basic profile.

your shop & everything wrong with it. 

style — There are so many beautiful shops opening up lately! Well, kind of beautiful. And kind of good. We're not here to judge, buuuuuuut let's face it, once in a while we click on that beautiful shop name - m i l k y w a y  to  heaven - and bam, this happens:

 
(I used an example of a real shop, which hasn't been used in ages. Most likely it was abandoned. I would've used an example of my own, but that would take a loooong time to make & I didn't screenshot any of my precious layouts in my starting days.)

Let me tell you what's wrong with this image above:

-the picture bordered by a red line: the resizing is all wrong. His face feels too squished from the sides; it automatically makes the shop look bad.
-the text bordered by a red line: code malfunction. we've all had it happen, we all know it's a pain in the to redo the code, or to even restart the whole revamp process, but don't just leave it like that!! Who in their right mind would request from a shop like that?
-the font; ugghhhhh! There are so many beautiful fonts given on AFF. Use them! Unless the coder of your layout specifically told you not to tweak A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G (which is stupid & you should either find a new layout or tweak it anyway), change the font!

And they have examples much similiar to these: 
        
                                                                          (My own examples.)

Ouch. Those really hurt my eyes. Someone teach this girl. 

Things wrong with these posters:

-the blending: brrrrrrr, unless you're a professional with blending, try using PNGs or renders for all of your posters. They're easy enough to make or to find, so you wouldn't have a problem with that. They even work out with angst posters!
-the background: the first poster is a disaster. Why was is multicolored when the poster clearly should be angst?
-colouring, colouring, colouring: I don't know if you can see, but I wasn't used to PSDs & XCFs... and I tried altering brightness & contrast in my models. Big. Mistake. Search up PSDs (for photoshop) & XCFs (for gimp). They will literally save your life.
-FONT: okay, font is the biggest thing that messes people up! I swear!  They think just because it looks cool and funky, they can work with it. The answer is N-O! Stick with the basics! Don't try to spice it up with a font you're unfamiliar with, especially if you've never seen it being used in a graphic before!

Six months later (after taking a five month break):


Whoop-whoop! New whole style! And yes, the font is grainy in the second picture and no, I didn't plan on making it that way, I just accidentally used a ready bad font.

Lesson of the day: Practice, practice, P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E!

trailer shops — Unfortunetly there aren't many trailer shop layouts around AFF, but that doesn't mean you can't have a beautiful layout. It just takes time to find one, that's all.

Find a good working video editing software. You think owning a trailer shop is cool? What's not cool if you don't have the right tools to make the right calls. I've been a trailer maker for a year. And during the first half, I used an online video editing site, that left a watermark of the video. I was a fool and I am not afraid to admit it. 

Now I'm working with Final Cut Pro & I'm loving it!

Things to keep in mind:

-font & where your text is going to go: you can't just choose a random font and place it on the main character's face and be done with it. Let's face it, that looks extremly unprofessional & your requester would probably want to rip their eyes out.
-choose your video clips wisely: as much as that clip looks beautiful, with all those colors and shining lights, does it really go with the theme of you requester?
-make the form as detailed as possible: You'll be your own enemy if you have to ask the customer a trillion questions later just because they took 20 minutes to fill up the form. It should take them an hour at minimum guys. Yes, an hour.
-make a cool intro/logofor yourself! why not? i mean, you kinda want to share with the world that Y-O-U created that trailer and only Y-O-U can do something like that again! :)

Bad example of a trailer:

         

What a good example looks like:

         

 

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scene request — Anything you want a tutrial on? I think I'm going to go in further detail talking about the layout of the shop in my next #Designer Rant tag, but if you want amything else, ask away.
find more #helpful advice under — #designerranttag tag. :)