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[Akigagak]

Bay12, I need your help.

Well, maybe not need, but it would be nice. I'm on a Btec (don't laugh, Britishers) National Diploma in Media, which covers pretty much everything that I might encounter trying for a job in the media industries. Scriptwriting, Filming, Audio Recording, Editing of both film and audio, Regulatory Bodies, Advertising, Print, Page layout, etc.

However, while comprehensive, this course is assignment based, with maybe a couple of months of work experience in the second year. We can add anything we do during the course into a portfolio, but it helps to do work for it outside of collage.

I'm really bad at coming up with my own ideas, but can always think of ways to do the ideas that other people have come up with. Not being able to think up my own designs, except when the mood takes me, means that I don't get much practice with the software, and have to rely on crappy tutorials that just tell you what to do, not why you do it.

Here is where you lot come in.

I want you to commission me to design whatever you want, provided it can be done on the programs below. You don't give me anything but the right to do with it as I will, and you get a half-decent thing.

I'll be taking no more than three a week, as I still have collage, but If you request something when those three slots are already full, then your request will just be bumped to the next week.

Spoiler: Available programs, and how well I think I can use them. (click to show/hide)

Adobe CS4
Photoshop. I've got the most experience with this image editor, after Gimp.
Dreamweaver. No experience, I haven't needed it so far, and haven't played around with it either.
Illustrator. Spent a couple of hours fiddling around, that's it.
InDesign. RAEG HATE REAG.
Flash. Pretty much the same as Illustrator, I've only spent an hour on it.

Terragen2. The free version. But as I'm not going to be paid by this project, I don't think there's any problem. Only had this on my computer for around two hours. If I use this, it'll only be to get source pictures for Ps.

Audacity. Nothing here, but have worked with Cubase for a few weeks.

Requests, week beginning Monday the 30th:
1. Ein. Vectored crested cardinal. 1st draft done.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2. Bjlong. Whores on horses, EPIC edition. Planning stage. (Suspended due to brain bleach)
3. Barbarossa. Webpage Banner.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Requests, week beginning Monday the 7th.
1. Chaotic Josh. Hulderic Einar Composition.
2. Itnetlolor. Bloodfist Corporation Logo.
3. Aqizzar: Imperial Highland Guard.

Requests, week beginning Monday the 14th.
1. Penguin Overlord. Death rocks out while on rocks and on fire.
2.
3.

[ein]

I need a crested cardinal for a business card.
Not the card itself, just the cardinal.
It should look like clipart in that it's a very simple design that can be plugged into something and look nice. Nothing too complicated.

[Akigagak]

Good, a nice simple start.

If it wasn't for insomnia, I wouldn't be awake right now, so I don't think you want to see the one I cooked up in the hour since you requested it.

It's also not very simple.

EDIT: Screw it, what do you think?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Don't know why the edges went blurry here.

[bjlong]

I don't need this, per se, but I'd be interested to see what you come up with. Copy-pasta'd from a story I'm working on, spoilered for longness.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Outside of the city, ten women and five men rode. The women were in a single-file line, with great flowing robes, in the style of the Hdal. They were dark, and their faces and long, thick black hair had a luxuriousness to it, a sensuality. Their exotic eyes looked out on the barren landscape, daring the wind or the tumbleweeds to approach them with even the slightest sexual advance, their foreign faces somehow more comforting, as if patronage to them wouldn’t matter—they were, after all, Hdal. Even blasted by the heat and sweat of the countryside, the women held their chests out and moved their hips sensuously back and forth on the horse, as if to reel in a potential customer, to charm one up from the dust of the road. Their robes were dully colored, yet, even so, they possessed a sexuality beyond what most women would dare flaunt in their most private of moments.

They rode with their hands pressing delicately against the sweaty backs of their horses, tired mares with flecks in their eyes, and yellow, rotting teeth. The mares walked at a dizzyingly unsteady plod, plod, plod; each plod of their hooves causing hundreds of sensual gyrations of the hips of the rider. The reins of each horse were tied to the saddle of the horse in front of her, for two lines of five women each. The last horse on each line was yoked to a wagon, on which was resting a great, pork-bellied lump of a man, with short, bowed legs and long arms terminating in huge fists. His hair was mostly gone, but what little he had he wore long, falling over his shoulders in a few greasy strands. The top of his head was completely bald, and had been burnished by the sun to just the slightest tan, making him look as if he wore a skullcap of white gold atop his doughy face and stringy hair. He wore a neatly-trimmed, sparse goatee, which made the hair seem even more pathetic, by comparison.

He took a cured ham from the inside of the wagon and lifted it to his mouth. His eyes exploded from his face, his jaw came unhinged, and he took a massive bite—enough to feed a man for a day—chewed twice, and swallowed. “Adol, we need to move faster,” he called to one of his men, riding alongside on stallions, “we will not make it to the warehouse before this afternoon.”

A man with bloodshot eyes and a severe face nodded, then yelled to the men around him—all wearing billowing white robes and turbans, “Kip! Yah! Yah!” Immediately, they all began to yell back, to their stallions and the mares of the women, beating the horses on the neck with their open hands, drawing their scimitars and waving them in the air, beating at their chest and yelling to the wind. Their garments flew behind them, they stood on their saddles and loosed wild yells. The women now gyrated with the fever of their intimate business, losing their composure and holding on to the back with wild abandon, praying to their strange God that they would be saved from falling into the path of the horses’ flashing hooves, the wagon’s thundering wheels.

The man wiped his mouth with his sleeve, having finished the ham in a matter of moments. He threw the hambone over his left shoulder, and said, “Garadesh will be pleased with this batch. He’ll ask, ‘Whose are these? Whose whores are these?’ And I’ll say, ‘They used to be mine, sir, but they’re yours now.’ And that’s how I’ll get my fortune.” He pulled a ham out of the wagon again.

They sped towards the city of Sercia, the mighty fortress.

[Akigagak]

So it's up to my initiative?

Hmm... I could do a few things here...

Anyway, that can wait to tomorrow.

[eerr]

How big is ideal? I have a really vague Idea and an extremely explicit Idea on two diffrent parts of the war in Iraq.

Unless you've already done those to hell in class.

[Heron TSG]

I'd like you to try making a banner for a site I help moderate, PoLlama.com.

(please don't have any llamas, the name has nothing to do with them!)

(I'm pretending to be a webmaster!)

[JoshuaFH]

Hey Akigagak, so you're doing these just for practice? For free? Looks like a sweet deal. Mind if I commission one? Just one, of course, I don't want to abuse your talent. Unless you don't mind though.

I just wrote about a character I imagined called Hulderic Einar, he's a giant brute with broad shoulders, a thousand yard stare, a cut open lip, short blonde hair, and a silver necklace with a pendant shaped like a woman. Have his hands cracking his knuckles, and on his hand he has a pair of brass knuckles on. If you do backgrounds as well, then have him standing against an old cracked concrete wall. Maybe have his name embossed in the corner or something

I hope that's not too demanding.

[Itnetlolor]

Spoiler: Available programs, and how well I think I can use them. (click to show/hide)

Adobe CS4
Photoshop. I've got the most experience with this image editor, after Gimp.
Dreamweaver. No experience, I haven't needed it so far, and haven't played around with it either.
Illustrator. Spent a couple of hours fiddling around, that's it.
InDesign. RAEG HATE REAG.
Flash. Pretty much the same as Illustrator, I've only spent an hour on it.

Terragen2. The free version. But as I'm not going to be paid by this project, I don't think there's any problem. Only had this on my computer for around two hours. If I use this, it'll only be to get source pictures for Ps.

Audacity. Nothing here, but have worked with Cubase for a few weeks.

Good time for me to walk in on this

Opinions on your skills, and how well they'll help (and notes I can provide):
Adobe CS4- I'm only skilled with 3, so I don't know everything new in 4, so I won't be too much help there.
Photoshop- Definitely a given. Easy enough to learn, not too hard to master. With this, you should be able to get most things taken care of that are requested to you. Always work either 72dpi or 300dpi, depending on the quality level you, or your client, want. And, for the love of God, don't forget to save often, and optimize your work when sending (whether it be the raw PSD or a saved for web PNG, JPG or whatever. Small files are always a good thing; as are system resources.)
Dreamweaver- Unfortunately, I lack skill with this. I only learned in GoLive! So it's a little iffy to transition. I won't be much help here.
Illustrator- I advise you get some skill in this area. Vector work can be very cheap on system resources, as well as render very well when enlarging or saving for web at larger sizes and whatnot (since pixelation is virtually impossible, even when shrinking; quality won't diminish so easily, provided you balance it out). 300dpi isn't much to worry about, considering the vector part of it. However, for more freedom with the drawing and vectoring, Flash, I would advise more.
Flash- If you want the freedom you want in Illustrator, this is where to go; however, drawings won't have as much impact as you would get from Illustrator. However, animation isn't too hard to work with, provided you know what you're doing, providing an alternative form of impact. Know how well the relationships between software work in order to get things to look right.
InDesign- Best program I use with anything involving PDF document making or print media (though Acrobat is more official in direction). All I can really say in regards to this is to learn as much of it as you can. Style sheets are your best friend here. Especially when you deal in walls of text, and many fonts and styles. Style sheets will minimize work dramatically. This can apply to all other programs that provide this function (Especially Dreamweaver with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS for short; not to be confused with Character Style sheet)). Take a typography course to learn the full extent of just how much of a blessing this function can be. Fonts are more involved than you think. And remember the difference between Paragraph and Character Style sheets. One effects both, and the other effects only the font/words involved. Simply, Paragraph:Character :: Major:Minimal.

Note/reminder for all of the above: I hope you're familiar with trim, registration, and to remember to display CMYK on print jobs, and RGB for web/digital jobs when working on them. I've made those mistakes a few times, and things didn't turn out too well. Let's say, dealing with the teachers about those flaws is a pain when getting a good score. And don't forget to almost always work with a 50% grey background (even your desktop if it calls for it). The neutral color will allow you to best interpret the colors you are working with. And one last thing; with most any project; especially in print. I advise you print a 100%, a 50%, a 25%, and a 15% scale version of your work. Make sure it'll look good in any size, even if made huge, make sure it'll look good at a distance, if smaller, make sure it'll print properly; and take notes on where to adjust in case you do need to shrink it.

If you have intention to have any mixed media (vector and photo and etc.), multi-task; make use of anything you can make use of. Illustrator/Flash for the vector parts (since it scales epically, especially between programs. And don't fear the scale of them, PS can work with the rest later. Like I said, Vector is not rasterized (pixels), so it won't suffer quality loss when scaled), Photoshop for photo manipulation, and InDesign for arranging everything in a print/PDF document.


Terragen 1&2- If you want a good easy quick BG for any works, this is good to use. But I would advise picking up a camera, or looking for stock photos for more refined work. Especially if your machine isn't up to scratch to make crazy-realistic landscapes for more artsy pictures/projects.

Audacity- Unfortunately, all I know about this program is how convert songs into karaoke tracks. Not bad if you like a background beat in a song, but don't want the lyrics. For example, an animation I made for a Flash project, I used a TTGL track, removed the lyrics, and tied it in with the clip. Worked well.


Aside Google, Here's a good Stock Photo site I've been introduced to in one of my design classes that should help a bit.
Much of it is pay though: Stock.xchnge

I don't know how much help I can be. I only have my Associates (of Science) Degree in Graphic Design in a Florida College. Like I said, I don't know how effective I'll be, but as a bit of background, I really lucked out with the teachers that I got when learning (they focused on the creative method, than learning programs (though they knew enough about them to still teach them), and are rather well experienced, and freaking difficult to pass their classes). So, considering that, maybe I'm just selling myself short.

I'll see what I can do; I can't think up anything at the moment though. I'll come back to you tomorrow.

EDIT: Just shifted some advice where it's more relevant. Like scaling, and such. Since it's a more universal concept. I also forgot to add in my opinion about InDesign. There you go.

[Akigagak]

Thanks for that advice, Itnetlolor, it'll help.

How big is ideal? I have a really vague Idea and an extremely explicit Idea on two diffrent parts of the war in Iraq.

Unless you've already done those to hell in class.

Vague would be better, although I'd prefer to stay away from those sorts of topics until I can do them justice.

I'd like you to try making a banner for a site I help moderate, PoLlama.com.

(please don't have any llamas, the name has nothing to do with them!)

(I'm pretending to be a webmaster!)

After a quick look I've deduced that this site is a Warcraft 3 modding site.
If that's the case then sure.

Hey Akigagak, so you're doing these just for practice? For free? Looks like a sweet deal. Mind if I commission one? Just one, of course, I don't want to abuse your talent. Unless you don't mind though.

Yes, it's for practice and for free. But I don't have a tablet yet, so your image will have to be a composition.

And I don't think it's talent abuse, I need to be mildly challenged.

[Akigagak]

I don't like double posting, but while hunting for inspiration and souce pictures, I've found many a strange thing before. But, well:

Barborossa, http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,66040.0.html So thanks for that.

BJLong. I've seen many a thing that I wish I could unsee. If you don't want to see even the mildest stuff, do not look up 'Belly-dancers on horses'.

Spoiler: You get this, which is just weird. (click to show/hide)

[Aqizzar]

Hmm, I want to get in on the ground floor of demanding things, but I don't know what the best thing to ask for would be, since I don't want to burden you and I know I'll only get one.

You know what?  My Procrastination thread has given me an idea.  If you're familiar with the Warhammer universe I've got a request there, but I'm sure you'd like a few non-nerdy requests.  The other is a portrait of a helicopter.  Which do you think you'd rather try?

[Akigagak]

The Warhammer one. And who said you'd only get one?

People who haven't had request will just get priority over people who already have.

[Aqizzar]

Awesome, lemme type up the whole thing.  I'll leave you to pick some detail, but I'm sure you want a lot to go on.

Spoiler: Description (click to show/hide)

Specifically, I want a full picture of an Imperial Guardsman, from an imaginary regiment I came up with.

The outfit is a combination of loosely covered Guard-typical flak armor, metal plates, grunge-future cloth, fur-lined boots, a animal pelt draped over the shoulders, and some tartan (that Scottish stuff) wraps.  The helmet should be like an over-elaborate doughboy dish-helm (see the Bretonnian Men-at-Arms for an example).  In addition to the requisite bandoleer of nonspecific gear, ammo, and grenades, he should have a thin shortsword on his belt, a gasmask hanging from his neck, a meltagun slung over his back, and be wielding a shotgun.  The man himself has tanned skin, and long black hair and stubble, maybe smoking a space-cigarette.  Guss it up with any Imperial accoutrement you like.

The background can be whatever you want, but WWI-esque cratered hellscape would be best.  Likewise, you can do whatever pose you feel comfortable with, but a running/gunning action pose is awesome.

I don't blame you if you dump it.

[Itnetlolor]

I just got an interesting idea.

Feel free to use my picture as a base (just click on sig; the full-scale PNG is in the post), but can you make a more realistic and more visually impacting version of the Bloodfist logo? I'd like to see variable forms of it (ala- coat of arms, plaque, and/or just the logo alone).

Redesign or reimagine it as something you would find at a more commercial industry that either designs ships, or a MMORPG advertisement for an aerial naval warfare game. Something that'll catch the eye of both the youthful crowd, as well as experienced MMORPG players.

However, be sure it can work with both simple (mostly minimal) as well as complex backgrounds (make sure it's flexible for various forms of advertising). And make sure it can work with light, neutral, and dark tone backgrounds, as well.

If I got my head wrapped around the idea well enough; it's tougher than it sounds. A rather suitable challenge.


Reward: It'll be posted in the OP of my megaproject, credited to you, of course. I intend to continue my megaproject soon enough. Heck, if it renders well enough shrunken down, I'll even sig it. Of course, with credit where credit is due.

Updated my initial post BTW. Forgot a few things. After all, it was really late when I posted that. ;

EDIT:
Last minute note: Keep with the original theme. Red, like blood (doesn't need to be entirely red though).