At least for me the shadowing on the green-on-red letters is much more appealing than the red-on-green. Wondering what that would look like with the blue treatment. And like nunnehi I think the flat text needs work.

I think the idea of having Larry be reflective is pretty cool, but is going to mean a lot more staging work.

I like this idea. I could take it really far and put him at a slight angle and make the text 3D but, given that this isn't a real poster, I want to move on.

I've been looking at it big all the time so I guess I've barely seen what you've been looking at the whole time. That said:

the people have spoken! I guess my perspective on typography is skewed by my graphic design teacher who always preferred simpler text over anything complex. Although it works in business design I guess here I can and should be a little more creative. I'm not going to make it all 3D, just because of how long it would take, but I have a good idea of what I am going to do.

Agreed! More than once I've thought of just spamming the thread to get there.

When I added the extra shadows (and I only did it to the green on orange) I did so because I felt like the letters were lacking something. Since no one, even myself on reflection, agrees with me, I'll probably go back to how it was before.

Indeed it is. Because there will be a lot more going on in the final image, having him be reflective might be too distracting but assuming it isn't, I might have to either model a whole environment around him and/or create a HDR map. For the final image, this is something that I'm prepared to do and will be good practice for me.

Now that I'm doing this I'm pretty sure I won't be starting the main image today but, barring something unexpected, I will start it tomorrow.

Ok, so I started off by adjusting the plain text. I wanted to make it green and give it the same texture as the background but it didn't come out nearly as well as I hoped.



I also got rid of the unnecessary shadow on the title



I went for a different approach with the plain text on the red/blue larry. I also removed the shadow from the title and then went for something in between my original and new attempt, keeping the texture but dropping the color.



I then applied this back to the orange/green one with a few minor tweaks



And then a couple more adjustments to help it fit in:



I then, with again a few more adjustments, put that onto the blue/red one:



I then did one with the font colors reversed to see how it looks:



Right now it's rendering a profile view, I'll put that together after lunch.

I had second thoughts about the text on the orange/green version so I toned it down a bit.

Suggestions for what Larry should be shouting in these profile versions are more than welcome.

Ok, here we go.

First version I went for a Franz Ferdinand kind of thing.





I then did the same with a 30 degree version. I think I prefer the profile one.



I think slanting all the text was a little too much so I straightened it out:





I then did a red/blue version.



I think my favorite part of it is easily the effect on the 'Jurassic' text. I liked it so much I thought about applying it to the rest of the text but I thought that might lessen the impact.

I think the tagline on these new versions are unnecessary. Mixing 1st and 3rd person like that just seems wrong.

I was probably the only person who wasn't bothered by the shadows in the green version. I think, without the shadows, the Larry graphic looks a little "bright", in my opinion. For the plain text, it's much better, but I think there needs to be a lot of light behind it or something. I'm also feeling it needs to have the idea that it's slightly raised, or something to that effect. This image is almost there to me. I would also suggest trying a bunch of different colors for that text, to see what naturally pops, while being congruent with the style. If something pops that isn't congruent with the style, maybe have that be the bottom layer?

The framing in the orange and green version looks perfect, to me. I think the biggest problem in the red and blue one is that the "chin" effect is happening again, and the bottom lettering blends into Larry's neck making it less readable.

Also, the top of Larry's head looks a little dark in this image, I think there needs to be a light on him, so that no part of him looks like it's in shadow, if that makes sense (the effect I'm looking for was probably realized in the one where the "background" really shines through his face, which you aren't using).

A funny side effect of this project you're doing with us is that you could actually make it one of your class projects, and just bring the documentation to class. Once the image is done, it's probably pretty much an easy A.

I have a lot of ideas for you, but this is going to be cool. I actually have a source you should look at for the text style. Look up The Informant! posters, and look at the white text (the style is good, but the placement would be different). I think maybe you should have some versions of the poster that has the slanted text like you had, and then others that have the styling more like The Informant!'s really bold style. Keeping tag lines short is really crucial to that style. What I love about the text style for The Informant! posters is that it is overtly comical, and when you look at text styled like that, it comes across as humorous, at least to me. It was a very appealing aspect of their marketing campaign, when I used to see all those posters all over Burbank.

As for the tag line, I would change it to, "I'm gonna go JurASSic on you!" So, it would be all caps, with a MUCH larger capitalization of ASS. People will still get the joke.

Another one could be "I've got a bone to pick with you!"

The biggest problem I have with the image is that the depth is not enough. He should be kind of further away from the camera on this (may not be possible, based on what you have at this point, but try to keep it in the 27 x 40 poster feel, as opposed to the postcard type feel it now seems to have).

For the title, "The Pissed Off Dinosaur" should be at the bottom of the frame, like a "Now Playing" but larger. The whole title doesn't need to be together, just thinking stylistically. Force people to look at the whole frame to figure out what it is. You should also think about having a version where it only says "Larry" at the top. That would be just a "character" poster, as opposed to a movie poster.

The other big problem is that in full profile, you can't really see his mouth. So, unfortunately, I think it will be a little more appealing to make sure at least some portion of his mouth is always in frame (maybe as little as possible). Because you're actually having him yell at the audience, in a way, maybe face him to the camera in an image, but have the text on the side.



His neck looks AWESOME in this shot. I think if you rotate this to where only a little portion of his mouth is showing, it would probably be great for the image. That's the first shot where you can actually see that he is really a dinosaur, so make sure to show as much of the neck as you can. Also, give an example, with full neck of the first two shots in this post, it might work better that way for me in profile.

That's just my wheels churning, so hopefully it's not too much to think about...lol.

P.S. When the image loaded large, I noticed something that looks like a ghost problem around the Larry letters, especially in the top image (there is something definitely weird going on inside the "A" of Larry). It looks like a mistake to me, when I saw it at that size, so you might want to check that. The image stayed on screen larger when I hit preview again, and it just looks like you forgot to move a layer down to the right place.

Last time around I tried embossing the plain text, giving it a drop shadow, inner shadow, outer shadow, glow etc etc but it just wasn't working.

In terms of colors I think I backed myself into a corner when I chose to have a 2 color color scheme. Orange and green aren't exact opposites so I could go for a three color, split color complementary scheme using either magenta or cyan and although neither of them looked 'wrong' to me, I don't think they look any better either. I am sure that I could find something better if I really had a think about it and maybe even built up the typography from the ground up but for this mini project-within-a-project where the text elements were just a bonus anyway it doesn't seem time effective.

I think the problem is is that the blue of Larry is so similar to much of the HDR that essentially his chin just blends into his neck. I actually applied a bit of a gradient to the text to counteract the latter problem but I've ramped it up in the new version I've just done.

I'm still undecided about what level of reflection I prefer, I haven't really taken a breath and stepped back yet, but I'm doing a version utilizing the higher reflection Larry anyway.

As I think I mentioned the UK uni system doesn't really work the same way as the american system, you pick a course and that's it and what that means is we're given all our projects to do and we have to do them, there's no room to really submit anything else outside of that for credits, and this probably isn't closely related enough to my subject anyway. It's a system that seems to prefer ticking boxes over rewarding talent, creativity or initiative (sigh) but I guess the country thinks that if they give students free reign then most would just lounge around all day drinking. I wonder where they got that idea from. It's frustrating for me though because I thought I was leaving all that behind when I left high school.

In addition I can't think of a single tutor who I think would even be that interested at looking at it. They seem to like to keep us at arms reach, so to speak, which is again I think a very British thing to do. I've tried 'breaking through' the barrier on a couple of occasions but each time my efforts went mostly unrecognized so now I'm contenting myself with putting most of my effort into projects not connected to the university. I'm really glad I started this log as it means people who are actually interested in seeing my work, rather than people who are paid to see it, do.

Well I took one look at The Informant!'s posters and wanted to see the movie so they must be doing something right. I'll give it a go.

I definitely agree with the former. Even without the joke I think that the extra brevity is a plus. I think the latter, although a solid pun, is perhaps a bit too tame, it's something my mom would say, rather than a two tonne dinosaur.

I see what you mean, the framing is quite tight. I suppose it doesn't help that I spend most of my time looking at it at closer to postcard size than poster size.

Originally I put it in the top right just because it was where it would fit but now that I've abandoned the tag line I think you're right and it would be better off down there.

I'm trying a couple of different things, I'll see what works. After experimenting a little within modo I think I'll either go for 15 degrees (currently I have 30 degrees and profile) or head on for the shouting poster.

Yeah that's exactly what happened. In truth I noticed just after I posted it.

I would not want "the pissed off dinosaur" and whatever Larry ends up saying in the same font.

I'm not sure what sort of dinosaur Larry is supposed to be, but if his enemy is going to stay a T. rex, using anything with "Jurassic" in it is going to annoy pedants like me. I don't immediately see any good Cretaceous puns though.

I think he's going to try something along the lines of my The Informant! suggestion. It should end up giving it a pretty huge appeal, if he executes it well. So, I think he'll be addressing that in his next pass. That's a very good point, though.

Have you thought about putting a light directly behind his head, and shining it straight up, until you get the desired effect? That might even make the text pop more. Is that super hard to accomplish? I really have no idea.

That's a shame. Too bad they don't have a program where you can study abroad in the U.S.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Okay, maybe a better second one is, "Bitchin' is what I do!" The Bitchin' should be in huge lettering, and then maybe stack each word in a much smaller font below it, or have "is what I do!" in just a small font below Bitchin'. Does that make sense?

If you can find a way to view it always as poster size, it would probably make your perspective generating much easier to accomplish.

Cool, looking forward to the results.

As I was trying to implement this a thought occurred to me. Something I should've mentioned in the OP is where this whole idea came from. The image of Larry and this T-Rex didn't just pop fully formed into my mind, originally Larry was a movie idea and the still is taken from very near the end of what would be the opening scene. The movie would be an ultra violent action-comedy, which is why I've been emphasizing the anger a little more than the funny with the typography.

Actually, thinking about it I'm not sure if I'd even developed the idea to be ultra violent when I wrote the OP, then it was simply an 'R' rated comedy with some violence.

The Informant!, whilst a great poster, looks more like an out and out comedy and if I portray Larry that way I'm thinking audiences might get the wrong end of the proverbial stick. Aside from that, I also realized that to really go with the Informant! idea and make it work I would have to make the background less gritty and more or less rework most of the elements from the ground up, which for this project within a project would just take too much time. If I'm spending this much time on this then I have to question how much time I'm going to spend on the final image. Although obviously I want to make everything I do as good as possible I don't want to spend too much time on any one thing and neglect everything else I have planned.


I tried it but it didn't really do anything. It's the HDR that's causing it to look like that and it would take a some fairly major re-engineering to change it for not so much benefit.

Yeah, if they did obviously I'd take advantage of it.

It makes sense but I think it's more sassy than aggressive and also a little indirect. It seems like the sort of phrase that someone would associate themselves with, like on a bumper sticker or something, rather than shout at someone angrily.


So first off I revisted the head on shot. No colors really worked for the font so I just made it black on the orange version.



I kept the white for the red version but tried to make the tagline more readable.



First I reworked the profile posters, moving 'The Pissed Off Dinosaur' and changing Larry's speech as well as zooming out on Larry.





Then I did versions with Larry at 15 degrees.





Then I did a head on version with the speech.





Barring any glaring errors I think I'm going to leave it at that for now and this time I think I mean it. Work on the actual final image begins tomorrow! I might revisit it at the end if, after doing the final image, I end up going in a significantly different direction.