In the beginning......

[admin]

I am curious to find out when and how you guys all got interested into graphics?

I've been into doing avatars and stuff like that since around summer of 2003. I am a member at A&E and I kept seeing people design these great avatars and I just loved what they were doing with them. Then, I went exploring around my computer and discovered that I had Microsoft Picture It Publishing. I decided to start playing around with it and see what I could do.

I was totally bitten with the avatar bug! I couldn't stop making them and was enjoying it sooo much!! As the year went on, my passion and love for graphics continued to grow and grow and grow!! lol

Then, back in September, I met Matt And with both of us being super enthusiastic about graphics, my love for it has grown even more!!! It's amazing! lol Now, I have PSP and am super enjoying it and really hope to one day be a graphic designer

Ok. What are your stories?

~ Shan

[matthew]

I first became interested in computer graphics last summer after discovering Proboards. I first started to use other peoples graphics, and some of them, as far as i knew, I didn't have permission to use. In my defence, I was very naive about such things and only had internet access for a couple of months with no prior online experience. It wasn't as if I was blantently ripping, but I was using some graphics I wasn't too sure about. And so I reluctantly stripped my board and decided to make my own graphics using a program that came with the computer called Paint, and was very happy with the results.

Later on I discovered the free 60 trial of PSP8, and then the 30 day trial of Photoshop. When my PSP trial expired, PSP9 was released and I had it again for another 60 days . Unfortunately, the PSP trial has now been reduced to 30 days. I finally got my own copy of PSP9 last month! I still do alot of stuff in Paint (about 95% of the graphics for this board I did in Paint. I only used PSP to cut and paste stuff) but am starting to appreciate PSP more and more as I learn how to use all the functions and stuff.

Like Shan, I also want to be a graphic designer, and Proboards have definitely helped get me started, and has introduced me to both coding and graphics. i haven't made much progress with the coding side of web design yet, but i'm working on it ;D.

I also enjoy making Siggys and avatars, and have recently developed an interst in pixel art, esp' Isometrric stuff.

I think that's about it

M@

[lhw]

Based on file dates, it looks like I got started in May of 2002. I had done some things about a decade earlier when I ran a BBS, but nothing nearly as complicated.

I really began after I joined a message board that I had been lurking at for about 2 years, off and on. Shortly upon signing up, I requested a sig, as that seemed to be the fashion. A guy named Dumass made one out of some pics I'd recommended. After seeing what he did, and what passed for a sig back then, I figured I could do better. So, I made this:

It was, at the time, an average sized sig. And, yes, that's the first sig I ever made. While I've been pleased with many of them, a good many more just stank. Luckily, with each bad sig, something new has always been learned, even if it's a lesson in what NOT to do.

Over the years they've gotten smaller (I'm of the belief that it's harder to make a smaller sig than a larger one -- all my "workspaces/canvases" are double the size of the finished product) until they're now 400x100 pixels in size.

During the last 3 years I've gone thru many style changes (Eez can back me up on that one, Matt), and have tried more techniques than I now remember how to do. One thing I don't really do is web design: I don't have the knack, and it's not my gift. I'll leave stuff like that to Matt and my friend Eez.

While 90% of my past work has been Fantasy related in one way or another, now it's mostly abstract. Maybe someday I'll upload all my stuff again (if there's enough interest), but right now, that's over 300 images, so...

Anyway, that's my stuff in a nutshell.

[silverstar]

My story is very short. I joined a the forum at www.angelsandelves.com and worked out how to get a little picutre from the list to appear beside your name as a siggy. It was an eye I think. Then I began finding other pictures on the internet which I could use instead. THEN, as my internet education continued, I learnt that it was rude to link directly from a site as you use their bandwidth up and around the same time I was introduced about www.photobucket,com which let me upload my OWN pictures! I decided I would try some little graphics of my own.

And with another fortunate convergence of events, my mum who is teacher, got her laptop which she gets for schoolwork which came with an unusual little program called BusinessDeluxe. Now my mum is not the best with technology so I ended up using the laptop, and the programme. With a little imagination and some very clever tools, it can be used as a graphics program! So there you are. I'm pretty good with gadgets and buttons and things so I set myself to learn it.

I also have PSP on the computers at my 6th form so I'm now learning to use that program too. The possibilities are endless!!! ;D

Silver

[Michael]

For me it all started when I found out about proboards and starting making my own graphics like personal siggies for some boards.... that's how I got started... talk about short!

[Gwen]

Photomanipulation has been my obsession ever since i was about 16, i decided i wanted wings & PSP gave me the means to create them I stuck with PSP7 for a while then was seduced by the darkside of Photoshop. Merely version 5 to begin with but with the financial aid of my delicious boyfriend i've jumped up to PhotoshopCS2 *drool* couple with that IllustratorCS2 & i'm surprised i ever sleep

[admin]

I drool right along with you, Gwen! I would loooooove to have PSCS2 hehe

[bethany54]

I have several of the programs you are talking about having or wanting but lack of RAM has prevented me from doing much with them. (That problem will be gone in a few days) But like Mahud I have found that I can do some stuff quite well in ms paint and there are lots of smaller free small programs that don't cause my pc to freeze as well as numerous online generators. I have GIMP too because some of friends say that it is much easier to use to use than any of the adobe or JASC programs that bog me down so quickly but alas and alack . . it freezes me too. I am looking forward to learning from you guys as soon as my RAM is installed.

[Ifrit]

I became interested long time ago. I am a computer freek, Anything i can do with computers i do, especially graphics, everyday I improve, i became interested when I was like 6, when we got our first computer i lived on it, making things for fun and for like making a movie and stuff. We had all these things on out computer and stuff to do with movie making and graphics, but sadly no animation studio lol.. i was upset about that, but we did have paint and a couple other things, sadly i can't draw free hand off a computer, but when it comes to recreating a image or messing around with one and rebuilding it, its fun and i can do that. I still have my first image i made lol, and i look back at it and laugh, and say, " Wow when i was 6 i did a darn good job" lol. But yeah, everyday i learn something new with making graphics, so i joined here hoping to learn more!