Johnny

Shhh~!!! I've been busy

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Doing textures for someone else.

5-1. Biscuitrat up. Should I keep this thing going, or end it here?

The picture's named Zerg something. I was pointing out that it's a protoss.

Bout time Pops. :DNice bio.

Ah, I can finally see it. Nice work Wassie's right though...it's strange that her feet don't appear in the sig...and Freaker's right that the white star thing disrupts the sig....it's a little bit too "hard" to fit with the abstract curves. The render is also a bit monochromatic, but the brushing is fine.

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Ditto on every bit of it.

The essentials to a good (Johnny-style) sig:

 

1. Border. Nothing elaborate, but something to keep all the goodies in.

2. Brushing. Brushes available by the thousands at http://www.deviantart.com/ I've gone over basic brushing a few times, but still yet to release my full brushing tutorial.

3. Render. High quality renders available at http://www.gamefront.com/ in nice big packages.

4. Text. Needs some nice effects(shadows, stroke, opacity, fill, stay away from glows and bevels.), and a nice font. http://www.dafont.com/de/ has premium fonts for free.

5. Color. Color balances are key to a good sig. I have a pretty decent (multi)coloring tutorial in the tuts section.

6. Contrast. Brightness/contrast helps give the sig more life, instead of being plain/bland.

7. Other effects. Scanlines, blurs, etc.

8. Blending. All the elements should flow nicely.

 

So, that's not like the sig -law- or anything, that's just what I find absolutely necessary for each of my personal sigs. Of course, there's more to it than that....this is just a point in the right direction.

 

As for your current stuff, they're okay for a beginner, but I agree with biscuitrat.

 

Edit: Oh, and layering is also a must. If you haven't already, get into the habit of using layers a lot. They make things tons easier when you have an elaborate sig and you need to tweak certain things.

 

Edit2: And make sure you save PSD files...most of the time you don't need to go back and edit a sig, but sometimes you will, and PSDs are very useful. I tend to use them a lot.

Fusion, your images are fruity.

That's a Protoss, not a Zerg. :DBut no, I don't disagree with the 10 posts rule, I just think it should be up to the individual designer. But now that I think about it, making that rule official probably would be best.

See, you have a point, but what it comes down to is that each element of the sig should be detailed and nice-looking, instead of having one thing plain and the rest nice-looking. Yes, the text/render should be the focus, but they can be the focus without having to make your background plain.

 

I think this one serves a perfect example:

As you can see, there's tons of detail in the background (I didn't do it myself though) but the render and text remain the focus.

 

And looking through my sigs I notice that a lot of them don't actually have elaborate backgrounds, but the render/text make up for it, like these:

 

(I just took the examples from my gifts section...my sigs seem to be a bit better there. O.O)

Good at everything? Me? You kidding? And I'm too lazy as well XD

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Pffft. That settles it then.

.....Or we Xisto Designers will gang up and beat the inspiration back into ya

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For sure. And remember Mike, I know what you look like.

How about no. I'm lazy. :)Why can't you do it, Mr. I'm-good-at-everything?

A bunch? I asked you to change it once yesterday, because I accidently had a screw up I didn't see...this will be the last time, I swear

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Wasn't saying you did do it a bunch, it was more of a general statement that nobody should change their sig up too much.

Haha, Johnny I just was thinkin on how many times my name has been spelled like an Army System weapon...you're not the only one =)

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Heh, well, that's reassuring. And that's probably where I got it from...I think I first noticed the name during AS, and assumed you got your name from it. Or something. Whatever...I don't wear my glasses like I should.

Thanks for calling me a salmon. Glad to see you're showing maturity.

 

Anyways, Phyre, your sig looks a little cluttered right now. I bet that it's because of the six words at the bottom as well as the scribble (correct me if it's not scribble) behind the text. Try taking those out to see what you get. Post it in this thread if you want. I love the sparkles, but those would have gone infinitely better if you had an abstract background (in my opinion, of course).

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I didn't call you a chum, I called you a chump. Get it right dolt.

 

I agree though...it looks good Phyre, but something just seems off. Abstract probably would be better.

 

Not too late to change it, just avoid doing it a bunch. At least here only staff can edit posts, so there's no need to worry about people switching without permission.

iPood style! (Yes, the "poo" was intentional)Looks cool...only thing I'd point out is that the red text over the dark orange chick is somewhat hard to see...maybe give it an outline, or something.But hm...osiris-design...I know Sick Osiris...and he's a vector artist....you're not Sicko are you?

See ya around, Saint_Mike, and be sure to pop by here every once in a while. Won't be the same in the Xisto Graphics Forum without you're weird comments

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No doubt. I love trying to figure out what Mike's saying half the time.

Hm...is this something like using Levels? You can use a histogram to set your shadow, midtone, and highlights...then there's another bar for brightness/contrast. O.o

I was expecting this to be one of them "make your own grunge" tutorials. But this is just another sig tutorial, grunge style. Only thing i see beneficial is the scanlines part of the tutorial. And glad you mentioned what brush you used.

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[this is me agreeing.]

 

Like I said, REALLY easy cut...no real background, and huge outlines. But meh.

I was really tired. And lazy. And for some reason had a strong urge to do a render.

I still have some Naruto and comic ones to do....but meh....me rendering is a rare occasion.

(And don't you fools go doing the rest of the maplestory ones. I plan on it. Eventually.)

Holy CRAP, it's ELEVENmil? I thought it was ELVENmil!Freaking jeez....it makes so much more sense now...I'm such a frickin' idiot...*rant, ramble, rave*

ALRIGHT! PARTAY!Haha, j/k.Guess we're all bound to leave sometime. Just make sure you visit back every now and then to rate my sigs and stuff. You know how I love attention. :DBTW, I can never seem to catch you on MSN or YIM anymore...I'm not just crazy am I?

In addition to the information Phyre provided for melkonianarg, layers are very important, it allows you to compose the scene exactly the way you want it. You may find them difficult to learn but they will make your life much easier in the long run.

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You're my idol.

 

No, but really though...layering is ESSENTIAL.

 

So people, stop brushing directly on the background, or sticking your text above the color...stuff like that...

Wow. That put a smile on my face (corny). I expect to see your vote (for me, of course) on the 26th!

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OMG, what a chump.

 

But yeah, stick around long enough Blue, and you can become another addict like us.

Okay, so, this was uber easy, and I cut half of it at 5 in the morning (was up all night playing Gunz), and you guys will probably rarely use it cause you never do sigs with this style, and knowing my luck, it's probably already been done.

 

But regardless of all that, I'm posting it anyway.

 

 

(Yes, I'm aware that her frontmost bang is a little uneven. SUE ME. O_O )