Graphics School

[NerdSparks]

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

 

[Eucliffe]

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.

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

 

[Pera]

ok I uploaded it again,

Spoiler:

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

Spoiler:

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

 

[TwilightBlade]

My homework!

Spoiler:

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.]

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

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!

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!

ok I uploaded it again,

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!

My homework!

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-]

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

 

[Jake♫]

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]

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).

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

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.]

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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♫]

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.

 

[abnegation]

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]

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~)
   
   
   
   (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]

Without text:

Spoiler:

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]

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:

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.]

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.

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. :|
   
   Spoiler:

   
   (right click → view image)
   i'd say this is my best poster (blend).
   
   
   Spoiler:

   
   (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. (:

[/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.

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.

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:

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]

Homework for assignment #2

Spoiler:

original, cropped
Maybe a little lazy brushing cuz used a large brush?

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

 

[lahishendeeir]

assignment uno . . . o.o"

 

[NovaStar]

This was just an attempt to make the stock more nightmare fuel than before and I think I pulled it off pretty well.

 

[moments.]

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.

Homework for assignment #2

Spoiler:

original, cropped
Maybe a little lazy brushing cuz used a large brush?

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

assignment uno . . . o.o"

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

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]

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).