Originally posted by wbboy29
Actually, any feedback you guys want to give me would be great. That way I can apply those tips for the next contest.
Well, these are just general comments that ive obseverd obver the past week. And this is strictly my opinion, Remember this is Zac's contest. Also bear in mind i get scathing critiques of my work on a regular basis and i have a very thick skin - i'm not trying to offend anyone, rather trying to help y'all.
With that said.... this contest, the overall trick for people working with photographs is to make them not look like a photograph yet keeping them crisp - IE those ones that took like they were altered with just one filter. Think of filters as a paintbrush; painters dont just use one, right? They use different sizes of brushes for different techniques. Since photoshop is the ultimate swiss army knife for photographs, what you have to do is look at what you have, what it does and how it can make your artwork better. Anyone can take a photo, invert the colors, slap on some text. The artistic part comes in when you can take that photo and turn it into something more, something beyond.
My other main observation is resolution and pixelazation. While the poster is at 480x700 @ 72 dpi ... Thats the end result. What i have noticed is that people taking elements that have been found on the web and enlarging them. That is the absolute wosrt things to do with a photo. An image has an existing amount of pixels cant look any better just because you increase the image size. It starts looking blurry and loses definition when you do that. So what i tell people is to always resample the image to as big as they can get it and play from there. (72 dpi for web; 150 or 2xline screen for print) So long story short, you can always make things smaller but usually you cant make them bigger - or not make they bigger and still look good.
(For those who care, i'm working high res on this project and will just make smaller later)
That and careful photoshop work. You want your edits to be crisp and clean.
And my last 'pet peeve' if you will.... I'm big on using my own work as my entries. My own photos, source images, etc. I'm just big on respecting copyrights, and in this upcomming contestt, everything is my own. Nothing was pulled off the web, except for fonts of course. Granted there are some where you just dont have the shots or the animation - like Splash Mountain and your forced to go to the web. But what drive me nuts was that we all used practically the same images and that dillutes down all the hard work of everyone when everyone's looks the same.
And lastly, be original and creative. Dont rush things. If you have 2 weeks (like this contest) take some of the time and work and work and work on it. Took me 3 days to get the color balance right with what i was trying to do (You'll see). I think overall everyone has the potential to be great at this, its just a matter of not rushing things. IMO anyhow.
SO thats my advise, critiques, commetns, etc..... I know its general but if you want anythign personalized, you'll have to IM me.
