murder colors.

[Atziluth]

I..

Might as well just start this now. I'm shaking the rust off my PS at the moment, been a few months since I made anything previous to the past few nights.

Constructive criticism is very welcome unless I state otherwise to the piece specifically..


Edit:

About my text, for future reference to everyone: Some people adore it, some people hate it. :3 I know I can go overboard but I like having a lot of text. So please, don't tell me not to use it. I'm not going to listen. I design these much more as banners than I do signatures. Occasionally, I'll go with the keeping the text simple, but that will be at my discretion. I'm not trying to be defensive at all, it's just what I like and that's a lot more important to me than anything else. u.u If you want to give me advice about placement or style, then I'm all ears, but when it comes to how much? :/ No.

So, recent:



No stroke version:


Just finished this. I don't terribly care for it, but, meh. And the fingers were misshapen in the original scan. So were the vines, partially, but I'm just not sure how to properly shape them to keep the stroke effect from ruining. The stroke makes the pop-out lines look awful and defines the lines of the inside very well; the lack of stroke makes the pop out lines prettier and messes up the inside. It's.. grr.



Two days ago: posted for posterity.

This was made for an RPG site, and purposefully kept a bit more simple than normal:



This was my last for another forum, untagged version: Not C&C friendly



And another one I made around that time period, which is by far one of my simplest.. and strangely, one of my favorites. C&C friendly, but there wouldn't be much point.

[MysticFairyDrmz]

Popout i love.. the background looks good only thing is the text looks to bright for the sig itself and i also think the no stroke looks better.

Second one i love the extraction you used for it and colors fit nicely.. to much text though in my opinion and to big.

Third sig i love would look better if you got rid of the yellow text at the top.

Fourth sig just has to much.. to much going on.

Fifth sig is nice but also has to much going on and way to much text..

sorry but to much text and overly big sigs are just a pet peeve of mine lol
I would try making smaller sigs i think they would look better but i guess sig size is a personal opinion of the person.

[IchigoKiss]

Imo they're a bit clashed down together.
So many things going on.You have great ideas
and I seem to see that you like to use the font
Birth of a Hero <3

[Atziluth]

Popout i love.. the background looks good only thing is the text looks to bright for the sig itself and i also think the no stroke looks better.

Second one i love the extraction you used for it and colors fit nicely.. to much text though in my opinion and to big.

Third sig i love would look better if you got rid of the yellow text at the top.

Fourth sig just has to much.. to much going on.

Fifth sig is nice but also has to much going on and way to much text..

sorry but to much text and overly big sigs are just a pet peeve of mine lol
I would try making smaller sigs i think they would look better but i guess sig size is a personal opinion of the person.

I think the text and size thing are kind of opinion, yah. (I like text.)

Fourth was no C&C for a reason :P Thanks! I'd rep you, but I lack the power.

Imo they're a bit clashed down together.
So many things going on.You have great ideas
and I seem to see that you like to use the font
Birth of a Hero <3

It's kind of a trademark of mine. Bright colors, chaos, unique composition. It works a lot better for wallpapers. <_< But eh.

Yah, it's my favorite <3 Or was. Legible and pretty. What's more win than that?

Thanks. ^^

[Jagan Eye]

My favorite one, but I don't understand why there wouldn't be any point in CnC. I think the blending on this signature is done extremely well. Its a very busy signature and I think if you cropped out the right part of the signature where you see the face and then resized to just show the girl in the left part, it would look a whole lot better. Then you could have her be your focal point and also move her a bit more towards the middle. Or you could do the exact opposite and keep the one on the left half, but having both of them just ruins the effect the signature has. Also, use the burn tool set to midtones on her face and in certain places just to add more depth. If you don't want to do that, just create a new layer on soft light and brush with a dark brush and control how much darker you make everything. I also think it would look pretty awesome if you made the red in her bow darker. It would stand out more against the background. The lighting is kinda messy towards her back, so just mess around with it some more. I kinda feel like the text takes away from the signature itself since it just doesn't seem like it belongs. On signatures as busy as this, a lot of text is just really not neccessary.

Take a look at THIS. Its a nice little text tutorial by Serated and it helps a lot.

[Atziluth]

Jagan Eye: There wouldn't be much point to give me critique for it because I neither have the .psd anymore nor spent longer than twenty minutes making it. o.o

Thank you for a very thorough critique. ^^


About my text, for future reference to everyone: Some people adore it, some people hate it. :3 I know I can go overboard but I like having a lot of text. So please, don't tell me not to use it. I'm not going to listen. I design these much more as banners than I do signatures. Occasionally, I'll go with the keeping the text simple, but that will be at my discretion. I'm not trying to be defensive at all, it's just what I like and that's a lot more important to me than anything else. u.u If you want to give me advice about placement or style, then I'm all ears, but when it comes to how much? :/ No.

Oookay~ went digging around for some more of my stuff.

This was a fairly fast one. Yah, I know, a lot of text. ;D I probably would've gone without the top minuscule and possibly bottom. And moved the box around my alias..



This was for a friend, and this extraction was beyond hellacious. I kind of struggled with this one, I also seemed to have a thing for the small cursive fonts back then..probably should've removed them from this, too. Fortunately, I hate her now, and any amount of bad graphics she can have makes me smile.




Went on a bit of an icon spree a while back~





I wonder if this is too graphics intense..

[Jagan Eye]

You can tell I've got nothing better to do when I sit and stalk a signature thread. And oooooh, no psd, then CnC is pointless.

1st siggy:
I do indeed like the text in this one. It just seems to fit incredibly well, but the second row with white cursive and black stroke around it is kinda hard to read, so maybe you could change up the font to make it more legible cursive. I really don't think its a good idea to use more than one person in a signature and set them on opposite sides. It gives the signature a really messy, focalless feel. Either set them both next to each other or use only one of them. The quality of the stocks you used kinda lack. Try messing with the lighting, sharpness, and color of the stocks so they don't look out of place. Also, use some more gradient maps, it'll help with the color contrast to the eye.

2nd siggy:
Oho, this color scheme is a nice one, but I think using a gradient map would have helped it along a WHOLE lot more. The stock also kinda seems to be floating in midair. It doesn't really look good like that. I don't think its a good idea to scatter your text around in different places. Try to keep it all in one section. This siggy also needs more blending. If there is drop shadow behind the stock, get rid of it, it doesn't help the effect of outofplace-ness. Also, smudging techniques help the signature along. Duplicate the stock and smudge with a splatter brush. Also, you should mess around with the color balance. It'll make everything look better. I wanted to say I'm a fan of these simple borders. They don't hurt the sig and they make them look complete. You seem to enjoy grungy siggies so try out some effect C4Ds on screen or lighten. They'll look pretty cool, I bet.

I love the 2nd and 7th icon. They both are like amazing in color. I do enjoy the stock on white background with itty bitty text. The 4th icon is really cool as well. I didn't notice it moved at first but its very fun to look at. I think you are really good at avatars and animation.

[Atziluth]

You can tell I've got nothing better to do when I sit and stalk a signature thread. And oooooh, no psd, then CnC is pointless.

It's okay, I like stalking by helpful people.

<_< -hugs the sarcastic one- >_>

1st siggy:
I do indeed like the text in this one. It just seems to fit incredibly well, but the second row with white cursive and black stroke around it is kinda hard to read, so maybe you could change up the font to make it more legible cursive. I really don't think its a good idea to use more than one person in a signature and set them on opposite sides. It gives the signature a really messy, focalless feel. Either set them both next to each other or use only one of them. The quality of the stocks you used kinda lack. Try messing with the lighting, sharpness, and color of the stocks so they don't look out of place. Also, use some more gradient maps, it'll help with the color contrast to the eye.

Yeah, I think the fact that the drop shadow border is kind of -on top- of the text doesn't help either. :/ Neither were very good scans, admittedly, something that's actually pretty rare for me. Do you think facing opposite and laid against each other? Actually, I'll take some of the gradients off, to increase the contrast..

2nd siggy:
Oho, this color scheme is a nice one, but I think using a gradient map would have helped it along a WHOLE lot more. The stock also kinda seems to be floating in midair. It doesn't really look good like that. I don't think its a good idea to scatter your text around in different places. Try to keep it all in one section. This siggy also needs more blending. If there is drop shadow behind the stock, get rid of it, it doesn't help the effect of outofplace-ness. Also, smudging techniques help the signature along. Duplicate the stock and smudge with a splatter brush. Also, you should mess around with the color balance. It'll make everything look better. I wanted to say I'm a fan of these simple borders. They don't hurt the sig and they make them look complete. You seem to enjoy grungy siggies so try out some effect C4Ds on screen or lighten. They'll look pretty cool, I bet.

This stock is really at an odd angle O.o; like nothing I've ever encountered again. Kind of.. diagonal.. white background.. floaty.. weird. I've just learned about that smudging stuff, yeah. I think I got that from someone here, actually. Took me twenty minutes to realize they surely couldn't mean with it set to 100% <.<

I do different borders, but it's very rare. I like the basic.

Thanks. Yeah. I'm also just now trying c4ds ^^ I find the flow concept kind of difficult, or rather, my choice of c4ds and the flow concept difficult, but, eh.

I love the 2nd and 7th icon. They both are like amazing in color. I do enjoy the stock on white background with itty bitty text. The 4th icon is really cool as well. I didn't notice it moved at first but its very fun to look at. I think you are really good at avatars and animation.

Thank ya. I can't go overboard on text with animation! :P

[Jagan Eye]

Hehe, glad you like it then. I've got over 5000 resources on my computer just sitting around so if you would just like to look at some of the stuff, send me a PM and I'll give you my MSN. Also, reading tutorials just helps a whole lot. I could sit around and just read them for hours. And if you need c4d help, I'm around all day as well. So, PM me if you need. ^^

[Atziluth]

So..

I hate trends. I really do. But I decided that in fairness, I can't knock it until I try it. So I tried to do something simple - less busy, if you will.

Edit:


Not done, but I'm out of ideas. D: The text is totally confusing. No idea what color or if I should use stroke and et cetera.. bothersome!

Suggestions would be welcome. Including text context. I feel so cheap with it as is.

[Anime Forum]

I actually find this sig very good, I love the colors and the choice of text was a good thing on your part, I don't know who agrees, but I find your work very good. The thing that stands out the most, is as I said, the color, simply amazing, well for my taste that is, others will probably have advice for you, but I don't, good work, you have gotten by taste astounded by your sig.

As for your other work, some of them are confusing, with odd angles, but still an ok job on those.

[Atziluth]

I actually find this sig very good, I love the colors and the choice of text was a good thing on your part, I don't know who agrees, but I find your work very good. The thing that stands out the most, is as I said, the color, simply amazing, well for my taste that is, others will probably have advice for you, but I don't, good work, you have gotten by taste astounded by your sig.

As for your other work, some of them are confusing, with odd angles, but still an ok job on those.

Is it just me or is your version somehow looking... lighter? o_O;; Wtf..


Anyway, I'll mess with that one later. I extracted the thing for this - took me near two hours, although you can't really tell with the effects used. I just wanted some instant gratification out of it before I put it to further use. I was going to make it smaller, but the finite details would've become obscured, soooo..

Enough disclaimers, eh?



Likewise, lost with the.. short text. I had the line, "Say Goodnight, if it's the last thing you ever do" running through my head when I was making this, but it just didn't work.

[MysticFairyDrmz]

So..

I hate trends. I really do. But I decided that in fairness, I can't knock it until I try it. So I tried to do something simple - less busy, if you will.

Edit:


Not done, but I'm out of ideas. D: The text is totally confusing. No idea what color or if I should use stroke and et cetera.. bothersome!

Suggestions would be welcome. Including text context. I feel so cheap with it as is.

Normally i dont like big sigs cause to me anything above 400x150 is a banner , but anyway i think big fits this sig and i really like it. Render is pretty and loce the border in the right hand and left hand corner. Text could be worked on though and maybe moved.

Is it just me or is your version somehow looking... lighter? o_O;; Wtf..


Anyway, I'll mess with that one later. I extracted the thing for this - took me near two hours, although you can't really tell with the effects used. I just wanted some instant gratification out of it before I put it to further use. I was going to make it smaller, but the finite details would've become obscured, soooo..

Enough disclaimers, eh?



Likewise, lost with the.. short text. I had the line, "Say Goodnight, if it's the last thing you ever do" running through my head when I was making this, but it just didn't work.

Big size doesnt fit this one as well. Although your probably going to get tired of hearing me say that but when you post sigs in a thread then you need to be prepaired for comments and what we think even if you don't like it or get tired of hearing it lol. I think a smaller sig size would have fit this sig better and also smaller text. Love the background effects though. Looks like a sparkle grundge background. Maybe blend in your render to the background and a good way to do that is take your eraser tool and set the opacity to like 40 or 50 and earse along the edges of the render till the edges are gone and the render usually blends right in.

[blueangel06661]

Wow, all of your graphix are just STUNNING!

I loved each and every one of them!!! The way you use the colors is splendid. Keep up the good work! May come in handy one day if not already! :]

[Atziluth]

Normally i dont like big sigs cause to me anything above 400x150 is a banner , but anyway i think big fits this sig and i really like it. Render is pretty and loce the border in the right hand and left hand corner. Text could be worked on though and maybe moved.



Big size doesnt fit this one as well. Although your probably going to get tired of hearing me say that but when you post sigs in a thread then you need to be prepaired for comments and what we think even if you don't like it or get tired of hearing it lol. I think a smaller sig size would have fit this sig better and also smaller text. Love the background effects though. Looks like a sparkle grundge background. Maybe blend in your render to the background and a good way to do that is take your eraser tool and set the opacity to like 40 or 50 and earse along the edges of the render till the edges are gone and the render usually blends right in.

"I design these much more as banners than I do signatures."

As much as I must be prepared for comments I don't like, you must be prepared for me to politely disagree. :P I'll try out the eraser thing, thanks. Thank you very much for your time and attention ^^ it's helpful.

Wow, all of your graphix are just STUNNING!

I loved each and every one of them!!! The way you use the colors is splendid. Keep up the good work! May come in handy one day if not already! :]

Hah, thank you. xD

@Tamahome: Thank ya darling~

So, I decided to see how this would look scaled down smaller. (I do not go smaller, period <.<...)

Added some more effects.. still kind of iffy on text, but I like it. I don't know if it's because of the size or added effects, though. I also fixed the eye, which was a cause of my fix.. err, yah. <_<



So, when I move the text up:


I don't like how close it is to the flower, but I like everything else about it. x__x;