as you all noticed i have developed a text effect fetish

its fun, a well defined format, they are not too much work and mostly i get a satisfying results

but

im asking myself, what is the purpose beyond that ?

what can you do with it ?
how can you put a text effect into context, with something that makes it into a real piece of art ?

any tips ?

this one ?
http://www.dafont.com/regal-demise.font

no...you need some space to work with

First of all, creating text effects is fun! Not important what you need it for.
Fonts are complex shapes, so you will not lern to transform text only.
Text effects are everywhere. Logos, websites, movie posters,
greeting cards, CD covers, Games...and so on. Just imagine how it looks if movies like
harry potter or lord of the rings without effetcts and the logo in comic sans...

Creating an awesome typogaphy is art itself.
For example, an skate poster from me with 3D text from Blender:

yes Chris, but with your posted example, there is a theme

while my stuff is just making texteffects for the sake of it
its just killing time and having fun
but beyond making tutorials and spreading Gimp knowledge, there is no meaning

a poster might be a good idea, but i dont think i want any of my texteffects as a poster for my wall

You can use it for simple things. An other example: Make your own invitation card.
Children birthday: Balloon text effect.
Or breakfast with friends: use the liquid text effect (with a touch of honey).
Harry Potter home movie night: an metal text effect.
...

i see
its pretty decorative in itself, dont you think

Wrong, I've spotted 4 meanings in your sentence...



...

esper: i agree with anarkhya, i think there's meaning enough already. but it depends a bit on personal ambition too, i suppose, - i'm happy making pictures for their own sake, i don't need or want anything else. it's different when i make jewellery, then i both want and need to aim at something that will be sellable, maybe not in the first version, but eventually. i have a clear goal and ambition with that.
i think if you want to find that kind of goals for your text effects you will find them, sooner or later. it's true that text art is a big trend and making commercial posters may not be a bad idea. also, you could try using the same effects on things other than text a bit more often, that is always fun and inspiring and you will hopefully get new ideas.
if, on the other hand, you're happy just making text effects and perfecting them for the sheer fun of it there's nothing wrong with that and if you keeping teaching others what you learn i'm sure lots of people will be grateful for it!

The meanings 'pirouette' being said, Chris and Anmal already mentioned that, but I stress this, there is a defined field for text effects, I think it leads you directly to making logos, and there's a real need for logos, inside or outside the commercial sphere.

really anarkhya ??

i think there is a difference to make funny little texteffects for fun like i do and designing good looking logos
and i dont feel im that good

also, there is a "market" out there for texteffect posters or whatever you wanna call it, why isnt everybody with photoshop doing it ?
or am i missing something here ?

The next step in the addiction is font design. You know it makes sense.

Okay, let's be cautious and honest, there is a difference indeed, basically you're comparing hobbyism to design. Now, where's the frontier ? Earning money you could tell, and I would probably both agree and disagree, because I believe that the frontier is much more drawn by the viewers and/or your pairs approval, your intent or your will than the regular or not income you could develop.


I do think that the quality you get is not set in stone, this will or won't grow depending on building motivation, skills, knowledge, in short, training. User feedback/Pair feedback also helps a lot to aim at quality. Personally, when I looked back at my early stuffs done in gimp, I can honestly judge and compare them to what I do now, I can feel and name the flaws, this makes me realize that if I can perceive the way behind me then it means that I've made some progress.

@anarkhya: i feel you are an interesting character and i would love to see you post more
but at the same time there is something mysterious about you that i cannot quite grasp
maybe its the language barrier, i dont know
its not meant as a negative (before we have a misunderstanding here) !
but im not quite sure what you are trying to tell me

it would be interesting to know a bit about your background - have you studied design or are you a designer ?
i think i can say, i have experience with design, although i never studied at a university
as i already told in the past, i did clothing design in the 90ies and i know i had talent, because as with my dabbling with Gimp, i like to know my stuff well and im good at concept stuff and the technical side of things
also im a perfectionist - im rarely satisfied

i know how to work with concepts, how to design and most important, how to actually make it
thats something a lot of people who studied fashion dont

making (really good) clothes in this way, is a very long and tedious process
also its not exactly cheap
thats why i lost interest - it was almost like a depression - a disappointment

but at the moment, and thats after approx. 8months i have over 5GB of stuff i made with Gimp on my hd
and except for little pictures embedded in my mp3's and one birthday card
there is never anything coming out that i feel has real substance
thats what this thread is all about, maybe i wasnt clear enough

i can be quite obsessive as you can see with my texteffects-research-fetish
and im very curious and knowledge hungry

i like doing things for the greater good, thats why i want to teach as much as i can of the stuff i learned and "researched"
but.....i feel something is missing

@Esper:
Language, well, as we probably both do a 2 passes translation every time we chat, imagine that each time I write a sentence you read, there is this myfrench>myenglish>yourenglish>yourgerman happening, I guess some words and concepts may be lost or twisted during this complex brain processing (:

As for my graphics background, I'm learning things on my own and thanks to the Network I can upload what I do, get feedback, meet people, collaborate on free projects where graphics are needed.

I met gimp and the world of digital art/craft 6 years ago, at that time I was amazed to see that I could create piece of graphics without any prior knowledge at all, the software was, apparently, filling the gaps in my education. Back then, It all started with me applying random filters on random layer mode on any fonts I found pleasing, basically I was adding constant randomness until I get satisfied with the output. Obviously, as randomness was the keyword, I could spend hours on one text effect before achieving a result but it was real fun, even if I had no idea where I was going.

But after some days (weeks?) of gimp experiments, I started to feel a bit empty, lack of direction, randomness, graphics that lied in my hd without a life to live... Then I met some folks on boards or websites, they wanted or needed some signatures, avatars, banners, icons, all those graphics I know I could manage to do. From that point, I knew I found the purpose I needed to keep on, what I did was going to be used, actually, I clearly needed that other people defined my usefulness.

At this point of the story, you should have noticed that we share some similarities, the questions you asked have created some echo, reminded me my journey.

I feel like many here are to learn, and others are here to teach...and most of us are here for both. Esper, you have become one of the best teachers, your text tutorials are my go-to tuts when I want to learn how to create an effect from the basics.