mine is P. Courkey would have thumped me had he submitted, I'm sure. I had been traveling, and did my image right at the end. I'll try harder in round 2.
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mine is P. Courkey would have thumped me had he submitted, I'm sure. I had been traveling, and did my image right at the end. I'll try harder in round 2.
you can do what ever your heart desires, Nords. Me and you square off in round 2.
BTW, I was O2.
The new brackets are up on the front page. I'll be revealing everyone's image in the respective voting thread and stocks should go out tonight at some point.
Ondraedan... I can't say I agree or disagree - you're a bit too vague for even me to figure out which way you're leaning.
Some images, it was easy to figure out not who did it... but how it was done. Some things, I take for granted. Some things were very simple... and yet got the most votes. But by now, 16 years later of using Photoshop... what's "simple" to me isn't always simple to most. But in this case, some things that got mad votes didn't sometimes always deserve it. And to me, keeping things sharp is an easy target. Some things, varied too much in sharpness and/or focus. My votes went only on technical terms only this time. Some where because I liked most of the image, but had a concern on why one part of the image was too saturated or the such. That's my take on my own voting... feel free to disagree with that.
Hell, my image was twice uploaded wrong. The version voted on was the next to last version. And I was E2. I used an anthill, the castle stock, two sets of plant roots and a tree, two birds, a sky with a rainbow, a picture of the night sky I took that night I started, a secondary sky, a stock from robbmc (thanks for allowing it dude), and hand drew parts of the floating rock. And did all of that like 1 hour, and I still don't think I did a good job... I have too many errors.
Not saying I did a lot. I'm saying I had fun putting all of that together. And would have to say that the stock was limiting somewhat - I see discs79 went with my initial direction, but I switched up twice to throw people a curve... well that and I was tired as heck.
Won't lie... the surprises this year weren't from the "Arena regulars"... silver's image, jAQUAN's image, and Taco's image showed new directions like no other. Silver needed to add depth in places, polish in a few others. jAQUAN's... I would have never thought of doing something like that... and only thing I'd say would be make all of the portions of equal quality. Taco... your type needed some work, but other than that, solid effort.
Hell, the regulars all looked the same to me! No offense meant by that...
As it stands, I had fun, expected discs79 to come out with his graffiti style which I can't compete with honestly. I just hope that the people that didn't win don't get discouraged. Now... the votes... I'm just glad no sockpuppets were involved in this year so far.
i vote for which i like more, sometimes how much was put into it comes into play.
like the one with the girl and the gun and the cows.
i wasnt a huge fan of either image, we have had guns as stock before and done alot, i ultimately went with the girl and the leaves based soley on the way the cows were put into the other image.
Another one that was close was f-1 and f-2, i went with f-1 because while f-2 had alot of good work in it, i thought it was way to busy, i didnt think that the angel really fit well. so while f-2 was a great image, and wonderfuly done, i found myself enjoying looking at f-1 more.
Natasia pulling out is a shame, as her image was one of my favorites for the that grouping of images, i understand where she could be mad about someone voting for themselves, but it IS a competition and you need to be in it to win it.
no offense to e-1 but jason, id love to hear your arguement on why it was better then e-2
i feel wicked bad for a-2 as i loved the image, but a-1 was just SO amazing.
i didnt like either N image, N-1 looked like it had more done to it, but the text in the bottom left kinda killed it, n-2 didnt really do anything for me in general.
the O images were so drastically differnt i can see why they each got alot of votes, again that was another vote based on which i enjoyed looking at more, both were well done, one had alot of photorealistic work, the other was more colors and patterns, thats really going to be based on what you like looking at, i could have easily voted for either one based on how nice they both were.
i wasnt really feeling good about either j image, at the time of voting i ended up with j-1 because of the text "secret" in j-2, secret what?
k-1 due to no submission, which seen later makes me wish k2 would have been submitted ontime.
voted l-2 because dragons and swords, and l-1 had some bad text
i was H2 by the way.
oh and i hated my stock, i love what the waste did with it though,
Nogol, i just have to say i was very impressed with yoru image, and at the tolling bell i had to finally look at yours to get it hosted. When i saw it, i almost crapped my pants because i knew your's was done amazingly well. Plus as silverx says above, we had 2 polar opposite styles going, so it was really what the viewer was in the mood to see more than anything.
Good job man, hope to see you back next year. :thumbsup:
I hear ya... I think once you have developed a style, it's not only hard to break out of your habits but it's hard to even recognize what your habits are. I try hard to come up with an image people don't expect from me, but still people guess it.Quote:
the regulars all looked the same to me! No offense meant by that...
I was most surprised/impressed with Taco's and Nogol's image. Maybe I haven't been around here lately enough to know your guys' talent and creativity.
As for voting, I vote for the image I feel is best, and technical merit is only one factor. Other equally important factors include creativity and message.
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverx2
J-2 was mine.
And that's hilarious! To be honest, I didnt have any time this year to work on this...i threw some brushes in the corner, some text "secret" with no meaning, some diagonal lines for trendiness, and called it a day. No concept. I just didnt want to have not submitted an image.
Guess what happened? I got my ass handed to me by sandyrivers.
By no means am I discrediting sandy's win...that was an awesome image and I knew you'd kill me with what i submitted, I just know how much it sucks to have put a lot of work into an image only to have no opponent(It happens to me every year). You deserved to win and I hope you carry on far into the tournament!
On a side note, I want to give props to MyFriendisaTaco...awesome image. The matchup of the tournament so far. I had a helluva time voting on this one, both images were top notch.
A great job to everyone else...I look forward to watching the rest of this.
I agree... Nogol, yours was one of my faves of the whole round.
I was J1. Had a tough time with the stock. I know my image was a bit obvious and was not technically as strong as some as the other submissions, but I played with it to the best of my abilities and was proud of the work. CI, I loved the direction you took with the stock!
Well I was mostly wrong with my guesses. Ondreadon, I voted for your image, but I was torn between yours and jAQUAN's mainly because yours seemed washed out to me and the castle looked really flat and his 'popped' more. In the end, your technical skill is what swayed me. I loved your compsition and text though!
Looking forward to round 2. Saint, it will be an honor getting beat by you. ;)
i told lefteye once i saw the brackets that taco was way under ranked, and could throw a huge upset.
if i would have seen any of his work, things would have been different. But 1 post in the arena really can't count for much as far as upping the rankings of a member....at least not fairly.
wow, this really is subjective, as i disagree with the majority of what silver just said!
and i was showing my wife the images last night and noticed that we disagreed on a lot of the images (as to which we preferred). in some cases i just really couldn't see where she was coming from at all!! i guess that's how ondraedan feels about some of the votes.
on a different note.....
one thing that's been bugging me the whole time- was there a reason that neither gerbick nor discs corrected the skew of the stock?
Hey now, you're no slouch. Just make sure to put a lot of time and effort into it, polish it, and work on the small details as they make a huge difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by sandyrivers
If you're second image is anything like your first, you and Saint are going to have a great matchup.
I didn't notice that until I was almost finished, Carly. And by that time, I just knew I was going to lose to be honest.
Thanks, yo! I'll try and make ya proud. ;)
http://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/a...shamed0002.gif i still got loads to learn from u guys.
i'll be back next year!
can't wait to see round 2's images...
Awesome images everyone! Good luck to all the winners in Round 2!
Mine was M1 which by the way...sucked. :) Losing just makes me work harder!
Davulf GREAT image! It was a pleasure losing to ya! I'll be cheering for ya in the coming rounds.
Hehe, I'm glad you guys are thinking my picture was actually alright. I was at the point where I wasn't exactly super pleased with it, but I couldn't think of anything else to do to make it better.
When I looked at the stock, I absolutely hated it. Ctranter took it a bit more creatively and cropped out most of it and used the bricks as some rubble. I didn't even think of doing anything like that, and if I had, I could have probably pulled out something a bit nicer and more creative.
Since I wasn't so super thrilled with my stock and in my idea, I spent a bit more time on some technical things. I played around a bit with the levels and desaturation of the background, then I added in the ambient blue/pink glow from the rainbow fountain almost as a last minute thing to make it look a bit more "real."
All in all, I think I executed my idea quite well, I just wish I had a much better stock to work with. It hit me, and I was completely stumped!
Thanks guys! I'll definitely have to pop in more often and practice things.
When I'm not super swamped with work! :rolleyes:
Okay, finally getting a chance to go through the images now. Whoa Silver that was a *CLOSE* battle, which are always the best kind (where one person doesn't walk away feeling too sore because of the drastic margin between votes). But still, two votes apart is a dangerously close margin... the closest in the whole round so far.
I'll review each image. Please take my crits with a grain of salt, because I'm not half as experienced as most of the people on this board. Simply my own observations and choices.
A1- An absolutely stunning volley. The composition and colors are well balanced and suitable, the lighting is superb and the stock woman has been included very nicely. Although I must say I'm getting sick of the 'women in dresses looking at stuff' concept (I believe it was mentioned earlier?), but again, stunning image.
A2- I really liked this image, and wanted to vote for the underdog in this situation, but something about the execution of the image just didn't do it for me. Perhaps the rainbow was too bright, sharp and 'cartoonish' for the de-saturated photographic background, but in any case I enjoyed looking at A1 more.
B1- A fantastic volley... the composition and balance is smooth, however I would have liked to have seen the book in front of the main book shopped' in a little better... and also, the text excerpt on the top-right side I feel is a bit of a cop-out... I understand you were trying to add to the literature theme of the image, but obscuring it with plain text on a white background could have been done a lot better. Still, fantastic volley.
B2- No submission. You SUCK man... :)
C1- This image kept me looking for a long time... and I have no idea why. There was so many unusually eye catching aspects in the image that I needed to look at it for a long time to fully understand the image. I understand that the cows were part of the image's concept, but the style you have chosen to incorporate the cows I can't help think was just to cover a poor attempt at making the cows look realistic (not saying that this was the case however...). I also loved the gun effect... you should definitely keep that zig-zagged rainbow in your arsenal of tricks... great image.
C2- I gotta say I chose this image over the previous image, even though the style of the image was a lot less adventurous than Wannabes'. Even though the submission is somewhat bland, I chose your image purely based on composition, balance, and style. I love the autumn leaves, but I'm not much for the dress taking up most of the screen, and the blood on the face looks a little strange to me also. Overall, I feel this image displayed more PS-skill and a solid well-executed concept.
D1- Hands down, this was my favorite image. You *really* stunned me with this image Flashlight... congrats! The style is *very* unique and almost intangibly consistent and stylish. The colors are amazingly well balanced, the textures are fantastic, the composition and execution are flawless. Very, very well done man.
D2- Shame on you for bailing when Flash put so much work into his image.
E1- I did like your image, but the composition just seemed way too rough for me to enjoy it properly. This image (Imho) doesn't show much consideration for lighting, use of color etc. I very much like the concept, and it does show your skill with PS, but next time I would like to see more effort put into the execution of this image to achieve the full effect you were after.
E2- I could tell this was yours from a mile away Gerbick. What can I say other than 'wow'... this is one of my favorite images from you man. As usual, the composition and balance are FLAWLESS, the typography is is great, use of colour and blending complements the image and brings out the main subject matter wonderfully. Again, stunning image.
F1- Nice to see your submission Groupof... you put up an amazing fight against Fearless, but I'm going to have to choose fears as my favourite in this matchup man, but it was very close. If you don't mind me saying so, I think the main problem in this image was the choice of stock photography. The lighting doesn't match the background and it has become too obvious that it is not part of the original image, which is the style I believe you were going for. Not only that, but the facial expression of the stock was far too 'silly' for me to take seriously. That aside, you did a really great job and the margin was much closer than I thought it would be.
F2- Another wonderful submission Fear. As usual, your dark and twisted mind has resulted in another all-round great submission. Fantastic use of textures and lighting, but in some areas I feel the stock image (particularly of the man) show aspects of being-copy pasted (eg: mans left hand shoulder has a shadow around it which makes it stand out somewhat unrealistically). Other than that, another damn good image...
G1- I love the concept you chose for this image. It feels to me very dark and film noir. It's very smooth, nice choice of lighting and great balance. Overall a very well executed image.
G2- Nats, WHY? Your image looked great. Don't feel bad about the voting. Here's the three ways I feel people would have voted.
1- Each person voted for themselves regardless of content to keep the voting fair.
2- Each person voted for the opponent as a polite gesture of sportsmanship.
3- Each person voted for the image they preferred.
The problem I see is that you were voting using the second standard I mentioned, and you are upset because your opponent chose the third standard I mentioned. In my opinion everyone just should have voted for the image they honestly preferred. I'm really sorry to see you go though Nats.
H1- (My image). I really liked the result of this image, given that our stocks were absolutely *impossibly hard* to pull a subject matter from. The people in the stock were either way too distant (thus resulting in blurriness) or were lighted in a way that was completely unusable. I decided to chose some unexpected subject matter and chose the poles of the rope-dividers in some interesting and hopefully successful way. After playing around for a while I stumbled upon the cascading effect. I threw some filters on the image and the realization for my image came like a hurricane. I quickly opened Flash and developed a script to automatically generate the poles in a circular cascading shape (so that I didn't have to do it manually in Photoshop) and then did the floors/doors the same way. From there it was a whole heap of filters and lighting adjustments to get the image the way I wanted. I finished up by looking for a stock photo of someone falling but failing that, I simply took a picture of myself jumping into the air (wearing baggy clothes/messy hair/etc) to help add to the effect of falling. I also bent my legs and head while jumping to give the effect of depth in the final image. I took the photo myself using a camera remote and a tripod ;). The image I was trying to portray was a large futuristic dreary cascading hangar/housing building which stretched infinitely from the ground. The person is jumping because of the monotonous insanity of his modern day world.
H2- My oh my, Silver... what a close lineup. I'm going to try and be as unbiased as possible in my review/crit so please take my observations lightly. I like the composition of the image you've come up with, but the image feels very unbalanced and in some areas not as strongly executed as I would have liked. For example, the balloon behind the cloud makes the cloud look very 'cut out', the lighting of the fisherman makes him also seem unrealistic, and I didn't understand the significance of using the same woman image three times. I know the stock choice was an absolute ball breaker-- but surely you could have found a way of mixing the stocks up a little more. One thing that frustrates me is also the final layer composition: It seems rather obvious to me that the image has a gradient on top of it with a color blend mode attached to it. Fortunately, you picked a great set of colors in the gradient and it gives the image a really unique flavor. The resulting image has so many elements which keeps me looking at it, but I can't for the life of me realize why. In any case, a great submission and you made yourself a very tough opponent man. Well done.
I1- Another great image. This one is very mysterious and keeps my attention for a long time. There's a lot of elements which keep me looking around the page to fully understand the image. This image is very smooth, nicely colored and well balanced, but to be honest, I feel it is somewhat boring as well. Uh, if that makes sense given my previous observation? All in all, great image.
I2- Yeah you suck drop-out! (sorry, gotta add to the fun. I vote for messed up avatars...!)
J1- Really loved this image... I was very close to thinking it was one of Gerbicks... he's pretty much got this style of image locked down. The composition is very well thought out and the image itself is very well balnced. A very good volley, but I keep thinking its been done too much before. I also feel that the magazine played a big part in me not liking this image as much as I should... it looks very unrealistic. In any case, great image... It got my vote.
J2 - Not sure what you were trying to achieve here man... I'm having trouble seeing what changes you actually made to this image other than the vector and text. That aside, the vectors shape and placement, as well of the addition of text definitely keep the image interesting, and its certainly a unique placement. Still a great job.
Hmm. It's 5am here... I should probably get some sleep. Hopefully I'll finish my list later, and I hope you'll all have time to crit me back with suggestions since I took the time to do yours ;)
Great work everyone who submitted... there was a lot of surprises and the competition is fierce this year!
That was actually kinda what I was going for, maybe I just didn't execute so well. I was going for that extreme contrast between cartoonish, and realism. I guess something you designers may want to call vexel? I'm not sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWaste
I also added in the unicorn poking out for good measures. :)
Also Gerbs, you mentioned my type needed some work. What would you suggest I have done better? Was it the size, or just straight up wrong fonts? Because typography is something I do enjoy messing around with and would like to get a lot better at it.