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[dkstories] Another Button Contest - Dreams of a Father!

dkstories

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dkstories Master Scribe

dkstories

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Well, it's that time again. I need a button to go with Dreams of a Father, which will be the next story to be published on the website. I can't offer more to the winner than a sneak peak at the first chapter of Dreams of a Father, but hope that will be enough to get some good entries.

 

For this button, I do have some thoughts without giving away too much details of the upcoming story. The overall theme should be contain the colors of red and black (although not limited to those colors), and should evoke something reminiscent of what parents might dream of for their children as the overall concept, or the struggles that a parent will go through for the sake of their children.

 

Thanks to all who are willing to give this a shot! Entries should be posted in this thread, and I will make a final decision two weeks from Friday. The creator of the button will, by posting here, give the right to use the button on Gay Authors for the promotion and use in relation to the story of Dreams of a Father.

 

Thanks again!

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sphen_dehan Novice Scribe

sphen_dehan

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Sphen, that looks pretty good but perhaps it should have the child separated from the parent, while the father reaches out to him, given the way DoH ended...

 

Demetz,

 

Good suggestion. I went the way I did because I wanted to go with the idea of the dreams fathers have for their children. Personally, I think the two biggest dreams any father has for their child are for them to be happy and to be dependent, to be able to take care of, and support themselves any future family. I drew the father throwing his son in the air for two reasons. One, to show this idea of independence, letting the child go and allowing him to

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dkstories Master Scribe

dkstories

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Oh wow, once again I have to say I like all of the entries. They each have something to recommend them for the story. It's going to be tough to make a decision. The deadline was supposed to be yesterday, but it sounds like a number of the creators want to tweak their artwork a little. I'd like to extend the deadline up to Tuesday since I hope to get the first chapter posted late next week.

 

Thank you to everyone!

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Myk Journeyman Scribe

Myk

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They do look pretty good. I'm curious how you guys made them. Is there a certain site or program you guys use? I'd like to make one but I'm not entirely sure where to start :P

 

G

Edited by Myk
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medeii Novice Scribe

medeii

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They do look pretty good. I'm curious how you guys made them. Is there a certain site or program you guys use? I'd like to make one but I'm not entirely sure where to start :P

 

I'm admittedly rusty with my skills, but I like these challenges Dan throws out. It's difficult to convey meaning in such a limited space, and the additional constraints make me think, which is kinda fun.

 

The file I did is comprised of five layers. From top to bottom:

1. Text

2. Text glow

3. Silhouettes

4. Red glow (with mask)

5. Stars

 

I started with a photograph of a guy with his kid. I used Illustrator to auto-trace the figures (just 'cause I'm lazy) and then simplified those outlines before exporting the resulting silhouettes to Photoshop. That was layer 3. For the second revision, I traced the figures manually in Illustrator. Well, I traced the kid fully, but I only bothered with the visible part of the father. I exported to Photoshop again and used the Smudge tool to modify the outlines a little more, since a few of the angles looked strange at the finished image size.

 

For the star background (#5), I initially used a custom brush (large step value, small size) to 'scatter' stars on a black background at three different opacity levels (20, 60, 100%). I duplicated the layer twice and applied 90-degree and 0-degree motion blurs (horizontal and vertical) to fake a "shine" for each star, then merged all three layers. The second time around, I used a different brush (less starlike, more of a simple dot) at three slightly different sizes and off-white colors to go for a different look. I'm still not totally happy with it, but then again, I'm not getting paid for this either. :P

 

The red glow (#4) was a simple red background with a gradient mask, so that it higlighted the silhouettes without eclipsing

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dkstories Master Scribe

dkstories

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Again, I'm going to give everyone a big, Oh WOW! Making a final decision is not going to be easy, and it looks like a lot of hard work has gone into all of these graphics. I feel a strong urge to give something back to everyone who submitted an entry so I'm going to make a slight (good, I hope!) alteration into the contest.

 

EVERYONE who has made an entry by Tuesday morning will receive the first chapter of Dreams of a Father by PM as my personal thanks (no sharing folks...let everyone else read it when it is posted on Friday). The winner will also receive Chapter TWO as well for their winning entry.

 

Once again, thank you all! This is not going to be an easy decision because there are elements of every entry that I like. Maybe I can convince Myr to work with me on putting each of them up for at least one chapter, but I really do appreciate all of the work each of you have done!

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dkstories Master Scribe

dkstories

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Yikes! Where does all the time go? It's been busy as hell today and I've just gotten around to taking care of making the final decision. Once again, my thanks to all the entrants and I look forward to seeing the button on the story page when the first chapter is posted!

 

Thanks and take care!

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