My opinion is highly biased since tribals ruined/fucked-up my business! I mean, AT LEAST add shading and design to the tribals!!!

That is why bends tribals don't appear as the typical tribals. They have thought put into them.

Also, I recently did a request, and the guy only liked the tribal designs I put on the armor. He didn't give a damn about my shading, layering, and design. I even looked down on tribals when I was making 50tcs heads. Most are just black on white. No skill. Hopefully this thread will catch the attention of new ppl.

Also, the only reason I used the tribals was cuz he specifically requested them. Ugh. Tribals are the plague of the texture market. They make me want to puke. I have lost too much money due to tribals. In fact, I think the word "tribal" should be filtered to say "n00b"

Argh...

Its like with all things, there are bad ones, meh ones, and epic ones. It can take a lot of time and effort to make a set, Tribals included. And they can look pretty damn awesome.

I think that what you don't like is Tribal brush spam on a flat colour background. Well, there is more to tribals than that, BenD is an excellent example of how to use tribals.

So yeah, nice try at instigating a flame war =P

well its a style. there WILL be people that imitate it, and eventually enough people will do it that it becomes a fad.

personally, i prefer simplistic tribal designs as opposed to tribal inspired mashups.

i've got three swishes on mine. and i like it that way, more whitespace.

but tribal sets being sucky? yes, to a point... but people are allowed to choose their look (however cliche'd, overdone and unoriginal that maybe). Its not that tribals suck, there are just too many of them

Ben, You didn't just smack a tribal design onto a thigh texture and call it done. There is a tribal to accent it, yes, but it isn't just tribal. That's what damn near all tribal sets are. With the occasional blending effects, ex: bevel, emboss, ect.

By the way, for the most part, embossing your designs doesn't add anything to them. But that's a whole different story, and a case I see rarely.

Regardless, I have yet to see a purely tribal set done anywhere near well. I'd love proof otherwise.

As well, I don't know that the level of realism has ever been as high as it was before 3.0 was released. I'm surprised at what the textures look like now. By comparison, good textures are few and far between, let alone excellent textures.
I wouldn't even say textures are becoming more realistic at all. They're just more well done cartoony sets.

As I said, Artist master all technique Including Tribal, there is nothing to quarrel about.

example of tribal design used on game character:
http://www.freewebs.com/raijin-akuma...20Jin%20T5.jpg

Right, I think what Stonewall is saying (to put it bluntly) sucks, though, is when the tribal designs are the dominant or only feature of the piece, and poorly placed without any thought for the composition (Which is to say, brush spamming). When, as on Evilturns' example or on the majority of BenD's pieces, tribal designs are used tastefully to enhance the piece (as opposed to being the only feature(s) of the texture) then the textures are more "acceptable" to the general artist community.

Personally the only annoyance I have regarding tribal pieces is when someone produces something that's obviously nothing but pure and not thought-out brush work, and others are all over it complimenting it and such. Oftentimes this will just overinflate the person's view of themselves and lead to production of still more generic and (rather boring) brushspam textures.

It's also rather irritating when people post tribal stuff on requests where the requested theme is clearly not tribal, but that's irrelevant.

I spent a shitload of time penning my set out. And now its terrible and sucks just because of the style? I think you have been more specific and said tribal brush textures or something. :<

lol, WH, you know what we mean! :P

Saying that tribal sucks is like saying: "<insert color> sucks. If you use it, you are a lazy bastard".

My last set had well-placed tribals and I heard more than 30 people saying "oh u set roks". If it looks good, it is good. People don't really care if you take 20 days to do something that doesn't look good at all.

@war: that set looks more like a vector art set rather than a tribal one

@drak: besides for your head, your set was literally just sticking brushes down on a white background...
as for "well placed" when i look at your hands and feet, i think otherwise...
the tribals on the body textures arnt much better