Opinions on my art work...

[jcoplin]

Here is the artwork I'm using for my cabinet.  Before I go off and do the side art, CPO, kick plate, and bezel, I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback.  What does everybody think?

marquee: http://www.ticalun.net/Images/marquee.jpg

coin door surround: http://www.ticalun.net/Images/coindoor.jpg


Thanks!

James R. Coplin

[Ginsu Victim]

Perhaps a bit of shadow under the letters to help them stand out slightly more from the background? Otherwise, I like it.

[Encryptor]

I think it's pretty sharp! Where did you get the gears from?


Encryptor

[thatitalian]

I like it!

I would make the text bigger on the marquee, increase the stroke slightly or make the text fatter and add a shadow as GinsuVictim said.

[jcoplin]

The gears were made in illustrator as just solid shapes.  I imported them into photoshop where I used plugins to create the metallic surface in either the cooper or steel look, extruded the results to get the 3d, and overlayed appropriate rust or patina.  Other layers used noise filters and manual intervention to create the cracks, pitting etc.  Finally, the text and symbols were overlayed, rasterized, and then engraved using layer effects.

All of these aspects were on their own layers so that it was very quick and easy to turn aspects on and off to get several variants of each gear.  Then I just copy and pasted, rotated and resized to get the desired effect.  I really liked the text engraved on the gears.  A couple of buddies helped fund the project so the gears contain the year and our names in various places in the art.  Subtle and nice.

Thanks for the feedback!

James R. Coplin

[Encryptor]

Thanks for the explanation. I wouldn't begin to try to make something like that. My graphic skills are some where less than that of a 2 year old. Great Job!



Encryptor

[waveryder]

Gotta agree with everyone else. Those gears are excellent. I usually don't like "filtered" work but that is excellent. I don't think the text works with the rest of the composition though. It's very thin and much to prominent.

Just my £0.02. But hey what do I know I'm British and spend my time time drawing naked chicks! 

[Spaced Ace]

Try this for the text...

http://site.xara.com/products/xara3d/

http://site.xara.com/downloads/xara3d/    (Free Trial)

[waveryder]

It would be better to extrude the text in Photoshop rather than use Xara3D. Simple to do and you'll have more control. Xara is pretty poo for anything other than web graphics, even then it blows. Your marquee "cogs" work really well due to the "planes" effect that the composition has. Sticking text with incorrect lighting, blending, etc; (Xara's specialty!!) wont do you any favours.

[Franco B]

Pretty much ditto what the others said.

Im very impressed that you created that from scratch, very cool. 

Are you going with some kind of Art Deco theme? I think a Bioshock-esque theme would be pretty damn cool [ hmmm, thinking]

[Organic Jerk]

It would be better to extrude the text in Photoshop rather than use Xara3D. Simple to do and you'll have more control. Xara is pretty poo for anything other than web graphics, even then it blows. Your marquee "cogs" work really well due to the "planes" effect that the composition has. Sticking text with incorrect lighting, blending, etc; (Xara's specialty!!) wont do you any favours.

Xara is definitely no Maya, but I find that when I need some simple text work and I know what I want, it works pretty well.  Usually for me, Xara is a middle man between a photoshop/illustrator concept I've already done and an Illustrator trace that I will end up doing. For example, I used it for my Pixel Assault logo to get the dynamic 3D extrude, then the next step is tracing the whole final product in Illustrator for a sizeable vector.

It's an Ok little tool, I think



EDIT:  Oh yeah... AWESOME WORK.  I do agree that the text on the marquee needs to stand out more, but I wouldn't use any shadowing to get it done.. Maybe some thicker outlines?

Those gears are really something else, but what really brings it all together is your EXCELLENT use of color...

On second thought... maybe a slight black large "glow" around the text might help to make them stand out without adding any new fluff.  Just a large black area that starts at about 20% opacity and goes out to 0%.  Something that only leads the eyes to think the text is standing out more without taking away from the awesome background

[waveryder]

I used it for my Pixel Assault logo to get the dynamic 3D extrude, then the next step is tracing the whole final product in Illustrator for a sizeable vector.

If your "tracing" anyway and know what look your after, why not just do the extrude with illustrator in the first place.

[Organic Jerk]

If your "tracing" anyway and know what look your after, why not just do the extrude with illustrator in the first place.

I never liked the way the extrude functions worked in Illustrator... it never felt natural or quick enough for me... When you start trying different bevels, rendering times were a pain and it really interrupts your flow

I just liked how quickly Xara worked and how quickly you can see results..As much as illustrator may have the extrude functions, you're not really working WITH the 3d object as much as you're spinning a cube and it calculates "where 3d would occur" based on the angle of the cube.

It's just a more natural process for me, and it works better with my mental workflow...


As with anything, you can get really cheap results or you can get good results based on the time and effort you put into the work, no matter what application you decide to use.

Personally I always felt that the visual examples that xara used on their site were the worst of the worst, and never really sold the app at all.

[Spaced Ace]

Sometimes, phtoshop or illustrator just cant pull something off for me personally.  When it comes to detailed 3d, Xara is my choice.  Then I crop the project in Photoshop for detail.  Using Xara along with Photoshop, one can get fantastic results. 

waveryder, you ever mess around with Coreldraw when you draw out your art?

[waveryder]

waveryder, you ever mess around with Coreldraw when you draw out your art?

Blimey haven't used Coreldraw for donkeys years. I used to teach it way back in my younger days.....a long time ago..lol. I use Corel Painter a lot now for my airbrush and lineart  work, way better than Photoshop with a stylus, but has a much bigger learning curve.

Personally I always felt that the visual examples that xara used on their site were the worst of the worst, and never really sold the app at all.

That I will agree with. I use Lightwave for all my 3D work simply as I've been using it for so long now. Personally I like to stick to one program when producing a piece of artwork rather than using a whole fistful to produce a desired effect. Granted I suppose as Organic Jerk stated you go with what seems to be the most "natural process".

[Organic Jerk]

That I will agree with. I use Lightwave for all my 3D work simply as I've been using it for so long now. Personally I like to stick to one program when producing a piece of artwork rather than using a whole fistful to produce a desired effect. Granted I suppose as Organic Jerk stated you go with what seems to be the most "natural process".

Definitely.  If you are better with one technique in one app and better with another on another, do what fits best with your personal style.  As far as I'm concerned, a file is a file is a file...what matters most is the final product and what you can do with that specific file.  9/10 of my work usually has to make the jump from my sketchbook to the computer either way..


But anyway...

[polaris]

hey jc

really like the marquee design , really dont think the font works, dont like the letters being different sizes either.

coin door is a bit busy for me, but i like the idea overall.