Pentool!?

I lovethis piece, not only because of its Japanese-style artistry, but the use of only a few colors, concept, and hierarchy of the entire piece. Believe it or not, this is all done 100% by the pen tool. Which is just insane. The pen tool is a Photoshop tool that uses lines and curves to make shapes the user wants, but it is very difficuly to control, let alone master. I fail to see how the artist did the female face. However, I shouldn't as I have seen things made with the pen tool that end up looking 100% real. This ahd to be made with dilligiance because regardless of how good you are, you'll mess up with the tool here or there and have to go back and fix something, even if you save often, it will not help with that accursed tool.

The Guardian

I love this piece, not only because of its Japanese-style artistry, but the use of only a few colors, concept, and hierarchy of the entire piece. Believe it or not, this is all done 100% by the pen tool. Which is just insane. The pen tool is a Photoshop tool that uses lines and curves to make shapes the user wants, but it is very difficult to control, let alone master. I fail to see how the artist did the female face. However, I shouldn't as I have seen things made with the pen tool that end up looking 100% real. This had to be made with diligence because regardless of how good you are, you'll mess up with the tool here or there and have to go back and fix something, even if you save often, it will not help with that accursed tool.

Penance

This piece doesn't have too much going on but I like it nonetheless. The colors and contrast are just great and I love the sunset feel to this. It matches the story behind it. The artist on deviant art said this is about a man reaching the end of jis journey, looking for forgiveness and whether or not Penance will hear his call will be seen. The figure reaching the sunset-like light symbolizes the end of the journey as do most artists, writers, etc. when thinking of sunsets. The large thing in the background is called an Abstract C4D render and was probably made in Cinema4D by the artist or someone else. Though it looks cool and fits back here, I do not sense a real purpose other than to look cool. Maybe he was wanting to draw the eye to the sunset more or show the sunset like it was exploding. Aside from that, I like how it has a story about it. Some pieces of art can be created off a simple line of text, reflecting that moment.

From 8bit to Metal!!!!!!

The above song is a cover by the band Powerglove. I LOVE this song. Not only because it is from one of my favorite games but how they went from one great piece from the game to another so good. Powerglvoe does their versions on metal and it is crazy how they can take a song performed in only 8-bit sounds to......well this! The drums although do get a little heavy. This band only does usually popular songs and only from video games. Which is probably why I like to listen to them. There are several bands who do this. Some examples are MegaDriver and The Megas. The bands used the term ReMix, not to be confused with its cousin remix, to refer to new interpretations instead of alterations to the song itself.

Dissidia

Please ignore the text that appear at the beginning. The video is mirrored so youtube wont mess with it. Enjoy the CG video.



This is the opening to the PSP Game, Dissidia: Final Fantasy. This is what I want to do in the future. Not only this CG content but the games itself. I want to design and make these games. This clip catches my eye not only because I am a fan, but all the action and details of the opening are amazing. I really want to do things like this. the game was made to celebrate all the games in the Final Fantasy series and to basically give the best fan service they could. Being on of the company's only fighting games, it did exceedingly well with fans and people who are new or not even a part of the franchise. The game utilizes the PSP's graphics to the fullest. Being a handheld video game, the content was amazing. Technology is rapidly increasing and so does the need for new and higher forms of CG and graphics like this game produces.

Wen-jr yet again

Ok so I am being redundant with this artist so this will be the last one for a while. This piece sure is different though. What catches my eye is the colors used, the great lighting and contrast, and especially the surrealistic look. It has a humanoid......thing almost like it is tied into this spider looking machine. I have no idea where he is going with this and I dont think he does either. He said he is not inspired with it so it is not moving along in the way he wants it. The title of the piece is called Magus Compo II. This is one of the first non model/CG work from Wen-jr, but............I do not get it. Though I still like how it looks. Surrealism has long roots in history and usually displays odd looking things like this. Not possible........yet.

First Tsurugi

Ok, so I love swords and video games and animated movies. So what happens when a sword from an animated movie(CG) based off one of my favorite video games of all times is made by an artist? My mind explodes is what happens. This sword is just awesome. It is made up of 6 separate swords with different ranges and functions. However, I am here to discuss the picture. The detail on this work is just amazing. The small scratches and usage appears on it. The fabric it is on in the back is very details as well. Wen-jr yet again amazes me in his abilities. I hope to be able to do this in the future. Also a little note on this sword. The company who made the movie actually had the combing sword made but together it weights 720 pounds. Which is impossible for MOST people to pick up and wield. The guy in the ovie and game however wielding this like it was a stick.

Vectors

The above piece is simple yet it is great to look at and makes your eyes follow the swirls of vector water. I personally love it for the style of vector and the blue colors. It really gives me the feel of swirling water. The lightning is good and has some simple but good shading near the edges of the vectors. Vectors are 2D, flat types of art with simple, solid colors. Like cartoons and Anime for example. They have 1 solid color which is sharp and everything on them instead of a smooth transition to it. That is vector. Limited colors that create an art. I like this style as well as very detailed.

Fantasy Mountains

Aside from the deviantart logon watermark on it, this image is just beautiful. The lush green environment mixed with the housing built into the mountains there is something I wish I could see in real life today. If only, if only. Believe it or not, the artist did this in a matte painting followed by an IFX tutorial. Upon looking into it, I found an IFX was actually ImagineFX. A site and magazine dedicated to scifi and fantasy and more types of art. They even have tutorials I hear. I would check it out further but I can not draw or let alone paint so I will leave it up to the readears here to go check this out.

Photomanipulation-Angel of Death

This image looks dark yet cool doesn't it. This is done in photoshop merely by using photomnaiplation. Photo-manipulation is when you use pre-existing images and/or photos to create something new while editing them to blend in with each other and not clash so it is obvious. Three images were used here and then using photoshop the desginer added effects like fire to the buolding some color and blending. All so it would match up into his title and theme. At the bottom of this post are the three images he used. I like this piece because of it's dark theme and great blended environment. It really gives off the feel of darkness and destructions of the modern day.

Images used:

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3483/wallpaperprototype07128qj5.jpg
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6567/stock10ds0.jpg
http://alexiuss.deviantart.com/art/Antecedent-Terminus-72614364

Smooth Transisting Animation

This is the current opening sequence to an Anime I watch. Usually the shows has some cheesy opening with some basic animation, but the opening here is like movie quality for anime. The animation is just so smooth and everything. Personally, this is the best opening in both series of the show. This is the 6th opening of the long running series. Also, the dark contrasting with minor fully, vivid, and bright colors was very interesting in the beginning. As well as the dark style of animation halfway through the video. The manga started back in 1999 and it's 10th birthday already passed. It is very popular all over the world and is still continuing to this day. Hopefully the opening's animation will be used in the show because it has been getting some choppy animation a lot recently.

Epsilon Lyrae: The Product of PSD Collaboration

This picture is aaaaaaaaammaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-zing! The great colors and contrast! The surreal and dreamy effects and lok. I love it all. The city or whatever it is on the cliff side and planes, flying machines, making the streams in the air are all just awesome. My favorite part though has to be the back of the image on the right. It looks like the sunset is on fire! The interesting par tthough is that this was a collaboration between two people on deviantart. Akajork and Pr3t3nd3r shifted a PSD between each other for about a month to get this result. Two great people put their abilities together and made something even better. I believe this would be a great thing for something like 201. Two People shifting a file back and forth, even if we are not the greatest artists, to get a better result. Two heads are better than one sometimes and this picture here shows it. You can get more out of a friend.

On the Road Again

Expect to see a few more Wen-jr pieces in the future. Like the Cold Heart Fury picture, elements in the piece here are rendered in a modeling program and some in photoshop. The motorcycle and the man here are modeled. They are VERY well done and this is why I like it. It gives the picture here the feel of him driving at great speed. The background is part photograph and part edited in photoshop. With that you can tell how real it looks because of how it just fits in. The renders and the background have little to not txture contrast level so it looks like it is in the same place and they are not fake. A very good piece.

Cold Heart Fury

There is a lot of blue but I really like this picture. I like most of this guy's work though. The contrast and color are just working with each other to make an epic picture. The swirl of water behind here is well done. She also has a huge sword so that helps make it even more epic. The female here is really well done as well. How he did this was thta he made the person in a modeling program and then used other programs such as photoshop to add the other effects. Though I do not have a quote for this, on his page you can see an example of how he does, actually multiple examples, where he has the models of some of his work posted on how he did it. I can not post them here since some of them have nudity since that is how a modeling program does it. This is one thing I hope to learn how to do in college next to making them for video games.

Abstractness

I like this design because of the tons of different colors and the shape. The bakground is pretty soothing as well. However if you look closely, you can see a bird shape to it. That is th true intention of this artist. On the artist's deviant art, he made this to enter a Large art contest on a forum he goes to. I found this piece by browsing that forum. Which it is planetrenders.net. This is an abstract piece and these can sometimes be hard to read. I would not have noticed the bird without reading the discription that is an animal. The artist name is huMAC and his deviant art has other nice images you should check out. According to him, it is apparently "a Philippine epic book."