A. Producing Top 50 Manipulator's Ranking-Need Suggestions
B. IN
C. S3
D. Portfolio/Commercial Work

A. Well I'm planning on creating a ranking of what I believe are the top 50 manipulators on DA. So the standards for this ranking will be quite high and when I produce this rankings sometime in May I will release a journal and news article for it. It can be any artist who incorporates a large amount of manipulation into their work whether they combine that with some 3d or some matte(not all).
Suggestions: Now I don't have knowledge of every photo manipulator out there but I do know quite a few, I will use myself as a benchmark standard so any manipulator who you think might be better than I am given the following criteria you can note me or post on here.
1. Original concept/meaning/message - pretty self explanatory, manipulators who only do pretty girls in dresses in pretty scenes with 3-6 stocks probably won't make the cut.
2. Original/Unique techniques - if you only blend, light/shade, shadow, color, etc your stocks into a background and that's it then you probably won't be as high with this criteria
3. a. Blending - yes you need some technical skill in blending your stocks/textures/painting into your work. This includes coloring, contrast, brightness/darkness, saturation, mostly adjustments and being able to find/use stocks to fit perspective (even I find this hard)
b. Lighting/Shading/Shadows - I see some manipulators that have great blending and compo, but their lighting/shading/shadows do not all match or do not match the background's lighting/shading/shadows.
4. Composition/Perspective - I'm not the best at judging this criteria or critique for it, but I do have fair knowledge of when it really isn't working. A piece could have all of the above but it could be very messy/crowded or details all over the place.

B. IN - the next pack is scheduled to release April 25th, it has been moved. I still will only have one piece for that pack; I have finished it. I think a lot of people are going to like it because of what the piece contains...lets just say it's the opposite from the manips I've been making lately. The pack really has quite a few amazing pieces already.

C. S3 - I will have two pieces for s3. One has already been finished and I'm pretty happy with the results. I am working on another which is about 70% completed atm and working towards it becoming a mind blower.

D. Portfolio/Commercial Work - I will probably buy a good pre-made site and hoping once I do I can start getting some good (not ones thru DA notes wanting me to make sumthing and they pay me $100) offers. I'd like to earn some $$ on the side during college to try and save up for a decent car once I graduate college. I'm wondering if any artists have only started getting good offers once they put up a site for their work, or made a new site or really improved their existing one.