AR Updates

Well guys if you haven't noticed the lil fella in the top corner of this journal is missing. I've opted in something I hope will be very exciting. Like I've been saying for a while there will be some great things happening in the Vector Gallery (with the help of a friend) and that little pen up there is one of them. So starting next month we're initiating the "Golden Pen Award". We're hoping the "GPA" will be the equivalent of the Oscar for the Vector Community. The Golden Pen Award will be presented annually by the Directors of the Vector Gallery to recognize excellence in the vector medium. There will be an award for each Sub Category excluding Miscellaneous. The categories will be as follows:

• Abstract
• Animals
• Objects
• People
• Scenes
• Vehicles

Every other month or so we will meet with a panel of judges best suited to decide  as to who should win the award for each category. These are not some random deviants we have found laying around. These are professionals in their fields and people who love and know their vectors inside and out. The winner of this generous distinction will have the privilege of taking home one of these very amazing shiny awards. Each award was hand crafted in illustrator by yours truly and customized to each category. They will be given the file to do with and post where ever they wish. It is a badge of honor and pride, we recommend showing it off. The winner will also have an interview done hopefully giving some insight into what happen during their vector process. They will be featured in the Gallery Directors journals and will given a Daily Deviation (if applicable). There may even be some devCash involved!

We are extremely excited about this award program! We're hoping this will give some much needed attention to the Vector Gallery, and hopefully raise awareness and teach people about the vector trade.

The first award is up in March, and we will be featuring the Abstract Vector Gallery. If you think you know of the perfect candidate for this award please send a note to either lemontea, mc-cool  or myself with the Title "GPA Nominee" or something of that liking. Nominations will only be allowed until March 22nd. so please get those to us as soon as possible. Remember to nominate only the best Abstract Vector artist you can think of. All nominations will be taken into consideration but only the very best will be granted the award.

International Womens Week is March 3rd to March 9th and deviantART is taking pride in it's female artists. As you know the Vector Gallery can't be left out of the fun. So we're throwing a contest in conjunction with vbu. In a way it is to help kick off the clubs re-opening and also will help get people ready for the GPA.

The point of this Contest is to create an abstract piece with the main focus being a woman, using only vectors. March 3rd to the 9th is International Womens Week and we want to show off a very different side to everyone's favorite gender.

When:
Starts:    March 1st
Ends:      March 21st
Winners:  March 24th

Rules:
1. Must be a vector piece, created in a vector program. No use of raster images such as textures etc.
2. Must be 100% original. Please do not use downloaded vector resources.
3. If a stock image is used for the lovely lady please give a credit [link] it is only polite.

Prizes:
1st =  6 mon. sub & a $15 goMedia vector pack
2nd =  3 mon. sub
3rd =  1 mon. sub

Judges:
mc-cool,lemontea,DCZed,Ikue, CrisVector

Sounds great right?! But don't get trigger happy. Posting submissions before the starting day will disqualify you. There will be an announcement journal from myself lemontea and vbu, so keep an eye out. If your interested in adding to any of the prizes drop any of the three of us a note, we'll be most greatfull for anything.

Along with the Contest we will be interviewing a very amazing female vector artist here on deviantART. I will be posting a news bulletin once everything is finalized so keep an eye out for it. It should prove to be very inspiring.

:thumb78130120:
shell4art is running a Scavenger Hunt on March 1st at 2:00PM Pacific Standard Time. Meet us on shell4art's journal to pick up your Interactive map! By clicking on each Gallery Director's name you will get questions to answer.


The first person to e-mail shell4art ALL of the correct answers will receive:
1st prize will be $50.00 of deviant dollars! and a 6 month sub

2nd prize will be a 6 month sub, lanyard and keychain

3rd prize will be a 3 month sub


The :#CommunityProjects: chat room will be active with all sorts of goodies being given away and plenty of contests to keep you occupied


We will also be unleashing our AR Mantra Campaign!! "AR brings Unity to Community" with the gallery directors hosting various small trivia contests etc and more chat room prizes!!

Then our Weekly Segments will begin! Each Week we will have a Gallery represent itself for the complete week, educating, entertaining and chatting with you in their chat rooms! We will start it off with a weekly newsletter put out by ^shell4art. This will include a feature called EDUCATE, some DYKs and some ABCs. We hope to be adding some tutorials to the package!


DYK-- Do You Know - some great tidbits from the Gallery Directors

ABC-- A little more than tidbits - Collaboration of some experts on Subjects that interest you most!

This will be going on until August! That way we get to each gallery and cover as much as we can.


Spring Break is during this time and we will be hosting a party then too, as part of Project Educate. It is called Spring Fest, where we will have games, an Egg Hunt, and more fun stuff!

Vector Art is a technique, meaning art created in a vector-based program. Vector art is the use of primitives such as Points, Lines and Curves. The vector programs keeps track of the relationship between these primitives. This allows the images created, to be scaled and rescaled without loosing quality or becoming pixelated. This is in opposition to "raster (or bitmap) graphics" which is an image represented by a collection of pixels. These pixels if scaled above 100%, will degrade and loose quality.

Popular vector programs are: Illustrator, Freehand, Corel Draw, and Flash. Almost everything created with these programs is considered a vector piece. I say "almost" because there are exceptions to every rule. If your vector piece combines raster and vector images then I'm sorry to tell you but it is no longer a vector piece (and subsequently does not belong in the vector gallery). Example: If you finish your vector piece and realize after exporting it to a more web friendly version, you think it is lacking something. So you take it into photoshop and apply a simple texture to the surface of the piece just to give it a little something extra. This is no longer a vector piece, and should be posted to the "Digital art > Mixed media", gallery. Like wise if you take this raster texture image into illustrator and just apply a layer style (multiply, screen etc.) this is still not a vector piece. The common factor in these two equations is the raster texture. Since this texture cannot be scaled above 100% this makes the vector technically useless beyond that raster images original size. That being said don't think you are unable to add texturing to a vector piece. Most of these programs come equipped with detailed pattern swatches, textured brushes, and even the ability to "Live trace" which does as it's name implies, traces a raster image and turns it into a vector graphic.

Just to reiterate my point and to ensure there is no confusion here is a list of generally considered Raster Bases programs: Photoshop, Painter, MS Paint, and a great free alternative Gimp. Basically everything created with these programs is considered a Raster image. I say use a clause simply because a few of these programs are capable of creating images with points, lines, and curves just as a vector program would. Photoshop for instance can create vector based images, however these are typically considered "Vexels" because of the fact that Vexel artists typically incorporate brush strokes into their images (for hair, etc.). Speaking of brushes. Just because you have downloaded and installed a brush set for photoshop or any other of the aforementioned raster programs that have the word "vector" in the title, does not deem your image a vector piece. These brushes come in different sizes and no matter how high a resolution they may come in, they still cannot be scaled above their 100% mark without loosing quality.

To put it simply "Vector is not a "style" like Anime, but a "medium" like charcoal. Asking what vector-art looks like is like asking what an oil painting looks like. It could look like Rembrandt, Picasso, or a fifth grader's fingerpainting."