Cel Gallery Blah Blah Blah ...
Jan. 10th, 2007 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
texchanAlthough it's a bit early, I decided to go ahead and deck my RS gallery out with the annual V-day layout. I'm heading out of town this coming Sunday (the 14th), which is right around the time I would normally put the Valentine's Day layout up. The plan is to leave it up for about a month -- that is, provided the pink doesn't drive me batty before then. (*iz not a fan of pink* >.O) So, since I had a bit of free time today, I decided to let "Gecko Pink" make its seasonal appearance.
I have no idea why I decided to do a Valentine's Day layout. I don't even particularly like Valentine's Day. Just, last year, I started playing around with the images, and ... there you have it. A very simple V-day layout. (So simple, even I could have designed it. Hey ... I love playing around with web graphics, but I never professed to be any good at it. *nervous laugh*)
GeckoBlue Pink Cels
I also got some more rescans done yesterday. I had finished up a little ficlet I was writing, and decided to spend the rest of my time working on some gallery stuff. I've been trying to split my time between those two things a bit more. I noticed I had gotten a bit too involved doing cel and/or gallery stuff, to the point where I felt my writing was suffering. So, the new year brought new priorities - writing first, and cel/gallery/website stuff second, when I'm either taking a break or have finished up a writing project. At any rate, I got the rescans uploaded last night, both on RS and on my main site ... so YAY! *happeh*
Check them out, if you want:
Koji & Ryo, from Generator Gawl: I have intended to rescan this one for about forever ... and a day. Originally, I had it against a really nice sunset-type background, with a building of some kind in the foreground. I felt like this would show off the cel well, since there is a bit of shadowing around the characters, indicating they are standing in front of something. Unfortunately, the building in the sunset background didn't line up quite right, so Ryo's shadow fell on empty sky. >.O Yeah. Hate it when that happens. Also, once I had the background and cel together, I realized the cel was way too dark for that background. I recently acquired this metal wall-type background as part of a cel-related gift, and I think it works pretty well with Koji and Ryo, too. I think the darkness of the background matches the darker tones of the cel better, and all the shadows finally have somewhere to go. *laughs*
Shido & Guni, from Nightwalker: Another cel that has been in serious need of a rescan for quite some time. The background is a replicated copy background. I made it from a screencap of the cel, because I didn't have anything that even came close to matching this scene. None of my interior NW original backgrounds were dark enough, and, considering what is happening in the scene, putting it with a dark outdoors background would have been too weird. I have to admit, I'm very happy with the way this particular background came out. It took me a long time to make it, as I had to redraw quite a lot of the blinds and back wall, due to the way the characters were placed in the screencap. If you're thinking the background looks familiar, you're right. This is the background I had with the cel before. But, when I first scanned it, I printed the background out on a textured paper. I was never happy with the way it looked. Last night, I reprinted it on the normal, heavy-duty paper I use for making backgrounds and, then, rescanned it. I can't even say how much happier I am with this one now. I always thought this was a particularly pretty cel of Shido, and, now, I feel like the scan shows that, too.
Riho & Guni, from Nightwalker: This cel came from the dealer with a lovely original background. Although the background looked fine with the cel, it was one of those "outdoor"-looking backgrounds. I'm not sure exactly what it was of or which show it came from, but the background looked like a closeup of the bark of a tree. The color tones and shading worked just fine, but, once I saw the screencap of this cel ... well, it started to eat away at me. Luckily for me, my favorite blue gradient background seems to do a decent job of replicating the actual screencap. It's not quite the same, but the colors are so close. I think this one looks like a very different cel now, which suprises me. I'm always a bit shocked at what a big difference changing backgrounds can make.
Perfect Macus Pan, from Virus: One neat thing about this rescan project is being able to relive the thrill and excitement of some of these acquisitions. And, this one was particularly exciting. I still remember how over the moon I was at adding this one to my collection. I had been looking for a "nice" Macus cel for a long time -- probably close to a year. There had been a couple I was willing to go for, although, in my heart, I still felt like I was settling on them. But, that didn't matter, anyhow, since I lost them, either by getting outbid or not being quick enough to send that "request" email. Then, this one came available out of a private collection, and I managed to jump on it. I still think it is one of the most absolutely perfect Macus cels I've seen. After all that looking, I could not believe I was finally going to add Macus to my gallery -- and a much better cel of him than I had ever imagined owning. The cel is a huge pan, and it came with a really pretty full moon copy background. I think the background is from VHD:Bloodlust, actually. I thought it looked nice with Macus, and, so, I displayed him like that in my gallery for a long time. Now, though, I think I've finally found a background that is just about as perfect for this cel as I could get without having the original matching one from this scene. I love the very industrial look of the background, and I think it fits in well with the whole aesthetic of Virus. Plus, I think it does a decent job of replicating the actual background used for this scene. Not the same colors, but I think it has a very similar look and feel.
Raven in Armor from Virus: I was a bit unsure about this rescan. I originally had this cel against a blue-purple "actiony" background -- you know, the kind with the streaks through it to indicate movement or action. I thought it went well, and brought out the colors. But, it was so dissimilar from the screencap, which, like many of my scans, started to eat away at me. I finally found a yellow/gold sort of background, courtesy of the RS background archives, so I decided to scan Raven with it. At first, I was not happy with the results, but I think it was more because it was so very different looking from the previous scan. Now that some time has passed, I think this one, too, looks better against its new background. Plus, I feel like it imitates the screencap pretty well.
Serge OP Cel, from Virus: Originally, I had this one against black paper, but I always felt the scan looked too "flat". I had every intention of replicating the background from this cel's screencap, but it has proven too much of a challenge for my paltry graphics skills. Virus is a strange show -- it's hard to get really good quality screencaps from it. So, that was part of the problem. Another part was that there are those straight lines behind Serge, and those are always difficult for me to replicate. And, then, laziness set in. (I can admit it, I'm a big girl.) So, I left him on his black background. Last night, though, I tried him out against a couple of gradient backgrounds -- this blue one, and one that is red. I had a hard time choosing, as I liked both of them, but I finally decided this one made the colors pop a bit more. Plus, it kind of reminded me of the color tones in the screencap.
Hmmm ... I had some other stuff I was going to ramble on about. But, this entry has already been pretty long. I guess I'll save everything else for another time. :D
I have no idea why I decided to do a Valentine's Day layout. I don't even particularly like Valentine's Day. Just, last year, I started playing around with the images, and ... there you have it. A very simple V-day layout. (So simple, even I could have designed it. Hey ... I love playing around with web graphics, but I never professed to be any good at it. *nervous laugh*)
Gecko
I also got some more rescans done yesterday. I had finished up a little ficlet I was writing, and decided to spend the rest of my time working on some gallery stuff. I've been trying to split my time between those two things a bit more. I noticed I had gotten a bit too involved doing cel and/or gallery stuff, to the point where I felt my writing was suffering. So, the new year brought new priorities - writing first, and cel/gallery/website stuff second, when I'm either taking a break or have finished up a writing project. At any rate, I got the rescans uploaded last night, both on RS and on my main site ... so YAY! *happeh*
Check them out, if you want:
Koji & Ryo, from Generator Gawl: I have intended to rescan this one for about forever ... and a day. Originally, I had it against a really nice sunset-type background, with a building of some kind in the foreground. I felt like this would show off the cel well, since there is a bit of shadowing around the characters, indicating they are standing in front of something. Unfortunately, the building in the sunset background didn't line up quite right, so Ryo's shadow fell on empty sky. >.O Yeah. Hate it when that happens. Also, once I had the background and cel together, I realized the cel was way too dark for that background. I recently acquired this metal wall-type background as part of a cel-related gift, and I think it works pretty well with Koji and Ryo, too. I think the darkness of the background matches the darker tones of the cel better, and all the shadows finally have somewhere to go. *laughs*
Shido & Guni, from Nightwalker: Another cel that has been in serious need of a rescan for quite some time. The background is a replicated copy background. I made it from a screencap of the cel, because I didn't have anything that even came close to matching this scene. None of my interior NW original backgrounds were dark enough, and, considering what is happening in the scene, putting it with a dark outdoors background would have been too weird. I have to admit, I'm very happy with the way this particular background came out. It took me a long time to make it, as I had to redraw quite a lot of the blinds and back wall, due to the way the characters were placed in the screencap. If you're thinking the background looks familiar, you're right. This is the background I had with the cel before. But, when I first scanned it, I printed the background out on a textured paper. I was never happy with the way it looked. Last night, I reprinted it on the normal, heavy-duty paper I use for making backgrounds and, then, rescanned it. I can't even say how much happier I am with this one now. I always thought this was a particularly pretty cel of Shido, and, now, I feel like the scan shows that, too.
Riho & Guni, from Nightwalker: This cel came from the dealer with a lovely original background. Although the background looked fine with the cel, it was one of those "outdoor"-looking backgrounds. I'm not sure exactly what it was of or which show it came from, but the background looked like a closeup of the bark of a tree. The color tones and shading worked just fine, but, once I saw the screencap of this cel ... well, it started to eat away at me. Luckily for me, my favorite blue gradient background seems to do a decent job of replicating the actual screencap. It's not quite the same, but the colors are so close. I think this one looks like a very different cel now, which suprises me. I'm always a bit shocked at what a big difference changing backgrounds can make.
Perfect Macus Pan, from Virus: One neat thing about this rescan project is being able to relive the thrill and excitement of some of these acquisitions. And, this one was particularly exciting. I still remember how over the moon I was at adding this one to my collection. I had been looking for a "nice" Macus cel for a long time -- probably close to a year. There had been a couple I was willing to go for, although, in my heart, I still felt like I was settling on them. But, that didn't matter, anyhow, since I lost them, either by getting outbid or not being quick enough to send that "request" email. Then, this one came available out of a private collection, and I managed to jump on it. I still think it is one of the most absolutely perfect Macus cels I've seen. After all that looking, I could not believe I was finally going to add Macus to my gallery -- and a much better cel of him than I had ever imagined owning. The cel is a huge pan, and it came with a really pretty full moon copy background. I think the background is from VHD:Bloodlust, actually. I thought it looked nice with Macus, and, so, I displayed him like that in my gallery for a long time. Now, though, I think I've finally found a background that is just about as perfect for this cel as I could get without having the original matching one from this scene. I love the very industrial look of the background, and I think it fits in well with the whole aesthetic of Virus. Plus, I think it does a decent job of replicating the actual background used for this scene. Not the same colors, but I think it has a very similar look and feel.
Raven in Armor from Virus: I was a bit unsure about this rescan. I originally had this cel against a blue-purple "actiony" background -- you know, the kind with the streaks through it to indicate movement or action. I thought it went well, and brought out the colors. But, it was so dissimilar from the screencap, which, like many of my scans, started to eat away at me. I finally found a yellow/gold sort of background, courtesy of the RS background archives, so I decided to scan Raven with it. At first, I was not happy with the results, but I think it was more because it was so very different looking from the previous scan. Now that some time has passed, I think this one, too, looks better against its new background. Plus, I feel like it imitates the screencap pretty well.
Serge OP Cel, from Virus: Originally, I had this one against black paper, but I always felt the scan looked too "flat". I had every intention of replicating the background from this cel's screencap, but it has proven too much of a challenge for my paltry graphics skills. Virus is a strange show -- it's hard to get really good quality screencaps from it. So, that was part of the problem. Another part was that there are those straight lines behind Serge, and those are always difficult for me to replicate. And, then, laziness set in. (I can admit it, I'm a big girl.) So, I left him on his black background. Last night, though, I tried him out against a couple of gradient backgrounds -- this blue one, and one that is red. I had a hard time choosing, as I liked both of them, but I finally decided this one made the colors pop a bit more. Plus, it kind of reminded me of the color tones in the screencap.
Hmmm ... I had some other stuff I was going to ramble on about. But, this entry has already been pretty long. I guess I'll save everything else for another time. :D
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-11 05:05 pm (UTC)(but... since I, too, am not too fond of teh pink, it's nice that it's only making a seasonal appearance.) ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-11 06:14 pm (UTC)I had a bit of time this morning, so I redid the banners for a bit of a new look. I kind of like these, so they may stay up as my "seasonal offering" to love. (LOL)
Yeah, I'm not too big on the color pink. I mean, I don't hate it, but I think it's one of those colors that is best used sparingly. I think I can stand it for a month or so, but I'll be ready to go back to my blue layout at the end of it all.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-11 09:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-11 09:37 pm (UTC)But, I know a couple of people liked it. And, I like it ... so that's what counts the most.
Definitely, though, the pink is not long for this world ... er, gallery. Or something. >.O