Curse

Elewyn · Sep 17, 2006, 12:16 AM // 00:16

I particularly like this one. In my opinion, it's one notch above the other wallpapers, especially the upper part of it (I like simple).

The only thing I disliked about some of the earlier ones you posted is that they used sort of "cheesy" filters for the background, but I won't hold that against you. Afterall, no better way to get familiar with these filters than to try them out.

I can also tell that your cropping has gotten better with each wallpaper. Maybe you could try vectoring some of the characters, if you haven't done so yet. I think that'd open up a lot of options to use in your wallpapers.

Keep up the good work!

arcanemacabre · Sep 17, 2006, 12:45 AM // 00:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djinn Effer

Here's a quote from another art forum:

I highlighted relevent material.

*Ahem*

He never asked for criticism. If he did, I'd gladly offer up some pointers. He's offering a service, and I commented on his service, not how he does his work.

Djinn Effer · Sep 17, 2006, 01:37 AM // 01:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcanemacabre

*Ahem*

He never asked for criticism. If he did, I'd gladly offer up some pointers. He's offering a service, and I commented on his service, not how he does his work.

I'll quote something else...

Quote:

2, Expect people to constructively criticise the work - after all that's why you've posted it isn't it?

3, Don't be offended if somebody doesn't like what you have done. As long as their critique and advice was well meaning take it in the spirit it was offered. don't just dismiss peoples efforts even if you don't think they are relevant, tell them why you did things your way and not theirs.

By the way, you are commenting on his work so it is relevent.

arcanemacabre · Sep 17, 2006, 02:47 AM // 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djinn Effer

I'll quote something else...

By the way, you are commenting on his work so it is relevent.

For one, commenting and criticising are 2 different things. Secondly, he posted it not as a presentation of his work, but as an offer of a service. When someone advertises a running service, and claims they have done it multiple times with no problems, you don't come in and say they should use this skill and that skill.

Rule of thumb: Don't criticise people's work unless it is put on display to be criticised.

Djinn Effer · Sep 17, 2006, 03:27 AM // 03:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcanemacabre

For one, commenting and criticising are 2 different things. Secondly, he posted it not as a presentation of his work, but as an offer of a service. When someone advertises a running service, and claims they have done it multiple times with no problems, you don't come in and say they should use this skill and that skill.

Rule of thumb: Don't criticise people's work unless it is put on display to be criticised.

Not to be a bitch here but um.. People don't exactly post things on public forums for people not to see. I don't know, maybe its just a crazy thought?

If I were to get a runner that says "PRO RUNNER GUARENTEED RUN" etc, then does horrible.. like really horrible.. I think you should tell them what they're doing wrong (if you know), so they can improve. Rather than blindly commenting on say.. how awesome their armor looks! ..... Does that really help them?

Now look, not everyone can accept criticism.. most people don't want the truth, but I'll tell you what.. The truth, the criticism is going to help them in the future.. (That is, if they can accept it. If someone is unwilling to accept any criticism and seek to improve, then chances are they never will. This can be held true in almost all aspects of life, not just art or games.) Telling them they're doing awesome keep it up is going to make them just keep doing what they're doing and not care about improving at all cause they're apparently already perfect and amazingly awesome, so why improve?

Do you get what I'm saying?

arcanemacabre · Sep 17, 2006, 03:47 AM // 03:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djinn Effer

If I were to get a runner that says "PRO RUNNER GUARENTEED RUN" etc, then does horrible.. like really horrible.. I think you should tell them what they're doing wrong (if you know), so they can improve. Rather than blindly commenting on say.. how awesome their armor looks! ..... Does that really help them?

Using that example, which is a good one, I think - It would be perfectly fine if you had him make you a Wallpaper, and then criticise his work. That's what you get in a commission job. People will choose you to do a commission if they like your work to begin with, then tell you what they think needs improving after you finish the work, so you can go back and touch it up.

If you don't like the way he does it, then don't ask him to do a commission. That simple. Don't sit on the sidelines and claim all the things wrong with his examples.

I commend him on what he's done because I think it's fantastic. I've seen other people lay out utter crap from PS and pretend it's the cat's meow. Is it easy for a more advanced user to do? Certainly. But that makes it no less eye-catching, as wallpapers are to be.

It would be an entirely different story if he just put up his works and said "Tell me what ya think", or simply "Check these out!", as I have in my thread. I want criticism. If I was setting it up as a commission thing, I wouldn't want people to clutter my sale thread with "here's some pointers on how to be better".

Ulivious The Reaper · Sep 17, 2006, 03:51 AM // 03:51

Hmm wow, to be honest i think the example 2 looks best of the 3, and why are you guys getting off topic he just wants to sell some backgrounds, not quibble over words >.<

Sjeng · Sep 17, 2006, 08:59 AM // 08:59

Thanks for your replies arcanemacabre and Elewyn, that helped lift my spirits

I like this one best too. I spent more time on cutting out the characters on that one, and whilst playing with the blending options I kinda accidentally clicked gradient overlay, which gave me this idea.

Thanks Djinn, that's something I can work with ^^
About the "flaoting" characters: They were meant to do that. I wasn't aiming at placing them in the background setting. I just cut out the character, and added a nice looking background. The only ones where I tried to place them into the background were the ones with the colour variations with the waterfall. I added shadows there, which I think worked out nicely.
The glows / shadows / strokes around the characters are meant to accentuate them, which as you will notice I didn't do in the waterfall ones.
With the assassin I was aiming for a comic style, hence the stroke and accented colours and the poster edges on the background.

I think your comments are usefull but also personal at some points. Saying a glow or a flare looks cheesy is very much a matter of personal taste.

Quote:

Don't just say something is great when it obviously isn't.

That kinda hurt... And it's from a forum made especially for art. Which means the more professional artists post their works there. This is a gaming forum, an everyone can post his work here, even if it IS very bad. I've seen scetches here that would get totally bashed if posted on one of them art forums. Mine too probably. But they weren't posted there. The same goes for the second point: "2, Expect people to constructively criticise the work - after all that's why you've posted it isn't it?"
My answer to that: No, it's not why I posted it. Like arcanemacabre also pointed out, I posted it in hopes to make some ingame cash :P But I don't mind constructive critisizm as I said before.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I do appreciate it. Now BUY SOME WALLPAPERS *uses jedi mind trick* lol ^^;;

Fred The Allmighty · Sep 17, 2006, 11:43 AM // 11:43

im very pleased with the work, im am going to use the service again

Sjeng · Sep 17, 2006, 01:28 PM // 13:28

Great! next up is your necro, in the same style as the grey silhouette wallpaper. Cheaper this time cuz I only had to add the necro, and a different background scenery.

Which makes a grand total of 16 wallpapers for you lol. And the forum signature I quickly cooked up for you. Enjoy!

Sjeng · Sep 19, 2006, 03:41 PM // 15:41

I've made one for myself, and used some guides on the net. I've found some very inspiring sites and I came up with this:

I'm not 100% happy with it yet. I want some kind of border, but I can't quite think of a nice effect or whatever. Still toying with it.

eldor archer · Sep 21, 2006, 03:41 AM // 03:41

40k is kinda alot just for a backround lol...but the 15k i might check this out..dont matter just pocket change

Sjeng · Sep 21, 2006, 05:03 AM // 05:03

Sure mate, lemme know what kind of design you like. The one I made in my last post is a ready to go layout now. Once I've made a certain design, I can easily re-use it, so those can be cheaper. It kinda depends on the time I spend on it. Especially cutting out characters takes some time, so placing characters in squarely cut-out frames on a background takes considirably less time (like my first one, with the 5 characters, although I did cut those out to apply some background effects without affecting the characters).

UBS · Sep 21, 2006, 04:33 PM // 16:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sjeng

That's quite a lot of critisizm just to say you don't care...
I like to play around with PS, to see what kind of effects have the best result. I just start with a clean slate. So this definately will cost you more than 5 minutes.
Furthermore, I'm using a LOT more tools than the few you just mentioned.

The only effects i see are out glow, and maybe drop shadow at 30%, size 3.
The only effects you have visably used are blending options, and maybe hue/saturation, or colour balance.

Sjeng · Sep 21, 2006, 04:43 PM // 16:43

*sigh* I can't help it if you have bad eyesight.

And the images on imageshack are low-res low-quality versions of the wallpapers, so you might not see all the effects used here. But trust me, they are there. Why would I lie about that? And I think we've had this discussion before, so can we please drop the bashing? If you read my previous post, you can see what effects I used. Look a bit more closely before responding please. It's really frustrating when you have worked on something to make it look good, and people who arent interested in having a wallpaper made in the first place start critisizing negatively about how badly done it all is. What's the use of that other than flaming a guy? And flaming isn't why I started this topic. So if you don't have anything constructive to say, please don't say anything at all. kthxbye!!1

Nickhimself · Sep 22, 2006, 08:37 AM // 08:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sjeng

I've made one for myself, and used some guides on the net. I've found some very inspiring sites and I came up with this:

I'm not 100% happy with it yet. I want some kind of border, but I can't quite think of a nice effect or whatever. Still toying with it.

If you fixed the glassy effect you're going for on your characters, it would look a little better.

Go to Fileplanet and look at the crappy images they have on there. They all have the same swooping glass filter applied to them. Glass in a square frame won't be in a circular bevel. If it was a little straighter and possibly rounded just a bit, it would look much more appealing.

good job, though. you're definitely getting much better with filters.

Also, don't listen to people who say "all you did was apply a filter". That's what photoshop is. Yes, you have to import art. You can even create art in photoshop, but for the most part, it's filters and gradients.

Kniers · Oct 01, 2006, 10:37 AM // 10:37

Boy, lots of fiery comment. Photoshoppers are the worst competitors ever.
Still, a bit of healthy competition always leads to improvement. You got a nice artistic touch sjeng, the base requirement of photoshopping.

Let me throw in some junk of my own, see if it gives anyone any ideas.

Sjeng · Oct 01, 2006, 10:58 AM // 10:58

Hey Viktor, decided to post your creations on this forum too xD
I'm currently working on a wall of all my characters in the hall, but I still need to find a Rago's flame staff for my elem and 4 black dyes for my rit, then I can make screens of em.

Riesz · Oct 10, 2006, 04:21 AM // 04:21

I'm certainly not a pro with Photoshop, doubt I could make anything like this... the only critique I have is to make your signature a bit smaller and at the very bottom so it will be out of view when the wallpaper is used. It kinda peeks out over the taskbar as it is now.

Arduin · Oct 10, 2006, 01:05 PM // 13:05

Your work reminds me of my own wallpapers I've made a while ago:

I deliberately added the black bars and the glow around the character, as to make the character stand out of the background. The font is NWN too, and the skill icon's is just a little extra. I made the background and the color of the name corresponding to the profession, in the case of Ranger a greenish hue (blue for Monk, red for Ele and so on). Still busy making wallpapers of the rest of my characters, and from some of my friends.

Maybe I've given you some new ideas you can incorporate in your own wallpapers. Like your work Sjeng, keep up the good work.

Gr. Arduinna