sig problem

[falling-angel-111 736]

first i would like to say this is a problem so i thought it would go in rants and raves / issues but then i thought its also about sigs so i didnt know were it should go sorry if its in the wrong place

ok so my problem is i'v been working in photoshop for a wile now and it dosn't seem like my sigs are getting any better mostly i think because i cant really come up with any ideas and wen i do come up with some thing it dosn't seen vary good i dont get how hellcat and lady can do so many and so good wen i sarted in photoshop i thought this mite be something i can do and maybe even be good at wich would be a big thing for me cause i normaly quit at something if im not good at it so if you guys could give some advice i would really be great full

[Tanoro 799]

Cat and Lady have much experience in computer graphics, but I don't see anything wrong with your sig. It looks fine to me. It looks like you put more effort into it then I did mine.

[Dubird 6,815]

ideas are always the worst part.....i just don't worry about.....when an idea strikes me, i work.....if i can't think of anything, i don't.....*shrutgs*......almost all my sigs are fairly old.....with the sig rotator, it pretty much covers all the stuff i like.....

[Ladywriter 7,783]

usually the ideas for sigs hit me while I'm watchin the show. I haven't been making sigs no where near as long as Dubie!

[falling-angel-111 736]

how long have you guys been working in photoshop and stuff like that? i love every thing hellcat lady and dubird do its really great stuff

[EVA-01 1,796]

I don't see anything wrong with yours falling angel. It takes me like an hour to come up with an ideaof a sig because once I have the picture of what I want it to look like I can't draw it on the computer. I have major brain farts. If you keep messing with some of the stuff on PS you'll eventually figure it out.

I like Dubirds Quatrro one. Lagy has the best chaos one I've ever seen. >..< Hell cat has some awsome ones too but I can see the GunGrave one. ;_;

[Dubird 6,815]

i dotn' use photoshop.....i hate photoshop....i use Paint Shop Pro.....version 7.....i've discovered taht anything you can do in photoshop you can do in PSP....sometimes eaiser....

[Ladywriter 7,783]

told ya my girl was da bomb baby

I learned watchin sledge and then expirimenting myself. Sometimes I do lottsa layers...

or

and sometimes 1 is enough w/ text

or

see what I mean?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I remember when i use to be obessed with making cool banners. I would be looking around on the internet and bam i see this image i just have to put in a banner. I would spend 2-3 even sometimes 4-6 hours making one banner. I liked doing it so much, me a few people at a place i use to post at formed our own banner making service. Ideas come and go and you have your slow times. It will come back to you and you will get better. Anything is possible. Hell i use to beable to produce pretty decent banners in MS paint. thats where I 1st learned how to make them. When I got photoshop I spent alot of time messing around, seeing what kind of effects I could come up with. I use to look at other peoples banners and try to replicate certian effects they had and ended up coming up with my own in the process.

Now im just too lazy and dont care anymore. I dont have many ove my old banners anymore.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

Coop and Jamie definatly approve

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Of course some people are believed to have talent, when they have none at all. Which is why they always "change up" a persons request. Insted of actually putting together a banner as the person requested they find some image or someone elses banner, crop it accordingly, and add some text too it and call it their work. This is a vile abomination of image making. Not to say I havent done it myself, but I admit it when I am a lazy ass... some people take credit for work that they did nothing for. If that person happens to read this post, I laugh in their face at there pathetic lies that they think "everyone" has fallen for.

I have more respect for someone that puts alot of effort into a banner, that even though it isnt the best in the world, they proudly display it, knowing they tried there damn best.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

i usually got ideas for sigs from multiple images that looked good together.. then i'd think.. hey, i should edit them and put them all together in a nice image. once you figure out layers and how to crop around images good to change their backgrounds, all kinds of possibilities will open up for you. and once you get the hang of accomplishing certain effects you'll start getting more ideas when you come across good source images.

one of my favorite sigs i've made:

3 different images, cropped/edited, 3 different fonts (font effects are simple as hell, a quick click of the mouse button), overlaid ripple effect, at least 9 or 10 layers. quite a bit of work. probably took 10 hours.

this one:

multiple source images, drastic editing, etc.. took hours upon hours. probably 9 layers.

6ish layers, editing the backgrounds out of all the images is what takes the most time of course..

ichigo here is only 2 layers.. the pic in the back has its background intact and the closer face shot is cropped from another picture (i removed the background, etc.) then i added a border and a font.

and now that i'm a lazy bastard, one of my most recent sigs is:

i took a screenshot, didn't bother to edit out the background, and the only work i put into it was a 1 pixel border and a simple font. took about 4 minutes. X'D

so basically, my advice is, the more work you put into your sigs, the more pleased you'll be with your work. beginners often start by grabbing a single image, cropping it down to size and then put a font on it. once you get the basics of that, start trying to remove the background from a character, and then putting it in the foreground of another pic. once you can accomplish this, you'll see many many more possibilities for sig making.

and if you're interested in a particular sig, ask the person how they made it for more pointers.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

*cough*

you edited what?

[Sledgstone 8,672]

lmao.. whoops.. i forgot. X'D lady actually took the screenshot of kouga for me. she even adjusted its coloring too.. she put more work into my 4 minute sig than i did!!! X'D

[Ladywriter 7,783]

*is so unappriciated*

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I know my Minako sig is almost 30 layers (trust me, it doesnt look like it but its almost that much). to this day i still consider it my best one ever. I put a lot of damn time into it, probably 2 days work to get it how i wanted it. I'd be pissed if I ever lost it.

A tip for an easy background is to find a nice image with alot of different colors on it, throw it in photoshop and but some heavy motion blur on it, and you got yourself a pretty neat backdrop.

another reason I quit spending so much time on banners is because when my computer crashed I lost my extensive library of fonts which took me a year to build. and I'm far to lazy to go out and look for them all again. X'D

[Akira13 1,036]

I'm good at photoshop, but not for the purpose of making banners. I'm more of a special effects guy. Rotoscoping Lightsabers and stuff.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Sig making takes alot of time to get down right. Heck, my banners are nowhere nears as good as Cammy (who is like a sig making god) or Dubird (who is a sig making goddess).

I just picked up banner making roughly two years ago. I'm self-taught, having dled photoshop and then spending a good two to three weeks playing around with all the features. Takes time and patience to create some of the stuff most of us do.

I see nothing wrong with you're sigs, heck they're better then when I first started out. Need an example:

One of the first sigs I ever created. Took maybe 20 mintues to do all of that and that includes removing the background, creating my own background, and placing text in. You are doing much better then I did back when I first started.

Of course I agree, ideas are hard to comeby hence why you don't see many new sigs out of me that often. I create them only when an idea surfaces and when I'm not being lazy.

Now compare that sig to the one I'm using now (it's a new one). This new one consists of the following:

16 layers (12 of which consist of just making that background, 2 for the pic used (same pic, cropped in two different places), 1 for border, and one for text)

Various usings of the blending features found in photoshop

Eraser tool (very friendly for grunge backgrounds)

This took me about 45 minutes to create seeing as how the background is something I use in all my sigs doesn't take long to create one I like.

Experiment around with Photoshop, use different features, use multiple layers. If something turns out good then your on to something, if not trash it and try something new. Thats how I come up with new stuff (also helps to read a few tutorials here and there).

[Pchan 5,162]

Pink Floyd signature !!! Looks great !!!! Who's the fan Lady ? But, all those signatures are great you guys ...

[EVA-01 1,796]

Holy shit all of those are awsome! Damn...those make mine look like crap. But it's not like mine take me as long as it takes to make yours. Stider had the awsome Char sig. Sledge's Bleach was my fav. Lady's chaos. Some many good sig producers here. >..< My longest one was the Kyuzo one. That one wasn't that good either. I personally like PS because I leared with PS in Web Design.

Too many layer that I can't remember

3 layers

2 layers

6 or 7 layers

Even just one layer looks okay at times.

[Dubird 6,815]

hmmm....since everyone's talking about their sig-making process.....here's some of my favorites that i've done....

Supposed to be a yin/yang type effect....didn't quite work out that way.....about 9 layers.....some blurring and random effects...

Ban-chan! About 8 layers, mostly to make the background....i made one for Ginji-kun and Dr. Jackel as well....same way....wanted a matching set.....

my only .gif sig i've got. I'm rather proud of the colors, considering it's a gif file....(needed for the transparency effects).....that was basicly taking my two favorite pics of her and putting them together...

About 12 layers, another part of a set....i prefer to make my own backgrounds rather than just find some random image online....i think it looks better.....it may take longer, but it gives me more of a sense of accomplishment....

This was only a few layers, but the challenge was putting both Marv and Goldie on there and keeping it balenced. I also wanted it to be reminiscent of the movie and comic style.

I've always been rather proud of this one....it was hard getting the right balence, but the highlight on the flag was definatly a good choice. Not quite as good as my other banner from then, but it's worth sharing.

Made after Enterprise hit the air. Didn't watch to much of it because shortly before the first season was over, my hours at work changed, but i love this sig. It's got every major vessal named Enterprise up to the one in the show in there. As well as the moon landing. I thought that was pretty important. There's probally at least 12 layers there, and it took me forever to get them arranged well!

Made for .hack//sign. Was trying to combine the anime and television look with insanity (and static). This one took the most layers (almost 30 i think), and the most time. If anyone wants to download it to their own server and use it, you're welcome to!

man, that was longer than i thought it would be........i have lots of other favorite sigs, but you'd never get to read anything else if i talked about all of them.....my biggest thing to use is layer effects.....i've used all of them at some point, it just all depends on what kind of 'feel' you're going for....my biggest concern in making sig images is making them balenced.....sure, you can stick a couple of images together and slap some text on it....but if you don't take time to pick a couple of images to go together well or pick something to balence them out, it doesn't look good.....

[EVA-01 1,796]

*Stares in aww at the DNAngel and .hack//SIGN*

Is their anyway to download layer effects? Like the one Dubird has on her SIGN sig, the grid of squares and the static horizontal line looking stuff? I don't have that many opyions of layer effects on my PS because it's sort of old. :/

[Dubird 6,815]

no....layer effects are stuff like Multipy and Screen......you can download filters and brushes, but i do just fine without them.....not to many people make filters and brushes for PSP, so i learned how to work around them.....

[EVA-01 1,796]

I wanted PSP but my uncle got me PS and some other crap for free rather than having to pay 70 80 bucks.But the bad thing is that it doesn't have anything on it except some filters and layer effects, that suck.

[falling-angel-111 736]

you all helped a lot and all the sigs were great thank you

start trying to remove the background from a character, and then putting it in the foreground of another pic. Once you can accomplish this, you'll see many many more possibilities for sig making.

and if you're interested in a particular sig, ask the person how they made it for more pointers.

i can do layers and brushes basic stuff like that but most of my problem is getting the pic to go good with brushes and wen i use more than one pic i cant get them to go good together

I've always been rather proud of this one....it was hard getting the right balence, but the highlight on the flag was definatly a good choice. Not quite as good as my other banner from then, but it's worth sharing.

Made after Enterprise hit the air. Didn't watch to much of it because shortly before the first season was over, my hours at work changed, but i love this sig. It's got every major vessal named Enterprise up to the one in the show in there. As well as the moon landing. I thought that was pretty important. There's probally at least 12 layers there, and it took me forever to get them arranged well!

Made for .hack//sign. Was trying to combine the anime and television look with insanity (and static). This one took the most layers (almost 30 i think), and the most time. If anyone wants to download it to their own server and use it, you're welcome to!

man, that was longer than i thought it would be........i have lots of other favorite sigs, but you'd never get to read anything else if i talked about all of them.....my biggest thing to use is layer effects.....i've used all of them at some point, it just all depends on what kind of 'feel' you're going for....my biggest concern in making sig images is making them balenced.....sure, you can stick a couple of images together and slap some text on it....but if you don't take time to pick a couple of images to go together well or pick something to balence them out, it doesn't look good.....

im not to good with the layer effects yet but i think i understand how most of them were made but i could never do then atleast not for a wile