' Wrote:I meant more about the backgrounds and getting the ships to look more realistic.
Ah, sorry.
Well, the backgrounds mostly come either from deviantArt or foundation3d - and a few other websites I get via google search. I usually refine them a bit, so they look more like a specific place in Freelancer Discovery.
The background for the BPA one for example was more orange in original, but I dyed it in bordeaux in order to make it look like Cambridge (via Hue/Saturation). Also, I generally slap some level filter or something similar over the image. Another important point is resharpening after resizing.
The ships are (except the Firefly) actually from ingame screens I made. I cut them out with the mask function, then apply the Unsharpen Mask filter in order to get some more depth (and resharpen them after resizing as well).
What helps a lot when making it look more realistic simply is the light. You need to place the ship in your screen in exactly the same ratio to the sunlight as you want to place it in your sig. That is, if your ship should be bright at the left front, because it's flying towards the sun from the right, you need to place it that way in the screen.
If you have a certain ship render you'll use, you'll need to change the background according to the ship, of course.
In order to enhance the impression, I use the burn/dodge tools to create shadows where there should be shadows and bright areas where there should be bright areas.
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Mephistoles
Hmmm, would anyone be willing to take a crack at making a sig for me? An Order one.
Need's a Recon Destroyer on one side, with the name "Horus", and possibly the name "Seena Kerii" or just "Seena", I dunno. And on the other side, an Order Gunboat, name "Pharosa". Possibly the name "Tenai", again, not sure if it will look good. Render's are obviously from the new mod, so it may be difficult, I'll do my best to get you some render's if you need them... posting here becuase not too many people check here:P