~Aarons Graphic Workings~

Thief of Hearts Joker

~Phantom of the Past~
Veteran
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Messages
3,050
Location
In another Palace stealing Hearts.
Gil
8
Squall Leonhart
FFXIV
Kuro Narukami
FFXIV Server
Lamia
Well the old thread needed to be put to bed so I'm making a new one since I don't go by A.A. Anymore, and used my real name to help navigate since most know my real name by now xD ANYWHO! Time for some posts.

Avatars
gamesof2012persona4aren.png
yunarukamiavatar.png
chanteruavatarrequestyu.png



Sigs
gamesof2012calloutperso.png

yunarukamisigcopy.png

chanterusigrequest2yuxr.png

powergirl.png

residentevilcc.png

mechacalloutcopy.png

shadowyokosig2.png

pandoracalloutentrycopy.png
In honor of the Old Clan Leader of EA. xD
clancalloutwordrivalry.png




Wallpapers/Large Pieces
sexycallout2.png

sexycalloutentry2.png



Most of these are from Old callouts or requests from earlier this year, I'll post some new work not callout related somewhat soon ^_^ As always I'm always open to advice I know my text is lacking in some of these D;
 
Heres a Slight update, I was gonna make quite a few sigs/sets but since I'm feeling crappy this week I was only able to do some callouts & a few Requests.

Heres the Requests I did recently.

Set one "Silver" Pokemon theme

silveravatar.png

silversig.png


And a Set I made for a GM on SDGO

alucardavatar.png

gmsecutor.png
 
The text in your current sig is much better than in the one you posted. In the original one i think the letters were too spaced apart and it was pulling focus off from the render. The font in your current sig is alot tighter and neater. Massive improvement from your latest post from that of December 2012. Your getting the hang of blending now it looks like and your effects and structure are getting much better. I dont know if you read tutorials but i would definitely recommend doing so. I say this a lot to people so i feel like its all i ever say but its true that following tutorials will make you get much better faster. I understand people dont like posting stuff they made from a tutorial and I understand that because i was the same but you can follow the tutorials and use the new knowledge you gained to make another sig.
The more understanding you have of what is available to you in photoshop the better range of effects you have to add. Grab some nice resources from gfx forums. Good resources are a huge factor in making a good sig.

Nice to see how your improving. Im sure your only gunna get better :ryan:

Also with text i would recomend using simpler fonts and using a mixture of bold and curly like fonts. I would recommend Bebas, Slant, exoplanet and Soopafresh for some bolder fonts and try Satisfaction for a cursive font. Its a good font that always works well with others and is easy to use and looks nice.
 
Yeah, I've tried reading tutorials for some things but I have a hard time mimicing the effects sometimes ~_~ I just listen to my instinct most of the time when making my stuff, I do try some tutorials when theres something I need to add for a callout or something lol.

And I'll try those fonts thanks for the recommendation, I tend to have a hard time finding good ones for sigs xD
 
Update I made a slightly improved version of my favorite Yu Narukami Set I'll probably use in the future lol

yunarukamiavatar2.png

yunarukamisigcopy2.png


Lets start with the avatar, my previous one was pretty much a copy and paste from my sig, this time I zoomed into Yu's face getting his grin and sharp eyes into a better view, it you can tell I added a broken glass effect to his glasses to symbolize the point in the Izanami Fight where he casts off the broken glasses and summon Izanagi no Okami.

and now the Sig

I reworked the text so its a little easier to read, I also amped up the colors and brightness quite a bit to make it more light based, I also added a ball of light into his hand to make the broken persona card look more like the game/anime, I also made it multicolored since the card he is breaking is the "World" Arcana, also I toned down my Vert line overlay, I added a small brush addition to the lower right to look like the summoning effects ((the lower right seemed emptyish before.

Overall I adore my Version 2 more than my Version 1 of the Yu Set ^_^ any opinions on my improvements?
 
Starting off with the avatar, I actually enjoy it, the lighting blends well and everything! That's what will bring me to your sig.

The lighting, it may just be me, or the picture, but the image just seems too bright, I do like the effects of it however, overall it does look better than the first! ^_^
 
The first thing i would suggest is thinking of a colour scheme before you go making the sig. For this one i would have suggested a combination of light and dark blues, white for the lighting and a very dark blue, almost black to put around the sig to help frame your focal. The pink colour going over his head unfortunately doesnt mix with the otherwise good colour scheme you have going on so i would recommend removing that altogether. Go to image > apply image then use a guassian blur of around maybe 0.5. Then erase over the render and the effects in his hand. This will create a bit of depth and smooth out your background. Then apply the image again and take your sharpen brush at around 7% opacity. I know it sounds very low but a high opacity sharpen brush will destroy an image. Then use your sharpen brush and brush over the render and over the effects in his hand. this is gunna make the foreground pop out from the background and make everything look a bit neater and add somewhat of depth to the image. the text is pretty nicely placed though id maybe suggest moving it down a bit around where his collar is. Try using things like gradient overlays and bevel to make your text most eye catching. Make sure though the the bevel is subtle. Like a strokg sharpen brush bevel can really ruin something if not used correctly.

You have a really good composition on the go with your placement. I think the sig just needs some fine tuning to make it as good as the current sig your wearing. Are you familiar with gradient maps? Experiment with different default gradient maps and set them to soft light. For some reason the orange and purple one likes to work but if not select 2 colours from your image and use that as a gradient map. When i finish a sig i like to use adjustment layers so i could suggest using the brightness and contrast adjustment followed by the colour balance. Colour balance is a brilliant final adjustment because if your not happy with your sigs you can fine tune the colour using this and youl always find a medium that you are really happy with.

Keep posting pal your doing really well :D
 
Thanks for the Advice Casino ^_^ I'll be sure to use it in the future when I do a detailed background for a piece :3

Also I felt like trying something new in a concept so I made a back up just in case it was a flop I'll go into detail what I did xD.

okie First up another Gundam Sig (yes another one)

exiarepaircopy.png


I made a basic space background with some clouding and smudged it to what it looks like now, I then added the Exia Render and Sharpened it some which thankfully brought the glow on the GN Sword out, I then did a few star brushes and a star brush, used a lens flare on the far right to brighten it. My only flaw in this one I think is my font choice ~_~;.

adachiverttagnormalcopy.png


Adachi Vert Tag Version Normal.

I did the background from scratch trying to mimic the Shadow Worlds, I loved the Red on Black pattern the Shadow World has and it fits Adachi to the tee, Next I did a few shadow brushes to make it seem like shadows were being summoned by Adachi, then added the Adachi and Magetsu Izanagi Render added a stroke border and gave it a light glow, After that a few more shadow brushes over Adachis Face and suit, Finally I added a light effect to Izanagi's Visible eye, and I did a bit of smudging on the lower shadow aura. The Text Again I feel was wrongish T_T;

adachiverttagtvver.png


Basically the same as #1 but instead of shadow summoning I made this one focus on Adachi taunting Yu to come after him alone, I made the image itself Grainy feeling and added TV Static to add to the P4 theme, I used a mist brush to erase some of the TV Static to act like its trying to fade in and out. This was a huge gamble and I kinda like the turn out
 
Well I decided to try and learn how to smudge a bit better to bring out some of my pieces, this was a kind of test piece for me seeing if I could pull off a ghostly character in my sig. I was half asleep while making this so I may have made the 1 part a little too wide lol

minatoarisatosig.png
 
exiarepaircopy.png


I like this a lot, I think the colours look really great and it's got a very nice cloudy effect to it which looks soft and smooth. I have noticed you like to do slanted fonts, sometimes this doesn't work so well but I think in this piece you pulled it off! Not much to crit here really, it's a really nice sig

adachiverttagnormalcopy.png


I like this one better than the version with all the white. The white kind of takes away from the picture, mostly because you can't really see the picture haha.
I like the text in this one though I think it could use some nice shiney lighting or something.


minatoarisatosig.png


I like the colours and the text but the smudging needs a little work. Big Casino posted a little something on smudging with a Triangle brush in the LC clan chit chat a few months ago, maybe he could post the settings for that brush again if he doesn't mind. I copied his instructions and it made for a really nice smudging brush! He loves to help with Graphics so I am sure he wont mind me dobbing him in haha (sorry toldie)

minatoarisato2avatar.png

minatoarisatosig2copy.png


Loooove the avatar, it's awesome. The sig is nice because it looks like it is made of watercolours but again the smudging could use just a bit of work. Hopefully if you get some help creating a nice smudge brush you'll find it easier!

Overall you're really imroving and I can't wait to see more of your stuff!
 
Well Another Update to add to my little thread, these two sets were made for our Resident Dragon Girl of FFF which she loved both so I'm happy ^_^

Vertical Tag Set
dragonmageavatar1.png

dragonmagesig1.png


And a 2nd Set which is somewhat my normal work

dragonmageavatar2.png

dragonmagesig2.png
 
Your Ready to Burn set and the set you did for Rapture are both cute.

I especially like the Ready to Burn set. It flows nicely and the colour theme suits the image well.

I think she could have been blended in a bit more down the bottom of the signature but other than that I like it. :-)
 
Another Update.

The first one is a test at how well I can blend my character into my background I think I got it with this but ehh its kinda shoddy looking lol

dantesigp.png


This next one is a piece dedicated to The Anti Shadow Suppression Weapon Labrys the New character in the P4 World the background and everything was one big piece, I just amplified it to do labby justice.

My Work
labryssig.png


Original Image
labrys.jpg
 
labryssig.png


I like this, the effects that you added on the tv's are nice, the added lighting works well with it as well, it flows rather nicly, but I think it lacks in effects a bit, maybe adding a few textures or C4D's to try and add a few more effects, but great job, it simple but effective

dragonmagesig2.png


I really like this, I think the blending is amazing, defo your best work with blending, you nailed it here, the text matches really well here as well, again simple, but I think it works good, some lighting might help here however to add depth :)

minatoarisatosig2copy.png


I love this, again blending is nailed here, and I like the watermelon background you got going there, the text however needs moving to the right ever soo slightly, the m goes into the hair slightly and makes it hard to see, again lighting to add depth might help

I think the main areas you could improve on is effects and lighting, try and get a few nice effects in there, it might make your work have that 'spark' don't be frightened to try something, always the undo button aye. also, try and look up some lighting tutorials, this will help getting depth into your work

but great stuff aaron, defo huge improvements there, keep it up :)
 
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