Album Artwork... Where? How? What?

[mjolnir]

I'm mentally blocked trying to come up with ideas for a new avatar and "album" and SoundCloud logo.
I accidentally deleted my old SoundCloud logo, but I was kind of tired of it anyhow.

How do you guys get or make your artworks?
What works? What doesn't?

What do you think I need for mine?
I'm just not yet happy with what I have for visuals.

[eLawnMust]

How do I do mine?

My Avatar I made in 3D app 'Nendo' then finished in C4D based on old Marvel Super-Villain from the 70's... Being no hair & no ears helped however double-up on facial features...










When reducing size one must bring out simple features pronounced otherwise hard to see so processing was done which looks bad large but smaller good-



Background Band was done in old PS 5.5 (1999 version) just using images of 3 different trackers in various blending modes per layer-



Thus end result-



For modern peeps with modern OS I recommend ChaSys Draw IES it's a photoshop killer for free, works on XP too...

https://www.jpchacha.com/chasysdraw/

Maybe that helps or makes worse... Many methods others use mine is just one...

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I just mess around in Paint.net until I have something I deem usable. Sometimes I'll stitch something together from stock art I find online.

[mjolnir]

@eLawnMust: damm, that's impressive.

[thecontrolcentre]

I made mine by processing (colour saturation) photos in Photoshop.

[Touch The Universe]

Ai

[pekbro]

Wow Nendo, been a while since Nichiman existed, Mirai 3D was pretty badass also...

Anyway, there is a free alternative at https://www.wings3d.com/

For paid ( and likely easier to use) alternatives look at 3D Coat (which I use nowadays) or Z-brush...
Of course, there is blender as well, which has similar functionality to all of these one way or another.

I sometimes also like to just paint stuff by hand...

underrail.jpg

[eLawnMust]

Wow Nendo, been a while since Nichiman existed, Mirai 3D was pretty badass also...

Anyway, there is a free alternative at https://www.wings3d.com/

For paid ( and likely easier to use) alternatives look at 3D Coat (which I use nowadays) or Z-brush...
Of course, there is blender as well, which has similar functionality to all of these one way or another.

I sometimes also like to just paint stuff by hand...

underrail.jpg

Hey, That's pretty good work! Great job!... Yeah, I still use Nendo & Mirai... Don't much use Wings3D because it's coded in that obscure 'ERLANG' language which really chugs right when you get your poly count up in the viewport...

A better modeler is gSculpt which does not resemble Nendo or Mirai much on the outside but is much more like them on the inside...

https://gsculpt.sourceforge.net/



Also another is Albatross3D which is a complete package & very good for a One-Man Show... Model, Sculpt, UV Map, 3D Paint, Render & More-

https://ppmodeler.com/features.php

You can even 3D paint using DarkSim Dark Trees in procedural manner blender can't even do that plus ALOT easier to learn than blender & doesn't require a high-level machine...

[pekbro]

Hey, That's pretty good work! Great job!... Yeah, I still use Nendo & Mirai... Don't much use Wings3D because it's coded in that obscure 'ERLANG' language which really chugs right when you get your poly count up in the viewport...

A better modeler is gSculpt which does not resemble Nendo or Mirai much on the outside but is much more like them on the inside...

https://gsculpt.sourceforge.net/

Also another is Albatross3D which is a complete package & very good for a One-Man Show... Model, Sculpt, UV Map, 3D Paint, Render & More-

https://ppmodeler.com/features.php

You can even 3D paint using DarkSim Dark Trees in procedural manner blender can't even do that plus ALOT easier to learn than blender & doesn't require a high-level machine...

Cool! I recall darksim as well, used to play with that back in the day. I was never good at
modeling organics with polygonal modelers, I'm much better with volumetrics where you
can just draw whatever. 3D coat (Zbrush would be good too) works well for me, for modeling
when I want to do that. I've had 3D Coat from the start, so maintaining the lic is pretty
affordable.

I'm amazed you can still run all that stuff, awesome! To me, they are only fond memories

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I sometimes also like to just paint stuff by hand...
(image)

That's a cool art piece.

[pekbro]

I sometimes also like to just paint stuff by hand...
(image)

That's a cool art piece.

thx

[farlukar]

Your phone has a camera, use it.

[justin3am]

Your phone has a camera, use it.

This. I'm constantly taking pictures and recording sounds of my environment. The most inspiring photos for me are the ones I take accidentally. I'll click the button when putting my phone down or picking it up and I frequently take a segment of the resulting blurry mess to make images like these:





This works without much processing for abstract stuff but I can also use those images as a background for something more concrete/deliberate.

[foosnark]

A lot of my album art is just lots of processing in Paint Shop Pro. From stock photos, my own photos, or sometimes algorithmic tesselation tools or even just smearing some colors around.

I used to use AI on and off, but have decided not to anymore.

[k2006]

Gimp and Gmic has some interesting filters,my tests using them http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=21492