Quote:God, fucking, damn it. Y?know. While writing this I got all the way down to the depth and lighting section, then? POOF! My laptop decides to go into ?I JUST FUCKED YO? WORK UP?, god damnit. Oh well. I?ll start over?

Well, this is my little guide to help you guys out there improve much faster. I?ll be teaching you tricks, what some stuff means. Most of it will be in tutorial form, but I advise you to check over it all, just because it WILL help you.

You guys must be sick and tired of me and Baron giving you tips without backing them up, I?m right, yes? Well, let?s explain what the hell we?re talking about.

Note ? I don?t speak for Baron, he is a fag.

Definitions:

- Depth - Mmm, this makes your signatures less flat, you can simply do it by just blurring out your background. Not much help? Sorry, but I can?t explain and do at the same time. But, stay with me now, throughout this thread you will find handy tutorials to help you.

Examples:



The above signature is one of the first tags made by Baron himself. Looks just like a beginners work, no depth at all.



Made by Baron again, he blurred out the background but not too much and not too little. Great depth. See, blurring can be quite effective.

- Lighting - This can be pretty supporting for depth. Its almost always needed if you?re gonna be trying to make your signatures seem less-flat. Okay, firstly, never ever use a damn lens flare for this, it?ll kill the outcome, seriously. Use a nice soft pixel soft brush, a nice dab wit ha 200+ one of those will do it great justice.



Oh god, I can?t believe I was that bad. Erm, anyway. That?s one of my first signatures. No lighting, to be blunt. Its shite.



One of my later ones. I went for something different with lighting here, sure I covered his lights on his armour with a variation of soft pixel brushes? but! I edited them with the outer glow settings. To give them that nice feeling that they?re actually a light.

Another Example:



By Baron once again, he used a soft px brush to capture where the light is coming from.

Quote:God, fucking, damn it. Y?know. While writing this I got all the way down to the depth and lighting section, then? POOF! My laptop decides to go into ?I JUST FUCKED YO? WORK UP?, god damnit. Oh well. I?ll start over?

Well, this is my little guide to help you guys out there improve much faster. I?ll be teaching you tricks, what some stuff means. Most of it will be in tutorial form, but I advise you to check over it all, just because it WILL help you.

You guys must be sick and tired of me and Baron giving you tips without backing them up, I?m right, yes? Well, let?s explain what the hell we?re talking about.

Note ? I don?t speak for Baron, he is a fag.

Definitions:

- Depth - Mmm, this makes your signatures less flat, you can simply do it by just blurring out your background. Not much help? Sorry, but I can?t explain and do at the same time. But, stay with me now, throughout this thread you will find handy tutorials to help you.

Examples:



The above signature is one of the first tags made by Baron himself. Looks just like a beginners work, no depth at all.



Made by Baron again, he blurred out the background but not too much and not too little. Great depth. See, blurring can be quite effective.

- Lighting ? This can be pretty supporting for depth. Its almost always needed if you?re gonna be trying to make your signatures seem less-flat. Okay, firstly, never ever use a damn lens flare for this, it?ll kill the outcome, seriously. Use a nice soft pixel soft brush, a nice dab wit ha 200+ one of those will do it great justice.



Oh god, I can?t believe I was that bad. Erm, anyway. That?s one of my first signatures. No lighting, to be blunt. Its shite.



One of my later ones. I went for something different with lighting here, sure I covered his lights on his armour with a variation of soft pixel brushes? but! I edited them with the outer glow settings. To give them that nice feeling that they?re actually a light.

Another Example:



By Baron once again, he used a soft px brush to capture where the light is coming from.

- Colours ? Could it be? Something so blatant, that it has to be on here? Yes, it is true. Colours can make or break a signature. Many great tag artists have been told their tag sucks purely because of their choice in colours. I?m not an exception either.

Examples:



Two tone? Please.

Later, I?ll be explaining how to pull off basic colouring effects, even the simplest ones.

The problem with the above signature is the colours are too bland, there just slapped on there without thought.



Similar colours, better execution. See the difference here? I?ll teach you guys how to do some colouring like good ole? Baron did here.



Very faint, simplistic colouring, but look how effective it is?



Who said Greyscale was dead? Psh, even B&W can be done easily and still makes your signatures great.

Borders?

Are they totally needed? No, to be honest. Not really. Just guys, please stop using that dreadful 1 pixel black outline border. Experiment and try other stuff.

Types of signatures:

There are many types of signatures out there these days, some creep up every day and I?m still sitting here like, ?o_O what?s that?? But hopefully the below will help some of you guys? out.

Vector:

Chubbs has a vector god y?know, me? Hell no. Baron? Not really. It is none other than Cargo,



Just one of many of his vector signatures.

For you?s who are sitting there like, ?What the HELL is he talking about?!? Well, vector is a special for a signature making that has only really started to become popular, and damn it?s effective. I?m not 100% sure how to do it myself, but vector is taking a normal image and turning it into something like cargo?s above. Sorry, I can?t go into too much detail with it because I?m not totally sure how to do it, so it?s a bit hard. >.<

Grunge:

No one does this anymore. Well, there are a few of course, but not really many great artists still do. Hell, I hate it. But I?ll explain it anyway. The only really great grunge artist is Baron, in my own opinion and even he doesn?t do it anymore.



Only really grungy signature I could find. But this was made with pure brush, you can tell by looking at it that it?s a grungy signature.

Abstract:

Aww, I loved this when I was starting out. Possibly my favourite of all. Anyone can do it really, just with a basic abstract brush. But, Chubbs has a great abstract artist? none other than.



Becca.

Yep, she?s quite amazing with her abstract brushes. When I was first starting out, I looked up to her signatures and she gave me some very helpful tips for making some pretty badass sigs, the tips will be found in this thread!
Smudging:

Old school meets new school. Kinda. This is a fairly awesome technique, but sadly can only be preformed to its full expectations if you have Photoshop CS or higher. If you?re using 7, it?ll be a total flop. It can be melded with any style really, it?s a great technique and it?s gonna be here.



An older signature of mine, but the only one I could find that was pure smudging. You can make custom brushes you?re self, or just use default brushes for it. In this thread I?ll teach you how to adjust your settings to do so and other such stuff to improve the smudging experience.

Abstract C4D:

*Gasp*

There?s more than JUST C4D?!

Well, duh? There?s two types, one being what I?m about to talk about and the other effet C4D. I?m quite strong in both areas, so this?ll be fun to talk about.



Haven?t used an abstract C4D in a very long time, so that?s a fairly old piece of crap.

All the parts along the side is a modified abstract C4D render, you can edit them with various filters. Those being accented strokes, anything really. Just, don?t even let me see you guys using a normal C4D in your signatures without ANY changes. That?s called ripping.



All those ?dicso? effects as Aqua calls them are called effect C4D?s completely edited. It?s easy to do once you learn the techniques and I?m gonna teach you them damnit!

Quote:Originally posted by Burter
Yea...change the font please. I can't read that =(

Quote:Originally posted by Bido
Wtf is (a) C4D?

Quote:Originally posted by Violet

Quote:Originally posted by Bido
Wtf is (a) C4D?

A c4d is pretty much an image created using the program Cinema 4D, an advanced 3d rendering software. The images created are saved as .png (where they retain a great more deal of detail than with .gif's 256 colors, and thus, are perfect for more colroful, smooth artwork.

Quote:Originally posted by Violet

Quote:Originally posted by Bido
Wtf is (a) C4D?

A c4d is pretty much an image created using the program Cinema 4D, an advanced 3d rendering software. The images created are saved as .png (where they retain a great more deal of detail than with .gif's 256 colors, and thus, are perfect for more colroful, smooth artwork.