clueless...

[dimichan]

Well, I seem to have hit a roadblock - this started as an exercise in learning airbrushing this morning, I know what I want to do in general, but the background is murdering me... I'm not hung up on any of the colors or anything, the frame is more a placeholder, not sure if I want to stick with it or not, and there's still a good bit of depth to be added and smoothing to be done, I'll be carrying a kind of tangled garden effect throughout, but I'm clueless on what to do with the background, both color, and if any kind of texture or anything could work -_- So I'm hoping something will jump out at someone else - and I won't be offended at any comments, believe me, I'm hitting my head on my monitor in frustration at this point!

(ARGH attachment wouldn't update, see next post -_-;;

[dimichan]

ok, maybe this time...

[xenosomething]

i swear...ive never seen such a variation in quality...


the shapes are beautiful....really id recommend a black stroke(outline) around them beacuse they look a little weird and "mixed"

the posbar and file info look so bad compared to the lovely shapes of the cbutton area.

ditch the frame also....

how about some colors beside the gold and brown?

airbrushing? im sorry but i cant tell where the airbrushing is


keep working on this until you get it right.....i know you just started,so just take my comments lightly.

[J. Burnaway]

The tangled parts look really good! Nice work. Like xeno said, the frame needs to go, or something needs to be done with it - I'm not full of good advice on what to do though, sorry.

[dlinkwit27]

If you want to keep the frame, try to make it at least flow with the rest of the skin. Esp the c-button area. I absolutely love that part; it looks awesome! As xeno stated, the posbar and volume are wrong. I like the colours, but I think they are too..."round"...for the rest of the skin. Too cylindracal (cylindar-like (sp sux!)).

[amp-phibian]

the c button bmp should be interesting.

i wouldn't change a whole lot other than to extend the tangle up the right side to incorporate the shufrep and monoster bmps. and to add some more growth, but not as much, to the left side.

unfortunately there are no truly straight lines in nature so posbar and scroll do look kinda outta place but with the frame they can work as a sort of horizontal support for the sides of what I see as a "vineyardish" structure.with the smaller type "wraps' as you have currently on the border stretching out over them. thus allowing a "bloom" or something in the kbs/khz area sprouting from either wraped horizontal bar.

af far as a bg think "busy". maybe just a heavily shadowed continuation of the tangle as if it is significantly recessed from the front. with vol and bal "hidden" within and keeping the border intact to help give it a "vineyard" effect and to help explain the "back" support that has the shadowed tangle on it

originally posted by xenosomething
id recommend a black stroke(outline) around them beacuse they look a little weird and "mixed"

well most shapes in nature are a little weird and mixed

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by amp-phibian
well most shapes in nature are a little weird and mixed

true but most arent totally gold either

[amp-phibian]

gold??? i thought it was bronze.

looking forward to the update dimichan

p.s
id have to say between cemetary gates , and in flames you've given me a new appreciation for well crafted picture skins

[not in santiago]

Wow! This is gorgeous! I don't see how you could be frustrated with this. The airbrushing is seamless in my humble, inexperienced, never-used-an-airbrush-before opinion.

I could see you going two ways with this. The first would be a woodcarving-type skin, which the colours (nice colours!) suggest. If that's the case, I would leave the background as is (an overly busy background would interfere with your beautiful vines and flowers anyway) or you could texture the background in such a way that it looks chiseled, making every inch of the skin appear as if it was carved out of a large piece of wood.

The second would place more emphasis on the botanical front, in which case you could also leave the background as is, though you might want to add more colour. Or you could give the background a faint texture of vines/leaves . . . kind of a foresty backdrop.

Like the previous suggestions, I feel the frame needs to interact more with the curvy design it contains.

[dimichan]

Thanks guys - guess it was the equivalent of "writers block" Originally this WAS going to be tri-color, like dark gold/bronze, dark silver, and copper/rose gold, but I got carried away painting shapes hehe. I'll experiment a bit and update soon (I hope)...

[edit] and thanks amp=hibian [/edit]

[dimichan]

ok, minor update, only parts "done" haha is the left half of the cbutton area, just painted over to do the three color effect, I'll add more shapes to the left of that area. The three flowers showing are buttons atm, back, play and load, and the others will be similar peeking out of the tangles; basically right now, three color an improvement? Any changes for that before I start repainting the rest? The frame is still completely unfixed, was kinda playing with a thought on the sides

oope edit - just fyi, the posbar will be changed, at least have some tendrils wrapped around it and recolored, and the top bar that seemed to be confusing is the background for the songtitle and numbers, I'll do more with the ends and the area in between there (as well as change the colors)

[dam]

Wow. It's been a long time since I've seen an artistic skin. Excellent design.

[dlinkwit27]

lol, j.k. I know ur gonan change it. I am still kinda edgy about the frame tho. It could go either way, I 'spose it depends on how the rest devlops. Be careful tho! Don't be afraid to get rid of it if it doesn't work.

[Atmo]

It might be the screenshot, but it looks like it needs to be sharper in some areas.

Other than that i like it.

[xenosomething]

i dont see any reason fo you to have a frame...and the shapes at the bottom are still fantastic...the way i see it ...if you get rid of the frame(or any kind of frame) and do some work on the posbar and file info bar...this skin would be absolutely beautiful.

good work! no dcl!

[StillWater]

nice!

Yeah, can you post GIF PNG screenshots in future?* I'm sure the blurry JPG is not justice to the detail of the skin. I don't really know what to say about it at this stage, apart from that I think the white basckground and new colour scheme is working very well, and I like the way the cbuttons are sort of interwoven with the rest of the flora . However, I don't think I like the dark grey for them - I'm tempted to think that a less dreary and also more flower-like colour would be better.


*I know I once said that PNG screenshots were annoying because I couldn't view them easily, but I think the only people affected were Forever and me - but Forever's not here, and I have since been able to view them) ;-)

[dimichan]

Well, the white background is also temporary, right now I have a dark brownish marble background, but need the white so I can see what I'm doing while I work. The flowers, I'll probably end up alternating the copper and bronze colors for the cbuttons, and next SS will be in PNG... meanwhile, I'm off to install my new motherboard!

[FireHawK129]

Originally posted by ¤db¤

*I know I once said that PNG screenshots were annoying because I couldn't view them easily, but I think the only people affected were Forever and me - but Forever's not here, and I have since been able to view them) ;-) [/B]

when I try to view a PNG I'm prompted to d/l the file. Because I use a slow connection, I would rather not need to do this to view the screen shots. I am not familiar with the type of file, but I would consider it "not being able to view them easily." What was your solution to the problem; might I apply it to mine? I've tried to right click and just open the file, but it still wants me to save it to disk. Will explorer not open it; do I not have a proper graphics program to open it, etc.

Also, I have almost no graphics experience at all, and to this point, have only MS-Paint on this PC. I have access to old versions of Abode Photoshop 3.05, and Print Shop Deluxe from about as long ago. I also have a copy of Corel Photopaint 9 and the Corel Draw 9 Graphics suite. Without overwhelming myself with software, which should I get my feet wet with? I don't notice many people mentioning using Corel, so if I needed help with the software end, then would it be better to use the old Photoshop. On the other hand, should I just start with the ability to do everything, so that when I learn how, I have what I need? (or once you begin learning to use graphics software, some of it is relatively the same from brand to brand)
Nudge me in the correct direction...

fhk

[dam]

Let's no hijack dimichan's thread now. You shouldve posted a new therad.

[StillWater]

Originally posted by FireHawK129
What was your solution to the problem; might I apply it to mine? I've tried to right click and just open the file, but it still wants me to save it to disk. Will explorer not open it; do I not have a proper graphics program to open it, etc.

Get IrfanView. It's a small but excellent picture viewer. And it's worth it, because PNGs are the best quality pic files, apart form BMPs (which are huge). I believe the problem is that you need Quicktime or some sort of Quicktime plugin to mekt ehm open automatically.

[FireHawK129]

Originally posted by dam
Let's no hijack dimichan's thread now. You shouldve posted a new therad.

good point dam.
my apologies dimichan, no offense was of course intended. my mouse was quicker than my mind.

FHK

[dimichan]

update - with background, still not done main lol... but maybe getting there? Thinking I'm gonna animate tendrils coming out of the cracks for the vol and bal, and in the viz area... anyways without further ado... tri color almost fully implemented now...

EDIT - it's not quite this dark in PS :\

EDIT2 - let's try the jpg after all, png was SEVERAL shades darker...

[dam]

I really like the way this turning out. Looks much better with the extra colors.
I think the cbuttons need more contrast.

[dimichan]

LOL thanks, even the jpg is a couple shades darker than held up to the psd, but it's pretty close, and then I think I'm going to be (gulp) ready to start cutting and integrating the deep areas/animations... I can't believe I've been working on this biatch for 6 hours today already... it better be worth it! Anyway, next update!

EDIT - yeah, I know the top vine cluster will have the song title running through it, but streams don't use the song title bar so, going to see what it looks like this way and I can always edit it if it's awful

[xenosomething]

super ultra terrific!

this is really gorgeous...i really hope for this skins sake that you do something with that frame, cause its really hurting the style of it


besides the frame,the only problem i see is the "clutteredness" of it,but the shapes are so nice that it really doesnt look too bad

:sniff sniff:

i dont smell any of what i dont like

[Reanimation]

Very nice! like the airbrushing. be nice to see this as a WSZ file huh?

[dimichan]

it looked awful without any type of frame, everything just looked stuck on, so suggestions are welcome... *sobs* As soon as I figure that I can try to piece together the main bmps at least, I haven't even painted the other components yet, though I have a good idea of what I want to do with them. I thought the same about it being "cluttered", but the "tangled" look was part of what I was aiming for as well, so hopefully it'll still be viable

Two things I could use a hand with here... common abbreviations/symbols for the PL stacks?

And trying to think of a name, a name... something to do with metal and botanical or something... I dunno :\

[dimichan]

ok... better or worse as far as the "frame" goes?

[dlinkwit27]

I like the new frame better.

[xenosomething]

i dont mean to be a pain in the ass,but i still dont like the frame

can you post how it would look without one?

this skin has alot of potential...and i wouldnt want you to deny me of a good skin

[dimichan]

ok, I had to merge layers and extend the pieces, so this is a rush/quickie idea, but to me it looks kinda flat and unfinished this way, I dunno... but anyway, no frame/border...

[xenosomething]

hmm not too bad...

you could give it a 1 pix black border(my fav recomendation )

then add some more plants/shapes in the open areas

but i dont want you to listen to me if you feel you want the border.

[dimichan]

well, what I might do is add some "cracks" to the border and roughen it a bit, I want the tendrils to appear like they're growing out of the "layers", and pull a couple of the small tendrils down over the bottom border.

It's funny, cause this didn't start out as a moody skin, but it's headed that way

[dimichan]

ok, I attacked it think it helps make it less an obvious "border" and more part of the pic... man this is WORK LOL!!!

[StillWater]

looks good. Though - and this is more down to personal aesthetic preference more than anything else - I still don't like the dark grey so much, and I'm missing the white.
I like what you've put leaves over the 'skinnable' parts of the text and numbers bar. It disguises the rigidity of the WA2 skin system, and that's very important for an 'organic' skin like this. As I said, the grey makes the skin more dreary than I feel it wants to be, but apart from that it's good

[dimichan]

If I ever get this done (about 30 hours and counting, ugh) I'll make a lighter version for ya

Yeah, I know, it kind of took on a life of it's own, now it's beginning to resemble the inside of a dungeon O_o LOL

[not in santiago]

This is just a quick, half-baked thought, but have you tried upping the saturation on your three colours just a bit? That might make things a little less dreary. There seems to be a lot of grey in those colours (particularly the gold), and when they're placed against that grey background, they sort of blend into it.

Perhaps if you just concentrated on the colours of the flowers/Cbuttons. You could make them brighter, more saturated or even change their colour. Just something to differentiate your botannical elements from the marble.

This is looking great so far, dimichan. I'll comment in more detail when I find the time. (Or time finds me. I think we're on separate buses at the moment.)

[dlinkwit27]

Originally posted by not in santiago
This is just a quick, half-baked thought, but have you tried upping the saturation on your three colours just a bit? That might make things a little less dreary. There seems to be a lot of grey in those colours (particularly the gold), and when they're placed against that grey background, they sort of blend into it.

Perhaps if you just concentrated on the colours of the flowers/Cbuttons. You could make them brighter, more saturated or even change their colour. Just something to differentiate your botannical elements from the marble.

This is looking great so far, dimichan. I'll comment in more detail when I find the time. (Or time finds me. I think we're on separate buses at the moment.)

Great suggestion! Thats what I was thinking, but I just couldn't put it into words! I hope he does that!

[garetjax]

/me perks...and watches the progression...Can't comment to much on it yet...still to me far away off to give 'decent' critism...Currently I am liking more than I dislike. I agree w/ the the grey throwing it to a dreary path.

-jax

[dimichan]

ok, brightened the colors a little, and think these are showing a touch darker still as well, but this is with it brightened a bit...