[Showcase] My Dream, My Hope

[Zero°]

Falling to my Dream, Falling to my Hope

Welcome to my new Graphics gallery for all of my 2013 graphics. I promise this one won't die out like my old one xD I suck at CSS so I'll skip that for now until I can actually do it, much love to Derozio for doing the CSS <3 but anyways, enjoy and criticism is always welcomed so long as it's constructive.

Icons 130x130

Icons 150x150

Tags

 

[derozio]

Ooh, I spot a pretty good graphic artist here. <3

I'll start off by saying that you surely know your stuff as far as depth is concerned. You know where blurring and darkening stuff is necessary and where it just serves as a way to ruin things. You do not go overboard with effects and know how much is just adequate. This is, by far, my favorite tag of yours. It just looks amazing even though it has less effects going on in it. The positioning is fantastic, colors are really good, sharpening and blurring has been done amazingly and the lighting is impressive as well. Easily your best, in my opinion. I really, really hope to see more stuff like this in your gallery in the future. <3; Although that's not to say I wouldn't like it if you'd expand your horizons and try out new stuff - I'd love that too, lmao.

But yes, there's a little inconsistency in the quality of works you've posted in here. This, for example, lacks effects. You've blurred stuff out in order to draw the viewer's attention to the focal and it works but the tag as of now is a little plain and not really as appealing to look at as the other one. You could experiment a bit with the colors as well, I feel. On the other hand, this one, ironically, suffers from too much stuff going on in it. It just looks a little messy, to be honest. The lighting is a little too heavy in some places (like the bottom left - a little below dofla's face. The whole bottom left side in general, actually) which take away from the overall looks. I actually think the main problem in the tag lies in the fact that the effects you've used in there do not compliment the stock/render at all. Yeah, Dofla's got a pink theme but I'm pretty sure you could've gone for a bit of variation in colors and the c4ds/fractals used in there. I like how you've tried to emulate proper lighting in there but, to be frank, it doesn't really work. Like I said, the lighting is a bit heavy at the bottom and the dark areas, that you've probably burned, just do not work for this tag. In my opinion, for tags with bright colors as backgrounds, try not to put the opacity of the blur tool much more than 7-12% while burning in the 'highlights' mode. I do that in my works. :p The last one looks neat. I like the colors and the blurring you've done in it.

Overall, I think you've got some fine pieces in here. I really would love to see you update this gallery more often and let me feast my eyes. <3; Honestly, you've got gargantuan potential, as I see it. Don't let this die like before! :3

 

[Zero°]

Thanks a lot for the criticism Derozio, I'll definitely keep that in mind from now on. Gonna start making a new tag pretty soon and maybe some icons, I'll update this post with them once I finish. Again, thanks for the criticism I find it very helpful xD

edit:

The tag was inspired by some of Derozio's tags, namely the Soul and Luffy ones. I kept in mind what you said about the lighting in my Dofla tag so that I wouldn't make that mistake again, I did add a bit of red light at the bottom though, so I hope that doesn't take away from the focal. I didn't add text because I just...suck badly at text lol.

Luffy icon

I lol'd when I saw the image so I had to turn it into an icon xD

 

[Kotone]

amazing gallery so far! i love the coloring you do, it's amazing.
this one is a little flat to me, i wish there was some more lighting effects. also, i think the image could be a bit more sharpened. i think a couple of them should be more sharpened.
i love the c4d's/textures you use. i wanna know where you get them xD
can't wait to see more.

 

[Fairy]

I'll start off by saying that you surely know your stuff as far as depth is concerned. You know where blurring and darkening stuff is necessary and where it just serves as a way to ruin things.

Dero always knows the best way of saying things. :3

Anyway, Zero (HAH! Zero, Dero... similar names lmao) your tags are amazing! This piece is absolutely stunning! I agree with Dero, that tag really stands out from the rest. The others are awesome, mind you, but that tag is the perfect marriage of colors, blending, details, blacks, lights, subject, text, everything! Speaking of which, I would love to see more text in your works! I know you said you suck at them... But some of these tags are positioned so perfectly, like this one for instance, that they're just begging to have a little text in there.

Also, I don't think that red lighting [speaking of the same piece] is too much, but that's just my untrained eye. The way I see it, her eyes are green, so red is naturally a compliment if used correctly and in the right places. I can't see anything inherently bad about the red lighting, so therefore it must be a good thing! xP

I am super impressed by these! I really hope you keep posting!

 

[Zero°]

amazing gallery so far! i love the coloring you do, it's amazing.
this one is a little flat to me, i wish there was some more lighting effects. also, i think the image could be a bit more sharpened. i think a couple of them should be more sharpened.
i love the c4d's/textures you use. i wanna know where you get them xD
can't wait to see more.

Glad you like them ^^ and yeah I also think I should sharpen some of these more, lol. As for the C4Ds, I really just google C4D packs.

Dero always knows the best way of saying things. :3

Anyway, Zero (HAH! Zero, Dero... similar names lmao) your tags are amazing! This piece is absolutely stunning! I agree with Dero, that tag really stands out from the rest. The others are awesome, mind you, but that tag is the perfect marriage of colors, blending, details, blacks, lights, subject, text, everything! Speaking of which, I would love to see more text in your works! I know you said you suck at them... But some of these tags are positioned so perfectly, like this one for instance, that they're just begging to have a little text in there.

Also, I don't think that red lighting [speaking of the same piece] is too much, but that's just my untrained eye. The way I see it, her eyes are green, so red is naturally a compliment if used correctly and in the right places. I can't see anything inherently bad about the red lighting, so therefore it must be a good thing! xP

I am super impressed by these! I really hope you keep posting!

Oh you're right, guess I should change my username to Zerodio to be an anagram of Derozio xD;
Well, I guess I'll try to do text more and you're right, that tag looks pretty empty without text but ehh I just don't wanna mess it up with my terrible text skills. I'll try adding some text later and see how that works. On the red lighting, I just thought it was a little too bright to where it might've messed with the main lighting in the top left side of the tag.


New tag:

I'm not too sure about this one, I was just messing around with textures and trying to make them blend with the tag. I like it, but there's something that I'm just not sure about and I don't know what it is. CnC?

This one I did in the beginning of the year but I never did upload it, it's a vertical tag attempt. Don't really like it that much but I figured I should share it for others to see. ^^;

also, eh, gonna add a couple of drawings(extremely large images so I'll just link to them)
Sanae - quick portrait/sketch of Sanae from Touhou
Futo - I never did finish colouring the bottom half of her dress, I should finish it >.>
Remilia - drew it in pen real quick and coloured it lightly, I realize her eyes are a bit too far apart lol
Satori - Another unfinished piece.I suck at eye placement XD; but I do like the colouring I did on her 3rd Eye(the red thing on her chest)
Toyosatomimi no Miko - this one's my absolute favourite. Done in Sharpie, however I did use a few references on it. I wish I could make more art like this, or the style of art on my current signature hah. I need to invest on a scanner ;-;

I had some other drawings but I probably won't post them(ecchi) and because I want my gallery to be mostly towards digital/graphic design.

 

[derozio]

Alright, there are actually some problems with your latest updates. Wouldn't really want you to reiterate this mistake, to be honest. What I'm talking about is excessive blending. You blend the stock/render a little too much. Granted, blending is necessary for proper depth but when it is overdone, it just becomes a little difficult to differentiate certain parts of the stock from the effects. The blonde anime girl tag, for example, has her dress blend too much with the background. I like how you chose colors that complement her and how colorful the whole tag is but it doesn't change the fact that it just comes off as messy. The right side has effects which blend with her dress and it becomes really difficult for the viewer to make out what's really going on. 'Stalking you' tag suffers from the same problem - you've blended the characters a little too much. I know it is basically a rule of the thumb to sharpen out the focal and blur most of the other areas to create depth and should be followed. But there should be a transition in the blurriness of the various parts of the tag. Gradation. The effects should get blurred out or sharpened depending on whether they are nearer or further to the viewer's eye relative to the stock's position. You're supposed to envision a tag as a 3d entity in your mind and blur/sharpen stuff according to their relative positions. That's what creates depth. At least, that's what I do to ensure proper depth in my tags.

Though I'm not saying that there should be total lack of any foreground effects that are blurry, no. You may have them but do it where appropriate, will you? As of now, you're blurring stuff a little too much. The renders you use are nice, the backgrounds are amazing (the second one, omg. It looks amazing), the stocks that you pick are awesome and you have a good idea about lighting as well. Just fix up the depth and we'll probably be looking at better tags by you. <3;

That's all I'll say for now. I do have more stuff that I'd like to state but I guess I'll do that later. :]

Edit: Not talking about the vertical tag in here, btw. The previous two. ;3

 

[Zero°]

If it's not one thing I mess up on, it's another xD
Thanks for the comment Dero, it made me way more self-conscious about what I blur and how much. I liked the idea of the C4D blending into the blond girl's dress like "oh hey it looks like her dress is a rainbow" but I now see how that looks a little messy. The other tag, ehh I wasn't so sure about it in the first place but I'm glad to see that you liked it.

New tag though. I've been on a little creative block(I get those a LOT @_@) trying to look for some good stocks of people smoking lol. so I was just looking through some renders and found the one I used on this tag

I like this tag, sort of reminds me of my 'Silence' tag I made last month.CnC?

edit: It lacked effects, so I decided to go back and add some more to make it more interesting

 

[Simbelmyne]

The second version looks better, yes. Though I think you could've done away with these newly-added wavy-line texture or whatever on the left side of his leg. You know, Samus is positioned behind those c4ds. So it'd only make sense if the 'aura' generated by samus is visible only on places behind those c4ds, if you know what I mean. But yeah, like them because they enhance the flow a bit. Lighting's pretty decent though I wish you had gone for some variety in effects in this one. :p

 

[Zero°]

Yeah, I'm not very good with effects anymore xD;
Thanks for the CnC though, I'll definitely keep that in mind. For the C4D, I always think of it as one behind the focal and one in front of it, which is why I didn't erase any of the wavy lines where you had suggested.

Uhhh, 2 new tags. I'm not too sure about these, just trying something new. I really wanna learn some different styles because I've been doing a lot of stuff like this and I'm getting bored with it. I mean I like it but I don't want it to the same format everytime I make a tag lol.

but as I said:

^this is the one I'm looking CnC for, mostly. Like I said I want to try a different style focusing on effects more, unlike my usual tags which are mostly depth and lighting. I like it but eh, there's no such thing as "perfect" in the world of graphic design. So yeah, CnC please?

 

[Zero°]

thanks and no I didn't draw the characters. I wish I was that good xD;

3 new tags. Middle one is click-able to see the before/after as it was a stock.
Also sorry for the inactivity here, been preeeetty busy with school lately. (spring break please come already)

 

[derozio]

Yeah, I'm not very good with effects anymore xD;
Thanks for the CnC though, I'll definitely keep that in mind. For the C4D, I always think of it as one behind the focal and one in front of it, which is why I didn't erase any of the wavy lines where you had suggested.

Uhhh, 2 new tags. I'm not too sure about these, just trying something new. I really wanna learn some different styles because I've been doing a lot of stuff like this and I'm getting bored with it. I mean I like it but I don't want it to the same format everytime I make a tag lol.

but as I said:

^this is the one I'm looking CnC for, mostly. Like I said I want to try a different style focusing on effects more, unlike my usual tags which are mostly depth and lighting. I like it but eh, there's no such thing as "perfect" in the world of graphic design. So yeah, CnC please?

Ah, school. Understandable. Don't worry about it. ;p

anyway, I'm on phone so imma keep it short this time. Pertaining to the second tag - i love it. The effects are well done (smudging?), lighting is good and the blending is really nice as well. The only thing that, kind of, gets in the way of it being a perfect tag is the text, imo. It looks out of place at the bottom. Font choice doesn't work either. Tbh, positioning text near the edges or corners is never a good idea, imo. Those positions just don't work.

As for the first one...I'd say that it suffers from the same problem as some of your previous works - going overboard with blending, I mean. Might just be the fact that I'm on phone or idk but it is sort of hard to make out what actually is going on in the tag. The effects really match the render, I'll give you that, but the tag just looks sort of messy overall, imo. ;[

 

[Zero°]

Ehh, I'm just gonna stop using that style for now lol. (Late thanks for the CnC Dero) I'm going to revive this gallery again and start posting more tags. They'll probably vary a lot in style/quality because I'll be experimenting different kinds of styles, looks, etc. just to be more knowledgeable in these different styles.

2 versions because I couldn't decide on the lighting. I really enjoyed making this tag, it's the first tag I've made in a while so I was surprised it turned out well after a 3-4 month hiatus from Photoshop. CnC is most appreciated, and like I said, the next time will most likely be different from this one since I'll be doing different styles.

edit: just made another one similar in style to the one above, but I still like the first one over this one

 

[Joobell]

Ehh, I'm just gonna stop using that style for now lol. (Late thanks for the CnC Dero) I'm going to revive this gallery again and start posting more tags. They'll probably vary a lot in style/quality because I'll be experimenting different kinds of styles, looks, etc. just to be more knowledgeable in these different styles.

2 versions because I couldn't decide on the lighting. I really enjoyed making this tag, it's the first tag I've made in a while so I was surprised it turned out well after a 3-4 month hiatus from Photoshop. CnC is most appreciated, and like I said, the next time will most likely be different from this one since I'll be doing different styles.

edit: just made another one similar in style to the one above, but I still like the first one over this one

Man your work is amazing, probably the best I've ever seen. But on the first 2 tags I feel like the bottom right corner is just a bit plain considering the rest of the space on the tag is filled. Hope I can get as good as you one day
Cheers
~Joobell

 

[Zero°]

Yeah, it is pretty plain but since I wanted most of the lighting focused on the left, with very little-to-no lighting on the right I didn't see the point in filling that spot in with anything. Thanks for pointing that out though, and don't worry if you practice a lot you'll be better than me in no time. And the best? Aha you should check out Dero and Abnegation's Galleries. Theirs put mine to shame.

 

[Nakala Pri]

I love this artwork! It is superb, truly a magnificent show. Well done, mon ami! I am in total, how do you say, awe, in this gorgeous gallery. I love eet! :D

No, I am not French. xD

 

[Zero°]

Aww I thought you were xD But thanks for the compliments though <3

Here's a new tag, also my first smudge attempt. I know the smudges are terrible but I have no tablet so that's all I could pull off with a laptop's touch pad. CnC?

 

[TwilightBlade]

Spoiler:

Yeah, I'm not very good with effects anymore xD;
Thanks for the CnC though, I'll definitely keep that in mind. For the C4D, I always think of it as one behind the focal and one in front of it, which is why I didn't erase any of the wavy lines where you had suggested.

Uhhh, 2 new tags. I'm not too sure about these, just trying something new. I really wanna learn some different styles because I've been doing a lot of stuff like this and I'm getting bored with it. I mean I like it but I don't want it to the same format everytime I make a tag lol.

but as I said:

^this is the one I'm looking CnC for, mostly. Like I said I want to try a different style focusing on effects more, unlike my usual tags which are mostly depth and lighting. I like it but eh, there's no such thing as "perfect" in the world of graphic design. So yeah, CnC please?

Lovely gallery you have here~ These two pieces caught my eye at first; I love the abundance of colors in the first one. The right side looks fairly empty, and while I'd prefer that the splotches/dots be blended out, it would look... even more empty then. :'c The effects on the left look neat and should be carried over to the right side too, for me.
Second one is amazing and balanced, yay. I love the swirls! I quite like the font and text placement. The broken up effect in the text is pretty mesmerizing, too. Well done. :3

Spoiler:

Ehh, I'm just gonna stop using that style for now lol. (Late thanks for the CnC Dero) I'm going to revive this gallery again and start posting more tags. They'll probably vary a lot in style/quality because I'll be experimenting different kinds of styles, looks, etc. just to be more knowledgeable in these different styles.

2 versions because I couldn't decide on the lighting. I really enjoyed making this tag, it's the first tag I've made in a while so I was surprised it turned out well after a 3-4 month hiatus from Photoshop. CnC is most appreciated, and like I said, the next time will most likely be different from this one since I'll be doing different styles.

edit: just made another one similar in style to the one above, but I still like the first one over this one

For the first set, the second one's lightning is superb. Great effects and colors used. The empty corners really made this piece more intense too, for some wild reason, haha! It's overall very appealing to the eyes. :3
The render in the second sig was sort of lost in the effects. The render looks rather monotone, too. I do like the yellows you used in the banner and her eyes. The other stray colors/effects ought to go. There are some green bits that look out of place, so erase those.

Spoiler:

Aww I thought you were xD But thanks for the compliments though <3

Here's a new tag, also my first smudge attempt. I know the smudges are terrible but I have no tablet so that's all I could pull off with a laptop's touch pad. CnC?

I always find green to be difficult to work with, but that green is quite delicious. :O I haven't played around with smudging too much, but I don't see any notable flaws. The background works well with the mood the render gives off. Something could be happening in the foreground (dots/splatter brushes), though.

Keep it up! :D

 

[Zero°]

Oh thanks for the comments <3

I probably should've just cropped the first tag so there wouldn't be much empty space. I didn't want to add the same C4D on the right side because I thought it would've look too clustered but I'll try to remake the effect on another tag and see how it comes out.

Yeah the 2nd set, the render's colour was pretty monotone to begin with :< I guess I couldn't really fix it xD and I honestly didn't even notice those bits of green actually, thanks for pointing that out for me.

On the last tag I was originally going to use Purple/Green to match with the humanized Spiritomb but I couldn't pull off the purple for some reason so I chose yellow instead. Yeah, I feel that the foreground is pretty bland myself but I couldn't see what to do with it. I tried smudging the render itself to kind of "fade" with the background but I wasn't able to since I can't really control the flow of the smudging on a laptop touch pad. Once I get my new touch screen laptop I'll be able to make better smudges though. ^^

 

[Nakala Pri]

Aww I thought you were xD But thanks for the compliments though <3

Here's a new tag, also my first smudge attempt. I know the smudges are terrible but I have no tablet so that's all I could pull off with a laptop's touch pad. CnC?

Lookin' good! I'm impressed. :P I wish to do this kind of art when I'm older.