This is what I hope to be the first of many chopper profiles, where we can get to know our fellow choppers just a little better. So who should be the first? One of PSCs long time choppers....
1. What is your nickname and how did you get it.
Well, I first came to PSC in December of 2003, only a week before graduating from college, and was looking to promote my website. My website is billtvshow.com, so I just used that user name. PSC certainly got the best of me because I quickly forgot about promoting, bought advantage, and have been chopping ever since. Most people on here call me “Bill” now.
2. What is your real name and age.?
Stephen - 23
3. Where are you from and what’s so great about being there.?
The foothills of North Carolina. The climate is great here. If you want a mix of everything, you can get it. Snow, heat, rain, etc. The scenery is really nice as well.
4. What do you do to keep the bills paid?
I am a GIS Technician for my hometown. Half the time, I basically map the city’s utilities with a GPS unit and then the rest of the time I’m doing mapping.
I began on Picture It 99, and then moved for a short time to Picture It 2000. However I finally found my way in early 2004, with a good bit of help from Ledirlo and Supak0ma, and transitioned over to Adobe Photoshop 6.0. I now use CS2.
I have a 32 inch monitor now. ;P
I tend to use google image search as my first resort. I use several other alternates if I can’t find a suitable image there, such as sxc.hu or istockphoto.com.
1. What gets your creative juices flowing, how you create that masterpiece?
For me, it usually only takes a glance to come up with a good idea for a source. If I had the time, I could chop every contest with ease. However, my time is limited, as I have a lot of hobbies and interests, so I usually only chop the ideas that are “must dos”. Ideas that are so solid that they need to be done. I don’t like to skip on details, so most of my chops take a lot of hours to do and that’s how I end up with a “masterpiece.
2. What do you use as inspiration?
Nothing really. Just imagination and experience.
3. Do you have a system?
Get an idea, figure out how to do it if I don’t already know, and then work on it sporadically for a couple days or so. I’ll occasionally edit a preposted entry when I find obvious flaws. It’s hard for me to live with an image when something stands out like a sore thumb
4. Does a chop have to be done a certain way following steps or are you a messy chopper and just go with the flow.
I am very messy with my PSD’s. On occasion I keep them semi-organized, but for the most part my PSD Layers are named Layer 1, Layer 2, Layer 2 copy, etc.
5. Filters, brushes and techniques.
The key to filters is using them right. When I use a filter, it typically is in order to enhance elements in my chop, rather than as a shortcut to do something to the entire image. I would use liquify to bend a tree limb, but I wouldn’t make a photo into a drawing with filters. A lot of the time when I use liquify or warp, you’re pretty much not going to notice it. I use the following filters in varying amounts: Liquify, Gaussian Blur, Radial Blur, Motion Blur, Monochromatic Noise, Various Renders, Sharpening, Various Texturing, and High Pass.
As of now, I only use the full library of brushes in Photoshop.
I love to mess around with Layer Blending Modes and Blending Options. Don’t ever underestimate Bevel and Emboss or Inner Shadow/Glow. They can save you a lot of time and look really good if you practice with them.
6. What style of chop do you like most?
I like to look at really well done perspective shifts, but I personally can’t put the mouse down when I am working on a humor-based chop.
Chopping: Keep the Anti-alias boxed checked or you are going to have ugly edges. Don’t settle for low quality sources, search hard until you find something high res. Your image will look ugly when the sources are too low res. Try to match the quality and color balance of your sources as best you can. Learn how to handle shadows and perspective properly. Even really good choppers still mess these two things up from time to time. Avoid drop shadows. Make your own shadows and make sure they are properly colored. Shadows should not always be black. Simply look at winning entries and notice what they did well.
Techniques: Play with blending options a lot. Don’t just use the default colors or settings, move those sliders around and see how the different options work. Also, take an image and duplicate it, then blur the duplicated layer a bit with Gaussian blur. Then change the blending mode on that layer several times to see what effects you can achieve. “Blur blends” are really useful in creating interesting moods in an image and can fake a viewer’s eye into thinking the image is more crisp.
PSC: I will vote for an image with no errors more readily than one that took a bit more work, but had a lot of errors. You can do something very abstract, but you still need to maintain a certain level of realism within certain aspects. Learning what gets votes at PSC is a large part of the battle. You must do your work well, but you also have to do solid ideas. Subtle rarely works, make your idea obvious and well known. A lot of hard work on an image never hurts, unless you mess it up by having incorrect perspective or shadows. Clean chops, knowledgeable ideas, and hard work will result in wins for you eventually. That said, if you want to do subtle or abstract, and that is your path as an artist here, then go for it. Many times, a certain style can become your trademark and you can become successful that way. Mezopunk was the “vector” queen when she chopped at PSC and got a lot of respect for that. One last thing, if you plan on staying at PSC for a long time, you should really consider getting Advantage.
b. people
c. nature
d. obscure views
e. all of the above
f. other
f: Road Signs & White Background Objects
Road Sign Contests always seem to end up as very good and enjoyable contests. I tend to like chops that use text tastefully and these contests are typically the best example.
Objects placed against white backgrounds are also great. They tend to leave you a lot of room for creativity and a lot of the best chops ever come from these highly competitive contests.
1. What makes a good chop for you?
The bottom line is the chop has to be clean. Beyond that, the uniqueness of the idea is what will take it to the next level.
2. When you chop is it, Fast and solid, or slow and steady
Slow, steady, solid. Nothing fast about my style really.
3. Do you prefer to vote on?
a. all source image
b. import and blend
c. effect i.e. rain/snow/flood/fire/blood
d. as long as it’s a good chop it gets my vote
e. all of the above
f. I don’t vote
Pretty much d. But it can’t be a lazy chop, there needs to be some work involved too.
1. What's your best chop.
Hannibal’s Revenge:
http://photoshopcontest.com/images/tourney/fullsize/78910791a7d0e82fc0dc0e989abc2af993fb7423164813.jpg
And here’s a never before seen alternate version that I almost posted, which includes Hannibal in authentic Carthaginian soldier attire:
http://www.billtvshow.com/photoshop/hannibal_med2.jpg
This one took 14 hours, under strenuous time constraints. I fell in love with working on it and even learned while doing it. The result has a painted feel to it that just works. I’ve probably had better ideas, but I don’t think I’ve ever nailed the overall feel and technical elements of a chop this much.
2. Now your worst chop.
Tell use why this chop out of them all is your worst. What inspired you and how you think it went in the contest.)
Wow, do we really have to dredge up painful memories? It’s kind of funny you mention this, as I recently went back and improved some of my older entries. Still, this one:
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/42584/display.html was very rough. The light levels, colors, and shadows were all wrong throughout. It was lucky to get that one vote.
3. Who do you consider to be one of the better choppers out there.
I’ve been around this site long enough to get to see the works of the great masters of the past. There are people who take the game to an extra level. Certain people have put on dominating performances in the past (i.e. Winning at unheard of levels). Chrispis was a dominator, as were metalic and Deshone. The202, jasper, ed209, and 12384bob are ridiculously good when they chop. These people have a combination of near flawless technical chopping and pure ideas that put them on an upper echelon. However, I’ve never seen anyone as technically good as Claf is today. His ideas are the only thing that holds him back. A lot of them are very good, but there are some iffy ones in there as well. But you will never see him mess up anything in an entry. He can actually win on an average idea that is so brilliantly executed that it is unbeatable. I’ve never seen anyone do that. His chops are aggressively, purely, and flawlessly realistic and for that I say he is currently the best “technical” chopper on the site.
4. What you hate to see in a chop and why you hate it so much.
Obvious clone stamping is something I despise. It ruins an image. Other than that, any combination of elements that make a chop look sloppy, such as not paying attention to small details.
5. The best chop of all time.
YerPalAl’s Flying Over Tahoe Car
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/59099/display.html
Simply because it’s the only entry that ever completely blew my mind, as I didn’t see the car for about 10 seconds.
PSC is great for learning and honing your skills in PS and for meeting a lot of cool artists, but don’t let it become your life. Have balance.
Well thanks for your time Bill and here's to seeing many more of your great creation. I hope you the reader have enjoyed this insite into anothers chopping style and keep this thread alive for others to read and learn.
Bluelurker
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHOP.
bedtime re-reading
