Computer graphics anyone?

[MoO_coW]

Well I think I found my "nich" that I want to do in life. I love editing pictures. I do it for fun a lot and just like messin' around in photoshop. I'm not good at all at making stuff from scratch. Like all the graphics like the DRN logo and stuff I just marvel at. I am not that bad at editing pictures though. I really like changing a picture. Most of it is just knowing what tools to use and when to use them, not any real "skill" I guess to editing like I do. I made a little sample of some of things I have done in the last month or two, there just for fun though. I also am really into flash but lost interest after I couldn't do the programing that I wanted to take my intros and pages to a new level. I did a few intros for some guy in France for his web-page and he liked it and everything, so I'm not extremely bad. I haven't being in flash for a while ever since I lost ALL of my files :( I find I like messin' with pictures a lot better than flash though. I was just wondering what kind of college is involved and what kind of careers are out there for graphics design? Thump, maybe you have some insight? I'm sure I could get a lot better if I had some classes or something. You can goHere and laugh at my work ;) But just remember I just started so I'm new to all this.

 

[J_dem_Bones]

just keep playing with it....
I make tracks, bike & gear skins for Motocross Madness2
I just finished a new one...I will have to post it soon....;)

 

[Jake T]

My mom is a graphic designer and all she did was go to art college
but I think now-a-days you might have to get some degree involving computers.
just my $.02

 

[gibbs_6]

The more you work with it the better you get most of the time.:confused:

 

[YZr1der]

MoO_coW,

what do you use to edit graphics??? i need something like you use....:think

 

[firecracker22]

Having used photoshop a very, very little, I can appreciate the time and effort it takes to make things look right. I am not patient enough. Stick with it and you will do well, Moo.

I can't believe you still have my pics up there. LOL

 

[MoO_coW]

Well I really don't want to go to art college because I'm not an artists. I like computers and using photoshop but I don't really like art because I'm not coordinated at all, I guess why I like photoshop so much is because I can release my artistic thinking into graphics without having to be a good drawer or painter or anything. Photoshop is such a wonderful tool and I love it. And yes, I spend hours on some things that turn out like crap and people don't understand how teetius it is, and to get it just right is so hard.

 

[_SOLO_]

Lookin good Moo. I am into the graphic design thing too. I have a website with some things I have made for people. Most of it is old stuff of when I was just starting. I haven't uploaded any new stuff in a loooooong time. It's all text stuff. I only recently started making and editing pictures. Here it is Oubisly I am not a website designer. The background somehow changes its self back to that crappy color every time I change it.

 

[KWJams]

MoO_coW

*HERE* is a picture I just took a couple of weeks ago that I think will make a great image to manipulate into a cool new graphic for the next rendition of the hillclimbers web page.

I bought Paint Shop Pro 7 at Sam's Club for $80.00 and then got a $30.00 rebate back on top of that---just haven't found time to play with it.

If you want to do some tweakin on this picture for me I will work something out with you.
The picture is a little dark, any way the emphasize the huge motor would be cool.

Many careers begin by just jumping in and starting something.

 

[MoO_coW]

email me with some ideas of what you want and I will try my darndist to do it. I needed a new picture to edit because im all out of them :)

 

[blackhawk468]

Hey Moo, I'm in college right now for Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Dallas. They also have other schools around the US. You don't necessarly need to draw good to be a graphic design artist. At the Art Institute you only take two drawing classes, Intro to drawing, and intermediate drawing and they teach you how to do everything. Thump went to the same college I am in right now. There are many different career fields you can go into. From the design layout (magazine layout), logos, to image manipulation. Graphic Design is very broad and there are so many jobs/fields you can get into. If you would like some more info feel free to email me. [email protected]

 

[Thump]

Moo. Graphic design is a broad career. Many things to do. College is a must. In the arena of photo retouching the competition is tough for an average retoucher because there are a lot of them out there. Now if you move to the next level of talent and can understand channels, plates, color set up and can do stuff like THIS you can bill up to $300-350 and hour depending on your efficiency. At this level competition is weak because few have the desire to spend 60 hours retouching tile when they can make it look pretty good in 5 hours.

You do not need to be able to draw, you just have to know what something would look like in reality and you have to be picky beyond what you think is reasonable. Make things look more real than they would be if they existed.

The difference between a decent retoucher and an exceptional one is not talent, it is knowledge of the programs, attention to detail and the desire to be the best. But that can be said for a lot of professions.

From what I have seen of your work, you have the talent. Do you have the desire? Typically I put in 60-80 hrs a week... every week sometimes more, sometimes much more. No misconceptions, this job is not an 8-5 job if you want to be paid well. Now if you just want to make a living at it....8-5 and an easy road, sure, but that would not support my dirt bike habbit.

 

[firecracker22]

Wow, Thump. Impressive. Showoff! ;)

 

[Thump]

Originally posted by firecracker22
Wow, Thump. Impressive. Showoff! ;)

I like talking about this stuff more than braces.:confused:

Moo drop me a line if you need a point i the right direction or if you want to talk about it.

 

[MoO_coW]

Thanks a lot guys, Ill e-mail you thump and blackhawk, I know your busy so don't worry about getting to it, just if you have some free time or something. Thanks alot

 

[firecracker22]

Originally posted by Thump
I like talking about this stuff more than braces.:confused:

I bet! I've struggled with Photoshop and I can respect the time and skill and patience it's taken to do that. I couldn't do it. My only skill is with the written word.

 

[MoO_coW]

Also would a book or something be a good idea to get, there are tons of books out there on learning photoshop but there usually expensive and I don't want to waste my money. also I have done very little in 3d art but its to hard for me :( I did a tutorial and made a rubber ducky but I could barely follow the tutorial and when I tried other tutorials I couldn't even start. I find 2d much more fun.

 

[MoO_coW]

Just wondering, for the pictures you posted Thump, where those the only ones you got or did you get more? I tried recreating what you did and I could get the chair reconstructed, when you delete the close up it is missing a chunk but that was easily fixed. I got the chair good color wise easily also-making it a bit more "bold". but I couldn't get the grass right. Mostly for the fact that the grass upclose was super detailed but I couldn't get any grass like that from the picture you gave. Just wondering if you had anything else to work with? The detail is simply amazing, little stuff like the grass losing detail as you get farther back and reflections...unbelievable.

 

[Thump]

Moo those were the only 2 images I got... Started with the grass tile, took out all grout lines and patterened in the grass texture everywhere. Then re-drew grout lines and reflections. Color correction and lighting effects added.

Chair outlined and cut out all flowers and chair. Put on tile. Added more flowers and colored them. Added reflections and shaddows... done just under 60hours.:scream:

The layered PSD file was 850MB. I run a dual 800 Mac with 1.5G Ram

Moo start using the pen tool to cut things out. The lasso and magic wand tool are useless unless you want to work at Kinkos. Master the pen tool using quick keys and your job gets a lot easier... It also helps to be on a Mac, in this industry it is the standard.

 

[kiwi_925]

Great to see Thump. On my course im doing we started this semester only doing the media you wanted to do, ive chosen electronic media, and at the moment we're designing our web sites, though they are a little different cos of the theme which is Creation of Identity, so far ive only done the first page, of 8, but earlier this week i dscovered the filters, if only i knew of these earlier!! We have one gy on our course ALWAYS doing sci fi pcitures, always has a lens flare on there some where. Thump what do you charge for an hours work?? And also are you self-employed or work for a company?? So far ive found that its just little things that take the time, putting the finishing touchs onto it, and then you find more out when you print, and have to go back again and start.

 

[MoO_coW]

Hmmm, this is tough...And I used the magic wand tool for the entire thing almost :confused: I just change the tolerance until I get what I want and it works good but I will try the pen, but I'm going to have to wean myself off of the magic wand :D I also went about it wrong, I started thinking of ways to merge them and I was just going to make a copy of the background(chair) layer and then delete the background layer and use the pattern stamp tool to add in the grass but that didn't work at all, because everything was the same 24 pixel stamp over and over. I'm just going to see how "close" I can get mine to yours, and close just seems like the wrong word because its going to be very far away:) If that anoying enlargement box wasn't there it would be alot easier :confused:

 

[Thump]

Originally posted by kiwi_925
Thump what do you charge for an hours work?? And also are you self-employed or work for a company??

Depending on the kind of and level of retouching....$225-350/hr

I do work for a design studio in Dallas.

 

[KawieKX125]

Depending on the kind of and level of retouching....$225-350/hr

HOLY COW BATMAN!!! Thump, with that kind of pay, you should be able to get some BBR masterpeice!

 

[MoO_coW]

250 an hour*60 hours=:eek: :scream: :confused: :cool: :p Im suprised, so far im doing better than I expected, no where near what yours is but one day...one day :) man, drawing grout is a teatius job!
Grrrr, why doesn't that spell checker ever work?

 

[Thump]

Originally posted by KawieKX125

HOLY COW BATMAN!!! Thump, with that kind of pay, you should be able to get some BBR masterpeice!

That is what my company bills me at... I only get a little, tiny, itty bitty piece of it, but hey it pays the bills.