Hi guys, I guess i should write a little of an introduction here since i dont know anyone around here and i can't seem to find the "Introductions" board...

So, I'm a former Astahost member (Techocian) and i got hosted by Asta for awhile till glorious summer ended and school schedules came back into full throttle. After the hassle and dazzle of the first month or two, i think I should have enough time to keep up with posts and learn something new through Astahost again. But i found that after coming back, the "design" section of Astahost became vacant and empty. Thus, I've heard trap17 has its own graphics section with tons of professional graphic artists around, and moved here instead. I'm VERY interested in website design. Signatures are fun to make but the true challenge in my opinion, is to actually design an entire site in any way whatsoever.

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So back to my question, does anyone know any reference online where i can learn how to design realistic graphics? What i mean by that is something like making water, or a rock, or the sky (err yeah, i know CLOUDS has its own filter ^^). One day, i tried my hand at designing paper. It didn't turn out so well.....



It actually looks alright, but its way too burry after a bunch of editing trials. So could anyone help out? All help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Evion

P.S. The paper is supposed to look worn out and ancient =P

This post has been edited by evion: Oct 21 2006, 10:18 PM

That's pretty good paper actually. Doesn't have to be perfect unless that's all that's going to be in the "picture", which I doubt is the case, because paper's pretty boring by itself.

Only thing I would point out is that the paper seems to be transparent...when I think of old paper I wouldn't imagine it being see through at all. More solid with a yellowy tinge on the edges, I'd say.

Nice job, btw.

Thanks for the compliment Johnny! About the transparent part, i wanted to at least be able to "see through" to the edges of the back few piecies. And if i didn't tone the opacity a little, the paper's color (in the middle where it overlaps) will become fuller and more solid, which is what i don't want.

Also, I'm still working on trying to find a way to make it dog-eared. Then I'll move on to try designing books. It's going to be getting tougher, and i think it would be easier and less of a trial-and-error type situation if i can actually find a tutorial for this.

P.S. The more i look at the paper, the more it reminds me of those a-little-wrinkly, see-through wax paper.

This post has been edited by evion: Oct 21 2006, 11:26 PM

Gotcha. I don't know an exact place to find the right tutorial for you, but I'd suggest searching around http://www.pixel2life.com (first choice) or http://www.good-tutorials.com, they have a large amount of photoshop tuts to look through, and if there's a tutorial you need, they'd probably have it first.

Not sure what you mean by dog-eared... o_o?

Anyway, good luck, hope you find what you're looking for.

(And by the way. Welcome to T17. I'm sure it's really similar to Astahost, so you should feel somewhat at home here, but if you need anything, feel free to pm the best staff member in town. Actually that'd be BuffaloHELP or OpaQue. But they're busy guys, so feel free to pm the next best thing. Actually that'd be jlhaslip or Saint_Michael. Just pm me if you need anything. )

Yup. I know the name. Spend a little time at Astahost once in a while myself.
Post your full-blown Introduction in the Intro Topic and stand back to avoid the rush of welcomes.
Good to have you around.

Dog-eared, you know how people fold the edge of the page in their books so they can remember where they left off. It shouldn't be that hard to get that effect. Just cut off a piece, and rotate. Unless you're planning on adding some shadow to it. Then you'd have to pick a spot for the light, and use the blur tool for the tip/edges of the shadow.

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Oh, and welcome, Evion.

welcome, i have no idea how to make rocks and things like that, i do know how to make planets though. if your interested just say so and i'll PM you the tutorial. the paper looks too blurred at the edges, also try going for a different bg color.

Thanks for the welcomes guys, but I think I'll hold back on the full intro thing.



Well, i wanted my dog-ear to look a little more real. I want it to actually curve into the front of the paper. So far, I've managed to curve it, but it doesn't look like a dog-ear at all. Thanks for the tutorial sites Johnny, been looking through them. I'm more interested in the textures section and I've found a couple decent ones. There were a couple that looked horrible though .

Anyway, I'm not the type to stick with Photoshop all day long, seriously, it gets boring. So I'm off for some quick PvP in Guild Wars. Thanks again!

And if you manage to find a specific tutorial on making anything that looks realistic, I'm all for it.