Don't hurt me!!! Third Time's a charm? C/C please.

[imhomer]

Well, it's finally come to this, Imhomer's walked out of the world of pixel sigs and into abstracts. I got meself GIMP (a.k.a. Good If Money Poor) and tried to adapt the PS tuts I could find as well as I could manage. I don't think my first piece turned out too bad (at least not as bad as D2K's.........everything :lol:) but I could definately use some improvement. The text turned out fuzzier than I expected when I saved it as a .jpg :?.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update:

 

 

 

[eckered]

jpg is terrible in any program. dont.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

gimp is xcf to save layers and all, or good ol png on a flattend image. imo, im probably one of the best gimp users on this forum, and i can teach you a whole lot about making anything from cartoons to digi-painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for your next sig, a few tips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

brushes- get and use them.

 

 

 

color is your frend- use it.

 

 

 

believe it or not, there are more filters on gimp then on photoshop- use them

 

 

 

i can be alot more helpfull then this, i can give you cc, tut links, pretty much anything you need for gimp, feel free to pm me. right now im short on time, so im out.

[dark_shadow]

cant say im really fond of the text and its colour. its kinda hard to see on the background.

 

 

 

in the middle of the sig, on the bg, theres a straight vertical line, with the darker half of the sig on the left and the lighter on the right. why? whats the line for?

 

 

 

personally, i dont like the render.. too grey, blurred and.. 'weird' :| IMO anyway. try using some more colour in teh bg :) i cant really give CC for abstracts cause ive pretty much only just started myself as well :anxious:

[imhomer]

cant say im really fond of the text and its colour. its kinda hard to see on the background.

 

 

 

in the middle of the sig, on the bg, theres a straight vertical line, with the darker half of the sig on the left and the lighter on the right. why? whats the line for?

 

 

 

personally, i dont like the render.. too grey, blurred and.. 'weird' :| IMO anyway. try using some more colour in teh bg :) i cant really give CC for abstracts cause ive pretty much only just started myself as well :anxious:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmmm, you're right. I think I accidentally shifted a layer and forgot to move it back :oops:. Thanks for the tips.

[Triquos]

nice work :thumbsup:

[imhomer]

:pray:

[cadburys_egg]

jpg is terrible in any program. dont.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fail. Epic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, at the moment...

 

 

 

• [*:1xqjcwko]Use some better brushes (if you have atall)
   
   
   
  [*:1xqjcwko]Text is blurry, yeah. Good idea for it though.
   
   
   
  [*:1xqjcwko]Once you de-blur the text, add a ~75% black 1px stroke.
   
   
   
  [*:1xqjcwko]Colour the background.
   
   
   
  [*:1xqjcwko] The border should be 100% opacity - black. Generally stick to that.
   
   
   
  [*:1xqjcwko] Little to no blending.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep practicing, but I recommend Paint.NET over GIMP.

[Nadril]

Fail. Epic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beat me too it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.Jpg is great when your worried about filesize in photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bigest thing is the bluryness with the image. Also i'm not sure I like the pure red text.

[imhomer]

Well, at the moment...

 

 

 

• [*:2k9pt5wj]Use some better brushes (if you have atall)
   
   
   
  [*:2k9pt5wj]Text is blurry, yeah. Good idea for it though.
   
   
   
  [*:2k9pt5wj]Once you de-blur the text, add a ~75% black 1px stroke.
   
   
   
  [*:2k9pt5wj]Colour the background.
   
   
   
  [*:2k9pt5wj] The border should be 100% opacity - black. Generally stick to that.
   
   
   
  [*:2k9pt5wj] Little to no blending.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep practicing, but I recommend Paint.NET over GIMP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I've given up with this text as a lost cause. No matter what I do it seems to get blurrier when I save it as a .jpg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll make sure to get more brushes; this one was just my first so I only used the default brushes #-o.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The background was colored a bit but I upped the opacity on the coloring to make it more noticable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the border was 100% black. Again, I think the .jpg compression changed it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to blend a bit more. Turns out one of my render layers I left at 100% opacity on accident #-o (again).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bigest thing is the bluryness with the image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you mean by blurriness? The blurred edges, the text, what? Can you be a bit more specific?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the update version. I'll probably drop this one use what I've learned to move on to another; I'm tired of working on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Damnit, the border is red. *sigh*

[cadburys_egg]

Does GIMP come with any... proper abstract brushes? Photoshop's defaults are mainly just circular ones for highlights. I'd recommend getting proper abstract brushes as soon as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And WHOA at your new update.

 

 

 

• [*:2le321nq]Flaaaat colours.
   
   
   
  Instead of using a H&S layer, use some clouds of colours and set them to overlay. Use the eyedrop tool to take a sample of the orange in the sword and the red in the sword and do a cloud filter. Then move that layer BEHIND the render and set to overlay.
   
   
   
  [*:2le321nq]Still little to no blending.
   
   
   
  Blending isn't just about opacity. You need to create flow. Use the technique I provided in my tutorial. Utilising feather, gaussion blur etc.
   
   
   
  [*:2le321nq]Show us a PNG.
   
   
   
  If you think the blurriness of the text or something is because of the compression, provide a PNG.

[jak722]

Doesn't come with much actually... Gimp is more like PSP or Painter than Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its not as crisp and clean when it comes to pictures.

[imhomer]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I took a bit of advice from everyone, downloaded some new brushes and took another stab at it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cad, you talked in the tutorial about making a cloud layer with the selected colors. I interperated that as meaning that the cloud layer, which starts out as a mix of black and white, can be changed to other slected colors, i.e. red and orange. I tried but I don't think you can do this in GIMP, at least with the plugins I have. I settled for a overlay of color for now but I know I need to improve on that.

[slayernm613]

hey i kinda like it they are sorta right about the whole save file thing lol

[eckered]

cads tut works on gimp. id know because ive used it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok look, i see your improveing, but im in a bad mood. guess what. its cc time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to make a sig, its more then applying a cloud filter, desaturating it, and bluring up your render. you need to do more then that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

you need a border. new layer->ctrl+A->edit->stroke-.10 pix black, then 8 pix white, then 6 pix black. that always looks nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

your text looks like crap sence you saved it as jpg. scrap that layer, and redoo it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

add lighting. paint a white circle thing in a corner/edge where you want the light to come from. then guasin blur that layer at about 50.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

add a light sorce to the render.

 

 

 

new layer-> brush white on the spots that look like they should be reflecting light/where the light should be hitting them with the defualt 5-10 pixel brush-> smear it around a bit -> set it on overlay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

use brush layers. use soft grundge brushes, get em off deviantart. new layer-> fill with black-> brush around your render, making it lightest neer it. repeat x3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

add more focus on the render. new layer-> gradient -> radial-> b&W as colors, and make a white circle thing around the render. set it on overlay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

color the bg, not just black and white, and a bit of red.

 

 

 

render layer-> ctrl+A-> Ctrl+c -> new layer right under render layer -> place render all over the place. ->guasian blur it a bit. -> filters->noise->pick. set that layer on overlay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that line under the text. put it on a new layer, guasan blur it by 5-10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

may i sugest you start again, because frankly, the render lacks color, and thus your sig is bland. because you will probably call me an idiot if i dont show you an example, i shall show you the result of what i have been bored enough to type out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^^more recent i guess, made by me, dont rip....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if someone gives me a site where you can post an xfc, ill show you it.

[abhinav_g90]

being the 1337 pixeler u are, u should know that JPGS ARE EVIL! lol

 

 

 

Nice work but next time dont do jpeg

 

 

 

liking the new version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nice blending around ( and yea its better than d2k :P )

[imhomer]

I'm feel like one of those antelope in a documentary about lions :?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways eckered, I have a border. The text looks that way because I wanted it to be; it wasn't changed at all by the saving this time. I'll try lighting and a light source next time as well as a gradient focus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry, but I fail to see why .JPGs are so bad; at least compared to .GIFs. .GIFs give a bunch of speckles all over the piece that can be avoided that I can see by saving as a .JPG. Would anyone care to enlighten me more as to why .JPG is bad?

[eckered]

it blends to save filespace. which it doesnt. it blurs colors, and looks terrible in general. gif is for anamations, so why would you use that anyway?

[imhomer]

Sooooooooooooooo, give me a suggestion, .PNG?

[eckered]

jpg is terrible in any program. dont.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

gimp is xcf to save layers and all, or good ol png on a flattend image.

[Flamer]

Excuse me. But did i say what i think you said?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jpg is not terrible. It is actually way better then gif or png in my sigs, Thank you very much. (that is if you know how to use one). But as jpg is not as evil as everyone thinks it is. As in here

 

 

 

 

 

 

thats a jpg and nothing is wrong with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways.. to c/c

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't blur the render and Use a little more brushes, because it is pretty empty. The text isn't too bad, but it could use some work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well thats basically it o.O