nerdboyxxx's photoshop images :P

[nerdboyxxx]

Compared to this signature my other ones feel like huge failures. I reckon I could of done better with the background, but with this piece I really outlined the focal, I employed c4d's pretty well (still could of done better) but I'm pretty pleased with the final result. It is definitely my best so far. I'll keep working on c4d techniques and maybe post a few of my results later. Thanks for all your feeback guys, you've been really helpful :thumbsup:

 

 

 

I used a cod 4 render as the focal (because all cod games rule :P). The render itself looks pretty awesome, so I decided to make it even MORE awesome. Here we go, please give feeback :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again thanks to all who've given me feedback, and thanks in advance who tell me why my images are crap :D

 

 

 

I also made a large image. I guess it could be a wallpaper, not sure though. I used basic effects but they turned out pretty nicely. Lighting is ftw :thumbsup:

 

 

 

In advance, it is pretty large. So I put it in hide tags ;) it might take a while to load depending on your internet connection...

 

 

 

[hide=Futuristic city w/ rays of light][/hide]

 

 

 

Found a pretty neat Star Wars Cline Commando image on the web, and tried my hand at some c4d and colour techniques. I mainly used gradient maps, photo filter and smudging for effects here. Blurred the edges to match my background as well. This image was new for me, because I ususally opt. for lighting effects. Well, I next to no lighting effects in this one yet it still has quitr a bit of depth to it. Please tell me what you think :)

 

 

 

[Rainy_Day]

Hmm, well first things first the text is too distorted. It reads as "nerdadxxxx" to me. :? I would try and stick to a more simple text that is good on the eye and suits the background/render. I feel the background is generally too 'out there' for the render, perhaps a darker more flowing one would have suited. The render should also have not been made to such a low opacity, and it 'melts' into the background too much. But for a first signature, it's not a bad job. :)

[Sam]

Rainy Days has really summarised what needs working on, though there are a couple of things;

 

 

 

Colours - it's a very monotonous piece - a wider colour spectrum would sit it much better - if you are having trouble with colours, you can try out kuler, which is a color scheme maker which lets you construct a colour scheme from one main color.

 

Size - the proportions don't seem very good - if you don't know how to make a render smaller, press Control/Command + T whilst holding shift.

 

 

 

It's reasonably good for a first signature, though :thumbup:

[nerdboyxxx]

Thanks for the feedback guys :) I'm gonna start working on a new signature, this time probably with a darker emphasis to suit the game character. I'll also work on the text so it isn't as distorted. I'll post my next attempt soon :)

[rangeor]

That was really neat what you tried to do to the text. If it were just a little more clear it would have looked awesome. Well, not necessarily the placement... but I thought the layered X's looked really cool. :P

[nerdboyxxx]

That was really neat what you tried to do to the text. If it were just a little more clear it would have looked awesome. Well, not necessarily the placement... but I thought the layered X's looked really cool. :P

 

 

 

Thanks :) as you can probably see I rushed the text a bit, I should of taken more care #-o oh well I've finished my new one, updated first post.

[H2PM]

I like the second one alot better than the first, it really portrays the dark and grittiness of the game.

[rangeor]

I would try to avoid layer styles with signatures. Most of the time they look terrible, and it's very hard to get them right. It's an improvement but you should try and make it more dynamic, not just a render-background-text tag. You need to spice it up!

[nerdboyxxx]

I would try to avoid layer styles with signatures. Most of the time they look terrible, and it's very hard to get them right. It's an improvement but you should try and make it more dynamic, not just a render-background-text tag. You need to spice it up!

 

 

 

Thanks for feedback and responses everyone :)

 

 

 

I am looking to spice it up, any suggestions? I don't want it to be bland, and that's the kind of feeling I get when I look at it. I should be going "omgz teh pwns" but I'm not. If you have any suggestions on spicing it up, I'd really like to hear them :)

[rangeor]

Probably the biggest thing would be depth. Depth is one of those things that can really make you go "omgz teh pwns." Take a look at this piece.

 

 

Can you imagine what it would be like if this was completely 2d? It would be boring!

 

 

 

Another important thing is color. Take a look a this beautiful tag:

 

 

This is one of the best uses of color I've seen. Your tag is mainly red and black, with the guy's blue eyes accenting it. That won't cut it, it needs to be dynamic and have more color! Of course, monotone can work when done right, but it isn't right now.

 

 

 

Next is a focal point. Right now my eyes aren't sure where to look - the render, the text, or the background. It's sometimes difficult to keep your eyes away from text, but they shouldn't be staring at the background! You need to have an obvious point for the eyes to go to at first, then a smooth transition through the rest of the piece.

 

 

 

 

Last is lighting. You want to make your piece feel as realistic as possible. It's impossible to get it completely realistic, unless you're using human renders/stocks, so you want to get it as close to real as you can. Lighting helps this and can make your piece more dramatic too.

 

 

 

 

I hope that helps at least a little!

[nerdboyxxx]

Thanks dude :thumbsup: problem is I have no idea how to do any of those things :? I'll go find some tuts and make one today or tomorrow (depending, I'm quite busy today :P)

[rangeor]

The best way is to just experiment and find out yourself. I know it's not the answer you want, but it's easily the best option. :P I'll help you get started though. For depth, whenever you're making a piece you want to pick out your background, middleground and foreground. Generally your render and your focal should be in your middleground. If you want to get crazy, though, you can make more than one middleground; this is a delicate thing to do, but when done right it can look awesome. An easy way to make a simple sense of depth is to make three layers. First you put your background on the lowest layer and your render in your middle layer. Your top layer you want to brush a couple colors then smudge them a little to create flow, or add to the natural flow of the render/background. Then you want to add three more layers between your layers, so it goes: background, new layer, render, new layer, smudge layer, new layer. Brush a color that fits with lots of scattering on all of the new layers. Then erase some of it to make it look more random. Then you want to run a gaussian blur of about 15-20 on the lowest scatter layers, then a gaussian blur of about 5-8 on the middle one, and do nothing with the top one. For color schemes, try out the site littleboy mentioned, kuler. Also try to keep your colors relatively unsaturated, and gradient maps can help a lot.

 

 

 

Your focal is actually rather easy, you just need to follow the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is dividing your canvas into nine different sections, and you should place your focal at or near one of the intersections. Here's a great example:

 

 

 

 

For lighting, I'm still learning how to do that right. Hopefully someone else can drop in and help you with that D: . But what I do is add a new layer on top of everything and then take one of my more important colors, then drag the little color dot up quite a bit so it still looks similar but very light, then take a soft brush and brush where I want there to be light. Then I do the same but with a different color and make it very dark and brush where I want there to be a lack of light. It's not a very good method and I wouldn't recommend it, but I don't know any other ways to do it well D: though I've heard adjustment layers can work great if you know how to use them.

[Sam]

 

 

 

[AndyPandy]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Skully]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pirate_Felix]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nerdboyxxx]

Ah, smiley spam :o!

 

 

 

Thanks for the ideas, I'm just mucking around with the basics but I'm gonna move on and try some new things out. Might take a while but I'll try really hard on this one ;) I'll make one with a different render.

[Jopie211]

It would look pretty good without the border and text; both are a bit distracting and not really needed for the composition or anything. Good job though, it's indeed a huge improvement from your previous signatures.

[nerdboyxxx]

It would look pretty good without the border and text; both are a bit distracting and not really needed for the composition or anything. Good job though, it's indeed a huge improvement from your previous signatures.

 

 

 

Thanks :thumbsup: should I make the text a bit smaller, change the colour maybe? And should I just remove the border entirely or just make it smaller?

 

 

 

Thank you for the nice comment btw

[Jopie211]

If you want to keep it on there, I'd try a dark brown-ish colour for the text, and maybe move it to the bottom of the canvas to make it less distracting. I also recommend using a more simple, clean looking font, they usually work well with lots of different things. And it would look better without a border IMO.

[Skully]

I really think the size makes it look stupid, trim it down a little.

[nerdboyxxx]

If you want to keep it on there, I'd try a dark brown-ish colour for the text, and maybe move it to the bottom of the canvas to make it less distracting. I also recommend using a more simple, clean looking font, they usually work well with lots of different things. And it would look better without a border IMO.

 

 

 

Okay, thanks :thumbsup:

 

 

 

I really think the size makes it look stupid, trim it down a little.

 

 

 

What size do you recommend?

[Skully]

If you want to keep it on there, I'd try a dark brown-ish colour for the text, and maybe move it to the bottom of the canvas to make it less distracting. I also recommend using a more simple, clean looking font, they usually work well with lots of different things. And it would look better without a border IMO.

 

 

 

Okay, thanks :thumbsup:

 

 

 

I really think the size makes it look stupid, trim it down a little.

 

 

 

What size do you recommend?

 

 

 

Nothing exact, just not that damn big. Look around, look at the sizes of sigs. They don't look like that generally. :P

[Ouchy]

350*150 is good, and they just work around and try new things from there.

[nerdboyxxx]

350*150 is good, and they just work around and try new things from there.

 

 

 

350*150 is the only one that looks decent, even though the image looks stretched now. I tried larger and smaller but 350*150 is the only one that worked. Thanks :thumbsup: