Sigs by Mike Killam

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Hey everybody! I'm really new to this section, so I'd love any help you guys are willing to give. I've been using PS for years for general stuff, but it wasn't until this week that I started actually trying to do some design work with it. I've been watching tutorials and trying to get a feel for some more complicated stuff... Anyways, I'm going to post my first three attempts. The first one is from last year before I started working on improving. The second one is from a few weeks ago, and the newest from today. You can definitely see the improvement...I think so anyways.

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So this is the first one I did. As you can tell, just some basic cut and paste and blur effect, leaving a little black around the edges because I thought it looked cool. I'm not sure, but I may have just swiped the back image from google. Not a work of art, but the first thing I tried to do...

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I made this recently when talk of the new nWo started making its rounds through various dirt sheets. I figured Ziggler, Rhodes, Nash, and Christian were safe bets, but I also thought they needed some muscle. Brodus Clay is a great talent that needs to make a strong debut. And then I thought about the old nWo and how they had HUGE swerves with returning talent. Batista and Jericho are the two biggest talents I could see returning. Jericho could be this generations HBK swerve.

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And this is my most recent work. I started working on overlapping backgrounds using lens flares, fades, and different blending options. I was going to go with some elaborate font, but then I realize the basic Lucida with a drop shadow and white stroke looked really great. I'll be honest, after I got the crazy background done I just messed around with things until it looked cool. I suspect that happens a lot...

I know they're not very good, but if anybody wants to use anything I ever do as a sig, feel free. Just credit @MikeKillam (my twitter name) if you'd be so kind. Hopefully I keep improving, and again, any feedback would be excellent!

 

[CMSawall]

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And this is my most recent work. I started working on overlapping backgrounds using lens flares, fades, and different blending options. I was going to go with some elaborate font, but then I realize the basic Lucida with a drop shadow and white stroke looked really great. I'll be honest, after I got the crazy background done I just messed around with things until it looked cool. I suspect that happens a lot...

This one WOULD be freaking great if it had an actual foreground for us to focus on, there is to much of a mess to focus on the Rhodes you want us to focus on, but great job for everything else.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

This has a very similar background pattern to the Cody Rhodes sig, only with a different lens flare option and several layers of black blended in. I started messing with some brushstrokes, hence the fire-ish looking stuff around the name. The font is Nightstalkers from dafont.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

This one WOULD be freaking great if it had an actual foreground for us to focus on, there is to much of a mess to focus on the Rhodes you want us to focus on, but great job for everything else.

How about this?

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I just made that image normal lighting. I think it might be too much in comparison to everything else, but I definitely agree with what you were saying about their not being a foreground to focus on.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

2 more...

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This is a more abstract one I did with a TON of layers and different filters. I mostly messed around with lens flare/chrome/color layer effects, and did different lighting until it came out the way I wanted it. I'm not sure what the font was, but I'll look it up if anybody really wants to know. "The Ultimate Battle" is of course referring to the WrestleMania match for the Intercontinental AND WWF title.

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THere's a really easy tutorial here for turning a picture into a mosaic. On a slightly funny note, the image I chose was actually HBK superkicking Flair... THe image is from the upcoming WWE12 game, and the faded image I just grabbed from Google.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Here are two more. They are incredibly easy, as there's just a background image and four layers with different colors. You can do this in as many layers and with whatever image you want. The background took maybe 10 minutes to do. The Foley sig is just messing with fade and blur, as well as some saturation. The Fortune one, I believe I only messed with the saturation, and blurred the edges.

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[The 1-2-3 Killam]

THis obviously isn't banner size, but it could easily be re-sized to fit. I made this for Josh and Justin for their monumental 100th episode of the Chair Shot Reality. It's a really fun effect to do, but can get tedious after awhile. You basically hollow out a letter, copy/paste it about 30 times and change the font of each individual letter. You then do that for each letter you want... It was also my first attempt messing with perspective. I thought it turned out pretty good.

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Something I made on request. I'm not really a fan of it.

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Branching out of wrestling, onto something I made as a request for my friend. Gotta love the Arcade FIre... This is really simple. Just a background, a filter on the band, and one of their logos.

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Just got done with this one about 10 minutes ago. Both of their logos on top of each other. There's a couple of gradients thrown in there and some new brushes I picked up.

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I really like this one. I'm a HUGE Packers fan, and I wanted to represent the legacy of excellent quarterbacks we've had since the start. (Yes, Favre is still one of the greats, get over it). This took more time than I care to admit, but that's only because I was learning everything for the first time. Now that I know how to do that blur and duplicate effect, and I'm going to try it more often.

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Would definitely appreciate some feedback!

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

The first is an image I just did for my Wrestlezone editorials. Worked with perspective and fading to get that reflective look. Lots of fun and I think it looks AWESOME. 2nd and 3rd I did on request today. The DDP uses the same diamond (ironic) texture as a few I've already done, but with a golden color adjustment layer over it. I love that he's in background, but doesn't pop out right away. Really enjoyed how it turned out. THe jericho one i"m not so happy about. I'm a huge Jericho "mark" so it's hard to get excited when you feel like you didn't do one of the all-time greats enough credit!

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[Kayoh]

You're inconsistent, but you are improving like CRAZY. Your first few sigs were just not good - the first one looks almost like you did it as a joke, in paint or something. The progress is pretty clear, and I feel like your best work is your Layla sig - it's perfect. Unfortunately, if I see that as being your best work, it automatically means that every sig after that has been worse (even if only slightly) than that one. I do like the two sigs you did that have the colored bars (the Foley and 4tune sigs) in the background. I absolutely LOVE the effect that you used on the CSR image and the perspective looks great. Those four works (Layla, Foley, 4tune, CSR) are head and toe above the rest, and I don't really see anything that I like too much among the rest. Keep making sigs because if you keep working, your worst works will eventually be on the same level as your best sigs now, and your best sigs will be mind-blowingly amazing.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

You're inconsistent, but you are improving like CRAZY. Your first few sigs were just not good - the first one looks almost like you did it as a joke, in paint or something. The progress is pretty clear, and I feel like your best work is your Layla sig - it's perfect. Unfortunately, if I see that as being your best work, it automatically means that every sig after that has been worse (even if only slightly) than that one. I do like the two sigs you did that have the colored bars (the Foley and 4tune sigs) in the background. I absolutely LOVE the effect that you used on the CSR image and the perspective looks great. Those four works (Layla, Foley, 4tune, CSR) are head and toe above the rest, and I don't really see anything that I like too much among the rest. Keep making sigs because if you keep working, your worst works will eventually be on the same level as your best sigs now, and your best sigs will be mind-blowingly amazing.

Thanks! It seems inconsistent because some of them aren't really in order. Also because some new things I try turn out better than others... I really like the DDP sig because of how the background turned out. That and the CSR effect are probably my 2 favorite things I've done.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I started working on using transparent backgrounds. It's not as easy as it looks, but it's hella fun... If you don't know how to do it, just select "transparent" in the backgrounds option in PS when you go to start a new image. I don't use anything else, so I can't tell you how to do using any other program.

And here's one I did just fooling around for a request.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Two more CM Punk signatures, one that I did for myself using an Obama-esk "hope" picture overlayed into a brick wall. I used an eraser set to 10% flow to blend it in and make it look old and battered. Thought it turned out well. The other is one I did on request and was hella fun to do! There's a simple comic book PS tutorial here that I just messed around with until I liked the effect. It even has the link to the font used.

 

[CMSawall]

Two more CM Punk signatures, one that I did for myself using an Obama-esk "hope" picture overlayed into a brick wall. I used an eraser set to 10% flow to blend it in and make it look old and battered. Thought it turned out well.

honestly I think this is the best sig done by you. its really great, an inspiration, I wanna try something like this.