I am very pleased about your post. Finally someone actually took his time and posted something really useful. No, I don't mean just this 'mod', I mean comments as a whole.
Sadly, I have to tell you off in one certain point. All your points are valid, and true. Yes, just filters. Yes, no handywork. Yes, mostly random screenshots. And yes, no additional resolutions. You are completely right.
But the one point where you're wrong is this one:
I am not a photoshop newbie who likes to play around with filters, and nothing else. I've been using and learning the art of photoshop for over 5 years now, including tablet work. I'm not mad or enraged about your comment in any way, don't worry, but I thought I should tell you.
The reason for why you're still completely right with all your criticsm is simple:
I randomly made these screenshots, put a few filters on 'em, and uploaded them. I certainly can do better. But I didn't feel like working on these screenshots for one hour each. I wanted to do some really quick under-two-minutes "wallpapers" I can put on my desktop, and that's about it.
Do you know that, when you're just feeling like doing something random? I did, and that's why I uploaded them here, as file. For no special reason I just felt like uploading these hastely made screenshots. Well. Here we are. Yes, your criticsm is completely true, but there is no new and young artist behind them. More likely a bored, semi-experienced artist (For I am certainly no master, but then, who is?).
That out of the way, I still want to thank you for the time you spent on your comment. And if you are truly interested, I could show you some of my 'real' work, including real photography, without any filters at all.
before i start with the critisizing, i want to tell a bit about myself. i'm into photoediting myself for some time now and i know what professional editing looks like. i have a pretty high standard on aesthetics and tend to express my opinion harsher, than i mean to. with that in mind, please take my critics personal, but don't become upset about them. =)
first off, those wallpapers look like screenshots. it's not necessarily a bad thing, if you like it that way, but it misses the aspect of a wallpaper. though, i have to admit, that this is a personal oppinion, and more of a thing of how i feel about those pictures.
for my second point, i want to stick with the feeling-part. your pictures feel like the generic photoshop-starter stuff that appears on the internet. it feels like: "hurray, i got filters!!!!111" i'll give you a more thorough explanation: i presume the "Falloutscreen#.jpg" are the screenshots as you took them. the "Falloutscreen#-#.jpg" are the edited ones. 1-2 looks like glowing edges with some minor tweaking 2-1 is filtered with poster edges and some minor tweaking 4-2 the same, but much less intense
i don't say, that this is bad, but editing screenshots to make wallpapers needs finesse than just drop the shot in photoshop, whack some filters on it and change some atributes.
third point is the image itself. i mean the raw shot and whats visible in it. shot 1 is "just some behemoth attacked by the player with the sniperrifle inside the capitol building" shot 2 is "just 2 super mutants with grenades and miniguns about to be hit by a rocket" shot 3 is actually pretty good. scenic, quiet and well chosen. shot 4 is "just the tenpennytower with some ghul infront of it . . . wearing a stormchaser hat and a reilleys rangers armor. how the vulk did you manage that?" shot 5 is "a burning oilbarrel i think, but it's too dark to tell exactly."
so shots 3 and 4 are the ones with the best bases. i like 3, because its calm and not as hectic as the others, wich is exactly what i want from a wallpaper. 4 is nice, because it has the "wtf???" moment for people who played the game enough to have seen most of the game. on the aesthetical aspect this picture has a nice contrast balance, especially for a wallpaper. the upper left part is mono-colored, so you have space for you desktopicons to put in.
my fourth point is the missing variaty in resolution. from a professional wallpaper-pack i would expect the following resolutions: 800×600 1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200 if you want to be a nice guy, put in the less conventional resolutions as well like: 1152×864 1280×960 1600×900 1920×1440 2048×1536 and above that, you can try to create dual-screen wallpapers, by doubling the vectical pixelcount. 1600×600 2048×768 2560×1024* 3200×1200
so, maybe it would be a good idea to do something you as a gamer woudln't like that much, because it kills you performance dead: pull the ingame-resolution up 1600×1200. this way you can produce good raw screenshot, that you can edit like you want to, and then resize it, to provide a greater variety in resolutions.
and now the part, where i'll be a nice guy. =) to my first point of criticism. google for some professional landscape photographs and try to understand what there is to see on those pictures. you can't learn to see like a photographer from looking at some random pictures, but maybe it gives you an idea of what good pictures are made of. then try find locations on fallout 3, that you think look good. in addition to the "just landscapes" approach to screenshotting, you can use the following console-commands to make scouting for screenshots easier: TAI => toggles the AI ingame off. that may prevent NPCs from moving around. if it prevents YOU from moving, try "player.tai" afterwards, to toggle the AI for the PC again. turning the AI off for the player prevents you from moving. TCAI => toggles the combat AI, thus preventing NPCs from engaging in battle. this won't stop allready ongoing battles! TDETECT => simply explained: makes all NPCs blind, deaf and dumb. they still may move around, but they don't react on anything. like the TCAI this won't stop actions allready started. TCL => toggle clipping. it's the "noclip" command for bethesda games. move wherever you want to. TFC => toggle free-cam. it's like the "tcl", but your avatar stays where it was as you entered the command in the exact way it was. this is especially usefull to take screenshots with your player in it infront of some building or something like that.
in addition to cranking up the resolution, you may want to enable all effects like depth of field, FSAA, anisotropic filtering, HDR (as long as it's not crashing your game), full water refractions and reflections, full shadows, maximum visibility distance for all objects and actors, maximum level of detail and quality for the landscape. again: this will pretty much vulk up your framerate, but will you grant the ability to have the best possible raw material for your wallpapers!
to my second point of criticism: the filter-thingy. take a look at some photoshop tutorials. my personal recommendation is www.good-tutorials.com there you can find tons of tutorials about all kinds of photomanipulation. besides learning photoshop you can get loads of ideas about what to do with your screenshots to make them qualify for real wallpapers. =)
my third point is pretty much congruent to my first one. look at professional photos, look at photoshop tutorials. =)
what to do about the fourth point was allready explained up there. more variety in resolution. and remember: scaling down work great, scaling up will eventually produce very ugly results.
so much for my comment on your wallpapers. don't get angry or stop working, because of it. keep working, keep learning and keep playing! =)
The two shots of the needle are great, the tenpenny tower would be better without the goul imo,the others im not to keen on sorry,but keep going anyway ">.
7 comments
If you could, post some more of the monuments, famous buildings, etc.
I don't care if you did them in under 2 minutes, they are beautiful.
you can send me a PM with links in it or just post them here.
just do as you like. =)
I am very pleased about your post. Finally someone actually took his time and posted something really useful. No, I don't mean just this 'mod', I mean comments as a whole.
Sadly, I have to tell you off in one certain point.
All your points are valid, and true. Yes, just filters. Yes, no handywork. Yes, mostly random screenshots. And yes, no additional resolutions. You are completely right.
But the one point where you're wrong is this one:
I am not a photoshop newbie who likes to play around with filters, and nothing else. I've been using and learning the art of photoshop for over 5 years now, including tablet work. I'm not mad or enraged about your comment in any way, don't worry, but I thought I should tell you.
The reason for why you're still completely right with all your criticsm is simple:
I randomly made these screenshots, put a few filters on 'em, and uploaded them. I certainly can do better. But I didn't feel like working on these screenshots for one hour each. I wanted to do some really quick under-two-minutes "wallpapers" I can put on my desktop, and that's about it.
Do you know that, when you're just feeling like doing something random?
I did, and that's why I uploaded them here, as file. For no special reason I just felt like uploading these hastely made screenshots. Well. Here we are. Yes, your criticsm is completely true, but there is no new and young artist behind them. More likely a bored, semi-experienced artist (For I am certainly no master, but then, who is?).
That out of the way, I still want to thank you for the time you spent on your comment. And if you are truly interested, I could show you some of my 'real' work, including real photography, without any filters at all.
Greetings,
Maverick
i'm into photoediting myself for some time now and i know what professional editing looks like. i have a pretty high standard on aesthetics and tend to express my opinion harsher, than i mean to.
with that in mind, please take my critics personal, but don't become upset about them. =)
first off, those wallpapers look like screenshots. it's not necessarily a bad thing, if you like it that way, but it misses the aspect of a wallpaper. though, i have to admit, that this is a personal oppinion, and more of a thing of how i feel about those pictures.
for my second point, i want to stick with the feeling-part.
your pictures feel like the generic photoshop-starter stuff that appears on the internet. it feels like: "hurray, i got filters!!!!111"
i'll give you a more thorough explanation:
i presume the "Falloutscreen#.jpg" are the screenshots as you took them. the "Falloutscreen#-#.jpg" are the edited ones.
1-2 looks like glowing edges with some minor tweaking
2-1 is filtered with poster edges and some minor tweaking
4-2 the same, but much less intense
i don't say, that this is bad, but editing screenshots to make wallpapers needs finesse than just drop the shot in photoshop, whack some filters on it and change some atributes.
third point is the image itself. i mean the raw shot and whats visible in it.
shot 1 is "just some behemoth attacked by the player with the sniperrifle inside the capitol building"
shot 2 is "just 2 super mutants with grenades and miniguns about to be hit by a rocket"
shot 3 is actually pretty good. scenic, quiet and well chosen.
shot 4 is "just the tenpennytower with some ghul infront of it . . . wearing a stormchaser hat and a reilleys rangers armor. how the vulk did you manage that?"
shot 5 is "a burning oilbarrel i think, but it's too dark to tell exactly."
so shots 3 and 4 are the ones with the best bases.
i like 3, because its calm and not as hectic as the others, wich is exactly what i want from a wallpaper.
4 is nice, because it has the "wtf???" moment for people who played the game enough to have seen most of the game. on the aesthetical aspect this picture has a nice contrast balance, especially for a wallpaper. the upper left part is mono-colored, so you have space for you desktopicons to put in.
my fourth point is the missing variaty in resolution.
from a professional wallpaper-pack i would expect the following resolutions:
800×600
1024×768
1280×1024
1600×1200
if you want to be a nice guy, put in the less conventional resolutions as well like:
1152×864
1280×960
1600×900
1920×1440
2048×1536
and above that, you can try to create dual-screen wallpapers, by doubling the vectical pixelcount.
1600×600
2048×768
2560×1024*
3200×1200
so, maybe it would be a good idea to do something you as a gamer woudln't like that much, because it kills you performance dead: pull the ingame-resolution up 1600×1200.
this way you can produce good raw screenshot, that you can edit like you want to, and then resize it, to provide a greater variety in resolutions.
and now the part, where i'll be a nice guy. =)
to my first point of criticism.
google for some professional landscape photographs and try to understand what there is to see on those pictures.
you can't learn to see like a photographer from looking at some random pictures, but maybe it gives you an idea of what good pictures are made of.
then try find locations on fallout 3, that you think look good.
in addition to the "just landscapes" approach to screenshotting, you can use the following console-commands to make scouting for screenshots easier:
TAI => toggles the AI ingame off. that may prevent NPCs from moving around. if it prevents YOU from moving, try "player.tai" afterwards, to toggle the AI for the PC again. turning the AI off for the player prevents you from moving.
TCAI => toggles the combat AI, thus preventing NPCs from engaging in battle. this won't stop allready ongoing battles!
TDETECT => simply explained: makes all NPCs blind, deaf and dumb. they still may move around, but they don't react on anything. like the TCAI this won't stop actions allready started.
TCL => toggle clipping. it's the "noclip" command for bethesda games. move wherever you want to.
TFC => toggle free-cam. it's like the "tcl", but your avatar stays where it was as you entered the command in the exact way it was. this is especially usefull to take screenshots with your player in it infront of some building or something like that.
in addition to cranking up the resolution, you may want to enable all effects like depth of field, FSAA, anisotropic filtering, HDR (as long as it's not crashing your game), full water refractions and reflections, full shadows, maximum visibility distance for all objects and actors, maximum level of detail and quality for the landscape.
again: this will pretty much vulk up your framerate, but will you grant the ability to have the best possible raw material for your wallpapers!
to my second point of criticism: the filter-thingy.
take a look at some photoshop tutorials.
my personal recommendation is www.good-tutorials.com
there you can find tons of tutorials about all kinds of photomanipulation. besides learning photoshop you can get loads of ideas about what to do with your screenshots to make them qualify for real wallpapers. =)
my third point is pretty much congruent to my first one.
look at professional photos, look at photoshop tutorials. =)
what to do about the fourth point was allready explained up there.
more variety in resolution. and remember: scaling down work great, scaling up will eventually produce very ugly results.
so much for my comment on your wallpapers.
don't get angry or stop working, because of it.
keep working, keep learning and keep playing! =)
greets
Killa B