Graphics School

[moments.]

Ok. My most recent piece is this one:

Well first of all, I can't say it looks like you've done too much to this piece. So I'll rate it on the elements that are obviously present, but after looking at your gallery and seeing this again, I'd recommend having a look at some tutorials to learn the basics of effects instead of just using the filters by themselves. If you go to this thread, Graphics Lounge, there are plenty of tutorials and tips and resources in the first post which you will find useful I'm sure.

Anyways, as I mentioned, simply positioning a stock, putting a filter over it and adding text is nowhere near enough what needs to go into tags for them to be of a good standard. First of all, the positioning which you've gone with isn't actually helping the piece anyway. I can see you've got the Croconaw down quite low to fir the Hoppips in, but it is too low and doesn't stand strongly enough as a focal point. If you know what the rule of thirds is, if not google, it tells you where the hot spots are to make things sit well and look good. You've kind of gone right in the middle, and it doesn't sit strongly.

As for the text, the font is decorative, but definitely not fitting the aesthetic of the tag as a whole. Something more blocky and sort of bold would fit a lot better.

Yeah, just not really enough in this piece.

hey... I'm working on this style...

... could I get some thoughts on it? (this wasn't a collab, it was a joke between a friend of mine... we were talking about doing a collab, but then we realized we aren't good with them) (tl;dr: this isn't a collab)

I actually quite like this style, however there are some things that I know the style adheres to, but I still think look iffy.

Firstly, and really the main issue is the focal is so far off to the right that it just feels too unbalanced. You can have the render off centre, and that's definitely recommended, but it is way too far off to the side. Also, the render could be sharpened up a bit as well, just feels a bit blurry.

The colours are ok, but just ok. I've said it before, but yellows and greens are often very hard to work together, and generally speaking, green often looks weird in tags.
And with the black dust/splatters, there is one massive clump of it near the top directly above the text which looks quite dirty. If you use white particles/splatters, you can get away with clumps, but black on a light background looks messy is drawing attention. Perhaps erase it, and duplicate the layer with a less dense spot to put there.

Lastly, perhaps just me being picky, but where the clipping mask section is, there is a thin black 1px line on the edge which is a real nitpick, but it looks unpolished if you actually look at it.

But yeah, nice work! Love these old school tags!

 

[keoni]

Whoa lol. Thanks for the very detailed CnC, lol. I'll try to remember the colour for a future tag, but I'll try and get the sharpening change done soon. I hadn't really noticed the massive clump either... I'll attempt to fix that as well..
Will edit when changes are made:

 

[Circuit]

Ok, sorry I didn't post sooner. I was away for a while, then I forgot to finish my assignments, but I've finished them now, so here they are:

Assignment #1

Spoiler:

Assignment #2

Spoiler:

Original:

Spoiler:

So, how did I do? Probably badly XD

 

[keoni]

Links are dead for me :(

EDITTTT:

I made this tag yesterday... Please ignore the text, it was done because I felt like annoying my friend, inter since I knew he'd insult me over it anyways lololol.

 

[Circuit]

Keoni, did you mean my links are broken, or someone elses?

 

[Azure Wish]

Theres nothing in the spoilers for me.

 

[Circuit]

Ok, that should be better now. How do they look?

 

[flamz321]

Wanted to practice soft shading so I made (somewhat) self-portrait:

My first piece of anime on a computer ^_^! How did I do? (P.S. I know the background kinda sucks but I couldn't think of anything :/)

 

[moments.]

Assignment #1

Spoiler:

First of all, with this piece, you've chosen a particularly difficult stock to work with, especially if you were to approach it with C4Ds which I think perhaps was the thing letting this tag down in the end. As you probably found, using C4Ds, you didn't want to cover up the stock too much, because it is sort of all important, so you reduced the opacity of the C4Ds to accommodate this, but I've said it before, and reducing the opacity of C4Ds, but leaving them on 'Normal' never works. You lose the strength and actual form of the effects and it just feels a bit messy...

You could have used effect C4Ds on 'Lighten' or 'Screen' or one of those lightening settings as that doesn't fully block out the stock behind it. But yeah, the approach you've taken here didn't really work, and that's not because of your ability or anything, it's just the method, that I don't think anybody can make a good piece with transparent C4Ds. So yeah, take it as a learning experience and just try and right that habit out of your arsenal. :D

As for other things, it doesn't look like you've added any lighting or colour adjustments, so I can't really give comments on that other than I would've liked to see some attempts made. But if you hadn't done any lighting before the second assignment, that's ok.

Assignment #2

Spoiler:

Original:

Spoiler:

Possibly not the best stock to have used, just because you've got a light source coming from outside, and then the room inside is quite light as well, but you did well!
One thing I'd be wary of, is having the opacity of your shadows up too high. I'm especially talking about that line of shadow you have over the fence outside. You can clearly see the edges of where you've brushed, and to be honest, I'm not sure why you actually darkened that section anyways as it's out in the sun.

But yeah, overall you did a good job, not too much else to say! :D

So this has the potential to be a really good tag, but there is one thing that I feel absolutely brings the whole thing down. That's the fact that you've coloured your lady here in green. Sometimes that can work in a tag by making the stock / people funky colours, but generally the whole tag has to be sort of eclectic and colourful, and your background / effects are fairly mainstream stuff, so it just feels a bit off-putting. I'd have left her normal coloured, but definitely used gradient maps to make her slightly, but barely visibly green / blue just so you get a similar blending effect, but without her looking lq and like a sick smurf. xP

But yeah, besides that, everything is pretty good! I love that style.

Well, this is a graphics school, and so painting stuff isn't really included (not to mention I'm not a painter / drawer myself so I can't really give you any technical tips, so I guess I'll just give some brief overview stuff, especially the background / text and stuff.

First of all, the background is a little too distracting, I don't really see how it works with the style of the guy, but it doesn't work with him and thus sort of draws attention away from the actual drawing. For something like this, I would've just gone with a single colour, maybe textured, but even solid would've worked nicely just to isolate the drawing. As for the text, sort of messy, and the characters aren't the same size. I'm not sure if these are manually done, but you could've at least copied and pasted the same letters so they are the same, the two 'a's being different shapes and sizes is a bit off-putting. Also I'd argue the outline around it is too thick, and doesn't have a hard edge on the inside spaces.

Lastly, the pentooling just feels a bit clunky, you haven't got all rounded edges which kind of works against what you've aimed for. But yeah, like I said, if you were highlighting the drawing itself, you probably would've been a lot safer with a simple font choice, simple background and perhaps no added effects like pentooling and stuff, unless it was actually part of the drawing.

So, assignment is still not started cause I've been really busy, um, keep posting stuff in here and I'll comment, but I think I'll just sort of put this on hold. I can't sacrifice my time from uni work as much as I'd like to and I can't fit it in, but in a few days or something I'll try get something done...
Maybe as a mini assignment type thing, if you just make a tag incorporating the first two assignments, (so real life stock with lighting added) would be a good progression. Obviously separate they are kind of obvious for lessons, but as you guys improve, you should definitely be adding lighting (whether a lot of barely any) to all your piece, and real life stocks generally progress after cartoon / anime stuff, so you might as well get in the habit and get some free rates here!

Also, I urge you all again, comment around in galleries and stuff here more often! You help each other out by commenting rather than just waiting for me to give you comments. Also, if you make a gallery, I WILL give you more comments in there, obviously not for pieces I already have in this thread, but I'm interested to see what else you've been up to since the assignments instead of you all just clogging up this thread showing me!

So yeah, sorry for the inconvenience, hang tight!

 

[Winneon]

How's this? Is it better?

 

[abnegation]

How's this? Is it better?

This tag falls down a lot because you use a lot of filters of built in actions on Gimp or PS, and it's pretty evident. Overall the tag is pretty empty and lacks quite a bit of substance to it. It disobeys the rule of thirds and you're lacking great flow, or consistent effects to keep this one going. The focal point isn't really emphasized in the way you'd need it to be, it needs more going on around it and more of an eye catching feel. Again, the tag is pretty empty overall and that's your main issue along with any sense of depth. the background doesn't have any depth really. Some of the execution is pretty good but overall it doesn't look all that interesting and your concept is pretty bland too. The colours of the tag should be worked on that bit more also, it certainly lacks a decent colour palette so work on that.

Anyway guys, the Graphics School is back in session and I encourage you all to get posting and making graphics again! Soon I'll post up a few new resource packs and some assignments for you guys to get working on involving those, so get ready for that! I'll also be updating some threads (including this one) around G&P to update things and make it all that much more accessible for you guys. Excuse the teacher's absence for a while, I've been trying to get on as much as I can, but things are looking a lot more steady now so I should be around more permanently. Moments has been trying to boost activity around G&P too, so he's been busy.

Again, remember you can refer any feedback, ideas or suggestions to us if you want to do something, we're totally open to that. And with most schools in the Western Hemisphere back in action, as is the graphics school! So get ready for assignments, and don't forget it's never too late to sign up!

 

[Winneon]

I did 1 assignment today.

Assignment 1

Spoiler:

How is it?

 

[keoni]

I haven't made a tag in about a month, so I'm rusty as hell.

V1:

V2:

 

[abnegation]

Those assignments will be on their way once I get some more things together. I should speak with moments too, but feel free to keep doing older ones guys! And now for some crit.

I did 1 assignment today.

Assignment 1

Spoiler:

How is it?

Alright, first of all I know how limited you are when it comes to graphics because you use elements, which does not have quite as many options and power. So I shall try not be too photoshop specific. Anyway, first thing I notice is that there was not much effort put into blending your focal. You focal needs to be both above and below some effects in this case. You should have also tried to sharpen your focal point and given it some more quality and definition. Remember, you need to think about what the viewers of your tag are looking at and that part needs to be interesting. What you've done is put all effects behind your render (bar the clipping mask type thing), and you've done nothing to make your render more interesting and made no attempt to blend the focal with your effects or make them work together. So what I recommend is making some of your effects go above the render and not just attracting attention to the background.

Next what I'll say is that your effects could be better. They just seem like some C4D's which were thrown in and had their opacity lowered. You need to work on making the effects work with the direction of flow created by the render, which you have not done here. See what way the action of your render is going in? towards the bottom left of the tag, that's the direction your effects need to follow. You need to add more effects in the background also, or at least some form of texture to give the overall tag some more depth which is not present currently. The tag lacks any sense of depth, I can see the background fill, and the two C4D's on top, then the render. I shouldn't really be able to imagine your .PSD layers and only see a couple. You need to apply more effects or texture through adding more C4D's, textures, or brushing to apply some depth, then working with the dodging and burning tools. Also the glow effect behind the render is very off putting, too heavy and uneeded. You need to apply a realistic sense of lighting to your work as opposed to making the render glow, it falls dead and makes the tag look even more shallow.

Also worth a mention is that your colours aren't the best, there is a need for less of them. The background colour does not go with the render or the effects. Try using some colour adjustments to bring these together. The composition of your tag is pretty week due to things I've mentioned. Avoid reducing the opacity of C4D's like that. It tends to look pretty tacky, sometimes it's necessary, but usually reducing C4D opacity is a very obvious effect that stands out and distracts the eye. It just doesn't look all that well. So try thing about and learn more about the fundamentals of a tag, have a look at the graphics lounge's first post, which will have some explanation of these things.

I haven't made a tag in about a month, so I'm rusty as hell.

Just gonna go with your v.2, since it looks a little more refined. I'll start out by saying it's not a bad tag. It's just got a little rust in it, which is due to you not doing so much graphics as you say. Overall the tag is a little messy, and the flow could be better. The colours are pretty decent and everything looks pretty high quality. But let me get into further detail.

I think the canvas size is a little too large, the render is a little too small in comparative to the overall size of the tag. You should make it a little shorter and quite a bit less wide. I think the render would look better if there was more of the face as opposed to the body, as we see far too much of the bottom of the stock. This is just where you need to work on your stock/render positioning. Give us more face than body as here, it is the more detailed part of your focal point and what the viewer will be concentrating on.

Avoid having too many lighting points, so just keep the one left of the focal's arm, and possibly make that red jewel on the render glow a bit. That would be an interesting effect, just don't let it distract from the lighting too much. So remove those floating orbs on the right.

I think there needs to be more effects coming above the render, more C4D's, or at least put some of the lower ones above the render. The tag lacks a little in depth, there's more of it on the far left than right, and you need to be more consistent. Get more detailed C4D's as these ones are looking a little flat, and more like shapes. As I said, you have some nice colours going on here which work quite well. So work on the sizing of the tag, move your stock a little, work with blending it a bit more, fix up that lighting and above all try to add a little depth and you're in for a much better tag. But as it is, it's pretty good, just keep working on it.