GFXartist, a Historical Overview
04/12/02 @761 |

comments (18)
GFXartist relaunched on the 3rd of March 2002 exactly 2 years after we first started this graphics community.
The GFXartist idea was originally thought of by Martin and myself, and we started developing the site in mid 1999. The idea was to create an online environment where people could learn, communicate and expose their work to a larger audience.
Not having much programming experience we contacted our buddy Martijn to see whether he would be interested in helping us out. We bought some scripts for the news engine and Martijn went wild customizing this script to serve the needs of the community.
The first edition of GFXartist consisted of 2 domains; GFXartist.com where you could find daily news tutorials, interviews, etc. and GFXartist.net which was the member gallery in which people were able to upload their work and others could vote for it.

The first edition of GFXartist was launched in a period when banner advertising was still profitable. We found hosting with the gamefan network in exchange for banners on our site. Unfortunatetly, only half a year had passed before we got the sad news that due to the poor advertising situation online, Gamefan was going down, and would be unable to host us further.

After some time we were contacted by a friend that was also hosted by the gamefan network. He had started his own network and asked if we would join. The second version of GFXartist.com launched in February 2001. With an all new design and engine, it must have been the site with the most bugs ever to be published on the web. This problem was mostly caused by us using php on an NT machine and a mail server that periodically went on holiday without leaving us a message. After 6 months the network got in a dispute with its ISP which pulled out the plug of the server before we could make a decent backup.

After all the problems surrounding our hosting we decided to take a break. At that time 3dpalette.org was hosted by future games network which was also experiecing some serious hosting problems and had to go offline. After much discussion with our buddies at 3dpalette we decided to join forces to end the hosting situation. In October 2001 we started the development of the 3rd version of GFXartist, this time to be hosted on our own dedicated web server.

The 3rd of March was a big day; we launched for the 3rd time in 2 years, this time with Dave from 3dpalette on our side. Due to the number of times we went offline we we were afraid that most people would have long forgotten about our existence, but on the day of the launch we were glad to welcome 25.000 visitors.

Now, 1,5 months since we relaunched we are still unable to foresee the financial future but at least we have the site hosted on our own server. The site is much faster than past releases and more bug free then the second version.
We seriously hope you enjoy the site and we will continue trying to keep this site online for as long as we can.

btw. also nice to see ourselves grow when we talk webdesign wise . For those not knowing, 3dpalette was designed by martin. The rest of the gfx designs are designs by martin and me.

smoothdvd

04/12/02 @812

Great job!But how can i get the all old contents of 3D Palette?

Arno

04/12/02 @814

still working on it. first we will put the old 3dp contests online. then the rest of the tuts.

antisleeper

04/12/02 @833

u guys got a great site. i am here everyday

Agon

04/12/02 @875

always nice to have a place like this around

louisfinazzo

04/12/02 @928

man that first design is pretty tight...

Creed

04/13/02 @193

I'm loving this newest design. It's very stylish. Simple, clean, effective, functional, and still visually stunning. That's the mark of a truly gifted designer. You guys have pulled it off with flying colours.

Louis, you say 'tight' too much.

bigrod

04/13/02 @434

You guys really deserve to succeed. You've put such an incredible amount of time and effort into this site over the years - and it's great to see it progressed to this point.

I used to frequent the first site often ... back when it was for pros only, and kind of idolise it from afar... When the second edition rolled around and you opened your doors to the wild world I was in with a grin, and since then it's only got better.

Like I said - this place deserves to stay around. I just hope that the economic realities of the internet don't come crashing in any time soon.

melancholia

04/14/02 @098

Well considering this is the first week ive been here, im going to give my newbie rating of this site :11/10..its that good. great idea for a site, being a php/web devver myself, i am in complete awe of your design, its everything i thought a perfect website would look like and more. i hope you guys can keep this site up as long as possible, and if you need any help hosting images, contact me. http://melancholia.gfxartist.com

poluter

04/16/02 @449

oh... that where the good times, when men where men, and women weren't

Leefer

04/18/02 @947

*sniff* im feeling nostalgic and miss the daily grind of updating 3dpalette ;\

eldiem

05/17/02 @726

I only joined today. But I'ce known of this place for about a year. It's just SO quick and functional. To build a site like this and have it easy to navigate is a terribly hard job. You guys have done well. Better than DeviantArt's attempts.

Martin

11/30/02 @538

oh 3D Palette, my tummy still tickles whenever I see that screenshot. It was the best game art community experience I've had or can ever imagine.

Montague

01/09/03 @221

Nice story, I'm kinda trying to get my skills up, and get my personell up on a few projects I have, I recently bought gfxmag.com/gfxmagazine.com/gfxzine.com in order to ensure that I would have something to keep me busy, on problem is, I'm not even that good of a designer to even deserve owning my domains...but I try.

Hope one day I can sit back for a second and think back to when it all started, and not when it all went to hell,lol.

Martin

08/04/03 @406

Funny how the success of GFXartist has sparked a storm on domain names containing GFX. Even russian email providers are hunting them.

Greylion

08/04/03 @408

this site is just fantastic, I joined it today am I am amazed at the speed, structure and design of the whole site, a job well done

Heres an idea:

you could do a PayPal donation on the site so loveing people of the site could help to ensure its immortality, you know the feeling of when you create something and its just feels right for everybody and you lose it and wish you could get it back ! I think this idea of donations would really set this site in stone, good luck

monko

07/04/06 @515

Job well Done GFX Team Love this site I am on here all the time it gets in the way of me actually doing any work at the office lol
....I agree with -Greylion- If it meant keeping this site alive indefinitely I would instantly make donations through a PayPal system, you guys deserve it.

Almost-Human