Frequently Asked Questions

I like your graphics. Can you make me a banner / icon / manip / layout / etc?
This is the most common email I've always been getting, which honestly speaking, kinda irk me. As much as I'm flattered that you are impressed with my designs, I'm sorry to say that no, I don't take requests. I have taken some before, but now I want to stay strict to my 'no request' rule. It's getting way out of hand and I know I sound like a restricting bitch here, but sorry. As I reasoned again and again, I only do things when I'm inspired. Once I'm not, the work I come out with results in a cow's dung. Total out crap!! I've even been accused of being too modest about it, but no. I'm not being modest. I'm merely stating out facts. It always stresses me out whenever I'm doing requests, and I can't help feeling that way. So I would like to apologies again.

How do I credit your work?
I am very strict at the crediting rules. Once I spot someone putting any of my work (be it my icons, manips, videos, fanarts or etc), I'll get drastic and may ask you to either credit me, or just simply take off my work from wherever you posted. And believe me, I have done that before. Even made enemies. Ha! How you credit me on the other hand depends on where you post my work. If you're a LiveJournal user, I would like you to credit to my LJ account at isnani. On the other hand, if you're posting my work on forums, websites or any other, you will have to credit me by linking to my homepage - www.crystalled-roses.net.

Can you teach/give tips on how to use Photoshop to make this graphic/manip?
Honestly speaking, I'm pretty fed up with these sorts of emails. Look, I'm no instructor. Why you even came up to me in the first place seeking tutorials in Photoshop is beyond me. There are so many tutorials out there on the Internet where you can learn from. I for one suck at teaching. And you can bet on that. I suck big time at teaching. At times, I don't even know what I'm saying. I just simply beat around the bush. Go do some websearch yourself, coz' the way I remember it, that's how I learnt. I surfed. I always end up being the slave at surfing the web, trying to find a good tutorial for you. I'm going to straight out ignore such emails if this keeps on.

I like your layout's header. Can I use it for my website?
NO!! My header is for me and me only. There are so many communities, websites which offer free headers for webmasters. Why not go search there than trying to grab someone else's? I've got my watermark on it, and it plainly means it's only for me to use.

Can I put your icons/manips/graphics on my website?
Absolutely not without my permission first. Though honestly speaking, I do like to refrain my stuff from getting archived on external sites. Reason is not because of my selfishness. The main reason I don't like to have them listed on other sites aside from mine is because some of the users who takes them are absolute amateurs! They don't even have the slightest idea of the big 'crediting' issue that exist among us graphic makers. They use it as they like it without crediting, and that makes me spurn about. So unless you are very sure that you stress to your website users on the crediting issues, I may give you the permission to put my icons on your website; but of course with a credit linked back to me.

How do you make your manips?
It's kinda complicated question. But the steps to making manips are pretty routine one, with a little wee bit of patience. Before you even start your work on the photo editor, you must search for very good and accurate photos. The key to realistic manips is choosing the right-angled pictures. You don't want your manip's head to face the front, while the nose is sideways, na? So, using a photo editor, you take the 2 pictures, and just simply cut and paste one of the person's head onto the 2nd picture's. Of course there need to be some proper colour adjustments to make the 2 pictures blend properly to make it more realistic. But for manips within the same picture, like putting 2 persons in the same photo standing right next to each other, you'll need to properly cut out the whole body of the first person and paste it where you want it. For this, the clone tool might come in handy. Since there will be quite a handful of cloning to do. It's a matter of how you want your manip to look. It's also about trial and error. A pretty good tutorial I found is on this LJ post. Check it out.

I don't see why you stress on crediting when you use textures and brushes by others.
Look, I can tell that you know not a nut about these graphic making systems, if you're asking me this. Textures and brushes are made for graphic makers as resources. If you don't understand that, then I pity you. It's how the system works. Sure, they're made by other people, which is why every responsible graphic maker always has a resources page where they list and credit the people whose stuff they used for their graphics. My resources page can be found here. But we too spent a whole lot of time on every each graphic, and the end results are still done by us; which is why we stress to our takers to crediting us, in which in return we the graphic makers are the one who have to credit the resources. This invisible system is like a chain. So please, check your facts first before reproving people with such pathetic accuses!

Can you join this forum? We need more supporters.
As much as I support my favourite movie stars and character ships, I always stay away from fan forums. I had enough of them. Yeah, call me a prude, but I'd like to stick my ground that I'm happy where I am and not be involved in fan forums. But do note though that I'm always lurking around everywhere. You may never know, I'm stalking your conversations. *winks*

I found your website on random search, and I would like to get to know you better.
*sniggers* Believe me, guys. I've been getting these kinds of emails a lot. And I know I may pass off as a prude for saying this, but sorry. I rather choose my own friends, and know them naturally than a forced one.

What are you?
What am I? I'm Captain Hook, from Neverland; second star to the right and straight on till morning! ...C'mon guys, if you want to ask questions, phrase them properly, no? The name's Isnani. Isnani Isnen. I'm a local Singaporean. My mother tongue's Malay, but I'm a Boyanese in race. Is that enough of a profile for you? No? Check my 'Profile' section then. I understand that for some of you, English is not your first language, but please do not get angry with me if for some reason I shoot back at you with sarcastic emails. I remember one time I received an email with broken English written entirely in capital letters. Hence, I thought the person was flaming me, when eventually I learnt that she's not. So yeah, at least try to make your messages presentable to me. I'm not good at guessing games.

Can I chat with you on MSN/Yahoo Messenger/ICQ/etc?
As I always like to point out, I hate chatting on online messengers. I've no specific reason, really... but I'm not exactly an instant chatter. I prefer communicating through plain email, really.

I read your blog. But can you please don't write on this certain people. It's sickening!
Umm... hello. I don't drag people to come read my blog. You came by my website on your own accord and you're entitled to read my entries. I appreciate that. But telling me what not to write or what to write is just way out of line. It is my blog and I have every right to write whatever I want. I have been receiving these kinds of emails a lot now that I feel I need to voice out on this. So please, if you don't like what I write on my daily entries, just simply stop reading it. I have pals who enjoy them as much as I do. So why waste your time?

Can I affiliate my website with yours?
You are always welcomed. Though please remember to state which website of mine you are referring to since I have a lot of websites online. Sometimes, people just emailed me offering an affiliation, and I'm left wondering which website of mine the person's talking about. You can find my buttons at this page. Just remember to save it and host it on your own server. Absolutely no hotlinking!

What programs did you use to make your graphics?
I have always been an ardent photoshopper. So yes, I used my one and only, Adobe Photoshop. You can count on the fact that that's the only software I've ever been using for all my graphics. Of course for animated stuff, I used its complimenting software, Adobe ImageReady. And at times, Macromedia Flash.

What programs did you use to make your videos?
Most of the time I used Windows' very own Movie Maker. It's so easy to use, since it's very user friendly. But there are times when I used MGI VideoWave for it has many more effects. Of course for my videos which only play in RealPlayer, I had to use RealProducer.

None of your images load up, only the text. Please link them properly.
I honestly get very aggravated to these sorts of emails. I have definitely not coded my website wrongly. I've surfed my website through other networks fine enough, and never had the unfortunate to see any of my images broken. Reason being you cannot see any of my images on my website is because you're behind a strict firewall. And too bad because the web server my website is host on doesn’t fancy firewalls. So, if you are so desperate to surf my website, you can try turning off your firewall first.

Did you make your layout yourself?
Yes, dear. I thought that would have been apparent.

How do you digitise your fanarts?
Again, by using Adobe Photoshop. I just simply scan my original pencil sketches onto my computer, and then colour and ink them using the Photoshop tools.

I read your blog. But what are these R/Hr, H/Hr and stuff?
*stares blankly* Can't say I'm shocked at this question, because not every person is a Harry Potter fan. And yes, those 'stuff' has to do with Harry Potter. Though I do know for a fact that there are Harry Potter fans who've got absolutely no idea what these R/Hr or H/Hr business is all about. R/Hr means the pairing of the characters Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. When it's shortened, it becomes R/Hr - somewhat like an acronym. The 'r' in the end just denotes Hermione's last letter in her last name. While of course, H/Hr stands for a Harry Potter and Hermione's relationship - a pairing which I loathe to the core. I for one, if you have been following my blog entries, am a crazy fan (shipper) of R/Hr.

What is the time zone your blog's timestamp is in?
I've been asked this question once, which I think is a pretty good one. Since I'm a Singaporean, I had obviously followed my country's time zone; GMT +8.