Resources Gallery Makeover (REMINDER)

17 min read

Deviation Actions

Elandria's avatar
By
Published:
8.7K Views

So all those sub cats...



Its no secret that the stock and resources gallery is HUGE.  On a scale thats intimidating, complicated and a bit like a bottomless pit of sub, sub, sub, sub, sub cats.

Last year we were very lucky to have a bit of a makeover job in Resources/Fonts and Resources/Stock, however, we are looking with "new deviant's eyes" (Yes, we kidnapped new deviants and stole their eyeballs) to look at our gallery long and hard.  HARD.

You can read more about whats going on with this huge project here - fav.me/d5xccty

What we'd love to get from you guys



Feedback and suggestions! 
Do you know of sub cats that are completely obsolete that we could tidy up and get rid of?
Are there dark alleyways hidden in the maze of resources sub cats that need a light shining on them?
Can some categories be merged, or renamed to make them more logical/useful to todays deviant community?

Shortly we will be posting a links journal to all the different galleries so you can head out into the wider DAverse to find out whats happening in other places and to add your thoughts and comments.
:new: Main journal has now been posted here -
REMINDER Gallery Makeover Project JournalsGreetings Deviants! 
As I have no doubt most of you have heard from moonbeam13's journal, a lot of the galleries here on DeviantART are having a makeover. This largely consists of merging and getting rid of categories, but please take a read of the original journal for more details. :)
I am sure a lot of you have seen these gallery makeover journals floating around already, but here is a definitive list of all the journals so far. Please note that not all galleries are on this list, more may be added later. Also some of these links may be updated in future, and we'll be sure to update the link here as neccessary. :la:
Please comment on the appropriate journals for each area if you have an opinion as to how each gallery can be updated. Remember the more opinions the better so share this journal, and lets get as much of the community involved as we can! :dummy:
Trad. Typography


Go check out the suggestions for improvements across the other galleries on the site!!

Here though we are concentrating on the stock and resources gallery, so please keep your suggestions/comments on topic! :)

Resources/Fonts..



Since the resources/fonts category is quite complicated, we've once again bribed pica-ae to post a journal specifically for it here - fav.me/d5xfsw5  So if you have suggestions specifically for the fonts category, please post your comments over there so we can more easily keep track :)

Resources/Fractal Resources



:new: Our lovely SaTaNiA has done a Fractal specific Gallery Makeover journal here - fav.me/d5yfv60 so if you use the fractal resources gallery, or have suggestions on improvements, please pop over there to post your comments! :thumbsup:

Resources/Line Art & Character Sheets



The vast majority of character sheets submitted to this gallery are miscats.  IE they are filled out with the details of an individual character rather than being a BLANK sheet for other artists to use.  Completed character reference sheets need to be submitted to a more appropriate digital/traditional/mixed media gallery.  

Digital Art and Application Reference Tutorials



For a long time the Resources/Tutorials/Digital Art (OR Application Reference)  galleries have been something of a minefield, with miscats and confused deviants scattered across the landscape.  There are a plethora of duplicated software sub cats and completely obsolete areas that now exist that we would like to get sorted once and for all.

Issue -  Currently the tutorials gallery is organized by tutorial content EG Application Reference, or Digital Art Which means there are multiple sub cats - for example Photoshop, that appear to have no difference whatsoever in the submission type despite the location of the parent category.

Proposed Solution - Instead of having tutorials classified by what they are about, we propose to turn things around on their head, and make the tutorials gallery classified by the software you want to use.  So, instead of having tutorials for Photoshop in 5 different locations, you will now have 1 main Photoshop tutorial gallery. Within that Photoshop Tutorial gallery will be sub categories for tutorials on using Photoshops tools, Tutorials on how to draw and paint using Photoshop etc - for each major piece of software. 


Current Gallery Layout for PS Tuts


Resources/Tutorials/
........Application Reference/
..................Photoshop
Resources/Tutorials/   
........Digital Art/
................Drawing & Painting/
..........................Photoshop
Resources/Tutorials/   
........Digital Art/
...............Photomanipulation/
.......................Photoshop
Resources/Tutorials/   
.......Digital Art/
.............Pixel Art/
.....................Photoshop
Resources/Tutorials/   
.......Digital Art/
..............Vector Art/
.......................Photoshop

Proposed Gallery Layout for PS Tuts


Resources/tutorials/
........Digital Art/
...............Photoshop/
.......................Software Tools
.......................Drawing & Painting
.......................Photomanipulation &
                       Photo Editing
.......................Vector, Vexel &
                       Pixel Art
.......................Other





Pros
More logical layout/gallery tree
Fewer chances of miscats.
Generic tutorials that do not mention any specific software can be placed in the same format, without the gallery loosing continuity.
Cons
Many pieces of software available - some in very niche areas which will have to be placed into an "other software" sub cat

Artisan Crafts Tutorials



Issue For a long time Artisan Crafts has been woefully neglected with next to no helpful sub categories to aid artists drill down to more specific areas they are interested in

Proposal  The addition of some new sub categories to the following effect:


Current Gallery Layout for Artisan Crafts Tutorials


Resources/Tutorials/
........Artisan Crafts/
...............Culinary Arts (existing)
...............Recipes (existing)
...............Other (existing)
:new:.......Textiles, needlework & plush toys
:new:.......Metal and Wood Working
:new:.......Costumery and Props
:new:.......Sculpting
:new:.......Jewelry
:new:.......Papercraft



Pros - More clarity for Artisan Crafts Tutorials
Cons - Are more sub categories actually needed?

Devious Suggestions



:new: These are some of the suggestions currently put forward:

:bulletpink: Update Application Resources/Photoshop .PSD files title to: ".psd and .png files" (or similar) Suggested by CelticStrm-Stock and Thy-Darkest-Hour

:bulletpink: Merge Application Resources/Photoshop Custom Shapes with Photoshop Patterns and change the title to: "Photoshop Shapes, Patterns & Styles" ** Do the same for Illustrator as well** Suggested by shelldevil

:bulletpink: Ensuring there is a generic art tutorials area for non software/media specific tutorials. Suggested by pica-ae and AdorkaStock

:bulletpink: Vector, Vexel & Pixel tutorials should be kept separate because of how different they are. Recommended by TheLastHuzzah Krissi001 and MLAproduction

:bulletpink: Ensuring AC tutorials/Textiles, needlework & plush toys description is clear and concise to include tutorials for clothing that is not costumery. Recommended by Talty

:bulletpink: Including stone work and glass work in the new "Metal and Wood working" AC tutorials sub cat. Recommended by Talty

:bulletpink: Change the name of AC tuts/"Papercraft" to something more inclusive of other paper craft types such as origami and book binding etc to - "Folding & Papercraft" Recommended by Talty

:bulletpink: Add a specific sub cat for AC tuts/Miniatures for polymer clay food mini's and other mini items like doll house props/furniture etc. Recommended by Talty

:bulletpink: Add a specific top level resources/pixel resources gallery as per fractals and vector to better support pixel artists searching for related resources.  Suggested by krissi

We would love to hear your thoughts on these proposals, and any other suggestions/issues you can see in the stock and resources galleries :)



Comments93
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
CelticStrm-Stock's avatar
I know this would be impossible as it would make the sub-cats for it massive.. but it would be nice to have a way to search for Premium Content Exclusive stocks. Sometimes it's just nice to have exclusives that a limited amount of people have used. It's looking great over all though!