.Core Extensive Critique

[Smeagle]

I know how hard it is to be new to graphics and need some more in-depth help. I will provide you guys with the best of my knowledge to help you further your skills. You can either ask for my help on a specific section of your sig, or you can ask me to review the entire thing for you. Just please post a maximum of 1 sig at a time so I dont get overstocked.

I will critique full sigs in these categories:

-Flow: The general direction the sig seems to be moving
-Color Scheme: How well the colors go together
-Focals: How well the focal of the sig blends or sticks out.
-Our Choices: Anything you can add/fix on the sig not stated in the above categories

[Lord Duckington]

okey dokey .Core! heres your first review



one made in GIMP



another in GIMP

thanks for the crtitcism

[sdrakulich]

what you think of this one i just made?

also, could you visit my thread, and rate all my sigs as a whole?

if i like your review (plz tell me your thoughts in a PM) ill put it into my thread, as well as a link to your review thread!

[xxAl Capwnagexx]

Well, here's my version of the stock I gave you

[Smeagle]

Lord Duckington:

#1-First things first, there isnt any flow whatsoever. So id suggest using the smudge tool to bring in the person towards the middle. As for color, its nice, but make the text a dark shade of the BG. Currently, it stands out too much as a non-focal. As for the actual focal, the person, he blends very well and you did a good job with that. To make the text more subtle, take your name and keep it the same size. Then place it towards the middle. Then, take the subtext, terrorize this, and place it in a default font such as Arial, directly below your name in about half the font size as the main text. This will give it a definition between, main text, and subtext.

#2-First off, there seems to be pretty good flow. Good job on that. For the stripes/effects. You need to erase whats over the render. To do this, go to the render layer, right click and select alpha to selection. Then go back to the stripes/effects layer and erase everything on the render layer. Then to unselct the render outline, go to Edit>Select all. Another thing, the stripes seem very pixely, a simple way to fix this is and give it definition is to run Filters>Cartoon>Oilify, with your specific settings. This tighens up all the pixels. Also, id suggest a different font, but that spersonal opinion.

sdrakulich:

#1-Colors seem to clash a little with the render. Try the lowering the contrast on the BG to match them a little more. The flow seems to be moving in the opposite direction of the render. Try just flipping your BG, that will work well enough. The one problem with the text seems to be that it contradicts with the barrel on the gun. Try lowering the contrast just like the BG to make less of a standout. And the border looks a little ugly. But thats my personal opinion.

[sdrakulich]

lol dont forget me!....oh ok ur writing it up right now!

EDIT: it was originally supposed to be insane54's, but he said he doesnt want it (lol i still gots + reps)!

[Juggernaut448]

Alright, what do you think about my current signature? That one I've been working on for a while.

[Smeagle]

xxAl Capwnagexx:

#1-For this sig, the only flow is towards the left. But the block on the left cuts off the flow. To fix that block, move it more overlapping the glasses' lens. Then do alpha to selection on the whites of the edge of the lens' and erase the block until its all gone over the glasses. The color of the glasses seems to be off, because its not bright and colorful, which it should be with such a wide array of colors. You can fix that by duplicating the BG, and setting it to overlay. The white "sparkles" in the bottom aren't very appealing. They look very generic. To increase their texture. First, make a new layer and cover that area with the sparks brush. Then go to Filters>Map>Displace and run it on default settings. Then go back to your "sparkles" layer and do a Displace using both x and y as the sparks layer. Then delete the sparks layer. For the text, move it a little above your "sparkles" to let it stand out a little more.

Juggernaut448:

#1-Looks like you finally perfected the color on the render. But if youre doing the pop-out sig. Make sure he is above the top border, and under the bottom one. To do this, do alpha selection on the border layer, and on the render layer, erase on the bottom border. This will leave it popping out at the top too. As for flow, there isnt any, there are just lines going in a general direction from side to side. To add flow, use a C4D behind the render layer that is going from bottom to top. Text is fine too.

[Lord Duckington]

thanks a lot for the critiquing, it helped a lot! just one question though.. how do i re-open a sig i was working on? like with all the layers and such?

[LOCKdownN]

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