Crock's Graphics

[The Crock]

Ok, so I've been tinkering with Photoshop lately, I'm not very good, but I've made a few decent sigs so I wanted to put them up on here. Keep in mind, I'm a beginner, I know I'm not very good, but practice makes perfect, so I might as well.

This one's just a simple John Cena graphic. I basically just wanted something simple, so I toyed around with a brush to make the background. I used the colors on Cena's wristband as my base colors and worked off of that. This one's SUPER simple, just something I did for practice.

This one's probably my favorite. Again, I just wanted to incorporate the Green Bay colors throughout, so I played with a brush to make the background. I just slapped on the logo and then found a render of Sam Shields and voila. Again, simplicity is key.

This was the first one I made, it's not very good (none of them are), but I like the background. I made two separate backgrounds, one silver and one gold then merged them with a slight blur effect over it. Really simple stuff here too.

So, feel free to give me some tips and pointers, you will be repped, just keep in mind I'm a beginner. Also, I'll take a few requests, if anybody wants a sig from me.

 

[Blue Chipper]

They're not bad at all considering you're a beginner. You have potential - just keep learning and toying with it.

Tutorials are a good place to start as it helps you familiarize yourself with photoshop. Learn how to work with layers, gradient maps, brushes et cetera.

I see you haven't used fonts, and that's fine. Here's the best web site to download free fonts (some signatures will need them): http://www.dafont.com/

And I like the first image you made the best (the mma one). Just keep at it, learn photoshop basics via tutorials and tinkering. That's how I learned. Actually, I think Doc has a stickied tutorial thread, you might want to check that out. Doc was a huge part of me learning PS.

I know I don't have too many tips, but they're of importance.

Edit: Here is a good PS tutorial site that Iv'e got bookmarked:

http://www.sigtutorials.com/

 

[Karilas]

Basically what Mr. Blue Chipper says. There are some really handy tutorials out there and it looks like you should be able to pick up a lot of useful techniques fairly quickly.

Personally I really like the Green Bay one, the colours really work and I'm a bag fan of simplicity [my sig only has 3 layers and a small smattering of varied blending options].

Then again, take any opinions and advice from me with a grain of salt, I've only been making sigs for a year or so on and off and frankly I've never won a battle with my work. Ha! "Work."

 

[FSWWE]

Since I love this section of the forum, I don't mind giving you some feedback, even if you are a douche on the Bar...
Sorry for my freaking bad english, but if you are interested in sigs, I know you will pay attention.

Your sigs are very nice for a beginner, to empty of course, but I'm sure that you will try to pay attention in the next time.
use
psd-dreams.de to download already cut out renders...
Follow some tuturials for begginers, learn how to use the colors and smudging...
Lights and Color adjustments are also very important.

I would like to make a challenge for you, make one from Wolverine, he is easy to work with...

Follow this simple tuturial - http://www.sigtutorials.com/tutorials/basics/fire-effect-signature-tutorial.html with the Wolverine render, I'm pretty sure it is going to be awesome!

Note: You are still an ass!!

 

[The Crock]

I feel like this sig is a vast improvement. I worked hard on it, using a tutorial from www.sigtutorials.com. Anyway, it was a clipping effect sig and I incorporated some text along with trying to reduce my dead space issues.

I'm still nowhere near being "good," but I'm improving. I tried to incorporate your suggestions , so thanks for that. Keep the feedback coming and I WILL rep you, I just have to spread at the moment

EDIT:

Batman sig. Fire effect stuff, pretty simple.

I deleted it, but Theo got to it beforehand, figured I'd put it back.

 

[Theo Mays]

The Crock has finally come to the Graphics section. I know youve mentioned before that youve used PS, now we get to see your work.

First posted sigs are decent. Nothing spectacular, but still pretty solid for a beginner.

However your next two are freaking great. The Batman one is pretty simple and the colors work and everything is blended. The next one is my favorite one, no doubt. The background is unique, the picture is blended well, text is pretty decent (always hard to do when getting your feet wet), and everything works just so well.

Keep up the work Crocky, you are clearly improving and you'll keep improving with practice. Glad to see that you are finally showing your work to the WZ world.

 

[Karilas]

Like the new ones, thing is, I reckon the background on that Batman one would be more suited to say, Master Chief, or an Assassin's Creed sig, y'know?

The Super Saiyan one's the best of the two, your main render's nice and clear on that one, fonts not bad either. The Batman render could do with being a bit sharper, methinks, it's hard to make out any detail on it. Lighting's nice though.

 

[Blue Chipper]

I feel like this sig is a vast improvement. I worked hard on it, using a tutorial from www.sigtutorials.com. Anyway, it was a clipping effect sig and I incorporated some text along with trying to reduce my dead space issues.

I'm still nowhere near being "good," but I'm improving. I tried to incorporate your suggestions , so thanks for that. Keep the feedback coming and I WILL rep you, I just have to spread at the moment

EDIT:

Batman sig. Fire effect stuff, pretty simple.

I deleted it, but Theo got to it beforehand, figured I'd put it back.

Holy Moly! What an improvement! Congrats Crock. Those two sigs look absolutely terrific; they definitely do not look like sigs produced by a mere beginner.

I think you've past "good" up with these signatures, Crock. Keep this work up, and keep improving, and you'll be an incredibly solid graphics man.

Good work - no critiques here!

 

[R K Owned]

They were pretty good for a beginner, I especially like the MMA one you made. Like many have said already if you watch some tutorial videos that would help you a lot. But overall good job.

 

[FSWWE]

Spoiler

This is pretty awesome for a beginner, I told you that following tutorials is the better place to learn.
Everything flows perfectly, the text doesn't really fit here, it is probably destroying the image the way it is, I'm sure you will start to pay attention to this things later.
Use regular fonts, they tend to be awesome for simple sentences, I like Cambria and Verdana sometimes.

To download other fonts go to:
http://www.dafont.com/

Spoiler

I'm glad you made this tut, I also did it for my request page and it turned out pretty cool I think.
You could have enlarged the main render, it would be better.
The colors and the flow are pretty good, and don't use borders with other color instead of black, it really pisses me of why people do it, because this is simple going to make the image amateurish.
The text here is alright, nothing to say.
Another thing a rookie mistake is the squares, they they do not have the same spacing.

Overall I liked the first one better, it is a solid 8,5/10
The second one is a 7/10
If you want to, I can give you other tuts pretty simple and some names of cool brushes.

 

[The Crock]

Here's my latest sig:

Made it with another tutorial from www.sigtutorials.com and I really like how it came out. It helped me work on my smudging more than anything and I really had some fun making it. I used the main render (before I resized it) to make the background, then I blurred it a bit. Simple stuff.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

Here's my latest sig:

Made it with another tutorial from www.sigtutorials.com and I really like how it came out. It helped me work on my smudging more than anything and I really had some fun making it. I used the main render (before I resized it) to make the background, then I blurred it a bit. Simple stuff.

Wow! Never have I ever seen someone improve so quickly. This is a quality sig. With any sig that has the potential for being an eyesore, it's extremely important that the focal point is easy to spot right off the bat. Luckily for you, not only did you do that, but you made it so that the sig wasn't an eyesore. The only thing I would change, is the text. It may be just me, but I hate that kind of "default" text. Try downloading some new stuff from www.dafont.com, it may help you out. Other than that, it's very good. This and your Goku sig have been your best. Keep it up.

9/10

 

[The Crock]

Ok, so I made another one, using yet ANOTHER tutorial. This one was all about flow and stuff, so I basically just used the render the guy suggested and I like the way it turned out. It really, to me at least, feels like there's some "motion" going on and it's not a boring signature. Here it is:

Let me know what you guys think, your input is very helpful.

 

[Daniel]

I did that tutorial too. I have to say, your use of the liquify tool is better than mine was. It looks great. The only problems - that should be minor problems - are the text and the colour. The text just looks a bit out of place. The font just doesn't suit the sig and I'd suggest using all-capitals or all-lower case. That may be personal preference thing though. I'd also like to see a touch more colour. Maybe increase the opacity of the gradient map a bit.

Like I said, though, just minor. And like Stinger said, I've never seen someone improve so much. Really brilliant stuff, though.

 

[Dave]

You are improving with every single signature.

However, it must be said that I have seen signatures like these on a couple of websites and probably using the same techniques. When creating your work, try to deviate from guides a little bit each time, so that you're not just following a guide and making a piece of work that doesn't belong to you. Try mixing it up a little. If I am wrong and these are every bit of your work, then well done, man!

These are excellent. Keep up the good work.

 

[Johnny Scumm]

I've seen a big improvement from the Cena sig in the first post, which I must admit, just doesn't look right in areas. Not knowing too much about making them, well, I can't really say too much, but they do look very good. The latest two obviously being the best, with a vast improvement.

Congrats Crock, keep up the good work and maybe, people will be begging you for sigs soon.

 

[Nate DaMac]

Hey look, Nate wandered into the Graphic Section for some reason. I'm the first to admit that I know next to nothing about any of this shit, I just know what I think looks good and what I think looks like shit. Your sigs look like what I envision sigs to look like and not like you just copy and pasted some shit on Paint(like I would do.)

The only critique I can give at all would be your text selection. It's all so standard looking, like you don't use any other fonts or anything and they seems kind of oddly placed. Nothing worth harping over by any means, but the words just seem a little plain to me.

Good work though.

 

[The Crock]

This is my first sig in about a month, since I was on vacation. I went really simple and just tried to do something that I thought people would enjoy. The background was just duplicates of the main render, which I blurred, hit with a red neon glow, then put on the tiled filter. Simple stuff, please give me some feedback.

 

[The Crock]

Still practicing today, I liked the render so I thought I would try to do something with it. I did TONS of smudging in this one. I duplicated the render about 6 times and kept messing with it until I got a "glow" going, then used some lens effects and that was it.

 

[The Crock]

Another one. Really simple, took less than 10 minutes. I duplicated the render of Tebow and blurred it, that's how I made the background. Then, I just tinkered with it until I got this.

 

[The Crock]

Just made this for FunKay. I really enjoyed making it. He asked for it to show Jericho's "evolution," so I tried to work with light and shadows, instead of text. I wanted it to be symbolic. At the same time, I included his signature titantron in the corner, just because I thought it added something extra.

 

[The Crock]

Just made this Beer Money sig for Theo. It was fairly simple, actually. I got a render of a hundred dollar bill and of the Budweiser logo, spliced that together and that was the background. I inserted the renders of Storm and Roode, added a border then tinkered with it. I put a slight black and white effect over it all to add some sharpness and then put a lens flare in the middle.

Feedback, as always, is appreciated.

 

[The Crock]

I was bored and since Eli/Tom are in the news I decided to whip this up. It's in the style of my Tim Tebow sig, nothing extra special... I just thought it went well together.

Okay, so I wanted to make a sig to commemorate ADR successfully cashing in to win the WWE Championship. I started out with a combination of greens and yellows in the background, then I motion blurred it and put the render of the money on overlay. After that I put in the renders of ADR, sharpened them a bit and (this is one of my favorite "tricks") I put a black and white film over it. It's not visible, but it makes a noticeable difference.

 

[The Crock]

This is my latest sig and it has to be my favorite one I've ever done. I like this render of CM Punk, so I decided to make a sig out of it. I liked the idea of the Chicago flag with Punk's logo on it, so I went with that too. I'm a big fan of overlays, so there's a black overlay on the background, I feel like it makes the background look a lot nicer and darker. Relatively simple, really, I just put the render of Punk on after that, then got a render of a piece of tape and slapped it on along with some text. Small black border on it too and that's basically it.

I'd love some feedback, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Theo Mays]

I dig that Punk sig. My philosophy with sigs is usually simple is better. That looks like a simple approach and the execution on what your vision was is pretty spot on. The tape stripe is a really clever idea. The text would have looked out of place otherwise. Only thing I would do is spice up the background a bit. Add some kind of effect to it. Anything from a sharpen, a gradient overlay, even a duplicate layer with a different layer setting. Even that isn't a necessity as the sig looks great as is. Definitely one of my favorite pieces from you Crockster. Good stuff.