Pro tip I ignored: "Always flatten your canvas before posting"

A guy on a Discord server kept telling me to flatten my layered digital paintings before uploading them to ArtStation. I thought he was just being controlling about MY workflow. So I left all 40+ layers intact on a character piece I spent 12 hours on. The file was 800 MB and the site bugged out, gave me a corrupted thumbnail, and I had to re-upload it three times. He was right, and now I flatten every single piece before sharing. Anyone else stubbornly ignore obvious advice like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

quinna8922d ago

Bro, I literally had this same thing happen to me but with a different file type. I was stubbornly keeping all my PSD layers in a comic page I spent like 15 hours on, thinking it was cool to show off my process. Uploaded it to DeviantArt and the preview straight up looked like someone smashed my screen with a hammer. Had to flatten it three times before it stopped looking like garbage. Now I flatten before export every single time, lesson learned hard.

spencer_park2622d agoMost Upvoted

Nah, it's just a preview glitch. Not that deep.

wesleyb2022d ago

15 HOURS on a comic page? That's brutal. I'd be so mad if I lost that kind of time to a preview glitch. The smash screen comparison is too accurate, I've had that exact same panic with a corrupted thumbnail before. Flattening feels like you're giving up control but it really just saves you headache later.