Preserved Topic: Anyone wanna tell me how this looks?

http://www.icestorm.com/gp/images/splash.jpg

thanks <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

-eviltoylet-
AIM: EviLToYLeT
www.eviltoylet.com

Hey! That's cool, you might want to try putting a wood handle onto it to create that battle axe look, and the 'E' could be part of the shaft binding. That would work a bit better.




What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine to - First Rule of a Dictatorship

Way cool stuff....nice work.....

Strangely enough, a battle-axe head is the same shape I used for the Metal Texture tutorial I'm finishing for the Guru's site right now. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif">

Having said that...the opinion cometh. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif">
I like the design, and it's not a bad graphic, but:

First and foremost, the texture of your graphic seems a little "flat", a bit matte, and plasticy. The scratch lines are nice, but the overall surface texture seems too smooth. Even the damage to the edges of the blade doesn't look quite sharp or metallic.
However, the white/bleached out areas on the texture are quite sharp, and made me wonder why the rest of the texture contrasted that so much.

The inset type (www.eviltoylet.com)is nice, but again, very smooth. It almost looks like it's stamped in playdough, or plastic. A sharper outer bevel, and a few bits of random chips and damage around it might help.

I'd say the same things for the rivets, as well as the bar, and the E...though I think both the bar and the E look even more flat/plasticy.

I hope that doesn't sound too harsh, as that's all the criticism I'd have for it. The colour and shading is quite nice, the cloudy gradient effect looks very good, and we already established that I think the shape is a great idea....hehe <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif">

Hope some of that helps..or you can write it off as just one cheesy opinion <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif">

Peter



ICQ:# 10237808

Ok, I redid it. Anyone wanna critique the sorta new-modified one? <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

-eviltoylet-
AIM: EviLToYLeT
www.eviltoylet.com

...the only issue for me are the white patches on the edges (top right & lower right), these would have looked better a little more blended and darker( the lower right especially)...the light effect of the upper left blade is very nice....
...my overal opinion is as I said before.....
way cool stuff....nice work....I like it a lot...

Looks to flat and matte. Those white highlights are too sharp.

Hrmm.... thanks for the feedback everyone. Hehe, one last question, http://www.eviltoylet.com . Does the first one(on the left) or the second one(on the right) look better? <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

I like the one on the right much better. I think it still needs some things played up a bit more though -- sharper highlights on some of the softer areas. All in all a nice pic -- nothing beats bloody metal weapons <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif">

Its a nice image and all, but all you really did was follow the tutorial by, ummm I cant think of his name or website off hand, Ill get back to you later, also I'd get rid of that lil metal patch (not really sure what you'd call it) behind the "E", to me it seems out of place and doesnt hafta be there but who am i to say ...

Jestah
Jestah91@aol.com
ICQ - 77252449

Good point Jestah. Took that damn back thing off and it looks better now.. Heh, and belive me, this image did take a while to make, even though it may be based on that one tutorial. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

Jestah - I didn't want to mention it, but as long as you did first:
http://www.grafixnut.com/photoshop/metal1/

But it's a skillful implementation of the technique.

If you're into bloody, battered metal.

I'm not really into battered bloody rusted metal weapons, but I mean, what else could you add to metal to make it look interesting? <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"> It was my only choice I tell ya! Well anyway, if anyone wants to know how I made the whole image, I'd be happy to explain it.

1.) I used the metal tutorial here: http://www.grafixnut.com/photoshop/metal1/
for the axe shape and the E at the bottom. The effect that you get from this tutorial probably wont look anything like the one that's shown there so you have to twiddle around with it a bit.

2.) The inset bars.. well you can just learn that from Docs tutorials.

3.) Blood... <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"> Just zoomed up really close and sprayed it a bit with the airbrush using a dark red color. The blood splatter near the right screw was made by using one of those natural brushes that came with photoshop and I used the effect inner bevel. If it didn't look right I just fiddled with the opacity settings a bit.

4.) The E is the font courier

5.) "The Place to Be" is the font fairy

6.) Scratches: Just make a new layer and use the paintbrush set to 1 pixel with white as foreground and make completely random scracthes. Then set the opacity to about 20% or lower.

7.) Rust.. I just selected a few areas that I wanted to be rusty, filled it with a rust texture, spent a while trying to blend it and I made it seem like a layer of metal had been stripped by doing the "inset" effect shown on docs tutorials.

8.) Umm....that's about it... if you don't get anything feel free to drop a line. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

-eviltoylet-
AIM: EviLToYLeT
www.eviltoylet.com

Goody goody, critique time!


Okay, obviously you followed that tutorial really well, but there's something that bugs me.. mmmm... hrmmm... looking... magnifying glasss.... hrmmmm... AHA! It's those white lines over and under the m in .com. I'm sure they're probably supposed to look like scratches or something, but they really don't.. they look like... mistakes. The blood is eh, if not a little phony looking on the right edge... you might primp it up by making it beady looking... sorta like here in my sig.

As for the front of your web page... it looks fine except for that phallic symbol-in-a-box. I don't know what's up with that, but it's making my head hurt. Is it round? Is it flat? It's a mystery! I just don't like it on many levels. But still, the axe ... thingy... is nice without the white lines. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

I was going for the dry blood look. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"> Hrmm... I like your blood as well, but I don't think blood is that shiny <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

-eviltoylet-
AIM: EviLToYLeT
www.eviltoylet.com

...it isn't. Blood can look shiny (briefly) where you get a lot of it, or where the scource (cut/wound) is slow in being stemmed, otherwise it coagulates too quickly when exposed to air and it's colouration fades rapidly too a reddy brown and finally to a dark red/black...
Dried blood on any metallic object is likely to look more like a red rust....

Ah, dried blood! From the look, I thought he was going for a splattering effect... like maybe it had just been used. Well then that's fine, though you might want to brown it a bit.. blood doesn't remain that bright red color as it dries. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">