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So this may not even be the right place, but being that this deals with digital art, I'll give it a shot: Recently I commissioned TacticalLion Designs to create some Twitch overlays for streaming for myself and some buddies. I paid extra for the original files, plus .jpg's. I clearly wrote out exactly what I was looking for as far as design, colors and even font ideas, and everything seemed good to go. I was informed via email that my order was received and I should receive a first draft to look over between 8/11 and 8/14. 8/14 came and went with radio silence. I figured, hey, it's an estimated timeframe, and it's custom artwork, so I'll give them some time. On the 16th (at the end of the work day, around 4pm or so), I emailed them and directly contacted them via their website, with no response at all, and I didn't hear anything from them again on the 17th. So what brought me here: Has anyone worked with, or know of a reputation for these guys? http://tacticalliondesigns.com/ I poked around and they seemed to be legit, but now I'm worried I wasted $40. At what point do I call them out for having poo poo customer service? A week? 2? I've never commissioned artwork before, but I think it's safe to say that the artist should at least be receptive to communication, especially when the customer has already paid in full. Any ideas where to go from here, short of talking to my credit card company? Also, if I hosed up at any point myself (maybe I shouldn't have paid in advance?), let me know so that I can use this as a learning experience. Zipperelli. fucked around with this message at 10:10 on Aug 18, 2017 |
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Aug 18, 2017 10:08
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Deadlines can be nebulous things for some design shops, especially if they're busy. Keep in touch with them – if they care about that sort of thing they surely know they've missed a deadline and they should theoretically be fixing the situation as fast as they can. That being said, $40 is a pittance to pay for design. Your work was probably shopped out to someone in Bulgaria or Brasil, so who knows how long it'll take. Purchasing design isn't like buying something on Amazon. You're buying someone's service in creating a creative product that doesn't yet exist. As a buyer of design, good transactions happen when you know the designer's work and can trust that they'll deliver on time. Ordering something off a random website when (I assume) you haven't actually talked to anyone sounds like a terrible idea and a recipe for disaster. Here's a bad analogy: it's like you bought a $.25 hot dog from a shifty guy on the street with a beat up cart and a hand-painted sign that says "Hat Dags," and he told you to wait while he goes around the corner to get the dog for you. You might get one, you might not, and the dog you get may or may not contain horse and guinea pig. The point is you paid for a $.25 hot dog so you probably shouldn't expect too much in the way of quality or service.
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Aug 18, 2017 15:20
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Zipperelli. posted:I paid extra for the original files, plus .jpg's. This right here infuriates me. I've been a designer for 20 years. You shouldn't have to "pay extra" for your files. That's bullshit and bush-league. I mean, $40 is ridiculously low, but still - there was an agreement to create artwork. Charging people extra for files is the poo poo Fiverr and them pull and it's destroying the industry.
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Aug 18, 2017 16:59
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I understand why people do it, but yeah I agree it's a dumb practice. If you really want to charge people extra for source files just increase your rate. Why create needless friction with your clients by putting it in a contract? Either give them the files or don't. Granted with a service like this it sounds like an upsell point, so I'm not terribly surprised.
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Aug 18, 2017 17:19
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As a photographer I don't want clients having the RAWs because they'll make it look like trash with their own editing and then tell people it's my photo. This is a very standard approach in photography.
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Aug 18, 2017 20:36
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Thanks for all of the help guys. My tumblr is mainly about struggling with mental illness and addiction and what I'm doing to get out of it and trying to live a happy and healthy life (lol). I have maybe 5 or so followers right now. I have quite a bit to talk about I've been discovering which is surprising and good. Due to the nature of the blog there are so many ups and downs so the posts are sporadic but I'm still putting out regular content. I'm also finding that I really want to get content out there to help people that are in my shoes or struggling with related issues. I'm glad you guys said to just say "gently caress it" and do it. What's the worst that can happen? Also it's funny and sad how many people out there have 100% self-diagnosed issues. Ugh. At least my story can come from legit sources and I have quite the long history of it. Right now I'm just liking other posts and following others in hopes of getting more followers. Anyway, thanks for the motivation boost guys. Whether anything comes from this or not it could possibly be good therapy for myself. Who knows?
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Aug 18, 2017 21:23
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Thanks for all of the help guys. My tumblr is mainly about struggling with mental illness and addiction and what I'm doing to get out of it and trying to live a happy and healthy life (lol). I have maybe 5 or so followers right now. I have quite a bit to talk about I've been discovering which is surprising and good. Due to the nature of the blog there are so many ups and downs so the posts are sporadic but I'm still putting out regular content. Yeah I think that's 80% of active tumblrs and probably the reason 95% of people run the other 20%. As long as you keep your ears out of their bizarre echo chamber when it comes to social norms etc it's probably good therapy.
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Aug 19, 2017 04:26
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VelociBacon posted:Yeah I think that's 80% of active tumblrs and probably the reason 95% of people run the other 20%. As long as you keep your ears out of their bizarre echo chamber when it comes to social norms etc it's probably good therapy. I'm an adult so I think I'll be ok when it comes to the echo chambers. I've been to college and critical thinking is a good skill which helps me able to recognize that poo poo. That's also probably a disadvantage because I think I read that tumblr is mostly teens and early 20s. I'm ignoring the angsty whiny poo poo as much as I can. Also staying away from, well yeah, weird social topics. I don't think that SJW poo poo or whatever will draw me in since I really don't give many fucks about it Not sure if that's what you meant by silly echo chambers. Ah well, maybe I have some decent advice through experience. I'm trying to follow blogs that are specifically related to my plight.
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Aug 19, 2017 18:05
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What are some good watercolor pencils that won't break the bank?
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Aug 22, 2017 18:23
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So a quick follow up: I finally got a hold of someone on Twitter from the graphics site, and they told me "It looks like it was already sent out, let me talk to the artist" 2 hours later, I got the most rushed, poo poo work I've ever seen, with absolutely no attention to anything I asked for. I didn't even respond, and deleted the files I got sent. Anyone here familiar with designing twitch overlays that wants to make some money? PM me.
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Aug 23, 2017 02:34
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Zipperelli. posted:So a quick follow up: Respond with "This seems like a rushed effort to get me something quickly and it is lacking the style points I had requested when I made the initial order. At this point I must ask for my money back". Why wouldn't you even try to get your money back?
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Aug 23, 2017 03:29
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Also if you want stuff and are offering cash monies, ask on SA Mart
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Aug 23, 2017 03:50
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VelociBacon posted:Respond with "This seems like a rushed effort to get me something quickly and it is lacking the style points I had requested when I made the initial order. At this point I must ask for my money back". Why wouldn't you even try to get your money back? I was just totally over dealing with them. I know without a shadow of a doubt that they just threw some poo poo together because I asked about it. If I never asked, they never would have said or sent me anything. Sometimes I just don't want to deal with that nonsense. Capital 1 already refunded my money. gently caress trying to go through the artist who couldn't be bothered to do work he was paid for. Synthbuttrange posted:Also if you want stuff and are offering cash monies, ask on SA Mart Oh poo poo, good point.
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Aug 23, 2017 07:27
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Somewhere on the forum there was a thread with some print resources for sketch artists. I was going to buy some of the books linked but I can't seem to find the thread. Can anyone recommend some good references for beginner/hobbyist artists for drawing the human form? I don't have many art reference texts so the typical go-to recommendations would be appreciated.
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Aug 23, 2017 17:12
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Zipperelli. posted:Anyone here familiar with designing twitch overlays that wants to make some money? PM me. Are still only offering $40? Prepare for a letdown.
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Aug 23, 2017 20:36
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Ferrule posted:Are still only offering $40? Prepare for a letdown. That's what they charged, not what I offered. Hard lesson in "you get what you pay for"
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Aug 23, 2017 21:33
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This is probably more of a programming question, but has anyone ever done any work in reverse engineering the formats of Photoshop's tool presets and Manga Studio's brushes? There don't seem to be any official specifications, and I really want to write something that can (roughly) convert several brushes at once, rather than me doing it by hand.
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Aug 24, 2017 06:33
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Zipperelli. posted:That's what they charged, not what I offered. There's a freelance thread here in CC if you want to hire an actual designer instead of roll the dice in SAMart. 
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Aug 25, 2017 03:57
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Franchescanado posted:What are some good watercolor pencils that won't break the bank? I picked up a very simple set of watercolour crayons for pretty cheap when I first wanted to try them and didn't want to spend a ton. I actually really like having a limited pallet because blending the colours with the brush gives such a nice effect. I really love my watercolour crayons.
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Aug 25, 2017 05:25
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I would like to get into oil painting. Can anyone recommend good cheaper or "student" brands of oil paint? I was thinking of getting this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-studio-oil-colors/ Also I can't use turpentine, since where I will be painting has poor ventilation. Is linseed oil good enough? Gameko posted:Somewhere on the forum there was a thread with some print resources for sketch artists. I was going to buy some of the books linked but I can't seem to find the thread. I'm not sure which thread that was, but here are some books I always see recommended for beginners: Figure Drawing for All It's Worth: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857680986/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1CLVYXH0SFX0P&colid=2J4AOB16L8BIV Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life: https://www.amazon.com/Bridgmans-Co...awing+from+life The Human Figure (the pictures are very poor quality, but I still found the book helpful when I was starting out): https://www.amazon.com/Human-Figure-Dover-Anatomy-Artists/dp/0486204324 Anatomy for the Artist (I use this more as a reference for anatomy. Not really much about drawing in it, but great photographs): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0...ASIN=078948045X Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (I've never read this, but I keep hearing it's good): https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Righ...de+of+the+brain Sk8ers4Christ fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Aug 26, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 11:14
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Jake Snake posted:I would like to get into oil painting. Can anyone recommend good cheaper or "student" brands of oil paint? I was thinking of getting this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-studio-oil-colors/ Not really. Linseed is a binder. It helps thin a bit but is also used to make things glossy and for blending. It makes them transparent a bit, but it also takes forever to dry. Turp is used both for cleaning and for really thinning out the medium. If it's too strong an odor I would suggest trying some "odorless" paint thinner. You can get that at a hardware store. It still smells, but no where near as powerful as turp. I guess you can get away with just linseed oil if you want but you gotta clean your brushes somehow. As for paints themselves, sticks with Windsor Newton. I don't trust store brands. You can get a decent set of WN pretty cheap.
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Aug 26, 2017 14:37
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Yeah grab an odorless thinner. Look into getting a container for it that allows you to reuse the thinner also.
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Aug 26, 2017 14:55
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Yeah. Keep a glass pickle jar and lid. Good to go. You can re-use thinner.
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Aug 26, 2017 16:01
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Jake Snake posted:I would like to get into oil painting. Can anyone recommend good cheaper or "student" brands of oil paint? I was thinking of getting this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-studio-oil-colors/ Thirding the parts about thinner. You can use them outside with the jars if you are worried about fumes but mineral spirits are pretty much the best tool for cleaning brushes. Also keep in mind that spirits are extremely flammable so make sure you store it safely, same with any turp soaked rags you might have! Thinning your paints is not required (many artists paint with no mediums) but you still have to clean and maintain your brushes if you want them to last at all. Also while you'll still want to use the turp or odorless mineral spirits first, you can clean your brushes the rest of the way with something like Murphy's Wood Soap afterwards. Together, using both of them like that will keep your brushes in great shape. My favorite brands for paint are Winsor Newton, and Gamblin. Utretch store brand is probably the best store brand that I know of (they don't use as much filler as other store brands), but still make sure you buy their artist grade, not their student grade. If you want to save money but still have a good set of paints to work with you'll have to do a bit of research so you know which colors you have to spend money on. For instance, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna are pigments made from clay/dirt and will be cheap in general. Buying student grade wont necessarily hurt you here. However if you want a really drat good opaque red, you pretty much need a true cad red which you'll only find in artist grade paints. If you see anything called "Cadimum Red Hue" the hue means its a knock off made by a blend of other pigments that they did to try to get close to the original color but with cheaper pigments. So you add the fact that it's already a blend and add in a bunch of fillers (which is what they do to lower the price of student grade paints) you aren't going to get a paint that will react the right way. Like out of the tube it might look okay but once you start mixing other paints to it, it won't quite mix as nice and often will look kinda lifeless. Painting is a hard craft to learn as it is, it's even harder with subpar materials. Having a few good rich colors and making good use of those will go a long way, then you can have colors like yellow ochre, burnt sienna, umber, etc be your workhorse colors since they are cheaper and you can afford to use more of them. (Artists used to often work this way, building up an under-painting with cheap colors then glazing over with expensive colors to finish) You can get a Cadmium Yellow and a Cadmium Red and be judicious in their use and they'll last you a long while. Also art stores often have 40% off coupons, that can help you with the cost of the more expensive pigments. You don't have to have a lot of colors to start, there is nothing wrong with a limited palette. Also beware Titanium White, it's very strong, very opaque and very cold, it annihilates other colors. Zinc/Titanium blends are a better and more balanced white and usually not that much more expensive. Oil painting is just the best, so I hope it works out for you! Good luck! JuniperCake fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Aug 27, 2017 |
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Aug 27, 2017 02:27
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Wow, thank you everyone! Yeah, I kind of figured I wouldn't be able to get away with just linseed oil. I'm just worried about poisoning myself with turpentine fumes. So for the odorless paint thinner, I'm guessing that's mineral spirits? Is that relatively safe to use indoors with poor ventilation? JuniperCake posted:pigments This was really helpful. Thank you! Looks like Winsor & Newton has a "student" version of oil colors called Winton, and it's pretty comparable in price to store brands. I'll go with that for the earth-based pigments, then their "professional" paints for the cadmiums. JuniperCake posted:Oil painting is just the best, so I hope it works out for you! Good luck! Thank you!
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Aug 27, 2017 05:23
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I still occasionally dabble in oils. I also do a lot of woodworking (stain, polyurethane, etc). I use paint thinner to clean the brushes first and then, instead of a wood soap (hey no offense JuniperCake) i go with Dawn. Gets that oil right out of there. And cheap.
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Aug 27, 2017 14:15
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What's the best way these days to digitize source material? I receieved a paw print and nose print after my pup passed and I want to make digital copies for backup/future use. I'm guessing a DSLR on a tripod with proper lighting? Just want to find the right path before looking for someone in the area that can help.
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Aug 27, 2017 20:31
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VanguardFelix posted:What's the best way these days to digitize source material? I receieved a paw print and nose print after my pup passed and I want to make digital copies for backup/future use. I'm guessing a DSLR on a tripod with proper lighting? Just want to find the right path before looking for someone in the area that can help. Is it like an ink print on paper? Or a plaster cast? If it is ink on paper a scan will look much better and be much easier to do than photograph
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Aug 27, 2017 22:52
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Fayez Butts posted:Is it like an ink print on paper? Or a plaster cast? If it is ink on paper a scan will look much better and be much easier to do than photograph It's ink stamped on a textured paper/cardstock. I haven't used scanners in awhile and wasn't aware their resolution was good for macros of smaller object sizes.
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Aug 28, 2017 00:38
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VanguardFelix posted:It's ink stamped on a textured paper/cardstock. I haven't used scanners in awhile and wasn't aware their resolution was good for macros of smaller object sizes. Just take it to your local copy shop and they'll be able to give you an image that's bigger than you'll ever know what to do with. Scanners can do up to 1200 dpi and more easy these days.
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Aug 28, 2017 00:55
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Jake Snake posted:Wow, thank you everyone! Yeah, I kind of figured I wouldn't be able to get away with just linseed oil. I'm just worried about poisoning myself with turpentine fumes. So for the odorless paint thinner, I'm guessing that's mineral spirits? Is that relatively safe to use indoors with poor ventilation? Just a heads up – even if you're using odorless paint thinner you should still have good ventilation. There's less of the bad stuff in it (hydrocarbons), but there's still some which means it's still not good for you to inhale it, it's just less bad, unless the packaging says otherwise. Can you not open a window or something? A window with a box fan is usually more than enough to keep a studio space well ventilated.
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Aug 28, 2017 15:38
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kedo posted:Just a heads up – even if you're using odorless paint thinner you should still have good ventilation. There's less of the bad stuff in it (hydrocarbons), but there's still some which means it's still not good for you to inhale it, it's just less bad, unless the packaging says otherwise. Yes, I have a fan and can open a window. If that's all it takes, then awesome, I'm not worried about it. I was concerned it would still require getting an air filter or something.
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Aug 29, 2017 02:49
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The main safety thing is getting a proper storage cabinet for all the flammeable oils, and disposing of the pigments properly (some pigments aren't good to just wash down the drain, or at least that's what I learned in my oil painting classes 15 years ago [jesus I'm getting old]). Someone with more recent experience oil painting can tell me if I'm wrong about anything.
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Aug 29, 2017 08:15
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gmc9987 posted:The main safety thing is getting a proper storage cabinet for all the flammeable oils, and disposing of the pigments properly (some pigments aren't good to just wash down the drain, or at least that's what I learned in my oil painting classes 15 years ago [jesus I'm getting old]). Someone with more recent experience oil painting can tell me if I'm wrong about anything. That's a good point I haven't considered. I'm sure that's still true with pigments containing cadmium or cobalt. With acrylics I used to just scrape the dried paint off the palette and dump it in the trash. I'm guessing oils dry slow enough where you can save the unused paint?
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Aug 30, 2017 10:48
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And in some cases, burial.quote:Mummy brown was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from white pitch, myrrh, and the ground-up remains of Egyptian mummies, both human and feline.[2] As it had good transparency, it could be used for glazes, shadows, flesh tones and shading.[3] However, in addition to its tendency to crack, it was extremely variable in its composition and quality, and since it contained ammonia and particles of fat, was likely to affect other colours with which it was used.[4] It fell from popularity during the 19th century when its composition became more generally known to artists.[5] The Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones was reported to have ceremonially buried his tube of Mummy Brown in his garden when he discovered its true origins.[3]
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Aug 30, 2017 11:09
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Jake Snake posted:That's a good point I haven't considered. I'm sure that's still true with pigments containing cadmium or cobalt. With acrylics I used to just scrape the dried paint off the palette and dump it in the trash. I'm guessing oils dry slow enough where you can save the unused paint? Yeah carefully put tinfoil over your palette and it'll last a good few days depending on the paint and blend with linseed.
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Aug 30, 2017 23:16
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Jake Snake posted:That's a good point I haven't considered. I'm sure that's still true with pigments containing cadmium or cobalt. With acrylics I used to just scrape the dried paint off the palette and dump it in the trash. I'm guessing oils dry slow enough where you can save the unused paint? Even if the paint crusts over, if it hasn't been too long you can break the outer layer and there'll still be fresh-ish paint underneath. But yeah oil paint will take a few days before it's too dry to use so usually you aren't in danger of your paints drying before you are done with them. For sinks, It's not just a pigment thing (watercolors use a lot of the same heavy metal pigments and I'd imagine high end acrylics are similiar though I don't use them), but oil paint has the additional risk of loving up your pipes and gumming everything up. If you've ever seen a sink in a painting classroom you'll see a sink that's been clogged more often then not despite large signs telling people to not empty paints in there. But the primary danger with anything oil paint related is definitely the fire hazard. If you have at least minimal ventilation and practice good studio habits (don't eat while oil painting, clean stuff well, etc) you aren't really at much risk of being poisoned. Turp/spirits however are extremely flammable (in fact they are so flammable they are not allowed on airplanes while oil paints themselves are "usually" considered to be okay). So make sure you are careful, do not store those materials near anything that might get hot, keep them away from flame or anything that can spark and don't accumulate tons of oil soaked rags.
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Aug 31, 2017 06:17
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Thanks again guys. I will try my best not to set myself on fire. I have a clean, empty metal paint bucket I can use to store the spirits. I'll probably get another one for oil rags and take it to the transfer station once it's full. I found out hazardous waste disposal is free where I live, luckily.JuniperCake posted:For sinks, It's not just a pigment thing (watercolors use a lot of the same heavy metal pigments and I'd imagine high end acrylics are similiar though I don't use them), but oil paint has the additional risk of loving up your pipes and gumming everything up. If you've ever seen a sink in a painting classroom you'll see a sink that's been clogged more often then not despite large signs telling people to not empty paints in there. Same with acrylics. I have some Golden Heavy Body containing cadmium and cobalt. Also great at clogging pipes! Or at least it is when you scrape the dried paint into the sink instead of the trashcan like I witnessed some students doing.  Synthbuttrange posted:Mummy brown Haha, this was in a list about historic pigments I was just reading. The author's remarks were: "Discontinued not for lack of mummies, but for fear of illness."
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Sep 2, 2017 04:35
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Hey guys, I want to make ma goofy papier mache costume for the upcoming Portland Retro Games Expo. I want to make a low-res model of the Quake 1 protagonist. It will look goofy and blocky and that's all fine and intentional...but the problem is I'm having a bitch of a time finding source material from which to work. Google searches yield a ton of variations and up-scaled models from Quake 1...but what I'm really looking for is basically just a wireframe outline of the head. Or even better, an actual 3D model. I don't know where to look, or maybe I'm just not using the right keywords.
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Sep 4, 2017 17:28
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It shouldn't be too difficult to find a .pak file viewer and pull the model out. Then you'd need a model viewer for converting it to a more modern format. Quake 1 was one of the most modded games ever I guess it's just a question of if the tools still run on modern machines...
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Sep 5, 2017 07:21
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