Questions, Discussion, Tutorials

square

How to render semi-transparent cloth over a object? I can't figure out how to get a good result.
HALP

Prospicience

Looking for a good FTP editor, anyone have any programs they recommend?

square

If you are talking about File Transfer Protocol (FTP) I suggest you FileZilla.

Prospicience

Yes and perfect, I was trying to figure out which one I used to use - and that is it. Thanks!

Tidus53

I'd like to believe that I'm starting to get a pretty solid grasp on my artistic abilities, but it never hurts to receive feedback from other people. Though I feel somewhat troubled that at time of writing there's some type of troll lurking beneath the information super highway waiting to pounce and denounce me and call me a noob (what the heck happened to newb?). I apologize for this photo I posted, mainly the size and quality. The quality is because I do a lot of work with just basic pen and paper and tablets seem hard to work with since most of them don't show me what I'm drawing where I'm drawing. I know there are some like that, but those Cintiqs cost at the lowest $1500. Anyways here it is...



The big guy on the left is what I want criticism. I'm trying to shoot for a western realistic style based off of a combination of DC and the various works and teaching of the late great Burne Hogarth. Is it okay? Keep in mind I'm still trying to nail anatomy and positioning/gestures, not shadows and folds right now. I've only started taking my art more seriously since the end of my high school Sophomore and I'm in the twilight of my Junior year, so almost two years now I'd guess? Any feedback? Criticism? Pointers? Please be gentle with the remarks, I'm still kinda new at this.

Flay

Hey Tidus! Don't be shy about posting your own thread or in the doodle thread, this entire subforum is for artistic critique so there's no need to hide your work in here. This thread is typically for more specific questions than general artistic criticism - suggesting techniques or recommending equipment and the like - so I'm not sure how much attention you'll get in here. Start up a thread and we'll gladly give you some criticism.

Tidus53

Flay wrote: »

Hey Tidus! Don't be shy about posting your own thread or in the doodle thread, this entire subforum is for artistic critique so there's no need to hide your work in here. This thread is typically for more specific questions than general artistic criticism - suggesting techniques or recommending equipment and the like - so I'm not sure how much attention you'll get in here. Start up a thread and we'll gladly give you some criticism.

Okay, thanks Flay. I just felt like I'd be wasting community space or come off as obnoxious. Like saying,"Hey ignore everything else and pay attention to solely my stuff!" Thanks for telling me otherwise, that's going to make acting as a part of this community a little more easy or relaxing I guess. I'll start my own thread soon, thanks.

FANTOMAS

Hello all, I have a technical issue, and I didnt know where else to go.

I have a secondary tablet, that I take to work to doodle in the free time. it is an Aiptek 12000U usb, (big, gray and ugly) And sometimes it works fine, for a very short time. Most usually, the cursor shakes, sometimes mildly, and sometimes the shake is so brutal that I cant lay a single line. Ive done some research, apparently there is a controller for Linux (Xwindow) that would fix the problem. That doesnt work, because I have WinXP in this laptop (secondary crap computer that I take to work).

So, if anyone has had a similar problem, and knows a possible solution, ANYTHING, I would be very greatful.

PS: My hand doesnt shake, the tablet is in a perfectly straight surface, the pen battery is today-new, the cable works, and my intuos4 works fine, but its too damn big and expensive to take to work.
Edit PS: Also Im only trying it with OpenCanvas 1.1, I didnt think it is relevant since the pen also jitters in the desktop, but I thought I might mention it anyway.

F87

@FANTOMAS This may be a silly question, but have you tried updating/installing drivers for it?
---

How can I find a large variety of free, full-body reference of people in natural and dynamic poses?

Enc

I tend to enjoy: http://www.istockphoto.com/

And other stock photo galleries. I started using them after having scoured them for marketing stuff at work. Good reference for all sorts of things. If you are looking for a general reference, it's pretty useful, though you will have diagonal lines and the "Stockphoto" text over the front, though.

FANTOMAS

F87 wrote: »

@FANTOMAS This may be a silly question, but have you tried updating/installing drivers for it?
---

yes, several times, I will try installing drivers for OTHER brands that use the same tablet, but so far no luck.

Prospicience

F87 wrote: »

@FANTOMAS This may be a silly question, but have you tried updating/installing drivers for it?
---

How can I find a large variety of free, full-body reference of people in natural and dynamic poses?

I think Iruka had a great link to some stuff on deviant art, I can't seem to find it, maybe PM her?

F87

@Prospicience -
I will try to contact her for that link, thanks! istockphoto is pretty good.

I use FileZilla as well, I like it.

FANTOMAS

I partly solved my problem with the Aiptek 12000U Hyperpen being all shaky.

I uninstalled the drivers, and installed the drivers from Adesso`s page, who use the same tablet but have newer drivers. Jittering still present, but greatly reduced.

Enc

Someone invent digital diazepam for this tablet, stat!

For the residual jittering, I noticed some annoying jittering problems with my Wacom when I positioned my tablet next to my wifi devices. Went away after I moved my router and such across the room. No clue if this was real or in my head, though. I have a twitchy hand and it could have just been that.

FANTOMAS

Enc, have you tried moving your hand away from the wifi devices ?

Enc

No improvement, but when I moved my hand across the room from me it stopped jittering.

Enc

After a lot of pain and several hours of surgery to reattach my hand, I have a question:

Does anyone know of a quality tutorial on animated gif making in photoshop? I have the software, and the frames, but have no idea where to start.

Nappuccino

square wrote: »

How to render semi-transparent cloth over a object? I can't figure out how to get a good result.
HALP

This is a little bit late, but you draw what you see. There's really no trick to it. Pay attention to the lighting changes on the cloth and how the cloth blurs and mutes what is behind it. Also, pay attention to the folds and creases in the cloth. Hope that helps.

Dristan

So I've got a question. I'm a graphic designer by trade and I was hoping to find a sub-forum here where it would be possible to meet up with other designers and network with my geeky brethren. However, it's seems to be predominately the realm of the pure illustrator. Is there some shadowed corner where those who are more adapt at logo design, branding and grid layout meet and discuss the trade in hushed whispers? If not, are there enough of us here to establish such a community?

Hopefully this is the correct place to post this. I didn't feel it was worthy of it's own thread and this seemed to be the most pertinent realm for inquiry.

squidbunny

We do have a more illustratey bent but there's a few strong graphic designers around here. MagicToaster is a working designer, and Kronus is pretty fantastic. Olly Moss used to post here but not so much now (he is way busy being awesome, I'm sure). If you've got some stuff you want to post I'm sure people would love to see/critique it.

MagicToaster

Yeah, we're a small bunch. But, if you have any work you wanna share, drop it in a thread! We're all happy to get new members with new styles!

Welcome!

initiatefailure

I understand and respect the value of high-res conflict zone photojournalism, but that unfortunately keeps it out of the hands of design students.

Is there a resource that students can access these types of photos for use in educational projects?

templewulf

Does anyone have opinions on software for emulating the use of real media like oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc?

I have access to GIMP (obviously) and Adobe CS for photoshop, but I have no idea how hard or easy it would be to set them up to act painterly. Is there anything else that is better equipped out of the box?

ChicoBlue

Corel Painter is a program that does that sort of thing.

Although, I have heard it is not really the stablest program, so it might crash every so often.

You should give the trial a shot.

Angel_of_Bacon

templewulf wrote: »

Does anyone have opinions on software for emulating the use of real media like oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc?

I have access to GIMP (obviously) and Adobe CS for photoshop, but I have no idea how hard or easy it would be to set them up to act painterly. Is there anything else that is better equipped out of the box?

Painter or ArtRage would probably fit the bill.

Trying to make PS emulate natural media is generally a matter of getting really familiar with making/downloading custom brushes, but there's always going to be certain limitations to it. (IE: blending/bleeding/smudging colors is never going to work quite the same way as it would in actual paint.)

templewulf

Angel_of_Bacon wrote: »

templewulf wrote: »

Does anyone have opinions on software for emulating the use of real media like oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc?

I have access to GIMP (obviously) and Adobe CS for photoshop, but I have no idea how hard or easy it would be to set them up to act painterly. Is there anything else that is better equipped out of the box?

Painter or ArtRage would probably fit the bill.

Trying to make PS emulate natural media is generally a matter of getting really familiar with making/downloading custom brushes, but there's always going to be certain limitations to it. (IE: blending/bleeding/smudging colors is never going to work quite the same way as it would in actual paint.)

I've never heard of art rage. I'll give the demo a shot, but do you know if Pro is worth the extra money?

As for painter, Corel and I aren't on speaking terms so I'll try it after art rage.

Thanks, guys!

Enc

A while back, there were these series of inking, digital painting tutorials on deviant art where the subject as a young, redheaded woman getting off of a subway train (and were vaguely Japanese flavored). They were fantastically useful and I had downloaded them.... onto my now dead elder laptop. Anyone familiar with what I'm talking about or where they can be found? Been searching for hours to no avail.

lizard eats flies

I feel like i'm in a bit over my head here. I just had an acquaintance contact me asking what I would charge for recording vocals in my home studio. I have NO idea what I'm worth. I've been planning on renting out my studio/myself in the near future, but this caught me a bit early.

So here is what I know:

- My studio has a small amount of pretty nice equipment. Its not super high end 1000$ mics or anything, but its really nice for a home studio.
- the room is pretty nice. I've set up some sound dampening and things. it sounds good and has a good feel to it. But again, its not a professional studio.
- this person is planning on using these recordings in a full on album he is going to sell
- he is working with a professional studio out of utah, which is doing all the mixing/mastering. His other option was to fly out there and record there. So he is able to spend some cash on it.
- I've been recording vocals for other peoples professional projects, but I've been working in trade, so I dont really know how to base $ pricing off of that.

Ive looked up some professional studios around town, and obviously would want to price lower than them, but I also dont want to undercut myself. Plus the range of the studios is like... 25$ an hour all the way up to 200$. Any thoughts?

Mustang

Try completely uninstalling the driver, reboot and then install 6.15.

35_percent_juice

Hey, I've been lurking for a while and always seem to notice these body structures drawn out before any finished figure drawing (especially of people). Any recommendations for free help on anatomy and figure structure? No money for books right now.

NakedZergling

QUESTION.

Please for the love of god help me.
I'm trying to get my brush settings right. I have uninstalled and re installed the wacom tablet drivers, in case it was that.

Im using
Photoshop CS5
Wacom intuos 3

Problem
When i go to edit my brush i'm having issues. Specifically Pushing down to make it darker, and/or pushing down to make it thicker. I've been doing it the same way for years, yet suddenly nothing happens when i do the same thing i've always done. I know these settings are
shape dynamic (for size i believe) but sliding the bars isn't seeming to change anything.
i think it's "transfer" for the darker with pressure...again i can't seem to change it much. Anyone have any clue what i did or changed to be making it different???

Thank you!

Angel_of_Bacon

The sliders don't do anything except randomize the effect, it's the drop-down box underneath where you choose what the effect is mapped to (pressure, pen tilt, direction, etc.) If the size jitter box in Shape Dynamics and the opacity jitter box in Transfer aren't set to pen pressure instead of off, your pen pressure will have no effect.

NakedZergling

Still can't it to do the basic, thin to fat...grrrr.

NakedZergling

if i go under "brush presets" i can get the thin to fat with pressure, but only if its also light to dark.

NakedZergling

I FIGURED IT OUT! so simple..i must have clicked the buttons in the tool bar so the tablet was over riding the brush settings. It seems to be working now. Does that sound right? I've honestly never even noticed them before now.

Angel_of_Bacon

I actually have no clue what you're on about, but I'm glad you've got it fixed.

JeckalHyde

Man I feel lacklustre about everything (design/illustration) at the moment, i want to do stuff but hav no motivation or passion to do anything, any sage advice ?

Iruka

Go find a gallery/museum to walk around, that always kicks me into gear. Being inspired has natural ups and downs, and I find that when Im not inspired to make output its because I haven't had any very inspiring input, lately.

Flay

I found a really useful resource for animation references, hundreds of movement cycles by Muybridge

http://sillydragon.com/muybridge/Muybridge_List.html