Opinions on sideart please

[sollyscomputers]

Guys please tell me what you think of these two.  One on each side for a 60 in 1 cocktail cab.  Please be honest as I'm paying someone to do this for me.

Thanks

John

[Le Chuck]

Screenshots?! Lame.  Sorry, probably not what you want to hear but color me decidedly unimpressed. 

[lamprey]

Honestly, They seem a bit pedestrian to me. This is for the side of a cocktail?

I came across this the other day:
http://lwiis64.deviantart.com/art/Donkey-Kong-Arcade-189247651

The guy has some decent arcade artwork. Maybe that'd give you some other ideas to play with..?

[JDFan]

Screenshots?! Lame.  Sorry, probably not what you want to hear but color me decidedly unimpressed.

Have to agree -- wouldn't pay for someone to take a screenshot from 2 games and add a couple pieces of readily available vector art they download from a site. ( http://vectorlib.free.fr/PacMan/ ) or ( http://vectorlib.free.fr/DonkeyKong/ )  You could easily reproduce the same in 5 minutes. If you're paying for it to be designed at least get something worth paying for !

[sollyscomputers]

Well I don't know much about vectors and stuff, but he told me he dersigned the whole thing himself.  Each image he sent me is 4mb if that helps.  Does he mean he drew every little detail when he says that?

I asked him to use his imagination, hehe

[sollyscomputers]

Lampray that looks really good.  I will show him and see what he says.  Although the mario part does not go with my 60 in 1.

Yes these are meant to go on each side of a 60 in 1 cocktail cabinet

[JDFan]

Well I don't know much about vectors and stuff, but he told me he dersigned the whole thing himself.  Each image he sent me is 4mb if that helps.  Does he mean he drew every little detail when he says that?

I asked him to use his imagination, hehe

Well If he did spend time drawing them they look awefully close to ones available at the site I linked above (edited after posting first so you may not have seen them ! -- Took about 1 minute to download them as shown so if he is trying to say he made them you're getting ripped !!

[sollyscomputers]

You're right people.  I thought I was just being fussy.  I'm payin $80 for sideart, top bezel and cp.  That is what he wanted.

[thatpurplestuff]

Even if the screenshot look is the direction you want to go artwise, he still did a halfass job (the Pac-Man logo is a hot mess of pixelated edges, the ladders/girders in DK are stretched and blurry, the DK logo is fuzzy, etc).  This kind of quality is great if you're doing it yourself or it's a super rough draft, but if he's charging you to make these and he thinks that is production quality (ie ready to print) work then I would be concerned about what your final product is going to look like.  Personally I would wait to pay him in full until he cleans that up.

[sollyscomputers]

Maybe I can post back here when he says they finished to see if you can tell me what you think

[sollyscomputers]

Will 1980 x 1167px image (the one attached here) show up clear on a panel around 600mm x 500mm?  The guy I hired says "I think it will look clear".  I told him that "I think" is not good enough

[Malenko]

Well I don't know much about vectors and stuff, but he told me he dersigned the whole thing himself.

he blatantly lied to you.that side art in the first post looks like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. I could make something better than that left handed in about 2 min in photoshop. I seriously hate the font he used for the pacman score.

I dont do mm very well so I converted to inches. You want your images to be around 300 dpi (dots per inch) for printed work so 500x600 is 19 11/16" x 23 5/8". The 3D image you posted when placed into a 19 11/16" x 23 5/8" 300 DPI canvas takes up about 1/9th of the canvas area. I scaled the image up to fit it horizontally and it looked bad. Then I scaled up the vertical to fill (not constraining proportions) and it looked like a hot mess.

 Got a template or rough shape for your sides? I can whip you up something for free.

[sollyscomputers]

Thanks Malenko,

712 mm high x 550 mm wide are my cab's side dimensions.

I'm not used to getting things for free so feeling a little uncomfortable hehe.

So I'll probably get something 100% better for free than what I'm being offered for paying a "professional" $80.  That is almost funny!

I told him all I want for the sides is a space invaders theme for one side and a donkey kong theme for the other side, can't be so hard can it?

[Le Chuck]

The only thing professional about that ---meecrob--- you're working with is that he's a professional hack.  If you pay that idiot dollar one you're burning cash.

Malenko is good people, he'll steer you right. 

[lamprey]

Lampray that looks really good.  I will show him and see what he says.  Although the mario part does not go with my 60 in 1.

Yes these are meant to go on each side of a 60 in 1 cocktail cabinet

Mario is one of three characters in Donkey Kong. But, I understand if you don't want him in your art work.

[sollyscomputers]

You're right Mario is part of dk so he should stay in I think

[Slippyblade]

I'm not used to getting things for free so feeling a little uncomfortable hehe.

As long as you are open to criticism, the folks here are top notch.  There is a serious "pay it forward" vibe in this community as well.  And besides, if you absolutely love what you get "for free" you can always pay-pal some of that cash you were gonna pay the other guy to the real artist.

[thatpurplestuff]

Will 1980 x 1167px image (the one attached here) show up clear on a panel around 600mm x 500mm?  The guy I hired says "I think it will look clear".  I told him that "I think" is not good enough

Yeah you officially need to run from this guy.  Any designer that doesn't understand minimum print quality standards has no business charging people for design work, period.  I'm sure this guy is nice, but he needs to worry about learning the fundamentals before he starts trying to make money... he WILL be ripping you off by designing stuff for you right now and he probably doesn't even realize it.

[sollyscomputers]

The deal was that he would create 2 x sideart artwork, 1 x control panel artwork and 1 x top bezel artwork for $80.  We haven't even gotten to the control panel and bezel yet, hehe.  I have not told him that I will not be paying him yet, I hate doing that to people.  I have funded the project on elance but he has not been paid.  I think I can only get a refund if we both agree, not 100% though.  He told me he won't stop until I'm happy with the work, so what do I do is the question.  Do I be blunt and say I want a refund because I don't think he can do the job?   

[thatpurplestuff]

The deal was that he would create 2 x sideart artwork, 1 x control panel artwork and 1 x top bezel artwork for $80.  We haven't even gotten to the control panel and bezel yet, hehe.  I have not told him that I will not be paying him yet, I hate doing that to people.  I have funded the project on elance but he has not been paid.  I think I can only get a refund if we both agree, not 100% though.  He told me he won't stop until I'm happy with the work, so what do I do is the question.  Do I be blunt and say I want a refund because I don't think he can do the job?   

Just tell him that given his previous statements, you simply don't have faith that he can provide you with print-ready artwork (because he seriously can't).  Just to give you an idea, at ideal resolution (at least 300 ppi/dpi) a 500mm x 600mm print would need to be 5906px by 7087px.  You can get away with going lower but you will lose a bit of quality, but I would never go below 150ppi and even that's really pushing it.  The fact that he thinks a ~84ppi image is suitable to print from and will "look clear" makes it very apparent that he knows very little, if anything, about actually printing designs.

Honestly the fact that he's trying to charge you $80 to provide you files to print from and doesn't even know the basics about printing is pretty ridiculous.  There are a lot of times where I'm probably too picky regarding design work, but this is not one of those times.  If you print what this guy is making for you, it will be pixelated and you won't be happy with it.  Like I said earlier, if you're a weekend warrior and doing your own design then sub-par resolutions and questionable image quality are part of the game, when you're paying someone to create artwork for you it's just not acceptable.  On top of all of that, we're just discussing the technical aspects of the files... the actual layouts themselves are pretty weak as well even if they were high enough resolution to print from.

(Just a disclaimer, one of the reasons I'm so passionate about this is I've actually done some hiring of graphic designers at my job and it is always really crazy to see how many resumes I get from people who consider themselves "graphic designers" that do not even understand the basic fundamentals regarding resolutions, color modes, etc.  Unfortunately there are WAY too many people out there that kinda-sorta-know-Photoshop-a-little-bit that are more than willing to take money from unsuspecting people, and the crazy part is that most of them don't even realize how unqualified they are.)

[JDFan]

Very well put thatpurplestuff -- IT's one thing if you are getting some free help or doing it yourself and taking some pics at a family event so will be happy with something that is not top quality (ie. kind of like taking your own pictures of an event with a low res camera and printing out prints)  rather than hiring a photographer that has High resolution digital cameras and printing equipment to photograph your wedding and sending prints to family.  Either one works and is fine and you get some memories but would you really be happy in the end with the result if you had an amateur taking your wedding photos ??

As thatpurplestuff mentioned it probably isn't that the guy is trying to take advantage of you but he just doesn't have the experience or skills to do print ready graphics for large prints (his work would be fine for 8x10 photos, website design, wallpaper images for your desktop, etc. but trying to use the same pics for fullsize artwork just will not result in the type of result you want on the side of your machine. Better to have the discussion with him at this point and stop having him put in the time creating something you probably will not use in the end. Just explain to him that from what you've seen so far you don't think he is the one to do the work for you. (rather than continue to have him put in more time and effort and never be able to get a result you are happy with since he doesn't understand your needs.) The 72 PPI work he is producing is fine for websites etc. where you want small files that can load quickly and is probably more what he is used to doing but for material that you plan to print at the sizes you need those type of images just will not provide decent results.

Here's a quick youtube video that explains things well and shows the difference we are talking about well ! :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oXxUq1ux9lk

[sollyscomputers]

Everything you guys are saying you're right.  Although he has just sent me this for one side of the cab.  For someone who cannot see the little things they may be wrong in the image, I actually like this one.  So if he did the work then maybe he does know what he's doing? 

What do you guys think??

John

[sollyscomputers]

sorry here it is

[pbj]

I like it

 

[JDFan]

sorry here it is

That is actually someone elses work he downloaded from the net -- a quick google image search comes up with the original image posted back in 2010 on elrecavorfabron.com -- So he is just pulling images from other websites and telling you he is designing them -- I'd drop him just for treying to pass others work as his - but it's up to you !!

Was also reposted on taringa.net Here : http://www.taringa.net/posts/humor/7517512/La-huevada-de-internet.html

[thatpurplestuff]

Yup that is actually cool looking, but like JDFan said it looks like he found that online.  I just typed "donkey kong illustration" into Google image search and that image comes up within the first couple of pages.  Unless the guy's website is http://www.mattcandraw.com/work/dkong.html he's just a fraud that's sending you stuff that he found online and wanting you to pay him for it.  At this point, I would try to reverse any charges and tell the guy to go pound sand.

[yotsuya]

One day, someone will design Multicade artwork that doesn't look like ass.

[sollyscomputers]

Oh my god guys, thank you for opening my eyes.  I actually believe now that I hired a crook.

This was his message to me along with the pic I posted.

Hi John, right now I'm pouring the Space Invaders artwork into the measures, I attach you a proposal for the other panel with donkey kong. By the way John, can you change the final date to tomorrow, please?

So there's no doubt that he was passing this on as his own work right?

This is what I replied!


http://www.taringa.net/posts/humor/7517512/La-h...

and attached image.

As you can see Pedro I'm not stupid. I didn't hire you to look on the net for ready made pics. I hired you to design me something original.

I have 2 choices here. Either you refund me the money by yourself right now, or I report you to elance and get my refund that way.

You may be in need for money, I'm not sure why you did this to me, but what you did is not fair to me or anyone else you have done thins. I'm not sure (and don't care) if you can draw at all or a little bit, the fact remains you cheated me and betrayed my trust. Trust is a big thing when working with people online that you have not met before. Fortunately I will continue to trust and work with people online because I believe there ARE good people out there.

Please refund my $80 immediately and email me screenshot that you have done it or as I said, I will report you to elance.

John

Was I too harsh?

[Slippyblade]

I don't think you were too harsh.  The guy was trying to pass off others creative work as his own.  You'll find a lot of artistic swiping going on among this forum but even if it's not attributed directly to the original artist, we at least don't claim it as our own.

[sollyscomputers]

Thanks guys for your help.  I really appreciate it so much

Without you I would've thought he done a great bloody job.


John

[sollyscomputers]

Heyyyyyyy!!!  Got my refund already.  No message from him though, just refund


I guess I still have an issue that I still have no artwork.  Hey tell me people.  If I was to choose an image for example like the one he tried to pass off as his own, how would you go about making that image good enough to be printed on a large scale like what I want?  Is it as simple as converting the image as a vector image or is it not possible or it's time consuming??

I'm so dumb when it comes to digital art hehe

[JDFan]

Glad to hear you got the Refund -- You still may want to contact Elance and let them know what he was doing (I'm sure they do not condone passing others work off as original and wouldn't want him representing their service  )

As far as enlarging for printing best thing to do would be look around for some vector images ( they are a different format that saves the lines and curves rather than pixel information) so can be resized without quality loss - so would be best but Photoshop does have some filters and a decent enlarging algorithm to get decent results at times but can be time consuming to get right. For example here is a section of the last upload resized to appropriate size and at 100% size to give you an idea of what it would look like printed -- the bottom half is after just enlarging and you can see how pixelated it becomes and the top half is after adding a Smart sharpen filter and then a surface blur filter (both fairly automated filters) and it does clear it up somewhat and may get decent prints if some time was spent getting proper settings for the filters.

I'd wait a bit and see what Malenko comes up with for you and then if needed look around for either some high resolution pics on the net or some .ai format vector images that you like.

[Malenko]

I'm almost done your dk side

[sollyscomputers]

Thanks Malenko

Can't wait to see it.

[Malenko]

Thanks Malenko

Can't wait to see it.

meh its not that great, but its better than the other guys :p

So here it is scaled down. Pretty basic, used the bezel and the side art to make the side. PM me your email address and I'll send the full sized file.

[pbj]

I mean, yeah, $80 was kinda ridiculous for stuff he was netswiping... but.... was he not providing you with kinda cool art? 

Wasn't the point of paying him taking the artwork task off your shoulders?

This very forum has a pinned thread from a guy that does nothing except lightly modify art he's downloaded off the internet without permission, and charge for it.  Don't see any rabble rousing there...

[Slippyblade]

This very forum has a pinned thread from a guy that does nothing except lightly modify art he's downloaded off the internet without permission, and charge for it.  Don't see any rabble rousing there...

I don't think the problem was that he was charging for recomposing other folks art.  The problem, as I see it, was that he was claiming that the swiped art was original art with him as the originator.

[sollyscomputers]

Difference pbj is that I asked him to design me something original.  If he had told me he was modifying someone else's work may have been different

[Malenko]

Here's the Space Invader's Side, scaled down

[JDFan]

Here's a bit different take on the DK side : (IF you'd like the fullsize png let me know as it is too large of a file to post here so had to downsize to 100ppi rather than 300 to post example.) -- Had the various pieces from working on a Pauline edition artwork for another member so put it together with the artwork piece you had posted earlier ( resized and cleaned up with a couple filters )

[yotsuya]

What's your THEME, man?

[sollyscomputers]

Thanks guys,

JDFan would that be for the side?  It looks good.  you can email it to me at john.tsolo72@gmail.com

Malenko that looks good mate thanks

I guess I don't have a theme.  All I was thinking is that I want something modern and fun for a 60 in 1 vertical cab that I'm building with my 8 yr old son (father son project).

[sollyscomputers]

Hey Malenko. I don't know what happened but I only just saw the dk art. Must've missed it.  Can you pleas replace the sollyscomputers with 'the Tsolo Family' and email to me.  Looks cool

[sollyscomputers]

My son doesn't like the dk border.  He says it looks too girly hehe.  He wants a modern looking donkey kong logo with a something similar or like the pic the guy passed on to me as his work.

[sollyscomputers]

What would you think of something like the attached image with a donkey kong logo incorporated somehow?

[sollyscomputers]

Does anyone wanna take on the project that I originally wanted?  I'm happy to offer the $80.  I'm sorry if this is not enough $$ for some people here for such a project.  Basically what I need is 2 x sideart, 2 x control panels and one top bezel.  All this for a cocktail cab.

Malenko, JDFan, you have already spent some time for free for me so if either of you are interested, let me know, or anyone else for that matter.  Unfortunately $$ a bit hard at the moment so can't offer anymore.

Cheers,

John

[pbj]

So it's not that you disliked the art, it's that it wasn't original?  Well, I'm glad BYOAC was able to do a simple google image for free on your behalf.

If money is tight, do not waste it on cocktail cabinets.

 

[Malenko]

I had the same idea as you JDFan ,but while Im ok with editing nintendos art I dont feel the same way about ripping off an independent artist's work.


Solly, as for taking on your project, I'll have to pass. Its not that 80 dollars isnt a reasonable offer, its that I am not a professional artist and Im not sure I'd be able to deliver what you want.  I can edit pretty easy in photoshop, but I lack the time and creative ability to really make something from scratch.  Well that and my real job pays better and Im better at it

maybe JDFan can help you out.

[sollyscomputers]

Thanks anyway Malenko

[Malenko]

Thanks anyway Malenko

I'll still email you the larger JPGs and edit the name; so you have them

[sollyscomputers]

Thanks mate

[JDFan]

What would you think of something like the attached image with a donkey kong logo incorporated somehow?

That could work (there is a nice large size image HERE : http://img1.livegen.fr/00/00/30/41/0000304130.jpg ) - though the art is from Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Wii.

Something like this :

[sollyscomputers]

omg JDFan you hit the nail on the head.  I love it.  Only thing the cab is going to be black.  Do you think a black background would be better?  See???  I'm not fussy, I just want something cool hehe.

[JDFan]

omg JDFan you hit the nail on the head.  I love it.  Only thing the cab is going to be black.  Do you think a black background would be better?  See???  I'm not fussy, I just want something cool hehe.

Maybe a Black and white Starburst :

[sollyscomputers]

with yellow Donkey kong fill? to match my yellow t mold?

[JDFan]

with yellow Donkey kong fill? to match my yellow t mold?

[sollyscomputers]

Now that makes it hard.  They all look good but I still like the first one.  How about just black background

[sollyscomputers]

The cab will have this colour theme

[JDFan]

Like This :

[sollyscomputers]

no no. not black border, black background, all black

[JDFan]

no no. not black border, black background, all black

[sollyscomputers]

That's it.  That's exactly what I want

[JDFan]

That's it.  That's exactly what I want

Or maybe yellow Border :  ( Heading of to work so will check back tonight and then send the fullsize image(s) to you by E-mail )

[sollyscomputers]

JDFan let me know if you got pm!

[JDFan]

The cab will have this colour theme

Quick Mock up using the image you posted (Note : there is some distortion from actual work as I placed the images over your pic and warped them to fit the perspective for a quick mock up ) - Was thinking it would look good with Space Invaders on the one side , DK on the other and then the CP and kick Panels with Pacman (note : CP is the same as you posted in example not something that has ben created. - Top Panel is layed out in PS using a template from the PacMan cocktail plans I had so may not be sized correctly yet. But gives an idea of what I was thinking.

JDFan let me know if you got pm!

Got it and will reply later today. will include the pics I have so far with reply.

[sollyscomputers]

I think that looks awesome

[yotsuya]

You know, I'm usually not a fan of such types of Multicade art, but I will say that it's tastefully done here - mainly because a) the solid black color doesn't make it look like a messy hodge podge (no lightening strikes, big plasma fireballs, etc), and b) each type of game is isolated from the other i.e. one side is DK, one part of the panel is Space Invaders, etc. Nothing doesn't bleed together, game and art style don't clash, the CP actually looks like a real CP, and on the whole, it doesn't look messy or busy. Kudos to you, JDFan - I'm a Believer! 

[sollyscomputers]

Just to let everyone know, JDFan has supplied me all the artwork I needed, which is like the mockup above.  The artwork is getting printed as we speak so hopefully end of next week I might have some real pics of the finished product.

Just a big thank you to JDFan for all the work and great job he did.  Thanks mate