43 replies to this topic

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Discouraging? It's a competition, if you can't handle people commenting on your work then don't bother entering. Or we could give everyone gold stars and praise everyone as a winner like they do in schools for children.

i don't think you understand me.
i give up, i see better sigs on other forums all the time.

please stop putting in entries that are so bad people - i also withdraw myself from the competition, my entry is #2.

[Asakura]

i don't think you understand me.
i give up, i see better sigs on other forums all the time.

please stop putting in entries that are so bad people - i also withdraw myself from the competition, my entry is #2.

RAGEQUIT

[DreadPirateRoberts]

RAGEQUIT

i haven't quit, i'm right here.

[Asakura]

i also withdraw myself from the competition, my entry is #2.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I really thought this forum was about building an enjoyable and helpful community, apparently not.

[esotericaKoalan]

It's discouraging to new people who want to enter the sotw, when we should be doing the opposite.

Those were just some thoughts I had as I was viewing each one. They're not criticism, they're not supposed to be constructive - they're just what impression each tag made on me when I glanced at them for 10 seconds each.
And they were in a spoiler so you didn't have to read them.

I can go in-depth for each one, so I am going to do so now (because I have some free time on my hands):

Spoiler

Spoiler

This tag overall is really messy. There are a bunch of randomly placed stock images everywhere with very little flow.

The main problem here is that the stocks are badly rendered. In fact, soft-brush-erasing always creates this messy, ghost-like border.
With stocks like these, it's better to not render them at all, or to just render the edges, keeping the main object intact.

Also, it would be much better if there were more flow in this tag. For example, you could put more stocks closer to the focal point, and less farther away.
(Flow isn't as nearly as big of an issue as the badly rendered stocks here though...)

I commend you for using grayscale. Many people would choose to use color, which usually looks horrible with the variety of stocks involved, but you didn't, so kudos to you.

Spoiler

If you've read the CnC above, you'd know what I'll say about the render.
Rendering this stock image well is really difficult... almost impossible without hours of time. Of course, you probably wouldn't be able to do what you want to do without rendering the stock.

The text here is really flat. It would look more realistic if the text went along the curvature of the trash can, which isn't too difficult to accomplish. Just rasterize the text, warp it a little, and use a displacement filter.
More on that here.

Also, animations aren't the best to use. Instead of sacrificing a high quality 16,777,216-colored PNG for a low quality 256-colored GIF with animation, a lot more action can be implied with the addition of a few objects with motion/radial blur than an object moving up and down. Of course, this is entirely an opinion, and you can use animations if you really want to.

Spoiler

I really can't talk much about this one, because it just doesn't seem that there was a lot done to it. At least not noticeable...
The grass in front of it's face was removed, and that does take skill, but it doesn't really make this image any more interesting than the original.

And the text does really look like a watermark. Good text will be incorporated into the image.
Treat text like brushes or other stocks. Just because they're letter shaped doesn't mean that you can just put them on at the last minute and still have them look good.

Also, I noticed that you saved your image as a JPG, which completely destroys your border. Or maybe Photobucket converted your image to a JPG, in which case it's not your fault.

Spoiler

What you did with the raccoon is interesting. It actually doesn't look badly rendered. (It doesn't really look well rendered either, but not bad is decent for this stock image.)
The way you did it makes it look metallic - kind of like a coin. Maybe adding some other coins or shiny metallic objects would look cool.

However, the black thing that you put on top of it is really distracting, especially when you get to the nose portion.
Like how oil and water don't really mix without something else added, vectors and stocks don't mix very well without something else added either. (Not the best comparison because vectors and stocks do go well together sometimes, but not here.)

Finally, the South Park character you added creates another focus, and it's like the main part of the tag is the South Park character instead of the raccoon stock.

Spoiler

This is another interesting one. The green fur wasn't something that someone would expect.
It looks pretty good too, except for the fact that it just stops abruptly, which makes it look artificial and "photoshopped."
I'm not sure how you did this, but I'm assuming you used some sort of adjustment layer with some sort of layer mask.
If that's what you did, you could try using a more "furry-textured" brush on the layer mask.

For the text, I'm going to re-iterate what I said in the 3rd CnC: just because they're letter shaped doesn't mean that you can just put them on at the last minute and still have them look good.
And I wouldn't have any part of my text be on top of the main object/focal point.

Spoiler

This one is my favorite out of the entries, mainly because it's nice, clean, and unique.

There are places where it can improve though.
I'm assuming that you used the pen tool to create the shapes here. And the pen tool isn't the most friendly of tools. (But once you get used to it, the pen tool becomes your best friend.)
One thing about the pen tool is that you don't want to rigidly follow the shape of the object that you're pen tooling. The less clicks that you can do it in, the cleaner it will look. In fact, try not to use anchor points except for at corners.

In this tag, the main focus is the eyes. And it should be the eyes. But the addition of text subtracts from the eyes, almost overpowering it. You never want text to overpower your focus, unless your focus is the text (which it clearly isn't).

Spoiler

An adjustment added here makes the stock more interesting - more refined. And that's what makes this tag good.

The lack of anything else other than a border and text is what makes it boring.
And if you really want to read about my opinion on text, go see my CnC for entries 3, 5, and 6.

Spoiler

This is more of a comedy based signature than a graphics based tag. Of course, if this weren't a graphics based competition, it would do fine (other than the fact that I don't understand what you're trying to do).
But seriously, don't use MakeAGIF.com, especially not for a 3-framed animation. There are so many animation creating programs that don't put there names in the bottom corner.

I'm not going to say anything else here; most of it is covered in the previous CnCs.

Spoiler

This tag is pretty good, except for the fact that the contrast is really low, and the lighting is bad. It just looks unfinished without adjustments applied.
Refer to the "adjustments" and "finishing touches" sections of this tutorial for an example of some adjustments that you can use.
But experiment with different adjustments and opacities, you don't have to follow the tutorial verbatim.

As for the text, I would move it out of the way a little, so that it doesn't cover up any portion of the raccoon. Then I'd make it less visible, so that it doesn't overpower the raccoon.
Using different fonts for different lines/words is interesting. Also, I wouldn't left-align the text. I would put each line on a separate layer and position them in an interesting way.
Of course, the text goes before the adjustments, or it'll look like it was thrown on at the last minute.

Spoiler

I don't know what happened with this tag, but there were two things that struck me as soon as I saw it: overly bright and low quality.
Tags that are too bright are tiring to look at, and tags that are low quality are irritating to look at.

In fact, I can actually see the individual pixels in some places, and when that happens in non-pixel-art, it's bad.

To reduce the low-quality-ness, you can decrease the contrast and brightness. I don't know what else you did, so it's hard for me to say what else you can do to fix it.

An interesting lighting scheme would make this tag better. Adding a lighting effects filter would reduce the brightness and creates interesting lighting.
You might have to play with some of the settings though, the lighting effects filter isn't the friendliest filter. I generally use large, dim (brightness 1-5), omni lights (plural).
Also, converting your layer to a smart object makes it so that you can change the filter later.

Of course, you can disagree with me, these are just my opinions. And I'm not always right either.




Well, that took a while... Abrosia bought 2 stamps (and missed like 20) while I was typing.

Edited by Phantasmagorgicalicious, 25 November 2011 - 05:47 PM.

[Bone]

I really thought this forum was about building an enjoyable and helpful community, apparently not.

You don't understand...
The difference between Phantasmowhatever and people who have caused trouble in past SOTWs is that she isn't just randomly saying the SOTW is a joke and all the other entries are not worthy of her attention. She's offering largely objective criticism and pointing out ways people could have done better in her opinion. If you can't handle that, then maybe SOTW is a bit too much for you. The competition isn't even supposed to be for the prizes, it's to have fun and help people improve their skills.

tl;dr
Grow a pair.

[Cory]

I voted for number 5.


Not sure what else I can say without irritating someone.

[Strategist]

Alright guys thats enough of this shit. People are entitled to an opinion here and phantas was doing just that. The comments made although may come across harsh, arent against any rules. If you cant handle a bit of 'criticism', then yes, maybe you shouldnt enter.

It just unnecessary and unhelpful. Constructive comments and criticisms are cool, but just pointing out what they think someone did poorly isn't needed in a voting thread.
Not too sure why people are sticking up for him when something like: "Now, if you have to rely on MakeAGIF.com, you really shouldn't be doing this." is said, if someone wants to enter they can enter whatever the fuck they want.

Just so you know, the user that entered that makeagif.com sig just 'did it for the lulz'. So don't be worrying about any comments hurting their feelings.

You don't understand...
The difference between Phantasmowhatever and people who have caused trouble in past SOTWs is that she isn't just randomly saying the SOTW is a joke and all the other entries are not worthy of her attention. She's offering largely objective criticism and pointing out ways people could have done better in her opinion. If you can't handle that, then maybe SOTW is a bit too much for you. The competition isn't even supposed to be for the prizes, it's to have fun and help people improve their skills.

tl;dr
Grow a pair.

^this totally. I appreciate someone taking the time out to actually GIVE criticism like Phantas has. None of her comments are really that bad. They also address points that can be improved, which is what giving criticism is all about. Her first post was obviously just about her first impressions IN HER OPINION. Kudos to her for going all out to provide concise feedback in the post above too.

[luvsmyncis]

I am more offended that Phantas couldn't run this competition because she didn't have time and was too lazy, but suddenly had enough time to make this...

and then post paragraph sized critiques on each sig.
As long as we're being really shitty and bitchy and pissing ourselves like little children, I must say it really irritates me when people enter to win, take their prize and then bow out when they're supposed to host the contest.

I wanted to vote for number 2. But oh well.

Yalls a bunch of namby pamby little bitches. Alls yalls.

[Abradix]

I put my all in last week and got nowhere... All I could do this week was 5 minutes in MS Paint.

Also, I M MAD U GAIZ R NAWT LIEK MAI SIGNOTAR! U DONT NOT 2 BMAEKING WORDZ BOUT THENG I DO ON DA ANTERNIT.

[esotericaKoalan]

I am more offended that Phantas couldn't run this competition because she didn't have time and was too lazy, but suddenly had enough time to make this...

and then post paragraph sized critiques on each sig.
As long as we're being really shitty and bitchy and pissing ourselves like little children, I must say it really irritates me when people enter to win, take their prize and then bow out when they're supposed to host the contest.

I wanted to vote for number 2. But oh well.

Yalls a bunch of namby pamby little bitches. Alls yalls.

You realize that it didn't take that long to make, right? It was around 15 minutes of Photoshop - cropping the image and applying 2 gradient maps to each copy of the image. Nothing else.
Giving away PSDs is something I do to let people learn techniques. But if I give out too many, people will start to rip it, which is why I'm only giving it to the winners.
(I wanted to give out something, but I'm not rich on Neopets, so I can only give out something else.)

I did have time yesterday and Thursday because it was Thanksgiving break. However, I did not have time during the week because all of my AP course teachers like to pile up their tests and project due dates right before holidays. I could have started it on Thursday, but then people would be unsatisfied with the delay and complain about that.

Edited by Phantasmagorgicalicious, 26 November 2011 - 03:33 PM.

[Tomo]

Loving #6.
#1 looks pretty cool too!

Also, people are always going to criticize. Just take it in as constructive criticism and work off of it. Getting frustrated over small remarks isn't going to change people's viewpoints. How else do you think people get better at what they do?

Edited by Languor, 26 November 2011 - 07:07 PM.

[Strategist]

I was going to close this thread to announce the winners but seeing as we have a three way tie for 1st, i'll keep it open an extra day to see if we can split the tie. If not we can work something out with the prizes.

Signature #5 has been DQ'ed due to not following the rule of not voting for your own entry. Please read the rules in future.

[baby0firefly]

9 gets my vote! Easy to look at and nicely done

[nyquil]

I voted for 7.
For me it was funny and cute. If I would use it as my sig if I wanted a raccoon one

[Crunch]

Who was number 5?

[luvsmyncis]

Who was number 5?

Sorry, we don't publicly humiliate each other anymore. It's all done in private now.
Grapes!

[Strategist]

Sorry, we don't publicly humiliate each other anymore. It's all done in private now.
Grapes!

It wasn't grapes....

ok well theres another one who broke the rules.... signature #9 has been DQ'ed too. Trust me when i say, cheat and you WILL be caught. Admins have confirmed this.

and this competition is closed.