Potential Moral Dilemma

Ok...I recently made a post in the advanced PS help area that asked if anyone knew how to make those glassy, plastic kinda looking pipes like the ones on the VB skinz at the top of this page. At the same time, another member, ArF@i, made the same post. Well, after a number of responses to each thread, it became more and more evident that the very few people who know how to do the effect (Specifically Pank) just don't want to tell anyone how it's done.

Another member figured out a way to emulate the effect, and made a tutorial on his site that spelled the whole thing out. I, of course having need of an answer such as this, I was thrilled, but for some reason, I never actually read the tutorial.

If you spent numerous hours perfecting a technique which no one else could duplicate, wouldn't you keep it secret?-Spectra

This was posted in ArF@i's thread.

SO, without any further ado, my moral dilemma:

I recently had such an epiphany, in which I made an unbelievably amazing effect, that though it was simple to make, is an effect that I have NEVER seen before. Now, again, to raise the issue of newbies learning only a few effects that everyone has and will copy again, I should mention that I have been using Photoshop for quite a while, and feel that at this point, I can read a tutorial, and not feel guilty, because I am fully capable of writing my own. So, to make a short story long, I've already been asked by some how I did it and have chosen not to tell them.

This is my first truly original effect, and I want to hold on to it.

do you think there's anything wrong with that? At this point, I don't.

Note: I will be posting the pic in question soon, and if you figure it out, good for you, because that will mean that you know photoshop as well as I do, and if so, you deserve to know how I did it. But plaese, for the love of God, don't try to put together a tutorial about it.

Of course there's nothing wrong with teaching people that are new to photoshop a trick or two, but giving them exact steps on how to create a graphic won't do them any good at all.
They should learn the techniques first. That way they can experiment and make their own graphics. So I don't think there's anything wrong with your approach...

And perhaps I replied a bit too heated in that pank-tube-thingy. Thats because I'm sure that if someone makes a tutorial about the tubes, we'll find the tubes all over the internet in no-time.
What a waste that would be, teamphotoshop is known for the tubes. It's like a trademark.

Exactly.

You see, the very computer I learned PS on some years ago didn't even have a modem in it, and none of the teachers at my school had ever used photoshop, So all these newfangled online tutorials werent around when I was a young'n.

What's even better, in ninth grade, when I started using PS, I had NEVER used a computer before.

And so began my journey...

I honestly didn't read a tutorial until about a month ago. I don't know why that is. But, now here I am, still in school, knowing more than my teachers about a subject they're being paid to teach, all because I spent countless hours afterschool learning what they could not teach me.

sigh...Memories.

So, that's why I think it kinda sucks to put together a page that reflects more on your ability to read than it does on your ability to create. Any dumb monkey can flip from a tutorial to a photoshop window, following step by step instructions, put fewer can actually make somthing that is a fair reflection of the years they've spent learning the program

Well, it's not about how long you've used photoshop.
Some people just have talent.

i'm going to interject a little quote from doc ozone, from whose hands on tutorials i got my first taste of photoshop and really started understanding the program:

Hands On training is, of course, the best way to learn just about anything. There's only so far a manual can take you, and then you've got to simply plunge in, and make your own mistakes. HOWever, sometimes a little help ain't bad.

That's where this little bunch of pages comes in. I've had a few folks ask me why I do this, aren't I afraid I'll lose all of my "trade secrets"? The techniques I use when creating my graphics are just that, techniques, something anyone can learn giving enough time and practice. I can share every one of them, and will have lost absolutely nothing. Hopefully the 'net will end up being a more attractive place to be.

If you're a potential client, well, I'd like you to see just what goes into making these graphics. If you've got the time and inclination, you can save a few bucks and do the work yourself. Hopefully, you'll be too busy making money doing your own job, and will just pay me to do mine. Simple, no?

i like doc

chris

Talent, you mean like !mo0ch- * shot * :rolleyes:

It's up to whoever I guess, people who have no talent can conjure up something from a tutorial and wow people (those who can't tell a Picasso from a stick figure). Then there's the artists who create über-photorealistic stuff and then get accused of a mere photomanipulation by those same people.

The best way to write a tutorial for an effect is to make it so that it somewhat resembles the secret technique, yet it's missing that unique flair your secret possesses. That way you can keep your ego happy and yet have the feeling of satisfaction for helping people.

Originally posted by Fig
i'm going to interject a little quote from doc ozone, from whose hands on tutorials i got my first taste of photoshop and really started understanding the program:



i like doc

chris

I like DOC too. But, I'll still maintain that learning the tools over learning a "cool" technique will teach you much more than just that one technique. If you know the tools well enough you can make anything.

As far as sharing secrets I don't mind at all. I shared the pank logo techniqe and tons of sites used it. Good for them.

The only reason I don't give out the "tubes" technique is because I already have ;)

And maybe because I like to see how close people come to doing it a way different then I did. That is what I really like to see. Pixel Chick made a great dupe, and a few others have come very close. And they did it different than I did.

If everyone did it my way then nobody else would do it any differently. Variety is the spice of life and I enjoy seeing everybody's take on how to do it...

That's inspiring... (not only this post but also this thread and the other thread.. some great things were said in them)

definitely agree pank. what i learned much more from than doc's tutorials themselves were playing with settings and seeing what they did, making little changes here and there, seeing how certain things effected other things, etc. its thru that experiementation that you start truly learning the software, and that's when its gets fun. you can do pretty much anything you can think up, now you've just got think it up.

another point to consider: the amount of truly good design out there based around stupid photoshop tricks, is, um, about zero. look at the work of top firms and top designers and you'll rarely, if ever, see a trendy technique used. sure, it may be overdone in a little corner of the web, but that doesn't mean its good

chris