Fallen_Moon
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Jounin
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March 1, 2009
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#1
First of all i want to say that this is only everything I know about GFXing, so if you are intressted in GFXing you should find out more about it on your own.
I think before we can talk about GFXwe should know the most important vocables(if you would like some deeper explanations about several words you can look up the net or pm me) :
GFX: means the use of digital programms to create art, its also short for Graphic Design
Render:is an image created from programms like Cinema 4D(=a programm used to create 3D objects and stuff like that), it is also often used for cutted out images
Typography: With typography normally the text and all the elements regarding the text are meant
CnC: means Comments and Critique
Tag: thats the image in your signature space, often there are just called sigs
C4D: originally it means Cinema 4D, but C4D is also used as name for all abstract renders
Stocks: are images you use in your work
Collab: means collaboration, and that means that more than 1 gfxer work together on an gfx work
Saturation: describes the intensity of a color: high saturation means bright and vivid colors; low saturation means your colors are greyish
Compo:Composition; describes how a gfx work is put together
PNG: means Portable Network Graphics, and its an format for images which gives you the best quality for your work.
DA: stands for deviantart.com, a famous site among GfXers
Manipulation: its an gfx "style" that takes a stock and manipulates it that way(maybe with other stocks too) to create a new image
illy: Illustratorm, a GFXing programm which is especially good with creating vector art
Gradient the gradual transition between colors
LP: Large Piece, gfx work that is normally bigger than tag size, normally thats everything bigger than 400x400
GIF: means Graphics Interchange Format and is mostly used for animations
LQ: low quality
Focal Point: Its the area on a gfx work you will look first the focus of your work therefore also the most important part on your work
PSD/XCF: the format on Photoshop/Gimp were all your layers are saved. psd is the format of Photoshop, XCF is the format of Gimp. you can also save your Gimp files as PSD
Contrast: describes the difference between colors
Blending: transition between your focal and the background of your work
Now that you know the most important vocables we can start. first of all if you want to start GFXing you need a digital programm. The most common are:
Illy, Adobe Photoshop ( i use gimp so i don't know much about it ): you need to buy this programms, but you can first download them for trial from the adobe site
Gimp: Gimp is freeware and you can download it here
Ok now that you have your GFXing programm you could start to make some tags or other art works, but i would suggest to download resources. Resources are mostly things other gfxers(sometimes already professional gfxers have created) and you can use for your own works. The resources that will be important for you at the start will be brushes, fonts and renders.
Sites you could look for brushes: deviantart.com ( you can download here also other resources) [ I might add other sites if someone tells me some ]
Sites you could look for fonts: dafont.com [ I might add other sites if someone tells me some ]
Sites you could look for renders: planetrenders.net, photobucket.com [ I might add other sites if someone tells me some ]
Instead of an render you could also use a stock, which often is harder to work with, at least for me. At this place i want to note everyone that you aren't allowed to use all images you like. There are many images that have copy right on them and that are not open for use to anyone, many DA images have this copy right, so if you use DA images first ask the owner of that mission for permission.
Ok now that you got the resources you could start to create some GFX work, but i would suggest first to look at some tutorials for tags or for whatever you want to create. Tutorials also help you to understand the tools of your programm, when you understood the tools of your programm you will be able for example also to learn from tuts for Photoshop if you are using Gimp.
Sites you can find tutorials are: DA, [ I might add other sites if someone tells me some ]
Some technical issues:
How to install brushes/fonts( i can only explain this for Gimp since i never did that on Photoshop, it would be nice if someone would also tell me how the fonts and brushes are installed in Photoshop):
When you downloaded brushes/fonts search the main folder of your gimp programm, open that fodler. In that folder you will see a subfolder of Gimp that is called Brushes and a subfodler that is called fonts. Now you just take the brushes/fonts you downloaded and paste the downloaded bruhes in the subfolder brushes and the fonts you downloaded you paste in the subfolder fonts. Now you are able to use this brushes/fonts in Gimp.
Ok i won't be able to explain every important aspects of GFXing, so i want to try to explain the things that i would call the Basics, but always keep in mind there is more to gfxing than just the things i will explain now.
Concept:I think the most important part of an art work is the concept. The concept is the main idea of your work, because without an idea you can't create anyting. A concept can be anything from "i want to create something that looks like an apple" till "i want create a metaphorical picture that describes the sadness i feel in my heart"
Composition: a good compo is up to your creativity, but there are still some things that help you with creating an good compo. I could try to explain them now but i think its easier if i just say; "you can read things you should know here
Colors: ok first i want to say i think every gfxer should at least know 1 color theory. If you haven't heard anything about color theories you should just google it. Reading colortheory will surely help your understanding of colors.
Also i want to suggest a site which gives you a color sheme to every color:
colorshemedesigner
Depth: depth avoids your work from looking flat. Ways to create depth for example blurring, right use of perspective, right use of effects and so on. But i think the most important thing for someone to understand depth in art is to know:
"Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions (3D)." ~quote from wikipedia.com
Blending: There are many techniques to make your work blend well, here i only want to name one since the others should be clear if you remind yourself that blending is only the transition between background and your focal and effects.(if a a focal doesn't exist like in a abstract work, the blending is only between the background and the effects)
Lightning: for lightning you first need a light source, than the rest you need to do is making it look natural. I know its easier said than done, but just remember that if you use a stock/render you have already an given lightsource and have to create your work fitting to this lightsource. Just for example do not put light where shadows are for example to make look more natural
Effects: Effects can be nearly everything, and you can nearly use everything as an effect: brushes, fonts, filters, stocks, C4Ds, fractals and so on. You just need to find the right effects to fit your work, for example for an vektor gfx work you will most probably use vektor effects to fit the style, but still you don't have to its just kinda common.
There too many styles at GFX to name all but i want to comment some of the most common ones.
Vektor: Vektor means that your gfx work consists of "vektors". Vektors are effects and other things that don't lose quality when they get resized.
Here is an personal simple example of an vektor tag:
Typography: Look at the definition of typographie in the gfx langauge part. An typography gfx work is all based around the text.
here is an vektortypography of mine:
Here is also a small and prety simple tut of an Novice vektortypography that should be good for beginners to get to learn what vektors and typography are:
vektor-typography tutorial
Abstract: An abstract tag has no focal point and normally it doesn't contain any clear object, but since definitions differ about abstracts this can differ.
here are 2 personal examples of abstract tags:
C4D: C4D are mainly just effects but if you overdo those effects your work are called C4D spam, normally such tags are easier to look good and don't take that much effort.
I try to avoid c4d useage, but here is a work of mine where i used some:
those bubbles and those black objects are c4d's. There are many different c4d in the big world of resources, my favorites are effect c4d's and bubble c4d's. There are many other sorts around so jsut find out about them on your own.
here is an simple abstract c4d tag tut:
abstract-c4d tut
Smudge: In your programm your able to choose a tool called smudge, best way to use this tool is to use a hard round brush to set the scale to 80% till 100% and smudge different areas in circle movements. You should also smudge in different directions and smudge differentlayers over each other and try different layeradjustments.
Here are some smudge examples of my own:
here is a tuts that may help beginners with smudging:
smudge tut
there are as said so many styles but to me these are the ones that you will face sooner or later. If you want some small info to other styles, pm me and i will see what i can do.
Now i want to tell you something about GFX ranks. When you start gfxing your work will most probably be beginner. It takes a while till you get professional at gfxing. Here are the most common ranks:
Beginner: You just started with gfxing and don't even know the basics of gfxing.
Novice: You can create simple gfx work, which is not complicated and you know about the basics but didn't mastered them 100%
Moderate: You can handle the basics and more, you can use all the tools of your programm like adjustment layers, filters and so on to create appealing effects. I heard people normally start pentooling at this stage.
Intermediate: You have improved your skills above the basics, your able to use different styles for creating effects and making your work appealing. Your work is more complicated and has its own style.
Professional: You can create everything you imagine in your head with your GFXing programm, every art work you create is a unique piece and contains never seen creativity. Most pros don't need resources because they make all their own resources.
(There are also subranks of those ranks and i am not quite satisfied with the descriptions i gave about every rank so if someone got suggestions for this i would appreciate. )
I know this guide is not perfect as it is now, but i am willing to extend its content to his fullest potential with all the addtional infos other gfxer of NB want to share.
~all infos and tuts i got from, planetrenders.net/forum, deviantart.com and generally the net
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Topic: Moony's Guide to GfX
Posted on January 24, 2010 18:16
tnx
