Anyone willing to help me learn the basics of building artwork on photoshop?

[Frank Drebin]

At the moment I can't even draw a square on there, I would love to be able to design my own very simple artwork, but I have no idea where to start.  For example, the backgrounds, are they created in photoshop or they downloaded from google?

[opt2not]

Here you go.

[Malenko]

There's a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- ton of tutorials out there, even some by me here on BYOAC (but the ones on-line are much better, especially at the basics).

Open photoshop, start a new file, and just mess around with all the tools, see what they do. Don't be afraid of messing up. Learn to love layers!

[Vigo]

If you have photoshop, I recommend starting with a pre-existing image. Download something off of google and bring it in. Play with the various tools and functions, learn how to use layers, change the size of things and select things.

Making from scratch is really a "phase 2" of using the program. A lot of people do all their work just by downloading an manipulating existing images. That being said, to really design what you want, you gotta eventually learn things like the shape tools.

Here is some google fodder for some of the most basic and powerful parts:

Toolbar
History
Layers
Transform
Blending Options
Color Picker


FYI - there are a lot of secondary tools on the toolbar if you click and hold down on the tool button.

[8BitMonk]

You Suck at Photoshop #1

[Frank Drebin]

Here you go.

"Artist for hire! Custom Artwork needs..."

I'm surprised you get any business at all with your whiny, smug attitude.  Certainly not getting a second look from me.  (hint: You are not doing your customers a favor by charging them for work)

There's a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- ton of tutorials out there, even some by me here on BYOAC (but the ones on-line are much better, especially at the basics).

Open photoshop, start a new file, and just mess around with all the tools, see what they do. Don't be afraid of messing up. Learn to love layers!

If you have photoshop, I recommend starting with a pre-existing image. Download something off of google and bring it in. Play with the various tools and functions, learn how to use layers, change the size of things and select things.

Making from scratch is really a "phase 2" of using the program. A lot of people do all their work just by downloading an manipulating existing images. That being said, to really design what you want, you gotta eventually learn things like the shape tools.

Here is some google fodder for some of the most basic and powerful parts:

Toolbar
History
Layers
Transform
Blending Options
Color Picker


FYI - there are a lot of secondary tools on the toolbar if you click and hold down on the tool button.

You Suck at Photoshop #1

Thanks guys.  I have lots of time to surf at work but no photoshop.  I have photoshop at home but not too much time.  But I think its something I'd rather learn to do myself than pay *some guy* on the internet to do for me.

[yotsuya]

Here you go.

"Artist for hire! Custom Artwork needs..."

I'm surprised you get any business at all with your whiny, smug attitude.  Certainly not getting a second look from me.  (hint: You are not doing your customers a favor by charging them for work)

Hint: In real life and on this site, people actually pay Opt2Not lots of good, real money for the work he does. He doesn't need to do anyone any favors, believe me. And he certainly doesn't need a second look from you, don't worry about it.

[vwalbridge]

Here you go.

"Artist for hire! Custom Artwork needs..."

I'm surprised you get any business at all with your whiny, smug attitude.  Certainly not getting a second look from me.  (hint: You are not doing your customers a favor by charging them for work)

...aaaaaaaaaaaaand now I'm following this thread.

*insert popcorn gif

[opt2not]

"Artist for hire! Custom Artwork needs..."

I'm surprised you get any business at all with your whiny, smug attitude.  Certainly not getting a second look from me.  (hint: You are not doing your customers a favor by charging them for work)

You know, I'm quite surprised as well. 

[Vigo]

I'm surprised you get any business at all with your whiny, smug attitude.

[yotsuya]

I forsee a thousand character cut and paste collage in the near future...

[Frank Drebin]

At the end of the day, its arcade artwork.  Its inherent value is 0.  I don't think I speak just for myself when I say that most of us BYOAC'ers don't want to spend 50% or more of our entire budget on artwork.

I read opt2not's "rant" sticky and my first thought was "perhaps arcade art is below this guys pay grade".   Sure his time is worth something.  But arcade art isn't.

As for the "thousand character collage", I'd rather learn how to do something myself and have it look like crap then never learn how to do it myself at all.

[Slippyblade]

Art is art.  Your subjective opinion on the relative value of the art is what has an " inherent value (of) 0"

How much time do you think it would take you to learn the programs well enough to do some of these artwork packages?  A LONG time.  When you buy art of any type, you are paying for the skill and learning it took to make it.  Very little of what you are paying for is the actual art.  It's the time investment the artist had to make to learn the skills to crank out that art.  If you feel that time investment is worthless...  well...  can't wait to see what you can make!

[Frank Drebin]

Art is art.  Your subjective opinion on the relative value of the art is what has an " inherent value (of) 0"

How much time do you think it would take you to learn the programs well enough to do some of these artwork packages?  A LONG time.  When you buy art of any type, you are paying for the skill and learning it took to make it.  Very little of what you are paying for is the actual art.  It's the time investment the artist had to make to learn the skills to crank out that art.  If you feel that time investment is worthless...  well...  can't wait to see what you can make!

Well by inherent value I mean if I was to sell my arcade art to someone else - how much would they be willing to pay? 

Never said it was worthless, just that most BYOAC'ers aren't going to spend $600-$1000 USD on artwork.

[yotsuya]

Art is art.  Your subjective opinion on the relative value of the art is what has an " inherent value (of) 0"

How much time do you think it would take you to learn the programs well enough to do some of these artwork packages?  A LONG time.  When you buy art of any type, you are paying for the skill and learning it took to make it.  Very little of what you are paying for is the actual art.  It's the time investment the artist had to make to learn the skills to crank out that art.  If you feel that time investment is worthless...  well...  can't wait to see what you can make!

Well by inherent value I mean if I was to sell my arcade art to someone else - how much would they be willing to pay? 

Never said it was worthless, just that most BYOAC'ers aren't going to spend $600-$1000 USD on artwork.

I bet most of us here have self taught ourselves to use Photoshop. But there's a difference between original art which is created from scratch, and cutting and pasting a bunch of stuff that you get online. If you want to design something from scratch, you need talent and skill. If you want a copy and paste, you just have to know how to use the software. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but don't denigrate an artist just because he wants to charge you for his time, effort, and talent. I wouldn't pay $1,000 for art myself, but also I'm not stupid enough to spend $300 on buttons and led joysticks, either. Yet people do it all the time.

[Frank Drebin]

I bet most of us here have self taught ourselves to use Photoshop. But there's a difference between original art which is created from scratch, and cutting and pasting a bunch of stuff that you get online. If you want to design something from scratch, you need talent and skill. If you want a copy and paste, you just have to know how to use the software. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but don't denigrate an artist just because he wants to charge you for his time, effort, and talent. I wouldn't pay $1,000 for art myself, but also I'm not stupid enough to spend $300 on buttons and led joysticks, either. Yet people do it all the time.

And thats all I want, a simple design that I did myself, done with copying and pasting.  I didn't denigrate him because he wanted to charge me, I denigrated him because he was smug in my thread instead of just ignoring it.

Stupid is subjective.  I see a dedicated 4 way, 2 button machine as a waste when you can build a mame cabinet that plays those same games "almost" as good, along with many others.  I think its stupid to have multiple machines in your house when you can build one that almost does what the rest of them do, yet we have multiple restored cabinets on this forum.  To each their own.

[yotsuya]

I bet most of us here have self taught ourselves to use Photoshop. But there's a difference between original art which is created from scratch, and cutting and pasting a bunch of stuff that you get online. If you want to design something from scratch, you need talent and skill. If you want a copy and paste, you just have to know how to use the software. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but don't denigrate an artist just because he wants to charge you for his time, effort, and talent. I wouldn't pay $1,000 for art myself, but also I'm not stupid enough to spend $300 on buttons and led joysticks, either. Yet people do it all the time.

And thats all I want, a simple design that I did myself, done with copying and pasting.  I didn't denigrate him because he wanted to charge me, I denigrated him because he was smug in my thread instead of just ignoring it.

Stupid is subjective.  I see a dedicated 4 way, 2 button machine as a waste when you can build a mame cabinet that plays those same games "almost" as good, along with many others.  I think its stupid to have multiple machines in your house when you can build one that almost does what the rest of them do.

Have fun playing Star Wars on the track ball. It's almost as good.

[Frank Drebin]

I bet most of us here have self taught ourselves to use Photoshop. But there's a difference between original art which is created from scratch, and cutting and pasting a bunch of stuff that you get online. If you want to design something from scratch, you need talent and skill. If you want a copy and paste, you just have to know how to use the software. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but don't denigrate an artist just because he wants to charge you for his time, effort, and talent. I wouldn't pay $1,000 for art myself, but also I'm not stupid enough to spend $300 on buttons and led joysticks, either. Yet people do it all the time.

And thats all I want, a simple design that I did myself, done with copying and pasting.  I didn't denigrate him because he wanted to charge me, I denigrated him because he was smug in my thread instead of just ignoring it.

Stupid is subjective.  I see a dedicated 4 way, 2 button machine as a waste when you can build a mame cabinet that plays those same games "almost" as good, along with many others.  I think its stupid to have multiple machines in your house when you can build one that almost does what the rest of them do.

Have fun playing Star Wars on the track ball. It's almost as good.

I'll stick to the Street fighter/MK/NBA Jam era of games I grew up with.  Like I said, to each their own.

[yotsuya]

I bet most of us here have self taught ourselves to use Photoshop. But there's a difference between original art which is created from scratch, and cutting and pasting a bunch of stuff that you get online. If you want to design something from scratch, you need talent and skill. If you want a copy and paste, you just have to know how to use the software. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but don't denigrate an artist just because he wants to charge you for his time, effort, and talent. I wouldn't pay $1,000 for art myself, but also I'm not stupid enough to spend $300 on buttons and led joysticks, either. Yet people do it all the time.

And thats all I want, a simple design that I did myself, done with copying and pasting.  I didn't denigrate him because he wanted to charge me, I denigrated him because he was smug in my thread instead of just ignoring it.

Stupid is subjective.  I see a dedicated 4 way, 2 button machine as a waste when you can build a mame cabinet that plays those same games "almost" as good, along with many others.  I think its stupid to have multiple machines in your house when you can build one that almost does what the rest of them do.

Have fun playing Star Wars on the track ball. It's almost as good.

I'll stick to the Street fighter/MK/NBA Jam era of games I grew up with.  Like I said, to each their own.

Yep. Good luck with your build and your art lessons.

[Malenko]

I'm average at art in general, but still pretty well above average at Photoshop. Opt2Not makes my work look like a toddler drew it with broken crayons. Beyond that anytime Ive ever been stuck on a job he's always been there to give me advice and help out when he can. Bryan is a pretty great asset to have in this community, and I agree 100% with his "art rant" thread. I didn't perceive anything he did as smug, hell when PBJ does a "lmgtfy" link he doesnt even rename it. Maybe you took the google link the wrong way, its just in good fun.

Also, pretty sure hes never charged $1k for art.

[Frank Drebin]

I'm average at art in general, but still pretty well above average at Photoshop. Opt2Not makes my work look like a toddler drew it with broken crayons. Beyond that anytime Ive ever been stuck on a job he's always been there to give me advice and help out when he can. Bryan is a pretty great asset to have in this community, and I agree 100% with his "art rant" thread. I didn't perceive anything he did as smug, hell when PBJ does a "lmgtfy" link he doesnt even rename it. Maybe you took the google link the wrong way, its just in good fun.

Also, pretty sure hes never charged $1k for art.

$1k total by the time its printed off.

I think I did take the link the wrong way, but at least a little action on the forum.

[yotsuya]

Look, I'm going to give you a bit of advice, and you decide how you want to take it or leave it. Decide on what your theme is going to be, and then do some research on cabs that have that theme to get ideas. Then go from there. At least when you start working with Photoshop, you have an idea of where you want to go with it.

[vwalbridge]

I didn't perceive anything he did as smug, hell when PBJ does a "lmgtfy" link he doesnt even rename it. Maybe you took the google link the wrong way, its just in good fun.

Malenko always has insightful comments and feedback. And I agree with him 100% here. In fact, the "lmgtfy" post by opt2not was a perfectly valid reply me in my opinion. When I don't know anything about a topic, Googling it is literally the first thing I do. It's why the site was invented in the first place.

If I ever got the "lmgtfy" reply in the past, I laughed at myself because I totally deserved it.

Also, I went back and re-read your original question and it's just not worded very well and too open ended.

I've learned a few things being on this forum. One of them is: Ask bad questions...get bad answers. In other words, the quality of the answer you get is typically equal to the quality of the question.

[Frank Drebin]

I didn't perceive anything he did as smug, hell when PBJ does a "lmgtfy" link he doesnt even rename it. Maybe you took the google link the wrong way, its just in good fun.

Malenko always has insightful comments and feedback. And I agree with him 100% here. In fact, the "lmgtfy" post by opt2not was a perfectly valid reply me in my opinion. When I don't know anything about a topic, Googling it is literally the first thing I do. It's why the site was invented in the first place.

If I ever got the "lmgtfy" reply in the past, I laughed at myself because I totally deserved it.

Also, I went back and re-read your original question and it's just not worded very well and too open ended.

I've learned a few things being on this forum. One of them is: Ask bad questions...get bad answers. In other words, the quality of the answer you get is typically equal to the quality of the question.

I think that's a fair opinion and that I overreacted to the first post.  Apologies to opt2not.

[opt2not]

All these feelings from one lmgtfy link.   

I could retort at all the crap you just spewed, but I ain't got time for that. I will say I've never (nor will ever) charged anyone even close to $1000 for artwork. Heck, even $600 is on the high-side for what I charge and that would have to be a heavy bit of work -- meaning a full art-set of 40+ characters re-imagined in a completely different yet cohesive style.

Listen, just start by googling some online tutorials, getting used to Photoshop's interface and tools. You'll notice there is a Shape tool --> this is the tool for making squares. There are plenty of tutorials for the basics on youtube that you can easily learn from. Aside from that, photoshop's help files are great for learning about each individual tool by themselves.

As for knowing how to make appealing artwork, well that's something you can't learn overnight from tutorials. I would suggest studying good-looking existing arcade cabinets to take queues from.  Look how they use the space to their advantage. How the colour choices work together (I'm not going to explain colour theory here), how the objects are composed, and how clear and concise the artwork is to conveying the theme and style...etc...

As for the little tricks within photoshop, again there are plenty of tips and tricks floating around out there, but most of the techniques you'll learn in PS will be from working on the art as you go on. 

[Frank Drebin]

Thanks opt2not.  Was just in a pissy mood and took it out on you.  Appreciate that you took the time to give some advice after I vented on you.

[yotsuya]

Let's hug it out, bishes!

[BorgDog]

Let's hug it out, bishes!

Never have I thought your avatar was more appropriate for a post 

[jennifer]

   (Giggke) Jenn laughs, and Laughs .... But, (Omg, laugh some more).... It should be brought to light, P/S may be not so right for you if your creating art, its more for editing, Illustrator is a better vector program.

[jan25th]

   (Giggke) Jenn laughs, and Laughs .... But, (Omg, laugh some more).... It should be brought to light, P/S may be not so right for you if your creating art, its more for editing, Illustrator is a better vector program.

Got any good Illustrator tutorials?  (And to think I was really going to post that not too long ago)

[yotsuya]

I self-taught myself Illustrator. Wasn't easy, but the best way to do it. I use it for cad design now.

[opt2not]

Photoshop is fine for creating art. I do it all the time, as well as all the artists I've worked with before. It also has an easier learning curve than Illustrator.
Never trust anyone who refers to themselves in the third person.

[vwalbridge]

Photoshop is fine for creating art. I do it all the time, as well as all the artists I've worked with before. It also has an easier learning curve than Illustrator.
Never trust anyone who refers to themselves in the third person.

Photoshop handles 4pt font really well too 

[thatpurplestuff]

Photoshop is fine for creating art. I do it all the time, as well as all the artists I've worked with before. It also has an easier learning curve than Illustrator.
Never trust anyone who refers to themselves in the third person.

Agreed, I use Photoshop for the vast majority of design work that I do both professionally and for personal projects... the only time I really fire up Illustrator anymore is to use the mesh tool, otherwise Photoshop's vector tools do the job just fine.

[jennifer]

   (Giggke) Jenn laughs, and Laughs .... But, (Omg, laugh some more).... It should be brought to light, P/S may be not so right for you if your creating art, its more for editing, Illustrator is a better vector program.

Got any good Illustrator tutorials?  (And to think I was really going to post that not too long ago)

  Why would I have any tutorials?, I don't get it, Its not like Jenn works for Adobe or anything....Just saying it vectors better than photoshop and works better with plotter software.