The Sig Critique Topic

[lordunicorn3]

Not bad for 5-10 minutes. Not really much to say, it looks good.

Heres the other stooph I said I would post

My personal favorites are the first and last.

 

[E123Omega]

OMG, how did you develop the effects surrounding the render in the first sig? I'd love to learn that!

 

[lordunicorn3]

I think its just an overlay c4d with layer mask taking out the bit over the render
it is an epic c4d combo thing i randomly had on my cpu
ill see if i can find it again

 

[Exceladon City]

It's amazing what you stumble across out of boredom. I should post some sigs in here. I have been looking for some kind of critique from more experienced and proficient graphic artists.

I think I'll post my favorite/best one and maybe you guys could critique my current sig too.

 

[Neon Ness]

I bet a lot of people find this place because of boredom. Welcome to the Sig Shoppe.

I've been wanting to do another Pokemon sig for the longest time, so kudos for the idea. I like your colors, an analogous scheme works well in a lot of instances, and I think it's a relatively easy scheme to grasp.

Something to be careful with when you're using text is having two different focals. They're in opposite corners and different fonts as well. This draws our attention in 2 separate directions which can be confusing/unappealing. I would say, for now, choose one area you want to have the text in and probably make it smaller so Haunter's the main focus. I'm also thinking the color of the text should stand out more, maybe something that will contrast magenta/violet. Simple fonts are sometimes best. The :093: is really blocky and slanted, and the dripping blood look of "Haunter" is kind of over the top. I recommend something a little plainer like Futura/Helvetica to start off with.

I'm not a fan of borders, but that could just be me. To me it's just taking up space that would be better used filled with graphic effects. Then again I have seen nicely done borders, so I dunno. I don't really like how Haunter's cut off at the top and bottom, but I think you can make it work. It's a good start, it just needs... more. More stuff to emphasize Haunter as the focal. This can be done a number of ways, draining the color from the areas farthest from Haunter, blurring certain areas to create depth, etc. I want to see more elaborate things done with the background and foreground.

I would highly recommend browsing the sigs in this thread for inspiration on making high level sigs. Just study some of them and try to figure out which ones you like, and what makes them good. http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=175790 Hope you'll repost after some edits, looking forward to it.

 

[lordunicorn3]

Neon summed that up quite well, but I'll add a few more points.

Text. This is one of the hardest things to do correct in a sig. It needs to be readable, not take away from the focal, but also has to be small.
Like neon said, keep it to one set of text, its much simpler. (You can have multiple lines, but keep them the same font and close to each other).

The most important thing to do is practice, practice, and look at people who are good. The thread neon posted, and this thread, or really any thread on GSA (global sig alliance) or any of the huge multitude of gfx sites there are out there.
http://www.globalsigalliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31328
and keep posting your stuff here keeps it active.

 

[\/aarsivius]

Here is my siggy. It's pretty crap, but that's all I could do at 10:30 pm with Microsoft Paint.

 

[Evoke]

It's amazing what you stumble across out of boredom. I should post some sigs in here. I have been looking for some kind of critique from more experienced and proficient graphic artists.

I think I'll post my favorite/best one and maybe you guys could critique my current sig too.

Borders are rubbish, imo. They're a bit awkward.
Fonts are too big, and they distract. The font fits, but its not the greatest choice of font ever.
The mono color is good, but there's absolutely NO contrast.
uhm yeah, can't think of anything else

Not a sig, but I want critique anyways, since it's technically large art:
http://yourimg.in/f/kl5h2u.png

And my Okami sig is my latest. Not my best though.

 

[Neon Ness]

@ Vaarsivius: Hey, people have done incredible things in MS Paint lol. I dunno though, there's not much to it--the cutting is not very good, the background is plain, there's white residue around the words which are overly large. Not quite sure what you were going for but keep trying.

@ Evoke: We have another crit thread on the main page of the Artwork Emporium for nonsigs, you can post it there if you like.

Love the Okami sig, nice complementary colors you got going there. Text is placed very well. The only thing that bothers me is those turquoise splotches near Amaterasu's chest. I feel like they should fit because of the color scheme but it looks out of place for some reason. Maybe it's too blue, or too saturated or something. I dunno if that color appears anywhere else in the sig so it's kind of an anomaly.

It's good work on the whole though.

 

[Evoke]

Thanks. I just noticed the oddly blue splotches, I wonder why they're blue... I thought I left them a different color. Whatever, I'm working on an abstract.

 

[E123Omega]

How did you go about making the background Evoke?


Here's one I made today for a friend:

Pretty crappy I know, but he likes it. I just didn't know what to do with it.

 

[Evoke]

Oh, I grabbed a texture (which, if you're asking, I have no idea where I got it :/ it was in my stocks folder) and then duplicated it a bit to get rid of the ugly parts.

 

[Neon Ness]

Just a reminder, sigs off in this topic unless you specifically want it reviewed.

@ E123Omega: Duplicating the render doesn't work out so well in this case, it's basically needless repitition. I would throw in a few more hints of color since it's mostly just grayscale, red, and pinks drawn from the same red. I actually like the circular slash effect around him, maybe something that could be replicated elsewhere in the sig.

I dunno about Outer Glow on text, especially with that odd yellow you have there. The glow just makes it harder to read for me. If you want the text to stand out, I think there are better ways like orientation, contrasting color, font style etc.

-Sovereignali

-Sovereignali

Look at how the words stand out in these tags, because of different angles of orientation and matching color choices. They just blend in with everything else.

@ borders. To each his own though I guess. I also hate that feeling of not knowing what to do with a tag /;

 

[SuSa]

Did I just see a mod censor dodge using an image?

 

[Evoke]

Adding on to what Neon Ness said, the depth is very shallow. It's a border, render, and effect. The outer glow on the text sort of distracts from the focal, too. Also, odd color, considering most of your tag is red...
No me gusta el border.
However, the effect on the background is neat. Distort > wave or something, it looks like.

 

[Shök]

Lovin' the first sig from Sovereignali.

 

[Evil-Guy]

Here is my 2010 tagwall:

Spoiler

 

[Evoke]

That's pretty awesome, though they're all pretty much the same color palette lol
Where do you get those 3d renders?

 

[Neon Ness]

Sigs off in this thread please unless you want them reviewed, it really helps keep things organized and uncluttered.

But yeah, they all do have that similar stylization with the lighting and contrast througout. I think I actually prefer the sprite tags more though, it's incredible how you still make the lighting/depth work. That's definitely something I've been wanting to learn how to do properly.

I don't even think I've made enough sigs in the past year to make a tag wall lol. I commend your diligence.

 

[doom dragon 105]

The tag wall looks phenomenal. However alot of the tags are the same tone so its a bit difficult to differentiate everything.

Old tag I made that I re-did a little

EDIT

How do you make those 3D sig's like the ones showed in the tag wall. They look so spectacular. I would die to make them or learn how to.

 

[E123Omega]

Cote de Pablo <3

 

[Evoke]

The tag wall looks phenomenal. However alot of the tags are the same tone so its a bit difficult to differentiate everything.

Old tag I made that I re-did a little

EDIT

How do you make those 3D sig's like the ones showed in the tag wall. They look so spectacular. I would die to make them or learn how to.

Get a few good C4Ds (I get them from render packs via FFX, PR and stuff), find some 3D renders of spaceships, make them yourself, and put them on with everything else. A bit vague, but that's how I do them.

 

[Shök]

Good stuff, guys. I would love to see this thread alive again.

 

[Evoke]

C4D, one bubble render tripled up, lots of lighting effects, some brushing, curtains.

 

[E123Omega]

As nice as it looks, I'd be lying if I told you I knew what the hell was going on.

 

[lordunicorn3]

Pretty much what omega said, it looks quite good.
green spots are a bit too pronounced for me though.

something I was working on, not quite sure where to go :/

 

[Neon Ness]

@Evoke: As nice as all of the effects are (they're really nice), it looks cramped. Some of the machinery(?) looks stretched/skewed somehow. You might need a little bit more negative space so that the fx don't look squashed.

I see no issues with color or lighting. It just needs a little more elbow room.

@lordunicorn3: What kind of end result are you going for? I've seen people do amazing sigs with just smudging. In that case, use some different brushes to smudge a little more and probably move on to working out the colors.

If you want more visual variety though, try out using the pen tool/C4Ds or something to create more dimensional visuals.

It's really good so far. That bright spot in the left-middle is a good example of something that looks a little different from the smudges and adds visual variety. Adding some more colors in might be good for a more fleshed analogous scheme, something like a subtle cyan or indigo. Maybe a little red orange for contrast.

 

[Evoke]

I'm working on a smudged tag right now.

Here's the very best one I have so far:

E: I found a really cool trick while doing fractal effects.
If you take a fractal, and find a small part of it you like, isolate it with the eraser (roughly) and then, load selection. Go to modify > contract, and do any number of pixels you like. I did 6 for the one I made.
Anyhow, you get this really thin section of the fractal that's really nice. It's absurdly similar to Naito's tags.

The small effects around the pearls. It looks a bit like that, but not quite. :/

 

[E123Omega]

I'm working on a smudged tag right now.

Here's the very best one I have so far:

Did you smudge one side then mirror it? Cause that's just brilliant

 

[Evoke]

Yeah, it's also a smudged tag (er, I took a tag I had and smudged it around) and lots of displacement effects.

E:

Here's what I have. :/

 

[Rooktionary]

i just made this for V3ctorman. What do you think? Im kinda new at this..

 

[Neon Ness]

For future reference

I would prefer if you commented on others' sigs before asking for people to review yours.

Also, turn your sig off in this thread unless it's the one you want reviewed.

Something to remember about text, (often, but not always) the simpler fonts are better. It's easier to read and gets the message across clearly. The words there are not only rainbow colored but have those elaborate curves and serifs Something like Futura or Helvetica is nice to start off with if you're not quite sure what fonts look great.

Design wise I think the words could've been smaller and all in the same area, instead of having a huge word at the top and huge words at the bottom. Probably somewhere near the bottom left/right corner so they don't get in the way of Yoshi. You never want your text and imagery to clash or compete for space, as things end up looking cluttered.

Since the background already has some green in it you might want the "A Yoshi Combo Video by V3ctorman" to stand out by being a different color--maybe something that contrasts green like a red or magenta.

Actually the picture of Yoshi with the eggs following him is nice there, he looks sorta... squished though. The background looks pixelated, something more high-res would probably look nicer.

 

[Rooktionary]

Oh yeah.. sorry bout that. Next time Ill make sure to do that. I appreciate the advice though.

 

[Evoke]

Smaller text usually works. Personally I like Helvetica Neue at 10-12px.
To be honest, it looks like the whole tag is squished, kind of awkward. If you do ctrl t (transform) then hold shift it retains the aspect ratio. It does that for pretty much anything (like the selection tool, which makes it a square, or the line tool, which makes it in increments of 45 degrees)
If you want a banner, then you should focus more on the text, since that's what people read. The font is a bit off, has that GIF halo thing around it. :/

 

[CR4CK3RWOLF]

i just made this for V3ctorman. What do you think? Im kinda new at this..

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r16/davismue/EggstinctionSig4-1.jpg

did you try to shrink it or something? the yoshi as well as most of the text seems squashed a bit.. next time, try to keep within the restraints of the size of the sig instead of just stretching and shrinking it so that it will fit.

i do like the idea and theme behind it though, fits yoshi very well, keep at it!

as for myself, i made a signature for FGCU Viper here on smashboards.

it was originally requested from a friend of mine, but he felt i could do a better job.

here is the original sig that he sent me to get an idea of what he wanted:

*Censored as per request of a Mod:

here is the version i made:

the background image had a shutterstock watermark on it, but he wanted me to use it anyway and try to clean it up as best i could. i didnt want to photoshop the watermark out so i just applied some filters and hid it behind the text, you guys probably wouldnt have noticed if i hadnt said anything! xD

 

[Neon Ness]

Actually, sorry but I had to edit those out because the crew name is technically a censor dodge. :|

 

[CR4CK3RWOLF]

Actually, sorry but I had to edit those out because the crew name is technically a censor dodge. :|

oh im sorry, do you want me to throw a censor on those for you?

i could just put them as links if thats ok..

its his signature, not mine XD

EDIT: there ya go, i censored them. it kinda messes up the image a bit, but i couldnt think of anything to replace the text with.. >.>

 

[ChaosKnight]

Actually, sorry but I had to edit those out because the crew name is technically a censor dodge. :|

VVV

 

[Neon Ness]

I don't know even know what you were trying to get at with that post...

Signatures should be turned off unless you want it reviewed though.

 

[t3h Icy]

As per requested by Neon Ness.