75 replies to this topic

[cox21]

[cox21]

Yes, this is the kind of stuff I do in my spare time.

[Fire Blazer]

lol, they aren't horrible or anything, they just need borders usually. And some effects and minor touch-ups. And maybe better fonts, xD. I just think you need guidance by somebody like Shu xP

Also, if you are going to spell craptastic, at least spell it right. XD

[Dath]

I think your Itachi may be your best one. Good job.

[cox21]

I don't know how to do borders.

[Fire Blazer]

What program do you use?

If you are using Paint Shop Pro do one of the top menus and hit "Add Borders" and make all the borders 1px. If it is photoshop add a Stroke and make it "outside" and do 1px as well. If GIMP, no idea, but look around for something. D:

[cox21]

It's Gimp.

[cox21]

Sorry for double post.

[Shu]

You could probably google how to add borders in GIMP. When I used it, I just saved it, and re-opened it in Photoshop 5.0 to add a border.

Also, When you update your gallery, you do not have to worry about double-posting.

[Mankut]

I like all your GFX images, except that they still have a little white outline around your renders. And I love the Itachi one.

Here are two ways of making borders:



# 1:



Make a new layer, place the layer above both of the renders. Now go
to Select->All, then go to Edit->Stroke Selection. Make sure
black is the default colour, make the stroke line "2", then hit OK.



# 2:



Make a new layer, place the layer above both of the renders. Now go
to Select->All, then go to Edit->Stroke Selection. Now with black
as the current colour go to stroke size 10, then switch to white,
stroke size 8, now switch back to black and select 5 or 6. Now using
that layer set it to Overlay.

I got this from here

This is for GIMP.

[Fire Blazer]

^^Titania one is cool but text is small, render outline needs work, and it needs a border.

And of course, spicing it up with some more effects (rather than just brushes) would be awesome.

[cox21]

An old photo of some people




Celice Baldos Chalphy



A sig I made.

[Fire Blazer]

Cool stuff, the photo thing looks great but it stretches the page so please make it into a link. The renders could all use a little touching (something like the dodge tool around the edges) and borders are great too.

[Prince Marph]

Hrm... I'm looking at your stuff... and all I'm going to say is that there's way more that you can do with GIMP.

Do you layer your pictures? It looks like you use the magic select tool. That's a big no-no when you want to make cool renders! I would highly recommend learning how to layer your images to allow for much better sigwork. Make sure that when making a new layer, that you right click and select "Add Alpha Channel", or else you won't be able to work with transparency, which is very important when working with layers.

With layers, you can also change how the image blends with the layer. Experiment for a little bit until you get something you think is cool or attractive looking.

Also, the backgrounds look very drab. You can probably use the freeform select tool with a lot of feathering to add to some colour, in this short tut:

1. Select a section. Make sure you have feather turned on and its something about 50.
2. Go to "Hue-Saturation" under "Colors"
3. Change the Hue about -10 or 10.
4. Repeat about 10-20 times.

This makes the renders a lot more colourful.

Not to bash, but your text placement is terrible. Try to make it stand out against backgrounds. GIMP is a terrible program for text placement IMHO, but if you mess with colours and layers as I said before, you'll probably find something you like, and others will like as well.

I would also like to point out that borders do not neccessarily make or break a pic. For example, *points at sig*, there's no need for a border here. I tried one out, but I really didn't like the result.

[cox21]

How did you know I used the magic wand?

Transparency doesn't seem to work for me.

[Prince Marph]

The white borders around your stock is obvious.

What you want to do is to make a blank banner with a Transparent background (it's under "Advanced Settings"), then, you want to import your stock as "Open image as Layer". By doing this, you can insert your stock as a new layer. Right click this layer, then select, "Make Alpha Channel". Now, use the magic want to get rid of most of the white. When you're done, you can erase the white borders produced by using the eraser tool.

Then, you can do the background on the bottom layer. This will rid of the border.

Also, you may want to combine renders to produce a cool effect, such as in the signature here.

Try messing around with multiple renders and blending methods, and post what you get. I'll further criticize to see how I can help.

[cox21]

Pitiful attempt at a semi custom of myself (hair is custom but there's some red left from the original version that I missed)



Cormag the Red and battle sprite




Random crap I did that was inspired by one user choosing the name StrongJoshua.

[Fire Blazer]

lol, you use the word 'stock'. I use the word render or just image or graphic. xD

Anyway, they need a lot of touch-up work... Also, don't save as GIF's or BMP's or JPG's, save as PNG's when using MS Paint. If you're going to use something else, at least use 24-bit BMP and DON'T use Photobucket to upload BMP's as it screws them up.

I'd go over the touch-ups but there are way too many, you should try and start simple and follow a guide/tutorial.

[Prince Marph]

Lol, I'm not a pro XD

Anyhow, never save your files as gifs in Paint. Ever. Ever ever ever ever EVER! PNG's are your friends!

The first, it has too dark of shading near the eyes. It looks like he's wearing a mask...

[Shu]

I don't know why people save as Jpg or Gif at all...
Cormag the Red mug is pretty fuzzy.

Go for PNG.

Lol @ being told the same thing 3 times in a row