Topic : "Sijun.com Forums End"
It's been a long time coming, and I'm not sure anyone is even active here anymore, but it didn't seem right to just closeup without a word.
20 years ago this place started as one of the only, if not only, places to share and talk about digital art. A lot of talent had made it's way through here and a ton of learning and feedback and discussion that made it a joy for me to host. I believe at one point I was getting 50,000 people through here a day. A number that is not very impressive today, but in 1999, quite a feat. The more I got caught up in my work, the less time I had to spend here, but this forum thrived for many years after i'd stopped frequenting it thanks to all your contributions. Quite frankly I am as impressed as I am surprised that it went on for as long as it did. A huge huge thank you to Rowan 'Sumaleth' Crawford for really being the groundskeeper here in my stead. Without him, I have no doubt this place would have died many years ago.
After discussing it with Rowan, rather than completely shut it down, I will be locking the forums sometime in the next week or two so that people can still come here for the history of it in the future. Unfortunately many of the image links are dead and not much can be seen by way of images, but I guess it feels wrong to wipe it from existence.
It's been my pleasure to be part of Sijun all this time, as both an occasional digital art practitioner but mostly, I guess, as just a big fan of digital art.
It's been a huge joy to see names of artists I remember from these forums from 15-20 years ago making waves in film, television, videogames, and education in the years since. I suspect a full list of Sijun alumni achievements would be mind boggling.
You were the last frequent poster man.
Wow its been 16 years for me, I joined 2002. I did post under some different aliases during the years but my first one was Matthew and this was my last one.
I learned a lot from this place and not only artwise.
Nowadays I don't do art at all, I mostly play games on sparetime and work in the IT support business related field. I got my education as an Energy Technician though after many years studying art, I made 180 and then a 720 and then 180 and then 180 again I guess. Never got anywhere with my art and it made me start to hate everything related to creating, maybe I will be back we'll see. Anyway, gaming can be creative too. I am currently building a badass Dojo in Warframe lol so I guess I still do some creative as long as it is in within a game.
durgldeep, where are you man? We had a lot of fun with 3d.
Thank you very much for all the times and inspiration..
The love to make something and develop yourself as well as to give a nod when someone was pushing themselves always felt so authentic and inspiring here.
One of a kind place.
Thanks Dhabih, for making the place.
It was always a highlight for my day so see the amazing stuff people made.
Thanks to Sumaleth for keeping it alive for so long.
Thanks for all the great memories Dhabih!
What a fantastic creation! Sorry to see you close up shop.
You and everyone on this forum sculpted my path to becoming an Industrial designer.
I utilise the skills I learnt here on a daily basis.
Thanks also to Samuleth, great job mate!
Thanks for your admin help too Freddio!! Glad to hear you are doing well and able to use your skills for work thats the best.
Thank you Sijuners! You are all class and in a league of your own. Never have I come across a nicer and a friendlier place on the internet. I learnt so darn much here that it's hard to put into words.
So glad I was able to participate and be part of this.
What an awesome community of geeky digital artists it was.
PS: Thanx Sumaleth. QuakeRally 4 ever!!!
something (at least) they will choose to do - nothing.
Haha yea man I am making a statement here.
I do miss our 3d sessions though man, gave you something to strive for, for sure.
Thx man I remember we had a lot of fun.
I think is it only we the last posters that answered in this thread too.
It's amazing how much the field of digital painting has grown in the time that this forum was active. It was extremely important to my development as an artist, and I still remember a lot of the helpful critiques and paint-overs I received. You all rock!
This place was so important to me.
Its the reason ive been working as a concept artist now for 12 years.
I used to post here back in the early 2000s (I think I was 19 when I joined). Art was always a hobby, but I never had the discipline of practice and I always considered myself a doodler (especially compared to some of the art gods here). It really meant a lot to me to have a community like this back in those days - I was a new immigrant at that time and drawing was a bit of therapy I guess.
I'm 36 now and work in a completely unrelated field (marketing) but have started getting back into drawing and digital painting as a hobby (I even bought and old Cintiq, and my wife has the iPad Pro with the Pencil - in my days on Sijun I only ever used a Wacom Graphire tablet) and have started Googling to see if I can find an online community of artists like the old Sijun was. Unfortunately, nothing even remotely close to it exists today so I'm trying to download various bits of art, tips and tutorials that still exist here so I don't lose them to ravages of time.
I was sad to hear that Sijun will be closing, but I guess people like me who abandoned it are at least partly to blame. Looking back on things I wish I could've kept my art habbit going and had more discipline to practice and learn more effectively (maybe I would've even been doing something more artistic career-wise). Life has a funny way of getting in the way of things you actually enjoy the most. I guess that's my little rambling goodbye. With a little regret and a lot of good memories, so long Sijun, and thanks for all the art.
I started on here back in '98 when I was a little studio junior at at an advertsing agency and the talent, advice, connections and community of constructive helpful criticism of my work really helped me get to where I am today.
I learned a lot here. Thank you.