GFX Artist Critque

Hi! I am new to the DevForum! I am a commonly used GFX Artist, and I would love some critique! :slight_smile:

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Suggestions:


Use HDRIs
Your backgrounds are so bright and vibrant, and there is nothing wrong about this. But that background \has no effect on your character. Take an HDRI of the background (search this up if you need help) and use it.

The First One
Well put together, but bland and boring. Add some vibrancy into that. Maybe add some sun rays, more exposure, add a more expressive color grade. The edges are a bit to crisp and sharp, maybe add a slight blur to the edges with a blur brush. Or try to smudge it a little with the background to make it look like the light of your background is peaking through the edges of the characters (more realistic). Add some light form the background leaking through the edges of your character with some effects and painting.

The Second One
Make the character bigger. Your background and character is fighting for the spot of which going to be the focus point. And apply the same tips from the first and second paragraph.

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I use blender for all of my products(renders), and I use paint.net for my products(editing/putting together).

I have to reason to buy photoshop or C4D. Would those be in the Blender/Photoshop?

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Hey Fontzi,

First of all welcome to the DevForums, glad that you joined us. Alright Iā€™m going to get straight into the point of this topic. First of all your GFX looks alright. It really isnā€™t bad at all.
Hereā€™s some noticeable improvements you could add:

  • Changing the Text Font
    Youā€™ve used the exact same Text Font for both of your GFX pictures. I donā€™t know if you want the font like that, but it just seems and looks ā€œboringā€ to me. Firstly the white color, again I donā€™t know if you want the color to be white, but it just addā€™s a ā€˜boringā€™ mood to the GFX in my opinion. Also the Text Font you picked does not have any shading or any extra effect to make the GFX more eye catching.

  • Changing the avatar
    This is one point you should definitely try improving. The first GFX picture you attached to your DevForum post is alright, except the fact that the one female avatar on the left is smiling while the others look fairly sad. The avatar in the second GFX just again makes the GFX look boring. You are making an icon for a BBQ so why not firstly dress the avatar appropriately for what the icon is representing (changing clothes, etc.). Also you could add a tool into the avatars hand (cup / plate / or even a barbecue itself. Now last but not least change the way the avatar stands, it possible will change the position of how the avatar stands anyways if you make the avatar hold a tool, but just making the person standing there like you did, again just makes it boring.

  • Adding effects to the GFX
    To prevent a boring GFX Icon, you should keep some of my suggestions, that I will list now, in mind. Thereā€™s a ton of ways to make GFXā€™s attractive, but since Iā€™m not a GFX Designer I canā€™t really tell you the most efficient way, but this is what I got in store for you. You can add borders, might seem like a tiny little add-on but will make an huge change. You should play around more with the lighting (shading, filters, etc.).

Hope these suggestions helped. Thanks for reading this and keep up the good work!
(ps: I wrote this on mobile so sorry if thereā€™s any grammar mistakes) :grimacing:
Good luck buddy.

Justin_Limited :slight_smile:

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Thanks!

I really appreciate the Feedback, iā€™ll keep these in mind. I recently had another post on curving my text, so hopefully that will provide some variety.

Normally, Lemonmilk(the font used) is just a font I use when the buyer asks for any font, itā€™s just a go to.

Other than that, thanks for the welcome and critique!
Fontzi:heart:

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Um. Depends. Photoshop may definitely help a lot compared to paint.NET because it has more support, plugins, etc. As for your 3D program if you already are using and are familiar with Blender, stick with it.

main point, Photoshop has a lot more features then Paint.NET but the whole blender vs Cinema 4D thing is just another big debate but at the end of the day its all personal preference. If youā€™re already using Blender stick with it.

And if you have a slower PC, Blenderā€™s Eevee Render Engine may be very useful to you.

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Hello Fontzi,

Your designs are really cool when it comes to posing and the overall editing of each picture, but it appears youā€™re using blender so try to add more light to your characters and search up how to add plastic material to your characters because theyā€™ll enhance the way the characters look. After you master the lighting and the materials on the character try using bump maps which add more realism and details to them. While for paint.net, I think you should move on to using photoshop since it has more options.

Good luck with your career!

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but it appears youā€™re using blender so try to add more light to your characters

What do you mean add more light? Why is this necessary?

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My bad should of added more emphasis, but I meant light in terms of reflections.

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I posted on that post about curving text. I suggested the program Affinity Photo.

Also forgot to mention with Blender make sure your not using Blender Render (if you are using blender 2.8 this is not problem)

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Then a HDRI should be used to get reflections.

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I understand, but he is not using any material on the characters so he wonā€™t get any reflections.

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Oh I said this assuming heā€™d change the skin material as you suggested to something more plastic like.

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Oh my bad. Then yes a HDRI is a good choice.

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Hey Fontzi! Your renders look great, but Iā€™m wondering what version of Blender youā€™re using. If itā€™s anything below 2.8, Iā€™d recommend upgrading to 2.8 because of the added render options. I was able to throw together the image below in, like, 10 minutes and used the new Eevee render engine which gives much smoother and more realistic shadows, which I think could help with overall quality.

Additionally, I actually disagree with the idea that Photoshop is necessarily better than paint . net or Affinity. Thereā€™s a lot of great plugins for Paint that I used before I started using Photoshop, and it can work out just as well in either program. Obviously, Photoshop is less clunky and faster, but itā€™s just a matter of whether or not you want to spend $9.99/mo.

If you can, Iā€™d suggest adding some more style to the text. Doing a light emboss, outline, or curve adds a lot to the image.

Hope this is helpful!

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This is true, but thatā€™s also illegal lol. So be careful.

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Thanks for the advice! Render looks amazing by the way

just as a little side note, looks like something you would see on an official roblox notice or something

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Your graphics already ā€˜popā€™ a lot, although I think with some better lightning and possible strokes or even a little drop shadow they could ā€˜popā€™ a lot more. Nice :slight_smile:

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Just wanted to chime in on the whole PS/PDN discussion.

Not only does Photoshop have more features, it also provides higher quality images. Scaling in photoshop is insane compared to PDN, and overall ā€˜fluent-nessā€™ of the software.

As for your work, thereā€™s not much I can say that others havenā€™t. Itā€™s a good start, and with time youā€™ll be amazing. Lighting as others have said is my main suggestion to work on.

Also thereā€™s student discounts available for the abode suite making it much cheaper than normal, not sure if thereā€™s the same discounts for PS alone. I personally pay $16/m for the entire adobe suite.

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Cycles is more realistic then Eevee, Eevee is just faster. But I do agree Blender 2.8 is definitely worth using now. I have for around 1 and a half months now.

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