I was just made a post in that colour game thread and figured id make a single thread about colour as i have a bit to say on it.
Colour can be pretty tough to get right in sigs and graphic making altogether i think
Its probably the thing im most conscious of whilst making one. When you work with a render or a stock etc you have to work with the colours on that. The clothes, their hair, skin colour and anything else on it. So when you come to add in all the effects youv got to try and make sure they work with the picture. Of course you might not like the colours that the image wants you to work with so you can edit that to give you a little more options.
Ive got in the habit now whenever i add in an effect that il use colour balance on it. Sometimes when i need a drastic colour change il use the hue and saturation adjustment, as you can radically change the colour using the hue with that and by subtly adjusting the saturation and lightness you can adjust the colour so it doesnt look overly....I dunno the word but the colour looks a bit nicer and not just really bright and in your face
Hue and saturation is great for changing the colours on an effect C4D aswell. The ones with the best shape arent always in the colour you want. Hue is a great way to change that.
I love colour balance because you get a lot of control over adjustment and instead of a gradient map which can sometimes look burnt and pastey you can fine tune the colours with the colour balance tool
Besides the tools i mentioned i like gradient maps aswell. Gradient maps are another adjustment layer that i couldnt live without. When theyre used wrong they can really make a sig look terrible but the same could be said about any tool. I always know when i select my gradient map colours and it looks awesome first time i just know that my sig is gunna turn out good in the end
I find the default orange and purple gradient map to be a great one. For some reason or another even when it clashes with the colours im using i always try it anyway because when it works which it does often it looks fantastic.
My sigs tend to have around 3 gradient maps. Its very rare i use them at 100%, usually they tend to be around 35-60%. As i said before every effect I use il apply a colour balance to them and before adding a border to a sig my final layer is a colour balance adjustment and brightness & contrast adjustment I think they just cap the sig off nicely.
Preference wise i dont have certain colours i prefer over others in general. If im making a sig for myself il use more boyish colours. I wouldnt use baby pink for example unless it was a full moon. I would however happily make a pink signature if it works well in a request or if its for sotw. I know some people who wont even think to use a colour they dont like which i find weird. I can understand not wanting to use it in your current sig and avatar set but not when it comes to someone elses request or if its gunna work better for a tag your making for sotw or some kind of challenge. Why not use that advantage? Ive never really been a believer that you can be better at working with certain colours than others. You may be more used to working with certain colours but i think really if you have a good eye for it you can work equally as well with all colours.
In overall sig making i find making colours work together for the final product to be one of the hardest things to get right. This hasnt always been the case. I think as i became better at gfx and my eyes a bit sharper that ive come to see that its difficult. I was looking back through old sigs ive made in the past and there weren't very many where the colour was that good.
Anyway what do you guys think about colour? Is it something you dont care too much about? Do you find it really easy? Or is it difficult and your sigs come out looking like burnt toast? Do you have any habits like me in using colour balance etc? Maybe you found this post long and boring but will post anyway?
Post away
Colour can be pretty tough to get right in sigs and graphic making altogether i think
Its probably the thing im most conscious of whilst making one. When you work with a render or a stock etc you have to work with the colours on that. The clothes, their hair, skin colour and anything else on it. So when you come to add in all the effects youv got to try and make sure they work with the picture. Of course you might not like the colours that the image wants you to work with so you can edit that to give you a little more options.Ive got in the habit now whenever i add in an effect that il use colour balance on it. Sometimes when i need a drastic colour change il use the hue and saturation adjustment, as you can radically change the colour using the hue with that and by subtly adjusting the saturation and lightness you can adjust the colour so it doesnt look overly....I dunno the word but the colour looks a bit nicer and not just really bright and in your face
Hue and saturation is great for changing the colours on an effect C4D aswell. The ones with the best shape arent always in the colour you want. Hue is a great way to change that.
I love colour balance because you get a lot of control over adjustment and instead of a gradient map which can sometimes look burnt and pastey you can fine tune the colours with the colour balance tool
Besides the tools i mentioned i like gradient maps aswell. Gradient maps are another adjustment layer that i couldnt live without. When theyre used wrong they can really make a sig look terrible but the same could be said about any tool. I always know when i select my gradient map colours and it looks awesome first time i just know that my sig is gunna turn out good in the end
I find the default orange and purple gradient map to be a great one. For some reason or another even when it clashes with the colours im using i always try it anyway because when it works which it does often it looks fantastic. My sigs tend to have around 3 gradient maps. Its very rare i use them at 100%, usually they tend to be around 35-60%. As i said before every effect I use il apply a colour balance to them and before adding a border to a sig my final layer is a colour balance adjustment and brightness & contrast adjustment
I think they just cap the sig off nicely.Preference wise i dont have certain colours i prefer over others in general. If im making a sig for myself il use more boyish colours. I wouldnt use baby pink for example unless it was a full moon. I would however happily make a pink signature if it works well in a request or if its for sotw. I know some people who wont even think to use a colour they dont like which i find weird. I can understand not wanting to use it in your current sig and avatar set but not when it comes to someone elses request or if its gunna work better for a tag your making for sotw or some kind of challenge. Why not use that advantage? Ive never really been a believer that you can be better at working with certain colours than others. You may be more used to working with certain colours but i think really if you have a good eye for it you can work equally as well with all colours.
In overall sig making i find making colours work together for the final product to be one of the hardest things to get right. This hasnt always been the case. I think as i became better at gfx and my eyes a bit sharper that ive come to see that its difficult. I was looking back through old sigs ive made in the past and there weren't very many where the colour was that good.
Anyway what do you guys think about colour? Is it something you dont care too much about? Do you find it really easy? Or is it difficult and your sigs come out looking like burnt toast? Do you have any habits like me in using colour balance etc? Maybe you found this post long and boring but will post anyway?
Post away
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