@Frag Man: I like this version a lot more compared to the previous, the contrast and colours really makes the sig more...likeable, noticiable. gj! Now heres my new sig, CnC!
Well, you missed my edit directly above your post. I only know criticism, so bare with me. It's hard to read the words, and the text doesn't look all that great. It's a bit too dark on the right side of the sig, and it's hard to make out what's on your sig. The placement of the text doesn't seem ok, and the color could be better. Other than that, the sig is great. 3.5/5
**** i just checked and i saved it as a .png so the layers got compressed + i was just being lazy and didn't save once before the final copy lol...damn
alright im trying a new style.. what do you think? the top and bottom border reaper threw in when i wasnt looking.. does it work? and frag, i like it, but the second light source on the right side is just a little too bright for me.. it seems like it should be casting more shadows than it is. also, the background is a little too abstract to match with the picture. try to get a better backgound that blends with the render a little better. sorry if im accidentally contradicting a bunch of posts already done but this is just my opinion
A lot of people say it's perfect, and some say it's not. I don't get it. As for yours, it's great, it's just I don't like how you have the fire coming out.
@KnightKninja: First to start off with the good. The overall flow and style of the sig is constant, and the colours match. I also like blending you did on the render. But honestly i don't really like the render -like it, itself at a glance is good and interesting and catches the eye because of the flame, but once i look at it i get confused like whats the little thing beside it? Is it part of the character or is it a something else completely? It just disorients me as to what exactly i'm looking at. Another thing is that there seems like there's just a lot of empy space, i'd suggest englarging the render or adding something else. Heres a little sig i threw together cause i got bored and i kept seeing the "no u" little tags all over the place, and i thought this render was perfect for it
se7en, please give CnC on other signatures when you post one. it really should be a rule because just posting yet another sig for CnC can completely take the discussion off of one sig or completely ignore it. anyways, i like the text effects that you used, but i really hate the fact that all of your sigs are so tall. if thats your style though i guess it can work. the background is a little drawlish. you simply used those acropyces or fractal render/c4d's. you should try to smudge it with certain settings or find a better background. one thing that really separates beginner sig makers from intermediate to advanced sig makers is the background. a key thing to remember is not to have one solid color showing up and just a little stuff on top of it. yours is close to covering it up, but try for a multicolored/textured background even before you put the c4d/fractals on it.
Author: SE7ENS1NS4M Response: ...okay. Positive things to say about this are that you keep a consistent color scheme throughout, and that the "snowflakes" are a rather unique thought - done fairly well, too, despite their yellow-ness. You also included a black, 1px border, which makes my soul happy. You've done a good job to inspire a sense of unrest in the image through your blurs, making it almost seem like the whole thing's moving when, in fact, it is stationary. There's also a good sense of balance, setting the character across from the light yellow region. But here are my critiques. First, your character is very dark. The focal point of the graphic is his gun fire, but there is so much detail on the character himself that is lost because of how dark he is. Because of this, you should have chosen a darker background to work with, or somehow incorporated the darker parts of him in with the color scheme of the background. While they share hue and general feeling, the background doesn't match because of how bright it is by comparison. I will also say this, your attempts at hiding your name in the banner a rather cheap gimmicks, and this one in particular actually distracts from the banner at hand, destroying what flow there may have been with a mediocre font at an odd angle in some attempt to match his arm. My advice is to stop trying to hide your name, and just creatively place it in there in a manner that, instead of interjecting, works with the image to make it better. Rating: 2.5/5 Author: Frag Man Response: Definitely an improvement (and you're right, I did miss the last one, since you posted while I was posting). I like how you changed up the border and made the background darker, providing some much-wanted contrast to the image as a whole. The text is also easier to grasp now, and the wall in the background is a lot more apparent. Some criticisms, though. First, my initial comment about the blurring still stands, only now the plague seems to have spread. I realize this was to try and cut down on pixellation, but there are other ways of doing this without sacrificing quality. I also would have liked to see the border apply over the girl, as her outfit and hair truncate suddenly at the edges of the image, leaving my eye uncertain where to stop looking for graphic. Not too shabby, my friend. Rating: 3.5/5 Author: Knight Kninja Response: I'll admit that there's a lot I don't know, but when I can't discern what it is that I'm looking at, I don't tend to favor such graphics. Still, for your sake I'll try my best to put that aside and go for an objective review. What I really like about the image is how much attention is drawn/given to the thing on the left, as the brightest, most vibrant colors lie there. There's also a lot of depth and texture to the background, which makes it slightly more appealing to look at, and you also used a good font in a good place for what it was doing. That's where the praises end, though. Throughout the image, there is no sense of flow. After my eyes focus on the massive yellow flames, there's nowhere else for them to go. There's also not a whole lot of contrast going on, and while the color scheme is consistent, the image lacks balance. It reflects your technical ability and adeptness, but also shows what you don't know about design. Lots to improve upon, but I know that you'll do better next time (there's also the fact that no matter who the designer is, some graphics just come out bad). Rating: 2/5 Author: SE7ENS1NS4M Response: It's rather clear to me that not a whole lot of effort was spent in the creation of this graphic, especially considering how it was spawned from "No U" notes written everywhere on the forums these days. Color scheme is good, and the graphic, despite the complexity of the imagery, is relatively simple to get the point of. It's short, quick, and to the point, portraying the conflict between people who consistently reflect "NO U" back at one another in a feeble attempt to shift blame or responsibility. The character on the left clearly dominates the character on the right with his orange gun of glowy doom, and the entire flow and balance of the image work nicely. The first critique I have addresses the image doubling, which makes it disorienting to look at closely and rather hard to focus on what's happening in the graphic. I'm not fond of it, but in some instances it works (for what the graphic is, it actually does add some appeal, though I generally don't like having what's viewed through my new glasses requiring extra effort to distinguish). Additionally, the "NO U" text seems a bit too broken and distorted for its own good, and the "seVEN" coming out of the back of the guy makes it almost look like he's being shot (which, if it's supposed to, I give you props for, because this cheap gimmick is epic win). There's also no border that I can distinguish, which is usually always a good thing to have. All things considered, good job for such a quick render. Rating: 3.5/5
It's almost impossible to get the blur out since they're both on the same layers. I can't find any good renders, so I had to make my own. Here's the image before I tried taking out the blur.
Have you not been paying attention? Your supposed to give some CnC in each post... This is very blurry and the light source looks weird. Having the sun spots/photo flare/ whatever the hell the dots are on both sides looks bad to me, no boarder, and its really pixelated. 2/5 Mine for CnC Apples is name I use on other forums : /
Are you really not paying attention? The person above me never gave any sig for me to rate. As for yours, it looks great except for the fact that I don't know what he's grabbing onto.
Actually, Apples, I tend to give these reviews regardless of whether the person's kind enough to pass it along (though such would likely also be appreciated, as having a multitude of views around a point is always a good thing). That said, reviews! Author: Frag Man Response: Now that you've posted them side by side, I decided to look for myself to see if there were any decent renders of the character, "Haruhi Suzumiya" online (you have an extra z in there, by the way). You're very right when you say that they're impossible to find, at least amidst the hentai and porn that exists around the traditional Japanese schoolgirl character. So I suppose I can lighten up about the blurring, as even though I do know ways to correct it, it would take pages to elaborate. As I've said before of this image, your lense flares fit perfectly with the image, despite what reaper says (there is a border there, Reaper, it's just a 1px border instead of the 20px borders everyone and their mother here throws on their banners that makes them look rather terrible). I'll also say that the hair's edges look better, despite still being heavily blurred. He is right about the pixellation, though. If you look at the bow on the character's right, it is particularly bad, especially in comparison to the blur of before. I honestly think it looked better with the blur, as the sharpen tool just doesn't cut it (you'd need to reconstruct it using vectors and gradient-matching, which is stuff that I didn't even learn in my graphics class because the teacher said it was really difficult). Rating: 3.5/5 Author: Apples/reaper of bunny Response: Initially, the image looks very clean. I like how you kept a consistent color scheme between the bronze-ish color of his skin and the background, and the gold colroing of the ribbon around his hat (the rim of which he is grabbing), even the red accent colors thrown in throughout the image. A very strong border does exist (3px? 5px?), and through the use of the lines in the image, you're pretty good at directing the eyes where you want them to go, first resting on the profile of his face, then moving to the gold accents on the left, passing the red ribbon at the bottom corner, and then following the line over to the right to the word, "Apples." It's definitely a very mature graphic, but I do have some qualms with it. As Frag alluded to, it's kinda hard to tell that he's gripping the rim of his hat, though of the difficulties with the image, this is one of the least. It is a very busy graphic (almost too busy), and as such it's very easy for my eyes to be distracted from the image's focal point to the unnecessarily busy background. It's also imbalanced, as both the man and the word are on the right side of the image, making it very heavy there and giving it a further sense of unrest. I would also say that some points of the background don't quite blend too well with the man's shoulder there. I also haven't decided whether I like the decisions regarding contrast in the image or not. Despite these difficulties, though, it is one of the better images I've seen in my two days of reviewing graphics here. Rating: 4/5
Much better, I really like that one. Since I have no criticism, I would rate it a 5/5. That's just my opinion though. Alright, I decided to keep it blurry because that's how I originally wanted it. It makes it more distant so the thumb sticks out more.
Yes, reaper, that one gets a 4.5/5 (no 5/5, because such a rating is sheer perfection, and such a thing is so insanely rare that I think I've only ever seen it once in a graphic). I even like what you decided to do with your name, because it fits really well where it's at. Good job. @Frag: Yay for typos, eh? I will admit that the thicker border is growing on me, and that as long as it's consistent throughout the back "layer" of hair, the blur actually looks good (because it looks intentional as opposed to a way to eliminate the rough edges). I would say that this should constitute the final version of this graphic, because I really can't think of much that can be improved upon through it. Still only a 3.5, though, because while it is well done, it's very simple. EDIT: One last review before I go to dinner: Author: iMarkkus Response: I can tell that you're new at this, so I'll go easy on you. For one, I like the fact that you're using a distinct, vibrant color pallet. There's the reds, the bright green, and then the dark purple all seeming to dance with one another atop the pure black background. It's something you don't see a lot, so it's kind of refreshing, but now onto my criticisms. Your font is really rather simple, so in the future try to pick something a bit more...interesting? I don't know, I'm just not a fan of Arial in graphics. I can see that you were trying something new with the reflected words, though the distortion you added to them only makes it more confusing. My advice would be to try experimenting with masks and to see what you can do about making a gradient mask for the reflection, as that would be alot cleaner. Additionally, the contrast in the central structure kinda makes my eyes hurt, and just in general, the graphic doesn't feel like it has an overall theme or purpose. Not the best graphic in the world, but you're learning. Don't sweat it. ^_^ Rating: 2/5
C&C my newest and favorite sig please? I realize there is some **** next to her right boob....its supposed to be there, it came witht he psd i downloaded!
Slightly graphic might I say. You did good on the colors. Not too much to the BG though. And you could use some more effects. But um... Maybe you should cover up that a little bit more.