Well here we are at our next grab bag, this time I had a request to critique a "hot" seller on the digital market. An action grab bag. We all know actions are a hot item on the digital market. Why you may wonder? They are fully customizable to every designer's or scrapper's kit and color need. At first actions were a rare find on the digital market with only a rare handful of designers making them. Now we are finding the market flooding with them. This is not always a good thing. First the action designer's are at competition with one another trying to vie for who will come out with the "first" of a certain action. After that, it is then a run for the "best". Then, the cheapest.
Rose.li has found her way into action folders on many of our pc's. We all have something of hers that we had to have along the way! Now onto the grab bag. These actions are a lot cleaner then most; yes actions also have stray pixels and jaggies for those of you who think that actions can be run "right out of the box". Some even have to be manipulated to make them to they are "seamless". I did include close ups of each of the actions after running them. Some of the leaves and the bow on the flower pot are not completely smooth, but nothing that needs to be addressed before they can be printed. The one think that stood out the most to me, was when running the tie action using a grid paper the grid appears to "float" above the folds of the bow giving a very unrealistic appearance.
18 comments:
Thanks for the reveal, I love Rose.li's actions and find them very easy to use. I don't think I'll get this one though, becaause I really like the heart and flower pot , but not too excited about the bow and butterfly, but I do own a ton of her stuff already!
A question for you before I decide if I need to buy this one: those beads on the heart - are there shadows on them when you run the action, and, can you choose which color you want them? Thanks. I'm also assuming the beads have a glued-on appearance instead of being stitched/threaded onto the heart?
Oh, and I was also wondering about the light direction on those small beads - can you manipulate them so that the light source is consistent (e.g. the ones on the flower cluster shapes versus the wavy lines)? That would help me a lot. Thanks.
You are able to put in your own color choices for the most part. She has made it where you use a lot of colors through the patterns palette instead of colors palette. I have not taken apart these actions, but I would assume you would be able to manipulate these actions as you would be able to manipulate all Rose.li's actions.
I see a lot of actions on the market that would make a really cute element. But, I could only really use that action to make that element for one kit, then I have to move on or my kits all will be full of "cute bees" and "fancy flowers" and lose their uniqueness.
I won't buy these actions simply because the second I buy it, and someone else buys it, we have the same items in our kits and it just makes me lose my original style.
I like actions like Megadoodle Inspired's designer previews, or even customizable ribbons, because I can use them over and over again for multiple kits and not worry that they will sit and gather dust.
Not interested in the least. I am a pretty well known designer who has been around for 3 years. I used to buy actions (when they first came out), but after seeing bow after bow ... and flower after flower looking the same (just different colors) I stopped buying actions. I have nothing against CU products since I do use them once in a while. I have a problem with designers clicking a run button to make the majority of the elements in their kits.
I agree, just how many times can you use the same action of "cutesy" stuff? Everyone complains of kits all looking alike and yet people continue to buy these actions and then wonder why their sales are low? Once a customer has one of these bows, ribbons, etc. all they have to do is recolor.
I used to buy Rose Li actions..but now I see them so often; everywhere I refuse to.
She's suffering from major over-exposure imo.
Yeah, that's for sure! There's a bunch of these action makers that are just pumping the market up with, imo, are just crappy kind of actions that just how many times can we stand to look at?
I never bought CU actions. I think the elements made from actions don't look realistic.
There are actions that produce better quality results (and 200x times more realistic results) than Rose.li's, and lots of them. I would buy Fafbr, Clohie Watkins or even some of Monica Larsen's before I would buy Rose.li actions. There a limit to how many plastic looking things I want to use in my kits, and that limit is about 0.
I think actions are way overpriced.
You get to use them once or 2ce that's it, I love templates brushes etc type of resources which I can mix and match and use over and over.
I wish some of these action makers lower their prices a bit even with a Super cool action like Fafbrs who charges a ton for one action I don't see more than max 3 uses from it. Just money lost after a month... And I agree everyone runs with the same stuff in their kits ....
And I agree roseli needs a little face lift on her actions they all starting to look the same....
What ever happened to good actions that are re-usable? Oh yeah, they are called atomic cupcake. Actions that you can use over and over and get your money's worth!
I love actions because I can go in and modify the actions to change the final results, use a different shape, replace the doily in the background and stop the action before it merges so I can use the different parts in different ways it definately stops the cookie cutter look. It isn't really difficult to manupulate actions and it makes them so much more useable. I really do like Rose's actions I have a lot of them and going through them very slowely has taught me a lot about how they are made and how to alter slightly. Thanks for the peak I truly appreciate your blog it helps me make informed decisions
Rose.li has found her way into action folders on many of our pc's. We all have something of hers that we had to have along the way!
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eee, no!!
What ever happened to good actions that are re-usable? Oh yeah, they are called atomic cupcake. Actions that you can use over and over and get your money's worth!
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Yeah, if you like jagged edges. AC is consistently known for having actions that need a lot of cleanup before I would even think of putting them in a kit of mine.
I would never buy actions from Fafbr. Her actions are overpriced and we have many good and cheaper offers for realistic bows.
ALRIGHT!!!! Just for those of you who are MISINFORMED...
Actions are just a stepping stone into the creation of an element, giving you the OPPORTUNITY to create something of your own with MOST of the work already done for you.
An action is NOT INTENDED to create an element that is PERFECT when the action is ran. There is beveling and other adjustments that really need to be done to it BEFORE it is ready for a kit.
There ARE SOME designers out there that NEED to FORGET the creation of actions, because their quality is NOT WORTHY of a kit.
You talk about how "PRICY" Faf's actions are, but did you watch them run? The time and effort that she puts into just ONE of her actions makes it a QUALITY PRODUCT!!!!
Clohie Watkins's actions are VERY NICE, however she does tend to be a bit sloppy on some of them.
Monica Larsen is another with GREAT action creating skills, but she's slowly falling in her status with the "WHAM BAM throw them OUT THERE" attitude. DO NOT PURCHASE her latest Action GB, released on July 15...It is AWFUL. TOTALLY WORTHLESS.
As for Rose Li --- her stuff is a great tool that can be combined with other things to create a "LOOK".
Use these tools as just that -- TOOLS -- there are ways of stopping and restarting actions to tweak them as you go to get the effects that you want. Extract portions of them, add to them....MAKE THEM YOURS before placing that element into your kit.
SHEESH People...don't you have brains???? USE IT...and get REAL for a change.
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