Flandre\'s Graphic Life (-_-)

Flandre

I guess this is more of an introduction for me than my intro thread.. This is the story of my journey in the GFX world.. _{_}

My First Major Work

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Not the exact thing I made but looks a lot like it.. ^^

sigh

Brings back memories.. I made something like this when I was a little kid during our computer class. That was a time when "Windows" was still just openings in a house.. PCs only had black and white screens and to draw, you have to type in coordinates and specify by how many degrees you "pen" should rotate.. a star was an achievement..

you young'uns should be thankful.. =_=

Second Stage: MS Paint

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I was in highschool and my prof told us to draw something using only the ellipse tool.. my classmates drew balls, grapes, oranges, etc.. I ROCKED THAT ASSIGNMENT!

....right...

still, dragging the mouse is a huge improvement from coordinates, ne?

Later on I learned to cut up and paste together pics using Paint.. pretty handy.. but images always had a lot of weird ugly dots (artifacts).. so I had to say goodbye to MS Paint..

Photoshop: Downloadable Fonts, C4Ds and Brushes

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Well.. there were some tuts involved as well.. I got to know how to use layer properties and such..

Photoshop Part 2: Un-Learning

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I learned to stop being dependent on C4Ds, tuts, brushes and crazy fonts.. learned a bit about lighting and color composition.. just a bit though.. learned how to use stocks and rediscovered beauty of simplicity.. or at least I think so.. maybe I just got lazy and didn't want to make complicated effects anymore.. _{_}

This is where my story ends for the moment.. Not like I've reached the pinnacle of the GFX world.. still a long way to go..

I just shared these hoping others would be inclined to do the same.. >:3

Advice:

1. Hold the CTRL key when resizing so the image would maintain its proportions... hmm.. or was it the SHIFT key? I forget... just try it out and tell me later.. >_<

2. Take your time. You can't expect to churn out a masterpiece in just 15 minutes... maybe you can but you can't always expect it.. if something's not working out.. start over instead of forcing it.. or take a break.. ^^

Try looking at other people's work that you like then try to immitate them.. There are two possibilities:

a. You suck and end up with something that looks entirely different.. which is good so you won't look like you're copying..

b. You are able to make a carbon copy of the artwork..

That's like...

Liu Mao-hsing recreating the mystery Mapo Tofu his mom made from 10 years ago!

You're a Super Chef, dood!

Now that you know you have what it takes...

...go cook up something you can call your own, you little plagiarist_! >:3

Remember:

Good artists create
Great artists steal
Doofuses try to pass off other people's work as their own.. =_=

3. Don't let negative comments get you down. You should learn from your mistakes...

Crtitic: Your work sucks.. I hate it..
Artist: Good.. I made it to displease you.. now STFU!

Critic: Your text doesn't blend.. it takes attention away from the render..
Artist: Oh.. that's because, where I live, people actually read words.. so I help them..

Critic: No borders?! No work is complete without borders!
Artist: ..that's because I believe art should have no boundaries.. it sees beyond race, gender, age and...and... whatever.. bite me!

...well.. more importantly, you should learn the difference between people who give constructive criticism and people who are trying to impose their artistic tastes on you...

your work doesn't have to look like everyone else's.. there are some people who say they like my earlier works.. sometimes I agree with them.. my life was happier when I wasn't concerned about depth, lighting, and matching colors..

there are also those people who think complaining a lot means having high standards.. beware.. lol..

4. The Pen Tool is your friend... it's an emo and complicated friend that's hard as hell to get used to... but a friend nonetheless so don't be afraid.. try to get to know it.. >:3

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Tutorials:

Layer Property: Color

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That's about it.. feel free to ask questions..

:angel:

Vladimir

Really nice sigs! You should put up some tuts or something :P
My favorite one is that Shizuna one...mostly because of the blue boxes, lol

Xyw13

Hmmm.. Old times you say..? How old are you?

Xyw13

Flandre;31549 wrote
^
hmm.. Windows was released early 90's.. accounting for technological lag in the third world.. I'm not old.. [COLOR=PaleTurquoise]I'm 22[/COLOR]..

I know that... Old pascal, Basic... @ .@

Xyw13

Vladimir;31600 wrote
You should put up some tuts or something :P

Yeah, that would be great...

Xyw13

Flandre;33830 wrote
tada_!

It is a tool in Photoshop, the one selected in this image:

LOL, she was more askig, what it does, than where it is :D
Btw, what PS version is that? I don't have so many choices -.-

GhostHeLL

Hahaha muhahaha
now you definitely have ta take part in ere XD

Picture Contest

xDddaniel

woah nice editting..

starshine

im not really into all this stuff.... never really gave it a chance.. i prefer tangible things as proper paint and getting dirty.. lol.. but i really enjoyed reading this.... cheers! :)

xmichikox

lol, i didn't even know you could do that kinda stuff XD
im at the cut and paste and add some color stage XD

xmichikox

me has a question! how u get a character from one pic onto a different pic? me is still no good with lasso tools :P

xmichikox

hehe, thanx, but another question....what's the pen tool <.<???
i know of a pencil and a paint, but wat pen?!

xmichikox

i knew what it was used for....just never knew what it looked like O___x yea, graphics noob here.....ummmm would tat be the equivilant of that path-finder thingy in GIMP?

i hate that thing with all the dots -.-
it makes me do this --->:damn:

xmichikox

AK!! too many dots!!!

i think i know kinda what u mean....but the dots never listen to me. they don't move -_-# i think im doing something wrong -.-

xmichikox

They move. But after I've adjustedthe line they don't. Is it supposed to be like that? I'm pretty sure I can edit them, but wouldn't it just be easier to be able to move them whenever?

Flandre

^
hmm.. Windows was released early 90's.. accounting for technological lag in the third world.. I'm not old.. [COLOR=PaleTurquoise]I'm 22[/COLOR]..

@GhostHell

Wew.. 40k gold.. I'll see what I can come up with.. >:3

@starshine

haha.. I like tangible paint too.. only I don't have the skills to produce anything close to art with it... T___T

Flandre

Vladimir;31600 wrote
Really nice sigs! You should put up some tuts or something :P
My favorite one is that Shizuna one...mostly because of the blue boxes, lol

that one is actually pretty easy..

Here:

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Layer Property: Color

Choose an image then create a new layer on top of it.

Fill the top layer with a color you like, I chose yellow.
Set that layer's property to Color:

You should get this:

Select the area which you want to be in a different color then fill the selected area with a new color OR delete the selected area so the original color of the image would be seen.

There you have it. Just play around with it until you get what you want. ^^
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Feel free to ask questions.. ^_

Flandre

lol.. took me a couple of years before I discovered those things.. I only used Photoshop for cutting up pics at first...^^

Flandre

well, for that, you either use polygonal lasso to erase the background bit by bit or use the pen tool to extract the image. I found the tutorial on animerender.com quite useful.

If you don't have time to cut-out pictures yourself, animerender also has free pics that have already been cut-out.. you can also request for pics you want cut-out.. for a fee of course.. there are a lot of those floating around the net.. ^^

Flandre

tada_!

It is a tool in Photoshop, the one selected in this image: