One of the hardest things to do in the toribash comunity is to learn how to give and take criticism, but it is a necessary part of learning and growing as a texturer and/or editor. This guide will help you give and take critisism from other members, and how to make use of it.

Giving Critisism:
First what's right, then what's wrong

Get someone's attention by telling them what's right with the toribash video / texture set. If you tell them something good first, they will be willing to listen to what's wrong with the design.


Why are you giving criticism? Do you think the recipient of the criticism will really pay any attention to you if you give feedback in a manner that could be taken as insulting? Are you truly interested in helping the texturer learn? Or are you taking advantage of the relative anonymity of the Internet to be meaner than you would in real life? There is a real person on the other end of that review, a living, breathing human being who you might like if you met offline.

Movie and theatre critics often give over-the-top insulting reviews. The purpose of these reviews is not to help the actors and director make a better show. The purpose of these reviews is to entertain an audience and sell newspapers and magazines. Examine your motives carefully. Are you writing your review to help the texturer, or are you writing your review to entertain yourself and your friends? If it's for entertainment, why don't you just email it to your friends instead of posting it publicly?

Constructive Critisism:
Learn how to give constructive criticism. "This sucks," isn't constructive criticism. It's an attack, and it's completely useless because the texturer can't use it to improve. Give concrete reasons for your opinion. "This texture set isn't good because the head looks less detailled than the others body parts" is constructive criticism. Vaguely-worded crits aren't helpful because the texturer doesn't know what to do to improve.

Opinions:
All reviews are opinions, but try to phrase things so it will remind the texturer that this is your opinion. For example, "This texture set isn't good because..." Yes, texturers need to keep in mind that any review is just the reviewer's opinion. No, it won't kill you to go an extra step and be nice in your review, and it will make the texturer more willing to listen to the points you are making.

Futility of fighting:
Don't get into a fight with the texturer. It doesn't help their texturing skills, and you won't convince the texturer of your point of view.

Taking Critisism:

In the heat of the moment
Don't respond immediately! It is easy to read a review and immediately respond without realizing that you have misread what the reviewer said, or without realizing that you have mixed up the way a reviewer says something with the actual critique he or she is giving. Someone may give you good feedback in an insulting manner, but if you argue because of the insults and don't pay any attention to the critique, you could miss a good opportunity to learn.

Also remember that not all people who watch your video/texture set will reply with a review.


Not all the viewers of your video/texture set will enjoy it, but as long as you achieved what you were trying to do, your texture set / video is successful.

Who are your critics?

Get people other than your friends and family to review your video/texture set. They're usually biased. Or they may not know enough about toribash videos or texture sets to be able to give proper constructive criticism.

Save the people who give you only positive reviews for the times when you're in a bad mood and need someone to tell you how awesome you are.


The pro question:
If you can, find professionals and get feedback from them. Doing this at Toribash forum isn't too hard.

This isn't necessary if you're creating a video or a texture set for your personal enjoyment, but if you think you might want to go pro one day, then it is essential to get feedback from the industry. Don't slavishly follow their advice, but do get their advice and do consider it carefully.

How and why to follow advice:
Don't take all advice you get, but on the other hand, don't dismiss it, either. I find it works to think about criticism and to come up with a reason why I am rejecting it. "I don't think I will follow this bit of advice because this person obviously prefers complex videos, and I prefer clean, simple videos , or not detailled texture set."


The emotional point of view:
Try not to get too emotionally involved. You put a lot of hard work into your texture set or into your video/texture set, and you've become very attached to it. Now it's time to cut it free and let it out into the world.

Remember:
People are not criticizing YOU. They are criticizing pixels on their computer screens. If someone is *actually* criticizing YOU, they are not criticizing. They are trying to provoke a reaction from you. Don't give them the satisfaction of responding (although I find a happy "Thank you! I never noticed that!" really throws people like that off base).

It's OK to feel bad after a bad review, but go away and cry for a while, then put it out of your mind and try to use the advice to make your next toribash video / texture set better.


Conclusion:
It has also taken me several month to learn how not to be emotionally affected by criticism. It's only in the past month or so that I've been able to look at a bad review and analyze it. "This person says there should be more details in the texture. Ah! Perhaps they prefer complex and detailled texture set ! I happen to prefer simple texture set / video, so I will go look at the set / video, and if I think it is fine as it is, then I will leave it alone." That is a skill I wish I had learned some time ago.



Thanks for reading this , and thanks so much to Solaris, for helping me to write this.
EDIT : I recieved some pm's asking about it , REMEMBER THAT SOLARIS did work on it, so did i.
SO credits goes mainly to him.