I was gone for a time because of holidays and new school term, but here I am, with a fresh new wallpaper to submit. But before that, I'd like to hear comments and advices from you :)

Like my first attempt, it is a Zegapain wallpaper. I used a screen cap to vectorize two characters (vector is Yay!:) ). And then I wondered what background to create this time.

I wanted birds, cause I messed them up on my second wall (look at my sig), they were too simplistic. And they are important (and dark black) in the anime. I found several brush sets on devianart that were perfect for what I wanted to do. I converted them into Illustrator symbols, arranged them on the background (resize, rotate, etc...). I also used one or two cloud brushes (tired of the "Render>Clouds..." function in Photoshop).

I wanted a town. Found one (at random : tokyo), on sxc.hu. Used Median noise and a second Multiply layer to make it look better.

I wanted a green color for background. Found some tutorial one sxc too, about selective color and all... Used it to give a more sepia look to my too-lightened vector. And then adjusted the good levels to find the right color.

The basic thing was done. but the result was too clean. I didn't like it. So I decided to try a grunge set of brushes I had for days on my disk. I found one or more tutorials on "How to make a nice grunge piece of work", but the best results I obtained were when I just tried a new color, or a new size for the brush. Very experimental work here.

Added some text, with a little extra effect, but nothing really outstanding. A quote from the anime and my sig.

And here is the v1 of my work :


I said it is very experimental, and I will accept every single harsh comment that would help improving this wallpaper ;)

Thanks!

EDIT : Typos, etc..

The city doesn't really blend into the background... I would make the city a bit more green and try to blend it more in the green background.

The face characters, with this strange texture you add look pretty strange... I would turn down a little this effect on the face cause it looks like scars... Not sure it's that way you want them! ^^

Some birds look pretty blurry and the one just on the left of the little girl is cut by the city... It should be on top.
The left upper corner looks too empty. The font you use is kind a very simple... You probably should change it...

The brushes and textures are really getting a dark feeling to this wall... Sort of strange when you see the happy faces! ^^

Hope it helps.

Edit : Hey j'avais pas vu que tu parlais français! ^^ Si tu veux plus de précisions sur cette réplique, n'hésite pas à me demander en français! ^^

That usage of cityscape stock there seems much too direct. it needs to be darker and less detailed. maybe filtering could help a bit in making it less photo-esque?

there are too many bird silhouettes that the idea loses its nice edge and its sense of aestheticism. lessen down on how many there are and make sure the layout is eye pleasing as well.

the texture/grunge is very nice, but try to give it a bit more depth in places (i don't know why i said that or if it makes sense but i'm trying to articulate my thoughts ^^; apologies)

I'd like to deeply thank firefox for crashing and making me write this reply for the third time. >_<

So, I realize that the city is kind of a problem here. I think I will try another photo with more filtering. I had problems to do what I want with this one because of the high resolution I work with. What filters would you recommend ? I experimented some "sponge" or "wet brush" effects, but none of them worked as I wanted (note that they perfectly worked as they needed to work, but I didn't exactly know how they would :D ).

For the grunge look, I'll fix the faces problem by using softer brushes on these places. I'll also try deeper ones elsewhere, like asa01 said :)

The birds are another kind of problem. I used Motion Blur to give them... a motion effect ^^. I can fix this easily by reducing the amount of blur. However, I'd like to keep the number of birds I chose, because it is something I took directly from the anime. See the capture below.

Oh, and all the birds are on top of the buidings, it is just an optical effect :D It'll be fixed when I change the city stock photo ;)

Also, zazou told me there is something wrong with the characters' look on their face, while the bg is a very dark one. It is also something I took from the anime. Again, see the capture below. Zegapain is a very dark anime in which the characters does'nt know about their condition, or just try to live with it. The girl on the left is part of the first category, the one on the right is part of the second :) And for the main character (between the two girls on the cap), he is just between 1 and 2, so he looks really angry :D


I nearly forgot the font : Yes it is too simple. I actually didn't found what I was looking for on dafont.com and finally used this one. I'll try to look a bit deeper on the site :)

Thanks a lot for your comments !

@Zazou : J'ai posté un sujet en français sur le French speeking people group ;) Tu peux y accéder via ma signature. Et merci beaucoup!:D

J'ai pas trouvé ton article sur le groupe francophone... Mais bon je ne m'en fais pas trop ^^

I look forward to see the next version of this wall...

Ok, I've got a v2 :)

I didn't change the city scape. I'd like one or more comments on this version before I try another one. I did add a little more median noise and change opacity to 50%. Hope it blends more with the bg ^^

Fixed the grunge brushes on the characters' faces. But the result was too bright. So I modified the gradient overlay to give them a darker color.

Also fixed one or two things on the originale vector ^^"

Moved the bird that was on the buildings to the left upper corner cause I didn't change the photo behind :D

Found a new font for the text, changed its layer style (no more Screen, but Normal).



@ Zazou : Merci énormément ;) Mon post en français

Huh i said something about the characters? o.o i think that was zazou. ^^;

anyway, the font's better, but about the drop shadow effect, i say some mothing blurred shadowy brushing would work better. i don't know if that makes sense to you.

anyway, the stock definitely needs filtering to lessen detail/darken it. i don't know what would because normally, the only filter i use normally is gaussian blur ^^; sorry about that. but experiment with others and see what comes of it. experimentation can prove very rewarding.

about the birds, well if you are strong on your intention of keeping that many birds, then go ahead. but i still say modification is okay and it'd make it look better. but then this is your wall and it's all up to you. =D

asa01

huh i said something about the characters? o.o i think that was zazou. ^^;

oh... well... yes ^^''
Sorry, I think I needed some rest :D

EDIT : And now in v3 :)

I replaced the photo with one that blends better with the background :) Enjoy xD

I did one or two corrections on the text, as you can see. I find it funnier like this :D

I am know thinking of submitting it... but if you have other important comments, I'll take them :)

Hm well, this stock is much better =] but you know, right now, your sky is green and yellow mixed but not quite very mixed...so i don't know why it's relevant but anyway, i think it'd look nice to have the "sky" immediately behind the buildings a dark green, kind of how it's like in the bottom left corner. suggestion only though, it looks fine as is.

and i think if you want to place emphasis on certain words, the font sizes could even more different and the 'september' line could be moved further to the left and the 'never comes' line could be moved further to th right. that way, it doesn't look so much as a thick clutter of text. the wall has enough business with all the birds silhouette.

well, those are my thoughts. take them leave them up to you and maybe you should get zazou's opinion as well, if you guys are not corresponding by PM/in the french-speaking group etc. good luck with this!