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Questions, Discussion, Tutorials

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Posts

  • beckerskullsbeckerskulls Registered User regular
    Thanks @gavindel, I really appreciate your response! Just what I was looking for - ideas of where to start and how to approach this whole thing. It's gonna be a long road, but that's okay.

  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    Kallisti, where can I see your portfolio?

    shannacundal.com

  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    Your work is awesome, but your layout is so boring!

    I think your thumbnails would look more interesting if you set them up this way:

    shanna.gif

  • miaAusamiaAusa GOD Gamer Of Daters ValhallaRegistered User regular
  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    Yeah it is kind of boring, thanks for your critique! That's currently a free layout that I'm using, and I've gone through a ton of portfolio layouts, I've scoured the internets, some you have to pay for, which I wouldn't mind but I still didn't find much that I liked or that had a layout like the one up above. :| I was mostly worried about my work, it feels a little inconsistent at the moment for what I want to focus on, but I'll get through it. Thanks again!

  • m3nacem3nace Registered User regular
    Is there a way to turn the whole canvas in photoshop? Not just the image inside the canvas but the canvas itself.

  • MangoesMangoes Registered User regular
    edited July 2013
    Image>Image Rotation?

    Mangoes on
  • m3nacem3nace Registered User regular
    edited July 2013
    I should probably specify: I'm thinking of when I'm working on something and I might want to rotate the canvas, say 32 degrees, so I can make that stroke just perfect. Like you rotate a paper when drawing, something a bit more real-timey. I know there's the 'arbitrary' option, but is there a shortcut? And still, arbitrary only rotates the image, not the canvas.
    edit: nvm, found the rotate view tool.

    m3nace on
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    I don't know what version of PS you have - in CS5 I think there's a rotate view tool (right click 'hand' icon on the toolbar), which rotates the canvas (as far as I know, it has no effect on the saved image, etc, so it's not like image rotation, just like zooming or scanning). I assume there's probably a keyboard shortcut as well but I haven't really investigated, since I do most of my painting in Sketchbook.

  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    Logo for a small game startup, for them to use until the heat-death of the universe: $800 sound reasonable? I don't think I'd go lower than $700, but I was wondering if even $800 was too low.

    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    Reasonable. If they dont like it, they can take a hike.

  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    At that price, you should really include a brand manual. Do you know how to make one?

  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    @magictoaster I haven't made one before but I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about. All the do's and don'ts of the logo right? Colors, spacing, placement, etc

    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    Hi Everyone,

    I have just been given some amazon funbucks and am looking to purchase a wacom thing for my girlfriend whose medium of choice is photography. Are there any recommendations for a specific model? My budget at this point is between 150 and 250 dollars.

    Any guidance you can provide will be much appreciated.

  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    @Siegfried - Yep, that's exactly what it is.

    @Apothe0sis - Does she have a large work area on her desk?

  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    @MagicToaster - at present she doesn't have a desk, she drags her laptop around with her. Desk area is at a premium at present, but if it's within budget and it's huge and awesome then I will make that work.

  • Angel_of_BaconAngel_of_Bacon Moderator mod
    Well, for that price it's a tossup between the Bamboo Create and the small Intuos 5. (Neither one appears to be particularly huge.)

    The Bamboo has a bigger usable area, but the Intuos has more features- mappable keys, higher definition + pressure sensitivity, pen tilt recognition, display toggle for multiple displays. Now, while I'm a painter and those extra features would be worth the tradeoff if I were buying one for me, your gf might not share the same priorities- for photography, that extra sensitivity that makes drawing and painting nicer might be irrelevant, and not worth the extra $30 and the loss of area.

    Unfortunately, I can't tell you how much difference there is in feel between the two, since I've always used Intuoses and Cintiqs- maybe someone else has some more insight there.

  • Angel_of_BaconAngel_of_Bacon Moderator mod
    @Kallisti: Sorry to make you wait a few days, but I put this off so I'd have the time to really think through my response.

    Disclaimer: As frustrating as it may be, it's hard to give too definitive an answer on what your should be doing with your portfolio; I don't know where you want your career to go, I don't know what the studios around you make or what they're looking for, etc. So I could say, 'more elaborate stuff', and you may hate working on that and lose out on your dream job doing simplified characters with the guys who made Journey. Or I could say, "even simpler" and miss out on your other dream job working on Darksiders 3 where everything is overdrawn to the extreme. Or I could tell you how to gear things towards games and you'd miss out on animation opportunities. And even if you told me all this, I might not have good advice to give you, and you'd be better off talking to the people who are doing the stuff you want to be doing directly.

    However, I've got a couple thoughts that hopefully are of some use.


    When designing characters, it may be important to show you understand how the characters will move and look at different angles. Right now you've got a bunch of fun characters, but always shown from just from a single angle. So, depending on the purpose:
    If it's traditional hand-drawn animation, this may mean a character sheet of poses/expressions and a model sheet.
    If it's a Flash-drawn vector animation, you may want to have an actual bit of animation showing that you know how to split up characters to take advantage of Flash- a simple walk cycle or idle pose, that sort of thing.
    If it's 3d animation, showing turnarounds of the character will be helpful.
    If you're trying for all of the above with different pieces, be sure to make it clear what each is designed for; for example, while dot or anime eyes may be nice looking in a 2d animation, making those things hold up in 3d is whole different kettle of fish, and would require a lot more detail to describe how it would translate to a model. For example, with dot-eyes- does that mean the eyes are painted on to the head? Or are they physical spheres? Are the features around them (eyebrows, etc.) painted on, or are they modeled? Little explanatory sketches about these details are things modelers love to have.


    There's a couple images that seem connected; SlugTerra logos appear at the bottom of some of them, some of them it just says SlugTerra in the filename, and some just look like they are connected to the others because of style similarities (#4 basement, maybe #5?). Try to group those together in your layout and have that logo branding be consistent. Also, it's somewhat difficult to tell what the SlugTerra project actually is. I assume it's a game, but it could also be an animation. And if it's a game, are these images meant as in-game assets, or are they concept pieces intended to go to 3d modeling?

    Normally, I'd check your resume to figure out what SlugTerra was, but there's no resume link on your site to help figure it out. Some kind of indication of how it all relates to the final product would be good (link to it, some description on resume/about page, etc.)


    Something that relates to what we were talking about before is picking your moment for effect when it comes to light, and that's something I'd encourage you to explore some more with your environments. Now, I don't know the exact purpose for which these environments were designed- in context they may indeed be everything they needed to be for various reasons- but taken on their own, it feel like there's some room to get a little more impact out of the light.

    The most obvious example would be the throne room image; it's technically well-drawn, but I'm not sure where I'm supposed to be looking. The blue glowing diamonds are glowing all over the place and create an obvious contrast to stand out, but you don't want your viewer's eye to be ping-ponging around the composition, jumping at various scattered bits. The floor is also contrasted against the rest of the picture, but is that really the focus? Normally in a throne room, the major thing to look at is the throne- but it's so close in value and color to the cave walls that it gets lost, and therefore it seems visually less important than the diamonds and the floor.

    There's your opportunity to design the light; don't just evenly light the room, use the light to drive the focus to that throne. Maybe that means bathing the rest of the room in a blue to match those glowing diamonds, and then concentrates in a brighter, whiter/cyan light around the throne. Or punching a hole in the rock to spotlight it with sunlight. Or spilling in light from the entrance doorway, creating a line up the floor up to the throne. Something that creates and obvious and deliberate statement about what's important to the scene.

    Having sorta even lighting is also something that's happening in a couple of the other environment images- things that no doubt make sense logically or for the purposes of the overall project, but may not have the emotional impact one looks for in a painting, when it is presented alone. It may be worth picking up a book about cinematography, if for no other reason than to make it clear that even in a movie where the idea is to create a 'natural' effect, a lot of manipulation and fiddling is required to serve the aesthetic and emotional goals of a scene, and so it's worth your time to tease out what lighting setup will communicate your ideas on those fronts most clearly. Start with the question "what's most important to this scene?" and design the light to compliment that idea as much as possible.


    Fanart may not work to your advantage; it's cool if it's a clever new take on a very well known character or applying a wildly different style or is just something to serve as a subject for a demonstration of extreme pure technical skill, but if it's just a simply well-drawn image of a known character, it may not do much for you in terms of portfolio (and it'll be embarrassing if you get to an interview situation and have to explain to someone who isn't familiar with that character that you didn't actually design it.) A goofy image of C3PO transforming into a motorcycle or something is probably ok, an image of C3PO standing around just bein' C3PO probably isn't.

  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    Unfortunately, I can't tell you how much difference there is in feel between the two, since I've always used Intuoses and Cintiqs- maybe someone else has some more insight there.

    Keep in mind that I do nothing but graphic design. I have an old Bamboo at home (a Graphire) and an Intuous at work. Other than the programable keys -which I never use-, the most noticable difference is in how the tablet's surface and stylus feel.

    The surface on the Bamboo is really smooth, vs the surface on the Intuous which is a bit rougher and sometimes feels like actual paper. These differences are negligible because once you get into your work, you'll forget about this. Not so with the stylus. The Intuous' stylus is CONSIDERABLY better than the Bamboo's. It's not to say that the Bamboo has a bad stylus, it just doesn't have the same premium feel as the more expensive counterpart.

    For me, the Bamboo works just as well as the Intuous. But this is from a purely graphic design point of view.

  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    Ohh awesome, thanks for getting back with me.
    @Kallisti: Sorry to make you wait a few days, but I put this off so I'd have the time to really think through my response.

    Disclaimer: As frustrating as it may be, it's hard to give too definitive an answer on what your should be doing with your portfolio; I don't know where you want your career to go, I don't know what the studios around you make or what they're looking for, etc. So I could say, 'more elaborate stuff', and you may hate working on that and lose out on your dream job doing simplified characters with the guys who made Journey. Or I could say, "even simpler" and miss out on your other dream job working on Darksiders 3 where everything is overdrawn to the extreme. Or I could tell you how to gear things towards games and you'd miss out on animation opportunities. And even if you told me all this, I might not have good advice to give you, and you'd be better off talking to the people who are doing the stuff you want to be doing directly.

    Right, understandable. A part of my concern for my portfolio was whether I was showcasing solid skills. I want to make sure that's getting across, and I was wondering what else I should do to display that, or if some piece was bringing the whole portfolio down, if there was something consistently weak throughout the whole thing. I was also concerned about my consistency of style, if it was hurting me in any perceivable way to have all these different approaches in one portfolio. I generally enjoy a lot of different approaches between painterly to cartoony painterly to a strong emphasis on line, but I don't want to appear sporadic.
    SlugTerra
    All of the SlugTerra stuff is quite old, it was for a 3d animation and the work was passed off to modellers. I'm trying to get rid of it and replace it with new stuff, and I totally agree with the critique, the lighting stinks. So I guess that should be my next goal, either getting rid of the environment stuff and replacing it with better work, or sprucing it up a bit. Some of which could probly be replaced.
    Fanart may not work to your advantage; it's cool if it's a clever new take on a very well known character or applying a wildly different style or is just something to serve as a subject for a demonstration of extreme pure technical skill, but if it's just a simply well-drawn image of a known character, it may not do much for you in terms of portfolio (and it'll be embarrassing if you get to an interview situation and have to explain to someone who isn't familiar with that character that you didn't actually design it.) A goofy image of C3PO transforming into a motorcycle or something is probably ok, an image of C3PO standing around just bein' C3PO probably isn't.

    Argh yeah, that sucks, I felt good about the coloring on it too, I'll have to replace it when I can.

    Thanks for the rest of the advice, I'll take it to heart.

  • donhonkdonhonk Registered User regular
    Ok, I want to take drawing seriously again. I've pursued 3D modeling stuff wayyyy harder than my 2D fundamentals. (Hey you can buy something I made in TF2 now! Woo!)

    But I feel entirely and wholly discouraged anytime I try and draw, and I'm not sure where to even start. I did a couple basic drawing classes a year ago at my local community college and while I felt I made progress I still felt nothing in pursuing it on my own. Was going to do life drawing there as well but then I moved. Its like I have ideas of things I want to exist but none of the skills to make them happen. I feel trapped behind a barrier of my fear of failure. Any time I draw and its successful it feels like an accident. When I do actually start I feel distracted, impatient, and frustrated.

    Not sure why Im posting this, but maybe some encouragement will help. That or someone will confirm my suspicions that art is clearly not for me and I should pursue something else. ( tl;dr: HALP. )

  • m3nacem3nace Registered User regular
    [quote="donhonk;27391991"Any time I draw and its successful it feels like an accident.[/quote]
    Success is always an accident or a stroke of luck, however the frequency of these accidents goes up exponentially as you apply yourself. Art-mood-swings are normal, you think you're doing ok and then you plummet down into the abyss and feel you should give up and then you slowly begin climbing again.

  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    donhonk wrote: »
    Ok, I want to take drawing seriously again. I've pursued 3D modeling stuff wayyyy harder than my 2D fundamentals. (Hey you can buy something I made in TF2 now! Woo!)

    But I feel entirely and wholly discouraged anytime I try and draw, and I'm not sure where to even start. I did a couple basic drawing classes a year ago at my local community college and while I felt I made progress I still felt nothing in pursuing it on my own. Was going to do life drawing there as well but then I moved. Its like I have ideas of things I want to exist but none of the skills to make them happen. I feel trapped behind a barrier of my fear of failure. Any time I draw and its successful it feels like an accident. When I do actually start I feel distracted, impatient, and frustrated.

    Not sure why Im posting this, but maybe some encouragement will help. That or someone will confirm my suspicions that art is clearly not for me and I should pursue something else. ( tl;dr: HALP. )


    Get back to the basics, doing master studies is always a good place to start if you don't know what to do, and eventually doing enough will help you to figure out what it is you want to do, but you just need to start. It's not something personal, it's just studies, so there's less fear there. Noah Bradley's art camp is nearing completion but you can always run through the assignments, and I guess he's going to be going through it again in the winter, but it's a very decent price that covers the fundamentals.

    It's difficult, but accept yourself and try not to compare yourself to others, don't fall into a spiral of self-loathing and try not to beat yourself up, you are your own worst enemy. True failure is giving up, but the small failures along the way are what will carry you towards becoming better. Push through the frustration, realize it's your animal brain wanting to just do the stuff that's easy and makes it happy, try to realize what's happening when you're making those excuses not to do something. Beginning anything is always difficult, so push through it long enough and it will become enjoyable. Set aside at least the bare minimum of an hour every day to honing your craft. If you find yourself too frustrated to focus, take a 5 minute break to cool down and then come back to it. Adding to that- give yourself a quiet place to work, play some super chill music, and relax.

    If you're distracted, download a timer like Focus Booster which works on the pomodoro system (google it), to set aside 25 minutes to really sit and hunker down on your work.

    I just watched a recent documentary called Jiro Dreams of Sushi that I found super inspirational. His love for his craft is beyond words. I'll never reach the same peak he does, but it's amazing to witness someone with such an intense amount of dedication and perseverance.

  • donhonkdonhonk Registered User regular
    edited July 2013
    Thanks much for the advice guys, I haven't thought of using a time management system but I think something scheduled I can commit to will help. Left to my own devices I dont do so well. Might make a thread if I see any progress.

    HpXyhnd.jpg

    well heres the first one I worked up the courage to post. (Everything is so beeg! Woops.) Gonna try and commit to more tomorrow. (Once Ive amassed a large amount Ill make a thread.)

    donhonk on
  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    I've noticed my digital inking kind of blows, and I'm not sure if it's due to my technique or my brush settings in Photoshop. Does anyone know of any digital inking tutorials they like? I want some nice line-weight variation but I'm not sure if it's better to tweak the sensitivity of the pen or the settings in the program (Photoshop). My lines either seem to be too uniform in weight, they don't taper at the ends like I want them too, etc etc

    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    edited July 2013
    For reference here is what I've been doing: dl.dropbox.com/s/pe031pgq76qk61b/7_00_13_newinks.jpg

    EDIT: Well I still can't figure out how to direct link via dropbox so here's a url: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pe031pgq76qk61b/7_00_13_newinks.jpg

    Siegfried on
    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • brokecrackerbrokecracker Registered User regular

    @siegfried I have my pen setting (in the wacom menu) set pretty firm (one away from the most firm) from there I pick a brush size that is a little bit larger than I want my widest stroke to go. That works for me, still have to be deliberate with each line but helps get a purposeful variance when you want it and not a lot of it when you don't. Mess with the firmness settings, don't be afraid to go too high!

    Hope that hepls!

  • SpaceMooseSpaceMoose Registered User regular
    @Siegfried that's the right direct link url but you need to wrap it in img tags. (you're also missing the http:// but not sure if that was on purpose or not)

    7_00_13_newinks.jpg

  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    That brush looks way too flat, try using a simple round in photoshop with 25% spacing and 100% hardness with shape dynamics, airbrushing, and smoothing turned on. The pure black line just seems too unforgiving, it's nicer having a little more depth. You may also want to give Paint Tool Sai a go, I absolutely love it for linework. My brush setting for my wacom is one click to the right of the center into firm.

  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    SpaceMoose wrote: »
    @Siegfried that's the right direct link url but you need to wrap it in img tags. (you're also missing the http:// but not sure if that was on purpose or not)
    7_00_13_newinks.jpg

    Thanks, linking via dropbox has been driving me crazy.

    For the others that have helped, thanks, I'm gonna play with it today and post what I've got if it looks any better. I'm gonna just do it in Illustrator with the Pen tool too and see how long it takes me, because honestly it might be about the same.

    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    I'm also seeing a lot of jaggies on your linework there although that may be an image compression issue.

    Personally I don't like inking in photoshop (prefer sketchbook pro), but I don't find line-width variation to be too much of a problem; you might want to play with your sensitivity settings and see what works better for you. I hate to say it but it might be more of a problem with drawing technique than with brushes or the program. It's hard to tell without seeing a process video, but your inking looks very very cautious, which is going to create stiff lines and not much width variation; loosening up and speeding up may help you find the 'flow' that you're looking for.

  • brokecrackerbrokecracker Registered User regular
    @Siegfried Give the brush tool a shot in illustrator. Select the brush, open your brushes window, select a round brush (I like the 7 pt. Round) then go down to diameter and change "fixed" to "pressure" I slide it all the way over to 7pts. Play with that and if that is too much try like a 5pt or 4pt variation. I am always trying to get people to use the brush tool in illustrator because it is a gem. PLEASE try it out!

  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    I'm also seeing a lot of jaggies on your linework there although that may be an image compression issue.

    Personally I don't like inking in photoshop (prefer sketchbook pro), but I don't find line-width variation to be too much of a problem; you might want to play with your sensitivity settings and see what works better for you. I hate to say it but it might be more of a problem with drawing technique than with brushes or the program. It's hard to tell without seeing a process video, but your inking looks very very cautious, which is going to create stiff lines and not much width variation; loosening up and speeding up may help you find the 'flow' that you're looking for.
    You know I thought about making a process video to see if I'm "doing it wrong," maybe I will. I think I'm pretty quick with my lines and not being overly cautious, but unless I have a video I can't tell how fast and loose other people draw. I worry that I press down at a pretty consistent pressure so maybe that hurts me too when it comes to the line variation.

    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • DyasAlureDyasAlure SeattleRegistered User regular
    So I'm getting married this year, and with all these great artists I wanted to know if anyone did portraits? I just had my engagement photos done, so shortly I iwll have high res images of me and my fiance. I was hoping to surprise her with an oil of us for the wedding. The wedding will be on December 31st, so you will have to have time to complete by than.

    Thanks in advance for any help on this I can find. I'm looking Seattle local to make it easier to get done. I don't know how much time it would take, or what anyone would charge for what I'm looking for.

    My%20Steam.png?psid=1My%20Twitch%20-%20Mass%20Effect.png?psid=1=1My%20Youtube.png?psid=1
  • F87F87 So Say We All Registered User regular
    I want to redo my website with varied thumbnail sizes. I understand the basics of HTML and CSS, but I've always used Lightbox for my sites thumbnails.

    Does anyone know an easy way to get my thumbnails like this:

    concept.png

    Will I most likely just code it from scratch? My main concern with that is I'm not sure how to get them to line up well.

  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    Something like this? http://markslee.com/

    It's a tumblr theme, I wish it had a better lightbox, I wouldn't mind finding a similar solution, let me know what you find. I've done a shit ton of research for decent portfolio templates out there and haven't really found a lot that's actually good.

  • MagicToasterMagicToaster JapanRegistered User regular
    Tahat guy is a great graphic designer.

  • KallistiKallisti Registered User regular
    Yeah he's excellent, we were classmates when I pursued a career in design, but later realized I hate doing design. It was a very solid program though, my classmates went on to work at places like Starbucks, Microsoft and Valve, so heavily influenced by swiss design.

  • FlayFlay Registered User regular
    edited August 2013
    Would studying at an atelier part-time be significantly less beneficial than studying full time? I had planned to study full-time next year, but I have a job interview tomorrow and that might change things.

    Flay on
  • Ronin356Ronin356 Nowhere MORegistered User regular
    edited August 2013
    Um should I do colored pencils or watercolors? I love both...Maybe both?

    Ronin356 on
    Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.
    Georgia O'Keeffe
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