I stared into the [CHAT], and the [CHAT] stared back

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

What do you mean, Neo?

Meowsville

I can not for the life of me come up with a situation where the use of stock photos would be appropriate outside of parody, and I'm honestly trying. Supporting evidence, pro-stockphotoites?

NeoRedXIII

I don't think you have to be a professional to use said reference matter. I also don't think it will always be tacky or lazy, though most of the time it will most likely be a distinguishing factor.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

Get off the damn fence Red! Pick a side, don't you know this is war?

NeoRedXIII

I already did. :P NUMBER ONE!

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

You're out of my Will!

NeoRedXIII

What I want to know is why you started this poll. You can PM me your answer if you wish to avoid affecting this fresh poll and for users who've yet to vote.

An artist can only make the decision to work in a way they feel suitable and beneficial to their needs and or expression. The public has only its opinion.

Edit: But who'll enjoy your Megadeth collection for you?

Veritas

From a design perspective its perfectly reasonable to use stock imagery or line work but it really comes down to the client, your own resources and the time for the project.

The other option is obviously creating your own or going without it altogether so I'm in the discretion boat. Ruling it out completely will likely eventually make you eat your shoe. I will grant though that there are more situations it should not be used in, where it was likely chosen out of laziness or ease instead of viability.


edit: If they want to pay for the time to custom design everything then let's do it. If they want a 4 hour turnaround, give them stock.

NeoRedXIII

Veritas wrote: »

edit: If they want to pay for the time to custom design everything then let's do it. If they want a 4 hour turnaround, give them stock.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

I think I may have asplode'd Red's brain.

NeoRedXIII

I'm just a really slow reader. Also, I have nothing more to add to this discussion at this time.

Edit: Can I still have your Megadeth collection when you die? Pleeeeaaassssseeeeee.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

I think you already know the answer to that.

It's "No."

NeoRedXIII

NeoRedXIII

You know I'mma get you now.

You'll take me back too.

I kill the emperor.

MagicToaster

Stock photography, much like Photoshop and Illustrator are only tools. Using one... or not using one, for that matter, won't make you any less or more of a professional. It's just there to be used with discretion and intelligence, much like filters in Photoshop.

I use stock photos every day because it's cheaper and more time saving than setting up a photoshoot, which requires you to take out time to contact and arrange things with the photographer, studios, talent and an endless sea of paper work and talent releases.

I am very much against, the thoughtless use of stock photography. This is where you'll have a magazine with a random happy person that holds no relevance to the subject discussed on the text... or you'll be talking about housing situations for the hispanic comunity and have a picture of an asian couple buying a house...

Stock photos are what you make them. istock.com has a Design of the Week section of designs made with istock's images, this was this week's selection. It's nothing short of beautiful and highly profesional:

Grifter

The question isn't weather stock photos are acceptable in design. Of course, they are. It saves the designer a great deal of time and money, as you said, MT. The question is whether stock photos/photography should be used with line art. For instance, should a comic or illustration be used along with a stock photo?

r-jasper

personally i hate it when comics do that. it takes away from the whole feel and mood that the comic had going. they just smacked in a photo of an explosion in an avengers comic i read and it kind of ruined it for me.

beavotron

usually that is pretty damn tacky, however, I have seen instances on deviantart of stock photography with hand drawn effects done in a graffiti style that looks just plain awesome. But the stock photography is usually a figure, or a focal point of some sort, not a background. I guess what I'm saying is when lineart is used as an accent to compliment the stock, it can be quite snazzy, but when the lineart is the focal point with stock thrown in as an after effect, the result is tacky.

Prospicience

Grifter wrote: »

The question isn't weather stock photos are acceptable in design. Of course, they are. It saves the designer a great deal of time and money, as you said, MT. The question is whether stock photos/photography should be used with line art. For instance, should a comic or illustration be used along with a stock photo?

Ah okay, I was about to type pretty much exactly what MT said until I read this. I guess it depends on the situation, but for comic purposes I guess I'd say "no". I'd be on the edge for illustration purposes depending on what the piece was. At the same time I guess one could look at it the same way that it's looked at from the design aspect: that the stock photo is a tool that the artist is using.

However, I don't think I'd like to see a stock photo used in a comic. How about that for a back and forth answer!

Edit: ah yes, beavo said it better.

Kunkoh

Tam wrote: »

This might or might not cheer you guys up, depending how dark your souls are. EDIT: Beavo, you mebbe shouldn't read this right now considering your experience today.

I'm driving home from work, doing 48 on the 45 speed limit, when this jackass in a Corvette shoots past me at like 65mph on a 45mph road. Traffic is by no means heavy, but there are other cars on the road, and he's zig-zagging around them.

So the punk decides he's going to run the red light even when the other road is occluded by trees. Out of nowhere comes an SUV (had the green) and clips his tiny little corvette- fucking up the rear making him do a 180. Everyone stops pretty close to the scene and I saw the woman in the SUV run out and start screaming bloody murder at the dude in the car. He seemed to shrink in his seat.

Lady moves the SUV out of the way, and I go home laughing my ass off.

There are certain points on my way to and from work where cars (2 to 4) try to run the red light, despite the other side having green. They just keep going; and frequently, the cars that have the right of way have no balls, and just sit there. It drives me BONKERS. Stuck behind someone that waits while 2-4 cars run the red light, since they figure no one will challenge them.

I generally slam on my gas and try to ram them if I'm in front. I could be a little insane though.
(my hate keeps me warm at night)

MagicToaster

After reading what Grifter posted, I was gonna jump head first into a pool of ‘NO’. But then I started thinking of all those amazing backgrounds with dead on perspective that I’ve seen in some programs that are traces of photographs.

Now, I don’t know how to feel. To me, there’s no difference between using a stock photo or a picture you took yourself to trace a background. If I had too choose, I’d probably go with what Beavotron said; if it’s an element in the picture I guess it’s OK, if it’s the focal point of the composition… then that’s just border line plagiarism.

Iruka

when it comes to using stock for illustration, whats the difference between Photo Manipulation and what you all are talking about?

Well, I guess I killed the chat thread. I guess I'll just edit this in:
I got two more WoW commissions which is nice, I just finished one but she made the request that I also give it to her on a white background, which I declined because It doesnt really work the way I build up color, and Im not about to edit in a white background, and what the hell do you need that for on a 25 dollar commission? She just requested another one in the name of her friend, saying they'd use the same paypal account. But when the email from her friend came in it was under the same name (first and last) as the first address, with the white background request on the forefront.

Am I right to feel like this is sketchy? You can do alot of editing to something on a White background, and I'd just hate to get swindled and start trusting people much less. I may be over reacting though. If it were her orignal characters Id be like "whatever, chick do what you want." so maybe I should not feel all freaked out.

Kunkoh

"What is the opinion on combining stock photography and linework in a drawing?"

It sounds to me like he's not talking about drawing over a picture for to get proper perspective (say in a city), it also doesn’t sound like he’s talking about using stock photos in design or ads. It sounds like he’s talking about “using stock photos & linework in a drawing.”

I can’t think of an example of seeing something that looked like a photo & hand drawn lines in the same picture where it didn’t look tacky or out of place; or just plain lazy. I see it a lot in fantasy fan art, where the background will be “real”. Or a shot from a computer game, and the characters are drawn on the background. Or a pic in a drawing is a "real" picture.

If someone has an example of it done well, I would LOVE to see it.

Mustang

I'm not sure what we are talking about....is it like matte painting where you combine photo and paint to create epic scenes? Or graphic design art type stuff? Or something else? I crave clarification and examples before I make any sort of decree.

Iruka

Yeah, Im confused at what the difference between whats being talked about and Matte painting is too. I think they mean obviously hand drawn effects. Maybe. But like every music video with graffiti effects would beg to differ.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

Iruka, it totally looks like the "friend" is the same person, which is fine if this "friend" is willing to pay a completely new commission price for the white background. As for the white background, are you worried someone will make some edits to it and claim it as their own?

And to clarify the poll, the specifics of it are when doing a comic book or a comic strip, and instead of drawing something like a background or set piece (Such an an airplane cockpit or the actual airplane itself), they just drop in a stock photo. The rest of the comic/book has been illustrated with line work, then out of nowhere you get a stock photo.

The poll is a result of two opinions: One opinion being that once a professional "Proves" themselves (to which that can also be highly debated as a course to be determined) they have "earned the right" to combine stock photos and linework like stated above.

The opposition states no matter how "professional" you are, it still looks hella tacky and generally comes across as lazy. There are very few instances where that combination occurs where it doesn't look terrible, tack or just plain lazy. Professional or not, it still looks lazy no matter who does it.

Mustang

And to clarify the poll, the specifics of it are when doing a comic book or a comic strip, and instead of drawing something like a background or set piece (Such an an airplane cockpit or the actual airplane itself), they just drop in a stock photo. The rest of the comic/book has been illustrated with line work, then out of nowhere you get a stock photo.

Oh that looks as tacky as fuck.....lazy too. I totally disapprove of that particular practice.

Angel_of_Bacon

Yeah, one particular instance of it that annoyed me was at the end of Ultimates 2, where they decided to use a photo of New York City when looking out of Stark's office. I mean, the rest of the art up until that point was pretty high-quality, non-lazy stuff and then you get that and you're just like whaaaaaaaaaaa?

Iruka

Mars Elliot wrote: »

Iruka, it totally looks like the "friend" is the same person, which is fine if this "friend" is willing to pay a completely new commission price for the white background. As for the white background, are you worried someone will make some edits to it and claim it as their own?

Yeah, and other such things (tee shirts, web layouts, that sort of thing) the "friend" is paying, but Im confused and feel like some one is trying to trick me. Also if I just knock out the Base color layer it fucks up the coloring. To me the prices of these commissions being low, and the basic price is under the assumption that I can knock out the commission within a certain time frame using my usual methods.

I guess I may be being unnecessarily cautious.

Angel_of_Bacon

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Mustang

I guess I may be being unnecessarily cautious.

There's no such thing as being unnecessarily cautious. In my experience, when money is involved, 80% of people will actively try to fuck you over.

EDIT: Oh dear god.....that's terrifying Bacon. I mean jesus....why the fuck would you want to look like that?

Iruka

this bothers me much more than bigger eyes do. I honestly probably wouldn't notice the size unless they were holding thier eyes open like that all the time.

Angel_of_Bacon

Mustang wrote: »

why the fuck would you want to look like that?

KAWAII DESU NE

Also fuck those creepy cat-eye contacts too.

MagicToaster

Angel_of_Bacon wrote: »

Mustang wrote: »

why the fuck would you want to look like that?

KOWAII DESU NE

Also fuck those creepy cat-eye contacts too.

Fixed.

Tam

Angel_of_Bacon wrote: »

Mustang wrote: »

why the fuck would you want to look like that?

KAWAII DESU NE

Also fuck those creepy cat-eye contacts too.

YOU WANT MIRRION DORRA?

beavotron

oh god
terrifying

Tam

Another one! This fucker isn't even human. He's some sort of goddamn weredolphin. He swims with his true parents and the rest of the pod on the full moon.



EDIT: Brings it up to EDIT EDIT:11 gold, ALL OF THEM ARE WORLD RECORDS.

Kunkoh

he's pretty amazing all right.

USA currently has 9 GM. Phelps earned or helped earn 5 of them.
There are studs, and then there are studs.

Mustang

That guy is a fucking thorn in the side of the Australian swimming team.

Orikaeshigitae

oh goodness

did some pencils, transferred them into photoshop, started cleaning them up

now it is 12:30 am? what?