I kind of regret posting all of those other designs already. I have been in a bit of a slump lately and haven't been able to come up with anything I like nearly as much as the rest. I wish I had access to my old computer because many of my old designs were on there, but the hard drive was wiped years ago after a crash. 

This next design is something I made within the past several weeks. There are a couple things I like about it, and much I don't. I am therefore going to use this post mostly to talk about what I had envisioned for this piece and how I was unable to make that vision reality.

The render for this is an F-14 from the video game Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War.

The Ace Combat series is one of my favorite video game series. I have always loved the idea of flying and wanted to capture that feeling in a design.

I tried to give this piece a sense of movement through the use of a technique called angled strokes. Angled strokes do exactly what the name sounds like. There are lines added at a select angle that cause the image to look tilted in that direction. If done correctly, they could allowed the fighter jet to appear to be flying at high speeds. I did not saturate the image enough however, and the angled strokes did not do their job.

I also tried to accentuate the dull gray-green of the F-14, but green is a poor choice to use for a background that is usually the rich blue of the sky as the pilot strains to slip the surly bonds of earth.

Not only did the color scheme fail to evoke the wild freedom of the open sky, but the design became too monochromatic and boring. While the Fett piece was mostly different shades of green, there were other colors on his armor that gave color variety. Here, there are none except lighter shades of the same color.

I had wanted this piece to showcase my love for flying, but it ended up mediocre as something that blends into the background. Hopefully I can improve in my next design. If anyone has suggestions on a subject, general or specific, to work with please let me know.

This is my last post for my PR Writing class, but I hope to continue this blog with either more designs of my own or other designs I find that I think are worth talking about.

A third Star Wars post, don't hate me. I have been on a kind of Star Wars binge lately. This piece contains the render of a stormtrooper1 from the famed 501st legion2. This render comes from artwork for the game Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The color scheme in this piece is a bit odd, so bare with me while I explain it. For those who are unfamiliar with Star Wars there is a mystical energy called the Force which gifted individuals, such as the Jedi and the Sith can use to perform physical and mental feats such as mind tricks. Sith typically use red weapons and stay in the dark, therefore the red side of the piece. Jedi use many different colored weapons, but many are blue and stand in the light, therefore the blue side of the design. There is also a gray area that separates the two, therefore the gray middle.

I did not really have a plan for this design. I wanted to use it as a chance to experiment and try out some new ideas I had. Something I like to do with renders that are leaning in a direction is to use a tool which places a liquified effect over the render in the same direction. This technique did not end up working as well as I had hoped but I decided to keep going with the signature anyway.

I used a combination of techniques to produce the shattering effect from the end of the stormtrooper's gun. I brushed on a pattern, erased parts of it I thought were not in the right trajectory, and then used clipping masks to produce the shattering effect, similar to the Shepard design. This is what I like most about this design and is mostly the reason I decided to use the piece for this post. 

I created lighting near the middle of the picture, which can be seen as the bright orange glow. The glow looks fine on the stormtrooper's arms and helmet front, but continues to areas there should not be light, such as the underside of the arms and the back. I tried erasing parts of the glow but that affected other layers and so I left it as is.

While I am fond of this piece, I would not say it is one of my best. There are many flaws which I should have been able to fix, but due to poor planning of what is placed on the same layer I was unable to. This did however, give me the chance to test many new techniques and ideas which I used in later works.

Terms
1 Stormtroopers are the military enforcement in the Star Wars universe.
2 The 501st legion is an elite unit of stormtroopers.

Another Star Wars post. This time I was playing the video game Star Wars Republic Commando. It is an older title but definitely worth checking out if you are into tactical First Person Shooters at all; you don't even have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this game. The render is Boss, an elite Commando.

The first level in Star Wars Republic Commando takes place on Geonosis, a dry desert world lined with catacombs. The color scheme is mostly grays and browns. I wanted to try to capture how I felt playing through the dark catacombs on Geonosis in this design, so I chose a color scheme based roughly on the level. 

I did not use any special methods like layer masks or clipping masks for this design. I added detail slowly over multiple layers1 in order to build the design exactly how I wanted it. This design involved manipulating the opacity and color of many layers, all slightly different from each other. I did try something a little different for the background however. I normally make the background by pasting the render multiple times and then changing settings around to create a background which has complimenting colors do the render. This time I took stock photos of rock formations and shaped the background to look like part of the Geonosian landscape. 

I especially like how the background turned out. It reminds me of rocky, desolate terrain and caverns which is exactly what I wanted. The render, Boss, fits into the background nicely and the darkened edges suggest there is unknown all around him.

I still debate with myself whether or not I like the lighting at the bottom of the piece. I think the lighting fits with the rest of the signature, but I do not think I did that good of a job fitting it to Boss. With how bright the lighting is, Boss' hand should not be as dark but I was not able to lighten his outstretched hand in a way that looked natural. I think I might have also let the darkened corner sections encroach into the piece too much. They might have looked better smaller and more subtle. 

Overall this is my favorite piece I have made. Even though I notice flaws, I think everything flows well and am proud of my work.

Terms
1 Layer are like sheets of stacked acetate. You can see through transparent areas of a layer to the layers below. Layers hold the content of whatever is being worked on. Most Photoshop creations have many, many layers.

This next design I made several weeks after the Shepard signature. The render being used is Boba Fett from Star Wars taken from the sixth movie, Return of the Jedi (I didn't actually need to look that up, I'm kind of a giant Star Wars nerd as you will probably see with the next several posts). Like the last post, I have explained terms at the bottom of the page.

I had just watched one of the Star Wars movies and decided to make a signature based on one of my favorite characters, Boba Fett. I debated between contrasting and complimenting Fett, but ultimately decided that using different shades of green would work best for what I wanted to do. Unlike the Shepard design, I did not want Fett to seem to pop out of the picture. Fett is a Mandalorian1 bounty hunter and uses stealth to his advantage. I wanted Fett to blend into the background as if waiting for his bounty.

I used more clipping masks in this design and again liked how they turned out. In this design, the clipping masks are the splatter designs to the left that slightly overlay Fett's arm and helmet. I lightly blurred where the mask obscures Fett so he blends into the background more. In order for the render to not be lost however, I sharpened2 Fett's helmet and hand to give focus.

Although I am pleased with the blending effect of the clipping mask, parts of the mask are jagged and cut off abruptly. I should have done a better job softening the edges in order for the signature to have more flow. Also I have concerns that the design is too monochromatic, and feel that there should have been a bit more contrast. Although I did want Fett to blend with the background, there is not much variety to the color scheme which causes the design to feel boring when the focus of the viewer is not on Fett.

If I were to re-do this design, I would try for more contrast. I love how the design turned out and it looks much like I had envisioned. I do wonder, however, how Fett would look if given more focus because although Mandalorians were masters of stealth, the sight of them struck fear into the hearts of their targets. Placing Fett into an environment where he is the center of attention might be able to capture the feeling of intimidation and fear that is meant to be instilled by the menacing armor of the Mandalorians.

Terms
1 In Star Wars lore, Mandalorians are race of beings who look very much like humans and have a war-like culture.
2 Sharpening enhances the definition of edges in an image, bringing them more into focus. 

There is no particular order to these pieces. Some are several years old while some are from over the summer. I do not have a particular style, and like to try new things with each piece. I have marked any terms that might be confusing to those without a Photoshop or Illustrator background and provided explanations at the end of the post. All that being said, here is the design I have chosen for the first post.

I made this design over the summer. The render1 I decided to use is John Shepard from the Mass Effect video game series.  In this piece I decided to use clipping masks2 which is what produced the colorful shattered-glass effects around Shepard. I have not actually used clipping masks in some time, so that part of the design took much longer than I thought it would. It took several tries before I was happy with the result of the clipping mask. 

I actually like how the clipping mask turned out, even though it took longer than I thought. I think it compliments the color of Shepard's armor and skin tone nicely.

I do not, however, like how dark the rest of the signature ended up being. I used several layer masks3 to adjust the colors around Shepard. This also affected the other areas of the piece however, darkening them to almost a blur, especially on the left side. 

I had originally imagined this piece brightly lit throughout with Shepard being more in the dark, as that is how I imagined him while playing Mass Effect and wanted to recreate my vision of him. That vision inverted as I worked however and ended with Shepard being the spotlight while the rest is darkness. The inversion actually made me think about how I viewed the game and Shepard's role and I ended up replaying Mass Effect and making different decisions based on how this design turned out. 

Even though this piece turned out differently than I had originally wanted, I think this is one of my favorites so far. I really like how Shepard seems to be popping out of the signature and coming towards the viewer. If I tried this design again however, I would limit the number of layer masks I used to try and regain the original vision I had of a brighter design. 

Terms 
1 A render is an image with the background cut out.
2 A clipping mask is an object whose shape masks other artwork so that only areas that lie within the shape are visible—in effect, clipping the artwork to the shape of the mask.
3 A layer mask is used to control the transparency of parts of the design.

Hello everyone.

It has been awhile since I have posted. I am currently taking a class called PR Writing. An assignment for this class is to post on a blog about a certain topic. As I already have this blog, I decided to commandeer it for a bit for the use of the assignment.

During the course of the summer I had some down-time during my co-op, so I continued doing graphic design work, similar to some of my previous posts. I enjoyed making them, although some of the pieces did not turn out quite like I had hoped. 

While trying to figure out a topic for my assignment, I remembered about the design work I had done in my spare time and thought that I might use them for my project. I will be critiquing each piece as one post; writing my feelings about each one. I will talk about what I like and dislike about each piece, how I envisioned the outcome while planning, how each could be improved and my general thought process behind some of the decisions in the design of each piece.

With all that said, here goes and hope anyone who sees this enjoys it. Feedback on any of the designs, my critiques and my writing style is more than welcome as well.

I am going to continue showing examples of graphics I have made, and this post is going to focus on designs I have made in Photoshop.

Several years earlier I became obsessed with designing and making signatures for forum users to display at the bottom of their posts. I have made many of these, but unfortunately most of them were on my old computer which is now fried. I only have two of them, although I am sure there are several floating around online in random forums.

This is a signature I made some time ago, using a render of an archer from the game Guild Wars. I mirrored his image several times in order to get the slight ghost image above him. The only thing I don't really like about this is the font color, because it slightly blends in near the bottom right corner. If I were to re-do this one, I would probably do the font in white or a slightly lighter color.

This is a bit more recent, and this time I used a render of Sora from Kingdom Hearts. I focused on lighter colors this time, and tried to make Sora stand out a bit more than the archer in the previous signature. The light blue and green colors, which often signify tranquility, are a perfect match for his expression.

As you can see, both of these feature characters from video games. I have been and always will be a gamer, and so used renders and images from games which inspired me and had an impact on my life. I feel that if you have a connection to your work, it will be much higher quality because you will care a great deal.

Well, anyway, that is it for now. I am going to see if I can find some of the animations I have done for the next post.