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Graphics Help
Topic Started: Mar 15 2014, 02:11 PM (1,462 Views)
Posted Image Marc
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Hey,

So I decided to try to make a signature. This took me 2 hours and I'm not very proud of it.

My "art"

#2 Tepig

#3 Pancham

#4 Brushes, Backgrounds, New Styles (Mostly Failed attempts)

#5 New Style 2

I was hoping one of the more experienced people could give me some pointers. I'm using Gimp, but I do have Photoshop, unfortunately, I do find photoshop a LOT harder to manipulate than gimp. If anyone could help me out a bit, I'd be very glad :D

This IS my first try at a sig. Hopefully you'll give me some positive feedback and don't overblow yourself with how much I suck xD

Thanks a lot!
Marc

Edit: I've decided to make this a kind of Portfolio where I can view my progress over time and revisit old stuff. So I'll constantly be posting new sigs and stuff I've made. If I turn out really good, it can be a kind of encouragement to newer people. If I turn our really bad, it can also encourage new people, as they know that someone (like me) are always below them!

Therefore, I will post all the variations I make here. I hope you can still give me constructive feedback on how I can improve on them!

Oh and if anyone wants to challenge me to make a sig of something, feel free to do so. I will post my failed results ;P[/spoiler]
Edited by Marc, Mar 23 2014, 09:48 AM.
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
Ok lets see. I love how part of it is black it makes it nice and adds depth (I overuse to word don't I?) Also when trying to use a font simply look at the render and think about some words you can use to describe it. Cute? Fluffy? Bubbly? Sharp? Smooth? Strong? Crisp? That is usually how I find my font. And the sig looks fine, nothing wrong with it. The problem comes a bit with the render as it is a bit dull not with the sig. Simply go and some contrast to it to make the colour stand out. I am personally a fan of the colour palette as well so adding that under the text might be nice like your trainer sig. Again the thing is just that the render is too dull, this is why I tend to stay away from doing pokemon sigs because it is hard to find a nice pokemon render. Yugioh usually has a lot of nice renders: http://yugiohsearcher.blogspot.ca/ I am also using Monster Hunter renders (hint hint at my current giant project again) atm and most of them work great. http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_List Click on a monster scroll down and each should have a render, some better than others. (the renders will probably get better as you go down the monster list as they are newer and therefore have better graphics example the following two links are from the first game:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091205201917/monsterhunter/images/8/87/Cephadrome.png
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140112113319/monsterhunter/images/d/d1/MHF1-Monoblos_Render_001_%28Edited%29.png
while the next two are much farther down on the list:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130205042615/monsterhunter/images/c/cb/Lagiacrus_Rare_Species_Render.png
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140121034043/monsterhunter/images/6/65/MH4-Nerusukyura_Render_001.png
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Posted Image Marc
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Yea, I realize that Pokemon Renders aren't exactly the best for Sig making. Unfortunately I have no Yu-Gi-Oh knowledge, but I'll just use some of the renders.

I'll try and make something tonight or later. This seems like a promising style, so maybe I'll stick to it like you suggested ;D
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Posted ImageUnsharped
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Unsharped (Elysian)
Marc your really improving ! You say you don't like the Garchomp one but its amazing same goes for the Fail one you really have an potential
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Posted Imageminimii
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Arceus
You just need to find pokemon renders on places like deviantart instead of using the Ken Sugimori renders that are on bulbapedia
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Posted ImageJayman715
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The ONE and ONLY Jayman715!
Posted Image There's an example of a grunge signature. Also, the Ken Sugimori art isnt that bad, you have you make it blend with the BG though.
Edited by Jayman715, Mar 23 2014, 06:55 PM.
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
I love your grunge sigs Jayman they look so nice. I need to start doing grunge sigs :/ btw my ultimate avatar is done it is here: http://pandoragaming.co.uk/topic/10058763/1/
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Posted Image Marc
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Aleony - that's a very interesting avatar. If get better with art and stuff, I might give it a go xD

Jayman, what brushes did you use? I've downloaded 1000+ brushes but none of them are very nice :/
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Posted ImageJayman715
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The ONE and ONLY Jayman715!
The link broke to the brushes and I dont know the name of them, someone linked me to them. I'll see if I can re-upload them.

Nvm, found them http://project-gimpbc.deviantart.com/art/abstract-grunge-brushes-2-32957933 That's the gimp set, if you link in the description you can see the original photoshop set
Edited by Jayman715, Mar 24 2014, 07:34 PM.
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
Well I did something on Gimp and it reminded me just how much more effort I put in my Gimp sigs and how little in comparison I put into my Photoshop sigs. My photoshop sigs you add in a few filters and your done, with this Gimp sigs I add personal brushing touchworks, personal lighting, personal smudge/burn/dodge/sharpen/blur effects. With one of my photoshop sigs I can say that no experience or anything is needed and it can be done by anyone, with this I would argue that I requires a bit more than that. I'm really happy with what I did here. I'm going to start on another one though I doubt it will look this good.
Posted Image

Ok did the second image by copying the first style. I'm thinking of doing at least two more pairs with this same style.
Posted Image
Edited by aleony, Mar 25 2014, 08:21 AM.
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Posted Image Marc
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That looks really great! I personally dislike the colours of the monsters series and thus the sandstorm background isn’t my personal preference, but everything contrasts really well. What font are you using? Oh, and what font do you use for the pokemon signatures? I’m experimenting with fonts, but most of them look so much different in reality than the “Aa” given in the sample of the text.
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
I used Orial_Bold for the monster hunter ones and for my avatar I used mostwasted or something like that. everything else should be from original built in photoshop fonts.
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Posted Image Marc
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Posted Image

Haven't added words or anything. I'm actually having second thoughts about the radial background - Do you think it's effective? I can't actually make a good border with it, since black automatically erases everything out.

I just want opinions on whether the radial background looks good - I know my smudging skills need fine-tuning, but I really need some kind of tutorial or something for that, perhaps i'm just not made for this sort of stuff.
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
The radial background is good and it looks nice. However, I don't think you can go too far with simply that one type.
I did two more:
Posted Image
Posted Image

I'm gonna take a break from this style for a while and move on.
Edited by aleony, Mar 25 2014, 08:03 PM.
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Posted Image Marc
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Aleony, do you mind telling me how you do your backgrounds again?

Here's what I'm doing:
Copy the render, paste it a couple of times on the new layer to completely cover it. Then, set Gaussian blur at 15.

It doesn't look too good... Am I doing something wrong? Now you're back on gimp, mind telling me the tricks of the trade xD?
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
Gaussian Blur is the start up to most backgrounds however it is too basic to be left alone. Also you don't need to copy paste the render. Just copy it then go into your paintbrush tool and pick the clipboard as the brush. Then go down the place where you change the size of the tool and click on that yellow arrow that kinda loops around. That sets the size of the brush to the actual clipboard then simply just use that on an empty background, it is much easier. Also for my current signatures I do Gaussian Blur at 20 after covering the screen, then duplicate layer. For the layer on top go to noise and spread and put it at 65, then put the layer to overlay and at 50% opacity. For the bottom layer go to noise pick then max out both settings and click on randomize. Then simply press ok and voila that is my background.
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Posted Image Marc
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Boy has it been long since my last graphic adventure. Here's a new one:
Posted Image

Fine. It's numemon. I used paint.net which isn't really the best editing tool, since my PC died and gimp died on me. I haven't bought photoshop on my new PC yet so that's not a choice. Paint.net is a more advanced version of Microsoft Paint, but believe me, it isn't much better.

It's also been ages but well, I guess I'm back to making stuff
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Posted Imageptd2fan
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Head squirtle and just the prettiest person ever.
oh marc i dont know if this is to troublesome but did you finish mine?
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
It isn't too bad. It's fine for a MS Paint.
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Posted Image Marc
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New stuff I've been doing:
Posted Image
Posted Image

Thought I'd post it here. I kinda like the radial glow style, but the borders aren't that great. Any suggestions on background/borders? THanks
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Posted Imagealeony
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Monster Hunter
I think the problem isn't too much your fault. The raikou picture is a bit wierd because the render looks like some really talented guy went and drew it on paint. The lines are too edgy and thin and the colouring is wierd. The second one is the opposite. The lines are too thick blurry and again the colouring is wierd. Your style isn't too bad maybe make the border colour thing match more the colour of the render. The raikou one is great, but the entei one just doesn't yell entei to me. It wells yellow not red/brown.
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Posted Image Marc
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Good point. The renders weren't chosen by me, just to say.

However, I agree that the entei's background could be sharpened up a bit. perhaps a solid border might do it some good.
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