' Wrote:This is my first signature for myself =D Critique?

' Wrote:It is not your expected size (because it is too big for in my opinion), but I think this is my proposal:

' Wrote:Meh, I had some fun atleast:)

• The border. The border is defnitily a strong point. It would appear that you've either generated it for each and every one of your sigs of this sort or you have an image with the border already there that you keep using over and over... (right?) But either way it looks AWESOME
  
• The action is all moving toward the Center
  
• There's atleast somewhat of a color scheme. Like I said before Its hard especially with what is probably one of the more ugly ships in the game but it is doable.
  
• The Photo treatment on the FireFly is good, it makes it look more shiny (you did do something to the firefly right?) and somewhat less ugly.
  

• Empty space. You did make it exactly the size I wanted which is good but its still empty is some places.
  
• The Background isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said Space. Its closer but it seems to me that you just went and googled nebula and that pic came up, maybe you did a little with the color but apart from that you just stuck it on the background.
  
• The Text doesn't flow very well with the rest of the sig. Its... well, Wrong... I'm not entirely sure what it is... The font doesn't really fit in too well. Maybe its the drop shadow or bevel on the name or the fuzzy effect on the subtext too.
  
• The guy has been cut out a bit choppily in some places mainly the hand by the glasses. And his head seems to just cut off after the border rather than under the border.
  

• Try as much as you can to Blend everything into one masterpiece. The main Idea behind a signature (or so i've been "taught") is that every element is supposed to act together to form a single graphic. Blending is the main word. Everything, the text, the colors, the border even needs to work together.
  
• Try experimenting with layer blending styles... Mainly on text, you don't want to add too much shinyness to text but you don't want it to fade from existance.
  
• Try finding some good space stock and generating your own space backgrounds for sigs. If you already do this then great! But I'd suggest using stock on DeviantArt.com.
  
• Try to use multiple pieces to generate a background-foreground effect that can easily blend it all together. Like you have the background and then you put another nebula on the top of the renders set to either lighten or Linear Dodge (depending on what looks best) this impacts the renders and helps with the color scheme stuff. I'll probably put up a tutorial later.
  
• Try to avoid having to generate engine trails, my favorite trick is just having the back end of the ship off the edge to the sig... Makes it looks a little less like you're trying to make up for something that isn't there.
  

' Wrote:The black background was tricky. After some experimenting, this is how i did it.

First I found this image -



I then contrasted it black, and cut out various parts and lines so it was in pieces.
I this set this as layer 1 and copied a second layer and reversed it

To get this -



I this cut out this out of the Hitman poster and greyed it.

To get this - (poster)


After some developed layering and positioning, I finally got this -


The end. 1 hour. =D (plz don't use it for other sigs without asking me - thanks)

' Wrote:I don't know about you Calego, but I am doing the sig, the size of the forum space - it's way too big otherwise, the resolution will suck. (My signature size)

' Wrote:I just wanted to say thanks dude for your effort. Nice that you spend your time with giving such detailed advice.:)

' Wrote:Here is my attempt.. err -attempt-

• The use of the funky shapes. That is cool, very cool. Especially behind the sillhouette of the Firefly, that whole logo thing is cool.
  
• You experimented a bit with the border, could use a bit of work but it is different from your previous ones.
  
• You have a theme, dark...
  
• The line under the name-text. That has a good effect on it, it doesn't stand out too much and it down't receed too much.
  

• The phototreatment on the firefly does a bit too much. I presume you took the layer and duplicated it and set it to multiply? If so try lowering the opacity on such layers, most often in only takes a little bit (like 25-35) to give the effect you want. But this is too dark...
  
• The Background isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said Space. Hmmmm.... I think I'll make a tutorial on space backgrounds.
  
• To me the text is a little plain. It looks like arial bolded.
  
• The guy is a bit too dark as well.
  

• You've gotten the concept of blending down, no need to repeat myself on that again.
  
• Try experimenting with layer blending styles... Mainly on text, you don't want to add too much shinyness to text but you don't want it to fade from existence. Also on the border, you can do all sorts of cool stuff with blending effects on the border.
  
• Try finding some good space stock and then generate your own space backgrounds for sigs. If you already do this then great! But I'd suggest using stock on DeviantArt.com. I'll probably post a tutorial later/soonish about how I make mine.
  
• Try to use multiple pieces to generate a background-foreground effect that can easily blend it all together. Like you have the background and then you put another nebula on the top of the renders set to either lighten or Linear Dodge (depending on what looks best) this impacts the renders and helps with the color scheme stuff. I'll probably put up a tutorial later.
  
• The main attractions of the Signature are the Text and the Renders. The text you can mess around with all you want, color, border, etc... The renders, not so much. Its best to leave them close to what they were when you plastered them on, maybe a bit of increased contrast, resizing is ok but otherwise leave it be. You may have to generate some lighting effects but don't over do it. The background should be made to fit the renders rather than the other way around. If you go for making the background a somewhat independent part of the sig then this isn't much of a worry (as in, you aren't worried about making the ship seem like its flying around in the background) but otherwise in order to preserve the flow you should have it similar. I've found that blue is a good all around color. it matches well with the metallic colors on most ships and looks cool on its own.