Hmm.. Yeah the mic is a bit far from the amp, but you are getting a good tone out of it so I'm not sure if I'd mess with it too much. Moving it closer would cut out some room noise a bit, but you'd have to play with the levels. Getting the noise under control is going to be a HUGE improvement in the quality of the recordings, but obviously there is only so much you can do.
Song writing wise, You are on the right track. It'll be interesting to hear what you are planning to do with the lyrics. Keep it up!
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
I think I figured out the issue- I was going to post when I got the song re-recorded but... I'm pretty sure my mic was flipped around. It is one of those vertical mics and I use it as a regular mic when gaming. I think I forgot to rotate it to the right angle when I did the song lol.
I'll have to try this with it right and see what kind of a difference that makes.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited May 2012
So apparently my issue was that my mic stand was close enough to the amp to actually vibrate because of it. Figuring that, I recorded this to celebrate
edit: things I do know- the gain is a little too agressive at times- I need to use a metronome- the bridge is a little too sloppy at first. Other than that, I'd love to hear thoughts and feed back about it.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited September 2012
So I'm in a graphic design class this semester. Assignment one: Find a picture and paint over it. Not the most complex or artistic thing, I know, but seeing as I never use photoshop or my tablet ever, It is kinda nice to do this.
and the original
Still a work in progress as you may have guessed. (and seeing them side by side that small really makes the flaws stand out )
Yup, not bad. The lack of specular on her eyes though is sort of creepy.
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited September 2012
Thanks! I did some extra work on this... then lost my usb drive. I then found out that I had only saved the project onto the usb drive so... had to go back to square one (from this picture) and in the end didn't get to do too much extra work to it. Especially since I'm leaving for class... well, now lol.
I'll upload the version I'm turning in for class later tonight (and I added the light on her eyes- you were right, that's exactly what made them so creepy- I couldn't figure out what it was about them that did that lol.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited September 2012
The final- turned in version. I might tweak it a bit more but we have two other projects (photo editing i.e. "remove these people" and "fill in this guys hair") due next week so I might just focus on those instead.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
I haven't kept this thread up to date, mostly because we've just done some smaller projects. But I did like how these two filters turned out, more or less. We had to make either instagramstyled filters or take a picture and make it look vintage.
Pretty good, imo, but maybe a bit too red (I'm color blind so I couldn't tell when it was actually becoming visable to normal people) and I'm not sure if the texture works. Wanted the image to seem a bit cracked but... eh
I think this one is all around way more successful.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
So our next assignment is due tomorrow. Using masks, blendmodes and what ever else we like, we're supposed to create a collage of sorts that has meaning.
I have two variations of the same picture but I'm not fully happy with either thanks to a) my poor masking (which is much more obvious when other blend modes/curves settings are used) b) being too busy and ... well, everything else.
MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
The second one.
First rule of graphic design: If you can do it with less, always do it with less.
The perspective on the buildings isn't working either, use the transform tool to tidy that shit up.
ala quick and dirty
Also I'm not a big fan of the white blemishes, I think they're unnecessary and a little distracting.
If you've got your heart set on them, try to minimilise them a bit.
Mustang on
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
That is, in general, why I liked the second one better. the contrast of the 1st (plus the galaxy/smokestack) is the main thing that was keeping that one in the running. But I had someone else say it hurt their eyes so I kept working and did the night sky one.
I'm not sure if I think the white blemishes are necessary, but I wanted the overlayed image to have some consistency between the face and the building to make the buildings feel just a little bit more like it was a part of his actual head. I think the main reason why I'd want to keep that is I feel like that was almost a key part of the assignment given our teachers examples.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
I just tried a quick mock up of that, but I'm not really satisfied with it- some of the other flaws become more apparent when I mask it off from the rest of the image lol.
This might seem a little funny....but a lot of these projects are coming off to me as more "photo manipulation" than "graphic design". When I think "graphic design" I think bold, graphic, designed space, etc. Are your assignments a kind of mix, or are you allowed to be more graphic with them? A lot of these pieces seem kinda...soft and illustration-y. Are you considering colors, design elements, white space, etc? Are you looking up "good" graphic design examples as reference?
Also, what is that logo for? I'm not getting a clear picture on that.
I hope none of that came off as harsh. :P Just tryin' to understand your assignments.
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
It's an "intro to graphic design" class. What that it really means is "We give you projects to do things with the programs so you know what you're doing with the program."
We aren't really covering the basics of design itself... I guess that's a different class? I'm taking this for a small press publishing minor and the class isn't even covering InDesign lol.
And, in theory, the logo is for a publishing house.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
Yeah... it's a little basic. But considering how most of the class is fairing just trying to grasp the programs (not well) I guess this is the best way to do an intro course.
1- make sure you've got all your color settings lined up, same color profiles in ai and ps, make sure your preview mode is identical in both, don't save to lossy formats, etc.
2- Once that's cool, only adjust colors based on the latest step in your process. i.e. if this is going to end up as a printed thing on a wall, print it out and change colors until they look the way you want in that printed format. What they look like before the final step is inconsequential. (unless someone is going to be looking over your shoulder or a different version is going out digitally, then keep a separate version with those color settings.)
Steam: Cilantr0
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
1) How do I do that exactly? I guess I should google it, but on a superficial visual level, the pictures look the same in Ps and Ai
2) That's fantastic advice if I decide to follow through with this stuff (and I may since I'll be having to design a cover and make a chap book in another class) but for this project right now, .jpg is all it needs to be because he's collecting and grading our work on flickr via a group page for the class.
First off you'll want to be sure you're in the proper color space for your end product. In this case digital, so all of your work should be in RGB. That will affect the range of colors you have to work with, and how saturated they can be.
In illustrator, that's under file>document color mode.
in photoshop you select color mode when making a new file or go to image>mode> and pick the needed one.
Once that's taken care of, you can set up the color profile you're using. in Photoshop that's under edit>color settings (ctrl-shift-k) and you can explore the different preview options under view>proof setup and view>proof colors / gamut warning to see how that affects your image and what is beyond the range of your profile. Illustrator has the same menus.
You'll probably want both ai and ps using the same profile, i.e. Adobe RGB or S-rgb whatever.
Basically the color profiles make sure your file outputs, programs, and printers all get close to the same visible output. A printer, monitor, and JPEG container all get the same data- this pixel is xr, yg, xb- and then do different things with it.
I think Flickr compresses things for web, so there's that.
Molybdenum on
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
Thanks M. I kinda wish I had known all this before hand but- well, you live and learn, right?
This ended up being my final-turned in version that my prof really liked. I still want to tweak the circles around the face a little bit, but I like the venn-diagram sorta thing going on.
MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
There's too many tricks going on here. Design in it's simplest form is the attempt to do the most with the least.
Everything outside of the circles is fluff and taking away from your core image.
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
While I understand that... this is the direction my teacher wanted me to move in. Personally, I just wanted to do vector maps over the skin and leave it at that... but I guess that didn't fit the assignment well enough?
edit: I guess he described it as being "busy in a good way" or something along those lines.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
I decided to make my life easier by using some of my graphic design work in my small press class where we have to make a chapbook.
This is the cover I ended up with (though I left the thank you in by accident when I printed the cover.... It'll do for now, though I may re-print it without the "thank you" when i'm putting together the finalized version of the book)
I fixed a few audio issues (not all of them though) and re-recorded the shaker track. Much better overall, if I say so myself.
Also, I decided to try to make a complete album by Dec 31. I keep making all these little sketches and nothing comes of it. My goal is to have at least half of the tracks have vocal tracks supplied by me and possibly more if I start getting comfortable doing that.
I've developed a few more things (added an ending, doubled some tracks, re-leveled the mix slightly, copy and pasted for hours only to realize I had a 10 second solution staring in the face) and I think I'm with the instrumentals. I'm gonna work on adding some vox to this track or something.
Also, my neogaf thread has about 37 participants and I think we're going to make a compilation of everyone who finishes the challenge and we're gonna put the album up as a "Pay What you Want" type deal and all the proceeds will be going to a charity that is yet to be determined.
Posts
Song writing wise, You are on the right track. It'll be interesting to hear what you are planning to do with the lyrics. Keep it up!
I'll have to try this with it right and see what kind of a difference that makes.
It seems like there is something vibrating when I play my guitar but I can't figure out what would be doing it...
http://hughes.bandcamp.com/track/may30th
edit: things I do know- the gain is a little too agressive at times- I need to use a metronome- the bridge is a little too sloppy at first. Other than that, I'd love to hear thoughts and feed back about it.
And I spent a little bit of time re-working the song today: http://hughes.bandcamp.com/track/may30th-02
http://hughes.bandcamp.com/track/june-19
edit:(there was a spammer above this post. now there's not)
and the original
Still a work in progress as you may have guessed. (and seeing them side by side that small really makes the flaws stand out
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I'll upload the version I'm turning in for class later tonight (and I added the light on her eyes- you were right, that's exactly what made them so creepy- I couldn't figure out what it was about them that did that lol.
Pretty good, imo, but maybe a bit too red (I'm color blind so I couldn't tell when it was actually becoming visable to normal people) and I'm not sure if the texture works. Wanted the image to seem a bit cracked but... eh
I think this one is all around way more successful.
I have two variations of the same picture but I'm not fully happy with either thanks to a) my poor masking (which is much more obvious when other blend modes/curves settings are used) b) being too busy and ... well, everything else.
What do you all think?
or
First rule of graphic design: If you can do it with less, always do it with less.
The perspective on the buildings isn't working either, use the transform tool to tidy that shit up.
ala quick and dirty
Also I'm not a big fan of the white blemishes, I think they're unnecessary and a little distracting.
If you've got your heart set on them, try to minimilise them a bit.
I'm not sure if I think the white blemishes are necessary, but I wanted the overlayed image to have some consistency between the face and the building to make the buildings feel just a little bit more like it was a part of his actual head. I think the main reason why I'd want to keep that is I feel like that was almost a key part of the assignment given our teachers examples.
I ended up doing a wholly different blendmode assignment:
Then we moved into Illustrator where we did a letter form assignment (make an abstract design with two different letters or numbers)
A logo: (which sucks and I need to redo it- prof likes the basic idea though)
And now I'm working on integrating Illustrator with Photoshop by editing that blend mode assignment with illustrator tools (a work in progress)
Also, what is that logo for? I'm not getting a clear picture on that.
I hope none of that came off as harsh. :P Just tryin' to understand your assignments.
We aren't really covering the basics of design itself... I guess that's a different class? I'm taking this for a small press publishing minor and the class isn't even covering InDesign lol.
And, in theory, the logo is for a publishing house.
But the light blue seems way more light once I export it... hurm
2- Once that's cool, only adjust colors based on the latest step in your process. i.e. if this is going to end up as a printed thing on a wall, print it out and change colors until they look the way you want in that printed format. What they look like before the final step is inconsequential. (unless someone is going to be looking over your shoulder or a different version is going out digitally, then keep a separate version with those color settings.)
3DS: 0447-9966-6178
2) That's fantastic advice if I decide to follow through with this stuff (and I may since I'll be having to design a cover and make a chap book in another class) but for this project right now, .jpg is all it needs to be because he's collecting and grading our work on flickr via a group page for the class.
So... I'm kinda stuck with jpeg for now.
In illustrator, that's under file>document color mode.
in photoshop you select color mode when making a new file or go to image>mode> and pick the needed one.
Once that's taken care of, you can set up the color profile you're using. in Photoshop that's under edit>color settings (ctrl-shift-k) and you can explore the different preview options under view>proof setup and view>proof colors / gamut warning to see how that affects your image and what is beyond the range of your profile. Illustrator has the same menus.
You'll probably want both ai and ps using the same profile, i.e. Adobe RGB or S-rgb whatever.
Basically the color profiles make sure your file outputs, programs, and printers all get close to the same visible output. A printer, monitor, and JPEG container all get the same data- this pixel is xr, yg, xb- and then do different things with it.
I think Flickr compresses things for web, so there's that.
3DS: 0447-9966-6178
This ended up being my final-turned in version that my prof really liked. I still want to tweak the circles around the face a little bit, but I like the venn-diagram sorta thing going on.
Everything outside of the circles is fluff and taking away from your core image.
edit: I guess he described it as being "busy in a good way" or something along those lines.
This is the cover I ended up with (though I left the thank you in by accident when I printed the cover.... It'll do for now, though I may re-print it without the "thank you" when i'm putting together the finalized version of the book)
Just started working on this track, I need to figure out how to bridge the chorus back to the verse but all in due time.
edit: and the usual bandcamp link with a slightly modified version. This one has a shaker track OMG: http://thelowlyman.bandcamp.com/album/july
(Honestly, I think I like bandcamp better. I don't need to pay to upload more than 2 hours of stuff anyway . . .)
I fixed a few audio issues (not all of them though) and re-recorded the shaker track. Much better overall, if I say so myself.
Also, I decided to try to make a complete album by Dec 31. I keep making all these little sketches and nothing comes of it. My goal is to have at least half of the tracks have vocal tracks supplied by me and possibly more if I start getting comfortable doing that.
(for anyone on neogaf, I started a sister thread over there encouraging others to take similar pledges. If you're a member there, check it out http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=639898)
I've developed a few more things (added an ending, doubled some tracks, re-leveled the mix slightly, copy and pasted for hours only to realize I had a 10 second solution staring in the face) and I think I'm with the instrumentals. I'm gonna work on adding some vox to this track or something.
Also, my neogaf thread has about 37 participants and I think we're going to make a compilation of everyone who finishes the challenge and we're gonna put the album up as a "Pay What you Want" type deal and all the proceeds will be going to a charity that is yet to be determined.