The Blue Bomber

[aldrain]

So I made this for my facebook cover photo. I also have this idea to have a mostly text piece. "The Blue Bomber" with some circuitry in the background and then some megaman sprites running or whatever on the text. I'll try and get it done.

[ZoroxX]

It's a nice attempt. I feel like this is an unfinished piece, for the most part. it's lacking any real focus and nothing spectacular is going on.

I will say this, however, I like the font you're using (but the use of typography is pretty poor tbh). It matches Mega Man pretty well.

Some things you could do to improve this would be adding more detailed effects instead of what appears to be colorful smudges and photoshop filters. Be careful of the light source, you don't want it to take over the piece (which it sort of does in this case). I find it better to integrate light into whatever effects I've already created.

A lot of the issues aren't necessarily easy to avoid, since anime-style stocks are kind of hard to work with at times unless you take a very specific set of approaches to ensure the piece doesn't turn out super flat. The color pallet you chose doesn't really help, since everything is so seamless, it sort of looks like one big blue-green mesh.

That said, ditch the text, add more effects to have more options for depth, fix your light source so it isn't so massive and overpowering, and blend your stock in a different way. And while you should ditch the text, try looking up unique ways to mess with typography (it's a very complicated subject :( ). LP's aren't easy to do, so some tutorials would probably help you.

[aldrain]

It's a nice attempt. I feel like this is an unfinished piece, for the most part. it's lacking any real focus and nothing spectacular is going on.

I will say this, however, I like the font you're using (but the use of typography is pretty poor tbh). It matches Mega Man pretty well.

Some things you could do to improve this would be adding more detailed effects instead of what appears to be colorful smudges and photoshop filters. Be careful of the light source, you don't want it to take over the piece (which it sort of does in this case). I find it better to integrate light into whatever effects I've already created.

A lot of the issues aren't necessarily easy to avoid, since anime-style stocks are kind of hard to work with at times unless you take a very specific set of approaches to ensure the piece doesn't turn out super flat. The color pallet you chose doesn't really help, since everything is so seamless, it sort of looks like one big blue-green mesh.

That said, ditch the text, add more effects to have more options for depth, fix your light source so it isn't so massive and overpowering, and blend your stock in a different way. And while you should ditch the text, try looking up unique ways to mess with typography (it's a very complicated subject :( ). LP's aren't easy to do, so some tutorials would probably help you.

I feel you on that whole thing. That is why I'm going to try something a little different. See if I can't acquire the focus I need through that, but thank you for the critique mang!

[Laxtory]

Do more with it, basically.

The color scheme doesn't mesh well with Megaman himself...you have basic blue and cyan, but then you put in a more green color as the background. It sort of clashes. The fade-out yellow lighting works in some parts of the piece (the legs look okay, to be honest), but to the left of his head, it just looks awkward. I feel like his hand should definitely be there, and the lighting on his head shouldn't be present at all. You also smudged the stock a little too much. There are some cases where smudging your stocks really can work out to be great, but in this case, you smudged way too much for it to be able to seem stylized. I used to make similar mistakes when I tagged. Look at this: http://i.imgur.com/uROOs.png. Do you see how he's smudged on his head and hand? Those are some spots that should have just been left alone. The more you practice, the more you'll recognize what should be blended and what shouldn't, and it all comes down to what you want your viewers to focus on.

You also need some more contrast. It's there...I mean, I can see that the top right has some lighting, and all other corners are a little darker; however, you definitely need to apply more contrast to both the stock and the entire piece as a whole. Try adjusting the levels as well as the contrast/brightness to help out the depth and feel of the stock. Also, positioning is HUGE here. You rarely, if ever, want to slap a stock in the middle of a tag. Try following the rule of thirds from now on: when you make a tag, before you even start, picture splitting it up into thirds. On the two invisible lines that split the tag into thirds, that's where you want to put your stock in (usually, this isn't always a for-sure thing). Still, practicing that helps a lot with positioning.

Also, yeah, the typography is a little awkward. It's not placed in the best position, and it's just too distracting, both because it's large and because the colors are just too glaring to ignore. You want the focus to be on Megaman, so the typography should compliment him, not distract from him. When you immediately look at it, do your eyes drift to Megaman or the text? The answer should always be Megaman, or whatever stock you're using. Remember that all of your effects, including the text, should compliment your focal points first and foremost.

[aldrain]

Do more with it, basically.

The color scheme doesn't mesh well with Megaman himself...you have basic blue and cyan, but then you put in a more green color as the background. It sort of clashes. The fade-out yellow lighting works in some parts of the piece (the legs look okay, to be honest), but to the left of his head, it just looks awkward. I feel like his hand should definitely be there, and the lighting on his head shouldn't be present at all. You also smudged the stock a little too much. There are some cases where smudging your stocks really can work out to be great, but in this case, you smudged way too much for it to be able to seem stylized. I used to make similar mistakes when I tagged. Look at this: http://i.imgur.com/uROOs.png. Do you see how he's smudged on his head and hand? Those are some spots that should have just been left alone. The more you practice, the more you'll recognize what should be blended and what shouldn't, and it all comes down to what you want your viewers to focus on.

You also need some more contrast. It's there...I mean, I can see that the top right has some lighting, and all other corners are a little darker; however, you definitely need to apply more contrast to both the stock and the entire piece as a whole. Try adjusting the levels as well as the contrast/brightness to help out the depth and feel of the stock. Also, positioning is HUGE here. You rarely, if ever, want to slap a stock in the middle of a tag. Try following the rule of thirds from now on: when you make a tag, before you even start, picture splitting it up into thirds. On the two invisible lines that split the tag into thirds, that's where you want to put your stock in (usually, this isn't always a for-sure thing). Still, practicing that helps a lot with positioning.

Also, yeah, the typography is a little awkward. It's not placed in the best position, and it's just too distracting, both because it's large and because the colors are just too glaring to ignore. You want the focus to be on Megaman, so the typography should compliment him, not distract from him. When you immediately look at it, do your eyes drift to Megaman or the text? The answer should always be Megaman, or whatever stock you're using. Remember that all of your effects, including the text, should compliment your focal points first and foremost.

Okie dokie. I'm going to do some Typography work for a few days and see if I can't figure it out..