Q: Who are you and where are you from?
Q: You are well know and respected inside the Graphics workshop please; if you don’t mind give us some back story on yourself.
My name is indeed Louis, it's from French origin and so am I, but I actually live in Rio de Janeiro Brazil one of the most beautiful and romanticized cities in the world. I'm 23 years old and have been studying graphic design for four years now. I've been a member here at the forums for over two years and I have been contributing to the Third Age total war mod 2D art a bit after I signed in. I started as a portrait maker and moved on to do event pictures and building icons that I released as a visual improvement sub mod that had many collaborations by other members mainly Maxmazi, who made the unit info cards. You can check some of the work that was done here and the original thread here. I've recently started working on a re-development of the elven factions of Third Age, progress can be seen here.
Q:Whatbrought you to TWC? And what brought you to the GW?
I think total war games are great, it's one of those games that I can play for countless hours and that I always come back to when I finish playing other games, and I'm talking about the vanilla game, I was quite oblivious to modifications a while back. I think I stumbled across TWC when I was searching for Lord of the Rings related stuff, I always wondered how good a Total War game set in middle-earth would be, and judging by the several LOTR mods many others have too, and that's how I found the Third Age total war mod forum and my mind started buzzing with suggestions like many other newcomers in those forums. So I signed in and started to post, while eagerly awaiting any bit of news and previews of the mod I made signature requests related to LOTR, I also began exploring other parts of the forums and came across the signature and avatar request thread of the GW and became a regular there.
Q: How long have you been working with Photoshop/gimp? What drew you to it?
I started working with photoshop at the same time I entered design school, four years ago, I didn't know the software at the time but I needed to achieve a certain result with my graphic pieces and I just tried to make it happen. I'm very intuitive when it comes to computers, and photoshop is an intuitive tool so I became familiar with it rather quickly, later on I had a class teaching some basics mainly working with Layers which I hadn't explored that much. I'm currently having some advanced photoshop classes, but most of what is taught I had already learned by myself.
Q: Are you naturally artistic, can you pick up a pencil and create magic? And if so do you find it easier or more difficult to do graphic arts?
I think you can say that I'm naturally artistic, I would rather define me as being naturally observant, it's part of my personality, and that obviously affected my drawing skill, I can quickly perceive shapes and lighting and put it on paper. But that's not all it takes to 'create magic' like you said, it takes a lot of patience and practice. Drawing and graphic arts are intimately related, to be a versatile graphic artist is alway good to be able to layout your ideas on paper and be in contact with paper to find your own personal expression. I guess that for a lot of people is much easier to be in front of the computer and make a composition than it is with a blank piece of paper, you have an unending amount of freedom with a piece of paper, which can be quite daunting, but this artistic freedom makes it much less complicated. The graphic arts have to be able to communicate and for that reason is much more limited but at the same time it's a very vast area and every part of it such as illustration, typography, animation has its nuances and complexities, which make it more difficult to master.
Q:Howdo you approach making a signature? Eg: someone has requested one with just a descriptive outline. I imagine the visual process is quite different than that where the user has supplied images, (I know it different for myself)
For me there are two types of requests, one that allows you to be more creative and the other more technical. When the user has supplied several images or wants a specific type of signature like an animated one the challenge is much more technical, you have A and you must achieve B and that requires a bit of knowledge of the image editing tool but not much else. When the user gives you just a descriptive outline the challenge is very different, in this case you have to illustrate an idea or concept. I like to do these types of requests but the description must generate a spark, a general picture of what it will look like in my head, than I normally do some research or use something out of my database and see what images work together, my best signatures were made that way.
Q: If you had to pick one past signature or competition entry which would it be, and why?
I’m really fond of my signatures, when the work is done I like to look back and contemplate the piece, I think it’s part of the reward of doing any kind of visual art. If I had to pick I would go with my Graphics competition 46 entry that granted me my medal, this signature is probably my best, it was originally a signature request that I didn’t feel like doing but my friend Maxmazi ask me to do it so I did it.
Q: Is there anyone in the TWC Graphics Workshop that you look to, as a standard of quality?
You put me in a tough spot, I would feel bad not to mention all of the content artists that are very talented. In my opinion someone that serves as an example is Giovi, his progress in the graphic arts was meteoric and he is very involved with the graphics workshops, being always amiable and constantly participating in the competitions. It’s very tough to judge the quality of someone’s graphics work, each person has his own style, but if I have to pick someone as a standard of quality I would choose Marcel he has shown enormous versatility and really high quality pieces.
Q: Lastly, is there any advice you can give to people who are taking thinking of learning Photoshop.
Photoshop is a tool, it’s a mean to achieve an end, so I don't see the point of doing every tutorial available, I think you would become fed up after some time. My advice for people who want to learn photoshop is to find something specific you want to achieve, like fix a really old photo of your grandparents or make a funny montage, then ask for help or search some tutorials regarding what you want to accomplish. This will help you grasp the basics and you will have something to show for that is more personal, from that point on you can try doing things by yourself, each time you find a challenge you can step out of your comfort zone and try to learn something new and more advanced through tutorials.
[LEFT]---
Does the signature need to be within 550x175?
This was going to be my surrealism piece, but since I missed the deadline I'll use it here as my signature:
One of my drawings
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No rest for the wicked
Silver Shield Thanksgiving Special
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Re: Silver Shield Thanksgiving Special
★Absolutely Fin-bulous★
δούξ θρᾳκήσιου
Artifex
Mayo
Domesticus
How Do You Turn This On
Originally Posted by Armatus
Idea missing.
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