see if my old account info still worked. It did. So here I am.

 

 

 

I remember a bunch of artists formed a club called the Digital Art Group (DAG) that specialized in creating graphics. I remember when fellow old fart Greatsilverwyrm revealed a new sig (designed poorly on purpose) to show how many people kissed [wagon] to the more popular users. Plus many other memories long lost. I came across some of my old sigs one day while cleaning up my ftp server and it all came flooding back to me. I enjoyed art so much that when time came for college I decided to major in Graphic Design. After spending 4 years in the art department at the University of Florida, I think I made a pretty good choice for myself. While putting together my portfolio and getting ready to enter the real world (aka scary hell), it occurred to me: This forum was the reason why I started experimenting with digital imagery. Runescape is the reason I am a now a professional graphic designer. If you ask any well-established artist or designer out there how they got their start, I'm pretty sure none of them would say it was because of a java-based MMO. Which makes me a weirdo.

 

 

 

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my own personal history with this place. It goes to show how even the most seemingly unrelated events in your life could be so life-changing. If anyone is interested in looking at my work and where I am here and now, I have an online portfolio and a deviantart account. Maybe other ghosts from the past here will remember me.

 

 

 

http://www.huangstudios.com

 

http://www.huang.deviantart.com

 

 

 

[hide=I'll end by sharing my most inspirational-driven piece (as well as the one people seem to rip the most)][/hide]

 

 

 

Never stop dreaming. Over and out.

 

 

 

tl;dr version: Web forum for java game somehow turned me to professional design.

Oh man I totally remember you. I was pretty much a noob back then.

 

I remember people like Keiphus and GSW starting the 3d trend back then, with those really really basic battleaxes and stuff. I thought it was so awesome because all I could do was pile filters and brushes :") Oh man great memories.

 

 

 

My name was Uncoverd back then, but you probably won't remember me.

 

 

 

This forum pretty much started my interest for digital art off as well, and it's turning into a nice carreer at this very moment.

Damn, I'm such a newbie

Class of 04.

Thats a great story, funny to see how those things go.

 

 

 

I actually remember your most popular work from Deviantart http://huang.deviantart.com/art/My-To-Do-List-5250546 , great job on that one =D>

Dude, Huang, awesome. These forums are the reason why I became a graphic designer as well (still in college). :thumbup:

 

 

 

Not sure if you'll remember me, I was pretty terrible back then.

I'm to new too know you :-#. But I absolutely love your piece, looks great.