PPT Graphics Academy - Winner Announced!

[LAQ]

Crappy entry because GIMP closed on me 4 times, and my mom is yelling at me to go to bed. Dx


Original Images: The throw on the ground, The texture from her jacket, the cross, and the main image.
Program Used: GIMP 2.2

I swear I used all of those pictures, but it was mostly for texture. DDDxX

[WIS]

Week 4, Grading

hakojo


Program used: Photoshop Elements
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4.


Bangel


Images: 1 2 3 4
Program: Paint Shop Pro 9


Neko


Image(s) Used: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4
Program Used: PS CS2


Kitten Medli


Images: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/Medli/shoot8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/Medli/shoot7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/Medli/shoot8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/Medli/shoot5.jpg
Programs: Paint, Photoshop Elements


LAQ


Original Images: The throw on the ground, The texture from her jacket, the cross, and the main image.
Program Used: GIMP 2.2


This is a non elimination round.

(Due to the fact that Ken didn't submit anything, and Ansile was disqualified for not using more than 3 images. Sorry, you guys.)

However, I would still like the judges to rate to determine the rank placements for the Semi Finals!

Judging is due November 9th

Last edited by WIS on Wed Nov 08, 2006 2:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Ansile]

Ohmygod. xD I didn't even read all of the directions, haha, that's what I get. I do that all the time on worksheets. >_>

[WIS]

Week 4, Grading

hakojo



I like this one! I think you used all of your images effectively, and the stones show very little signs of being enlarged. What I loved was your attention to detail, and that you added a shadow under the rose, and it makes it all the better. Although I don't think you did a fantastic job on the flower part of the rose, the stem and the leaves were cut out very nicely. I love the rose thing behind the text, but my biggest biggest problem with this whole thing is the text. I personally don't think a font like this really fits with the album. Perhaps the simpler, but more elegant fonts would have worked better. (But not cursive, just something simple like Georgia or something). I think the white is a little too contrasted, perhaps just a slightly dimmer gray would have looked better. (And in contrast to the dark, the gray will appear white). - 9/10


Bangel



The overall affect is nice. Most of the blending looks good, but one part that especially bothers me is the small Kelly Clarkson (Haha, I almost typed Kelly Underwood) in the bottom right corner looks bad. She looks really awkward placed on the shoulder like that and you can see a bit of the original image (Though I don't know if it was intentional) around her. I would have you rather you use the last image for something else. The text also seems a little messy, and doesn't look as good as the text you normally do because it's sort of... squished there. - 8/10


Neko



Pretty. The colors go very well together on this piece, and it's very appealing to the eye. Something that slightly bothers me is how you used the building image to make a grid over the windowpanes, and I know that you needed another image to complete your requirements, I wish you had used it in some other way. Everything else is pretty dandy except for the text, I don't quite like the font. But good job, nonetheless. - 9/10


Kitten Medli



The colors are nice, although slightly monotonic, in this graphic. But I don't really like how you've combined the images together. If you're going to use the soft brush at low opacity to kind of fade the images, I think that you shouldn't overlap them. It looks really awkward. Also, although I like the text and the positioning of it, I'm not too fond of how sharp it is. The swirl brushes look nice though. - 7.5/10


LAQ



First of all, I like the dreamy feel and look on the graphic. It seems to match the image very well, but there are two big concerns for me. One is that the colors don't work together very well in the background. The green and the purple and the blue are all sort of... there. The second big concern is that you used images that weren't of great quality, and it resulted in what looks rather messy. I'm not sure how to describe it. A word of advice though, if GIMP has it, try using the darken/lighten blending modes more often. I think it works well if you're trying to blend textures together to create a background, and amongst many other things. - 7/10

[hakojo]

hakojo
I love the rose thing behind the text, but my biggest biggest problem with this whole thing is the text. I personally don't think a font like this really fits with the album. Perhaps the simpler, but more elegant fonts would have worked better. (But not cursive, just something simple like Georgia or something)

If you heard the cover song by the 'band', you might think it fits better. It's my mistake, I know I should have just gone off the graphic itself when adding text, but it's a punk band so I didn't want to use anything too pretty, if you know what I mean.

And oh, those rocks will haunt me to the end of my days T_T

[WIS]

hakojo
I love the rose thing behind the text, but my biggest biggest problem with this whole thing is the text. I personally don't think a font like this really fits with the album. Perhaps the simpler, but more elegant fonts would have worked better. (But not cursive, just something simple like Georgia or something)

If you heard the cover song by the 'band', you might think it fits better. It's my mistake, I know I should have just gone off the graphic itself when adding text, but it's a punk band so I didn't want to use anything too pretty, if you know what I mean.

And oh, those rocks will haunt me to the end of my days T_T

Well, I think Gothic-esque font would have worked nice as well.

[blueZ]

please remember that the standard of the competition is fairly high, and so are my expectations, and if you cant meet the level you have shown me before, i will get very mad at you

hakojo

8/10
i really like the way you incorperated all the images, i couldnt tell you put them all together, it seems like one image, very good job. and i can see this on the cover of an album, i dont really like how the text "rose" is just there at the corner though.... it just seems.. uncomfortable.


Bangel

7/10
this graphic is very very pretty, i like the way you combine all the images, although the kelly clarkson at the corner is not really well cut-out, it just looks awkward. its a very beautiful graphic, but not a album cover, i dont think this graphic looks like a professional musical album cover, its way too graphical/photoshopy. i just dont see it, sorry.


Neko

7.5/10
very nicely designed, nice color choice and text placement, i like the way you put all the pictures together. but i think the scenery is too full of stuff, which takes my attention away from the girl, because its more interesting than her. i just think its a bit too messy and you over did it a bit by just a hinch. you know that feeling when you eat whole bunch of greasy food, they are so good but your stomach is just like...eeehhhhh.


Kitten Medli

7/10
very nice colors and text, but i cant see this graphic as cd cover, its too...graphical/photoshopy, you know what i mean?


LAQ

7/10
i like the colors and the way you combined the images into one, the focus of the main foreground and background are clearly divided, which completely erases the awkwardness. but there is just something there thats not connecting with me.... it just seems bland to me, although its not, but there is some sord of a miscommunication......(im weird)

[Pixa]

Hey, my computer has reset itself when trying to do this twice now - so I'll post as I go.

hakojo



Okay, I've done this twice now... I really like this one, apart from the font, but more on that later. I really like the colours in this, and the ways the stones have been seamlessly blended. The shadow on the rose is really nice, however, it looks like it is just suspended in the air, perhaps drawing the shadow in a little closer would have been to your benefit. The rose petals have a few pixels from where it was cut out, which bother me slightly. The second rose image has been used very inventively. Back to the text, it doesn't really fit. I think that a Gothic font would have worked better here, too. It can still look... like you wanted it to, just adds a nice finish.
8.5/10

Bangel



This a graphic really in your style, which I think could have been a limitation in producing in a CD cover (I agree with blueZ, it's a very 'photoshoppy' graphic), but I'll try not to mark down for that, because I don't think it'd be fair. The background is great, the images are bold and all in the same style. I think the text is good too, it's bold and catches my attention. Perhaps the album title could have been a different colour to really catch attention. I think Kelly in the corner isn't all that bad, I think the way you've cut it out makes it look as if she were resting on the bigger Kelly's shoulder, and I thought it looked pretty good to be honest. However, she is a little small down there, perhaps an image could have been incorporated into the background instead.
8/10

Neko



This is a really creative and impressive graphic, I like it a lot. You've really injected some life into the original image, and created a great graphic. Does it pass the test as an album cover? Well, yes. Heh. I think it's inventive of how you've transformed the image, the reflection looks quite natural, as does the city scape, but what bothers me is what feels like a forced inclusion of the image of the aurora and one of the cityscapes. They really didn't strike me at first (the cityscape after WIS pointed it out, and the aurora after looking really closely). The colours are great, and the text fits the purpose, I do not think a Gothic text would have worked well, so good job on being quite bold. It just looks really magical and enchating, overall. Well done.
9/10

Kitten Medli



I'll start off by saying I really like the colours on this one, I think they look nice, the swirl brushes look good, I like the effect, it's quite serene. The text is quite bold, and I like the overlay, however, it looks slightly anti-aliased. The way you've blended the images slightly bothers me too, it just doesn't look... natural. I think it lets you down here.
7/10

LAQ



I'm slightly mixed over this one. Though it does look dreamy, and I like how you've used all the images, it looks slightly messy. The colours work well in my opinion, I actually really like them. However, the quality of the images just doesn't help you out. The way you've cut out Enya, using a soft brush I guess, gives a dreamy look, but it just looks confusing in the end. However, I like the colour on the dress. This is probably one of the most creative uses of images this round. I like the font for the word Enya, but I'm not sure on the choice for Watermark.
7.5/10

[WIS]

The results: http://pptga.awardspace.com/



--



Week 5 Assignments:

S: N/A
A: Wallpaper
- Create a Wallpaper
- It must be a wallpaper size, (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024...)
- The focus of the wallpaper must be of an anime-style image (You are allowed to use other images for texture, background, etc.)
B: N/A
C: N/A

Maximum of 2 people may be eliminated this round.

All graphics are due by November 16th.



---



Graphic Notes:

- The wallpaper must be wallpaper sized. Some of the popular resolutions are 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, however they may differ than your monitor's.
- If you are unsure of the monitor resolutions, and want to make a wallpaper for your own computer, follow these instructions for Windows:
-----> Minimize everything so you are on your desktop.
-----> Right click on the background.
-----> When the menu pops up, select Properties.
-----> A new window will pop up, select the Settings tab.
-----> You should see a 'Screen Resolution' box, with a slider in it. The numbers under the sliders will tell you the pixel dimensions of your screen.

- Don't forget to make some room for icons! But remember, they don't always need to be on the left. (You can move icons).
- Don't forget that there is the taskbar at the bottom of the screen that takes up about 20 pixels. Even if you have your computer set to hide these taskbars, make sure nothing important is there or else it will get cut off, and will be rated as such.
- Wallpapers do NOT need borders.

- Some examples of wallpapers are:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/w ... ie1280.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/w ... esktop.jpg

Last edited by WIS on Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Kitten Medli]

I'm confused - shouldn't all of us be in Rank S, or am I wrong? (probably just wrong)

[WIS]

I'm confused - shouldn't all of us be in Rank S, or am I wrong? (probably just wrong)

Well technically you should all be in Rank A, because I forgot you can only drop one rank at a time. But to stay in Rank S everyone needs to maintain a 9.0 average. So.. *deletes B rank task*

[LAQ]

Anime style - do you mean like anime as in big eyes and bright colors? Like the kind you'd see in a manga?

And thank you judges for your comments. I know that my entry was definitely not my best, and I'll try to improve a lot this round.

[WIS]

Anime style - do you mean like anime as in big eyes and bright colors? Like the kind you'd see in a manga?

And thank you judges for your comments. I know that my entry was definitely not my best, and I'll try to improve a lot this round.

Well, sometimes. It doesn't need to have big eyes or bright colors. But just use your general judgment, if you're not sure, post or PM the picture to me and I'll tell you.

[Kitten Medli]

I hope Hamtaro is an Anime. This topic sucked, I don't like Anime! I almost pulled my hair out! XP



Wallpaper: http://www.geocities.com/forest_melody_saria/ham.html (I couldnt get Imageshack to upload it)
Image used: http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9875 ... o04zq1.jpg
Programs: Adobe Photoshop Elements (I dont think I used Paint this time.. may be wrong.)

[Bangel]

My wallpaper is 1280x800, because that's the size of my screen (and if I'm going to spend three hours on a wallpaper, I'm going to use it :P).

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7767 ... perwq4.gif
Original image: http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/182/ ... agetr9.jpg
Program: Paint Shop Pro 9

Last edited by Bangel on Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.