Jonas: Yikes, low resolution and a watermark?

ricoaio: Look on source

BBCrulesYOU: don't bother, that's the only angle you're going to get unless you patreon him.

Jonas: I don't mind the single angl, he usually choses the best for the one he does release to the public and hey, an artist has to eat. But to micro-size it and stamp it, I don't see a point in releasing any content that way. (Dreamhawk is typically one of the few that still do high resolution releases instead of just gfycats, so this bothers me a little more I guess.)

Jonas: DH also only charges $1 for full access for his Patreon, so he's by far one of the best in terms of value. I'm a patron of his and I only donate for the Mass Effect stuff, but I have no problem continuing each month (with less Mass Effect content) because it's such a reasonable amount.

millerlord: The recent gang bang stuff he made is great!

DH: @Jonas: Usually, I prefer to upload the original MP4 as the quality, as you say, is superior. The gif solution and thus poorer quality is due to R34 not allowing file sizes above 20MB (the compression isn't too kind to it either), and my rendering method often ends up making files just barely above 20mb.

The watermarks on public releases lately are due to the huge amount of "source?" questions I've seen on my work, whether posted by me or others, on pages such as this - even with the source literally in the source field, some people seem unable to locate it. I'll be reducing its size in the future however.

Jonas: @DH, I'm sure theft of images is also partly a concern, I've just never been a fan of watermarking as I feel it devalues the work as a whole (and people/sites that use it for their illegitimate uses will do so regardless so it hurts nobody but the viewers). While I'm certain some people will ask, generally the source is readily available and watermarking doesn't serve the purpose as well as a good link will.

I've also always been under the impression mp4s, or webms (gfycat) are smaller than gifs by far. I've never seen you have an issue uploading to R34 sites previously via webms. I doubt reduced sizes (sub 720p) will win many/any fans.

DH: @Jonas: Hardly. If any patron would suddenly feel like distributing my work from there, there's little I can do about it, and watermarks do nothing to deter this. I've never reported or otherwise demanded an image be taken down that I've seen clearly slipped from my patreon (such as additional angles etc), as it's an inevitability that you have to come to terms with as a creator. People don't tend to do it out of malice either, one must bear in mind.

My MP4 files, immediately after rendering, that are available in zip archive downloads and which I try to upload to R34 pages, always end up at ~21MB in size. Since you're a patron, you could see this with your own eyes by downloading the archive of this very piece in question - I'm not making this up for some arcane reasons. The options afforded to me when files are just barely above the upload size limitations on pages such as this is to either use a program to forcefully shrink the file size such as Handbrake, which tends to murder quality, or download the resulting gfycat file (giving a ~1MB size file), which also gives a large quality hit, or churn it into a video-to-gif converter, which also murders quality.

Previously, if files ended up outside of upload parameters for sites like this, I simply didn't upload. This means a lot of my work is either uploaded by someone else, who took the time to do something like the above mentioned with minimum hit to quality, or it simply didn't get uploaded. I was of the mind that my work being seen was better than it not being seen, or relying on the charity of others to upload things for me, but perhaps I am wrong in that assessment. I'll be sure to look into my own uploads not being of such poor quality in the future.

Jonas: @DH, I've never checked file sizes between Patreon releases and R34, only just noticed the same "primary loop" on both and assumed it was the gfycat release. This is the first "obvious" downgrade loop I've seen released, which is why I commented. If it's this or nothing, I'd opt for nothing; these kind of releases do nothing for your popularity and will likely sour people fostering a public vs private imbalance -- it's not a good look.

Jonas: Edit: Looks like the image above is larger now, no more "Dave Chappelle pixels" meme-worthy. Originally it was impressively small and my comments were based around that release.

DH: @Jonas: If you've done so this time, then you can hopefully see that I'm not lying about the file sizes for... well, whatever reason. I do however understand your annoyance with the gif, and will take steps to at least upload the gfycat version (as an admin appears to have done above, replacing the gif version), as done in the past. Conversely, I'll reconsider the size of the watermark - it's undeniable that since I started using it however, that traffic to my patreon and especially twitter have increased significantly, so I am opting to keep it albeit in a less intrusive form.

Jonas: @DH, I expect the increased traffic is just different milieu/content (World of Warcraft, especially in Rexx's absence and the void therein) which will see numbers grow as fans of that content awaken to it. A direct link is vastly superior to watermarks in every way; watermarks only serve to aggravate people, although I do understand the reasoning behind them I find it does the opposite of what the artists want and it's exceedingly rare for an artist to maintain goodwill or indeed last long after starting down that road. This is is not based on goodwill lost (although popular opinion waning often ostensibly coincides with popularity decreasing as well) but because the artists are feeling somehow exploited by third parties. Again, the latter of which won't matter because these people will get the unwatermarked versions anyway. Anyway, I'm just repeating myself. Links and sources will always be better than acronyms on pictures; it's why forums and places like Reddit are always so source-focused.

DH: @Jonas: This is all pure speculation on both our parts, naturally. I'll make sure the watermark for public works is non-intrusive and limited to a small corner from now on, making sure that it doesn't derive too much from the experience while simultaneously also providing the source, and also through links. Speaking of links, another major reasons for the watermark's initial inclusion were uploads of my public work, by other users, to pages wherein they didn't provide a source through links or otherwise. Considering the amount of webpages that my work can potentially spread to, the only reliable method to ensure that some manner of source is provided is, for me, as a creator, the infamous watermark. As a patron, you of course have the exact same angle available to you, without the watermark - conversely, this is not a slippery slope where I have plans to sully or make my public work increasingly hard to enjoy. Believe me when I say that this is solely from a position of making sure people can find my work, and that I recognize the gif quality as being unacceptable.