Hey again.

[Zephyron]

So, my first go slightly failed. This time I will post it here before submitting. My first one contained way too many effects and I admit it. It was my first shot at a wallpaper. This is my second:

http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/Zephight/Zephyron/NekoWallpaperZeph.jpg

(Size of wallpaper: 1024 x 768 px)

Okay, it has less multi-effects in it. I focused on making it a one-effect, but as you can see, it is difficult.

I make random anime wallpapers as a hobby, so it is unlikely that I would give up. So, I need some critique from other graphic-designers, please.

*gets helmet and hides under table* o.o

[Guyver_MK]

I'm not much of an artist myself so i can simply give you my opinion as a bystander because i can notice one thing immediately .I don't really see how that character fits with the bg.Personaly i hate it when i see an image with a random un-matching bg even if its good.Maybe a more appropriate theme or simply flowing colors.But hey thats just my point of view ;)

[Zephyron]

Okay, thanks. Just remember that this is a random anime wallpaper. I could do with more graphical-critique though. Thanks anyway.

[Serated]

It being random shouldnt really hinder you from from building up on it. I agree with Guyver on the fact that the girl is not blended with the wallpaper and feels sort of separate.

I dont exactly understand your concept with the text though. Isnt Trance a form of music? How does music associate with 'Future Neko Gurlz?' And why did you put a the wind filter on the text? I think the main flaw you have is lack of theme, if your aim is for a wallpaper with music, find an image with a girl with headphones or something, throw in some cool music esque stuff like equalizers or sound stuff.

Also, you really dont have to tilt the 'Animewallpapers' thing, just set it up next to your name so we know who made it and where it came from. I also would advise not using the copyright thing next to your name, seeing as you dont really own the stock image/extraction.

[Zephyron]

Ahhh, thanks. You got me focused more. I was kinda working in the dark going about it, testing effects seeing what looked nice.

Yes, I had no theme in mind when I started it, I was looking only at the graphic point of view when I opened up photoshop... oh well. I'll see to it that I don't make the same mistake.

The tilting... I'm not sure what made me do that. The copyright thing... uhh... yeah I see what you mean. I should have put an email there instead I suppose.

Well, that was helpful quite a bunch. Thanks! I can only get better anyways.

[Hautalken]

Darnit, Sera got here first -.-

And everything he said is right too. Covered nearly everything. As for you Zephyron, try to understand where effects need to be used and where they don't. Take the effect behind the girl for example and ask yourself: Does the girl actually blend in if I do that? No, it doesn't. It pushes her out a lot more. Okay, then don't go with that effect. Try something else that will use the colors that are closer to that of the girl's.


And now for that background: Pixelated and twirled, right? Let me tell you, it isn't helping your wallpaper look whole. The entire thing just doesn't make sense because it has no theme. You'll have to think of a proper theme first. Even if it is abstract, take a look at other wallpapers with a similar theme. Study the effects used. Then try and replicate a few of those in your wallpaper. For that, you'll be using more than just filters. It's going to take brushes and textures and things like that.



Give this another shot, and let's see how it comes out :3 I'll be around.

[Des]

I dont exactly understand your concept with the text though. Isnt Trance a form of music? How does music associate with 'Future Neko Gurlz?

Trance is also a state of mind, a state which you actually can get with trance xD
That bg is trancey isn`t it? :P Maybe that was the thought behind that part of the text hehe.
But don`t fit that figure, as it has been said.

[Zephyron]

Aww darnit... I should have come back to see the comments before I went ahead and tried again. ><

Oh well... I'll just show what I did with it anyway.

http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/Zephight/Zephyron/ShakuganNoShanaWallpaperZeph.jpg

So like... theme is what I fixed as well as the text and fixed the tilting.

(..the stock is blended in better <.<) - even so, after reading the comments I know where I'm going wrong. I should have worked with the stock at the same time as the background.

Okay okay... I read the comments. I'll try again. T_T
(..I might start from the beginning and make a completely new one =P)

Nevertheless, I do want to make a proper wallpaper for once, so I will keep trying until I get it right.

[Princess Minako]

its the same issue, the background and the character don't fit. And you are not crediting who did the extractions. MAJOR TABOO. You did not extract that character, that takes A LOT of time and A LOT of energy to do. THe person who did it should have credit given. Its just rude otherwise.

making it red and washing out the character does not make it better. There needs to be a THEME to work with.

You can have a random grungy background that FITS, take this wallpaper by LavaBug (http://www.animewallpapers.com/wallpapers/ergoproxy/full_9.php)

There's a theme and the theme and the character meld. They're the same style. Just creating a random bg with tons of effects and slapping a similar colored character is not matching themes or styles.

I have to totally revector a character to match the bg theme of one of my walls. Its a lot of work and GOOD walls take TIME.

[Zephyron]

Okay, major update here. I started from scratch seeing that the previous two just don't work out.

Sorry for not crediting the person that extracted the images above. ..and uhh... I can't remember where I got them from so I don't know who to credit.

Anyway, so like this one is a major improvement with blending and the like, so yeah, no C4Ds used here. Just the tools (..such as pencil patterns, gradients and filtering) and brushes (..such as abstract and apophysis brushes). Oh and of course the extracted image which I extracted myself using the polygonal lasso tool.

Erm... this (http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/Zephight/Zephyron/ShinobiWallpaperZeph.jpg) is it. I chose a theme of darkness to fit in the concept of a ninja so black and purple are the main colors to expect (..as you can see there is a major difference between the other two and this one, better depth, blending etc).

I started off with a lens flare render effect, one on each of two layers. Overlayed the top one after filtering it twice. The bottom lens flare being bigger than the top. Then color overlay the bottom one and overlay the full top layer over the bottom one and it came out like this (http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/Zephight/Zephyron/RedAbstract2Zeph.jpg), then this (http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/Zephight/Zephyron/RedAbstractZeph.jpg), and finally like this (http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo133/Zephight/Zephyron/RedAbstractZeph3.jpg) (..used the rubber to fix the edges).

Simple abstract effect, and built up on the last one. So, am I still going wrong?

I almost forgot to mention; the idea behind the dark theme came from looking at this wall (http://media.animewallpapers.com/wallpapers/shakugannoshana/shakugannoshana_2_640.jpg).

[Princess Minako]

too much crap just piled on top of one another.

ditch any and all kinds of text. For the most part, people do not like text on a wallpaper.

Never use a lens flare

Don't use a shadow'ed image, its hard to make it not look like a novice did it.

your extraction has very rough edges, don't blur them, use the eraser tool to clean them up.

Too much going on in the upper right corner, I'm staring at that and not the character.

too much on top of the character masking it. what is the focal point of the wall, the background or the character. right now it's the background.

Why do the strange and out of place random white dots look so uniform and end in a straight line?

Stop making new walls and work on an existing wall until you get it right. Thats the only way you will master techniques.