A 'gimp' Sig Need feedback and some help ....

[abhiram 0]

I don't know why, but these days, I've started taking a liking towards the gimp. Ever since I installed gentoo on my system, I absolutely abhor booting into windows. In fact, I haven't even logged into windows for the past 3 weeks.

 

After getting Photoshop 6 running using wine in Linux (the other versions wouldn't even install) and having a lot of stability issues with it I've started getting the hang of the Gimp. But, there are a lot of features that I'm having trouble with. Let me show you what I mean... here's a sig I made using gimp:

 

 

First of all, I'm not really artistically talented, and as you can see, all my sigs are quite amateurish. But, I'm learning and recently got the hang of using fractal brushes to make sigs.

 

With that out of the way, here are some questions I need some help with:

 

1. What do you guys think about this sig? Rating, criticism (good, bad, anything goes), tips and suggestions would be a big help.

 

2. Can any experienced user in gimp explain to me how to add the blending options like glow, bevel and emboss (that are so easy to apply in photoshop) to a single layer (such as any text on the sig) without affecting the other layers?

 

Till now, I've been had to create the text in a new file, apply the desired script-fu and then merge the layers in the new file and then copy past the text into the original file. Now, this isn't too much fun if I've got to try out different kinds of script-fu and keep repeating this laborious process.

 

3. Finally, I've got the layer-effects plugin from the gimp repository, which supposedly is supposed to imitate 'blending options' in photoshop. But, it isn't working like it's supposed to ... the decorations and shadows show up wherever they want to and sometimes they don't even show up at all. Has anyone got that plugin to work?

 

This is kind of a long post, but it's these small things that have been driving me crazy for the past few days. Any help will be appreciated.

 

Thanks .

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

What are you saying ??? I like this sig man.. Specially the overall theme - and how the lines+color in the background seems to tally up with the colors on the figure's body.

[abhiram 0]

Thanks m^e, but you're too kind ... that kind of 'happened' while I was doing a pixel stretch for the background and then playing around with the filters. The minute I look at my sig and somebody else's (read s-m, reaver) it looks amateurish.

[Reaver 0]

Well abhiram i dont use GIMP so i wont be much help apart from what i can see in your sig and i agree with m^e that your pixelstretch it really good ( did u try looking at the sig without the render) cos i think that alone will look really good. For this sig as it is though i will suggest that you make the Render and Text alot bigger than they are at the moment or the bg smaller (400x150 is the max i would go for a sig) Also blend in the render with a blur once you figure it out because its a fast moving character so you want that effect. Add a few text effects also when u get the plugin working and the sig should be good to go.

[abhiram 0]

Hi Reaver , thanks for the tips. Using my limited exposure to gimp, I've changed the sig to some extent basing on your feedback. I've reduced the size of the sig to 400x140. Here:

 

In this one, I've removed the render and just kept the background and applied a small (but noticeable, I think) effect to the text which adds a shadow and a twist and a pattern overlay.

 

 

Here, I've tried to blend in the render with a blur, but ended up just fading it out. Moved the render to the center and left the text as it is in the previous one.

 

 

But, seriously, the background does look better without sonic in it. Ironic. Is the sig any better now?

[evion 0]

Ok, i personally like the size of the text you used at first. Although some might say the text is too small, i believe that at the right time place, small text really does the trick in bringing out your render and background. I love the blend you did with the render on your last try with the sig, but the swiggly text doesn't go well. (I'm sorry just my opinion). I would suggest that, after reducing the size of the background, that you reduce the size of the text to almost of about the same ratio as the background size reduction too. A tad bigger text would emphasize your name if you want. Once again, the render blend looks great its as if "sonic" is walking through the background itself. I would also suggest, if you don't mind trying out, that you DON'T blend the sonic render. Instead, give it a (shifting to Adobe photoshop terms here sorry i don't know about GIMP all that much) small "stylize-wind" filter to the render. I believe this will make it look as if its speeding through (something), although i haven't tried the wind filter with anything but a brushed background. Overall, great sig! I personally think the first version of the sig looks more like a top logo of a game site. =P Just my opinion. Great job!