Design Squad Clubhouse!

[-Kwesnoth-]

Nopedity-dope. I've been thinking of making one someday.

I want to but it would be very hard for me.

I've found some pretty awesome sig tutes for photoshop. I can PM them to you if you want.

On another note, I'm just about done on a sig tutorial for my Bass Sprite Sig, so I'll post it in here when I'm done.

Yeah man, I'm always looking for cool tuts.

And definatly post your tutorial here when its done.

[Thorzilla]

We do need more talk in here.

Anyone seen any nice tutorials recently? Or something?

I'm currently working on one. Should be done this week if I get the time.

[-Kwesnoth-]

Looking forward to it.

[Blacksite]

I'm going to make myself an updated Skies of Arcadia signature.

Same render as before, but much cleaner, sharper, and with a different background and effects. It should be awesome.

[Cybertox]

I'm going to make myself an updated Skies of Arcadia signature.

Same render as before, but much cleaner, sharper, and with a different background and effects. It should be awesome.

Good luck with that. Will be interesting to see with what you are going to come up with.

[-Kwesnoth-]

I'm going to make myself an updated Skies of Arcadia signature.

Same render as before, but much cleaner, sharper, and with a different background and effects. It should be awesome.

Me likey the new version.

The only thing that sticks out is the yellow on the girl on the right. Just doesn't match the rest of the sig.

[-Kwesnoth-]

Need help with finding something. I'm doing a CD cover for art class, but can not locate a good looking street light, I want it to be triangle on the bottom so you can only see the light coming out from the bottom, here is an example of what I mean.



I want to find a good looking lamp that would be appropriate for a dark back alley. Something that looks sorta of my thing, except not drawn by a 4 year old.

Thanks for any help.

[gangsta_795]

Would this be better than the last?



PS - Thanks kwes for letting me invade your clubhouse to ask for help

[-Kwesnoth-]

It does look better with the effects to hold the render in.

But add just a little more to the sides of the render. And try some gradient mapping.

[gangsta_795]

It does look better with the effects to hold the render in.

But add just a little more to the sides of the render. And try some gradient mapping.

Eh?

Thanks for replying dude!

[-Kwesnoth-]

Gradient mapping? Its the way to get some rad colors on the sig.

Look it up cause its fucking hard to explain.

[Thorzilla]

In the layer tab where you can see all the layers you got, there's a yin-yan-ish icon that when pressed lets you select Add Gradient Map. Basically what you do is put a whole color gradient over the sig (such as purple to skin color, which works wonders in many sigs) and liven up the colors a notch.

[Blacksite]

You can also combine multiple gradient maps to achieve different results. But for the most part, you want to add them on their own separate layers and lower the opacity because often times they might appear too strong.

My current signature, for example, has a yellow, red, and green gradient map. But if I were to set the levels too high then it would ruin the overall look.

Thorzilla's signature, on the other hand, has a yellow and blue gradient map, which is fairly strong but also creates the illusion of a sun-basked render. So it can act as a light source to help compliment the render being used.

[-Kwesnoth-]

And I'm using a Red/Dark Grey gradient, set to soft light, and a orange/purple gradient, also set to soft light. It darkens and makes the colors very appealing.

[C-Carcharias]

@ gangsta, while we're on the subject, I'd encourage you to play around with a few adjustment layers to see what they do and how they can attribute to improving your sigs. As the guys below said, gradient mapping is an extremely useful tool in changing the colours of your sig - but thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Experiment with things like Colour Balance, Photo Filters, Curves, Levels, Exposure, Hue/Saturation, Selective Colour etc. to further improve the colours and lighting of your sigs.

To get to adjustment layers in PS, go:
LAYER->NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER->THEN SELECT TYPE OF ADJUSTMENT

For example...by using adjustment layers I took a sig from this:



To this:


Poor example but you get the point.

Hope that somewhat helps/gives you some insight.

[gangsta_795]

I fucking love you guys man

Greatly appreciate the help.

As for the gradient mapping, what I do is, I use this tool to create a layer and then reduce it's opacity to suit my needs.

The main problem I have is, as kwes earlier pointed out, making the render 'belong' in the bg/sig. It always seems a bit off.



+rep to y'all

[C-Carcharias]

The main problem I have is, as kwes earlier pointed out, making the render 'belong' in the bg/sig. It always seems a bit off.

Sorry, didn't know you were using GIMP...I'm unfamiliar with that program so some of what I said may not apply.

On making the render "belong", one neat little trick is to create a gradient map, then "clipping mask" it to the render. So, you would use the eye-dropper tool to get two colours from your background that complement each other and make a gradient out of them, mask it your render so only it is effected by it, then play around with opacity/blending options.

Similiarly, if you have a C4D with an unsuitable colour, you can create a hue/saturation layer and mask it to the C4D, and change the colours/intensity of it.

[gangsta_795]

Sorry, didn't know you were using GIMP...I'm unfamiliar with that program so some of what I said may not apply.

On making the render "belong", one neat little trick is to create a gradient map, then "clipping mask" it to the render. So, you would use the eye-dropper tool to get two colours from your background that complement each other and make a gradient out of them, mask it your render so only it is effected by it, then play around with opacity/blending options.

Similiarly, if you have a C4D with an unsuitable colour, you can create a hue/saturation layer and mask it to the C4D, and change the colours/intensity of it.

I've tried Photoshop as well but find Gimp to be more user-friendly for a new designer like me.

Again, thanks I'll try these out

[Thorzilla]

I've tried Photoshop as well but find Gimp to be more user-friendly for a new designer like me.

Again, thanks I'll try these out

I'd advice you to go ahead and get Photoshop started! The only diference is the placement of the tools when it comes down to the user interface. Besides, everything in Photoshop is customizable, and you can save that preset as your work space! If you get used to Photoshop, you'll see there's a few more things you can do in Photoshop.

Also, don't just lower the opacity of the gradient map you use or else it's going to look like crap. Change the blending to something else. I usually use Lighten and sometimes Overlay (not sure in GIMP though).

[-Kwesnoth-]

Really Pissed off at my computer right now. I had just finished one of the best sigs I had ever done, I decided to go to the bathroom(without saving the sig), and my computer decided to reboot to install some updates...

[spyrde]

Really Pissed off at my computer right now. I had just finished one of the best sigs I had ever done, I decided to go to the bathroom(without saving the sig), and my computer decided to reboot to install some updates...

When this happens, I use it as motivation to make a sig two times better than the one that got lost in bit heaven.

[-Kwesnoth-]

Yeah, motivation usually doesn't work in that direction for me.

[Thorzilla]

Window's a bitch. Always has, always will be. Mother fucker should learn some manners. Dear Mr. Gates, you are an asshole.

[-Kwesnoth-]

Window's a bitch. Always has, always will be. Mother fucker should learn some manners. Dear Mr. Gates, you are an asshole.

Yeah, I mean. Why can't I choose when to fucking update? Not my computer.

[gangsta_795]

I'd advice you to go ahead and get Photoshop started! The only diference is the placement of the tools when it comes down to the user interface. Besides, everything in Photoshop is customizable, and you can save that preset as your work space! If you get used to Photoshop, you'll see there's a few more things you can do in Photoshop.

Also, don't just lower the opacity of the gradient map you use or else it's going to look like crap. Change the blending to something else. I usually use Lighten and sometimes Overlay (not sure in GIMP though).

I use overlay for the brushes as well

I'll get to PS then