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seeker June 23rd, 2011 11:07 AM

Graphics School
 
Profile
Massimo
Hi, I'm Moments
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee207/mattimogalli/emmaswamp.png
Indecisive and grounded, self proclaimed "artsy fartsy," fond of all things arty. I frequently over think, about everything but enjoy picking apart the puzzles of life. I like inquiring and constantly questioning and am impervious to annoyance. Wishful chromophobe.
Profile
Gavin
Hi, I'm Abnegation
http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff429/Iconsya/17.png
I'm Gav and I am changing the beauty standards one sequin at a time. Style expert, fashion blogger, teen icon and a magazine junkie who stays up way too late. I am always rooting for the under dog and I like to push the envelope. Conformity is boring. Stop Wishing; Start Being.

Graphics School

Welcome to the Graphics & Photography graphics school. Brought to you by moments. & Abnegation. This school was set up to help aspiring graphics artists and even those with good knowledge of the medium, to become better designers and artists.

In this school we invite members of all ability in the area of graphics to join. Whether you are a beginner or advanced, you will always have a place here. Every now and then, myself and moments will be assigning you guys some tasks and well, I guess you could say, homework, for you to do. It's always going to be optional. But to get the most out of the school, the more you do, the better! We will then see your outcomes and tell you how you could improve on your work. In addition to this, you can show us pieces which you like and ask us how you could possibly achieve the same sort of effects. We will help you with the best of our knowledge.
Basically, we're going to be very open about everything and help you as much as we can. So to join, simply read the rules, then fill out the application form to apply. So enjoy the school guys, and remember, all members of all abilities are allowed to join.




Application Form

  1. What name you go by:
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: Optional
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school:
  4. Describe your experience with graphics:
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why:
  6. What you think you need to improve on:
Members List
Abnegation - 23rd of June 2011
moments. - 23rd of June 2011
Toujours - 23rd of June 2011
Xyrin - 23rd of June 2011
Roswell - 24th of June 2011
Alternative - 24th of June 2011
Charizard★ - 24th of June 2011
Speed - 24th of June 2011
zZJoennZz - 24th of June 2011
Karpman - 24th of June 2011
Scarf- 24th of June 2011
Jake♫ - 24th of June 2011
flamz321 - 25th of June 2011
mzmingle - 25th of June 2011
TheSmartOne - 25th of June 2011
Ink Heart - 26th of June 2011
TwilightBlade - 14th of July 2011
*Firestar* - 17th of July 2011
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Rules



------------------✄-------------------

What you may do here

In the graphics school, you may sign up, and from there you can participate in assignments and tasks that the tutors give you. You may also post graphics you like and you may ask how they are made or you can ask how to do a particular effect for example. You may post graphics you made and tutors can help you improve them, but remember that you may do this in your gallery as well as the graphics rating thread and shouldn't be done too often. Every now and then we shall host competitions for emblems. Members may comment on each other's work, but main critique in this thread should only be left to the tutors. However, if you guys would like to critique their work, check to see if they uploaded their work to their gallery or the graphics rating thread.

Most of all, this is for fun, and to help you all improve your work, including ourselves of course, the tutors will also join in the tasks from time to time.

Got any ideas or suggestions? Feel free to let us know!

Past Assignments


Upon joining our school, feel free to do any of the following assignments that have been issued in the past.

First Assignment
Second Assignment


Give me some tickets and I'll take you somewhere fancy
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Oryx June 23rd, 2011 11:21 AM

  1. What name you go by: Toujours
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: N/A
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: I've always been interested in graphics but have no idea where to start looking. It would be nice to have some direction, instead of just playing with every setting I have on GIMP until I find a result I like.
  4. Describe your experience with graphics: Um...very very little.
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why:
    http://i53.*.com/2rn9fcz.png That avatar came from this image. I really like how the colors came out on that, and the positioning of it. Not great I know, that's why I'm here :P
  6. What you think you need to improve on: I honestly have heard of C4Ds and stuff but have no idea how to use them. I can just stumble blindly into cool-looking avatars too, but it's not that way with anything bigger so some guidance on tags and such would be nice. (:

seeker June 23rd, 2011 11:24 AM

Alrighty Toujours, welcome to the graphics school buddy. First off, I shall put you on the members list. And after reading your introduction, I guess there's a few things you need some help with as you say. I suppose you're more interested in making icons? If so, my first recommendation would be to obtain photoshop since it is far better when it comes to making icons.

C4D's are fun to use with tags, but there are plenty of tutorials you could use for those. But have you attempted to use them in a tag as of yet?

Oryx June 23rd, 2011 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abnegation (Post 6709595)
Alrighty Toujours, welcome to the graphics school buddy. First off, I shall put you on the members list. And after reading your introduction, I guess there's a few things you need some help with as you say. I suppose you're more interested in making icons? If so, my first recommendation would be to obtain photoshop since it is far better when it comes to making icons.

C4D's are fun to use with tags, but there are plenty of tutorials you could use for those. But have you attempted to use them in a tag as of yet?

I'm interested in both icons and tags, I just feel like icons are...easier so I started playing around with those. xD I think I have Photoshop now, depending on the...um, totally legal keys. >_>;

I looked up how to use C4Ds but I got completely lost and I don't even have a starting point on making tags to begin with, so I had no idea what to do and gave up. :x

Xyrin June 23rd, 2011 12:23 PM

1. What name you go by: Xyrin or Tanner
2. Link to your gallery on PC: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=253029
3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: Because I want to get better and don't usually get any Critique.
4. Describe your experience with graphics: I've been making tags for about a month but I still can't make anything reasonable without a tutorial.
5. What you feel is your best piece and why: I keep getting told that this is my best tag but I like this one more. I like my lighting and everything but it still isn't good. xD For icons I like this one the most even though it was bad quality.
6. What you think you need to improve on: Flow for the tags and C4D's I guess.

Eucliffe June 23rd, 2011 6:40 PM

  1. What name you go by: Ros, Lucia
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: Don't have one on PC, buttt... I am part of an icon community with some friends.
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: Because I'm not good at adding textures or lighting or making tags look good in general.
  4. Describe your experience with graphics: I've used Gimp for a year, PS for almost a year, and I've made a lot of icons and some tags. However, a lot of the time people don't really like my tags as much as they like my icons, and so I haven't been able to make any themes of my own using custom-made tags.
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why:
    http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o249/MewTamao/PokeCommunity%20Stuff/Yuyuko-1.png
    Goes to show how much confidence I have. Although this is one of my earlier-made tags with PS, I really like how it turned out (even though I used a stock, too).
  6. What you think you need to improve on: As I said, I'm not good at making tags in general, and I need help with lighting and textures. Edit: Oh, and anything regarding text on graphics.

Alternative June 23rd, 2011 7:11 PM

What name you go by:
Alternative, Alt, Blake, or whatever you think fits.

Link to your gallery on PC:
Marshall D. Teach

Why you would like to join the graphics school:
I've got a high passion for graphic design, and even learning the smallest things such as good colouring, and nice effects in tags and stuff can help you tackle big projects later on in life

Describe your experience with graphics:
Weill I was introduced to Photoshop around March last year, which is when I started to use it for school and stuff. I guess I haven't been fully influenced by it in terms of icons, tags until maybe the beginning of the year.

What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/berramy-3.png

I think it's probably my best piece because I was actually trying to use lots of different effects in the piece, such as C4Ds, colourization, and so forth. I think with all the aid that I received while making it pulled off and came out as a very nice piece.


What you think you need to improve on:
C4D usage and just adding effects to my pieces in general, such as smudging, other cool things and so forth. I think I'm down with at least positioning and maybe colour.

Charizard★ June 23rd, 2011 7:13 PM

  1. What name you go by: Nature, Niraj
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: Here
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: So I can learn how to create better icons/avatars and to learn how to make banners/signatures.
  4. Describe your experience with graphics: A bit, not too much. I've messed around with Gimp here and there to create some thing, but none of them seem to be good.
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why:
    http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af347/percentage_/top-1.png It just feels like it goes together well, and the lighting looks like it works a bit.
  6. What you think you need to improve on: How it flows, fit together, lighting, texture usage.

moments. June 23rd, 2011 7:59 PM

Welcome to all those new students, I'm pretty impressed with the number of members who've posted here already, so I look forward to working with you guys down the track, hopefully I can be of help / teach you all at least one thing new!

So a lot of you have been asking specifically with learning how to use textures. Because I have been known to abuse textures in my pieces (:P) how many of you would be interested in me posting an updated texture pack with a tutorial on using different kinds of textures? In the mean time, I released this texture pack a while ago so you can have a look at and play around until I get a tutorial done.

Speed June 23rd, 2011 8:24 PM

What name you go by:Speed or Julian
Link to your gallery on PC: Here
Why you would like to join the graphics school:To improve in graphics, and get more into it.
Describe your experience with graphics: I've done gfx for a while, but I never thought I was really good at it, so I stopped, then got interested in it again.
What you feel is your best piece and why:http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/Speed_046/ritasigtov-1.png
I think I got almost everything right with this tag, especially colors, which I think is my weakest point.
What you think you need to improve on:Colors, definitely

zZJoennZz June 24th, 2011 1:45 AM

What name you go by: zZJoennZz
Link to your gallery on PC: Nothing yet.
Why you would like to join the graphics school: I want to learn more for GFX like brushes abstract and more from scratch.
Describe your experience with graphics: I'm 1 year in graphics photoshop, and I won some GFX battle.
What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://gfxf.net/di-9S5H.png
This is what I feel because vibrance and I really like this piece.
What you think you need to improve on: Colors, Depth, and C4D Usage.

champagnepapi June 24th, 2011 1:50 AM

What name you go by: Karpman or Karp
Link to your gallery on PC: N/A
Why you would like to join the graphics school: To learn how to make tags and improve with my icons.
Describe your experience with graphics: I've been making icons for a month, maybe 2 months.
What you feel is your best piece and why: http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae289/CKmaster/BLXRS.png I really like how the colors on it came out, not sure exactly how to put it into words, but I like it. I know it's not 100x100, but most of my better icons are 150x150, since my main motivation to make them is to use them as avatars, so hopefully that can change, as well.
What you think you need to improve on: Everything? I'm pretty much a novice.

seeker June 24th, 2011 8:42 AM

To those of you guys who already signed up before the posts I have quoted, welcome to the graphics school! I shall be adding you all to the list, and you can take moments' suggestion :]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speed (Post 6710422)
What name you go by:Speed or Julian
Link to your gallery on PC: Here
Why you would like to join the graphics school:To improve in graphics, and get more into it.
Describe your experience with graphics: I've done gfx for a while, but I never thought I was really good at it, so I stopped, then got interested in it again.
What you feel is your best piece and why:http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/Speed_046/ritasigtov-1.png
I think I got almost everything right with this tag, especially colors, which I think is my weakest point.
What you think you need to improve on:Colors, definitely

First of all, welcome to the school. But, if what you want to improve colours, my suggestion to people is always to do a little practice and try things you wouldn't normally do. From personal experience, I decided to go completely away from the original colours on some of my stocks and not take the obvious option. However, to understand how colour works, you need to work with contrast. For example, in your tag here, it is quite good, but like all pieces, it can be improved in some places. I will concentrate on colour though, you've chosen to go mostly with red as the strongest and deepest colour, while yellow is your brightest. And those are the strongest colours in your tag. Which is good, however, overall you've used the colours a little too much and this adds a little monotone to your tag. So you need to experiment with using a few extra colours and making them flow well. Colours are an extremely hard thing to master in graphics. But work with some gradient maps, as well as using the usual selective colour, and experimenting with curves can also be a good way to diverge from the obvious too. So for your next tag, work on these few things. Any questions on these suggestions dude?


Quote:

Originally Posted by zZJoennZz (Post 6710716)
What name you go by: zZJoennZz
Link to your gallery on PC: Nothing yet.
Why you would like to join the graphics school: I want to learn more for GFX like brushes abstract and more from scratch.
Describe your experience with graphics: I'm 1 year in graphics photoshop, and I won some GFX battle.
What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://gfxf.net/di-9S5H.png
This is what I feel because vibrance and I really like this piece.
What you think you need to improve on: Colors, Depth, and C4D Usage.

Well if you're thinking of doing more from scratch, I actually recommend doing some large pieces first, so your have more room to work with. Scratch tags are extremely difficult to pull off at times. But have you ever tried drawing what you wish to do? Often that can be a great way to start with doing these types of work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karpman (Post 6710719)
What name you go by: Karpman or Karp
Link to your gallery on PC: N/A
Why you would like to join the graphics school: To learn how to make tags and improve with my icons.
Describe your experience with graphics: I've been making icons for a month, maybe 2 months.
What you feel is your best piece and why: http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae289/CKmaster/BLXRS.png I really like how the colors on it came out, not sure exactly how to put it into words, but I like it. I know it's not 100x100, but most of my better icons are 150x150, since my main motivation to make them is to use them as avatars, so hopefully that can change, as well.
What you think you need to improve on: Everything? I'm pretty much a novice.

Well, why don't you start by making some icons in 100x100 or by making a tag and we can help you out? The main things to do as a beginner is not to quit. It can be tough to get to a stage where you're very happy with your work and other people are too. But honestly, it's worth it, just have perseverance. Have you tried any tutorials, or see any pieces you would like to be able to do so we could point you in the right direction?

At any rate, thanks for joining guys, happy to see so many enthusiasts. Remember, feel free to suggest things or ask any questions. If you have any ideas for competitions we could host in the graphics school, let either Massimo or I know and we'd be happy to take your suggestion and we'll let you guys decide on whether you'd like to do it or not!

Esper June 24th, 2011 9:26 AM

1. What name you go by: Scarf

2. Link to your gallery on PC: Not the right kind of gallery.

3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: to make pretty signatures and generally learn new things.

4. Describe your experience with graphics: I've played around with photoshop, but usually just to work with colors since I'm pretty exclusively a pixel person.

5. What you feel is your best piece and why: I don't really have any graphics work. I have this old signature, but I think all I really did was resize it and add a border.
http://i51.*.com/aysry9.png
What a sweet border that is! Dayum!

6. What you think you need to improve on:
Um, all of the above? I'm not really sure where to start.

Oryx June 24th, 2011 9:28 AM

Maybe in the first post you can link to some good beginner tutorials to work on?

Jake♫ June 24th, 2011 10:05 AM

What name you go by: Jake

Link to your gallery on PC: Yeah...no =3

Why you would like to join the graphics school: It's been a LONG while since I've been into graphics and I really want to get back into them. I've always had issues trying out new styles and once I saw something I did I liked I just repeated it OVER and OVER again. I guess I need to come back into it and find ways to be more creative.

Describe your experience with graphics: I started sometime in 2006 or 2007, back when grunge tags were kiind of the "it" thing to do. I kept going through probably 2008, where I just dead stopped. I picked it back up here at PC a few times but the things I pumped out just weren't to my liking.

What you feel is your best piece and why: http://i11.*.com/339stbb.png
This is when I really feel like I was at the top of my game back in the day. I feel like I had the composition down really well, the lighting was good, and the usage of effects didn't overflow the focal or draw away from it too much. Probably my best tag imo.

What you think you need to improve on: Variety is the biggest thing for me. Properly using the smudge tool has always been iffy for me as well. Textures is something I've never really incorporated that much into my work that I'd really like to (And I'm not really counting scan lines from way back when XD).

seeker June 24th, 2011 1:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarf (Post 6711203)
1. What name you go by: Scarf

2. Link to your gallery on PC: Not the right kind of gallery.

3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: to make pretty signatures and generally learn new things.

4. Describe your experience with graphics: I've played around with photoshop, but usually just to work with colors since I'm pretty exclusively a pixel person.

5. What you feel is your best piece and why: I don't really have any graphics work. I have this old signature, but I think all I really did was resize it and add a border.
http://i51.*.com/aysry9.png
What a sweet border that is! Dayum!

6. What you think you need to improve on:
Um, all of the above? I'm not really sure where to start.

Well it's a good thing you have photoshop, which is already going to be of benefit to your progress. I do recommend reading the first post here, for some terminology and such which will help you a great deal, hopefully. Albeit, I did write it quite a while ago so it may be in need of a refresh. But have a look and it might lead you to where you want to begin. And welcome to the school of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toujours (Post 6711209)
Maybe in the first post you can link to some good beginner tutorials to work on?

Not a bad idea, but this thread has some useful things in it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake♫ (Post 6711289)
What name you go by: Jake

Link to your gallery on PC: Yeah...no =3

Why you would like to join the graphics school: It's been a LONG while since I've been into graphics and I really want to get back into them. I've always had issues trying out new styles and once I saw something I did I liked I just repeated it OVER and OVER again. I guess I need to come back into it and find ways to be more creative.

Describe your experience with graphics: I started sometime in 2006 or 2007, back when grunge tags were kiind of the "it" thing to do. I kept going through probably 2008, where I just dead stopped. I picked it back up here at PC a few times but the things I pumped out just weren't to my liking.

What you feel is your best piece and why: http://i11.*.com/339stbb.png
This is when I really feel like I was at the top of my game back in the day. I feel like I had the composition down really well, the lighting was good, and the usage of effects didn't overflow the focal or draw away from it too much. Probably my best tag imo.

What you think you need to improve on: Variety is the biggest thing for me. Properly using the smudge tool has always been iffy for me as well. Textures is something I've never really incorporated that much into my work that I'd really like to (And I'm not really counting scan lines from way back when XD).

Hey well, you've got the right mentality with what you wish to do. Smudge tags are pretty fun to do, and there's some good tutorials out there if you look in the right places. Have a look in the thread I linked above in this post. But once you get back into graphics, things will start coming back to you, it's just a matter of doing new work and getting into the swing of it. Every time I go into a slump, it takes me ages to come back, but I find myself having a lot of fun when I do. And welcome to the school of course.

Alternative June 24th, 2011 7:20 PM

If there's one thing I would really love to learn is typography, mostly in tags and graphics of the like. I know you're good at that Gavin, and I know Massimo is awesome at just choosing the right font, so that's a big skill I would love to develop when it comes to graphics. Maybe one of you could write something up on that?

Also should I be posting graphics here? I've been making a few things and wouldn't mind presenting them for reviewing, and just seeing what aspects I should learn to improve on. :)

seeker June 25th, 2011 2:52 AM

Well, for typography, it's a huuuuge huge aspect of graphics. You need to learn a whole lot of stuff to get good at it. In my college course there's a whole module for just typography. But I could do a tutorial, which I might do today or some time soon. But the first thing you've got to know with typography and tags is, do not make the text a complete new focal. Meaning that it shouldn't be stuck in a corner or an edge somewhere. If you notice my tags or massimo's, the text is usually near the focal as text is very easily misplaced and you don't want to make it into a while new focal.

Yes you may post your graphics here, but remember you have the graphics rating thread and your gallery, if you're getting no luck there, feel free to post it here dude.

Alternative June 25th, 2011 3:53 AM

Well in all I meant just using text in graphics, which is probably one of my biggest struggles when it comes to making a tag. I think I've got positioning and font down, but just something about using certain colours, what to use to try and bring it out some more. As you can see with this piece here the text is weird with it's colouring. I tried using white and black, but that just didn't look all good either.

moments. June 25th, 2011 5:28 AM

Just in regards to typography in general, and in relation to your signature's tag Alternative, whenever I am adding text to my piece, I try out a ridiculous amount of fonts to find the one which looks good on that piece. Yes, you might have a particular style in mind, or even a specific font, but still I urge you all to try out as many as you can, because chances are, you will find one that just looks better, even if marginally.

With that tag of yours Alternative, you've got the text over a busy area, (neck of guitar / hand) which makes it harder to see, plus it is down the bottom, away from the focal point, which would be the face or the strumming hand. If it were my piece, I would've moved the text up to around the middle of the vertical axis and a tiny bit more right of where it is now so perhaps one and a bit letters are over his bicep. Again, it's really trial and error to find the best spot, but if you put it there in a solid white, and then used a chunkier font, possibly just add bold, I can imagine it looking a bit more rounded.

Also, don't be afraid to use those simple fonts, you don't always have to use a different font for every piece, and you definitely don't need to find sort of decorative / obscure ones. Sometimes decorative ones do look good, but generally I find if you have a busy piece, with effects and busy background, generally a solid, simple font is safer and can look more effective. Remember, the typography isn't the focal point, it just needs to support it and fill some empty space.

Let's hope Gav makes that tutorial, and I will try and put together a comparison tutorial thing comparing one tag with different fonts / colours and positioning to show you how to find the best combination for typography and whatnot.

flamz321 June 25th, 2011 5:45 AM

What name you go by: Flamz
Link to your gallery on PC: N/A
Why you would like to join the graphics school: To get better at graphical design
Describe your experience with graphics: I just mess around with photoshop sometimes
What you feel is your best piece and why:My title screens for my game Pokemon Cobalt because I actually kinda tried :P
What you think you need to improve on:Anything you can teach me

mzmingle June 25th, 2011 7:33 AM

  1. What name you go by: mizzy
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: N/A
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: I would love to learn graphics :D
  4. Describe your experience with graphics: I have started getting pictures and making them glow etc. but thats it. I use Paint.NET
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why: COMING SOON
  6. What you think you need to improve on: I don't really know how to do any effects, just make them glow.
http://i56.*.com/2h5slxu.png here, these three are just glows, i don't know whT else to do.

Aquacorde June 25th, 2011 8:46 AM

What name you go by: Anna

Link to your gallery on PC: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=253445

Why you would like to join the graphics school: I feel like working basically by myself isn't going to help me much. This could be a fun way to learn with other people and pick up a few things.

Describe your experience with graphics: Umm, I started doing graphics only a short time ago, mainly with icons and such because I am a self-sufficient person and like to make everything that I use in my sig and avatar. I love icons and feel I am fairly good at them, but I'm not-so-great at tags and it frustrates me.

What you feel is your best piece and why: http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i395/misssmartsies/tags/evilteamT001.png or http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i395/misssmartsies/tags/jackT01.png
The first one is just nice and light and I feel like I used effects pretty well and I do like the background. The second is my most recent one and I love it because it's Jack and I think the coloring is good. And I feel like I finally used the flow of the thing fairly well.

What you think you need to improve on: Tagging. How things come together and what kinds of effects, how to use C4Ds and smudging/blurring better, and those kinds of things. And of course typography because that's hard.

Oryx June 25th, 2011 11:12 PM

So there was this picture that I thought could be really good as some kind of tag, and I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but not exactly, and since I'm here I thought I would try it and get some critique on it. xD I'm planning on adding words to it (haven't decided yet what), but I wanted to get critique before I did that on the picture itself so I could make it better. Stock is here.

http://i51.*.com/2wmgoir.png

:x So, advice?

Edit: Looking at it now, I think I'm going to move the left starry part up some...the line that the right part starts just kinda breaks. xD

moments. June 26th, 2011 6:39 PM

Regarding all the people mentioned, if I sound harsh, I don't mean to be, it's just more productive, I find at least, if I tell you what could use work rather than just being flowery and praising everything. Nobody learns from comments like those. So yeah, I'm not intending to be mean or nasty, just trying to help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamz321 (Post 6712496)
What name you go by: Flamz

Welcome to the school. The kind of graphic you've got in your signature are really quite simple, did you want to learn about tags and stuff with more effects and colours and stuff? If you just want to keep learning userbars, you've pretty much got it all down, but yeah.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mzmingle (Post 6712572)
  1. What name you go by: mizzy
  2. What you think you need to improve on: I don't really know how to do any effects, just make them glow.
http://i56.*.com/2h5slxu.png here, these three are just glows, i don't know whT else to do.

Firstly, if you are only going to be using Paint.net, it is going to be hard for us to teach you much because we both use Photoshop, and I don't know about Gav, but I've never used Paint.net in my life, so I don't actually know what you can do on there. You can stay enrolled and just take the general sort of tips from us and apply them to paint.net, but we won't be able to give you many specific tips and tricks unfortunately...
Regarding the icons though, those ones are all washed out when you made them glow. Generally in an icon, you should try and make the colours more vibrant and bright. I don't know how or if you can do that on Paint.net, but yeah.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSmartOne (Post 6712669)
What name you go by: Anna
Link to your gallery on PC: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=253445

What you feel is your best piece and why: http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i395/misssmartsies/tags/jackT01.png
The second is my most recent one and I love it because it's Jack and I think the coloring is good. And I feel like I finally used the flow of the thing fairly well.

I'll just comment on the second tag (jackT01.png) because I feel it is a better tag than the other one. :P
So firstly, you definitely have done a good job of creating flow with the C4Ds.
The first thing I would tweak would be some colour alterations, only because it is quite monotonous and all just blue, except for the guy. If you are using Photoshop, you can press Ctrl+U or Command+U (windows or mac) to bring up the hue/saturation menu where you change the colours of C4Ds or smudging or other elements. Then try and invite new colours in, not just crazy random colours, but like some white, perhaps black and some different shades of blue just to make it a little more interesting.

Lastly, I'm assuming you have done little to no colour adjustments. This is a step everybody MUST do for every tag! The stock and effects may look good without any, but you can always make it better, even with just a few adjustments. If you know how to use gradient maps, they will help blend the focal into the background and effects, especially those sort of 1px white lines around parts of the stock that didn't get rendered properly. Also play around with Curves and Selective Colouring.

So yeah, quite a good tag, the only real changes that need making are some colour adjustments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toujours (Post 6713883)

http://i51.*.com/2wmgoir.png

:x So, advice?

Edit: Looking at it now, I think I'm going to move the left starry part up some...the line that the right part starts just kinda breaks. xD

So first off, you have chosen a fairly difficult stock to work with as it doesn't give you many options in terms of flow. However, you have done a great job of tweaking the contrast/colours on the stock and it does look much better from the original!

First of all, the tag is too simple and needs some more elements to really make it good eye candy. :P
So yeah, regarding the star effects which I am assuming are brushes, they look quite low quality, and could go some sharpening, and also the colours are quite bland and monotonous. As a general tip, it helps to take colours directly from the stock, which it looks like you did (from the background) however I would've advised you to take from the girl herself. Brushing with black and orange from her hair would've been much more dynamic and interesting.
Also, when adding effects, you need to add some in the background, which you have done as it goes 'behind' her, however you also need to go in front of the focal just a little bit to help blend it together and just look a little better. So just around the bottom of the tag and moving towards her shoulders could have a few effects on top of them without completely covering.

So yeah, very good attempt, but you might've chosen a stock that only made your job a lot harder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ink Heart (Post 6714079)
1. What name you go by: Ink Heart, Ink, Inky..

5. What you feel is your best piece and why: Probably this one.. Because it's my first complete work without any actual guides to help me, and well.. I got many likes on it on Facebook, lol. xD But, I do know that I have to improve on it, since I am not quite good.

Ok well first of all as a MUST DO, if you are making a piece that you want to post online, make the format .png instead of .jpg. It keeps better quality online. If you are printing or anything other than posting online, .jpg is the one to use.

So yeah, a fairly simple piece, I would've mixed up the colours a little bit, because you've got the one shade of purple on different opacities, where you could have all different shades of purple, perhaps some black and white in there which would look good with the skulls and definitely make the text stand out more. Regarding the text, it feels a little clunky with the text on an angle, and just feels a little messy. I'd go with a rectangle with low opacity under the text to make it stand out more, then a straight aligned black or white text.

Also, just with ideas you could try and use elements which highlight what you've said in the writing. Maybe some pictures of anime characters or some gaming references just because I'm afraid it does look a bit like random shapes and brushes put all over.

Nevertheless, a very good early attempt and you definitely have the basics down in Photoshop, so hopefully you can learn something from here.

Oryx June 26th, 2011 8:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moments. (Post 6715209)
So first off, you have chosen a fairly difficult stock to work with as it doesn't give you many options in terms of flow. However, you have done a great job of tweaking the contrast/colours on the stock and it does look much better from the original!

First of all, the tag is too simple and needs some more elements to really make it good eye candy. :P
So yeah, regarding the star effects which I am assuming are brushes, they look quite low quality, and could go some sharpening, and also the colours are quite bland and monotonous. As a general tip, it helps to take colours directly from the stock, which it looks like you did (from the background) however I would've advised you to take from the girl herself. Brushing with black and orange from her hair would've been much more dynamic and interesting.
Also, when adding effects, you need to add some in the background, which you have done as it goes 'behind' her, however you also need to go in front of the focal just a little bit to help blend it together and just look a little better. So just around the bottom of the tag and moving towards her shoulders could have a few effects on top of them without completely covering.

So yeah, very good attempt, but you might've chosen a stock that only made your job a lot harder.

Y U SO MEAN

But thanks. :3 The Sharpen tool for Photoshop is really strange tbh, I like the slider on GIMP better xD;; But is this any better?

http://i56.*.com/sgpiet.png

seeker June 27th, 2011 9:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toujours (Post 6715329)


Y U SO MEAN

But thanks. :3 The Sharpen tool for Photoshop is really strange tbh, I like the slider on GIMP better xD;; But is this any better?

http://i56.*.com/sgpiet.png

I'm sure moments might pop in and add his comments, but I'll just throw out my opinions here too. Firstly, brushes tend to be quite low quality. As you can see they're quite blurry, which you could make better by sharpening the layer you brushed on. The piece lacks a little depth too and I think that this still looks like a WIP as you need to add a few more effects to fill out the tag. Try adding some more colour edits and gradient maps also.

Alternative June 30th, 2011 8:47 PM

I had a graphics block. x(

Anyway, I had taken on the major advice of choosing a focal point in a stock/render and focusing on that by putting text and stuff there. I'm on another forum which I have a graphics shop there and had a request which I took on some advice about the focal point. I have been using more effect C4Ds and I came out with a result which I really do like myself. I used more lighting and tried to use more of a focal point for this, so it's not like my normal style.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/toonlink.png

Just a question though, are any of you good with smudging? I think I'm okay at it, but not too great, and I would love to get better at it. :)

seeker July 1st, 2011 3:57 AM

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/toonlink.png

Right, well what I want to say first off is, that the text is in a corner. Which is bad, the focal point is no where to be seen really. I think the focal point happens to be his sword and the text and it's just very messy. But this tag, by large, is a clash of style. A bad thing to do is to mix 3D effects and such, with a render like this which is very much 2D. If I were to have used this stock I actually would have went with a smudge tag. I am able to smudge, but it's something I don't do often, however smudge tags are something you need to work on as every artist finds their own way to do it. I would recommend going in a complete new direction with that render. Not to mention that you have some rough, pixelated edges that came out. It's not an easy render to work with, but it's not something you should practice C4D's with. Game renders and IRL stocks are your best bet when you use these sort of effects.

Regardless, to help you with smudging I have a few places you can go. I highly recommend this tutorial for learning the basics of smudging. However, this might require you to download some new brushes. This tutorial really goes down to the bone on complete smudging glory, their outcome is a little monotone, but the approach is correct, I recommend going with more contrast and different colours. This tutorial is actually quite good, they failed to make the stock work with the tag, but this would be a nice way to actually learn to do smudge tags from scratch.

So work on those few things and see what you come up with. I'm thinking of giving an assignment soon, if anyone is interested?

Renyui! July 3rd, 2011 3:42 AM

What name you go by: Rowan, Renyui, whatever you feel you can call me.
Why you would like to join the graphics school: School holidays, was stalking PC, got bored of not being at school i guess?
Describe your experience with graphics: I've been going since early '08 on PC, i believe moments remembers me? I hope that's enough, I've been kind of wanting to get back into the good ol' days.
What you feel is your best piece and why: To be honest, I don't really know what the standards are here, so here's one of the most recent on my photobucket
What you think you need to improve on:I don't know, I haven't done this in a while, maybe someone could tell me? Thanks!

I hope it's not too late to apply, thanks guise !

derozio July 3rd, 2011 5:47 AM

What name you go by: Derozio, Derodero or Vikalp. Vik would be fine too. Anything, really! XD;
Why you would like to join the graphics school: To improve. I wanna get better at places where I suck. Like smudging, text and stuff?
Describe your experience with graphics: Been doing gfx for two years now. Started out with some VERY ugly works but I've gotten decent at it. :)
What you feel is your best piece and why: Hmm, I guess it'd be this: http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab183/ASC303/ChesterTag.png, this: http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab183/ASC303/DanteTagFinal1.png or this: http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab183/ASC303/HibariTag12.png. Confused between these three. First because..well, it is my first RL tag which looks really good, imo. Dante tag because it is one of my only few works where I used a render and did all the effects in the background myself. I usually work with stocks. :P; And as for the third tag..well, I like the depth, colors and the simplicity of the tag.
What you think you need to improve on: Smudging and the effects department, I guess. And I suck at RL tags. I'd wanna improve on 'em too! Oh oh, and the text placement thing! I suck at that too! xoxo

Alternative July 3rd, 2011 6:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abnegation (Post 6721807)
So work on those few things and see what you come up with. I'm thinking of giving an assignment soon, if anyone is interested?

That'd be nice I guess. Most people have been asking about effects and how textures should be used, so maybe something based on that? Just explain how it should be done and set something based on just getting that effect out.


Aside from that I've been working on something else. :)

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/firework.png

It's meant to be a SotW for somewhere else but it doesn't hurt to get some critique in. I really focused this time on more colour and bringing out the best in it, and also text placement, which is meant to be where the fireworks are coming out from. I think it turned out nice, except for that clipping mask I used. I should probably move that somewhere. :P

moments. July 3rd, 2011 7:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alternative (Post 6726803)

Ok, first of all, that clipping mask with her face is a nono. I know it's like a fad, but I seriously don't see the point in duplicating a focal point which just draws attention. If you want it, you could like desaturate it, or distort the edges using filters or do something to make it more of an effect that just a distraction for the eyes. Sorry if that was harsh, I just really hate it when people do it. :P

Anyways, text is really good! The only thing I would change, is to move it a little bit lower. Currently it is bang in the middle of the vertical axis, and it sits funny because of something to do with eyes seeing things just under the middle more aesthetically pleasing, or seeing that as the middle or something, so yeah, try and avoid going for the very middle, but it just needs to be moved down a little bit, perhaps like 10~ pixels, and that should just sit a little better. You might have to move it to the right a little as well if it is obstructed by Katy's shoulder, but yeah, mostly down. Other than that, good font choices, good positioning in relation to the focal, and good colouring and stuff.

The last thing I would advise is some more dynamic lighting because it just feels a little bit flat to me. Basically what you want is almost a vignette, so using the burn tool, or just brushing solid black with a soft brush and putting the layer on Soft Light, go around the sort of the areas furthest from the focal, so that top right corner, a little bit in the bottom left as well. And then, using the dodge tool, and probably a nice big 100px~ soft brush, dodge around her face and where the fireworks are coming from. This should just make it pop.

I might do a tutorial on lighting and using it to create both depth and pop in pieces, because I am willing to bet a lot that barely anybody here adds this kind of lighting in their pieces.

Alternative July 3rd, 2011 7:19 PM

I knew those clipping masks were out of place, I don't even know why I did it. :x But I took on your advice and it looks so much better than it already did, especially now that it doesn't have that lame clipping mask. I wasn't too sure on the dodging though, but I added it in. :)

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/firework-1.png

Jake♫ July 5th, 2011 3:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abnegation (Post 6721807)
I'm thinking of giving an assignment soon, if anyone is interested?

I'd love an assignment, it gives me an easy segue back into doing graphics.

Alternative July 8th, 2011 8:21 AM

Wait a minute, I already posted about what sort of assignment you could give, it'd be a waste of time to say it again. :P

Anyway, I've been on a bit of a graphics block as of late, which totally sucks I know, so I went anc checked out some tutorials that I could follow. I found one which I didn't mind, and made a signature based upon it. I just want to know what you guys think of it. The tutorial really went over fractals, so that was the focus. :)

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/cobrastarship.png

TwilightBlade July 14th, 2011 8:39 AM

What name you go by: Twilight, Blade, TB

Link to your gallery on PC: n/a

Why you would like to join the graphics school: I don't want my progress so far to go to waste. I also have basic knowledge of my main gfx program. There's little reason to not try and improve my work. ^^

Describe your experience with graphics: I've played with Photoshop CS2 for about 5 years. I've upgraded to Photoshop CS5 and I'm just starting to explore its new features. I do lack motivation to create banners. I often make banners like, once a month on average. I've skimmed through tons of tutorials.

What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/ShiningAngelX/Grafix/metalsonic.png
It's a more recent work and I think I've performed well in the flow+color department.

What you think you need to improve on: I need to continue learning about properly applying textures, c4ds, adjustment layers, smudging, etc. I really need help on text, flow, depth, lighting, and especially color. I'd also like to learn how to use real-life stocks instead of resorting to Pokemon/other anime and games. Finally, I'd like to cut back on having too much going on in a piece.

Circuit July 17th, 2011 6:16 AM

Well, I think this is exactly what I need :P

What name you go by: Aiden/Firestar, whatever you're more comfortable calling me
Why you would like to join the graphics school: Because I want to be able to create something people will look at and think "Wow" but right now, I can't do that. I would like to be able to create graphics that people will admire, and this seems a great way to get further!
Describe your experience with graphics: I have created a fair few banners, mainly for myself, and created the emblems for the 'Post Theme-athlon' for PC's gt8.
What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://i51.*.com/slo8zm.png
I thought it turned out very well for my first ever stock image. It turned out the best, and was completely different from my other graphics.
What you think you need to improve on: Everything xD Well, I want to be able to create really deep pieces, like those that use a lot of c4ds. I also want to be able to successfully use light textures, and make good pieces using stocks. Everything along those lines is what I'd like to get better in.

This is a brilliant idea by the way, thanks guys! ;)

RetroRoller July 19th, 2011 8:03 AM

I was thinking of applying for this but... I've changed my mind. I might apply if there's spots open but right now I'd like to enjoy summer :) It looks really awesome :P

seeker July 19th, 2011 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake♫ (Post 6730130)
I'd love an assignment, it gives me an easy segue back into doing graphics.

Refer to the end of this post for the assignment :]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alternative (Post 6735313)
Wait a minute, I already posted about what sort of assignment you could give, it'd be a waste of time to say it again. :P

Anyway, I've been on a bit of a graphics block as of late, which totally sucks I know, so I went anc checked out some tutorials that I could follow. I found one which I didn't mind, and made a signature based upon it. I just want to know what you guys think of it. The tutorial really went over fractals, so that was the focus. :)

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg145/neo_bnichols/cobrastarship.png

Well if you were mainly worried about fractals here, I guess you made a good start in being able to use them. However there are a number of things you need to work on here. The focal point is a bit smothered. It is far too behind all your effects and even your colourations. I think that the focal is too small, if possible try not to resize your stock so small, or choose stocks which are bigger, There is far too much lighting on his face also, which kind of ruins the focal. The composition of the tag as a whole, is fantastic. But the use of the focal is just not as good, you should work on that. Also to note, the black blotches make the tag a little flatter, so try and not make them take up some of the tag or put effects over it. The pink glow on the top, is a bit too heavy and noticeable, the use of the circle brush is far too visible and you'd need to filter that out a bit. Other than that it seems pretty good, just watch out that you don't put bright text near a bright area, such as his face, as it makes it a little less clear.

Anyway, good job dude, just work on the things I mentioned and it would vastly improve the tag.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwilightBlade (Post 6745720)
What name you go by: Twilight, Blade, TB

Link to your gallery on PC: n/a

Why you would like to join the graphics school: I don't want my progress so far to go to waste. I also have basic knowledge of my main gfx program. There's little reason to not try and improve my work. ^^

Describe your experience with graphics: I've played with Photoshop CS2 for about 5 years. I've upgraded to Photoshop CS5 and I'm just starting to explore its new features. I do lack motivation to create banners. I often make banners like, once a month on average. I've skimmed through tons of tutorials.

What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/ShiningAngelX/Grafix/metalsonic.png
It's a more recent work and I think I've performed well in the flow+color department.

What you think you need to improve on: I need to continue learning about properly applying textures, c4ds, adjustment layers, smudging, etc. I really need help on text, flow, depth, lighting, and especially color. I'd also like to learn how to use real-life stocks instead of resorting to Pokemon/other anime and games. Finally, I'd like to cut back on having too much going on in a piece.

Well, first of all, welcome to the school. If you want to improve using C4D's and the likes, the first thing I would advise is to not reduce opacity on the C4D's, as you did in the tag above. However, using IRL stocks for the first time is actually quite a scary thing. But in the world of graphics, it's the way forward. So I would recommend you try making a tag with an IRL stock, and using C4D's without reducing the opacity and we can work from there. Don't be afraid to use a few of them either. If you need any help regarding the tag or stock you use, just post here or hit me up on MSN or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Firestar* (Post 6751759)
Well, I think this is exactly what I need :P

What name you go by: Aiden/Firestar, whatever you're more comfortable calling me
Why you would like to join the graphics school: Because I want to be able to create something people will look at and think "Wow" but right now, I can't do that. I would like to be able to create graphics that people will admire, and this seems a great way to get further!
Describe your experience with graphics: I have created a fair few banners, mainly for myself, and created the emblems for the 'Post Theme-athlon' for PC's gt8.
What you feel is your best piece and why:
http://i51.*.com/slo8zm.png
I thought it turned out very well for my first ever stock image. It turned out the best, and was completely different from my other graphics.
What you think you need to improve on: Everything xD Well, I want to be able to create really deep pieces, like those that use a lot of c4ds. I also want to be able to successfully use light textures, and make good pieces using stocks. Everything along those lines is what I'd like to get better in.

This is a brilliant idea by the way, thanks guys! ;)

Well, first thing I recommend, is pretty much what I told TB to do. You should start making a tag with C4D's, and use an IRL stock. It might not work out well at first, but when you're learning about depth, anime stocks are a really hard place to start. Reason being is that they are flat, and you need to use 3D images more so if you wish to work with depth. In saying that, once you get a but more confident with depth you can start making tags with anime renders and stocks again. I just feel that they tend to be very hard to use for a beginner and you should work with IRL stocks. As they already come with a background normally and you don't need to worry so much about filling space.

And of course, welcome to the graphics school Aiden!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetroRoller (Post 6756126)
I was thinking of applying for this but... I've changed my mind. I might apply if there's spots open but right now I'd like to enjoy summer :) It looks really awesome :P

There are always spaces available, you don't need to hesitate if you wish to join.

Assignment #1


In this assignment, you guys will be using an IRL stock that I am going to provide, however you will have the choice, it will have to be from a pack. I want you to practice using C4D's and textures. If you lack some C4D's, you can download my pack here, and for textures you can get moments' pack here.

Here is your stock pack guys, best of luck!
My link was broke so I added moments'. Hopefully that's okay.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee207/mattimogalli/PCSTOCKPACK2.png

Azure Wish July 19th, 2011 2:35 PM

  1. What name you go by: Azure Wish
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: Dont have one here, but I have one on SPPF here
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: To improve on flow, and c4d usage. I would also like to use more irl stocks.
  4. Describe your experience with graphics: Ummm, I actually just started in March of this year ^_^;. I use GIMP cause Im too lazy to torrent Photoshop
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why: I think that this is my best piece so far,
  6. What you think you need to improve on: Like I said before, I have trouble using flow. Basically, I would like to improve all around :)
Also, the link to the stock pack gives me a 404 error. You might want to fix that ;)

NerdSparks July 19th, 2011 5:06 PM

Interested in joining...

What name you go by: Sparks
Link to your gallery on PC: Here
Why you would like to join the graphics school: To learn and get better
Describe your experience with graphics: Started leisurely and now I'm really interested at getting as good as I can.
What you feel is your best piece and why: This is one of my favorites to look at and this
What you think you need to improve on: Effects and Colors

I'll elaborate on anything that you ask me to, should you ask me to.

Oryx July 19th, 2011 6:10 PM

I'm getting a 404 error for that stock pack when I click on it. :(

NovaStar July 19th, 2011 7:18 PM

I might as well join.. I can always use the help.
  1. What name you go by: NovaStar, just Nova is fine
  2. Link to your gallery on PC: None at this moment
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school: I'd like to work on my lighting as well as trying to pick up new and different styles.
  4. Describe your experience with graphics: I've been making banners/sigs for 3-4 years now, 2 of them being a hiatus of anything of the sort. (Currently using GIMP)
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why: I seem to like these two. which I made while I was at Serebii (hence the FireFox).
    Being because I tend to go for the simpler vector style banners and I love the color combinations. But I do notice the border error on the Captain America one.
  6. What you think you need to improve on: Lighting, flexibility in styles, possibly C4Ds.

Pera July 20th, 2011 4:46 AM

What name you go by: Pera, and/or PNY
Link to your gallery on PC: N/A, but I have Imageshack
Why you would like to join the graphics school: So I can learn! I love learning things! :)
Describe your experience with graphics: well, I started graphics about 3 years ago, and slowly got better over the years
What you feel is your best piece and why: Uhhh I can't decide between these two
Spoiler:
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9219/mewtwo2w.png
my best realistic looking picture

Spoiler:
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1693/tenten2j.png
TEN TEN!!! XD No serously, I like the effect I gave in the background


What you think you need to improve on: flow and depth mainly, and using 4cd renders would be awesome too! :D

seeker July 20th, 2011 5:05 AM

There, links are fixed, I was in a rush. And I shall get to the new members asap.

NovaStar July 20th, 2011 11:02 AM

Finished with my assignment. Pretty fun!
http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/NovaStar711/Assignment1-1.png
Well out of all the stocks this one I'm my opinion, had a lot of potential. Added a C4D, and made some attempts at lighting. I would have put a yellow-blue gradient behind her but the stock wasn't rendered so I just left it as is.

moments. July 20th, 2011 3:25 PM

First of all welcome to all the new members!

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaStar (Post 6758233)
Finished with my assignment. Pretty fun!
http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/NovaStar711/Assignment1-1.png
Well out of all the stocks this one I'm my opinion, had a lot of potential. Added a C4D, and made some attempts at lighting. I would have put a yellow-blue gradient behind her but the stock wasn't rendered so I just left it as is.

Great outcome! Firstly, one of the points of using these stocks as opposed to renders when making tags is that it prevents just making a background and slapping the focal on top. Often, the actual background left on the stock looks more professional, more polished and just looks nicer. It also makes you work effects that fit the stock, but you've done a good job!

Firstly, good to see attempts at lighting in there! The only problem is that it is a little too obvious that you've used soft brushing, and it also is making the tag feel a little washed out, particularly where you've brushed over the girl. I won't get too much into this cause I've got a tutorial coming soon, but basically, if you are using soft brushing, you want it to be like a gradient, it should be really hard to see where the lighting ends which I guess is like real life lighting. So if you turn down the opacity a fair bit, it may be less obvious, but often that's better. If you feel it isn't lighting enough that low, you can duplicate the layer, make the top one Screen so you get the nice diffusion, and then make the bottom Colour Dodge or Linear Dodge for some power in the centre of the light. Of course you will need to lower the opacity for both a bit more if you do this, but it works fairly well!

As for the C4D, the main one feels a bit obtrusive. Like it just kind of cuts her in half. :P
I would've moved it down a fair bit if it were my tag, but also, I would've had the flow going the other way. I just feel as though it would fit better (so going from her back diagonally up to the top left) and wouldn't intrude on the focal as much.

The colours are actually quite good! At first I would've said it was a bit washed out, but that actually kind of works and is actually fairly successful in a lot of tags of this sort of style. One thing though, don't abuse it. It doesn't always work, and often bringing out the blacks more using contrast adjustments or selective colouring can be a more effective move. Otherwise, the blue from the C4D works well, the yellow from the lighting works, but as I mentioned you should lower the opacity, it won't be as yellow, but it could be worked in through different effects or colour adjustments or what not.

But yeah, very nice tag, great use of a real life stock. That lighting tutorial should come out in a few days with an assignment, I feel you'd benefit a lot from it, so give that a look when it comes out. And keep making tags with real life stocks now! Don't think that you've done the assignment, now you can slink back into animated renders with gradient backgrounds. :P Keep working at real life stocks. They are sort of where you progress to, but also it forces you to keep on your toes and try new things cause there is more variation in real life stocks than animations. Don't leave animated stocks entirely, just stick to IRL for a while, and then go back and try using similar techniques on a animated stock piece.

But yeah, great work! Anyone else who does the assignment will get mega rant constructive criticism from me, so go do it! :D teachers can bribe the students, not the other way round

Azure Wish July 20th, 2011 4:13 PM

Oh, well I guess I finished :). It was a good exercise

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff426/Azure_Wish/Assignment1-1.png

I tried to add some flow, but I dont think it worked out well.

moments. July 20th, 2011 5:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure Wish (Post 6758754)
Oh, well I guess I finished :). It was a good exercise

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff426/Azure_Wish/Assignment1-1.png

I tried to add some flow, but I dont think it worked out well.

This is a great outcome too!
First some little things that irk me, on the right side, you've got a vertical, solid stripe of like dark brown which I know is from the original stock, but it would look better if you like clone stamped it out, or just crop the tag so the canvas is a bit shorter and hides that. It just looks a bit messy and distracting, nothing major!

Ok, regarding the C4Ds you've added to create flow, you've got the right idea, but perhaps it didn't work as well as you might've liked is because you didn't commit to adding flow. One C4D is only a start, when I make a tag using C4Ds, I've probably got like 5 or 6 layers of C4Ds minimum, and it looks like you have one or two creating flow. If you add more time into the tag and keep playing around with C4Ds and getting it to look good, even with a few C4Ds overlapping each other, then you will get a much stronger sense of flow, and also it will look better.

I think an important lesson to learn from this, and this goes to everybody, not just you, is that tags should be quite complex if they are going to be of a high standard. Even if you say to yourself, you are going to make a really simple tag and it is going to look minimalistic, you can still have heaps of layers. In each of my tags, I've got like a minimum of 10 layers, only of effects. Then I probably have a another 10 or more of colour adjustments, maybe 3 or 4 lighting layers, and some sharpen / blur / tweaks. Try not to rush your tags, the longer you spend on it, it is only going to get better until you reach the end of your skills or ideas.

Back to the tag, you've done an amazing job of enhancing the lighting and really making the focal pop off the background despite it being one image. This is a good example of isolating parts of a stock and not being restricted by having one image to create a background AND a focal. Your colouring is also quite good! I see a good use of textures to add colour as well as texture. One thing I might critique about the colours is the overwhelming warm scheme. It definitely works in this tag, but I feel that her skin has paid a bit of a price and looking a little bit yellow. You could use a selective colouring to bring out the whites, or use a deep blue photo filter or anything else you can think of that will work. :)

Keep working on the real life stocks, you have a knack for it if this is one of your earlier tries with them! Keep using lighting like that, and keep up the textures! One thing I'd recommend is just spend more time on each piece and that will improve everything, and help get rid of little things like better cropping of a stock or small colour adjustments.

Good work!

Pera July 20th, 2011 6:19 PM

I found a stock to try, and I found a nice 4cd and tock online, and I got this!
http://www.pokecommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7450&pictureid=57957

moments. July 21st, 2011 4:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pera (Post 6758945)
I found a stock to try, and I found a nice 4cd and tock online, and I got this!
http://www.pokecommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7450&pictureid=57957

Well the first thing that I get from this tag is a lot of low quality I'm afraid... The stock you've chosen is ridiculously low quality, and even the C4Ds and effects you've chosen look blurry and a bit pixelated. I can't tell because the image address isn't showing my your file extension, but if you have saved this as anything other than .GIF or .PNG, then the first thing you need to know is ALWAYS save to those formats! They are the only two that will maintain maximum quality when uploaded. You could have the best quality resources available, and then upload it as a .JPG and ruin the whole piece...
If you did save the tag as png or gif, then you just need to be really wary of what you use. If you find a really nice stock and it has great motion and a brilliant focal point, but it is low quality, you should still never use it, unless you can somehow work your way around it and fix it up, but that is getting fairly advanced stuff.

Another thing that is making this tag look lower quality than it might be is the fact that you removed the stock from it's background using the eraser tool. Now, you can actually get some passable results using the eraser to remove a background, HOWEVER, you MUST use a hard brush, and I can't recommend this, only if you are really lazy and have a small area to do. If you erase using the soft brush like you have, and then don't try and cover it up by blending the focal into the background by placing effects over the top of parts of the focal and using colour adjustments, then you aren't going to find very much success...

I'm not going to finish giving you comments on the tag because the quality really kills it for me. These are sort of basic things that are an absolute must to follow when making any art that you intend to upload. Read all that carefully and just remember it for the next time you make some art. If you want to redo the assignment with the above in consideration, which I would advise, I will gladly give you a proper rate and constructive criticism, but I don't think it will reflect what you have actually done to the tag, because nearly all my comments will be affected by the quality issues.

Sorry if that sounded harsh, I really didn't intend it to be so, there's just not really a way around it, particularly something that is so vital, I can't really tip toe around it. Hope that's ok, feel free to PM/VM me if you want any clarifications!

Pera July 21st, 2011 5:09 AM

No, I completely understand in what you say, and (although it does hurt) that is the reason I joined the graphics school.

But I'll make one point that I have been doing all along: I always save as png.

I think I hit a problem with myself, it's the fact of what is high quality? I keep getting told (this was on a previous forum) that I constantly use LQ pics.
So if you can help me with this, it would be greatly appreciated!

moments. July 21st, 2011 5:33 AM

Well I think if you can understand the points I was making and are obviously good with taking constructive criticism, (and I'll admit, I was probably a bit too blunt so sorry for that), then you will improve a lot, in a fairly short amount of time. So stick in there, I'll try be a little less blunt (I was really tired just wanted to get some feedback in today).

OK. So, high quality vs low quality. Basically there aren't really any specific way to tell, it is sort of a gradient between good and bad quality stocks, however there are some things to look for.

This is a fairly plain explanation of the two extremes of quality:
http://cdn.cbsi.com.au/story_media/339286904/1-low-vs-high_350x175.jpg

Basically when looking for stocks to use, you want to avoid ones that are blurry at all or have any sign of like grain (are the dark colours grainy, like have little speckles in them), like in the first one. You want to get ones that are perhaps large, if you try to make an image bigger in Photoshop / GIMP it will lose quality, however going smaller is generally fine. And lastly, try and avoid using Google Search for images. Yeah there is heaps on there, but so much of it is rubbish. If you really want to use Google to get some more variety, change the filter settings so you only get large images, generally if they are bigger, they haven't been resized heaps, or the original uploader had a higher resolution which would have better quality.

There aren't really rules, it's just your judgement on what looks low quality, but yeah, it you suspect it might be low quality, or you think there might be a better image out there, you are probably better off leaving it. Remember, even if the image itself is an amazing one, if it is low quality, it is pretty much unusable...

Here are two examples of places that are nearly guaranteed safe places to get high quality images from. The first is good for real life stocks, and the second are all renders, but both offer variety and a pretty vast collection.

Fringe Stock Garage
Planet Renders

If anyone wants more, send me a message and I can dig out some more for you. I will probably upload some more packs of stocks for you guys, maybe a massive pack so you can choose from only high quality stuff and not worry about low quality ruining things. It really is something that is necessary and must be done right.

Hope that helped!

Pera July 21st, 2011 6:19 AM

Thankyou very much for your promt reply, that seriously helped and thanks a lot! :)
I had a look at the stock pack again and found another one, I think it's better, but at some glances it looks lq but on others it isn't, sooo ummmm yeah :/

http://www.pokecommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7450&pictureid=57964

EDIT: oohhhh I forgot about blending! I'll repost picture soon!
EDIT EDIT: redid it, blends a little now :)

Hybrid Trainer July 21st, 2011 6:27 AM

What name you go by:
Hybrid, David, James names don't really bother me that much.
Link to your gallery on PC:
Here, but tbh the stuff in there isn't most of the stuff i wanted help with x]
Why you would like to join the graphics school:
I want to improve my skills using vectors because most of the tutorials out there suck.
Describe your experience with graphics:
Erm, well i've been playing around with raster graphics for a few years now and since i started my graphics course last year i started using vectors a lot more and have now favoured them to raster graphics.
What you feel is your best piece and why:
I guess i can tie between this and this.
But i was still never happy enough to work on them more after i'd finished the initial piece (like backgrounds and stuff)
What you think you need to improve on:
Shading, defiantly shading. And certain body parts like lips. Can't do lips to save my life D:
Also i guess backgrounds too seeing as i've never gotten far enough to actually give it a shot "/

-Sonic~Boom- July 21st, 2011 1:16 PM

I would absolutely love to join. If you'd have me. :D

What name you go by:
I'd like to go by my name, Brad. c:

Link to your gallery on PC:
I don't have a gallery - however, I do have an old shop which I updated to show recent stuff: check it here.

Why you would like to join the graphics school:
I'd really love to improve myself overall, with the help from really talented people - graphic design is my passion, I'm currently taking a course in college with it. I've definitely improved over the years but I just want to keep getting better.
Though I love graphics and I'm constantly trying to find ways to improve, it seems no matter how many tutorials I try I just can't do things like I see many other are capable of. I'd like to learn everything I can and become a better graphic artist because of it.


Describe your experience with graphics:
I originally got into graphics at about 12/13 because of here - PokeCommunity! Since then its become an ongoing passion of mine. I use Photoshop constantly and love creating box arts, logos, tags, wallpapers, - you name it. Being creative is something I love to be a graphics is just that.

What you feel is your best piece and why:
This or this. The first one I like as it's very dynamic and action like and flows with the theme of the tag - the second one I like since I feel it fits the theme of the character and the location and also flows nicely.

What you think you need to improve on:
Overall, on everything - I want to know the secrets, the fundamentals an what I should do to make my graphic productions the best they can be.

moments. July 21st, 2011 7:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pera (Post 6759632)
Thankyou very much for your promt reply, that seriously helped and thanks a lot! :)
I had a look at the stock pack again and found another one, I think it's better, but at some glances it looks lq but on others it isn't, sooo ummmm yeah :/

http://www.pokecommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7450&pictureid=57964

EDIT: oohhhh I forgot about blending! I'll repost picture soon!
EDIT EDIT: redid it, blends a little now :)

I've had a look at that stock in the pack, and it is definitely a high quality one, but somewhere along the line, it lost a lost of quality. Your effects and background still look low quality to me. I doubt there is something wrong with your method, because you didn't even even resize the stock, but I'm thinking uploading images to the PokeCommunity albums isn't liking them for some reason... Try uploading it to a different host like if you have a Photobucket or just to Tinypic which you don't need an account for.
Sorry if this is sort of splitting hairs, but we need to get this sorted out and then I can give you better comments anyways! So yeah, reupload it somewhere else and just edit your post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrid Trainer (Post 6759637)
What name you go by:
Hybrid, David, James names don't really bother me that much.
Link to your gallery on PC:
Here, but tbh the stuff in there isn't most of the stuff i wanted help with x]
Why you would like to join the graphics school:
I want to improve my skills using vectors because most of the tutorials out there suck.
Describe your experience with graphics:
Erm, well i've been playing around with raster graphics for a few years now and since i started my graphics course last year i started using vectors a lot more and have now favoured them to raster graphics.
What you feel is your best piece and why:
I guess i can tie between this and this.
But i was still never happy enough to work on them more after i'd finished the initial piece (like backgrounds and stuff)
What you think you need to improve on:
Shading, defiantly shading. And certain body parts like lips. Can't do lips to save my life D:
Also i guess backgrounds too seeing as i've never gotten far enough to actually give it a shot "/

Welcome! I'm not a vector artist myself, but I have seen a lot during my time, and I can tell you that you have the basics down very comfortably, that first vector of the guy is great! The only thing they need improving on is shading, you said it yourself, but basically you need to add more. The face you've got split into two halves in terms of the shading. You might be able to get away only using two colours for a face, but you definitely need more details. It is details which make a vector look amazing.

If you look on DeviantArt, and search for vector tutorials, you will find something decent. There's heaps of good quality stuff in there, and if you already looked, look again? :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Sonic~Boom- (Post 6760083)
I would absolutely love to join. If you'd have me. :D

What name you go by:
I'd like to go by my name, Brad. c:

Link to your gallery on PC:
I don't have a gallery - however, I do have an old shop which I updated to show recent stuff: check it here.

Why you would like to join the graphics school:
I'd really love to improve myself overall, with the help from really talented people - graphic design is my passion, I'm currently taking a course in college with it. I've definitely improved over the years but I just want to keep getting better.
Though I love graphics and I'm constantly trying to find ways to improve, it seems no matter how many tutorials I try I just can't do things like I see many other are capable of. I'd like to learn everything I can and become a better graphic artist because of it.


Describe your experience with graphics:
I originally got into graphics at about 12/13 because of here - PokeCommunity! Since then its become an ongoing passion of mine. I use Photoshop constantly and love creating box arts, logos, tags, wallpapers, - you name it. Being creative is something I love to be a graphics is just that.

What you feel is your best piece and why:
This or this. The first one I like as it's very dynamic and action like and flows with the theme of the tag - the second one I like since I feel it fits the theme of the character and the location and also flows nicely.

What you think you need to improve on:
Overall, on everything - I want to know the secrets, the fundamentals an what I should do to make my graphic productions the best they can be.

Well welcome to the school, on the last page of the thread, Abnegation posted some links to packs of resources as well as an assignment for you to complete. If you go back and do that one and post your result here, I will give you some in depth comments and constructive criticism!

That goes for any other new members here, go and do Abnegation's assignment! Here's a link to it!

Alternative July 22nd, 2011 3:34 AM

So I took a go at the assignment, and I think it turned out quite well if i say so myself. :D I'm just worried I may have gone over the top with sharpening or using the wrong C4Ds.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35499431/boldandbeautiful.png

NerdSparks July 22nd, 2011 9:01 AM

Should I just join in even though I didn't get the start off post? Or should I wait like I am doing?

Eucliffe July 22nd, 2011 1:25 PM

http://i56.*.com/9tlw0x.png

It's pretty fail, but I'm terrible at making tags freely (should've probably mentioned that in my SU DX) and it was also my first time working with an irl stock with a person in it.

EDIT:

OK NOW I THINK I'M DONE.

http://i55.*.com/2nl5zl0.png

Neither still looks too good imo, but at least I tried, right? ;;

Pera July 22nd, 2011 4:16 PM

ok I uploaded it again,

but I think I found the broblem, I had a black and white gradient over the stock, so I moved it and here's the outcome


@Roswell
your pic looks epic! :) I like what you did to it!

TwilightBlade July 22nd, 2011 4:34 PM

My homework!
Spoiler:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/ShiningAngelX/Grafix/155.png

Okay soo ummm I still like oranges and blues. Background is iffy. :(
Vela is a constellation in the southern sky. Nova is an exploding star. Yup yup I totally used a star texture shhh.


School notes!
Spoiler:
Don't reduce opacity of c4ds.
Use high quality images.
If using soft brush, don't make the edges noticeable
Don't cut focal in half and/or use a distracting c4d
Use Clone stamp to remove anything weird in the stock.
Don't rush art.

moments. July 22nd, 2011 8:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alternative (Post 6761017)

Quite a nice piece, however there are some definite things that I'd point out that could use some tweaking.

First off, the colours are a bit too warm. If you've used selective colouring here, you've pumped up the yellows too much methinks, particularly the blacks. That yellow C4D in the background is good, but I think more blues would give this tag a better feel. That's not too bad, but I feel the colour scheme definitely needs some tweaking.

Next is the C4Ds you've used. Not the ones in the background, but those blue effect C4Ds you've got on screen or lighten, particularly to the right of the tag. First of all, you've got it clashing with the flow you set up yourself with the rest of the C4Ds so it is drawing focus a little bit. But secondly, and probably more importantly for the future, there is not enough substance there. Because of the layer setting you've got it on, it is just really faint and looks like it was just kinda thrown there and not adding anything to the tag. If you are going to use C4Ds, try and use Linear Dodge, or perhaps a bottom layer of Colour Dodge, then Screen over the top and play with the opacities. Colour Dodge and Linear Dodge hold the brightness and more of the form of the C4D, while Screen will diffuse it a bit so it isn't as harsh.
Also, the effect C4Ds you've got over her leg looks a bit weird because it is confined to the outlines of her leg. Either get rid of that, or let it continue off her legs. Another thing with those two C4Ds is the colour. You've gone for a really warm colour palette but then thrown in bright blue. Don't be afraid to click on the individual layers and press Control + U or Command + U to change the hue and saturation so it fits your colour scheme.

The text, is actually really good! Good use of sizing and fonts, however the positioning I would change. You are sort of confining the whole tag so much by placing it directly over the focal, and not offsetting it a little bit. I would move it so perhaps the word 'bold' is over her arm, and then the rest hangs over the right side of the tag. Just because that side is looking dark and a bit empty, the text will help fill some space.

Good use of the particle texture, although I might erase a few areas just so it isn't so dense, and maybe sharpen it a little bit. Also, with the lighting, not quite sure what you've done over that knee, but it looks a bit low quality and sort of like it wasn't rendered accurately. Just tidy it up a little bit.

Good tag though, just needs a few little adjustments! :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilsparks101 (Post 6761375)
Should I just join in even though I didn't get the start off post? Or should I wait like I am doing?

If by start off post you mean like a reply to your signing up, if we missed you, that was an accident and sorry about that, but you don't need to wait. Get on the assignment whenever you're ready and post your outcome! Good luck!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roswell (Post 6761582)
http://i56.*.com/9tlw0x.png

It's pretty fail, but I'm terrible at making tags freely (should've probably mentioned that in my SU DX) and it was also my first time working with an irl stock with a person in it.

First of all, don't say you are bad, it isn't productive and isn't true. If this was your first time doing a tag like this, then you are just inexperienced. Everyone's art is lack-luster when they try something new for the first time, nobody is good straight off the bat.

So firstly, you've done a good job of putting that C4D or brushing or whatever it is over the stock. The only thing I would change is to erase that little bit on the right that is curving up and covering just a bit of his elbow. Because it is heading in the opposite direction, it is throwing off the flow a little bit. Simple tweak, but it will look a lot neater simply by removing that one little bit.

Regarding the background, it isn't bad, but it's sort of a technique that we'd like to get you guys to try and move away from as you progress. It isn't bad or anything, there are just a lot more effective and more aesthetic ways to form a background rather than just sort of chaotic brushing and C4Ds and stuff. One of the issues with this is that you've got things going in literally all directions, so any flow you try to establish is immediately thrown off by the background. Don't be afraid to leave parts of the tag, particularly the outer most edges a little emptier. Negative space, if not ridiculously large often looks nicer than effect spam everywhere. It helps to draw the attention into a closer point, around the focal. One thing you have done well though is burning or darkening the background around parts of the stock like shadows.

So some little things I'd tweak as well just quickly, I would've made the stock a bit smaller so it doesn't take up as much room, and then I would've made the canvas shorter in height, and perhaps longer in length. Just so he doesn't feel squished. Borders are another thing to try and avoid. They form an edge around the piece which cuts off any continuation beyond the canvas. Sometimes they look good, but often they just sort of restrict the piece.

Good work for a first using a real life stock!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pera (Post 6761801)

If you compare the two you posted, they look nearly exactly the same, quality-wise, so it was definitely the uploading that stuffed it up. If you've made an imageshack account, just upload all your stuff to there from now on!

Now I'll give you some comments! Thanks for being patient and working that out! First thing I noticed when I compared the original stock to your tag is that you didn't resize it at all. Resizing isn't amazingly important, but often you can get better results making the stock smaller rather than trying to make the canvas fit the original image better.

Next is just a quick comment on the lighting you've added. It was a good idea to go for that vignette, darkening around the edges, however you've left it too strong. I mentioned earlier about making soft brushing look invisible by making the edges impossible to see. Yours is too obvious, but all it needs fixing is to lower the opacity a little bit. That will make it have a stronger effect while being much neater and more polished!

As for the effects and the background, good job blurring them to create depth, you probably could've blurred it a little less, but that's nothing that really needs changing. One thing though, that C4D immediately to her left, that silver one, it looks really choppy and sharp, that's because of the layer settings like I mentioned in Alternative's outcome. However yours is going against the flow as well (it is going from bottom left to top right while everything else is bottom right to top left) and is throwing off the balance a little bit. I'd just erase that whole C4D, or rotate it so it fits the flow, and then you can play with the layer settings, perhaps try Linear Dodge to make it more prominent.

Good outcome though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwilightBlade (Post 6761829)
My homework!
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/ShiningAngelX/Grafix/155.png

Okay soo ummm I still like oranges and blues. Background is iffy. :(
Vela is a constellation in the southern sky. Nova is an exploding star. Yup yup I totally used a star texture shhh.

School notes!
Spoiler:
Don't reduce opacity of c4ds.
Use high quality images.
If using soft brush, don't make the edges noticeable
Don't cut focal in half and/or use a distracting c4d
Use Clone stamp to remove anything weird in the stock.
Don't rush art.

Firstly, this is a great tag, and the background is not iffy!
So the first thing that stood out were the colours of this tag. They aren't bad, in fact they are good, however her skin has sort of gone along for the ride and ended up looking a little too yellow. You can easily fix this using a selective colour adjustment and bring the yellows down, and then make the whites whiter, and erase the layer around everywhere except her skin so it only effects her skin, and not the background and effects and whatnot.

The effects are good and do a great job of blending the stock in as well, however, they feel a bit limited to one area, I'd like to see them continue up towards the right and just reinforce the flow you've started and just make it stronger. Some of the effects layers, like a star/nebula stock I can see just to the left of her the hand in the air, it is looking a bit cloudy and blurry, could go for a little sharpen and make it clearer.

Lastly is the text, good font choice and good use of the tiny text underneath it, however it you left the opacity maxed so it was pure white, I think that would work better, and also it needs some repositioning. If you move it so the first maybe 2 letters are on the sleeve of that right hand, literally a few pixels above the nebula effects and going out to the right, and maybe make it slightly larger, then I think that would fit a bit better. It just feels awkward as it sits all over her. Feels a bit confined.

But yeah, great tag, doesn't really need changes, but that's what I'm here for, so I gotta give you something to work on. :P


~
Great work everybody, I realise a lot of you have finished that assignment, I'll have the lighting one out as soon as I can, so just hang tight until that comes out! If you have more tags that you want feedback on, I'd prefer you don't all flood this thread asking for more comments, cause giving big rates like this does take a fairly long time, and I want to give all my attention to those who haven't got comments from me on the assignment yet. So, you CAN go to the Graphics Rating Thread which is stickied in this section, and you can all try and work together to help each other and give each other comments, OR, you can leave me some VMs, but I won't be giving massive rates. Just answering questions or tips on one aspect or stuff like that. So yeah, hang tight for the next assignment!

-Sonic~Boom- July 23rd, 2011 8:15 AM

Finished the assignment though I'm not really happy how it turned out. Especially the text - I can't make text work ever. :I

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd331/0SuperSonic1/Ohnoes.png

Jake♫ July 23rd, 2011 1:12 PM

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa357/jacob_richards/Tags/wentz.png

Deciding how I feel about this coming back into graphics for like the first time in about a year now. Not bad for a first attempt. No text because I honestly just didn't want to =P Also, mask clipping whoring was used!

.Aero July 23rd, 2011 7:30 PM

What name you go by: Aero
Why you would like to join the graphics school: Well, as you can see, my signature tag isn't very...good...so I was hoping I'd be able to awaken my potential as a graphics artists and maybe integrate myself into the community in this area of PC, assuming I enjoy it/become good at it of course.
Describe your experience with graphics: I used to use Photoshop Elements a couple years back. It didn't offer much stuff to screw around with, so I never used it much. I made a couple tags here and there, but they weren't very good and I was in the dark about C4Ds. Now I have Photoshop and can do stuff! :D
What you feel is your best piece and why: Erm, my signature at the moment. I know it's bad, but it's definitely the best I've done at integrating a render onto a background, as well as getting some "flow" (with the C4Ds matching the shape of Latias/Latios).

http://i.imgur.com/TATMm.png

What you think you need to improve on: Everytang, I'm a nub.

Also, I was referred here by user Jake ^

I can't seem to find the assignment though, in the first post at least, I'll scan through the thread for it (unless it's supposed to be PM'd, idk xD). Found 'em. :] Will get started tomorrow as it's late.


Assignment


http://i.imgur.com/8akON.png

I did the whole stock cuz nub. D; I think I did pretty alright I guess. I tried really hard to find effects/c4ds that went with the shape of her body, and I think I did well doing. Plz halp. :3 It's a little messy I guess, but I kept feeling like spots were empty. >.<

moments. July 23rd, 2011 11:20 PM

Before the rates, EVERYBODY make sure to look at the bottom of this post now, or after you've read your comments for important tips and tricks to consider!

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Sonic~Boom- (Post 6762569)
Finished the assignment though I'm not really happy how it turned out. Especially the text - I can't make text work ever. :I

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd331/0SuperSonic1/Ohnoes.png

Well first of all, you've done a good job! The one thing that I would've changed right off the bat would be the positioning of the stock in the canvas. You've pushed her all the way to the left which means you've left a lot of empty space to fill on the right, and the left side of her body is flatter meaning text would've probably sat better on that side. That said, you've just made it harder for yourself, but, and here is a tip for you all to keep so I'll bold it, Positioning the stock should be used to your advantage. You can make text placement, empty space and flow look better just by moving the stock, so make your own job easier! Yeah, I think with a bit of tweaking just of some positioning of the stock and text, you can dramatically improve this tag with very little effort. You'd push the stock to the right so it is just left of the centre, and then move the text to the left of her with the last letter just touching her shoulder. No overlap I don't think.

Another thing that I would tweak is the colouring. You've done quite well, just a little too much contrast, and not enough blending. First of all, the contrast, the blacks are possibly too black, particularly the dark areas of the girl, and also the whites are too white. If you look at the pink/white C4D on the right, and her hand and parts of her face, the edges aren't smooth. You've lost some quality here because of the colouring. If you've selective colouring, it's an easy fix, just bring the whites down a little bit, and same with the blacks.
The other point I wanted to make with the colours is that you don't really have a scheme. Typically, you'd choose to go for warm or cold colours so it all fits togethers nicely, however you've got dark blues and also magenta/red colours which is clashing warm and cold. It's not too difficult to fix, particularly with gradient maps, but if you're not confident with those, selective colouring, photo filters, changing the hue (Control + U or Command + U) for particular layers should allow you to make it more rounded.

Another tip with the text is, you want to keep it close to the stock, but not really close to the actual focal (the face). You want to keep it close to the stock so it doesn't sit by itself drawing attention to itself, but if you go too close to the point of focus, the same thing will happen. So yeah, that shoulder on the left is a nice sort of middle ground.

Good job though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake♫ (Post 6763039)
http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa357/jacob_richards/Tags/wentz.png

Deciding how I feel about this coming back into graphics for like the first time in about a year now. Not bad for a first attempt. No text because I honestly just didn't want to =P Also, mask clipping whoring was used!

Definitely a good first attempt after that long! There are a couple of things that could use tweaking, but quite a good tag nevertheless!

Firstly, you've got a similar issue with the tag just before you. Your colours are mixing warm with cold, his face (warm) with the background (cold) which is just making it look a little bland, not too blended. What I'd recommend is bringing the background out more, making it a bit darker, perhaps a tad more purple / blue. This can go here cause it is kind of related and just a small tip to do with lighting. You've got the light source coming from the top right, and that white C4D looks good and fits the lighting, however, you then have burned / put black soft brushing on the right side and not the left. This is clashing with the stock lighting and looks funky, I'd erase that dark patch on the right and add some to the left, and maybe even brighten up that right side.

Regarding the effects, quite good, a little weak, besides that main C4D on the right which is very good. You could get away with duplicating that effect and putting it on the left side of him as well, and remember to erase where it meets his head so it looks like it goes behind, just to reinforce the flow and make the left side a little stronger cause the tag is kind of unbalanced. Also just be careful with those brown clipping masks on the left, they are almost drawing attention, and the colour is a bit funky. Would look better in magenta imo.

I think that's about it, you did a great job of sharpening the focal and keeping great quality, but the effects and background, as a whole are feeling quite weak and unbalanced. Bit of tweaking, particularly colour tweaking, and definitely bring the saturation up on the effects on the left, and even the right to make them pop. But nice tag!

Quote:

Originally Posted by .Aero (Post 6763635)
What name you go by: Aero
Why you would like to join the graphics school: Well, as you can see, my signature tag isn't very...good...so I was hoping I'd be able to awaken my potential as a graphics artists and maybe integrate myself into the community in this area of PC, assuming I enjoy it/become good at it of course.
Describe your experience with graphics: I used to use Photoshop Elements a couple years back. It didn't offer much stuff to screw around with, so I never used it much. I made a couple tags here and there, but they weren't very good and I was in the dark about C4Ds. Now I have Photoshop and can do stuff! :D
What you feel is your best piece and why: Erm, my signature at the moment. I know it's bad, but it's definitely the best I've done at integrating a render onto a background, as well as getting some "flow" (with the C4Ds matching the shape of Latias/Latios).
http://i.imgur.com/TATMm.png
What you think you need to improve on: Everytang, I'm a nub.

Assignment
http://i.imgur.com/8akON.png

I did the whole stock cuz nub. D; I think I did pretty alright I guess. I tried really hard to find effects/c4ds that went with the shape of her body, and I think I did well doing. Plz halp. :3 It's a little messy I guess, but I kept feeling like spots were empty. >.<

Alright, there were a few points I was going to suggest with this particular stock, but you didn't actually make it into tag form, so I'll just mention, but not in depth. The first of those being the stock positioning and what you could've done. You said you had some issues getting effects to fit the stock, but did you read what I said earlier, make your job easier simply by changing the stock's positioning, this includes rotating it. You could've rotated the stock 90 degree counter-clockwise and then cropped her legs out of the canvas, so you've got her fairly upright head and torso in the canvas which would've made it a lot easier.

But yeah, what you have done is not bad, but you haven't worked with the stock, just sort of added on top of. As a first little point, that main C4D you've got that runs from the left side and down along her back to the bottom middle, that type of C4D only looks good without reducing the opacity, and leaving it on normal layer setting. You've gone what looks like colour dodge, or colour burn, and this just looks sort of messy and not really having the best effect it could have. Another sort of similar thing you've done is her face and shoulder and body, you've got some C4D on colour dodge/burn and a bright yellow/orange face isn't too attractive. :P
Again, adding effects would've been a lot easier if you controlled the stock and defined a specific canvas to use instead of using the whole thing, but yeah.

Next little thing, that leg with the light texture on it, try to avoid putting effects only over parts of the focal / stock because it looks a bit like a kid doing a bad colouring in job. You've put stuff over a part of the image that is meant to stand by itself, instead of adding around it to make it stand out or make it blend in or whatever. Same sort of principal applies for the yellow stuff you've put over her face / body. You don't want to change the stock in a tag, you want to enhance it and make it stand out. Often, you have to do nothing to the actual focal point, but everything AROUND it, so that it stands out or blends in, as I said before.

I'd be interested, judging from the other tag you posted to see you redo the assignment making it in actual tag form. If you don't want to, that's fine, but I will give you another chance and I will give you another proper big rate.

EVERYBODY LOOK HERE


Here are some more tips for you to write down / memorise and just consider the whole time you are making a tag from now on.

1. Positioning and resizing of a stock is more important than you all think. It works like this, people seeing your tag will have either seen the original stock before, or not seen it. If they HAVE seen it, they want to see something new and interesting done to the stock. If they HAVEN'T seen it, you are free to do whatever you want, flip it upside down, flip it the other way, rotate it 90 degrees without them knowing; if you can make the stock look better by doing this, DO IT! If this means flipping the stock upside down, good! If they have seen the stock, chances are they haven't seen it upside down and will look refreshing to them, if they haven't seen it, you will just be able to pull of the tag better and they will be none the wiser!

2. When making a tag, you don't want to add to the stock to make it better, you want to add to the BACKGROUND and AROUND the stock to make it look better. If this means you aim to make it pop out, or blend in more, you aren't going to get a better job than if you change everything around it. Obviously this excludes colour adjustments or getting rid of imperfections, but think about that when you're adding effects.

3. Pay attention to the lighting on the original stock. If the stock has light coming from the left and shadows on the right, don't make the whole tag reverse that lighting. It will only make your tag look weird in the end, and if you try and brighten up up dark areas and darken the light areas, you will only ruin the quality of the image. Work around the original stock, don't make the stock work around you. That's a big one, and is relevant to the first tip as well!

I'll try put more effort into the lighting one and get it done soon, and then I think I'll do colour adjustments as well just because it seems to come up a fair bit. So yeah, keep practising guys!

Jake♫ July 24th, 2011 9:23 AM

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa357/jacob_richards/Tags/wentz2.png

Critique taken into consideration, dodged a lot of the right side, burned some of the left further, use a clipping mask to bring the c4d on the left over (because I didn't want it totally obvious I copied an entire effect =P), brought out the cyans and blues in the background, brushed a layer of purple over it on a very low opacity @ soft light to bring out the purple a little bit.

seeker July 24th, 2011 9:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake♫ (Post 6764493)
http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa357/jacob_richards/Tags/wentz2.png

Critique taken into consideration, dodged a lot of the right side, burned some of the left further, use a clipping mask to bring the c4d on the left over (because I didn't want it totally obvious I copied an entire effect =P), brought out the cyans and blues in the background, brushed a layer of purple over it on a very low opacity @ soft light to bring out the purple a little bit.

Alright well i like the colours of this tag, and I think you were doing super things with it, personally, but it's like you got to a position, and just stopped. The tag looks a little unfinished. Anyway, beginning with flow, the effects need to be at a slightly different angle, more vertical. Look at how the face is, and the angle his body is at. Either angle your effects to work with him, or turn him a little so he's parallel to the effects, that could look quite well. I think the tag could be wider, and it needs some more C4D's. The C4D's could be a good way to fill up that background and fill out the tag a little bit better. As I say, I like the colour and effects you were going with, but try to cool it a little on the blurring, you've gone a bit too crazy on that. Specifically in the background. It adds depth, but try not to rely too much on the blurring and sharpening.

The main issue is that the focal does not blend too well with the rest of the tag. See he way it's far darker and it has harsher colours than the rest? That's just over contrasting. So watch out for that buddy.

So things you can work on here:

Blending - remember to make sure your focal works a little better with the background. This can be handled with gradient maps and using selective colour and the likes.
Filling Space - just try to make tags wider and fill up the void space after doing so. C4D's and other effects do this quite well, but remember to not forget your dodging, burning, blurring and sharpening to ensure that you can keep the depth.
Effects - make sure not to blur your effects too much, try to keep them with the usual quality. And try use some more of them too, this would have been great with some extra fractals and effects around the focal.

lahishendeeir July 24th, 2011 4:37 PM

  1. What name you go by:
    • lahishendeeir
  2. Link to your gallery on PC:
    • n/a
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school:
    • clearly you two are amazing, well at least i think so. plus! this is an attractive way of teaching/helping graphic artists who seek improvement. (: thank youuu~
  4. Describe your experience with graphics:
    • quantity has nothing to do with quality. but i'd say... two to three years?
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why:
    • this ones a toughy, i feel like i have a couple of good pieces, now. :|
    http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/LOVEgasoos/b%20l%20e%20n%20d%20s/SE7ENdegrees.png (right click → view image)
    i'd say this is my best poster (blend).

    http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/LOVEgasoos/banner/JONGHYUN_B_O1.png (right click → view image)
    i'm guessing this is considered a tag? yeah, i rarely do tags or signatures. & as you can see, the font goes horribly with everything. X_____X (need help on that too's~)

    http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd420/upchuckglitter/icons/JACOB1.png (fyi: i LOVEEE avatars/icons)
    ay!~ thar's a hot doode on thaaar. ;D

  6. What you think you need to improve on:
    • hm, i'm not good with categories/names so, er'thang? (:
NOTICE: i haven't photoshopped in about 2 years. all my skills went down the toilet. i just made that icon recently. (:

NovaStar July 24th, 2011 8:52 PM

http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/NovaStar711/Assignment1_Second.png

Without text:


Alright I took the advice to heart and I think I made another, more "complex" banner while still keeping flow. Not too sure about the text but I think it worked. Think of it as extra credit on this assignment.

.Aero July 24th, 2011 10:02 PM

So I took on the challenge assignment again, but with a different stock. The one I had originally chose didn't look quite right with that 90 degree CCW rotation (her head was...at an awkward angle for an upright shot). So I found a stock of my favorite person from my favorite kPop group, Yuri, and did some stuff with it, such as color adjustments to get rid of some greens that clashed, and added some effects (very subtle) and a c4d that blended very well I think. On top of that, I had to edit out another one of the girl's arms! So lemme know if you can tell where. ;]

Also, this one is in tag form like you asked. :D I really appreciate you taking your time to teach me by the way, I wasn't expecting as much as I had got. xD And I really appreciate it. :]

Spoiler:
http://i.imgur.com/rERlm.png

I'm not particularly happy with how it looks as if I barely edited the stock. :x Any ideas on what I could add? I definitely wants something on the right side, but I searched forever for a decent effect/c4d that matched her body shape and really made her "pop" (as user TwilightBlade said), but I had a lot of trouble doing so.

moments. July 25th, 2011 5:44 AM

To all members, at the bottom of this post is my lighting tutorial and the next assignment! If you have completed the first assignment and received feedback, you are all good to go ahead with this second one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lahishendeeir (Post 6765315)
  1. What name you go by:
    • lahishendeeir
  2. Link to your gallery on PC:
    • n/a
  3. Why you would like to join the graphics school:
    • clearly you two are amazing, well at least i think so. plus! this is an attractive way of teaching/helping graphic artists who seek improvement. (: thank youuu~
  4. Describe your experience with graphics:
    • quantity has nothing to do with quality. but i'd say... two to three years?
  5. What you feel is your best piece and why:
    • this ones a toughy, i feel like i have a couple of good pieces, now. :|
    (right click → view image)
    i'd say this is my best poster (blend).

    (right click → view image)
    i'm guessing this is considered a tag? yeah, i rarely do tags or signatures. & as you can see, the font goes horribly with everything. X_____X (need help on that too's~)


  1. What you think you need to improve on:
    • hm, i'm not good with categories/names so, er'thang? (:
NOTICE: i haven't photoshopped in about 2 years. all my skills went down the toilet. i just made that icon recently. (:

Quote:

Originally Posted by lahishendeeir (Post 6765315)
[/FONT]

Well welcome to the school! First of all, I'd advise you go and do THIS (< that's a link) assignment we set. I will give you comments on that, and then you are free to do the next assignment at the bottom of this post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaStar (Post 6765707)
http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/NovaStar711/Assignment1_Second.png

Alright I took the advice to heart and I think I made another, more "complex" banner while still keeping flow. Not too sure about the text but I think it worked. Think of it as extra credit on this assignment.

I mentioned earlier that I would've give big rates on people who have already got comments for their assignments because it takes me a long time to give great depth for everybody, so I'll just give you some quick Pros and Cons.

PROS:
Colouring is nice.
Lighting is quite good, particularly the darkened edges.
Text is quite good, good positioning / font choice.

CONS:
Quality of his face looks a little low, just be careful with adjustments.
Those displace / liquify filters aren't working cause they are too random, not structured or providing flow.
The C4Ds / effects immediately to the right of him are too transparent, not strong enough to create real flow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by .Aero (Post 6765787)
So I found a stock of my favorite person from my favorite kPop group, Yuri, and did some stuff with it, such as color adjustments to get rid of some greens that clashed, and added some effects (very subtle) and a c4d that blended very well I think. On top of that, I had to edit out another one of the girl's arms! So lemme know if you can tell where. ;]

Also, this one is in tag form like you asked. :D I really appreciate you taking your time to teach me by the way, I wasn't expecting as much as I had got. xD And I really appreciate it. :]

Spoiler:
http://i.imgur.com/rERlm.png

I'm not particularly happy with how it looks as if I barely edited the stock. :x Any ideas on what I could add? I definitely wants something on the right side, but I searched forever for a decent effect/c4d that matched her body shape and really made her "pop" (as user TwilightBlade said), but I had a lot of trouble doing so.

First of all, this is much better than the last attempt. This has structure, it doesn't have random effects all over the place and it is a lot tidier. While it is tidy, it is too tidy, and as you said, it doesn't look like you've done much. This is just because you haven't added enough effects. I know it can be tough finding good C4Ds, but I'd advise having a look into that texture pack of mine Abnegation posted here with the assignment and have a play with those as well. Whenever you get an effect that looks good, even if it looks good, but doesn't look like it will fit the tag / stock, paste it in Photoshop anyways and play around with resizing and rotating, and erasing bits and you should be able to find something that looks good. Another tip is to use lots of small pieces from lots of layers so you can make it fit by stacking effects on top of each other.

You said you got rid of some clashing green, and I don't have the original stock, so looks good, but it looks like you missed a bit in the lower right corner, if that's a C4D or something, click the layer, and press Ctrl + U or Command + U and change the hue so it is another colour. That browny pink C4D you already have on the left looks a bit funny too, could be made a more suiting colour like more orange or something.

As for that C4D, it's a little messy because there are tiny bits of it in different places going in different directions. Don't be afraid to erase heaps of an effect and leave only a tiny bit that looks good. For example, with this piece, besides that big chunk just under her arm, you could erase all the rest and then use different C4Ds / layers to build up more effects in other spots.
Another thing to watch for is that sort of light and dark lines on the right of the tag going up towards top left corner. That is clashing with the flow, and whether that was part of the stock to start with, or something you did along the way, it should either be smudged/erased out or covered up or something, because if there was flow and effects on the right, it would just throw it all off.

Hope that was ok!

ASSIGNMENT #2


Alright, so as most of you are finishing up your first assignment and hopefully ok with the feedback you've gotten, here is the completed tutorial on lighting and a new assignment. Now, this one is a little more open just because most of you will be new at this so I want to give you some flexibility to try and make the most of the comments. So, first you have to read the tutorial which can be found here. TUTORIAL HERE!

When I say read it, you should go take the time to read it all in depth and make sure you understand it, and then when you go to open Photoshop, keep it open so you can refer back to it when you need to.

Your task is to take (and here is your choice) any stock you want OR (and the preferred route) take an old tag / LP you have done some time recently and add lighting to your piece following the tutorial. Your aim is to improve the original using only the techniques in the tutorial. Don't add effects, don't add colour adjustments. Just the techniques in the tutorial! If you are doing a tag / LP, you can go to the top layer and go from there. If you choose the stock, please resize it so it isn't massive, make it like tag size please!

When you post your finished assignment, you will need to post your finished piece, and then the original image in a spoiler. You MUST post the original or your piece won't get comments. If you can, please try and make the original the same size as the finished product so it looks like my before and after in the tutorial. Once you've resized your image and placed it in the canvas, save a copy of the original stock resized and upload that as your original so it is the same as your finished piece, minus lighting! :D

So yeah, improve an image / old piece using only lighting found in the tutorial.

TIPS:
If you want to use the stock instead of a tag, it will be easier to improve a stock that doesn't already have obvious lighting. Don't choose like a sunset or something, choose a fairly neutral stock, an environment is probably easier.[/FONT]

TwilightBlade July 25th, 2011 9:10 AM

Homework for assignment #2


Applied your advice on my last assignment. Thank you for all of the help.

lahishendeeir July 25th, 2011 10:34 AM

assignment uno . . . o.o"

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd420/upchuckglitter/assignments/ASSIGNMENTO1.png

NovaStar July 25th, 2011 8:34 PM

http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/NovaStar711/AssignmentGIF.gif
This was just an attempt to make the stock more nightmare fuel than before and I think I pulled it off pretty well.

moments. July 26th, 2011 4:48 AM

For this latest assignment, there obviously isn't a whole heap to recommend and critique, so I will just be giving some quick comments. The main point was just to get you familiar with some new techniques and how they are used.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwilightBlade (Post 6766389)
Homework for assignment #2

Using a larger brush generally is better because it gives a greater fade out so it is less obvious, so you want to use as large as you can, obviously not like 500px or anything, but larger is generally better, unless you want small, precise lights.

But yeah, you definitely made the stock look a lot more dynamic, it just feels deeper and more interesting. One thing that I would note though, that isn't a major issue, but it could get a little funky if you've got a piece with more obvious lighting, is your darkening around the top of the stock. While it draws attention to house more which is good, you also have actually made the light source, the sun, disappear. If you actually think about it, you can see that it looks a bit funny, but yeah as I said nothing too major. The stock didn't really indicate strong sun, but physics says it's there. :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by lahishendeeir (Post 6766552)

This is has all the makings of a great tag, but there are some things that need a little bit of work. First of all, let me just say that you definitely know what you are doing with fractals and C4Ds, so kudos for that.

The first thing that I believe needs a bit of tweaking in the tag are the colours. The colour scheme and the adjustments you've added are actually really good, great use of the washed out look, however, it feels really flat because her face is also washed out and very yellow. You could go a few ways to fix this. First of all, you could up the contrast a fair bit and then erase areas around the outside edges and anywhere excluding the face just so it pops a bit, but the best route I think, is simply with some lighting to make the tag feel a bit deeper and really make the face pop. As another sort of request, I'd recommend that when you do Assignment Two, that you actually use this tag as your original, because with some simple lighting as outlined in the tutorial I included with the Assignment, you could make this tag brilliant. You might as well practise lighting and get the hang of it while dramatically improving your tag. :P
Also, the brushing you have around the edges, the black soft brushing is a little bit too obvious, try lowering the opacity a tiny bit, putting it on Multiply or using a larger brush. Or all of them. :P

One thing that I can see that also needs altering and considering in the future perhaps, is just watch out for clashes between your effects and the original stock. If you look at that arm on the left which is touching her face, parts of the arm are transparent or look erased because you've got effects over the top of it which are blocking it completely. Just a small thing, but try and erase any parts where this happens in the future, it doesn't look too bad in this piece, but it just looks a bit dodgy if people pick up on it.

Finally, just with stock placement, I would move her up a little bit. If you google "rule of thirds" if you don't already know what it is, but her face, the main focal point is in a weak position. Being in the very middle of an axis tends to be fairly weak spatially, and it would just sit a little nicer if it was moved up a little bit.

But yeah, great tag, judging by the other pieces you posted when you joined, this latest second assignment should have a pretty big effect on your work and make them feel a lot more polished. So yeah, look forward to seeing you a bit further down the track! :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaStar (Post 6767509)
http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/NovaStar711/AssignmentGIF.gif
This was just an attempt to make the stock more nightmare fuel than before and I think I pulled it off pretty well.

You definitely did do a good job! No real things to work on as you pretty much nailed it, however along the bottom edge directly under the stairs is lighter than the rest of that edge, and just feels like it could be more balanced and rounded if it was darkened up a bit more.

But yeah, great job!

Ok so, now that a few people have handed it in, when the rest of you hand in the second assignment, could you just leave me some feedback on the tutorial itself? Like did you find it helpful, not enough depth, too much depth, more of the drawn on elements of explaining things? Just things that I can consider when I do the next tutorial so you guys get the most out of it. I'm not looking for heaps of words, just like a sentence on what you liked and what could be improved.

Thanks guys! Keep getting those assignments in!

TwilightBlade July 26th, 2011 8:35 AM

Tutorial is helpful and detailed (yay sun pic). For dodge/burn, I kinda couldn't tell if you were working with the same size tool over same areas again, or using a finer tool to emphasize the lightest/darkest spot (so I just kept using the brush method).

Darkening edges and popping out the middle is a safe move like you said, but I see what you mean about natural sunlight. I was going for the vignette photo effect (something you could go over too).

Hybrid Trainer July 26th, 2011 10:22 AM

Well i finally got around to looking around DeviantArt again for some tutorials. Slim pickings on there, all that comes up are vexel tutorials "/
But i managed to find a kinda of hints and tips document on there and this is what came out of it.


Any ideas how i could improve on the shading?
I tried to do the eyebrows but they always came out looking like a pair of caterpillars on her face ¬.¬

Azure Wish July 26th, 2011 1:45 PM

Well, heres my result



original

I really liked the tut, very great and in depth :). I was also confused about the finer details of the dodging and burning, but overall, it was easy to follow

moments. July 27th, 2011 3:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwilightBlade (Post 6768283)
Tutorial is helpful and detailed (yay sun pic). For dodge/burn, I kinda couldn't tell if you were working with the same size tool over same areas again, or using a finer tool to emphasize the lightest/darkest spot (so I just kept using the brush method).

Darkening edges and popping out the middle is a safe move like you said, but I see what you mean about natural sunlight. I was going for the vignette photo effect (something you could go over too).

For dodging, I used one click of like a 200px brush on the right side, and I did do some smaller brushing (70px ~) around other areas like the wall near the stairs which in one area is a tiny bit lighter. But yeah I did go over the same sort of areas, just a basic example. However a good example of going over finer more precise details is if you have a stock of a person, if you get a fairly small brush, like less 50px, depending on your stock size, and add some dodge to parts of their eye to make them glint, or even smaller and burning where the eye lashes meet the eye lid, that makes the eye pop more. That's all I meant by finer details, but I didn't show it cause often it isn't necessary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrid Trainer (Post 6768451)
Well i finally got around to looking around DeviantArt again for some tutorials. Slim pickings on there, all that comes up are vexel tutorials "/
But i managed to find a kinda of hints and tips document on there and this is what came out of it.


Any ideas how i could improve on the shading?
I tried to do the eyebrows but they always came out looking like a pair of caterpillars on her face ¬.¬

You are definitely getting better, however I think I picked up on what might be making them look just a little bit off. Your shading doesn't seem to keep the original light source in mind strongly. I don't really know how to vector or how you're meant to shade, but in that latest example, especially around the nose, the shading is just as thick on either side which doesn't make too much sense given that your lighting appears to be coming from the top left-ish. Also the right eyebrow doesn't have shading underneath it which clashes with the light source as well. You aren't doing a bad job, in fact quite good, it's just that it looks a bit off because the lighting needs a bit more thought. That's what I'm getting anyways.

Also the colour of the eyes looks a little desaturated and pale. But yeah, you are getting a lot better very quickly, so just keep at it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure Wish (Post 6768622)
Well, heres my result



original

I really liked the tut, very great and in depth :). I was also confused about the finer details of the dodging and burning, but overall, it was easy to follow

So you've done a good job, however there is one thing I'd recommend just watching out for in the future. First of all, the stock you started with was quite washed out, but where you have darkened the areas, I think you may have gone a little too dark because it is hard to make out some details that are visible in the original but smothered in your edit. I can't tell if you have used the black soft brushing or burn tool, but regardless of which you did, you can actually simply reduce the opacity of the layer a bit until some of those details are visible again. Not a major concern and easily fixed, but something that you should be able to learn and pick up on so it can be fixed before you upload and then have to go back, edit and reupload.

Also, regarding the details and finer points of burn / dodge, I addressed that in response to TwilightBlade, (first quote of this post) so hopefully that answered your question!

Good work guys, keep getting those assignments in!
For those of you who haven't made a gallery as of yet, I'd recommend it so you can get more feedback from both me (I'll try comment as regularly as I can and try and get in every couple of updates depending on how often you update) but also from the other users here which will help give you a wider circle of comments from different people who have different tastes and likes and stuff. Also, take the time to rate and comment on other people's work as well! I'm not just trying to boost activity outside this thread (although it would be amazing! :D) but honestly, giving people constructive criticism and tips, not just appraisal and positive comments, but also some things to work on really helps you as an artist. It helps you pick up on things that look off, and giving them advice on how to tweak it or fix it up helps get your knowledge of Photoshop and technique working and can help you get better at identifying methods and techniques without actually having Photoshop open.

While I am giving you all these comments to help you guys primarily, it does in fact help me a lot too as I start to notice some things that could be tweaked in my own work and I can't help but tell myself what looks off and how it could be fixed. So yeah, go make a gallery when you have four examples and post in other people's galleries! :D

Hybrid Trainer July 27th, 2011 4:00 PM

So yea... i tried your advice about the eyebrow thing and i concentrated more on shading and colour this time and i got this.


Is it better? Is it worse?

moments. July 27th, 2011 4:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrid Trainer (Post 6770440)
So yea... i tried your advice about the eyebrow thing and i concentrated more on shading and colour this time and i got this.


Is it better? Is it worse?

That looks way better! Shading it really good!
One thing though, and this is just very small, the shadows which are the wrinkles in his sleeve on the right are a little too thin. They don't look fat enough to be wrinkles and just feels a bit messy. Bulk them up, and then you have yourself one hell of a vector! Good work, looks like you've got the hang of it!

Pera July 27th, 2011 8:44 PM

Finished!
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5022/theherolegacy2.png

Origional pic:


Feedback: The tut was very well explained, I now have a new insparation to watch my lighting and shading.
Thankyou very much for the tut!

Speed July 28th, 2011 5:10 PM

Just wondering, do I have to do the first assignment before I start the second one?

Alternative July 28th, 2011 9:23 PM

I know this isn't part of any assignment or anything (I'll try to start that later) but I was working on something yesterday and I thought it turned out really great. I was wondering if I could get any criticism on it to make it better or anything. :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35499431/jimi.png

moments. July 28th, 2011 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pera (Post 6770729)
Finished!
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5022/theherolegacy2.png

Original pic:


Feedback: The tut was very well explained, I now have a new insparation to watch my lighting and shading.
Thankyou very much for the tut!

First of all, the starting tag already had pretty significant areas of light and darkness, so there probably wasn't much you could've added besides a tiny bit more darkness on the left, (which I see you added a tiny bit, but barely visible) and brightening up the focal point more. I see you tried some soft brushing with a yellow light, and that's ok, but I think the actual face / body of the stock could've also been brightened up a bit too. If you didn't try out the dodge tool, that's where it might've worked well. But yeah, your original didn't give you too much potential to work with for lighting because it was already set out quite clearly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speed (Post 6772235)
Just wondering, do I have to do the first assignment before I start the second one?

If you want to skip the first one, you can, but you will just get more feedback and improve more if you do them both. However, if you'd like, you could actually incorporate them both in one if you'd like, make a tag with a real life stock and then add lighting as well. But yeah, it's up to you, but I'd recommend doing both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alternative (Post 6772571)
I know this isn't part of any assignment or anything (I'll try to start that later) but I was working on something yesterday and I thought it turned out really great. I was wondering if I could get any criticism on it to make it better or anything. :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35499431/jimi.png

I already gave you a couple of comments, so perhaps Gav can give you some as well, but basically the things that I'd recommend are:
Firstly, the C4D you've got directly behind him, the coloured one is too blurry, and it looks a little low quality where you've put a texture or something over it. Yes it creates depth, but you don't need that much cause it just makes the C4D look weaker, and also because you've sharpened up Jimi wonderfully, so you don't actually need a lot of blur to get the job done.

On another note on that, you could probably use another C4D or at least some other kind of effect on the left side just because it fades to black, but there isn't really anything going on. That colourful C4D goes nearly vertically, you could even give that a little but more angle so it occupies more space to the left, but yeah, you need something more in there.

Lastly, I said that you pulled off the sepia style well, and you did, however that style generally tends to look monotonous. And while you did the style well, it is the style itself that lets you down, not so much something you did wrong. But yeah, for tags and forum stuff, I think the sepia style might be a little too plain, but things like large pieces or photo manipulations definitely suit those colours a lot more.

Hope that was ok!

keoni July 31st, 2011 1:01 AM

What name you go by:keoni
Link to your gallery on PC: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=225415
Why you would like to join the graphics school: I feel like everything I've been making recently is kinda(very) bad...
Describe your experience with graphics: I started using Photoshop during late April of last year.
What you feel is your best piece and why:http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/209/9/5/heartbreak_hotel_by_keonifx-d41yuiz.png I feel that I got the best lighting I've ever gotten, along with most of the colours... It also is one of the few that actually came out the way that I expected it to be.
What you think you need to improve on:Everything.

moments. July 31st, 2011 3:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keoni (Post 6776032)
What name you go by:keoni
Link to your gallery on PC: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=225415
Why you would like to join the graphics school: I feel like everything I've been making recently is kinda(very) bad...
Describe your experience with graphics: I started using Photoshop during late April of last year.
What you feel is your best piece and why:http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/209/9/5/heartbreak_hotel_by_keonifx-d41yuiz.png I feel that I got the best lighting I've ever gotten, along with most of the colours... It also is one of the few that actually came out the way that I expected it to be.
What you think you need to improve on:Everything.

First of all, welcome to the school! If you want to start doing the assignments that have been set so far, they can be found at the bottom of the first post. You don't have to do them all, but you will get more comments from Gav or myself and therefore should improve more, but it is up to you ultimately.

Secondly, we all have patches were we don't like our work. When this happens, generally two things are good to help shift out of one of those trenches. Firstly, you can take a break, however long you want. Doing art should be something you enjoy, but if you aren't liking what you are producing, you might as well take a break so when you come back you can appreciate it more. Also, when you come back, you won't do things exactly the same, so that helps too.

The other way, and I'd recommend this way. Experiment heaps. Try and make pieces using none of the techniques you would normally use. Try and make everything completely different; style, technique and stocks you use. If you change it all up, you are bound to find something you like which you can then work on!

keoni August 4th, 2011 5:06 AM

I hadn't been planning on doing this assignment, but then I got bored because I couldn't get anything I wanted, and I had this open (was going to use it as a backround). I got a bit carried away and blurred a few things, as well as kinda changed the colour...

http://k.min.us/il282i.png

Original:
http://k.min.us/il2JcE.png

moments. August 4th, 2011 5:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keoni (Post 6784098)
I hadn't been planning on doing this assignment, but then I got bored because I couldn't get anything I wanted, and I had this open (was going to use it as a backround). I got a bit carried away and blurred a few things, as well as kinda changed the colour...

http://k.min.us/il28ya.png

Original:
http://k.min.us/il2JcE.png

Very nice result!
Firstly, I definitely like the adding of yellow/orange to the lighting in the back, to the right of the guy. Looks like there was a fire or something and he is going off into the shadows. :D
While that area looks good, the stock itself, on that left side and over the character is quite dark, I'd say too dark, like the man doesn't actually catch your eye as the focal his arm / leg does because it is the brightest. You could use the dodge tool and just bring out his visor a little more so his head is more obviously the focal point.

Other than that, you've done the lighting very well! As another little side note, you've done well withe blurring, but I feel, the guy could have a little bit of sharpening, even if just his face, again, just to make it more obviously the focal.

But very good job!

For everyone else, I'll discuss with Gav whether he wants to do the next assignment, of if I will do it, so hang tight a bit and we'll try get something up soon for you to do! In the mean time, feel free to ask any questions about anything graphical here. Whether it is examples of effects you want explained, or some advice on pieces you've done, or where to find some resources or anything!

keoni August 4th, 2011 5:27 AM

Lol. I updated it with a sharpened version after you started typing that apparently... I do feel that it wasn't quite focused enough on him.... I just closed Photoshop lol, but I'll try and lighten things a tad bit more on the foreground area.

flamz321 August 4th, 2011 10:48 AM

Heh sorry about the lateness. Anyway, here's what i did for the second assignment:

Original:


Edited:

Winneon August 7th, 2011 4:55 PM

My Entry to Graphics School
 
What name do you go by: JS7 (or you can call me Jal)
Link to my gallery: N/A
Why I would like to join Graphics School: Because I would like to become better at graphics, not so much on pixel art, but on "real graphics".
Describe my experience with graphics: Well, pretty much all of the experience I've has with graphics is with pixel art. I just started with graphics and made only 2 "graphic" images.
What I feel is my best piece and why: Well, like I said above, I've only made 2 images. Here is the image I think is the best:
http://imagedatabase2.wikispaces.com/file/view/Pic_2.PNG/244758703/Pic_2.PNG
This is my title screen for my game: Pokemon: Swords of Mystery.
What do I think I need to improve on: Well, I want to improve on anything graphics related using either Photoshop or GIMP! Besides pixel art, anyway.

Well, I hope my application form is acceptable!:)

flamz321 August 8th, 2011 8:07 PM

I redid assignment #2 cuz I thought the other one was kinda...eh.

Original:


Edited:

moments. August 10th, 2011 4:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamz321 (Post 6784587)
Heh sorry about the lateness. Anyway, here's what i did for the second assignment:

Original:


Edited:

Well first off all, although this was just to practise lighting on an otherwise untouched stock, you still should save it as a .png. I don't know if how you've done the brushing has lowered the quality or is it was because it was left as a .jpg, but you've got a bit of pixelation, noticeably where you've added light.

Speaking of light, you haven't made it too obvious, which is alright, but for my money, and the aim of this assignment, you haven't done enough, and what you have done doesn't necessarily improve the original stock. I can tell you've added yellow soft brushing, but because it is kind of applied everywhere it is light, you've just made the colour feel a little too warm. Dodge tool would be good, or to apply less yellow, and perhaps even add white soft brushing. But yeah, some burning / black soft brush to add shadows would've been good too!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JalordaSerpent7 (Post 6791008)
What name do you go by: JS7 (or you can call me Jal)
Link to my gallery: N/A
Why I would like to join Graphics School: Because I would like to become better at graphics, not so much on pixel art, but on "real graphics".
Describe my experience with graphics: Well, pretty much all of the experience I've has with graphics is with pixel art. I just started with graphics and made only 2 "graphic" images.
What I feel is my best piece and why: Well, like I said above, I've only made 2 images. Here is the image I think is the best:
http://imagedatabase2.wikispaces.com/file/view/Pic_2.PNG/244758703/Pic_2.PNG
This is my title screen for my game: Pokemon: Swords of Mystery.
What do I think I need to improve on: Well, I want to improve on anything graphics related using either Photoshop or GIMP! Besides pixel art, anyway.

Well, I hope my application form is acceptable!:)

Welcome to the school! I'm not sure how many actual tags you've done, so if you'd feel more comfortable posting your most recent piece in here for comments before you start the assignments, that'd be fine! Otherwise, they are linked in the first post of the thread for whenever you are ready to get stuck into them!

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamz321 (Post 6793589)
I redid assignment #2 cuz I thought the other one was kinda...eh.

Original:


Edited:

Use .png as well! For this assignment it isn't too bad, but it's a good habit to always save everything as .png.
Anyways, you've made some obvious lighting which is quite good, however I'd argue it's a little, sort of lazy / not accurately added. I mean you've got the shadows in the outer edges, and the light in the middle which is good. But you've sort of lightened up the whole middle, not really factoring in that the very middle, where the sun is most obvious should be a lot brighter than the rest.
That's about it really, just try and go slower and keep trying to make the light source pop more, you've kind of reduced it by applying light so freely and smothering the stock.

As for the next assignment, it's on textures, and it's such a big topic I've been trying to plan and stuff, but it's going to be massive, and I'm getting uni stuff piling up, so sorry to be inconvenient, but if you could all just hang tight! If you want to post more art you're doing in here, I will give comments because I don't want you all to just stop because the assignment isn't ready.

Winneon August 10th, 2011 9:31 AM

Ok. My most recent piece is this one:
http://imagedatabase2.wikispaces.com/file/view/castaway2.png/244956651/castaway2.png

keoni August 11th, 2011 4:09 PM

hey... I'm working on this style... http://k.min.us/ijx6GA.png... 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)


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