Project Custom 3-Pokebeach Site (Approved by PMJ)

can I join PC3 custom pokebeach banner?
does it have to be the water division, or can it be anything else?
 
George2FRESH said:
I actually tried making the wood look chipped and old, but for some reason couldn't cut it off.

And the font yea is hard to read, but I don't have a love for it? lol that's like only the 2nd time I used it.

I was referring to that Grunge style font in general xD

agustinj-no, signups are done. Once the next tournament is announced you may join that one.

-Black Rayquaza
 
Meh, I did ok on the challenge. Hopefully I'll do better on the next one.
I actually didn't notice most of the details you pointed out when I wrote it.

Originality: 16/20 Pretty original overall, but as soon as I started reading it sounded like the first Pokemon Movie...I couldn't help but starting to draw parallels between the two

lol =D
I noticed that too. I didn't mean it to be that way, but.. oh well. =P

Good job Xous for coming first in both challenges. =D

When does the next challenge start?
 
Piplup 321 said:
Meh, I did ok on the challenge. Hopefully I'll do better on the next one.
I actually didn't notice most of the details you pointed out when I wrote it.
Why do you think there IS judging? This is why we do what we do...so people go back and look at their work with the kind of eye that we do.


Piplup 321 said:
When does the next challenge start?

Not completely sure yet. Once the rest of the judges scores are in I will announce it, and it should be 7 days from that date.

-Black Rayquaza
 
oke now i know i really need to be more carefull with my banner's eventhough i'm lost i'ms still watching out for next tournament
 
frozengallade said:
oke now I know I really need to be more carefull with my banner's eventhough I'm lost I'ms still watching out for next tournament

You mean the next challenge right? You do you each tournament consists of three challenges.

-Black Rayquaza
 
Is there a place where we can see all the banner entries? I know the competition is long over (the banner part), but I'd love to see what people came up with.
 
I hope nobody minds if I do a friendly review of each of the banners. I'll try to play nice and not offend anyone ;)

Prof. Shinx's Entry
MurkrowBanner.png


I think the image is kind of cool, but it's obvious you just took the image from something else and scaled it up, as it's blurry. The feathers sticking outside of the frame are really creative and 'thinking outside the box'. The text is kind of generic and I think you could have chosen a better font, or added more of it to the picture to spice it up. I think the idea is decent, but I think it adds a lot if you actually modify the picture when you take it from something.

Charizard88's Entry
jl2ate.jpg


Hmm. An animation banner. I am torn on the idea of animation banners, as I feel a person who is viewing the website is not going to sit there and watch it from the start to the end. They are going to see the first frame of it and then jump down the page to the information they are looking for. I think in this case, the banner could have achived the same result if the text wasn't animated but the duskull was.

The banner doesn't have a lot to it. Most of it is white text a picture of Shiny Duskull fading in and out. The white text is very generic, and totally misses the whole idea of spooky and such. A better font choice would help a lot, as would effects added to the text to make it look more spooky-er. The picture of Duskull looks okay quality, but it is very visible it was cut out of a picture in the last frame. A little blurring and it wouldn't be as noticeable. The background is very dull.

More content in the picture and a better font would drastically change it for the better.

Xous' Entry
ContestBanner3FINAL.png


The pokemon are cool looking. I think you deserve kudos for actually drawing them yourself and not just copying a picture off of a card. I'm going to be harder on you since I can tell you have a lot of artistic talent.

The background and font just doesn't do it for me. You designed these great looking Pokemon yet the best background you can come up with is a black and gray cloud motion blur? It would have been nice to see some color in the background, even if it was desaturated. The font choice is poor in my opinion and the execution is lacking. The font looks like a typewritter-like font, which I feel was the wrong choice for this kind of design, and the darkness/highlights applied to it is inconsistent and don't really add much to it. If you wanted the text to be readable in front of multiple different colors/brightnesses, you could have added a stroke behind it, or a faded background behind it. A little shadowing on the bottom of the picture wouldn't have been that noticeable and the text could have stayed one color.

Fantastic looking Pokemon, but I feel the rest of the image is lacking. Please don't take my comments harshly though, I only pick on you because I feel you have more potential to commit to a piece of art.

George2FRESH's Entry
GengerBanner.png


Is this a combination of real life photos, and pokemon art? That's not a bad idea, don't let me confuse you. It's better to take content from other places than have no extra content in your picture at all.

I think the picture of Gengar of decent. If it was sharper, it would have been a little bit more nice, as the blur tends to take focus off of it. The cloud-like effects work with the idea of it, but I think they could have been done better. It's hard to mix real life photos, cartoon picture, and realistic effects because people are expecting the same kind of style within everything. Cartoon-like clouds might have been the better idea. The trees in the background are interesting. You can't do much with trees, so I will move on. The sky/moon are confusing. I don't know what is what. I almost think it's an eyeball or something. The font choice is better than others but still not the best it could be in my opinion. With a black stroke around it, it is harder to read. The font itself is somewhat hard to read due to it's grungy-ness. At that size, with the stroke, and the grungy-ness of the font, a person might need to take more than a few glances at it before they can properly read all of it.

For a site banner, that isn't what your shooting for. The goal for a site banner is to make it easy to see, read, and understand the second the person lands on your site. They are only going to spend a few seconds staring at it before they go looking at the news or go looking for the information they want to find. It doesn't help to confuse them then and have them thinking about what it says or what is what in the background while they are navigating the site.

I think this entry is more creative than some of the others I have reviewed, but I think it still has a way to go.

frozengallade's Entry
thebeautyofabsol.png


Let me comment on the good things and then comment on the bad things.

The font isn't super-generic, even though it is kind of generic for a cursive/signature like font. I like the idea of Absol being outside the picture. Thinking outside the box is always cool and taking advantage of every pixel you can is smart. The colors work together well.

Now, I've mentioned the things I like about it, but I think it's obvious this entry could still use some work, and I hope the artist isn't offended by anything I say.

This looks like it was created in MS Paint due to the spray can effect going around the inside of it. I'm not saying MS Paint is bad, but it's like bringing a knife to a gun fight. People are going to be using much more sophisticated software and it's hard to produce as nice effects with MS Paint.

I think the only two things going for the image is the picture of Absol and the purple swirly background. The borders around the background don't really add to the picture, and neither does the font really. It's just a plain cursive white font. I think there are better font choices and better font colors and effects. I don't like how the Absol is cut off. I would have shrunk him if all of him didn't fit, because it just looks weird for his tail to be cut off.

I think it was a nice try, and I definitely think you should keep working with it, but try a better program like Photoshop or Gimp (free version of photoshop) for better effects and usually better results.

lilsparks101's Entry
Pc3Ghostbanner.png


The first thing that pops out is the non-generic font. I think I've seen a similar england-like font before, but none the less, it looks so much better than the generic fonts I've seen in the other entries. I think the choice of font for the name is interesting and decent, but I think the font choice for the words underneath the name is lacking and borderline unreadable. Usually when you have smaller text underneath a bigger name/title type font, you use a more generic font, so its easier to read and don't draw attention from the main name/title. I see you added some transparency to your text, which I think works well with the idea.

Before I continue on, I wanted to point out the use of the plusle or minun logo used in the bottom left hand corner as a creative way of putting your stamp on a image. People can easily look for the plusle/minun and instantly know who created the image. Why do you think every company has their own logo? For the same exact use. You don't need the work Nike to see that it is a Nike shoe. All you need is the swoosh. Same here. Creative touch.

I think the picture of Dusknoir could have been of better quality, but coming from experience, it's hard to find good quality scans of cards for bigger images like this. Usually people have to scale smaller images larger and that tends to bring out the imperfections in the pictures and make them blurry and less appealing.

I think the background is cool looking, and kind of works with the Dusknoir. I really like the desaturated colors and the hot pinks and purples that stand out. Good colors for a ghost pokemon banner.

I don't think the drop shadow on the banner is needed unless the website that the banner is made for can easily take advantage of it.

It would have been nice to see additional Pokemon the banner. Overall, a very decent submission.

.::n00bmuffin::.'s Entry
2v2cy82.jpg


Lack of background is poor...j/k I kid. There is pretty much no need for a background since the pokemon take up the entire frame. A lot of the time, this would be a bad idea, but I think you pulled it off pretty well. Again, the quality of the card scans used for the pokemon could have been better, but I understand people online only have so much to work with.

I think the font should be commented on by itself. I mentioned in another person's review that there are multiple ways to make font readable if it is put on top of a multi-color background. I think you pulled off readable text very decently. Some areas are harder to read than others, but for the most part, it is still very readable, so kudos to you for that.

I like the blurry-ness of the image. It's funny, one of my comments for another's entry was that I didn't like the blurry-ness, but there is good blurry-ness and bad blurry-ness. This blurry-ness is more of a sharp color/brightness blur that makes it just look like it's glowing very brightly. Of course some sharpness would have been nice so the entire thing wasn't overly-shining, but again, it falls back on the scans you used.

Of course, I have to comment that the banner isn't super creative. Two pokemon thrown on a background. But you know what? Super creative isn't always needed. I think it pulls off a nice look and should be an entry you should be proud of. Hopefully you try new stuff with your future entries, like not filling the entire frame with Pokemon so you can try out some backgrounds and/or some nice effects around the Pokemon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I think there were some decent entries, and some that really needed more work. I give everyone kudos for making an entry and submitting it. Even if it wasn't the best in the world, you tried, and you deserve some respect for it. I hope everyone who entered something really tries to keep at designing stuff in the future and bettering themselves. I've recently looked back at some of my older stuff and am amazed how much I've improved over a short amount of years, and it's only because I've pushed myself to improve and pushed myself to try out new things and I wouldn't have felt possible in the past. If you truly enjoy being an artist, it is you singular mission to become the best artist you can be, so you can illustrate your ideas and dreams in the best way possible.

Congrats all, and I look forward to the next competition.
 
Prime:

The background wasn't Motion Blurred, that's just the way I used the brush. xD But I definitely agree with everything you said. I should've put more effort into the font (and, at a larger size, it's actually a tattered-looking font, which fit), but I had it looking better in the animation version of the banner (I read how you feel on animated banners, too) - font's something I struggle with. xP Thanks for the great review! I'll be sure to learn from what you've said. :D
 
I don't see the harm of it. It's not official, it's not trying to be official. Can't others comment on people's work?

Xous, I left a comment on one of your DA pieces. Don't feel bad about the background, I have problems with making backgrounds on my stuff too. It's easy to draw ideas from a picture of a Pokemon, but when you don't have something to draw ideas from for the background, it can be hard to come up with a background that is just as creative as the pokemon in it.
 
Prime said:
Prof. Shinx's Entry
MurkrowBanner.png

but it's obvious you just took the image from something else and scaled it up, as it's blurry.
46-murkrow.jpg

Naa, the Murkrow and background are 100% original size, the edges are blurry as I had to 'soften' them manually :p
 
Color me surprised then!

I think it's definitely cool how you were able to get the murkrow picture to match the background seamlessly. Having the Murkrow actually fit into the background definitely makes it stand out against the ones that are just pokemon on a colored background.
 
Okay, here are my ratings (for the bannetr co9ntest that is)! Due to lack of time the fanfic contest has to wait til my weekend to be rated, but at least I hope my ratings are useful for you guys!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prof. Shinx's Entry
- Style: 17/20, I looked the overall idea and it has a nice finishing touch to it! Too bad you made the white ''border'', you could have tried to make it transparent, but no major point loss from me here. :)

- Originality and use of color: 16/20, I have mixed feelings about this... It has a ncie touch to it, and it is original, but it reminds me of halloween a bit, so maybe it's not all that original...? Anyways, I like it!

- Relation to the Challenge: 15/20, it fits nice with the challange. Nothing more to say here.

- General Effects: 19/20, I only substracted 1 point due to that white border thingy, other than that it has a nice overall touch to it, the scenery blends in perfectly, and the feathers ''outside'' the whole is a REALLY nice touch in my opinion.

- Effort: 3/10, We pick a card image! We pick a background! We grab a blender! Okay, okay, I guess you get my point? It's a nice banner, but a little more effort could be given overall I think...?

- Overall: 8/10, I liked this one quite a lot, and only some minor substractions due to that white border thingy and the amount of effort used... On the other hand it shows how something simple can be so good-looking!

Total: 78/100 (+2 Added = 80)

Charizard88's Entry
- Style: 8/20, this might look harsh, but really... I'm NOT pleased with this... I expected WAY more, and it ends up with a color-changing duskull image and some text...? The 8 points you get from me is for the animations, and the nice cut-out from the image. Enough said about that though...

- Originality and use of color: 12/20, You get points for originality here, as your ''slogan'' was quite original compared to most others. As for the use of color... Red and black are a nice mix, but too bad that was all you used (no, I'm NOT counting the white from the text, sorry)

- Relation to the Challenge: 18/20, It's a plain ye olde banner! :D

- General Effects: 14/20, Animation is all I can give you points here for... Oh, and what the heck, I'll give you some extra's due to the red+black combo(once again I'm NOT counting the white text, but this time it works in your favor, so that's fair, right?).

- Effort: 2/10, Not to brag, but I can make this in like, 10 minutes...? And that's counting 4 for starting up my pc and the programs for using. Well, I'm not trying to insult you/bringing you down, but I SERIOUSLY think you ought to put ALOT of more effort in any future challanges... At least, compared to this.

- Overall: 4/10, Black and red (Duskull). Moving text. Nothing else. I don't ''hate'' it, but I'm most certainly not a ''lover'' either.

Total: 58/100

Xous' Entry
- Style: 19/20, Assuming you did everything yourself, you got yourself a new fan! I'm a BIG fan of original work, especially scrap-artists....! The style is nice, en especially creative! Keep this up! ^^ Just a single point distracted because it's not perfect... But hey! Nothing's perfect! ;)

- Originality and use of color: 18/20, The use of colour is great, and it makes for a nice whole. Also very original, a lot of extra points here for you!

- Relation to the Challenge: 18/20, Matched the theme well, so good work!:)

- General Effects: 18/20, I can only comment on the graphic effects, but they look nice, so all I can say is keep it up!

- Effort: 10/10 I don't give ''perfect'' scores often, so you might be proud of yourself, or you might not. :) Seeing the banner and assuming you did everything yourself, I'd give you 20 out of 10! Once more, I simply LOVE scratch-artists, and I think you deserve every point you got from me! ;)

- Overall: 9/10, Nice banner, nice graphis, nice colors! It's just not perfect, so ya... No ''perfect'' score either! ;)

Total: 92/100 (+2 Added = 94)

George2FRESH's Entry
- Style: 17/20, It's a nice whole, and the style kind of attracts me (don't make fun of that please...!:p), so good job there! The only ''bad'' part I think it's a little cloggy (mist effect runs trough the whole banner, but I'd personally wouldn't have run it trough the wood stuff), but even that is to a minimum. :)

- Originality and use of color: 18/20, it had a nice original feeling to it, especially the gengar ''hazed'' away in the background!

- Relation to the Challenge: 18/20, It's a nice banner. No further comments here! ;)

- General Effects: 18/20, Nice effect used, as well as the background and the woods. The mist is both a pre and a con, seeing its a nice detail, but it could have been used otherwise or at least not fully across the whole banner in my opinion. Still, good job!

- Effort: 8/10, You put in quite some effort in this I think, and that should be rewarded!

- Overall: 8/10, I'm a fan, and I liked it, but I'm not a big fan. Still, one of the better banners who entered I think...! :)

Total: 87/100

Frozengallade's Entry
- Style: 12/20, I liked the components used, but the added graffiti and text ruined it a little for me.... :( Other than that, nice idea and look!

- Originality and use of color: 14/20, The idea was quite original, and I like purple a LOT, but it doesn't go well together with with black... At least, if it's not that dark of a purple.

- Relation to the Challenge: 14/20, not all that ''haunting'', but a nice idea to use Absol instead of some ghost pokémon or so. :) Apart from that, it's a decent banner, so yeah, nothing more to say here! :D

- General Effects: 18/20, Apart from the graffiti and the text it looked great to me!

- Effort: 7/10 Didn't take too much effort I guess... Still it has a nice look to it, so I can always give you some points extra for that ;)

- Overall: 7/10 Once again, the graffiti ruins it for me. Other than that, nice decent banner!

Total: 72/100

lilsparks101's Entry
- Style: 19/20, A tad too ''messy'' for me, and at first I had some trouble reading the text (but this could be just me). Other than that, it looked awesome to me, kudos to that!

- Originality and use of color: 16/20, Not all that original, but most certainly nice effects of with the colors.

- Relation to the Challenge: 18/20, Nice banner, a fitting pokémon, what's there not to love? In my case, the overall ''mysterious'' feeling.

- General Effects: 17/20, Nice background, and the Dusknoir blends in nicely.

- Effort: 9/10, looks like it took some effort, so enjoy the points! ;)

- Overall: 8/10, I liked the banner as a whole, but I'm not TOO fond of it, sorry...!

Total: 87/100

.::n00bmuffin::.'s Entry
- Style: 14/20, In my opinion nothing too special actually. I'd love to judge your OWN style, but all that I can clearly see are two TCG pictures... Apart from that you blended them nicely together, so props for that.

- Originality and use of color: 11/20, Sorry, but I give you 0 points for originallity here. Or wait, I still give you 1 for putting the pokémon together, which is quite original. Otherwise I think putting two TCG pictures is totally NOT original. The use of color is pretty good actually, so I'll grant you 10 for that! ;)

- Relation to the Challenge: 16/20, Mysterious...? Pretty much it is, seeing both Mewtwo and Dusknoir are quite mysterious. What they do on the banner being mysterious? Apart from why they are placed on it, I have no idea!

- General Effects: 19/20, Apart from you using excisting images, you blended them PERFECT, and some other effects are also good. Good job on that one.

Effort: 6/10, Picking two TCG images doesn't take much effort. Sticking them together some, as well as making them to a banner. Next time, please use other material to work with, or at least not too much ''already excisting'' material.

- Overall: 7/10, despite my criticism I like it fair enough. I'd only like to see some more originallity next time...! :D

Total: 63/100

------------------------------------------------------------------------
James' Scoreboard:

1st: Xous – 92/94 points
2nd: George2Fresh & Lilspars101 – both 87 points
4th: Prof Shinx – 78 points
5th: Frozengallade – 72 points
6th: N00bmuffin – 63 points
7th: Charizard88 – 58 points
 
@ James, seriously next time you judge you shouldn't make it look like your favoriting people. I've gotten quite a few comments about your scoring, so just giving a heads up. I'm sure thats only because you say "fan" a lot, and that you said more or less to certain people (again just saying what they tell me).

just telling you what other people told me. I honestly i think you did a very good job, very nice insight.
 
I think that is why I didn't include scores on my reviews. I reviewed them to offer ideas and/or suggest ways the graphics could be improved. Rating everything on a number basis doesn't help this goal and often tends to upset others and cause them to totally miss the good comments you can make.

It'd be great if some of the more talented artists on this forum could take some time of their day and maybe write a tutorial or two that others could follow to come up with some decent effects.
 
Back
Top