Surprise!

[requiem2d]

Dear Friends,

Due to longer work hours & less family time, I lately haven't been able to be around for staff, forum leaders and the community as much as I should have been. As such, I have created an atmosphere where the forum momentum is no longer attaining the growth levels I had previously achieved & envisioned. I think this community has a tremendous desire to learn and become better artists day by day, be it the weekend amateur or the full-blown industry artist. Everything from the Speed Competitions to a set of standards such as our Constructive Criticism Rules has helped shape a positive, collegial & dynamic environment.

Our First Article Banner!

I would love to be able to work on this community full-time, but alas reality is not always so generous. With the people of GA in mind, I made the decision a few months back to hand over the keys to people who would be able to give this community what it really needs; dedicated support & moderation, strong infrastructure, legal credibility, great opportunities, but more importantly, people who's day job it is to make sure everything is on point. I only offered this site to groups which had an established track record of success as well as the individual personalities to really take communities to the next level.

In the beginning there was nothing, now we have many artists, new friendships and almost 5000 members!

What ensued after many e-mails and phone calls was a degree of trust and reliability that told me: these guys can do it! As a result, I take great pleasure in announcing the adoption of Game-Artist.Net into the CGSociety/Ballistic Family. These are the same guys that run CGTalk (120'000+ Members) and have published countless 3D-related books (such as d'artiste - Character Modeling 2 & EXPOSÉ). Their legal name, Ballistic Media Pty. Ltd. boasts an impressive 20 person staff with 60+ dedicated forum leaders on the CGTalk forums. Their experience & history runs deep within this niche and they are clearly the market leader in online communities related to the 3D field.

A Year into the Community!

As for myself, I will hopefully be able to increase my forum presence after losing all the administrative responsibilities that come with running an almost 5000 member community! We've come a long way, and the one thing I am certain of, is that Game-Artist.Net will become the largest and most eventful game art community online, sky's the limit! As retiring head administrator and forever founder, all I ask is that you support the existing GA Staff and the now on board CGS Staff, and give them the opportunity to prove themselves. This is not a corporate takeover but a move that will allow GA to grow in ways it never has before, one of the main points being that Game-Artist.Net will remain its own brand and website.

I will now let the team from CGS/Ballistic continue the announcement and tell you a little bit about them and what they envision for the incredible community we all helped shape...

-req / noel

[Andrew-Plumer]

Hello Everybody

All of us at Ballistic and CGSociety are really excited to be adopting the Game-Artist.net family. Many of you will know of CGSociety and our Forums . For those of you who don’t know us, CGSociety is the leading site for professional digital artists. Our sister company, Ballistic Publishing produces high quality books for the digital art world.

We have been wanting to work more with the Game Artist community for a while now so when Noel approached us the timing could not have been better! Game-Artist.net is a fresh, young and energetic community that we feel will benefit from our support.

We do not plan to change a whole lot in the Game-Artist world as we understand on line communities are precious to those who live in them. Game-Artist will remain an individual entity and run in parallel to forums at CGSociety. We plan to assist the Game-Artist community to grow organically using the resources and experience we have built up hosting our forums for over six years. We will make some styling changes over time to allow for cross linking to the CGS world and we will bring in some advertising. We really want to welcome Game-Artists to make use the wider resources of CGSociety and we intend to work closely with the Game-Artist Forum Leader team to grow the community. We also welcome the suggestions and input from the Game-Artist community.

Cheers

Andrew Plumer
CEO, Ballistic Media

[ColdRolled]

wow, what a surprise indeed! i would have to say that it is pretty exciting for game-artist.net to become part of such awesome group! the only question that i have is does this mean any difference or any changes for current game-artist paying supporting members?

[TychoCelchuuu]

Cool.

[showNOmercy]

What a surprise.

Requiem2d created a great community here which deserves everything that CGSociety will bring it. Sad to see him step down as I thought he did a bang up job but I can understand why he sees this as a step forward for the community. Glad to hear game-artist.net will remain an individual entity, it has a good presence and continues to grow daily.

Welcome CGSociety, looking forward to your awesomeness being polished into this already great site. I spend an hour or so here each day mostly browsing but participating when I can. Not sure if questions are appropriate but I'm curious.

What can we expect in the way of competitions? Will there be a road map of changes for us to view?

[ae.]

wow! did not expect that.

[satan]

Absolutely amazing news.

[doylle]

Hello,

Requiem2d made a very good sketch of the situation, and I think I can speak for the entire staff when I say that we are very happy to become part of CGSociety. Their knowledge and professionalism will undoubtedly help us build a bigger and better community, and together with CGS we aim to make this the leading Game-art forum.

We have been around for almost two years now, and in a way this really is a reward and energyboost for the big efforts we have done.

Things are definitely looking up.

regards,

Jeroen

[salmonmoose]

Hi everyone - I'll be heading up the intergration between the communities of Game-Artist, and CGSociety. To start with, the changes will be quite minimal - there will be a little branding from CGS, and you'll see a change in advertising.

Once things have settled down, we'll work out a universal login, so that once you're a member on Game-Artist, you will be a member of CGS as well. As far as supporting members go, they will be given paid member status on CGS, and likewise, CGS members will show as supporting members here.

[laughing_bun]

hahah wow totally unexpected and AWESOME news! I love CGSOCIETY! this should be great for the community!