[geoman2k]

when you make a totally digital image, how big do you usually make it? like so you make the resolution rrreeeeaaaallllyyyy high, put in all the details and then shrink it... or just go small all the way? just woundering.

[quaternius]

First, try some "searches" in the old archives on "resolution" and variations thereof. Try "Jason Manley" also - and, he's got some great process/tutorial images at 3D Palette, if I remember correctly. Go to Loki's site for some great info. too. This subject has been raised a lot.

I'm sure everyone here will give you at least a slightly different answer - if not a completely different answer since we all work differently. I've noticed that everyone here works at different sizes and resolutions depending on lots of things, including computing power, screen size, final output requirements, etc.

Speaking for myself, sometimes I start small (200 pixels) and keep enlarging, sometimes I start at the final size, save-out parts of the picture for detail work even larger and reduce it for placement back into the main picture.
For most of my work, I usually end up somewhere around 3000 to 4000 pixels across (or tall), but have plenty of images at 2000 and 1024 as well. Depends on what's going to happen with the final image.

Hope that helps.

[nova]

I almost always start out at 10x10 inches, 72 dpi. From there I either pick out a corner and quickly sketch small or try the full size. If everything's going great and it doesn't look like crap after the sketch, I enlarge the sketch to about 1500 pixels (assuming i'm going to want to end up with a high res digital copy and possibly print it that size).

What quaternius said too.. it really depends what you're going to end up with.

[faustgfx]

my images are the size they are. if they're big, they're big, if they're small, they're small. for example, a 1000x500 pixel image is 1000x500 pixels big. or alternatively, another example would be a 300x900 pixel image, which is 300x900 pixels. *nods*