GraphixFocuz@TVB

[Banner+Poster] Smooth & Rough

Posted 8/24/2011 09:09:00 pm No comments: Labels: Aimee Chan, Astrid Chan, Him Law, Lai Lok Yi, Michael Miu, Michael Tse, Nancy Wu, Selena Li

I actually completed 7/8 of them before that hiatus post. But I decided to keep them till now cuz I knew I wun have much time/energy/creative juices to make graphics once uni starts. Btw I completed Michael Miu's one just ytd. Hope u like all 8!

Selena Li [李诗韵]

Him Law [罗仲谦]

Michael Tse [谢天华]

Aimee Chan [陈茵媺]

Lai Lok Yi [黎诺懿]

Astrid Chan [陈芷菁]

Nancy Wu [胡定欣]

Michael Miu [苗侨伟]

[Announcement] Partial-hiatus

Posted 8/08/2011 12:52:00 am No comments:

Hi all! Thanks for ur support over the past few months. Uni's starting really soon for me so I might not have as much time to make & post graphics until end-Nov, depending on how things turn out. So just in case you dun see any more updates for quite a while, this is the reason!
I'm not sure how it'll be but here's just a rough guideline:

Postings of around 4 graphics (not posts) per month, 1 for each wk
The format of my posts might change to per-graphic release rather than batch release
Requests will still be open but I might take a longer time to fulfil the request.
I might not check my cbox/comments much so if there's anything impt/urgent, please email me (tantsy@hotmail.com)

Once again, thanks for ur support! My blog will still be open, just that the frequency of my updates may be reduced.

[Chat] Shout-out to all TVB graphics designers!

Posted 8/02/2011 11:37:00 am No comments:

Hey hey!
Besides Molly (MDG Creations) & tvbobsessions (TVB Graphics), who are both not really active now, do you all know of other TVB fan sites which focus solely on graphics (like mine)? Heheh I'm just curious! :)
& do u all make TVB graphics? Do leave ur name & link! I would like to know u! :D

Edit (related to Tumblr stuff): I follow Jia at both lyricalstars and her personal blog. I really admire her fantastic works! Quoting from her About page on lyricalstars, "This is a combination of Lyrics and Images site, in short Lyrical Images. Lyrics are added on to Images and presented in this tumblr site. They are mainly C-pop lyrics.", you can see that she does mostly song-related stuff. But she also has some TVB-related graphics (under the tag "TVB") at both lyricalstars and her personal blog. Do check them out! :D

[Chat] Fun fact on Kanin

Posted 8/01/2011 12:46:00 am No comments: Labels: [Pierre] Ngo Kanin

Some time back, Kanin (or as some people call him, "Pierre") & his friend actually set up a company, Freebase Media, an advertising and film company which is separate from Kanin's TVB work. Visit http://www.freebasemedia.com/about_us.php for more information. :)

But that’s the old site. The new “About Us” page only shows his friend's name. I believe that Kanin is not really involved in this any more due to his far busier TVB schedule now.

Note:
As a long-time Kanin fan, I would like to take this chance to clarify that he has said before that he would prefer that people refer to him as "Kanin" instead of "Pierre" as "Pierre" is not is real name. It was given to him by his teacher.

Sidenote:

I feel that my previous post was not really well-structured & rather poorly written. Sorry! Will do a better job in the future, when I'm not rushing for time.

In any case, THANK YOU for all your support! :D

[Article+PSD] Curves & Layer Styles

Posted 7/30/2011 10:35:00 pm No comments:

Each & every time I make a graphic, the effects I add are unique. You will not find exactly the same ones between any two of them.

For CURVES, high-contrast & high-saturation ones usually have Curves that are S-shaped (The left side of the histogram, which controls the shadows, are pulled low while the right side of the histogram, which controls highlights, are pushed up.) "Ligher" ones have usually have points above the original line. There are many other combinations. Experiment!

As for LAYER STYLES, I usually use them for vignetting (the dark rim you see around Linda in the first "After" graphic below). However you can also use them to add noise/gradient/textures/glow to the whole layer. What I've done (for both graphics) is to add a subtle inner glow (radiating from the centre) so that Linda's face is brightened up & thus contrasts better against the (dark) background.

There are endless things you can do with Curves, Layer Styles (& many other tools in various image editing software). Take these 2 graphics & their PSD files only as a reference. The most important part is to "get your hands dirty" & try them all out!

Tip for Photoshop users: If you do not have a layer mask, change the layer to a SMART OBJECT before applying filters. This will allow you to make non-destructive changes to the layer, adjust your filter settings endlessly, mask parts of your filter(s) & much more!