Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I thought judges were supposed to comment on good aspects of sets along with the bad? Or did that set just have no good aspects?

They tell you what they think. Yes, they might not think the set has any good aspects. I'll use Yoshi's rating as an example.



There is a comment on the background, the image, the sig's shape, and the subtext box. These are all main aspects of a set. In this case, they were aspects that needed fixing.

And if something isn't mention, one can also assume that it doesn't need fixing.

Actually curves adjusting as well but meh.

Can you suggest some things I can to to the image?

In all honesty, I try not to work with images such as yours for sets because they are more suitable for blogs or other graphics with more objects than just image + text. When I have used images such as landscapes in the past, I've tried to do something special with the text or something, just to add spice to a difficult-to-work-with image. That's my personal style, and it definitely can't touch those of Starchaser and Paola, who are able to do amazing things with images of nature.
Here are some examples I dug up from way back: 1 2. As you can see, I made rather lame attempts at adding some flare to either set. Looking back, I can find lots of areas that I'd change on those sets. Anyhow....
Lately, I've played with the levels and artistic filters (cut out is one of my favorites) so that I end up with maybe five layers of the same image with different effects applied. They meld together quite nicely sometimes. Here is a recent one that I rather like.
I hope some of that was helpful. I urge you to ask more talented artists for advice as well.
Now back to rating....

Thank you vkceankraz, that was most helpful

Adoration: This set looks a little boring, it's probably because of the flat colors of the original photo you used. I see you darkened the photo a little bit, the dark shadows look very awkward against the relatively light background. I rather dislike the display font you chose, it's very ungraceful adds a very unbalanced look to your whole set. The animation is cute and very smooth, but I think it's a little unneccessary. 7/10
Amethyst: I generally don't approve of work like this (extracted picture + stock photo background). The extraction around the monarch's wings is a little grainy, but the rest of this set is very nice, the striking contrast is very good and eye-catching, and the unobtrusive fonts go very well with the look I think you were going for. 7/10
Apricus: I like this set a lot, the muted colors are a very interesting combination that works surprisingly well. The subtle effects on the walls really make a big difference in the look. I especially like the grungy inner border. 10/10
Bangel: The extraction around the picture is very pixellated, especially around Buffy's shoulder. I don't like how the subtext bar looks like it's suddenly cut off, and it's even odder looking that the light part extends a few pixels beyond the lines that border it. Another note to consider, both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel have very distinctive fonts, and either of them would have looked perfectly at home in this set rather than a plain font. 6/10
DM was on fire!: This set looks rather boring to me, the extraction is sloppy in her hair, and pasted over a halftone screen background. The color scheme is not too great either, the pastelly blue really clashes with the dark colors on the original picture. 6/10
Fizzy: This is a cute idea, but there are a few details you should work on. First off, there's an errant dark spot at the top edge of the av, it's rather distracting. The extraction on the car is a little odd looking, all the lines of the car are not rounded, but you cut them out as if they were. Lastly, it looks very bad to have an incomplete picture, especially when you can see where the edges are cut off, you have a complete picture, just move it around a little bit so that it all fits in on the sig. 7/10
InsanePlushie: The grungy textures on the av are very nice, but on the sig they start to look inconsistent on the right half. I'm not too fond of the border on the av, it looks very awkward and doesn't really go with the picture at all. The display text on the sig is very nice, but it's so overpowering that you hardly notice the subtext, even though it's animated. 7.5/10
Jasujo: The inverted colors are very eye-catching, but the colors on the sig are very blotchy, probably because you had to alter them by hand to match the av. The backgrounds look rather muddy with so many colors mixed in, and the text is very crowded, and the slight duplication and blurring on it doesn't really help its readability. 6.5/10
_jaye_: I can see you played with the levels a little bit, but other than that and adding a grid overlay, you haven't done anything but add text. 5/10
jellyoflight: I actually like how you imitated a lense blur on this picture, it's a nice focus. However, the mosaic filter is really out of place looking, especially since I can see a hard edge where it ends just before the dog's ear. The plastic-y looking font doesn't really match well with any part of the set, nor do the cut off corners of the sig. Actually, the corners look as if you wanted to make them round, and then forgot to make them transparent. 6/10
Kandice: A word of advice, this set is very dark, when I looked at it on a lab computer, it was almost pure black. Keep in mind that not all monitors are the same. I'm guessing you have an LCD (flat panel) monitor, they can pick up dark tones much better than most other monitors. Also, I can't see your source image. The gothic look of this set is very obvious, and every element really upkeeps it nicely. However, it looks kind of boring, the same picture is repeated many times against what looks like a plain background with some swirly brushing over it. 6.5/10
Kitten Medli: Overall, this is very clever, even if you didn't do much at all to the image. I think the butterfly in the background should be a little bit more visible, perhaps if you didn't put the text directly in front of it. I'd also suggest you use a true sky blue color cast, rather than cyan. 8/10
Koku: I like how you made the colors of this set really intense, it makes it very fun, as do the butterflies. The display text on the sig is overpowering though, the stark contrast between the dark grass and white text is very distracting. 8/10
LAQ: It's a cute set, the screening and hand-coloring on the original image gives it a nice nostalgic look, which you added to nicely with the sepia-toning and handwriting overlay. I think blending in the dark-toned image on the right of the sig looks very awkward, especially since all your text obscures the actual picture so much. The text needs a little work, the pixel text is really hard to read; it's small to begin with, and the light border around it makes it look even smaller. As for your display text, it really looks out of place because its lines are so bold and all the other lines in the set are very fine and unobtrusive. 8/10
Lauren.: Hm. I see you used wallpapers again. And again, you didn't do very much to them, simply overlaid one over the other. Otherwise, the pink text is really overpowering, it distracts from everything else in this set. 5/10
mazil: I like the colors of this set, the monotone looks very nice with the high contrast. I'm going to disagree with the others, I like the jittery text on the sig, it's very fitting. The background, however, looks a little boring, just some swirly brushing over a gradient. 7.5/10
Neko: I like the warm colors of this set, they're very autumny, which is reflected in the maple leaf overlay you have. In addition to the cut off right side of the bar behind the subtext, it looks a little bit topheavy since the letters are closer to the top edge than the bottom. 8/10
Neopets Addict: The pink flowers against a pink background make this set look really confused, since the flowers are rather hard to distinguish from the background. If you used a lighter or darker shade of pink in the background, the distinction would be much clearer. The display font on the sig is very awkward looking, since the majority of set is in shades of pink, and there is a very bold white word in the middle of it. 7/10
Rachel: I like this set quite a lot, the changes you made to original photo are great improvements, and not at all distracting or obtrusive. The recoloring on the daisies is very well done and adds good contrast to the water, which looks really watery now. The jittered font is very cute, and I like how you extended the legs of the R on the sig, it really stands out. 10/10
Scholastic: This set is very nice, the colors are very bright and fun, and everything you've done to it contributes to the fun look. I like the oblique positioning of the text, it's very bold and it does well filling the otherwise empty space. Your composition, however, needs some work, it looks like you quickly erased around the tree with a soft-edged brush, rather than took any time actually trying to make it blend well with the background. 8.5/10
Sunnie: This set looks a little boring. It's best to try and make a background, simply echoing the original picture and fading it a little bit is not stimulating or challenging at all. Also, that faded repeat picture is really just empty space, there is no need to avoid covering it up with text. 6/10
timkhj: This reminds me of those things they sell at the mall, where the water is made to look like it's moving by means of a flickering light source behind it. It's interesting to see someone try to reproduce the effect, but it only worked convincingly in a few areas. In the areas where there's a little white overspill (particularly the rocks), the effect looks very mechanical, not realistic at all. The rest of this set is rather lacking, I think because you focused too much on the animation. 6.5/10
Twisted Sanity: Honestly, it doesn't look like this set uses any more than two pictures, the other pictures in the background are too faint to notice. The mosaic effect you used is interesting, but it looks rather random, try a smaller radius for a closer match. The blurry subtext on the sig is extremely distracting, as is the bold white display font. 7/10
watericesage: There seem to be a lot of compression artifacts in the flower, especially on the sig. I like how you drew all the attention to the sunflower by making everything else very muted. 8/10

I vote out DM was on fire!, _jaye_, Lauren., and Sunnie.

Aye, thanks for the tips I still haven't figured out why the image resized itself though

Ahh well. I'm not all too good at using pixel fonts, I admit. And I guess those images in the background were a bit too much But I just dind't think it looked any good having it plain.

Actually, I'm using lasso tool with 10 pixel feather, but yeah, it looks like I quickly erased with a soft-edged brush.

Laq - Very nice, I like especially the colors you have given the set. A few pointers though, to start with the images themselves; I'm thinking that the second image, behind the text, disappears too much. I would personally not have noticed that there was a second image in there right away, so you could have planned the placement of it all a bit more. I also don't like how the bigger text comes so close to the set borders, a smaller size would have done. The subtext's edges are to pixelly, they could have had some use for a bit more anti-alias.

Neopets Addict - All in all this is a very lovely set. Mainly I just think that the subtext is way too long and would need to stand out a bit more. Now either this could have been fixed by simply choosing something shorter, or animating it. Main text comes a bit too close to the border in my opinion; it would not have been bad to have it a bit over the flowers.

Jasujo - I'm not particularly fond of this set, the color schemes you have chosen, the background and text are all very choppy and simply don't create any harmony in the images whatsoever. You would have been better off keeping more of the original colors and making the image quality much better, right now it looks awfully blurred and hastily out together.

Kandice - I couldn't access your original image, to start with, but that's okay. Now I like the av cause it has more than just really dark colors and shades, the lighter face lifts up the image a whole lot more. Also now you must understand that I think that the signature needs more light and contrast at least somewhere. The faces to the sides and the main text could have for example given that extra light. Your subtext border would have been better if it had more anti-alias, also, maybe placing it a bit more to the right would have been better than to have it centered.

Bangel/Dawn2 - There are many details in this set which could have been made better. Really I get the feeling that you just threw in different things into it, not thinking about smaller details or how it all fits together. The image for the av should have been made smaller, giving the text more room as well, taking me to that I don't like how the text on the av stands out so much. On the sig I'm highly irritated by the bar that ends just like that (which the subtext is placed upon). The main text would have been better placed if lowered so it would lie upon the subtext-bar.

Amethyst - Perfectly matched colors I must say, at least it seems like you put much thought and effort into that. My only problem is with the subtext and particularly its border, a thing I have complained about when judging other sets as well, a straight pixel border just doesn't look nice in 99% of all cases, you should have used anti-alias for it.

Adoration - Mainly I believe you should get out of the simplicity-circle and try to experiment a bit more with your images. Your current style makes this set look very empty and quickly made. The main text should definitely have been made smaller; it looks really bad when it comes so close to the border and the image. I like the animation, however.

InsanePlushie - Good job with the image and background, I really like what you have done with them It is the text I'm having problems with. In the av the text is ok, but in the signature the main text has a ridiculously thick border, not fitting into the rest at all. Also the 3D-effect doesn't match the style of the rest of the set. The subtext in the signature is a too white and stands out too much in my opinion. Smooth and nice animation.

watericesage – I like what you have done regarding the image, the effect you used for it and so on. The background is very nice too. So yet again I complain about the fonts; at least one of them, either the main- or subtext, needs to stand out more, now it looks like everything at about the same level and they blend into each other too much.

mazil – Basically I’m only disliking the font of the subtext, but that is definitely an issue of taste, rather than something that should be changed (if you want my opinion about it I would have preferred an even smaller pixel font). Great job with the panda’s ears on the signature.

Scholastic – Yet again, good images and so on, but the text is just out there. Honestly I don’t like any of the font-work, I believe you could have found something much more suitable. The “line” between the tree and where the scanlines end is a bit too obvious or visible if you like.

DM was on fire! – The basics are very nice and the different parts match each other well, which is a great thing. I feel that you could experiment with your image more, now you’ve just cut out the face and that’s pretty much it. Remember that’s not all you can do with it, add a larger version in the background perhaps, mix with its colors etc.

_jaye_ – I’m not really seeing that much that has been done to the image, copy-paste, on with a monotonous image effect and adding of text, and that’s it. I don’t feel there is that much to comment about it really.

Fizzy – First of all you need to keep in mind that png-transparency isn’t visible in IE (bleh… IE…). Looking more at your set as it is I really don’t like the avatar because it’s so blurry. Other than that the car on the signature looks a bit cut-off, really it could have been better if you just moved it more to the left and made the text smaller to give it more room.

Neko – Very good set, I’m particularly fond of the color scheme you used, still there is a thing s I also want to point out to you which would have needed adjustment, the bar which the subtext is place on; it ends abruptly close to the girls face, which I don’t like at all. Either you should have made smoother like the other end or made it run under the girl’s face.

Lauren. – I can’t actually really se where the second image is. It seems like it’s placed over the Chanel image somehow, but really I don’t know. The text is messed into the swirls behind it, more consideration of colors would have fixed this quite well, as well as making the text smaller. I don’t like the borders that much, just straight dark lines that don’t match the rest of the set.

Koku – Ooo pretty. I think you have a tad bit too much cyan in there though, even though the colors are better in your set than n the original image. The butterflies give a good effect to the images as well as the glowing text. The subtext is hardly recognizable in the av.

Sunnie – I actually like the colors more in the original image than what you have in your set. The blue is just too much when I look at it, it could really have used some other colors. Even though I understand you left that space between the image and the text in your signature because of the less visible image in the background, I think this makes the signature look pretty bad. The space gives a very empty feeling to it all, adding that there is no element that stands out of the crowd in the set.

rachel – Just a bit too much contrast and vivid colors you’ve got there. I like the placement of the image, as well as the text (especially the wavy subtext). Oh my, I think that is all.

Kitten Medli – There is too much empty space in-between the image and text. Also, I don’t like the dark one-pixel border you’ve placed around both the avatar and the signature. A thing you might want to think about for next time is that find a more matching style within your set. The image and subtext match each other fairly well, but the main text is like the odd one out. Try to do more with your image next time, rather than just cut out the main object in it for usage.

Twisted Sanity - don’t really understand this inferno of images you’ve got going on there. If I look closely I can see some of them in the background and all of that, but really they are so invisible that you might as well not have used them and saved yourself a lot of time and effort, concentrating on simpler image effects instead. The subtext in the signature is if I may say so, awful. Blurry and small, that’s just not right. Regarding at your avatar you could have just used the same style and look for the subtext on your signature as there. Main text is also quite blurry. There is much more I could comment about but to make it short: keep it simple next time.

jellyoflight – To be a bit harsh, no, this is not that good. You seem to really have made an effort, but the different parts don’t fit together, leave alone that some don’t look that good in any case. The 3D-text doesn’t suit the image at all and the subtext is way too blurry. The placement of the texts is not that good either. Al though the image’s quality is lacking this is probably the best part of the picture and you’ve placed the puppy well into both av and sig.

Apricus – Marvelous job Apricus, I guess this is just a style I like.. oh well, keep you the good work!

timkhj – Al though the animation is a bit twitchy I can’t say I would have done it better myself, very good. Even this set has a bit troublesome font choices, text quality etc. Both main- and subtext blend into the background too much and the whole set gets a bit boring and colorless outlook. I say: more contrast and color, less gray and blurriness.

My votes go to Jasujo, Sunnie, Lauren and jellyoflight.

Hmm, I was going to put a halo thinger under the flower, but couldn't figure out how...

(Make it stand out more?)

Gaussian Blur comes to mind...

Gaussian Blur, or you could use the Drop Shadow with 100% opacity and your choice of blur (I think 5.00 would work).

Ugh, booted out in the second round. This is why I hate using photos. I hate using them. HATE. -_-;;
Oh well! See you guys next time.

very sorry, but my internet just isn't agreeing with me, so i wont be able to finish the ratings this round. i think i may have a virus, and it will take a few days to get it fixed, if you guys dont mind waiting that long, but for the sake of time, why not just skip my votes this round?

many apologies

Sunnie, Lauren, jellyoflight, and Bangel (Dawn2) cannot participate in this round.

Round 3
- http://images.neopets.com/new_headers/search.gif

^ Make one of them.
-Same dimensions, and you have to keep the same ovalish shape of it.
-Theme it around one of the worlds in Neopets (Faerieland, Mystery Island, etc.)
- DO NOT use any official neopets images, or fanart of neopets.
-You have 4 days

Oh, and just a side note. If you want to change your entry, just edit your post with your original entry. Thanks.

Question, does the banners have to be in the same style as the neopets ones?