Could I get some opinions on my graphics? ^^

[kuoleva]

Heh, I've been practicing with my brand new copy of Photoshop CS4. If there's one thing I think I'm at least a bit talented in, it's at making graphics. ^^ So, I'd like some opinions on some of my stuff, beware though, some are really big, and a bit bright.

Here are just a few of my things from renders of various games. I get all my renders from planetrenders.net, so if you want to see the original, hunt them down in the "Video Game Renders" section. ^^ And all my brushes are from deviantart.

Here are just a few pictures from a little collection I like to call "Beauty is Subjective". I can't remember all of them, though I know a few are from Aion, Perfect World International, Lineage II, and WAR. The 1st & 2nd pics are a bit large, you have been warned! Also, they aren't of the *highest* quality, I can't find a site that will upload the PSDs. D:

The 1st one is my best, I think. ^^ Also, if you want the PSDs (they have all the layers and such) just PM me, and I'll upload them somewhere.

So, what do you think? I need an unbiased opinion, all my friends IRL are going to lie to me. D:

Edited May 1, 2009 by Poryhack

[damio]

Good job *thumbs up*

I like the last one the most

[HottSushiz]

Yeah the last one looks awesome, and it doesn't hurt my eyes as much, but the 2nd to last one i just have to say: KAAAAAMEEEEEHAAAAMEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

or Hadouken! if you prefer.

[Torte de Lini]

The first two are a bit odd.

You put blur on crucial areas and a refined focus on odd areas.

[kuoleva]

Thanks for the comments. ^^

Yeah, everyone says the last one is the best.

@Torte: I know, that was kind of the point. Hence the title "Beauty is Subjective". Oh well, it's like me I suppose. Crazy and a bit odd.

[Narwhal]

All of them are cool. Good job.

[Sir Xero]

you are doing good, great job! Better than I can do right now..

However, I have to say 1 thing, some of the renders on the images are a little blurry (well, to me at least).

[kuoleva]

Thank you again for all the kind comments! ^^ I know they're a tad blurry, either their supposed to be like that, or TIFF isn't very kind to my image quality. Oh well. A couple of RL friends asked me to do a couple pictures for them. The first one is a cartoon version of Bloodrayne for one of my vampire-obsessed friends, the second one is for another one of my friends who always plays the caster in games. Again, they're a bit large.

If you'd like something made, feel free to ask. ^^ I might start a request thread eventually, but oh well.

[Illithian]

Very interesting. Creative I would say.

I'd like to see the PSDs before I comment, because I want to know what you did to each render before I comment. If you could PM them to me, that would be great.

[FLOOTENKERP]

Those look great! Keep up the good work.

[Illithian]

After seeing the renders and downloading the brushes you used, I can see the work you put into these. On some of them, I feel like there is just SO MUCH in the picture that its hard to take in.

Restraint is something thats hard to learn. You're a great artist, but I think you should try to learn it; simplicity is beauty within itself.

That said, C&C's coming your way:

#1: I REALLY like the style. You used the rune brushes in a perfect, creative way to give good focus on an important part of the picture. Also, the lower half of the render looks flawless and the effect that the runes make on it is very cool. However, the top half is... not as good. Its too blurred and almost smudged in places and it distracts from the coolest parts of the picture. I think if you had kept with a style of very sharp and in focus, you would have better results.

#2: Fantastic. I love the lines in the background and I think the blending between the render and the background is executed flawlessly with a perfect combination between blur and definite border on the edge. However, I think the middle parts of the render are too blurred and it almost hurts your eyes to look at it, which is a major downside on this otherwise fantastic piece.

#3: I like the render and I like the background, but it doesnt excite me and it isnt subtly beautiful either. Its... well, I'm not sure how to describe it, but I don't really like it. Sorry. =\

#4: Hell I think its amazing, especially looking at what you did to it in the PSD. Making that from the original render is deserving of an award within itself. I love the background and ESPECIALLY the black smudgyish spectre-like stuff thats around the angel. I think you did a perfect job blending it. Nothing to complain about except image quality.

And you didn't upload my favorite one! I'm sad, I thought it was amazing. I'll upload it for the benefit of everyone else here. =)

[Enkidu]

I'm not sure if I can really agree with your critique mate.

The render quality is obviously an issue, but one that can be forgone as long as everything else add's to the piece.

Anyway let me get started here, it seems the render's or C4D's you used weren't properly clipping masked or whatever else. What I'm saying is that your render + Background doesn't have any depth, it appears as if you just layed the images on top of each other, messed with the opacity of the layers, duplicated them, changed the opacity again and added filters to the ones on top. While blurring/smudging out parts that were overly noticeable.

The images you picked, and the colors you used are also very nice. However your brush work remains simple and flat throughout all of them. Simply brushing over certain area's and lowering the opacity makes a piece seem unfinished and unnecessarily blurry.

Brushing over specific parts of a layer, and then changing the layer style ( Hue, Hard mix, Saturation et cetera ) is something you do over specific parts of a piece at the end of it to increase/decrease contrast and color, but that seems to me like all you did along wither filters for the entire piece.

The renders themselves fit in with the subjects color wise, but style wise they seem fairly out of place and may need to be fine tuned a little bit. Think of the Monet Lisa with an Edvard Munch style background.

I'm not an expert myself but I tend to do stuff similar to this every now and then ( Me and a friend collaborated the piece below, we used pieces of it to make my sig as well. )

Obviously it's nothing too amazing ( although I rather like it ) but the C4D's, backround, character and text all flow together very nicely. Most of it is brush work , this particular one only took up about 27 layers or so.

Also sorry for the bad quality, image shack doesn't like High quality images, much like how Youtube doesn't like high quality videos.

Anyway, I'm by no mean saying your stuff is bad, just that it does need some work. I addressed a few problem areas, but as it is your piece of art, ultimately it is up to you to continue getting better. Best of luck.

[Illithian]

Enkidu, is there anything you CAN'T do?

Anyway, yeah, thats pretty much what he did. Still, I think partly the lack of depth was intentional. In your picture (which, by the way, is excellent), the intention of depth is obvious and well done. In his picture (I'm mainly referring to the one I uploaded for him, which IMO is his best work), I'm fairly certain there wasn't supposed to be depth; there isnt a distinct enough background. The render blends with the background quite literally.

[kuoleva]

Thanks again for comments ^^

I'd like to point out, though, I'm a she.

Again, I just got it around a week ago. I'm basically carrying over a style from my PSP days, which doesn't have very much capability.

While I like your style, Enkidu, it's simply not one I'm aiming for. It's simply too, well, hard for my tastes. I'm more of a soft and blurry kind of person. Again, I'm just bringing over my style from PSP, which doesn't have the depth PS does, and I'm still just getting used to the basics.