Off the top of my head, there are at least two different ways to approach designing "vintage stuff."
1. Choose an appropriate image and then filter the daylights out of it. Ron Duke, did a beautiful piece of antique auto art a while ago that captures the experience of taking a precious photo out of an old cigar box right here.
This is an animation of an appropriately vintage scene (?) that was messed up in After Effects with special filters:
Alien Skin's Exposure plug-in also does a great job of adding authentic film grain, colour casting, and contrast to work. Half-toning adds a sense of Retro to work, too.
On the other hand, you can achieve a sense of Retro or Vintage simply by choosing your colors, fonts, and composition (and subject) from a popular period in published works.
It takes a lot of time to research and put all the elements together, but I think it's worth it. Everything old is new again!
This is certainly a larger answer than your question, but does it lead you in an encouraging direction? I hope so, because your work is terrific!
My Best,
Gary
Last edited by Gare; 07 February 2016 at 12:18 PM.
Off the top of my head, there are at least two different ways to approach designing "vintage stuff."
1. Choose an appropriate image and then filter the daylights out of it. Ron Duke, you did a beautiful piece of art a while ago that you filtered to add noise and you drew some wrinkles and fractures on the surface of it, didn't you? Can you post a link for Larry on this thread?
This is an animation of an appropriately vintage scene (?) that was messed up in After Effects with special filters:
Alien Skin's Exposure plug-in also does a great job of adding authentic film grain, colour casting, and contrast to work. Half-toning adds a sense of Retro to work, too.
On the other hand, you can achieve a sense of Retro or Vintage simply by choosing your colors, fonts, and composition (and subject) from a popular period in published works.
It takes a lot of time to research and put all the elements together, but I think it's worth it. Everything old is new again!
This is certainly a larger answer than your question, but does it lead you in an encouraging direction? I hope so, because your work is terrific!
More often than not, a need a small area retouched in a photo, and Photoshop cannot zoom into an area this small, or for other reasons I choose Xara as my retouching program. And I've never been disappointed.
My Best,
Gary
P.S. I have R.I.C.'s corporate blessing to publish this and other works featuring their equipment.
I'm showing this because I've been praising Creature House Expression over on my non-Xara art thread (my Xara non-Art thread?), and want to show that Xara can be used to more or less achieve the same "puffy" fills through careful use of the Bevel tool. The frame is an example of version 11's new brush strokes, and the ability to design your own stroke. The border is just a series of the same typographic glyph.
My Best,
Last edited by Gare; 10 February 2016 at 04:00 PM.
I like it Gare. especially showing how we can use our beloved program to produce similar results to E3. I like to see how the new brushes are used by different people. Frances has done some great stuff with them too, which I do not understand at all. Anyway it would be awesome to have a thread devoted to using the new brushes ad how different people use the to create their effects.
Larry a.k.a wizard509
Never give up. You will never fail, but you may find a lot of ways that don't work.
I like it Gare. especially showing how we can use our beloved program to produce similar results to E3. I like to see how the new brushes are used by different people. Frances has done some great stuff with them too, which I do not understand at all. Anyway it would be awesome to have a thread devoted to using the new brushes ad how different people use the to create their effects.
I'll see that quote, Larry, and raise you one. :)
How about if designers explain what is good for what? Like, "the new brushes are good for pattern work, and also for distressing an image"?
I have always maintained that it's not the wand, but the magician who makes the magic.
Let's see people explain how it's done, what was done, with what, and why.
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