Duke is here, kicking my butt

[Lily Rock]

Thread was merged, I post signatures and avatars here below.

World of Warcraft:

Thrall


Varian Wrynn

Zul'Jin(my second attempt at smudge or w/e it was agian)


Blood Elf

Misc:

Reimu(no real effects, just playing)


Duke Nukem(same as above)


Ayu (from Kanon(2006)) (also my second try on fire effect)

Touhou:

Sakuya Izayoi 1


Sakuya Izayoi 2


Marisa Kirisame

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If you have any questions(I don't know if anyone wanna ask me ANYTHING at all :P) or comments, feel free to PM or ask here.
Tips and tutorial/guide links are very appericiated.

[Nanobyte]

You're better then me, though... I think, that is.
I like your effects, I wish I knew how I could do that, the text could use some pimping but the whole thing together looks pretty nice.

[Lily Rock]

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[Nanobyte]

Why are you so mean? I was just trying to explain that work isn't as bad as you think, and even so, if you think it's bad, just work on it, it will turn out fine eventually, if you practice.

[blueangel06661]

I don't get why Ambu got disliked. But if you want someone to tell you how badly it sucks.. I'm right here..

1. Everything is blurry. It's not pleasant to look at. You should totally work on your sharpening.
2. Oh? Theres text on this sword? Didn't really see it nor did I actually read it. One of the number one rules in graphic design is don't put same colors on same colors. In this case you used a white/yellowish font color on the already white/yellowish sword background causing it to blend in and thus loses the attention. Either use a different color or add a darker stroke.
3. Your C4D's are just not doing you any type of favors yet. They don't really compliment your style at all and just look really bad placement/color choice wise. You have something going on in sig #1 where an effect is clouding up the characters face and that totally doesn't look good.

Those are just some flaws I felt like pointing out. Just really work on it..

[Lily Rock]

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[.:neuko:.]

Well... to answer your main question directly, I don't see why you can't simply uninstall the program you're using yourself, rather than have someone "take" it from you. Unless you want to send me a remote assistance invite; then I can take control of your computer and take the program from you that way.

OK... but now I'll get serious, since you didn't take too kindly to Ambu's complement (and even then, that'd be an understatement)...

1st point: your sigs are too large, which make them more like pictures. They should really be more discreet, like a respectable fashion label. The typical resolution for sigs is around 450 by 150 pixels (or rather, that's the maximum resolution if you're looking to enter into sig competitions here).

2nd point: it's difficult to see how your sigs represent yourself as a person, much less a member of this forum... which comes back to my initial point that your sigs are more like pictures.

3rd point: The use of (apparently) in-game graphics for characters (especially with low poly counts) is not advisable... you should at least get a pre-rendered equivelant, or better still an illustration. In short... use Google more!

4th point: A technical observation this, but your characters seem to have a blurred appearance, which is to say that you might as well resample your sigs to a smaller size so that they can at least appear sharp, and since your sigs are rather large to begin with, you might as well downsample the resolution anyway. Also, since both your characters in both sigs are in the foreground, I can only suspect that you've upscaled them to make them appear larger relative to the background... but as large as they may be, this method does not make them appear more detailed; it just simply makes your file larger and only confuses people as to why your images have a blurred appearance in the first place.

5th point: It's rather difficult to read the text on your character's sword in your 1st sig. Fortunately this problem is easily corrected with the right tool.

Having said all that, do not despair, we all have to start from somewhere and as Ambu pointed out you simply need to practice more. Also, I rather like the concept of your first sig... I just think it needs a little polish in the technical department. On a sidenote, if you're using Photoshop to make your sigs then I'd be happy to give you some pointers.

Final point... look at some tutorials for advice on making sigs... and I also recommend you take a good look at Blueangel's thread for ideas on sig making, as she's very experienced at that and her works are highly regarded. I have a sig thread too, but there's a lack of content at the moment; if you want to use it as a technical reference then be my guest - but overall, I think Blueangel's thread would be a better reference for you. Otherwise good luck... and whatever you do, don't give up. You're not lame... you just need more experience.


Note: Btw, if you're wondering why many of my statements in this post are simalar to Blueangel's... well I didn't mean to copy her words, since at time of writing this post she hadn't posted; so clearly her shorter comment got posted before mine. However, since I spent some time writing this I'd rather not re-edit it if it's all the same. But I do apologise anyway.

[Lily Rock]

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[.:neuko:.]

Read it, will do.
I use WoW Model Viewer, at MMO-Champion, everyone uses it to make signatures, and those are VERY good and pleasant to look at, it's just to make it look good, which I can't.
Also, I tend to go "brain gotta take a break, brb", but still sit and work without thinking properly, I do not scale them in PhotoShop, I can take a screenshot from WMV and then it's clear zoomed in, no decrease in quality/etc.

Firstly, thanks for reading my post there!

However, I'm afraid I must further point out a few things on your point about images via screenshots. Images may vary in resolution... and the most common resolutions in videos and games is the standard 720x576 (720x480 for NTSC frames) and 640x480 - or for the HD formats, 1280x720 and 1920x1080. However, these resolutions can be more of a technicality than actually representative of meaningful image quality, since image quality begins at the source. So, for example, if the source image behind a screenshot is a low resolution to begin with, then no amount of wizardly and upscaling is going to add more detail to that image; because detail cannot be produced that isn't there to begin with. Of course, you're quite right about the fact that a zoomed image (including via WMV) does not decrease image quality either; but that wasn't my point... Your images appear blurred none the less (which is not necessarily because they've lost detail), and for the reasons which I will state in the next paragraph...

Any image that's zoomed in some way is going to be either blurred or worse, pixelated because that method is simply blowing up the square pixel elements in the first place. Blurring's just an algorythym that many programs apply on the fly to reduce what would otherwise be described as unsightly enlarged pixels... in order words, zooming simply blurs pixels as they're scaled to make images less unsightly. Unfortunately, while this neither increases nor decreases image quality, the images none the less appear blurred as result, otherwise the enlarged pixels would be noticeable, and that can be disturbing for viewers. Blurring effects are usually accepted in videos, but not really in graphic works such as sigs. The only time when blur is acceptable is when it is used as an effect, say to create an illusion of depth of field; i.e. to make the foreground stand out from the background.

[Lily Rock]

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[.:neuko:.]

Uhm, I am the one making the pictures look totally blurred, they all look so shart at edges I get mad. :/
All that really is, are on how to import a C4D/other background thingy render, cause idk if I do it right, I just copy and paste from the window.

Ah I see... In that case, I'm afraid I can't really comment on why your images are sharp at the edges to begin with... Except... well, unless for some reason, your program, or your monitor is sharpening your images against your will, then the chances are the problem lies with the source images you use to make your sigs. If you're using a TV with a PC input, such as a HDTV as a computer monitor rather than a dedicated computer monitor, then it's likely that after you've applied blurring to reduce the sharpness of your images, chances are they'll appear more blurred to those who are viewing them on most monitors, because HDTVs are built for TV, video and games sources and therefore have dedicated processors to sharpen images to make them look more appealing. Unfortunately this is not what you need when it comes to image-editing; then you need a computer monitor that simply displays a video signal as faithfully as possible. HDTVs from the likes of Samsung and Sony are especially notorious for sharpening images and thus are not ideal for rendering a correct visual display of images when it comes to raw PC signals. I just thought I should point that out, since it's an issue that's usually hard to notice until enough people start consecutively pointing out blurring issues with graphical works.

[Lily Rock]

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[.:neuko:.]

I'm using a HD screen, 1366x768 I think, it's very good for gaming as it sharps yet keeps it VERY clean and smooth.
My graphics card are also abit f'ckd up so it might be that.

Yes that sounds like the typical characteristics of a HDTV to me. 1366x768 is basically the HD standard for HD-ready TVs. The other HD standard is full HDTVs at 1920x1080.

Ultimately, I think you should get a dedicated PC monitor... otherwise the next best thing is calibration. Borrow a working laptop (from a nice friend or something) and if you can, calibrate it and make sure the contrast is on it's highest setting and that the brightness is at it highest level but not to the point of making blacks appear grey. Then adjust the settings on your TV in it's PC input mode to match the display as close to the computer monitor as possible; ideally use the same images for both monitors for improved results. Turn off all unecessary picture processing on your TV when in PC input mode, because it will not be applied to your images when you save them. Overall, drop the sharpness; in some TVs it will blur the image at the minimum level, so somewhere along the line you'll find a level where the sharpness is as good as gone, which is what you're aiming for, since sharpening is just another form of additional picture processing that you don't need here. Unfortunately for TVs like Sony and Samsung, all you can really do with their sharpness is drop their levels to the minimum (and even then it's not completly gone) to get as close as possible to a computer monitor display. Use a meaningful image to as a means of calibration as well... there's bound to be several freebies on Google!

Needless to say, repair or replace your graphics card if it's giving you an incorrect display or your images.

Good luck!

[Lily Rock]

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[Lily Rock]

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[UrusaiSevera]

there's a one thread per user rule, so that means you will have to post all your future works in this one thread.
So make the most of it and have fun ;]

[Lily Rock]

there's a one thread per user rule, so that means you will have to post all your future works in this one thread.
So make the most of it and have fun ;]

Oh, okay, thanks, sorry for that, will keep it to this thread.