My attempt at the smudge technique Xiao shared.
I really wish I was good, because I love the style so much.
I really wish I was good, because I love the style so much.
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Well.... now that I look at it with the grey background from the forums.. not too shabby.
Still, nothing compared to the tutorial.
Still, nothing compared to the tutorial.
Orianna Guide // Ahri Guide // +Rep for hugs ♡ // Signature Café!!
A Special Thanks To Those Who Made Me Signatures
>> Graphic Resources & Downloads <<
SarcasmAppreciated
<Member>
<Member>
LOL lacorpse
Thanks to TRUeLM, Plastictree, Scrax, Xiaowiriamu, foggy12, JahGFX, jhoijhoi, msrobinson, JEFFY40HANDS, Nyoike, MissMaw, and me :) for the sigs!
Nyoike
<Member>
<Member>
Okay, I want some good CnC, as this is my first smudge sig, and overall I feel I did decent on it.
I unfortunately couldn't decide on a form for the text though so I have 3 versions:
1:
2:
3:
I'm not sure the best way to go about the text, it seems to me at least that the first 2 are a bit too apparent, but the last seems to be almost too hard to see.
I unfortunately couldn't decide on a form for the text though so I have 3 versions:
1:
2:
3:
I'm not sure the best way to go about the text, it seems to me at least that the first 2 are a bit too apparent, but the last seems to be almost too hard to see.
To be updated soon!
Nyoike
<Member>
<Member>
Nyoike wrote:
Okay, I want some good CnC, as this is my first smudge sig, and overall I feel I did decent on it.
I unfortunately couldn't decide on a form for the text though so I have 3 versions:
1:
2:
3:
I'm not sure the best way to go about the text, it seems to me at least that the first 2 are a bit too apparent, but the last seems to be almost too hard to see.
Added a 4th version after some feedback from a friend:
To be updated soon!
@palzm
Hope this doesn't cause much offence but i don't think this is your best work. the background looks appealing, the the c4d looks tarnished and of low quality, and the render as well. it also doesn't flow very nicely, there's no direction and the lighting source is all over the place ;'(
To help make it look better, try blending the render/main focal point into your background, and also follow a certain color scheme. I'dd suggest the color scheme of your background ~ cyan and purple look very appealing in tags. So to do this just duplicate your render and then image>image adjustments>hue and saturation or selective color and try make it color coordinate with your background. Or you can use soft brushes at a certain opacity.
Another way to aid the tag (sig) is to go around the edges (with feather at 1~3px) of ur render and erasing it to make it blend even more into the background. Also experiment with new layer adjustments such as gradients, but don't go overboard - by this i mean stuff like Hue of 100% opacity. you want to make small adjustments not major ones. So for example orange~purple gradient at soft light at 20% opacity 70% fill. But just experiment ~ whatever looks good to YOU is the most important thing. Everyone has preference sort of like music taste, what others may find unappealing you may not. However this presumption can change if you're making a sig for someone else.
Other ways: messing with sharpen, blur and dodge and burn tools.... many will of noticed me keep repeating this, but its true. i didn't use these tools before 2months ago and it makes a massive difference. it can help make your tag look 90823582x better :D
Furthermore i'll like to add (this can be said for everyone) try to avoid using renders with no direction and no flow as it just makes it near impossible to make a good tag out of these types of renders. Having a render that has a direction makes it easier to depict a visionary picture of your outcome. another is trying not to choose low quality images to begin with. If you have no choice but to use one then (sadly ~ topaz clean at very low settings can help with this....Greynade and Sarcasm will hate me for saying this)...
@LaCorpse
nooo~ you don't suck at smudging! :D its great!
@Nyoike
Unsure if you followed my tutorials, looks similar ^_^.
I'll first off all like to start of by saying that on a level that i can see eye to eye with you. It is a great sig. The smudging is nicely executed apart from a few areas. And as a first smudge sig i can definitely say that...Well... what can i say? Amazing.
For the 4 versions, number 2 or 4 is probably the best in terms of the text being just better. By better I mean, its not vibrant like (1) and doesn't steal focus, and also it doesn't look odd and out of place like (3). However the text in both despite being well blended within the background, it still takes a slight bit of focus. Now I wish I could give you some secrets on how to do text but to be honest.... I'm not sure on how to do text myself :D
Cyan: Within this area is to me problematic. Now it sort of looks odd that your bright smudging on the right sort of stops as it hits the render and then turns white. It sort of ruins the flow of the sig in terms of color coordination. I'd suggest in order to fix this, and to keep note in future sigs. Try to avoid this sort of error in judgement. To fix it try to be realistic when smudging, make sure it doesn't just "cut off". For this area ill just use the same color scheme as the orange~red (fire color scheme).
Green areas: these green areas are your focal points. doesn't matter where your render is, or text. No matter what, these are the focal points - They follow the rule of 3. At these points you want to execute the focal to your viewer. Try to place the render within these focal, or the main aspect of the render within them. At the moment your render seems to be in the correct spot. However slightly moving it to the right just a tiny bit can improve it dramatically.
purple square: This is where the best text placement would be in my opinion. being at the bottom right sort of looks out of place and doesn't utilize the focal areas. As you can see if you placed at the purple square you'll be on the green focal point. Now you may be thinking: "Yeah but i don't want my text to be in the focal point"...Well technically it won't since its using less focal areas than the render and also if you make sure it blends well it won't steal much focus. You want in a tag your text to be about 20% focus, 70% render/main image and 10% rest.
blue shades: This area is where you want to be using some soft brushes, or effects such as fractals and c4ds. make sure it doesn't cover too much of the render though. By covering this blue area you'll boost the images potential in terms of visual and also focal. It'll also make the tag stand out more as at the moment its looking a bit plain. Sort of like a smudged background with a render placed on top. Not much effort has gone into trying to blend the render into the background. However its a easy fix. These blue shaded area is where you can make the biggest impact! I would advise using fractals at Linear Dodge (add) and then erasing the parts that don't look right and cover the render. Maybe put the fractal behind the render if its causing too much trouble and then erasing with a soft round brush around the render.
Tip: Best method for blending a render into a background is to select your render. So there's a selection going around your render (NOT YOUR CANVAS). Then going to Select > Modify > feather > 1px... then select > inverse . Now you've made a 1 px feather around the render. Then press delete and it'll automatically blend the render into the background, press delete again if you want it to blend even further into the background. However don't go deletion (trigger) happy. ^_^ you don't want your render to disappear into the background TOO MUCH.
Green areas: as expressed it shows the rule of three and articulates the focal areas. The two outlined are the most important. Utilize it and make sure you try to grab the viewers attention to these areas as much as possible, maybe sharpening 20% more than the rest of the render, or putting some effects around them.
Overall Nyoike, despite my harsh criticism, its a great first attempt at a smudge sig. Much better than my first attempt by a long shot. ^^
@JEFFY40HANDS
Nice tag. I've said this a lot now, but this is your best haha! :D You've definitely captured the smudge technique nicely here. the focus is perfect. Colors are also very nice
Pink areas: This areas are spots I would dodge tool at 40~70px soft round brush [midtones]. I would advise this as it'll help boost the images light source more and also aid the focal.
Purple areas: Again similar to the pink areas, except burn tool.
Tip: Sometimes when i dodge and burn tool, i feel that the before and after is hard to justify "whats better?" so i put the opacity to 50%, so its in the middle. Usually it helps. so before you finish up on dodge and burn tool alter the opacity to see what looks best. If it already looks awesome to YOU. don't change ^_^!
Cyan circles: Not much I can say here : I think these are parts that i would erase, they look out of placed and steal the main focal points of the sig.
Green: This is a part that seems un-worked. I would suggest smudging or trying to blend the render into the background here. Best way (in my opinion) is to get a lasso tool at feather 2px and then erase the area along the render. This will blend the area into the background :)
hope it helps.
Hope this doesn't cause much offence but i don't think this is your best work. the background looks appealing, the the c4d looks tarnished and of low quality, and the render as well. it also doesn't flow very nicely, there's no direction and the lighting source is all over the place ;'(
To help make it look better, try blending the render/main focal point into your background, and also follow a certain color scheme. I'dd suggest the color scheme of your background ~ cyan and purple look very appealing in tags. So to do this just duplicate your render and then image>image adjustments>hue and saturation or selective color and try make it color coordinate with your background. Or you can use soft brushes at a certain opacity.
Another way to aid the tag (sig) is to go around the edges (with feather at 1~3px) of ur render and erasing it to make it blend even more into the background. Also experiment with new layer adjustments such as gradients, but don't go overboard - by this i mean stuff like Hue of 100% opacity. you want to make small adjustments not major ones. So for example orange~purple gradient at soft light at 20% opacity 70% fill. But just experiment ~ whatever looks good to YOU is the most important thing. Everyone has preference sort of like music taste, what others may find unappealing you may not. However this presumption can change if you're making a sig for someone else.
Other ways: messing with sharpen, blur and dodge and burn tools.... many will of noticed me keep repeating this, but its true. i didn't use these tools before 2months ago and it makes a massive difference. it can help make your tag look 90823582x better :D
Furthermore i'll like to add (this can be said for everyone) try to avoid using renders with no direction and no flow as it just makes it near impossible to make a good tag out of these types of renders. Having a render that has a direction makes it easier to depict a visionary picture of your outcome. another is trying not to choose low quality images to begin with. If you have no choice but to use one then (sadly ~ topaz clean at very low settings can help with this....Greynade and Sarcasm will hate me for saying this)...
@LaCorpse
nooo~ you don't suck at smudging! :D its great!
@Nyoike
Unsure if you followed my tutorials, looks similar ^_^.
I'll first off all like to start of by saying that on a level that i can see eye to eye with you. It is a great sig. The smudging is nicely executed apart from a few areas. And as a first smudge sig i can definitely say that...Well... what can i say? Amazing.
For the 4 versions, number 2 or 4 is probably the best in terms of the text being just better. By better I mean, its not vibrant like (1) and doesn't steal focus, and also it doesn't look odd and out of place like (3). However the text in both despite being well blended within the background, it still takes a slight bit of focus. Now I wish I could give you some secrets on how to do text but to be honest.... I'm not sure on how to do text myself :D
Cyan: Within this area is to me problematic. Now it sort of looks odd that your bright smudging on the right sort of stops as it hits the render and then turns white. It sort of ruins the flow of the sig in terms of color coordination. I'd suggest in order to fix this, and to keep note in future sigs. Try to avoid this sort of error in judgement. To fix it try to be realistic when smudging, make sure it doesn't just "cut off". For this area ill just use the same color scheme as the orange~red (fire color scheme).
Green areas: these green areas are your focal points. doesn't matter where your render is, or text. No matter what, these are the focal points - They follow the rule of 3. At these points you want to execute the focal to your viewer. Try to place the render within these focal, or the main aspect of the render within them. At the moment your render seems to be in the correct spot. However slightly moving it to the right just a tiny bit can improve it dramatically.
purple square: This is where the best text placement would be in my opinion. being at the bottom right sort of looks out of place and doesn't utilize the focal areas. As you can see if you placed at the purple square you'll be on the green focal point. Now you may be thinking: "Yeah but i don't want my text to be in the focal point"...Well technically it won't since its using less focal areas than the render and also if you make sure it blends well it won't steal much focus. You want in a tag your text to be about 20% focus, 70% render/main image and 10% rest.
blue shades: This area is where you want to be using some soft brushes, or effects such as fractals and c4ds. make sure it doesn't cover too much of the render though. By covering this blue area you'll boost the images potential in terms of visual and also focal. It'll also make the tag stand out more as at the moment its looking a bit plain. Sort of like a smudged background with a render placed on top. Not much effort has gone into trying to blend the render into the background. However its a easy fix. These blue shaded area is where you can make the biggest impact! I would advise using fractals at Linear Dodge (add) and then erasing the parts that don't look right and cover the render. Maybe put the fractal behind the render if its causing too much trouble and then erasing with a soft round brush around the render.
Tip: Best method for blending a render into a background is to select your render. So there's a selection going around your render (NOT YOUR CANVAS). Then going to Select > Modify > feather > 1px... then select > inverse . Now you've made a 1 px feather around the render. Then press delete and it'll automatically blend the render into the background, press delete again if you want it to blend even further into the background. However don't go deletion (trigger) happy. ^_^ you don't want your render to disappear into the background TOO MUCH.
Green areas: as expressed it shows the rule of three and articulates the focal areas. The two outlined are the most important. Utilize it and make sure you try to grab the viewers attention to these areas as much as possible, maybe sharpening 20% more than the rest of the render, or putting some effects around them.
Overall Nyoike, despite my harsh criticism, its a great first attempt at a smudge sig. Much better than my first attempt by a long shot. ^^
@JEFFY40HANDS
Nice tag. I've said this a lot now, but this is your best haha! :D You've definitely captured the smudge technique nicely here. the focus is perfect. Colors are also very nice
Pink areas: This areas are spots I would dodge tool at 40~70px soft round brush [midtones]. I would advise this as it'll help boost the images light source more and also aid the focal.
Purple areas: Again similar to the pink areas, except burn tool.
Tip: Sometimes when i dodge and burn tool, i feel that the before and after is hard to justify "whats better?" so i put the opacity to 50%, so its in the middle. Usually it helps. so before you finish up on dodge and burn tool alter the opacity to see what looks best. If it already looks awesome to YOU. don't change ^_^!
Cyan circles: Not much I can say here : I think these are parts that i would erase, they look out of placed and steal the main focal points of the sig.
Green: This is a part that seems un-worked. I would suggest smudging or trying to blend the render into the background here. Best way (in my opinion) is to get a lasso tool at feather 2px and then erase the area along the render. This will blend the area into the background :)
hope it helps.
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Thank Xiao for being patient with me and providing insightful CnC as I keep developing.