For contest on another site:

For Theferrel (from sig request thread):

Ohh I really like the effect on Ichigo on the second one. Very interesting blending. All I can really say is to keep on practicing and look up some info on Design and Composition. They aren't rules you necessarily shoul follow by heart, but they're really helpful and could help you get into the groove of more formal designing points.

Lengthy text syndrome a.k.a Over crowding Text syndrome.

Another victim.

Well, DB, this is one of the few problems in signature making. When the text is too overcrowding, it makes the viewer very hard to enjoy it because of the crowding text around the stock.

Usually, most people used lots of texts for things like, background design(Tony's/Rhadamanthus)

Text has been always a problem for most people. Try blending them as though they are another stock. Don't just pick a colour close the the background and just stack it on top.

The amount of text determined the amount of space covered up too, so the more the text, the smaller the size, the hard it is to read.



Thick outlining problems.

If your stock cutting turns out to be very pixelly, try smoothing them with blur tool as smallest brush size on the sides, then overlay them with a new colour layer. Using thick outlines for your stock will only make it look obvious and don't neglect them too =x




Signature Sizing.
If you think its too large, try resizing your final work, then you upload it.



But nice effort overall DB, much improvement this time. I like the first one more.

Thanks Dan for typing this post from me.

Lance.

I had a hunch I used too much text on the first one, or at least didn’t put it in well with the overall flow XD. Originally I had it all to the left, then I thought that the rest would be too “empty” (with the left too crowded). I guess I wanted the text to be more of the main focus, rather than the stock...which doesn’t make much sense I guess, considering how big I have the stock, anyway. Oh well, haha =). Thank you for all of the suggestions Dookie, I’ll keep them in mind for my next sig so I can improve =). Also, thanks for the comments Apple, and I’ll look up some stuff specifically for design and composition. I’m getting more comfortable with Photoshop now (not getting lost anymore, which is a plus, I just don’t know how to do things I’d like to do, haha...), so I’ll keep looking up stuff that will help me.

Thanks again =).

One of the best things of advice I can give is to make your sigs TONS of layers. I remember being right where you are. Flat sigs, minimal artistic background, tons of text. That was me in a nutshell. Then I started looking at tutorials and learned how to do some neat effects, and simple things too.

For artistic design, layering and playing with Blending Modes is the best beginning advice I can give. Changing some layers to "Color Burn", "Overlay", "Color", and "Exclusion" can make REALLY interesting effects.

Now, u may be asking urself... "Okay, lots of layers, but what do I put on them??"

Three things I recommend:

1. Gradients: Use different kinds of gradients with interesting colors. When u blend them, they tend to create really interesting results. Layer these, and use different types of Gradients, there's 5 to choose from I believe.

2. Brushes: Download a TON of brushes. That's what I did. I googled sites to find downloadable Photoshop brushes. This is great for beginners because many precreated brushes have some EXTREMELY artistic design to them, so when u put them into the sig it makes it look more artistic and professional without doing any real work at all.

3. Textures: Layer textures onto each other. The best textures I can recommend are images of things in the natural world like, waves, sunsets, clouds, etc. When u layer them and change the opacity and change the blending modes, u get some AMAZINGLY interesting results.

When layering these three things all together, ull get some REALLY pretty backgrounds. And in terms of blending the stock then, changin the opacity helps a little, but what can be a better idea sometimes, is to Duplicate the layer that has your stock on it, and change the blending modes of the stocks on top of each other.

Play around with soem of that, and look up tutorials, but good work so far. Hope I've helped you since you've responded to my stuff so often in my own thread!

That does indeed help! I’ve actually been using quite a few layers (well...maybe five or six in some, so I guess not incredibly many), most notably on my Karst sig (background was my pride from the whole thing...used a new brush and layered it about three-four times, haha...). I was hesitant with using a lot of layers before because I was thinking I would have just been using too many and whatnot. I dunno. Useless concern, I guess XD.

But yes, thank you very much for all of that advice! I’ve got a new one I’m working on (Jack from Radiata Stories), so I’ll definitely work on incorporating all (or at least most, depending on what I can get) with it =).

.... .... Well, this looked a lot brighter (and better =(. ) on the computer I made this on, but I guess it still looks fine dulled down. Not sure I'd still call it fantabulous, but I guess it's still an improvement from my other stuff...maybe. Anyway, tell me what you guys think of it. It's for my cousin (have yet to show her), so hopefully she'll like it.



Stock: Calvin (boy) and Hobbes (tiger).

Edit: Actually, looking at it right now, the colors seem a bit excessive (and not blended in well >.o). Ho-hum >.>.

What program do you use? I'd like to consider us pretty good friends, so I'll be more blunt than I would be to someone I don't know. It looks like your using Paint. Forgive me DB. XD

Like Laguna said, it is quite flat. Are you just starting out? It does...need some work. The background is unremarkable, the colors are extremely contrasting. A blending brush needs to be done to the pics. Some custom brushes may help to make it look a bit more professional looking. The text is a little iffy as well, but that's okay. Don't give up, keep it up. Here's a -little- bit of enthusiasm from my first photoshop work to one I did a couple months after I had started.




Now that is messy and bad. My very first try. The cutting job was miserable, let alone being unable to even pick a proper picture XD. Text is not so hot, no border and its all one layer. But we all start out pretty messy and just...not good. Keep practicing though, trying new things, you get surprisingly better.



This was a couple months later, taking in tips, tricks and learning how things work. Not that your on the verge of quitting everything of course, but you get better. Practice really does make perfect...or at least better than a couple months ago =p. Granted, I quit graphic making some time ago, so this is hardly a good looking sig. But with just learning your way around the program your using, you can use it a lot more effeciently and do better stuff with it.

Anyway, I've ranted beyond everyone else's comfort so I'll go back to my hermitage now.

Actually, the first two don't look bad at all. The first one has a good contrast of colours and the second one has a nice glossy effect.
There are a few things that you might want to look out for. First of all, selection of stock. The easiest way is to look for renders, it means that the background is already removed from the stock.
Second, the edges of the stock. In both pics you can clearly see the pixels. I explained this to Laguna as well and I'll explain it to you as well.
Pick a soft brush (they're in basic brushes, those circles with a blurry edge), change the opacity and flow of your brush, as well as the size (these settings are usually at the top) and gently swipe/erase the edges. This will make your stock look more blended in, instead of stuck on top.
An easy way to practise this, is to take 2 signatures, put them on top of each other and brush away some parts of the upper layer, you can see what I mean.

The third thing is the text, especially the first, it is simply too much. Having a line in there is alright, but the first one has an entire dialogue, which is a bit too much.


Anyway, I am not so sure about the last one. It looks conflicting, as if all the colours are fighting each other. I think the range of colours is too wide. Try to use colours that fit.
Also, the stock is stuck on top, nothing has been done with it, apaty from probably cutting away the background.
If you look at the window with all the layers in it, you see a little drop down window called blending mode, which I am sure you have seen/used before. Try to use that on the stock of the two characters, to get a better look.

Anyway, I have seen you use various tricks/tecnhiques, so you're making some nice progress, keep the spirit up =).

Lol! Ahaha, no, I use Photoshop, and I realize I'm still a noob at it =). Technically I've been doing this for maybe a month or two, but out of all those months, maybe only a week total, haha...So essentially, not long at all.

Thanks for the advice, Exire and Pesmerga (and I quite agree...I'm not much a fan of that Calvin and Hobbes one anymore...I guess what got me was the effects I used on the colors, haha...Kind of lame, but with me, everything is a revelation at this stage). You probably won't see another sig from me until the end of February (in time for sig contest), since I'll really be working on all this stuff (which I really do appreciate as it helps...A lot!). Hopefully I'll have shown some improvement XD.

I noticed a member had a sig by you, an Assassin's Creed one. Shadow Cloud maybe? I don't remember. I thought that one looked a lot better though. The background and stock were put together well from what I remember, I thought it looked good. The text still is something to work on since I think there was too much of it and could have been a little smaller. It takes up most of the sig which, unless purposely put into the background, (if that makes sense, like a matrix code background or something) there should be less of.

Do *not* become a brushwhore. Downloading a bunch of brushes before you have a decent handle of the program and don't really know how to use them well is bound to be a huge mistake.


As you're pretty much just starting, I'd suggest looking up various effect tutorials so you can get a feel of filters, blending, and the amount of different things the program is capable of. (patterns, gradients, shapes, and the extreme amount of brushing options including my favorite, "Dual Brush".)

Then you'll want to get a feel of typography, stock placement, colors, and borders. Though it seems you're getting on to a good start already! I hope to see more.

Going to second the not becoming a brush whore comment. Its the path to failure. It takes me several hours sometimes to finish something, only because I resist clicking that brush icon >_>. 2 or 3 is ok..but adding a bunch to a piece feels like no effort was made. And that leads to discouragement.

Wanna get good with cropping/selecting..? Learn the pentool. It's so precise with practice..you'll be able to crop things that other tools(magic wand, selection etc) normally miss and you can use it to add effects just to that area..

Im probably going too far ahead with that.

This first one I took a “sample” picture that had been on my brother’s computer (if you can’t tell what the image is, it’s supposed to be a track athlete kneeling before he runs, thus the shadow as well) and messed around with gradients. This is what I came up with and added a “dry brush” effect, I think:



And this is my SotM entry. It might be a little too bright, but overall I’m pleased with it. The text still needs work, but I did a few new things I hadn’t been aware of before. For this sig I took three other ones I had started working on but stopped because they got nowhere, copied the parts I liked, pasted it on this one, fiddled with the gradients, and got this:



I appreciate all the advice given so far, and hopefully these two are improvements in some manner =).

I have no idea what the first one, it looks really messed up. I am sorry, but I can't see what it is supposed to be.

The second one looks alright, most likely a lot better on a forum with a white background, instead of the black one on this forum.

I would suggest to increase the size of your signatures, so you have more space to maneuver with. With the current ones you don't give yourself a lot of freedom.
I lately use the 310x110 size, which I like. Try finding your own size. Obviously, if this is the size you want, then keep it.
But I think it would be better if you started off with slightly bigger cavases, as you have more liberty.

The first one was basically just messing with gradients. The image was quite crappy to begin with, and I wasn't expecting much with it. It was supposed to be a track athlete (in the corner, but he's all messed up). I'll start using bigger sizes though. Thanks for the comments. Hopefully my next ones won't be so bad =).

I'm not saying the first one is bad, I think the effects are an overkill on the small size. I think with less effects it could look better, or using different effects instead.
As people suggested before, is to look up tutorials to see about the various effects and tricks of Photoshop. I mean, there is a huge amount of possibilities with only a few effects.
Deviantart has a lot of users that created various kinds of tutorials, such as how to make borders, about certain effects and so on. Really helpful =).

DeviantArt is actually very helpful. I just looked up a tutorial for a grunge sig, tried it out just now, and I might be able to make less crappy sigs now XD. Before I was just googling tutorials, and most of them were unhelpful, or made by people who didn't know what they were talking about. Thank you very much for mentioning DeviantArt. I completely forgot about that place, haha...So anyway, I'll update this post tomorrow (with an edit in this one), as I forgot my USB upstairs and am too lazy to get it. I should have at least two sigs, one which I'll do tomorrow =p.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble. Thanks again for the feedback =). Mucho appreciated.

I have two more sigs I did with the tutorial that are “older” (by about three days) than this one, but I’m not going to show those until the recipients of them have seen ‘em. Then I’ll post them up for larger dissection.

Anyway, this is a sig I made with the help of a tutorial. Well, by the time I made this earlier this afternoon, I didn’t need to follow the tutorial straight anymore, but I used it as a reference. I learned how to: feather, invert, use ctrl + t (on a sliver of background copied from virtually anything, in most of these instances, stocks), and ways to use brushes in a more effective manner than what I had been doing (XD.).

This is for a contest on another site. The theme was spring, and this is what I came up with. I didn’t have a stock when I made this though, so I just used some of the flower patterns in the “New Fill Layer>Patterns”, but I think it worked...




Comments/advice are appreciated. Hopefully I’m making improvements, and anything that will continue to help me (aside from...practice!) is definitely welcome =).

AWESOME looking sig, where'd you get the tutorial??? Effects look gorgeous, and it's got amazing contrast.

Only advice:

If it's for a tutorial contest with Spring being the theme, yeah the stocks fit it well, but the overall color kinda kills it. Spring is about the outdoors, like, bright blooming flowers, sun coming out, April showers, etc, and ur sig is all just one color which is kinda UN-Spring like. Know what i mean?

LOOKS fantastic tho

Thanks Laguna =). I got the tutorial on DeviantArt. It was for a grunge sig (though I have no good grunge brushes or texts, so I had to improvise on some of this). I can't recall who made it though (and I can't find it by searching right now), but I can find the printout I have of it and let you know tomorrow (don't have time tonight). All I remember is the person's name started with an N. I want to say Nitrox, but I'm not sure if that's right...But yeah, I can look that up for you and see if I can find the link again as well.

It's not for a tutorial contest (I think I might have messed up when I said it was for a contest and then added it was done by a tutorial. My bad), but just a gfx contest. Personally I like the purple just because it's got a darker feel to it, and I did have blue/green, but I didn't much like it. I see what you mean though. I could try messing around with it more, and add a bit more color to it (or find a different one XD.) so that it has more of a Spring feel to it.

Thank you for the comments, Laguna! I'm glad it was alright =).

Here’s a link to the tutorial, if you were still interested (and it actually was made by Nitrox, so I was right about that.): http://photoshop-tutorials.deviantart.com/...ture-R-26719056

Two new ones made today. Comments/critique appreciated.

Now for my first update in years. A few new sigs:









And an avatar/icon:





Quite frankly, my sigs look like poop. However, I rather like my icon. It desperately needs a border, but I couldn’t get a good one on it. I shall be making more of those, and hopefully I can get that incorporated in it as well.

But yeah, my sigs leave a lot to be desired. I did learn, however, how to use more of the filters such as ‘wind’, ‘emboss’, ‘diffuse’, and whatever that other one was. Starts with an ‘e’. It basically makes cubes/pyramids pop out to add the texture and whatnot. Can’t recall what it’s named though. So even though they don’t look the best, I’m still learning stuff, haha.

Any criticism/advice/comments/what-have-you are welcomed. =).

First are three new icons:



I actually like the one of Vaan the best, but I’m a little put off by the abundance of pink. Mostly I just like how I got the text to actually blend in for once.

Two new sigs:






The Ratchet sig comes out darker than it was on my Photoshop thing, but other than that, I liked it...For the second sig, I don’t like the text, at all, haha. Also, sort of related, how do you use the pen tool? I tried a little of it (as seen in the flower sig, on the left/bottom border), but I really don’t get how it works. >.o.

One “wallpaper”:



It really is sort of dull, and not...exactly what I’d use for a wallpaper, but it was a first try so I thought I’d post it up for some feedback.


Thanks for viewing, at the least. =).

That was my first attempt at a sig for Red_Ryan (from request thread). I’m going to try making another one for him that fits what he wanted better, but I thought I’d just post this one up anyway because I sort of like it (even though it ended up not being what he needed).

Comments/advice on this one or any of my previous ones are appreciated. Otherwise, thanks for viewing. =). I shall most likely have quite a few more in my next post, which probably won't be until April anyway (bigger block of stuff, assuming I get back to Photoshopping excessively again). So until then, you won't find me posting after myself for quite sometime, for which I apologize, haha. =).

Well you're always reviewing my stuff so i HAD to at least leave some feedback for ya :

The Icons:
SICK dude. Blended nicely, clarity is good, text isn't bad. They're kinda funny colors, but I think they're some of ur best pieces of work in terms of depth and artistic design.

Ratchet: Rather simple sig but gets the point across. I know you're a little new with Photoshop so blending can be complicated, but the color is kidna dull for it as there's not much contrast.

March: Don't really know wht it is, but the abstract design is nice.

Wallpaper: Haha sorry man... That needs some SERIOUS work tho lolll. The stock and hte background are completely different looking which makes it awkward, and the red/orange of him clash wicked bad. Wallpapers tend to be more "Flowing" with less distraction. I know when I first started wallpapers have LOTs of space so Id try to fit loads of things into them, but its meant to be simple and efficient.

The Request Sig: My favorite of yours. Unfortunately looks a little blurry/not great quality, but it's got great design, good contrast, and lots of abstract art to it.

Keep it all up tho, good work

The March sig was actually a Chrysanthemum (flower), distorted and whatnot. ...Didn’t turn out quite as I expected, but still, I liked the general effects, if not the outcome/product. And I definitely agree with the wallpaper XD. I’ll try working on a different one, and we’ll see how it works out. I’m thinkin’ those aren’t going to exactly be my thing (a little too large...I like filling things in most of the time).

For my latest (Halo one), I think I should have tried sharpening the images more. I’ve had that problem with a lot of my newer attempts, as everything just looks so...dull. I think sharpening would help, along with mixing a few effects in there.

I’ve actually found I like making icons more, but it’s fun to experiment with sigs/larger pieces as well. So yeah, I’ll keep working with Photoshop, and hopefully I’ll have made some improvements with my next set of graphics. =).

But anyway, thanks for all of the critique Laguna! It’s very much appreciated.

Update. =).

Sigs:

(For Red_Ryan)


Tales of the Abyss ones:





Icons:




More will be on the way. =).

I think all of your work is great except one problem that really bugs...and I'm not sure if it's intentional but it really puts me off =/ It's just that most of your work seems pixellated...I've probably mentioned it before but it's really displeasing on the eye simply because it looks of low quality, I'm not sure if it's intentional or the way you're saving it, or what, but please don't bite my head off XD

Hmm. It might be the way I’m saving it? I actually honestly have no idea, haha. Well, actually, it might be because of my image sharpening. My previous ones were too blurry/dull, so I’ve been sharpening my latest ones (perhaps excessively). Maybe I’m doing too much of it? I might need to save the images in better quality though. It also might be because I do a crappy job rendering my images, haha. XD.

I really don't know though, but I'll work on fixing that. Thanks for taking the time to look at them, KC. I appreciate the feedback. =).

Yeah over sharpening tends to do that lol, it's not the rendering that's doing it, your rendering is fine There are ways to "sharpen" an image without actually sharpening it...I would suggest how but I forgot >_<

A way to guess at the quality it will save would be to check the file size...generally a bigger size is better quality, you can check that usually at the bottom left of the window, I'm not saying you should have a REALLY big file size, however that may help a bit.

Also saving as .jpg it tends to lose a bit of quality, so try saving with different file extensions. I personally save as a .png. ...Hope I'm not sounding too ... Know-it-all-ish -______-

I’ve been saving all of my files as .jpeg, so that might be it. I originally had them as .tiff, but I couldn’t upload them that way. I’ll start saving them as .png and see if that works better (and it should). Thanks. =).

Good luck =)

Isn't this Frann, or however her name is spelled?

Anyway, you're showing some nice progress from your very first ones.
I see you're using far more options than you used to make several posts ago, which is a good thing.

I do notice that you sometimes tend to go to the extreme sometimes, when it comes down to these preset thingies, which could either work, or not.
It is better to use for some parts of your signature, instead of the entire piece, but that is op to you of course.

Your purple Halo one looks good, but it is a bit blurry, or something like that. I think it looks better if it were sharper.
Another thing I noticed is that you usually have some decent backgrounds in your sigs, but your stock is flat on top and then it is heavily rendered with all those presets again, which doesn't work all the time.

I do have to say, your icons look pretty good, I like the design of your FF ones.

On the wallpaper one, ouch. That is all I could say =P. No offense, but that is a serious overkill to the human eye xD.

Anyway, keep the work coming, it is always interesting what new things you cook =P.
On a future note, the sig you made in the battle with LW looks really nice =).

Haha, yeah, it is Fran. Someone on another forum pointed that out to me, but I didn’t bother changing it. Oops. =p. Thanks for the compliments on the icons though (and my sig for the contest with Laguna ^_^.). And I completely agree on the wallpaper, haha. XD. I’m working on a new one that hopefully won’t be so devastating.

As for the stocks on top of the backgrounds, my main goal with them lately has been to get them to blend in (which I hope is working, haha), so now that I think I’ve got that somewhat under my belt, I’ll try to get them to be less “flat”.

So yeah, I’ll try working on that (along with the other things you mentioned; sharpening, rendering, etc). Thanks for the comments Pesmerga, I appreciate them. =).

Small update. This is my newest, but I’m not sure I like the way it comes out on this. >.o. I’ll probably fiddle with it a bit more later, because right now it seems too sharp/noisy. Maybe that's just me though. I also failed in my attempt to make the stock stand out from the background, haha...Oh well...



Then here’s my sig for the contest with Lagunna (it’s Bellatrix Lestrange. My fault for not making it especially easy to tell what’s in it, haha...):



And my large piece for the contest (Helena Bonham Carter):




Yup. That’s all I have for the moment. Comments/advice always appreciated. =).

Well, you already know my thoughts on your Harry Potter signature, so I'll leave that one out.

The uncharted one needs a little work. I think you should work on the render to make it part of the sig, but not being the background. It doesn't look bad, but some touch-ups could make a diffirence.

Your Ephemeral piece looks nice as well, though I wouldn't use it as my background.
Maybe you went a bit overboard with your effects, but that is about it.

Keep on working =D.

Thank you for the reply, Pes. =).


Here’s my latest:

Here’s my newest:




And this is the one for the May SotM contest (Helena Bonham Carter):




EDIT: Here's my new entry for the SotM contest. Wanted something less grungy, considering the theme and all, haha...





Double Edit:



Another new one. It’s one of the monster things from Resistance: Fall of Man, in case anybody was wondering.

I like the "Beginning" and "Resistance" pieces the best. Theyre the most abstract and interesting to look at.

And personally, I can't say I really "like" the Helena Carter sigs. And it's for 2 reasons (Please take this as constructive criticism, im not flaming, but i know u know that)

1. Quality: I don't know if its the brushes you use or something, but I know you've gotten this in your sigs before about how it looks low quality. It's not the stock images that are bad, it's the stuff around it. It makes it look pixely and just not very "attractive" I guess you could say.

2. In term of SoTm, the theme is beauty/beauties, and this kinda ties into my first point. The way the sigs look in terms of like... color and texture, doesn't really make her look "pretty". They're actually kinda unflattering pictures too, but the way it's set up, it just doesn't seem appealing... I dunno how else to say it.

But I like how you keep trying and putting stuff up, becuase you're getting better with practice, but there's just something about that "texture" to your sigs that just kinda take away from the feel of them. Keep the sigs comin tho!!

Yeah, I see what you’re saying (on both points one and two). I’ve been trying different things to fix that low quality look, but evidently nothing is working. I’ve gone to png for file saving, and that’s actually helped, along with using the palette knife so that it smoothes things out in the sig itself. As for brushes, I haven’t actually been using any in my recent stuff. Evidently what I’ve been doing is not working very well regardless, haha, as far as getting better quality. I’ll figure something out eventually though. ...One would hope. =p.

But anyway, thank you for the advice, Laguna. =). I shall be going back to the drawing board for that SotM siggy. I’ll post it up once I’m done, so hopefully it will be an improvement.

You're not using brushes for the effects?? hmm...

well, in a summary step by step, how do you create the backgrounds for your Sotm sigs? Cause there's something in the process that you do that makes it uneven with the stock, and I'm sure one of us will be able to pick it up

Let’s see if I can remember exactly...It varies from time to time (though with the same general format), but this is what I did (if I recall correctly) for the first SotM attempt:


1.) Open new file, pick size, yadda yadda.

2.) Open another image and highlight/copy bits.

3.) Go to actual sig piece and paste (and perhaps transform).

4.) Change the layer effect from “normal” to “luminosity” or “exclusion/difference”.

5.) Repeat processes 2-4 until the background is full (or mostly full).

6.) Use Difference Clouds.

7.) Use Brightness/Contrast .

8.) Either use a filter effect such as colored pencil/etc., or use emboss and/or diffuse.

9.) Use some form of pixelation and erase the bits I don’t want. (Only figured out how to use this recently - mostly it’s been color half-tone and changing the layer effect to 'luminosity' or some such, along with changing opacity.)

10.) Use Color Balance.

11.) Add the actual stock (in this case it’s the stock on the far right that you can hardly see anymore.) and fiddle
with opacity.

12.) Use Emboss.

13.) Use Brightness/Contrast.

14.) Used ‘splatter’ filter effect.


I add the actual stock (one in the center - then I sort of repeat some of the previous steps to make it blend in more. Mostly filter effects, if anything, such as palette knife, rough pastels...things like that.), text, then I add ‘inner shadow’ for blending options on the background. Not sure if I’m missing anything, but that’s the general gist of things. Once I’m done I use the palette knife just to try and make it less fuzzy, but that doesn’t always work.

So yeah...It’s a hodgepodge of this and that. >.>. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn’t, haha...I think I just need a new way of doing things in general...


Edit: You know, I think it’s the stocks I’m using. I copy/paste bits and transform them into my sig things, so the fuzziness might be the quality of those stocks. ...Oy.

I'll comment on your sigs later, but it is easily to tell what LW is trying to say.
You use a lot of the standard effects, standard as in already provided by Adobe.
Also, the effects you use usually work in certain ocaissions. I can tell you that emboss, difference, luminosity and diffuse and other techniques generally create an awkward build up.
However, you did show it can work out nicely (really like the Fallen sig), but it can also turn out awkward.

I said before, to me it looks you're sometimes going overboard with effects and this kinda proves it. Try to use some brushes to get effects. You can download brushsets from the internet, from vendor, to tech, to grunge to artistic, it is everywhere.
How to save them and use them? Save them in your brushsets folder in your Photoshop folder, I though it was in the Presets folder. Then open PS and they'll be there.

Maybe you could look at smudging? It gives nice effects as well. Get a C4D render, place it on your sig, put it on lighten and you could get a nice effect. Get a smudge brush, change the settings of the smudge and do some experimenting with that. Different brushes give different effects.

There are countless possibilities in PS, much more than Adobe gives you, it simply requires some downloading. Serously, a whole new world opens up =).

The flow of everything in this isn’t the best, I know, but I downloaded some more brushes (working on fonts now, more brushes later) and did some experimenting. This one is probably my fourth try, and I’m getting the hang of how to actually use brushes better (though it’s still a little sloppy in this one).





I'm actually thinking of using this one for SotM, but we'll see...

Also, thank you ten-fold, Laguna and Pes, for all of the advice/critique. =).

That one could still use a TAD bit of work, but it's 100x better than the other two, thats for sure. Here's my own analysis of what maybe wrong in your process:



Luminosity, exclusion, and difference are all typs of effects that don't "blend". They just change the color basically. Things like Color Burn, Overlay, Soft Light, Darken, and a few others actually "blend" effects together in the way it makes some things more colorful or "see through". I rarely use ANY of those 3 that u do.



EXCELLENT tool. Use that for sure and experiment using different colored clouds and blending them with different modes. Or even try this: Go to either Motion Blur or Radial Blur and play around with those settings as they will sometimes make some interesting effects.



I don't really recommend filter effects unless the stock image is a drawing and the background looks like a drawing. When you try to use filter effects like that on 3D people it very rarely looks clean. And Emboss and Diffuse are two effects I stay away from usually just because they make things stand out more than necessary.



Sorry, cant see why'd you wanna pixelate it more. I don't think I've ever pixelated anything. Might be some reason why things stand out too.




Again, I'd stay away from Emboss. Opacity in a stock is important, but here's something you might want to try too: Make more than one layer copy of your stock. I've made pictures where the stock is really 3 or 4 layers, and I've changed the blending modes and opacity of them. ALSO, when I HAVE used the Filters that you have, it's because after I use the artistic filters I blend it and lower the opacity dramatically. You'll get some interesting effects.



Now that I think about it, that might be your problem right there. It's the splatter/emboss/blending modes/pixelating all together that gives some of your sigs an awkward feel.



That's just my analysis of your process. Here's some tips I think you should try:


1. Download brushes. Instead of taking bits and pieces of other pictures and trying to fit them all together colorwise, pixelation wise, and blending wise, use brushes and Clouds and blend them together.

2. Use different blending modes. Try to stay away from Luminosity, Exclusion, Difference, it takes a VERY artistic mind and a very well-versed Photoshop artist to pull these off with the colors they produce. I recommend playing around with Overlay, Dark, Soft Light, Color Burn, and Color Dodge (as some specifics).

3. Download Textures. What I mean by textures are a couple of things.
a.) They can be pictures of nature (sunsets, stars, clouds, rivers, rocks, tiles, basically anything. And put these as your background and blend them together with opacity and the blending modes I just listed above. And most importantly, don't try to "pick and choose" pieces of an image to put in, put the whole thing in and try it.
b.) Other rendered Photoshop images. This is almost cheating I admit, but I do it quite a lot actually. I'll find abstract Photoshop pieces that others have made, there are plenty on deviant art and google. I just paste the image and blend it the same way I mentioned blending the nature pictures above.

And you may say to me, "well if it's a picture with TONS of colors, and I only want a couple colors to be in my sig, what do i do?" In that case, I'd say Desaturate the image and then use the Color Balance option on it to achieve the colors you want it to be.

4. Stay away from Filters. They often give images a "cheap" look to it, and really aren't an impressive tool unless a sig is a very specific style/look. I'd mess around more with the Blending Modes (the ones i mentioned should be your best friends), and the Blurring Options (Motion blur, guassian blur, radial blur).



Here's something I'd suggest you try, just for kicks. In your Resistance: Fall of Man sig. Tweak it by doing these things (if you still can):

1. On the right side the black-reddish jagged things that jet out of the border have some kind of Filter on them that make them kind of "gritty" looking. Try to get rid of that effect and leave them the way they are. Then fool around with different Blending Modes for them and opacities, maybe throw in some abstract brush that you've found.

2. I really like the yellow that's behind those jagged things. So create a layer under them and with the gradient tool set to the circular gradient, take a yellow and from the bottom right corner make a circular gradient (this step may not seem very clear, so if u dont et it just skip it because its not entirely necessary). Then change the blending mode of this new yellow gradient to some kind of Overlay or Color Burn mode.

3. Finally, increase the contrast of the overall picture, so that the colors are a little more distinct, maybe change the Brightness by lowering the brightness a little at the same time till it's something you like.

That's it. I think that sig has the MOST potential out of the more recent ones you've done because it isn't full of Filter effects as the others, it's less cluttered, and because you have a GREAT stock image there that looks very natural. All the picture REALLY needs is just a more brilliant contrast of colors, which can just be done by highering the contrast.



I know this is a lot. But I know you're dedicated to making Photoshop things, ur an active member of this Artistic Board, and you enter pieces for competitions all the time, so I'd love to see you expand your potential.

My current sig (also for SotM):


New avatar:


A new R:FoM sig, Chimaera:




More will be on the way (including a revised Fallen sig), I just need to do some finishing touches on them. =).

Sorry for the double post, but I figure I have enough in this one...Not a lot, but substantial enough...


Revised Fallen:


-Tried to get rid of the gritty stuff (rough pastels) by spamming the palette knife, so for the most part I got rid of that. Managed to get it brighter (I shouldn’t say ‘managed’...That makes it sound like using brightness/contrast was difficult, haha...), and also added some brushes into it. So yeah, I like it quite a bit better than my other one, but I’m sure there’s more to fix yet.


Rise Like Smoke:



-I showed this to my sister on MSN, and she said that the effects on the left took away from the stock on the right (focus ends up being not on the stock, in other words). I myself find my eyes stray more to the left than the right, simply because there’s more there. Opinions on what I might do to make it better? Should I try adding some “stand-out “ brush to the right to enhance her picture, add more contrast so the sig is more dimensional than “flat”...? Or, do you guys think it looks okay as is?


Big Fish:



-The background for this was actually going to be used for Laguna’s large piece contest (using Sirius Black/Gary Oldman), but then I used my Helena Bonham Carter one. So yeah, I touched it up with some brushes and whatnot and added this stock (which, as some of you know, I hashed up pretty badly prior, haha). And, for those who are wondering what the heck “Big Fish” is supposed to mean, it was due to my lack of creativity; on the actual stock it says “Big Fish” in the background (taken from the set of the movie with the promotional stuff in the background, etc.), so I decided to put that as my text.


More will be up tomorrow~. =). Any and all C&C is, of course, appreciated.

You're stuff is looking better at least, there's a definitey difference now that you're not using the Filters

the revised Fallen sig looks MUCH better too, if anything it could almost use MORE contrast, I saved your pictuer and did it myself, but this is at least what I think looks best: (Check out the comparison side by side)






Which one do you think looks better?? I personally like the second one (the one i contrasted), because the colors are so much more brilliant and the background looks very deep and 3-D

but good work so far, keep it up still

Yeah, the second one definitely is better. It’s brighter and, as you said, it has that 3-D-ish feel to it.

Thanks for the feedback, Laguna. =).