An A to Z Smorgasbord of Overused Graphic Concepts and Resources
Jul 12th in Web Roundups by Peter Sawyer
With
computer graphic being vastly popular with so many people, no doubt
that techniques are being copied and re-used. Following are numerous
overused computer graphic techniques, concepts, and resources of the
last few years.
You'll have to decide which are so overused they've become dull,
those which still have life in them, and those that you can breath
creativity into. This article is complete with a smorgasbord of
resources and tutorials to show you how to pull these ideas off well
and increase your stack of resources as well. Let's have some fun!
You
probably know me as peewee1002, I am a young guy who is simply
interested in the world of graphic design. I spend hours looking at
others art and hope to go to a design school in the future.
A - Abstract Renders
Often artists make excellent 3D renders and use Photoshop to add a
quick background and lens blur. It sounds easy to blend a 3D renders
with a photo, but many artists don't put that extra effort into it. 3D
Shards, people, animals and correct lighting help make the piece more
photo-realistic. Dynamic blur is a good technique to show a sense of
speed or distance and is not used enough.
Resources:
B - Blender
"Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite" it is
the most advanced 3D program which is currently free. Cinema 4D and 3D
Max cost huge amounts of money, so this is perfect for those starting
in 3D design.
It is becoming increasing more popular with the credit crunch in
most countries. "It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing,
rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle
and other simulations, non-linear editing, com positing, and creating
interactive 3D applications."
Resources:
C - Comic Strips
Comic strips can be drawn, made in 3D, painted and photo
manipulated, so know wonder they are very popular on the internet. Some
artists go for simple drawings with short funny punch lines, some go
for books and make very high quality pieces.
It's often the ideas that are overused, rather than the graphics!
There are some great comics out there, such as the "Cyanide and
Happiness" comics, which use simple art and short snazzy punch lines,
but are great to keep reading.
Resources:
D - Digital Geometry
Being able to create amazing 3D text quickly in Cinema 4D or any
other 3D program has great advantages. They look much better than a
simple bevel and emboss effect in Photoshop and often are the main
focal in these works.
They are often completely overused by novice graphic designers,
although practice does makes perfect. It is very hard to get an
outstanding look from 3D text, but when it is done well, it sure pays
off.
Resources:
E - Expert Photography
When you can take a photograph of an object, which looks
Photoshoped, you are clearly an expert or a very lucky photographer.
Photography is an important step in creating most pieces of art, or at
least finding photos to use for your digital manipulations. Taking your
own picture may take longer, but they should be easier to edit and you
can also take photos in front of a green screen allowing for easier
extraction.
Resources:
F - Fonts
Your computer often has a set of default fonts that many use, rather
than downloading more each time they make something new. Times New
Roman and Trajan Pro are often used. Check out great sites such as dafont
for some amazing free fonts to add to your collection. Or if you need
better tracking, alternate glyphs, or other pro font features, then you
may want to purchase some fonts.
Resources:
G - Gradients
Photoshop comes with a set of default gradients but it's good to
learn how to make your own. There are countless pieces which are
colored by these default color, so consider opening up your gradient
palette. Black and white, orange and purple and rainbow colors are some
of the most common to break away from.
Resources:
H - Honest Products
This is the photo manipulation of turning everyday products into the
true reflection of what you are actually getting. "Sometimes, though, a
company tries to create a brand that doesn't really reflect what the
product is really like." This is where Photoshop comes in and you can
change the product to your true reflection of it. This is a concept you
can have some fun with.
I - Impossible Objects
The Pen rose triangle, also known as the Pen rose tribar,
is an impossible object. It appears to be a solid object, made of three
straight beams of square cross-section, which meet pair wise, at right
angles where the vertices of the triangle form. Have fun making your
own impossible objects.
Resources:
J - Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the use of differing colors coming together to
create different moods in a piece. An example of this would be blues
and reds coming together, blue portraying ideas of life, peace and
happiness which would juxtapose the red colors symbolizing death, blood
and conflict, etc. These pieces can be found in space manipulations, as
it is easy to split the colors into two.
Other examples:
K - Kuler
Adobe Kuler is a well known program, it makes it possible to create,
share and explore new color schemes. Kuler is not an overused graphics
technique, it is more of a overused graphics tool. It is great for
beginners to explore the world of color, as well as experts to try new
ideas and keep their work fresh and original.
Resources:
L - Light Bulbs
What can we manipulate inside a light bulb today? How about a fish
tank? There are a large amount of people seeing what they can place
inside light bulbs. Fish, forests, spiders, people and cats have all
been done. What is going to be next? This is fun to do, as light bulbs
represent ideas, so placing things inside them work well for fusing
conceptual elements.
M - Movement
On a digital camera you can turn the exposure time up, which allows
for you to capture light streaks and movement. A good SLR camera will
often cost you a good deal of money, so it's more affordable and easier
to stay inside Photoshop to add these effects.
Resources:
N - Nebulas
Where you find a planet you almost always find a nebula. They are
often placed in via brushes, but more talented artists can paint their
own. The easiest and most realistic way to add a nebula is to get free
images. The Hubble telescope web site
takes many thousands of pictures of galaxies and is the highest quality
source you will find, though be careful and make sure you read the
terms of use first!
Resources
O - Omega Code
The band Omega Code will release a limited number of 2300 posters,
which are going to be printed and distributed around the globe along
side their music.
23 artists were invited to illustrate, among them you can find names
like Joshua Davis, Si Scott, Mike Cina, Michael Paul Young, Mate
Steinforth, Matthew Curry, Nelson Balaban, Tom Muller, Motomichi
Nakamura, Danny Franzreb, Robert Lindström, Andreas Pihlström, Chris
Hewitt, Hello& Hikimori, Sebastian Onufszak, Animatório, Colletivo,
Nacionale, Unstru, Tomás Peña, João Oliveira, Peter Jaworowski, Umeric
and Doomedo.
The Omega Code symbol is the four overlapping triangles and one of the most popular graphics icons this year. Check out the bands web site. Check out other uses of the triangles here.
P - Planets
Blending planets into a photo manipulations is hard work. Many
artists make the photos and planet look like two separate layers. The
most common solution to blending planets in is to add a thick layer of
clouds or to place an amazing fractal on top.
Resources:
Q - Quietus
Quietus is another term for death. Death is often placed inside
photo manipulations in the form of skulls. They appear most commonly in
a vector format, but you can manipulate peoples faces with skull
photos. As well as looking cool, skulls are also a great way to scare a
viewer. Adding skulls at the bottom of a dark pit suggests that someone
or something is murdering people - always fun!
Resources:
Artist: iRoot made this spooky wallpaper
R - Reflection
Often if an artist has a space to fill, adding a completely
pointless text reflection is perfect - right! Often a simple flip and
reducing opacity occurs, but this is totally incorrect. In ordered to
do a proper text reflection you have to take the lighting and the
surface into consideration, you have to get the correct perspective. It
does take some practice to make a good reflection.
Resources:
S - Splatters
A splatter brush can save almost any artist in Photoshop. If you
have ran out of ideas, grab the splatter brush, and you get a instant
background! They are also very good to use as clipping masks.
Resources:
Examples of use:
Or as a T-shirt like above, made by me.
T - Trees
Trees seem to appear in loads of photo manipulations today. They are
a good way of showing nature, as well as beauty within a piece. Often
the tree flows out of an object or wraps around an object.
Resources:
"The music nature" is a striking piece by Ethernity
U - Understanding Physics
Understanding physics is one of the hardest things to do in graphics
design, often when photo manipulating you are looking to make something
impossible or out of this world. When you need to manipulate a picture
on earth, getting the physics correct is important. For example, making
reflections in puddles, speed of cars, lighting, gravity (not having
objects floating), airbrushing and clouds all correct in one piece is
hard work.
Resources:
V - Vectors
"Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as
points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on
mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics."
Vectors are very common but take a lot of time and practice, when
starting out don't choose the most detailed object you can find!
As we can see we have another artist who has based their piece on
the idea of the shape of a triangle, and then have images appearing to
pop-out, or have everything contained within a triangle. There are
almost endless ideas which you can use with triangles. Play around and
find what is right for you.
Resources:
W - Water World
Placing objects underwater has never been such fun as with
Photoshop! You can take almost any scene you imagine and place it in
the depths of the ocean. Add a couple of fish with some bubbles, and
there you have it!
Resources:
Artist: Mandrak made this fishy work
X - X-lines
I was struggling to find anything for X then a friend told me about
something he called X lines. These are the abstract renders in general
shape of an X. Although there doesn't seem to be a name for them, they
are common to see in many pieces. If you know the proper name for them,
please let me know in the comments!
Y - Yes it is real....
Some people like to manipulate pictures and make them so real that
people cannot tell. They give them a false backstory to go with them as
well. These pictures can end up in the news before someone figures they
are fake. This story was posted with the picture below:
"There was a family on holiday in Australia for a week and a
half when husband, wife and their 15 year old son decided to go scuba
diving. The husband is in the navy and has had some scuba experience.
His son wanted a pic of his mum and dad in all their gear so got the
under water camera on the go. When it came to taking the pic the dad
realized that the son look like he was panicking as he took it and gave
the ‘OK’ hand sign to see if he was alright.
The son took the pic and swam to the surface and back to the boat as
quick as he could so the mum and dad followed to see if he was OK. When
they got back to him he was scrambling onto the boat and absolutely
shitting himself.
When the parents asked why , he said ‘there was a shark behind you’
and the dad thought he was joking but the skipper of the boat said it
was true and that they wouldn't’t believe him if he told them what it
was.. As soon as they got back to the hotel they put the pic onto the
laptop and this is what they saw"
It took a long time before anyone figured that it was fake and in fact just a photo manipulation.
Resources:
Z - Zip It
Again where is it possible to add a zip? It is as simple as finding
a picture of a zipper and then using the clone tool to create a zipped
edge against something. Then add a picture in underneath. Easy and
effective, and it makes for a very common manipulation. Awe, so cute,
kittens in live alligators luggage!
Conclusion
I hope you had fun with this post! There are some ridiculous and
overused graphic concepts shown here. Though you've likely found a
couple nuggets of visual awesomeness as well! It's up to you to wade
through all the clutter of digital graphics and find that creative
spark, which ignites your artistic passion!
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