i've been busy making birthday cards - one for my friend elli, i posted it here, and one for my friend becky who happens to be elli's twin sister. their tastes vary a lot more than you'd guess from just looking at them and they're fed up with getting similar things all the time, so it was important to make the cards very individual. elli's card wasn't too much of a problem (except that i still haven't found the right paper texture) but becky's card is going to give me grey hairs! she's a bit rockabilly, she's definitely not a pink fluffy girl like me, and she dislikes anything all too obvious. i came up with two ideas that seemed to go nowhere on their own, but i think they worked okay when i combined them. but what kind if text should i use for this? i've tried so many fonts and so many text effects but nothing really clicks - these two are the best i've got so far and i don't think they're perfect.

Very nice cards. How did you get the shoe to light up?

molly: thank you, i just wish i could find the right text. the shoe was made with the supernova in the light and shadows menu, the sparkle filter and a path i used a really simple light beam effect on.

Thanks, very effective

i think the basic ideas you used are the right direction

when i think of rockabilly, i think of big hair, the color pink, 40/50's america, diners, big american cars, chrome
its all quite flamboyant and wild, but dressed well - i mean this is all pre-punk or hippy

not sure about the checkerboard, isnt that more of a ska thing ?

so i think the shoe in the sky is great and the back of the car is a very cool idea

personally i think its all way too dark and i had to look twice to realize its the back of a car, im seeing
also the chrome is basically absent, because of the motion blur

in my opinion the text effect has to be one of those neon advertising things, you would expect in some cliche american movie
and i would use more shock colors and chrome

molly: it's my favourite part of the card .
esper: thanks for being so elaborate, it's appreciated. i hate to say it, but you're right about the chrome - it does get completely lost and i suppose i'll have to do something about it. i don't much like chrome myself, but becky will of course want it. about too dark, though: it has to be dark, or the whole atmosphere of the image goes missing. it may be a little too dark as it is now, but i have no idea where to put in light anywhere without ruining the whole thing. i have wondered about the edges, maybe i should use dark edges instead of the checkered ones, the image itself may look darker because of those harsh white and black edges - on the other hand i liked that contrast, and no, checkered patterns are not just a ska-thing, it's used a lot in rockabilly design too. neon text is what i thought of first. then i tried it and the whole image just died! neon with the right neon effect just seems to take over too much, that's why i tried with two subdued neon-ish things instead. but if i can find a way to make good neon that doesn't kill the rest of the image, that's exactly what i'd want. i'm half thinking of giving the whole image up and think of something else, but i've put down so much time on it and like the concept.

i see

i think the first version is good, when it comes to the overall look and the text effect
it has that neon vibe, without being neon, if you know what i mean

so maybe you can work on the car ?
i think it should be bigger and bolder, like in terms of color and the brightness of the chrome
what i would probably do, is put it more in the middle, make the color stronger and the chrome shinier and put the motion blur under it ?

i dunno, you work differently than i do - you like doing things off centre, and asymmetric which is something im not very good at
but you are

I agree with brighter, shinier car! And text, if not neon, what about a text that looks like the chrome writing on a car...I think there is one called Deftone that sort of reminds me of the writing on the side of the car fender.

I agree with the majority here. The car needs to be a little brighter. Maybe you can get away with just lightening the bumper and applying a chrome kind of curve to it. I would also maybe brighten the glow from the shoe just a little bit. What this would do is bring out the skyline that's almost hidden in there a bit more. That and a brighter car should give your image a lot more depth. But I love the theme. Rockabilly always makes me hungry for burgers.

esper, 2-ton and ek22: thank you, all three of you! you've been a good help. 2-ton, i'm not a big fan of chrome but even i realised that deftone chrome text was a good idea (i already had the font). i tried it but in the end i didn't need it - it gave me an idea for a future project instead . i brightened the car, tried to light up the sky a little more without spoiling the effect of the shoe, did my best with the chrome and put the motion blur under the car and it looks much better. no way i'm going to put it more in the middle, though, esper! that would ruin the effect, the car is supposed to have been and gone. i also changed the edges a lot. first i ditched the square format (talk about killing your darlings! i love square format, rectangular just isn't the same!) of the main image and removed the middle bar. then i ditched the checkered pattern altogether, first i tried plain black edges but then i decided to use a shape fill gradient with a chrome effect and i thought that looked pretty good, so i kept it. i put in more asphalt and put the text over it and like i said i tried the chrome text - but then i had the bright idea of trying neon again now that the whole image is brighter and this time it worked! i had to tone it down, but only very little, i still think it looks enough like neon. this version is probably the one i'm keeping, i'll only make small adjustments from here, like maybe changing the font.

looks great AnMal !

and i love your stubbornness

the car looks almost like a starship from (prequel) StarWars and the text effect is even better
of course i demand a detailed explanation of how you achieved the effect, pronto

another suggestion i have is: how about using the checkerboard as a border, but rotating it a bit, so that you dont have the problem of partial odd looking squares and making a second very shiny chrome border around it
i think that would look really great

EDIT: just realized you used the Neon effect...thats a script right ?

It looks so much better now. I agree, keep the car in the position it's in.

esper: you are calling me stubborn?! i've no idea where you got that...
the neon is indeed from the script, but tweaked a little (it's a bit hard to tone down an effect like that without killing it, so i've experimented a lot with it) and i added a homemade drop shadow. i don't think i'll use the checkered pattern at all, it was part of the reason why the other versions were so dark, they seemed darker next to that bright, high contrast pattern. i may try for a better chrome effect on the existing edge, as long as it doesn't take too much attention from the rest of the card.
ek22r: thank you! this card was so troublesome and i was starting to feel stuck, so it feels good to have something i'm happy with . glad someone agrees with me about the car!

I think the work on the car had vastly improved the card. It looks so super shiny just like the real thing, very very 50's! The neon text works much better with the changes you made.

2-ton: thank you ! i like the card so much better myself now. thanks for taking the time to comment!

Very nice Anmal. You have 2 lucky friends.

I can understand them not liking everything the same.

sallyanne: thank you ! yes, it's probably more important for twins than for other siblings to maintain their own individual style.

Have you given the girls their cards yet? How did they like them?

sallyanne: no, not yet. i'm having them printed out at a place in town (i don't even own a printer and i could definitely not afford one that could print greeting card quality), but i'm out of town for a week and the girls' birthday isn't until the 2nd of february - i was out early, knowing i'd need time on the cards . i'll let you know if they liked them, though!

i pinted the cards out on my dad's best printer when i was visiting my parents last week just to try and they looked so good i decided not to bother about printing in expensive copy shops in town - a stroke of luck, as it turned out. i fell ill with the flu almost as soon as i came back home and if i hadn't had printed out copies already the cards would never have been sent. i managed to get them posted though, and have heard from both becky and elli - they both liked the cards, but becky was really enthusiastic and says she wants a bigger copy, framed.