The Image Collective is a group of people within the Starbase 118 Fleet who enjoy creating images for characters and ships through photo manipulation. They work tirelessly to provide the wonderful character images and other graphics for SB118. Today we meet with one of the Image Collective Facilitator(s), Commodore Jalana Rajel, so we can learn more about this important part of our community!
DeVeau: Thank you for joining us. Can you please start by giving us a short overview on the Image Collective and how it supports our StarBase 118 community?
Rajel: Thank you for having me! Have you ever written a character and you could see them in your mind, moving, their expressions, knowing the look in their eyes? We help the players of SB 118 to bring this imagination into the real world by creating character images. We also create other imagery for missions, articles, forum banners, awards, badges and more. We add a little bit of color into something that otherwise might be text and imagination only.
What is your favorite thing about working on this taskforce?
Seeing all this amazing creativity and talent. Seeing what our members are able to do is mind blowing. Each of them has their own special talents and all of that together is just brilliant.
Who can join this taskforce?
Everyone who likes to work on graphics. We have members who draw, do digital drawing, photo manipulation or render 3D images of hallways, ships and planets, some that create banners and ship graphics. The work is versatile, so there is not just one art form to work with, which means if a member is working with any kind of art that translates to the game, they are welcome. That applies to beginners as well as advanced users, we are happy to provide feedback to help the members improve.
How would a new member join this taskforce?
If a member is interested in joining, they can contact me (Jalana Rajel), Jo Marshall, or the Deputy Facilitator, Aine Sherlock. It makes everything a little faster if they include examples of their work. We will check with the CO to make sure that nobody is spread too thin, so if that is done beforehand that would save a bit of time. In that case include the permission as well.
What is the most fun thing about working on this taskforce?
Other than the people, and learning from others to improve my own art, I enjoy the challenges a lot. Making character graphics of non-human species can be difficult and I enjoy trying to figure out how to make it as natural as possible. After all these years those challenges are still the most enjoyable.
Thank you so much for your insights on the Image Collective!
You can read more about the Image Collective on the wiki.
