Custom Made Sig and Avatar [14]

[ThrashZone]

I'm not sure what to think of these ?
1,

2,

3,

4,

 

[kado897]

They are not very clear.

 

[ThrashZone]

Thanks emboss seems to have that effect ?

 

[boohbah]

try making them much larger then save it as a png then open the png and resize it , see if that makes a difference.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi Boohbah,
That's how I did/ using scaling instead of resizing though, I believe the scaling looses some quality but the colors are fairly bland/ just can't seem to get the chrome look down ?
I didn't space the letters apart on the above which I usually do on most others I've done possibly I'll try both starting larger and spacing a bit so it doesn't look so crammed together,
I like the font though,
Cheers.

 

[Britton30]

Yup resizing does leave more quality than scaling.

 

[nommy the first]

I believe the scaling looses some quality

Correct.
Although just to FYI Julian, in GIMP you don't save as, but you actually have to export the .xcf file to a .png/jpg/jpeg file.

just can't seem to get the chrome look down ?

That can be achieved in multiple ways.

Here's a tut that gives you a thick chrome look achieved by manipulating the bevel & emboss;


And here's a tut that gives you a more slick and clean chrome look achieved by playing a bit with gradients and a bevel & emboss;

:ar: Both tutorials require the Layer Effects plugin (GIMP's alternative for Photoshop's Layer Styles), and the first one also requires the G'MIC plugin (this one contains a lot of filters, compare it to Photoshop's FilterForge).

Also, FYI, I don't think that GIMP's native drop shadow (via filters) looks a lot better, and more like the Photoshop one, than the Layer Effects one. Here's a comparison;

All drop shadows use the exact same settings, and as you can see, the Ps one looks the most 'natural' (in my opinion at least). The GIMP native one comes very close, only the size is a tad bigger, even when you use the exact same settings.
The Layer Effects doesn't at all look natural. The color is much harder and it doesn't fade out at all.


Nommy

 

[ThrashZone]

Man those people move fast
I see say the blind man I appreciate the guides
Cheers.

 

[nommy the first]

It took me a while to get used to, but now I've finally created a siggy in GIMP!
It's still a little rough on the edges, but I blame that on GIMP's horrible not-that-perfect layer styles


Nommy

 

[kado897]

It looks OK Stefan. GIMP doesn't really have layer styles just a set of plugins that try to do the job. Better than nothing I suppose but nowhere near the quality of PS.

 

[ThrashZone]

I need to watch those videos about 10 more times
Your sig looks P.D.G. to me homie
The videos made me see what I was doing wrong = everything
I primarily use pictures as the background so it makes it difficult to visualize colors from scratch and blending them to the waves so that's why I was going for bland and thought the chrome.. would sort of look the best ?
I'll work on it I guess I can only get better ?
Cheers.

 

[ThrashZone]

It looks OK Stefan. GIMP doesn't really have layer styles just a set of plugins that try to do the job. Better than nothing I suppose but nowhere near the quality of PS.

No where near the price either and that's the come-on

 

[kado897]

It looks OK Stefan. GIMP doesn't really have layer styles just a set of plugins that try to do the job. Better than nothing I suppose but nowhere near the quality of PS.

No where near the price either and that's the come-on

Isn't that the truth.

 

[nommy the first]

It looks OK Stefan. GIMP doesn't really have layer styles just a set of plugins that try to do the job. Better than nothing I suppose but nowhere near the quality of PS.

Thanks and agreed
I must say, G'MIC and Layer Effects are two great plugins, and while Layer Effects is nowhere near Photoshop's layer styles, G'MIC is a great freeware replacement for FilterForge in Photoshop.

I'm only using GIMP to familiarize myself since I plan to make a basic tut on how to create a signature, and since GIMP is freeware I thought it'd be best to use that program because most people won't have a spare copy of Ps laying around.

I need to watch those videos about 10 more times
Your sig looks P.D.G. to me homie
The videos made me see what I was doing wrong = everything
I primarily use pictures as the background so it makes it difficult to visualize colors from scratch and blending them to the waves so that's why I was going for bland and thought the chrome.. would sort of look the best ?
I'll work on it I guess I can only get better ?
Cheers.

Thanks mate
The key is practice. The more sigs you make, the better you'll become and the easier it'll be. The same really goes for color matching. You shouldn't stick to one color (picture) though, drop a Colorize layer on it and see what you get

In case you don't know, you can find the colorize option here (I installed a custom theme, but it should look the same);

No where near the price either and that's the come-on

Very much true yes.
But do note that Photoshop CS2 is available for free, and that an upgrade disk to CS4 is available for only $110,- (and an upgrade to CS3 for only $50.-). Now I have worked with both GIMP and Photoshop I can say that that's absolutely worth every single penny.



Nommy

 

[ThrashZone]

I wish I could justify blowing 600+ for cs6,
Plus I believe there're still monthly charges someone with it please update this because I read a bit and laughed/ exited,
Way out of my budget to play around with,
Cheers.

 

[nommy the first]

I have Creative Cloud and I pay nothing for it
I however have no clue how much my dad pays for it, as I have it via his company.

You are confusing CC with CS;

Creative Cloud is based on a membership. You pay for a period and can use your software for the period you paid for. The license you have will verify itself once every month, and as long as you pay you're good. If you don't pay your software will be blocked.

Creative Suite comes as a one time payment. Although there are various plans; you can purchase the entire package of CS apps (The Master Collection, will cost you somewhere near $4.000,-), which includes Photoshop, After Effects, DreamWeaver and many others. You can purchase single apps (From ±$300 to >$1.000), and you can purchase an EDU license (student license, ± $350-450, depends on which version). For as far as I know all licenses last for ever (even the EDU one, although they might come after you if you start a company with this license) and there are absolutely no additional fees. But do note that "upgrading" from versions (CS3 > CS4) and sub versions (CS3 > CS3 Extended) does cost money.


Nommy

 

[Britton30]

I think he means Photo Shop Creative Suite 6. There is no monthly charge, just the initial cost. No monthly charge for Corel Draw either.

 

[ThrashZone]

Possibly next year I'll revisit the idea of cs5 or 6 but now I need the gi-joe with the kung-fu grip
100-150.00 u.s. wouldn't be bad for a new toy if it doesn't require a monthly fee which thanks everyone for the info,
Gotta have magic eraser though
Cheers.

 

[Stephanie]

If you can get a hold of say CS5 you can upgrade to CS6 for not to much money

 

[Bongo]

If you can get a hold of say CS5 you can upgrade to CS6 for not to much money

That looks very nice Stephanie.