Shiny

Long time no see, pyro!

Ehh, it may not be original, but it looks cool.

Maybe take the sun out?

Updated the entries and added mine. Sam, you gonna enter? You gonna read this?

Finally a theme I might work to. What happened to littleboy making the threads?

I use GIMP and I can come up with some amazing stuff, if I do say so myself...

I agree. If it was a little sharper, it would be great. I need to fire up mah GIMP again...

Finally, someone who is new and will take criticism and actually improves. I'm glad to see your experimenting, that is what you should be doing. I'll edit this post later with crit when I have time.

That is barely a smudge. It sounds like you haven't been listening to my advice, which just pisses the [cabbage] out of me. Now, lets tell you what the key points where you have gone wrong and what you need to fix. At least it is an improvement. First: Smudge only tags are hard. There needs to be a clearly defined focal, which you don't have. Right now my eyes don't know where to look. I guess 'Relapse' would be it, but it looks poor: it is slapped on and out of place. Second: The colours look alright, but are way way to over-contrasted and monotone. Get some variation, and bring down the contrast. Third: Flow, smudge tags need flow to generate interest. It creates a place for your eyes to move to. Bring in that: read tuts. Fourth: Depth. Very flat looking, bring some depth. I've given up. If you fail now on its your own fault. 4 months with little to no improvement. Oh well... I'm not even gonna start on the gif...

Move all the objects closer together, give it a sense of unison. Looking much better though!

So a gaming computer $1200 and under? That work?

Nice work. I got TF2 and instead of studying for exams, played that instead. Planning on getting Dragon Age: Origin and Assassin's Creed 2 next.

Had a mean as game on soldier. 12 kills, 1 life, after 2 hours of playing. Of course, I was helped a lot by 3 engineers. On 2fort. I think, so far, that Soldier, Scout and Medic are my favourite, and Demoman and Sniper are my least.

Bought it this morning? Any advice for a newbie?

I'm really loving it. The lines really look like the are holding the globe. It looks good, I think, and it shows the message your 'company' wants to get across. However, it maybe borders the area of being almost too detailed, if you know what I mean? Logo's should be simpler, in my honest opinion. Looks good though.

Everyone has it covered. You seem to have improved though. Oh and just for your thought, criticism is not negative feedback. Deal with it.

I have glasses. I think they make me look smart. Is that a confession?

Hahaha. I got the character creation and created an Elf Rouge, Dwarf Warrior and Human Rouge. Need to make a mage. I think I will do it through on Mage. I heard you have to have a Rouge on your team, no exceptions.

It may of been the 3rd one. The was definitely my favorite. I completed all the campaigns several times, and just generally owned.

God, I played and it was like a clone of the Torchlight interface (which is in turn a clone of a lot of other things) crossed with the graphics and gameplay of Runescape. I thoroughly didn't enjoy it, and I'm someone who enjoys MMOs.

Guys, be cool. They are all pretty much identical, with no major improvement over the course of them. One thing to take off, definitely is the text. It kills any chance these tags have. You need to remember the 6 things when it comes to tag making: Flow - how a signature flows and the direction it goes in. Makes the tag easier to look at on the eyes. Lighting - How is the lighting on the render? Is it harsh, subtle, gleaming or glinting? You need to adjust your lighting to accommodate for the renders lighting. Use a large, soft, white brush, put onto overlay at around 70% opacity. Depth - You do not want your tags to look flat and dull. Add some depth into it, it will make it more interesting. There are several ways you can do this like blurring the background and sharpening the foreground (the focal most likely) or making the foregrounds colors more saturated and the backgrounds less saturated. Your eye is naturally drawn to brighter areas or something sharp opposed to blurred. Be careful not to overdo it; subtlety is the key. Color - A tags colours can make or break it. You want a nice color scheme, pleasing to the eye, not some god-awful clashing one. Effects - Same with the effects. Effects are pretty much what make your tag visually interesting - they can be done in a myriad of ways. C4Ds and smudging are 2 well known ones. No doubt you know of those. Use effects sparingly. Too much distracts the eye. Composition - THIS IS THE BIG ONE. This is about how all those things I mentioned before are arranged. The simplest illusion to use when composing a tag to make it more interesting is the rule of thirds. Divide the canvas up into 3 equal columns up and accross. Tick those boxes and you are well on your way to making tags. Keep looking at tutorials as well - some good ones can be found on www.deviantart.com.

What do you recommend for my first run through?

I'm going to give it a shot. It looks pretty cool.

Locked. Use the questions sticky, I recall you already making this thread once ;)

That looks good.... Teach me pleace ^.^