Digital MK's Frequently Updated Sigbar Topic

:: Yo. ::

== ARCHIVE ==

Very first experiment. Four layers - Neru, background, lighting, text/border. Extremely basic and honestly my favorite.

Made in the same timeframe as the first sigbar, I discovered that sepia does exist and is indeed gorgeous.

SUDDENLY WE HAVE TF2. I messed up the drop-shadow text (and don't even know if that's what I wanted), but it's an experiment. I think I picked up how to make things look unfocused.

Seven layers - I did a full orange tint and remembered that layer transparency existed.

Ten layers. Not complicated at all, but I'm still proud, I guess.

A guy on the Runouw forums told me to do this - I'll still work on it.

Another request on the Runouw forums, I messed with gradients, smudging and a whole lotta other things.

Halloweeeeeen.

The Starbound forums don't like the dimensions of my sigbars, so I shortened the height then completely remade the Musunde Hiraite one. I don't like it though, maybe because there's not much to look at.
Mental note: defined edges making something interesting.

Dobble diguts. Anyways, this took like fifteen minutes of work so yeah.

I think this is the first sigbar I've ever done without a render. Good enough.

Bleh. At least I found out messing with the layering options gives you some wonderful effects.

My most detailed signature thus far. That border looks a little wonky :\

I'm not used to working in such a small space, so this came out unrefined, but meap.

Warming up again.

I'm not creative right now, so this is kinda boring and sucky. Sorry, Ran :<

First one is original one, but I got a bit of feedback.

I really don't like how this turned out.

:: Feedback would be wonderful! ::

 

THIS IS A VERY FREQUENT UPDATE.



Ten-layer experiment with lighting and drop shadows.

 

So I see somebody's trying to get into signature making...

Do you want the short critique or the roughly-sixteen-paragraphs-long-and-could-serve-as-its-own-oral-report critique? Hint: The second one is better.

 

keeping in mind this is an experiment into sigbar making sure

 

Well, let me ask you this first then; do you enjoy it, do you want to continue doing it, and do you want to learn more?

 

Yes, yes, yes.

 

Then let me begin...
AFTER SCHOOL SHIT'S GONNA TAKE FOREVER YO

 

Now, for the sake of convenience and not having to do this for a third time, I’m going to assume you know all of the basic terminology that comes with making a signature, such as “render” and “blending modes” and such. If you don’t, please do ask.
Barring that however, I hope you find this massive wall of text to be somewhat informative and interesting to read. Of course, if you have any questions, ask away; I will teach anybody who is willing to learn. Knowledge is meant to be shared, and share it I shall.
Let’s dive in, shall we?

The render is the focal point of the entire signature; you want your background to reflect that. Look at your signature objectively (or ask a friend) and see what the first thing you look at is. If it isn’t your render, then you need to make it so.

Now, I couldn’t help but notice that you seem to like recycling the same effects multiple times, and this is generally frowned upon. Dependency on one effect to complete the signature does you no good and it becomes very apparent for anybody who examines your work. It’s apparent that you used the same effect on the background for signatures 1, 2, and 6 and that’s not something you want to do. Try to add variety; experiment a bit and you’ll find a lot of cool effects.

I hate to be “that guy”, but to be perfectly honest what you are doing isn’t lighting. There’s a big difference between “making something brighter” and “adding lighting”. Lighting is essentially choosing where the light enters the signature from. It is not a good idea to have more than one light source, as that doesn’t make much sense and is kind of confusing. What you’re doing is adding white; there is a HUGE difference between the two.
This is lighting:


This is adding white:


There’s a big difference, and you need to make sure that if you add lighting it’s actually lighting and not just splotches of white.

Lighting is pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but getting the hang of it can be difficult. Can’t offer much advice either since it’s kind of subjective how you want to do it, so just mess around and see if you can find something you like. Just keep what I said above in mind.

You have potential, but you have a lot of work to do. Work hard, be vigilant, and don’t be afraid to experiment. I don’t know how many times me messing around resulted in a fantastic signature.
Also, you don’t have to mention how many layers there are; some of my best signatures never have more than 10, but some have 20+. The number of layers doesn’t matter; what you do with them does.
Lastly, if I were to give any true recommendation, it would be to get Photoshop. It’s not required by any stretch of the imagination, but it REALLY helps and is an awesome program in general.

This was originally supposed to be longer, but I found that I was losing track of what I wanted to convey to you so I trimmed a ton of the fat off and left just the core information. Hopefully you learn something from it.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'm gonna look into how to do lighting since it seems like a really good thing to do.

Also, is Photoshop Elements fine? My laptop came bundled with it and I really don't want to fork out for CS5 :\

(p.s. I made this for a guy on the Runouw forums, I messed about with some stuff)

 

Getting into the Halloween spirit, here's something I whipped up on a whim out of boredom and Paint.NET.

 

Since the Starbound forums are extremely strict with signature sizes (but apparently flexible on avatars), I remade my Musunde Hiraite sigbar so it would fit into my signature.

The text got pushed off.

Ah, well.

 

Why, hello there. I took a break for ages because something so then I tried to get back into the swing by making these two half-assed things.




Second one's for some dude on the forums I go on.

I need feedback.

 

>Post sigbar twelve.
You post signature twelve - a result of your messing with the layering options. You begin to feel a twinge of loneliness, as you are the only one posting in the topic apart from Cory's guide.

 

Screw unlucky number 13, this is practically my most detailed signature thus far. I learnt two things - how to make rays of light, and outline detection is awesome when stuff is scattered.

 

Hello there :> I just wanted to take a look at this thread! Actually you asked me to take a look at it, but who cares :>
If it wouldn't be too troublesome for you, could you make a signature for me as well? I really like your last one, and you can never have enough sigs :>
If you are able to take requests, just let me know and I will give you reference pictures, the text I want and very much praise :>

 

Sure, I take requests! It's really lonely here so yeah

also, Sakaki, I finished your signature.

 

I must stress this is NOT a sigbar, and just a test of exporting animated files in Paint.NET. I've concluded I need APNGs instead.

also I learnt how to make something pure black/white yay

 

So I decided to warm up on the signature bar making. Meap.

 

These are really awesome. What's paint .net?

 

Thanks! Paint.NET is kind of along the lines of Photoshop or GIMP, but relies heavily on tools instead of brushes for things like signature bars. It's not too hard to get into, but not easy either.