Magnum Opus Dissonance, or HOW IS THIS THING MORE POPULAR THAN MY BETTER THING!?

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I would think we have all had this at some point, but what IS Magnum Opus Dissonance?

 

Well, imagine you have two projects, one you adore and one you don't really care about. You pour all of your time and attention into the one you adore while the latter is hastily thrown together. You put the former out...and no one really cares, or it's a modest success. However, the latter EXPLODES from the sheer popularity and praise it receives, even though you barely cared about it at all.

 

That is Magnum Opus Dissonance.

 

An example I want to make is from my own youtube videos, which you can also see here in this topic:

 

 

My first, and IMO, best Youtube video is called http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KImZSw1yiF0. It achieved about 9000 views over three years and took me several days to make. But during the Halloween of 2009, I felt I should at least make something Halloween related; thus

was born. This video was made in about 2 hours, a little bit before midnight. I didn't really think all that much about it, since it was JUST a halloween vid I had hastily thrown together...

 

Or I wouldn't have cared if not for the fact that it surpassed my first video within a few months and went on to clock up 42000 views in 3 years! To this day, I have never been able to figure out how it got so popular, nor WHY it's so popular in comparison to every other video on my channel.

 

And that is my story.

 

So now the question is: What's YOUR story? What tales of Magnum Opus Dissonance do you have to share?

Edited March 23, 2013 by 743-E.D. Missile

[Ruby CUL Terumi]

I've had this happen for several roleplay stories lol.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Ruby CUL Terumi

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I've had this happen for several roleplay stories lol.

I was kind of expecting a little more of a story rather than a single line to be honest .

[Cyrus]

I might not be getting the context of this, but I think I feel this whenever my original stuff gets overshadowed by my fan art.

2 notes in a week.

42 notes, UNTAGGED.

 

 

 

Just....

[Yoko/葉子]

Well... I put lots of time into these personal stories: I was hoping people would like the idea of a man who was well.... "attacked" by a succubus and dealing with intense trauma who gets help. 

 

Another one involved a child who would change fighting style based on the music he heard. (based on the frantic Metal Sonic fight in STF with the music going with his movements)

 

A third one one had a person who was part robot, part puppet, part human struggling to belong (inspired by Pinocchio and Key The Metal Idol and how I once thought I was a robot). 

 

I thought people might be able to relate to these in a good way, but instead the idea about a god with PTSD,a scar on his face fighting my personal idea of the universal "bad" all while trying to find his missing mother who is a critical goddess gets all the credit.

[Ferno]

I made a makeshift Naruto parody animation video for my channel once that was 15 minutes long, and had some plot to it. Never surpassed 1000 views. All my other animu-related animations that were under 5 minutes long and took less effort to make, went way beyond that. In that case though, it's probably easier to devote time to watch a 2-5 minute video than a 15 minute one.

 

The only other example I can think of is my personal original projects. On one hand, I've been slowly but steadily developing the premise and characters for a graphic novel series since 2009; it's something I rarely bring up or mention because it's a long-term thing for me, and I don't plan on revealing it for another few years or so as I continue to slowly chug away at it. I probably would consider that my "magnum opus thingy" that I'd want to be remembered for. On the other hand, last year I came up with the idea for a webcomic story that takes itself a little less seriously than my graphic novel idea, that I have actually talked about and plan to start actually drawing within a few months time. I wouldn't be surprised if this smaller project that I put less effort into and fretted over less when it comes to small details became more popular than my future one just because of the fact that I stopped planning so much and started doing; actually pumping out a product rather than sitting and thinking about it day in and day out. Day 1: "Aw man this is gonna be so cool." Day 365:  "Aw man this is gonna be so cool." Compared to, Day 1: "Aw man this is gonna be so cool- let's try to make something of this within the span of a year this time!" 

Edited March 24, 2013 by Inferno

[Ruby CUL Terumi]

I was kind of expecting a little more of a story rather than a single line to be honest .

 

It happened too many times for me to think of a single one lol

[iDEATH]

I've had this  with my youtube videos too, stuff I put genuine love and effort into like this (which I think is possibly the best thing I've ever done)

934 views

 

Whereas this, filmed on m stills camera, not particularly informative, borderline useless and incredibly out of date......

160,870 views......how? Just.....how......

 

Hell, this two second clip of me, spouting an injoke has 31,835....I just don't get it.

 

yeah...I know i should be happy so many people have watched my vids but I'd be so much happier if people seen the stuff I'd actually put effort into.....*shrugs*

[Dizcrybe]

This French House track I made, inspired by a Tumblr blog I read:

 

 

Only has 211 views.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdZS6ALj9vg&list=UUiUpZxe-AZsqGmLnTnvlqrA&index=52

 

This crap has 10,063 views.

 

...yeah.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I've had this  with my youtube videos too, stuff I put genuine love and effort into like this (which I think is possibly the best thing I've ever done)

934 views

Well, to be fair, you've only had this video up for about 2 years; the other one has had at least 6 years to gather 190,000 views. Granted I can still see what you mean though.

Edited March 24, 2013 by 743-E.D. Missile

[iDEATH]

I think part of the problem might be that people are more interested in searching for stuff they know they already like instead of taking the effort to seek out new things.

 

That's why things like fanart or AMVs rack up obscenely high numbers whereas original content suffers......

 

I can understand it to anextent, while I love discovering new artists doing beautiful work on sites like DA, I usually use the sites to search for fanart "I wonder how other artists have drawn Sonic/Rincewind/nosferatu/Hulk Hogan etc etc...".

As great a delivery system the  internet is for artists it'll always be hindered by this in some respects...

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I think part of the problem might be that people are more interested in searching for stuff they know they already like instead of taking the effort to seek out new things.

 

That's why things like fanart or AMVs rack up obscenely high numbers whereas original content suffers......

 

I can understand it to anextent, while I love discovering new artists doing beautiful work on sites like DA, I usually use the sites to search for fanart "I wonder how other artists have drawn Sonic/Rincewind/nosferatu/Hulk Hogan etc etc...".

As great a delivery system the  internet is for artists it'll always be hindered by this in some respects...

Guilty as charged ^w^;;.

[turbojet]

Is it weird that the first thing that I thought of while reading the opening post was Firefly?

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Is it weird that the first thing that I thought of while reading the opening post was Firefly?

I never watched Firefly, so I wouldn't know what comparison you are trying to make anyways.

[iDEATH]

I never watched Firefly, so I wouldn't know what comparison you are trying to make anyways.

 

I've never seen it either but from what I understand, most Joss Whedon fans consider it his best work but it was cancelled really early into its run.

[Guest]

Back in 2007/2008ish I used to draw a lot of Toon Link and Phantom Hourglass stuff. I was messing around with expressions and uploaded this to my Deviantart:

 

 

It wasn't something I put a great deal of time and effort into compared to other stuff i'd drawn at the time, yet this instantly became the most popular thing in my gallery. I was happy that people liked it, but it's nothing special! Years down the line and this picture had around 2000-3000 favourites (how??). In the end I deleted it as I was tired of a quick picture I wasn't too proud of overshadowing things like portraits i'd poured hours of work into.

 

I also had a similar problem when I started drawing Tim-Burton related things. Because nearly all my watchers were Zelda fans my Tim Burton art was a bit neglected. As a test I uploaded a deliberately crappy sketch of Link, it got 100 odd favs. I then uploaded a portrait of Edward Scissorhands, it got 10 favs. And some people would message me saying "whens your next Zelda picture".

 

I think after this I became a bit more distant from my DA, I started drawing lot's of different things as I gained interests in more things than just Zelda. Now it seems pretty evened out, though I'm not really fussed about Deviantart favorites anymore .

[TheGerkuman]

The problem with Firefly and MOD is that it doesn't really count as MOD if the work got critical acclaim, even if it didn't get the viewers or got messed with by the network. That, and you'd find a lot of people would dispute it being his best work.

[turbojet]

Joss considered it his greatest work. But I definitely see how I was wrong though.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

If I didn't have any degree of fun with what I was currently writing, I would completely give up on it right now after hearing this trope.

 

Really, that's just sad to put your heart and soul into something only for it not to achieve the success you thought it would, if not sadder after reading the works that went through this.

 

Edit: Which brings this to question. How do you avert MOD?

Edited March 24, 2013 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[SenEDDtor Missile]

If I didn't have any degree of fun with what I was currently writing, I would completely give up on it right now after hearing this trope.

 

Really, that's just sad to put your heart and soul into something only for it not to achieve the success you thought it would, if not sadder after reading the works that went through this.

 

Edit: Which brings this to question. How do you avert MOD?

Hard to say, really. MOD can literally occur for a wide variety of reasons:

1. You put too much focus on your "best" thing, and restrict your own creativity in the process.
2. You don't notice the flaws of your "Magnum Opus" and thus it's nowhere near as good as you think it is.
3. Your Magnum Opus is too obscure/too hard to understand outside of maybe intellectuals or people who "get" it (ie hardcore fans/people).
4. Bad luck/timing.

There is a list for this: WMG.

Edited March 24, 2013 by 743-E.D. Missile

[iDEATH]

. In the end I deleted it as I was tired of a quick picture I wasn't too proud of overshadowing things like portraits i'd poured hours of work into.

 

As much as it bugs me I've not deleted the stuff for which this has happened to me. As far as I'm concerned I'm just happy that people are obviously enjoying my work, perhaps not the pieces of my work I'd prefer but you really don't have much control over that.

If people really like your work they'll find what they like then go on to look out your other pieces.

In the meantime you just have to carry on doing what you love.

[Guest]

As much as it bugs me I've not deleted the stuff for which this has happened to me. As far as I'm concerned I'm just happy that people are obviously enjoying my work, perhaps not the pieces of my work I'd prefer but you really don't have much control over that.

If people really like your work they'll find what they like then go on to look out your other pieces.

In the meantime you just have to carry on doing what you love.

 

Yeah, part of me wishes it was still in my gallery (deleted about 3 years ago I think). All the things i'm not keen on now I just move to scraps so people can still see them if they want to.