Critique this sig in progress.

[Polaris]

Like I said when you have images on the middle is easier to have a good focal point! you can never go wrong with images on the middle! With images on the left is slighly harder. I don't know I used to put a lot of text on my sigs and a lot of people still say that my text is really big. I don't give a because those who say that are obviously ignorant and didn't get my message but when you want to put too much text use it in a nicer way. The sig needs a better blending, like I don't know if those are c4ds, but if they are they looked like you pasted them. They also looked like wings, which is cool, but the yellow clashes a little.

Perhaps you should focus on simple sigs like stocks instead of renders or things like that and practise from that part. Colors are very important on a sig, so take a little more time using it. You never get them right at the first time so use gradients maps and then delete them if they suck

Some people asked me i I had Teamview so i could show them how I make my sigs, but I told them it was complete chaos and they woulnd't get a damn thing, My tuts would be better because I explained a lot more and they had the correct process!


So making sigs is all about chaos! Just keep making them

[ShunNakamura]

First let me post up the new work. I made a quick/cut avatar to go with the last one.



The wings in the Pumpkin Scissors were produced from this.

What I did with them was personally cut and then fused them with the render(I did play a bit with the color, but probably not as much as I should have). Anyhow, even with images centered I still don't always focus right. For example with out the overlay being as badly blended as it is I fail to focus(the fact that it is clear only over the render focuses me there). In addition if I remove the web I also fail to focus strongly(though if the badly blended overlay is there I at least focus in the general area, though not right on it). Basically the web + the lack of clarity off the render + the renders stronger colors(the green really does stand off the yellow pretty well) + etc...

Well basically looking at the PSD shows me that most of the layers seem to be dedicated to trying to bring the focus to the render. This leaves me to believe that I was doing this as an experiment to see what it took to focus my eyes somewhere. Makes sense in a way since its date was around the time I first began getting frustrated about not seeing focal points even in other people's signatures(even when other people said great focal work or the like to the person). In addition that would explain why I didn't touch the render. Normally I do a lot of color balancing/curving/contrasting on my renders. This was just a normal layer with a very light sharpening layer over it... that is it.


Anyways I still have the PSD(woot, I thought it went by by when I had to reformat recently. Looks like I actually back up a significant number of my old psd files. Speaking of backed up PSD's I think I even have the merging psd(the one where I fused the wings to the render).

Well I did a couple of very quick edits to it. I dropped the overlayering yellow screen thing. Sharpened the background and went and did my usual custom work on the render.

The Yellow overlay really brightened the image up. This is what looks like AFTER I re-brightened it. It very dark/colourless and lacked contrast before I played with it.

Also as an attempt to compensate for dumping the bad blending layer creating focal, I selectively dulled the wings. Sadly it did not work. In this version I do not see a focal :/. Also I just noticed I need to strengthen the bottom border bit. I can't really see it anymore.

[Lawr]

I really like your work, Shun. ( Overlay ftw amirite? ) I know you cut out pics a while ago, but I discovered that turning on anti-alias with the Polygon Lasso really helps the look of the edges of the picture, but good work anyways. Focal points are hard for me as well!

I can't believe I don't have this thread subscribed.

[ShunNakamura]

I don't use the lasso tool these days to cut. The Pen tool works better as far as I am concerned. True, none of my pen cuts have matched my best lasso cuts yet. But the pen saves me time and is more forgiving of my shaky hands.

Yup if I am posting that means I have a new one. Not much overlay effects this time. Though I did run a couple of filters over the top layer. Overall though this is a REAL quick one. Took me about an hour and a half, cutting renders included.

Version 1, this is what it looked like as I was done adding stuff to it. I figured anymore would make it too busy. However, something still wasn't right. Namely I think I went overboard with the colors.


This prompted me to make version 2. I saturated the colors a bit and came up with this.

I am fairly certain I prefer V2. Though I suspect I should play around a bit more and see if I can keep some of the red in it while still toning it down. I think I went too far both ways.


This made me make V3. I mainly did some curve/color balance adjustments.

I think v3 is my favorite. So unless someone has some ideas of what I should do to improve it here it is. Sadly focal/flow is non-existent. It was a quicky and I completely forgot to plan that bit out.

[ShunNakamura]

Double POST! Over a month. Looks like I took a hiatus!


Also an avatar

[ShunNakamura]

Well here is a tentative version of something I am playing with.

I basically lifted much of the background work of the old PSWIP of mine and then edited it a bit for my new signature. It is still in the tentative phase.

[Polaris]

The one you have now the bg is cool, but the image is badly cut

[ShunNakamura]

The one you have now the bg is cool, but the image is badly cut

Yeah I haven't been taking the time to fully render the images these days, as long as they do what I want them to(I have been focusing on the BG's).

However if you are talking about Haruhi's shoulder that was intentional. That dumb shoulder kept messing with the way I wanted it to look and kept subtracting from the background *mutters*.



I have a new concept I am working on(I cobbled it together fairly quick, I just wanted a rough form of what I was thinking while it was still fresh). And this one is using a fully cut render.

Being in the concept stage I haven't bothered with trimming the border properly yet(I have a feeling that will be a bit tedious to get exactly right, plus I just finished cutting the render :/). There is also no text, but I kinda planned this as being a no-text render. The most I would add is a "Konosetsu, pactio complete" type of thing. I suppose I could 'engrave' it into the border frame.

Things to do are:
-I will play with the render(so far it is untouched, just re-sized and copy pasted into the frame).
-I will try to 3d'ify the border a bit more(though if I don't like the effect I'll leave it as is).
-Play with the background contrast. The grayscale bit is a bit weak I think.
-Fix the frame edges
-Perhaps engrave text.
-Anything else anyone can find wrong.

For those interested in the render, here it is -

Not the best cut thing, but it works.

[Lawr]

Very nice cut, and I've always liked your creative borders! I'm kind of interested in your whole "3D-ify" thing you might do too.

[ShunNakamura]

Thanks :d. The creative borders tend to take longer to make, but when they come out right they feel all worth it .


Well I got V?? of the concept . Found out I was more bored than I thought lol.

Edit- I decided to use a cheap trick to get rid of much of the edge issue. It also, imo, made it look better overall.


Edit 2- I tried 'warming' up the render to blend it better.

[ShunNakamura]

Ahoy me hearties! This day I be bearing a pirate styled gift for ye!

Bad attempt at piracy aside, here is my latest work.


The below was the stock I based it around.



Changes. I am thinking of changing the font and making the border thicker(on some backgrounds it doesn't stand out much) and possibly more detailed. Also I supposed I should fix the render on the left. I very sloppily cut it... and haven't really done much with it. As for the dumb bird. It just doesn't want to blend well. So I have to play with it more.

[Polaris]

I really like your last one! Def. a style to keep

[ShunNakamura]

Well it isn't quite done yet, in my opinion, but from this, I have gotten this-


It was a request. But apparently they didn't like it when it was darker(had I known I probably would have picked a different stock to work from, however, it doesn't look bad lit up, just was a bit of work to go from the original to this).

*I should note. It is going to be a backdrop, they will superimpose their own text. Or so the plan is.



Things to do. I need to blend the rock on the right a bit better(it looks out of place, yes? Some of the areas have too strong of contrast and others lack depth(though it is a lot better than before).

[Polaris]

I think the problem lays in contrast, it's all so brigh that the images look faded but the atmosphere is nice

[ShunNakamura]

I concur with your opinion . The real issue is keeping as bright as the requester wants while maintaining contrast. What this means is a lot of small touch ups/redrawing. As you can see I COMPLETELY redrew the water.

I redid the sky to try and add some depth. Plus I redid some of the creatures to make them less standoffish(or however you want to put it). And tried blending the outcrop of land on the right a bit more.


Look any better? What would you think of adding a small fantasy boat with childlike figures to observe the dolphin? I was also thinking of adding some small birds. All to add some extra life to it(obviously I would be working all this on a micro scale in the far back).