GW Round 1 - CMAH49C vs. GIMPressionists

[Dave]

Graphics Wingman - Round One

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Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen. Graphics Wingman is upon us and in one of our first round matches, we have the different words colliding as the GIMPressionists take on Charlie MacDonald and his 49 Cheerleaders in a battle for graphics supremacy.

Introducing first, a team that is looking to touch YOU down at the end of the match... CHARLIE MACDONALD AND HIS 49 CHEERLEADERS!

Spoiler

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And their opponents, a team that is looking to make a lasting GIMPression...The GIMPressionists!

Spoiler

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The selected category for this match-up was WWE. Teams have until the 12th post graphics in this thread. On the 12th of July, two graphics, one from each member must be put forward to the public vote and a winner will be decided.

Please remember that this forum is non-spam, so if you want to discuss any graphic that is posted, please ensure that you follow the spam guidelines and rules for this forum. Alternatively, post your thoughts in the Graphics Wingman Discussion Thread in the Requests sub-forum.

So, with that said, let's get it on!​

 

[The Insano Shiekh]

Went quicker than I thought- here's my graphic:

What I did here was found a destructed background and duplicated the layer, and set the duplicated layer to a diffuse glow filter. Then, I used the Randy Orton PSD, duplicated that and set the duplicate to smoke filter from Alien skin and set the layer to overlay. In 4 pixel text I put "Destruction Shall Follow the Wicked" in Clicker font. Following that, I put "Randy Orton" in 4 pixel as well, using the Grymmoire font. I also put "Charlie and his 49 Cheerleaders" in 2 pixel font using Lucida Sans for proof I guess you could say. I burned the background a bit and smudged the area around Orton, and used a black border...although it didn't cover the right side because I can't figure out a bug for that.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

First off, Dave, that is not the the theme song for the GIMPressionists.

Second, I too made a Randy Orton sig, however mine is a little bit simpler.

What I did here was I first left the background white. Then, I found a picture of what I think to be glass or ice breaking. I put many copies of that on the background. I then Picked it so that it became blurred, then I used a motion blur. Using the same picture, I lowered the opacity and put that behind it. Then I found two renders of Orton. I put one on max opacity, and the other on 45 opacity, I put that one behind the main render of Orton. Then, using cooltext.com, I made the text, I added a border and I was done.

 

[The Doctor]

Well, this was a fun one. I worked a LOT on it.

I've been really, really impressed with Justin Gabriel's heel turn. The look he gives the crowd (and his victim) before performing the 450 is chilling. It made me think of a cool nickname ("The Fallen Angel") and I built the sig around that.

I started out with a cool picture of the inside of a cathedral I found on Google. I shrunk it to size, duplicated it, and smudged the top image. I smudged the bottom slightly, too. I turned the top cathedral image to Color Dodge.

I got some cool C4Ds from Planet Renders, and I put them into the image. I placed that diamond one under the top Cathedral layer and turned its blending mode to Color Dodge which made it blend in more.

I resized and placed the render of Gabriel on top of everything, duplicated it, destaurated it, and turned it to Hard Light. I then duplicated that layer and merged the three. I made a layer underneath it and brushed some lighting and shadow effects. I then put a fireball effect render beneath the lighting layer and turned its blending mode to Color Burn.

I wanted to help out the render of Gabriel even more by giving him a sort of Holy Light, so I made another lighting layer above him and used a white brush to lighten the areas around his eyes, and the very bottom of the render. I didn't like how bright it got, so I turned the opacity down to 61%.

I Applied the image to a new layer, did a 3px Gaussian Blur, and set it to Soft Light, in order to give the sig a more ethereal quality. I then found a cool picture of a clock tower on Google (because I really love clock towers) and felt that it would help the flow if I put it in the sig. I placed it under the render of Gabriel and under the blurred layer, set the blending mode to Lighten and the Opacity to 54%.

Then it was time for the text. It was Lucida Sans, with anti-aliasing set to smooth, and tracking set to 0. I put the nickname at the very top of the layer order but put "Justin Gabriel" under the blurred layer, because I liked how it looked. Then I added a 1px red border which I sampled from the image.

I LOVE how it turned out. If it wasn't for the RAW Talent, I'd be using it right now.

 

[Dave]

Right, since I created this thing, I guess I should be the first one to give some feedback to the guys who have made it as good as possible.

This is a decent signature. However there is a lot of things that you could definitely improve on for the next round. I assume that you wanted a picture of some wreckage behind Orton but I don't think this picture does the signature justice. To me, there is not a lot of creativity in this signature. For the next signature you do, try adding some light sources and some dark spots on your signature. For example, the light source in this one is coming from the left so I would have taken a new layer and painted on some white on the left. Then I would have set that on soft light and duplicated it until it looked good. Then, I would have taken a new layer and painted on black on the parts that you want to be dark and then set that to overlay. To me, it would have come off more professionally.

It is a good signature but there is room for improvement.

First off, Dave, that is not the the theme song for the GIMPressionists.

Second, I too made a Randy Orton sig, however mine is a little bit simpler.

What I did here was I first left the background white. Then, I found a picture of what I think to be glass or ice breaking. I put many copies of that on the background. I then Picked it so that it became blurred, then I used a motion blur. Using the same picture, I lowered the opacity and put that behind it. Then I found two renders of Orton. I put one on max opacity, and the other on 45 opacity, I put that one behind the main render of Orton. Then, using cooltext.com, I made the text, I added a border and I was done.

Sorry about that, Stinger.

For some reason, there is something wrong with my computer and it wasn't showing your graphic. Still isn't working but I am trying to fix it. Anyway, after looking at your signature, I must say that it is quite good. For me, I would have preferred the Orton render on the right to have been a little bit bigger and for the thing in the middle of the background to be gone. However, I don't think it takes too much away from a nice looking sig.

Again, sorry for the late edit but there ya go.

Dude!

That is a fucking amazing signature, right there. To me, there is nothing more you could have done on this signature to make it look any better because it is actually brilliant. The cathedral in the back along with the C4D's(?) look pretty damn amazing. The text flows with the signature and doesn't pop out like a lot of people do.

My favourite so far. Amazing work!

 

[Daniel]

I almost finished it last night but my computer crashed and I lost it. So I tried to replicate it this evening and it's not too bad.

So, I started with a black background and four duplicates of The Undertaker. I made the first one black and white, put a linear blur on the next one and moved it to the back. I kept the third normal and the fourth posterised. I altered the opacity of all of them until I reached the desired effect.
I wanted to keep the sig gothic and not too cartoon-like. So I used an image of Big Ben (I think it is the same picture you used Doc, sorry, it wasn't intentional) and kept one copy the original colour and put the other in greyscale mode. I smudged the clock face which I think gives a nice look. On the right side I put in an image of a black rose. It wasn't rendered, so I blended, smudged, did whatever I could to make it fit in. I added a grey border and no text. Well, The Undertaker needs no introduction, does he?

 

[Dave]

So, I am going to judge the matches based on an overall score for both of the graphics. I will be doing this by rating each graphic and after both graphics have a tally, the team with the most points is the winner of my vote.

3/10

5/10

9/10

6/10

So by this reasoning, I have CMAH49C winning by 12 points to 11. I hope no one is hurt by the scores I have given them but this was the fairest way that I could possibly do it and I feel that Doc's graphic was enough to win this match. The last graphic by AladdinSane could have gotten higher but it was very similar to Doc's and that was a little unoriginal for me.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

Honestly Dave, I completely agree with you. Although I voted for my team because I wasnt impressed with Insano's sig. It's just cluttered and blurry. Doc's on the other hand, is amazing. I think that Doc's sig wins this match for his team. I voted for my team so we can feel loved. =)