TSB
Artist => General Art Discussions => Topic started by: ebscreen on September 15, 2011, 03:27:37 PM
-
Feel free to move this if it's not the right place.
Just felt I had to sing some praises for this guy. He really
is the bee's knees. Super fast, very fairly priced, and excellent
excellent work, always.
www.vectordoctor.com (http://www.vectordoctor.com)
-
Heck, with the artist I have on staff, I am thinking about offering vector services to the board members. He's freaking so fast my head spins. And he's AMAZINGLY good as well.
-
good :D I need a bobcat on a surfboard riding a wave with a grin on his face.... Really that is what a customer wants and I am not a artist and they don't want to pay an artist so what to do?????
-
So, eb, is this work actually done in Ohio? The place that I have used, http://www.artworksource.com/ (http://www.artworksource.com/) has many off shore artists working as well, I understand.
I was quite happy with their work, and on one that didn't work as expected (or described by me) they re-did it immediately.
btw, you can see that I am making this thread a little more general, but hopefully in the same spirit.
Not a place to advertise, per se, but a place for happy customers to give kudos.
-
Actually done in Ohio. Eric's a cool dude.
Case in point. I got a piece of art from a customer that had bullet points
of the things he wanted changed. The type of client that makes me grumble grumble.
Sent it to Eric, he quoted and I approved. 1 day later I sent it to the client
and there wasn't a single revision. Can't argue with that.
I consider myself fairly proficient in Illy, and I used to do a lot of this stuff myself,
but have learned over the years that just because I can, doesn't mean I should.
Concentrate on what I do best and pay someone else to do what they do best.
-
Frog I am with you most I have had them to do cost $25 most are $15 and they worked until it was print ready. Artworksource is the place I use and usually have it within 24 hrs. I have often wondered how or what kind of program they use because some of the ones I send I am amazed on what comes back
-
Frog I am with you most I have had them to do cost $25 most are $15 and they worked until it was print ready. Artworksource is the place I use and usually have it within 24 hrs. I have often wondered how or what kind of program they use because some of the ones I send I am amazed on what comes back
The problem that I had last time (outlined objects that I wished to fill on my own) didn't work out correctly as separate closed path objects, or groups that I could ungroup.
Turned out that they didn't understand what I wanted and it wasn't just a good autotrace program. They were hand drawn or hand traced (I believe like Eric does this as well)
-
In Corel I have to turn some of there art to curves and break it apart to get color in some spots but have not had a problem that was'nt easy to fix..
-
I use artwork source as well. I have not had any problems and the nice thing is that you can get stuff done on Saturdays and Sundays and they dont charge for rush jobs, they just ask that you dont abuse the rush job thing. Most stuff is done within 24 hours and rush jobs in a few hours.
-
Yes, generally they work for me with little fuss as well.
-
good :D I need a bobcat on a surfboard riding a wave with a grin on his face.... Really that is what a customer wants and I am not a artist and they don't want to pay an artist so what to do?????
Copy the following items from google.
A smile.
A bob cat.
A surf board.
A wave.
Paste them all together in photoshop.
Wala. (Thats french).
-
I've offered the service and was trying to determine if I could do enough $10-25.00 jobs in a day to make it feasible to continue offering. I get about 1 order for jpg conversions about every 30-45 days. ::)
I've never stopped offering it but people don't use me for that type of work. Maybe the marketing needs work. Maybe in the end, after I look at a job and quote it, I might be twice what others charge that focus on that business but IO really did try to quote competitively to get a good read. Just not enough work came my way with it to get a read. With as few that i got, I could turn them next day even with my regular work load. So, it's an odd market. At the same time, not as creatively rewarding either. Very production oriented but the faster you get at it, the more $.
Really tho, I've done some of those jobs at $10-$25.00 and those people can end up making maybe $6.00 per hour on some and $60.00 an hour on very few. At one point, That type of work is what I did for a living. I could do 15-25 jobs a day. 15 jobs at $15.00 each is $225.00 per day. Not bad. I need a good deal more than that but it would balance out with my other work.
-
My reliance on them has gone down because if I get a good enough jpeg I can pretty much trace it in Corel, do a couple tweaks and I am done. 10-15 minutes usually. If I think the auto trace did not work well enough I send it out.
-
Bahahahaha..... Dan I Googled everything you wrote and nothing!! Dan your work speaks for its self but like these folks I am dealing with will not pay what a good artist would charge but on the other side they expect a great job. I am sure you have delt with them before. Maybe they will change there mind on the theme....
-
On the short bus....;)
-
Bahahahaha..... Dan I Googled everything you wrote and nothing!! Dan your work speaks for its self but like these folks I am dealing with will not pay what a good artist would charge but on the other side they expect a great job. I am sure you have delt with them before. Maybe they will change there mind on the theme....
(http://www.dot-tone.com/graphics/images/stories/my_site_images/bobcat_surfing.jpg)
-
Dan, send me the file, with the digital printer...I can start a clothing line off these things. ;D
Actually, send me the file, I think that is hilarious
-
I'll take one in a small.
We do our art in house. All of it. I would consider going with Dan or someone for complicated seps but we're o.k. with those too, the seps just take us waaay too long because we're always doing some learning. Having that ready to go would definitely save us a lot of labor costs.
Vectorization is a breeze once you get to know the editing parameters in Live Trace and anyone with just a touch of illustration skill can fill in where the auto trace leaves you hanging. I can't see paying (and waiting) for that as a service when it's literally a 15-30 minute job to go from scan to vectorized, paintable art.
-
Dan you are toooooooooo good...lol
I don't think that is exactly what they had in mind but you never know..
-
I've offered the service and was trying to determine if I could do enough $10-25.00 jobs in a day to make it feasible to continue offering. I get about 1 order for jpg conversions about every 30-45 days. ::)
I've never stopped offering it but people don't use me for that type of work. Maybe the marketing needs work. Maybe in the end, after I look at a job and quote it, I might be twice what others charge that focus on that business but IO really did try to quote competitively to get a good read. Just not enough work came my way with it to get a read. With as few that i got, I could turn them next day even with my regular work load. So, it's an odd market. At the same time, not as creatively rewarding either. Very production oriented but the faster you get at it, the more $.
Really tho, I've done some of those jobs at $10-$25.00 and those people can end up making maybe $6.00 per hour on some and $60.00 an hour on very few. At one point, That type of work is what I did for a living. I could do 15-25 jobs a day. 15 jobs at $15.00 each is $225.00 per day. Not bad. I need a good deal more than that but it would balance out with my other work.
I've used you a 2 or 3 times and was very happy. The fact that your email domain doesn't match your web domain is kinda annoying though ;)
-
I'll take one in a small.
We do our art in house. All of it. I would consider going with Dan or someone for complicated seps but we're o.k. with those too, the seps just take us waaay too long because we're always doing some learning. Having that ready to go would definitely save us a lot of labor costs.
Vectorization is a breeze once you get to know the editing parameters in Live Trace and anyone with just a touch of illustration skill can fill in where the auto trace leaves you hanging. I can't see paying (and waiting) for that as a service when it's literally a 15-30 minute job to go from scan to vectorized, paintable art.
I think that it's a matter of how much of this work you have. If you can do a few of these a day yourself thats great. If you begin to be a shop that gets 10 of these in a day (lucky you), then you are going to want to send them out. 15 min. is nothing unless you don't have 15 min available.
-
We do our stuff in house. I particularly like to use PhotoZoom to enlarge jpegs before I start cleaning them for vectorization, if I actually need vectors. It's usually easier to make channels in PS and import into Illy, for me anyway. But, I did have some seps done by Dan for a rush job when we were buried and of course, they were top notch. Of course, we have 2 in house artists, plus I can help when needed, though I try to only do a little. As someone else mentioned, I really should be doing something else instead of production.
Steve
-
I've used you a 2 or 3 times and was very happy. The fact that your email domain doesn't match your web domain is kinda annoying though ;)
Really? I never gave it much thought. Are you pulling my leg? I just never got that email thing to work in my website. Who's got time to mess with that stuff?
-
It's usually easier to make channels in PS and import into Illy
Been doing more and more of this, with less errors as we go. I used to vectorize everything and sep from Illy but now I'm simply requiring art at print size 350ppi or higher and I'm liking PS > .dcs 2.0 > Illy > Accrurip a lot. I wish there was a way to '86 the composite cmyk and view the spot colors more accurately once placed though.
I think the worst are sponsor logos for back prints- 72dpi web clips all the way.
-
I think the worst are sponsor logos for back prints- 72dpi web clips all the way.
That's often only until they receive a bill for a re-draw. Then they send you the same file that they have on their computer for all of their brochures, fliers and menus and things.
-
It's usually easier to make channels in PS and import into Illy
Been doing more and more of this, with less errors as we go. I used to vectorize everything and sep from Illy but now I'm simply requiring art at print size 350ppi or higher and I'm liking PS > .dcs 2.0 > Illy > Accrurip a lot. I wish there was a way to '86 the composite cmyk and view the spot colors more accurately once placed though.
I think the worst are sponsor logos for back prints- 72dpi web clips all the way.
That's almost exactly what we do now, except we keep the RGB channels as well, and save as a PS file. Then imported into Illy, you get the RGB pretty preview, but only the select the spot color channels in the print dialog. True, it's not the spot channels preview, but it's much better than the DCS color composite...
Steve
-
I use Vector Magic. Love it.
-
I use Vector Magic. Love it.
Did you buy the license for it or month to month? Have you ever used there hand tracing service?
-
I use Vector Magic. Love it.
Did you buy the license for it or month to month? Have you ever used there hand tracing service?
I bought it, I think it was like $500.
-
If I remember, they have stand alone software (like you have) month to month subscriptions, or credits to buy and exchange for individual jobs, right?
-
http://vectormagic.com/pricing (http://vectormagic.com/pricing)
-
It's usually easier to make channels in PS and import into Illy
Been doing more and more of this, with less errors as we go. I used to vectorize everything and sep from Illy but now I'm simply requiring art at print size 350ppi or higher and I'm liking PS > .dcs 2.0 > Illy > Accrurip a lot. I wish there was a way to '86 the composite cmyk and view the spot colors more accurately once placed though.
I think the worst are sponsor logos for back prints- 72dpi web clips all the way.
That's almost exactly what we do now, except we keep the RGB channels as well, and save as a PS file. Then imported into Illy, you get the RGB pretty preview, but only the select the spot color channels in the print dialog. True, it's not the spot channels preview, but it's much better than the DCS color composite...
Steve
ohhhh, that sounds nice, I'm going to try a .psd out next time. Thx for the tip.
-
We use vectormagic.com. Great site. If that doesn't work we use 24hourartwork.com