AladdinSane's Graphics

[Daniel]

Hey, so I thought it was time to do a thread. I'm a photographer really, but I saw you sig makers and I was really jealous of the stuff you have done so I thought i'd give graphics a go. I've been using GIMP for around four days now, i've found it to be quite user-unfriendly compared to Photoshop, but it's all I have at the moment.

Oh, and i'm not looking to show off, i'd really like advice, criticism, tips and tricks.

This one is the first graphic I made. It's of my favourite comedian and a bit of a hero of mine, Bill Hicks. I borrowed the phrase on it from another image I saw of him, however, they are different graphics. Like I said, the graphic is very simple. The background is one image to which I added the text and border. The words 'american' and 'hero' have a striped background (I would have like to have given them an American flag background but I didn't know how to do it). I gave motion blur to the word 'fucking' to make it a bit more interesting.

So this is the second one I did. It's of Lucky Cannon, obviously. I used the blending tool to do the silver background. I then put in a picture of Mark Henry and made it more transparent so he would blend into the background. The text was originally black, but I used the lighting tool to make the words lighter. Finally, I put in the star of the show, Lucky Cannon and a simple border.

Finally, a sig of my favourite wrestlers when I was younger, Too Cool. Making this gave me nostalgia of when I was seven or eight. Again, I used the blending tool to create the black background with the silver line. I downloaded the image and the font (called TurnTablz) and did nothing to them apart from changing the text colour. I created the light tubes effect by again using the blending tool and then I did the border with the same colours. It was by mistake that the 'tubes' went over the border, but when I changed it I preferred the original mistake.

There you go. Hope you liked them. Please comment if you have the time, i'd really appreciate it.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

As a GIMP artist myself, I know how challenging it is to make high quality sigs like you see people like Doc and Dave make, because Photoshop is better. These sigs you made, are very good. I'm going to look at each of them.

This one is simple, but it works. Probably the worst of all 3 sigs you made. It seems to me that you just took a picture, cut out Bill Hicks, put it on a black background, added text, and burnt it. However, if this were the first sig you ever made, it's alright.

This one is a step up. It's no secret that I'm a huge Johnny Prime mark, so any sig with him in it is awesome. For the most part, I like it. You found two excellent renders of both superstars and used them well. The problem I have with this one is that the silver background makes it look boring. You might want to try experimenting with different colors on a sig before you decide on just one color. Another thing is, Mark Henry just seems out of place. He's a good addition to the sig, but theres something about it I don't like. The People's Peep just made an excellent tutorial on layers, and how they can make a sig look better, you should check it out. But this one is pretty good.

Now this is the best one you made. I really like the colors in this one because, they're colors that you would see at a party, and as we all know, Too Cool liked to party. I also like the picture of Too Cool, the overhead shot of them is really cool. This sig is really well done, and the best out of all 3 of them. I really see nothing wrong with this sig.

Pretty Good.

 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the feedback Stinger, really appreaciate it. I've taken on board what you've said and done a couple more.

I did Lucky Cannon, so I thought i'd do my absolute favourite NXT rookie, Kaval. It looks basic, but it was the hardest one i've done. I downloaded some new brushes and played around with them to create the blue cubist background. I then put in the picture of Kaval and altered the contrast to make him stand out. I made a duplicate of him, smudged it and then used the blending tool to surround him. I had no idea of what to do with the text and i'm still not sure about it.

I've recently got into Christian so I made this. The colour scheme is yellow/gold to match his logo. I'm aware it looks similar to TLC's but I didn't notice until after I made it. For the background, I used a brush which had lettering on, but you can't tell right? I changed the contrast of Christian and blurred a duplicate to go behind him. With the logo, I used duplicates and rotated them slightly just to make it more intersting.

Again feedback would be great from anyone. I feel like i'm improving, but am I?

 

[Dave]

Sorry it took a while for me to get to this, dude. Either way, I am here now and I will do my best to give you some feedback on these thow signatures that you have created.

This one is probably the best one you have done thus far. Seriously, it really is a great sig. I do have a couple of points though. Firstly, Kaval looks to be really bright and unbalanced, don't you think? I would have much proffered a levels layer on top of that and took down the brightness somewhat. Secondly, when you have a graphic such as this and you are using a spotlight sort of effect, I always think that it is generally useful to apply a drop shadow to the render. This allows it to have some much needed depth.

However, apart from that, there really isn't anything else I could say. It is a great signature.

This one is pretty good too. The text in the background is really nice although I have one question. Is that actual text or is that an image? Other than that, I would have lost the outer glow around the render and would have likely replaced it wit a drop shadow. Or wait! Is that an actual blurred render behind the top render? Doesn't matter really, I am just nit-picking now and to be honest, it is a very solid sig.

There you go, Dave feedback. Perhaps the best feedback of all...

PS. I absolutely adore your current signature. I used to make sigs like that all the time and I very much like the style of it.

 

[Daniel]

Thanks a lot Dave. You have just introduced me to the world of drop shadows. I had no idea what they were when I made them. However, now I use drop shadows in loads of stuff.

I felt I should do a non-wrestling sig so I made this. I made the bakgound pink and white using a flowery brush and smudging it. I the put in the main image and made it slightly brighter. Found a font called 'Katy Berry' (brilliant, I know) and added a drop shadow to it. Finally, I put in an image which I posterised slightly and lowered the opacity significantly.

Everyone loves Zack Ryder, right? I used a great brush which I made purple, blue and orange horizontal lines. I blended in black and added two drop shadows to give him a purple glow all around him. And then it came to the text. I was really struggling to get a good, matching font for this. I suddenly remembered Doc's recommendation of the Visitor font. So I used that with a black drop shadow to make it less plain.

 

[The Doctor]

That Zack Ryder one is fantastic! The text looks GREAT, the colors are perfect, and everything flows really well. I might have moved the "Zack" to his other shoulder in order to balance the sig out a little, but then again maybe not. It's a great sig and definitely your best. Good work!!

 

[Daniel]

I haven't posted something here for ages. So this is one I've just completed.

Where do I start? I started off with a zig-zag line I made and coloured the triangles in red and white. I then went over the pattern with a black brush in a new layer and messed about wit black and grey brushes on the right side. The dots are made using the newsprint effect. I put in the render of Edge, duplicated it, desaturated it and altered the contrast. I subsequently altered the opacity of the layer to get the desired effect. In a new layer, I blended some black into it, burned the render, and added text and a border. The font is Aristotle Punk, I highly recommend it.

 

[Daniel]

Seriously, who doesn't love AJ Lee. This is a new one I did based on a tutorial I did at the weekend (the first one I've ever completed, in fact). The process was more complicated than anything I've ever done before.

I started with a dark brown background and made a cream border using the rectangle tool and then rounding the edges in a new layer. In another new layer, I made a spectrum gradient and set that to grain extract. I then made a black layer with a bit of light in the corner with the lighting effects tool and set that to overlay. Then I put in a texture layer that I just got off the internet and set that to overlay. I put in the render and simply altered the contrast and brightness, nothing too fancy. On to the text. The font is Bifurk and all I did was make to rectangles, moved them to the text and put in the same colour. I put in a drop shadow on the render and then just used some brushes he and there.

And that's it! Please comment if you have anything to say.

For GIMP users who are interested this is the tutorial it was based on: http://puteraaladin.blogspot.com/2008/11/cool-typhography-design-in-gimp.html

And here was my attempt at the tutorial:

Spoiler

 

[Daniel]

THE MOTHER OF ALL BUMPS! Can't believe that it was September the last time I was here. It also needs a name change so if a mod or admin is reading, can you change it to Seth's Creations. That would be awesome.

Anyway, to the sig. Um, here it is.

It's all about adjustment layers. Gradient maps, brightness/contrast alterations, you name it's probably there. I started with a tutorial. But as is often the case when I attempt a tutorial, I lose interest or something goes wrong and I do my own thing.

I started with a blue background, got a paper texture and set it to overlay. I used a cool font called RNS Bobo Dylan and did a 3D thing with it. It's says "Katy". Hopefully you could see that. You can probably find how to do the 3D thing on the internet. I put in a render of the stupidly beautiful Katy Perry and proceeded with the brush work. The colours of the stripes are the same one on her bracelet. It's things like that which help a sig, I feel. I think I put a radial blur on a duplicate of the render, I just did some light black brushing and then added the adjustment layers. A simple border finishes it.

So what do you think? Feedback is always appreciated.

 

[Daniel]

Two graphics in three days? You lucky, lucky people. OK, let's get to it...

Spoiler

Poster today. A made a purple lightning background (you can find out how to do it if you search "photoshop lightning" on Google). Put in the render of The Undertaker and fiddled around with the usual stuff. Put in a image of his entrance behind that. The lyrics to Ain't No Grave are also in there. Simple black brush work around all of that. Moved on to the text. Duplicated it, blurred it, erased it, all that stuff. Some splatter brushes to in the text area. A few other things went into the poster, drop shadows, white brushes, adjustment layers, etc. I popped in the "logo" I made for my graphic-making stuff. It stands for "Rolling Thunder". A dark border finished it off.

Thoughts, critique and feedback are, of course, welcome.

 

[Theo Mays]

Both are just absolutely fantastic pieces of work. Only complaint I really have with the Taker poster is the main font, but the blending in the background and the overall effectiveness make up for that. Definitely a 9/10 mate.

The Katy Perry one is indeed my favorite piece in this thread. It is simply perfect and incredible. In fact if it is cool with you I'd love to rock it in my signature. Of course credit would be given and rep will come your way as well. Keep up the excellent work Seth.

 

[Daniel]

Yeah, I can see what you mean about the font actually. I was going for something gothic but it might look at bit over the top with all the swirls and embellishment.

By all means, go ahead with the Katy Perry one. I'm particularly proud of it as it is my first graphic with this new style I'm trying to go for. Glad you liked it. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Daniel]

I love Colt Cabana and his character, Matt Classic. Basically, if you don't know, Matt Classic is an old school wrestler with a career which spans a century. I love the character because he's hilarious and Cabana changes his style significantly to play him. This is what I came up with.

This was a simple, quick sig. I started with the image and the text and built the sig around those elements. The background is just a dark grey and a paper texture. I brushed stars on, made black and cream (I guess it's cream) coloured boxes and brought the elements together. A few adjustments layers and light brushing finished it. Oh, and a border. I'm not sure about it but one of the first lessons I learnt in sig-making was "always add a border".

If you can spare the time, I'd love to get feedback on this.

 

[Daniel]

This is really annoying. I moved stuff around and renamed an album on Photobucket and now, all my images have disappeared. I'll just repost my newest graphics. I wouldn't say it was spam.

THE MOTHER OF ALL BUMPS! Can't believe that it was September the last time I was here. It also needs a name change so if a mod or admin is reading, can you change it to Seth's Creations. That would be awesome.

Anyway, to the sig. Um, here it is.

It's all about adjustment layers. Gradient maps, brightness/contrast alterations, you name it's probably there. I started with a tutorial. But as is often the case when I attempt a tutorial, I lose interest or something goes wrong and I do my own thing.

I started with a blue background, got a paper texture and set it to overlay. I used a cool font called RNS Bobo Dylan and did a 3D thing with it. It's says "Katy". Hopefully you could see that. You can probably find how to do the 3D thing on the internet. I put in a render of the stupidly beautiful Katy Perry and proceeded with the brush work. The colours of the stripes are the same one on her bracelet. It's things like that which help a sig, I feel. I think I put a radial blur on a duplicate of the render, I just did some light black brushing and then added the adjustment layers. A simple border finishes it.

So what do you think? Feedback is always appreciated.

Two graphics in three days? You lucky, lucky people. OK, let's get to it...

Spoiler

Poster today. A made a purple lightning background (you can find out how to do it if you search "photoshop lightning" on Google). Put in the render of The Undertaker and fiddled around with the usual stuff. Put in a image of his entrance behind that. The lyrics to Ain't No Grave are also in there. Simple black brush work around all of that. Moved on to the text. Duplicated it, blurred it, erased it, all that stuff. Some splatter brushes to in the text area. A few other things went into the poster, drop shadows, white brushes, adjustment layers, etc. I popped in the "logo" I made for my graphic-making stuff. It stands for "Rolling Thunder". A dark border finished it off.

Thoughts, critique and feedback are, of course, welcome.

I love Colt Cabana and his character, Matt Classic. Basically, if you don't know, Matt Classic is an old school wrestler with a career which spans a century. I love the character because he's hilarious and Cabana changes his style significantly to play him. This is what I came up with.

This was a simple, quick sig. I started with the image and the text and built the sig around those elements. The background is just a dark grey and a paper texture. I brushed stars on, made black and cream (I guess it's cream) coloured boxes and brought the elements together. A few adjustments layers and light brushing finished it. Oh, and a border. I'm not sure about it but one of the first lessons I learnt in sig-making was "always add a border".

If you can spare the time, I'd love to get feedback on this.

 

[.]

What's the name of the font that is used in your current sig and commonly in botchamania?

 

[Daniel]

It's called Earthworm Jim. It's a great font. It's goofy and a bit different. If it wasn't used in Botchamania, I'd use it all the time in lots of different things. I only used it in my current sig because of the Cornette face reference.

 

[Daniel]

This was a result of kind of having an idea and experimenting to get a good result. In fact, I have no idea whether this is good. I quite like it though. I was inspired by this poster - http://theslime007.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d35zlze.

I did so much to it, I can't even remember what I actually did. There are a couple of paper textures. A lot of adjustment layers (gradient maps, photo filters, etc). But first I put in my images and edited them a bit. There's a bit of brushing around the edge, as is often the case with my graphics. The text font is Impact and they both have gradient overlays and drop shadows. That's about it really. Sorry I couldn't be more specific.

If you have any feedback at all, I'd be happy to hear from you. And ahter today's news, expect a "macho" poster soon.

 

[Daniel]

The Macho Man poster didn't work out. I might go back to it. In the meantime, here's a brand new signature. For this one I was inspired by something made by K4P-Unleashed. Remember him? He was out of this world. Anyway, here is Sin Cara.

Kind of simple really. I started with a couple of images and edited them slightly and spot erased them. I put in my main render and from there it was simply a case of adjustment layers. I duplicated the render and put a radial blur on it, making it stand out a bit more. There was a bit of blurring and burning here and there too. On to the border, which as you can see isn't your typical border. I made a new layer and applied the image which I then heavily edited. I then applied the image in a new layer again and erased a one pixel border. It was then just a case of applying a pattern and a border appeared. I hope that made sense. It did to me.

I'm not totally sure about this so I might make a poster version of this. This didn't have text because I couldn't find a place for it. I'd be happy to hear from you if you've got anything to say.

 

[Daniel]

Another one. I need better things to do with my life. Anyway, this was influenced by a poster I saw on the internet and I love it.

I started with the background - a texture and simple grey brushing. I picked Mickie James for no reason in particular. Well, she's hot. That's about it. I messed about with the image a little bit and smudged some copies of it set to different modes. Then there's simply some brushing in there. I wanted it to look slightly grungy. The words in the background are the lyrics to her theme song. I added the text and then started on my adjustment layers. I finally added the main text, a black border (it was originally white but wouldn't be able to be seen) and my logo and that was it.

Thoughts?

 

[Daniel]

I made this to commemorate the most important moment in SmackDown history: the debut of my favourite Diva, AJ Lee.

I started with a render of her, duplicated it and applied a motion blur. I did some brushing, some smudging of the image and things really weren't clicking. So I made a bold move and put in a New York skyline, a sparkly fractal render and a lot of adjustment layers to recover it. Then it was simply a case of adding the text, a border and my logo.

I'm really proud of this one. If you have any feedback, it's more than welcome.

 

[FSWWE]

This one is fantastic bro...
In a scale from 0/100, this one has 90!!
I think that you could tried harder to put Sin Cara's logo

Outstanding really!!
Seth is proving me, why he is the best signature maker here!!

 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the compliment, FutureShockWWE! I was thinking of putting in his logo or some text, but I couldn't find the right place for it. I may try it again at some point.

I watched a Shakira video the other day. I was not only struck by her beauty, but her songs aren't actually that bad. So feeling a bit inspired, I made this.

It was quite simple and mellow really. There's a lot of brushing, a picture of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and most importantly, there's a texture set to overlay. I manipulated the main image a bit and added some diagonal lines set to overlay. Finally, I added the background text, the foreground text, a border and my logo.

If anyone has a deviantART account, I am now on there under the name RollingThunderDesign. Check us out.

 

[Daniel]

Judging by this and my past few entries, you'd be forgiven for thinking I only make graphics of women I find attractive. And you'd be right, for the most part.

This took me 10 minutes to do. It's really simple, but I like what I've produced. Save for the obvious (text, logo, border) and a bit of white brushing, this is made up of one image (of Doctor Who star Karen Gillan - http://www.morningstarr.co.uk/forum...112-karen-gillan-photo-shoot-karen-gillan.jpg) and a lot of adjustment layers. I used several different gradient maps, adjust the levels, the brightness and contrast all set to different opacities. Like I said, it's simple, but I like it.

 

[FSWWE]

Hi Seth!!
Your photos are incredible, you for sure work very well with blends and adjustments...
This little sig "[rt]" is very basic, or too basic... It doesn't fit in any photo...
It's my opinion you can make a better one, or finding a new font that doesn't ruin the image...

Looking forward to see one of "Natalie Portman"
Great work mate...

 

[Daniel]

I think you're right about the logo. When I get good enough to actually make a legitimate one, I will. Until then, I think I'll only use it in graphics where it works. Speaking of which, I think this is one.

I love the British Invasion (I'm a mark for tag team wrestling). It annoys me how underutilised they are by TNA. I was inspired by their Slammiversary attire and the British football hooligan theme, hence the graffiti background.

I started with the background and did some red, white and blue brushing over it. I put the renders in along with a couple of textures. There's plenty of adjustment layers and smudging in there as well. I put in a diagonal line pattern and erased most of it (but if you look closely you can see it). I put in the text (it was quite difficult to find a suitable text and suitable placing, but I think I managed it). I put in the border and I was done.

If you've got any praise or criticism, I'd love to hear it. Well, see it.