The Last Poster Wins! [v23]

[Bulbasaur]

Good point. I gotta save mine.

[Neo Emolga]

Note to self: Creating a banner shop will mean you get MOBBED. XD

[Chakramaster]

Note to self: Creating a banner shop will mean you get MOBBED. XD

I’m sure you did once upon a time with the aftermath’s of PSG. Since winners get the freedom to request from you anytime. Maybe not as much now, but still....yes, I agree. XD

[Neo Emolga]

I’m sure you did once upon a time with the aftermath’s of PSG. Since winners get the freedom to request from you anytime. Maybe not as much now, but still....yes, I agree. XD

I've had them in the past and even when my banner-making skills were kind of shabby, people laid siege on them. XD

Funny how it all started many years ago when I was on Gamespot's forums and I saw people with signature banners and I thought they were awesome, but only exclusive members could have them. Not being an exclusive member, jealousy kicked in, but I didn't stick with those forums for long before just going over to the original Proboards PE2K forum. I realized people made them with Photoshop, and I was DETERMINED to get better at making them having a bit of familiarity with Photoshop myself.

Some people might say "oh, you're just throwing a bunch of renders together into one." Nah. That's like throwing a bunch of nails and planks of wood in a pile and calling that a house. A lot of it is knowing how to piece things together, blend things into one, having the right tools and knowing how to use them, and be willing to try new things in new environments. And sometimes tools you thought were useless before have other uses you might have never thought of...

...except "Dissolve." Lordy, after many years of working with Photoshop, I have yet to find a good way to use Dissolve for anything. XD All it does it make stuff look like pixelated splat. XD

[Chakramaster]

I've had them in the past and even when my banner-making skills were kind of shabby, people laid siege on them. XD

Funny how it all started many years ago when I was on Gamespot's forums and I saw people with signature banners and I thought they were awesome, but only exclusive members could have them. Not being an exclusive member, jealousy kicked in, but I didn't stick with those forums for long before just going over to the original Proboards PE2K forum. I realized people made them with Photoshop, and I was DETERMINED to get better at making them having a bit of familiarity with Photoshop myself.

Some people might say "oh, you're just throwing a bunch of renders together into one." Nah. That's like throwing a bunch of nails and planks of wood in a pile and calling that a house. A lot of it is knowing how to piece things together, blend things into one, having the right tools and knowing how to use them, and be willing to try new things in new environments. And sometimes tools you thought were useless before have other uses you might have never thought of...

...except "Dissolve." Lordy, after many years of working with Photoshop, I have yet to find a good way to use Dissolve for anything. XD All it does it make stuff look like pixelated splat. XD

Oooooh believe me. I felt the EXACT same way. Over on GT when I was getting use to that forum. I originally had only an avatar that I’d just pull from off google somewhere. It was blurry most of the time and odd. Then I saw all these awesome looking images below a users every post and wanted one myself. I felt jealous not having something awesome looking. Blogs were the same. They had additional banners to show off. I wanted part in each of these. One day I found a friend that offered to make me some. I still remember his username (HolyRoxas) xD. He was AWESOME! He made some avatars and blog banners for me from time to time. Over the years I made a few more friends that would often do it. Since I didn’t know how.

A friend then hooked me up with CS3. I tried it out. Over and over and over again. To no avail. I mean I improved very slightly, but it’s never been how I wanted to. Plus not having a “real” Photoshop kinda hurt more than anything...and GIMP was a detriment more than anything. Maybe one day I’ll have a real “working” Photoshop and be able to make a real attempt.

[Neo Emolga]

Oooooh believe me. I felt the EXACT same way. Over on GT when I was getting use to that forum. I originally had only an avatar that I’d just pull from off google somewhere. It was blurry most of the time and odd. Then I saw all these awesome looking images below a users every post and wanted one myself. I felt jealous not having something awesome looking. Blogs were the same. They had additional banners to show off. I wanted part in each of these. One day I found a friend that offered to make me some. I still remember his username (HolyRoxas) xD. He was AWESOME! He made some avatars and blog banners for me from time to time. Over the years I made a few more friends that would often do it. Since I didn’t know how.

A friend then hooked me up with CS3. I tried it out. Over and over and over again. To no avail. I mean I improved very slightly, but it’s never been how I wanted to. Plus not having a “real” Photoshop kinda hurt more than anything...and GIMP was a detriment more than anything. Maybe one day I’ll have a real “working” Photoshop and be able to make a real attempt.

Ooh, that's cool! Do you still have some of these on your hard drive or have they kind of been lost to the sands of time? I never tried GIMP (never needed to), but I have that funny feeling there would be a cold chill of disappointment if I did. As for improving, these things take time and very often I need to decide if I have the time and energy to try new things, or if I'm kind of short on time and if I should just stick to using what I know works as it always has.

My objective now is to get better at doing my own art and images, though this adds loads of extra time and there are always those days when I just can't crank out the art the way I want it to.

[Noblejanobii]

Yeah I can make a mean graphic, I've done it for politicians after all so I've got to have some skill with it, I just usually don't put a ton of effort into these things because I don't really want to. Especially now that I can draw stuff.

[Chakramaster]

Ooh, that's cool! Do you still have some of these on your hard drive or have they kind of been lost to the sands of time? I never tried GIMP (never needed to), but I have that funny feeling there would be a cold chill of disappointment if I did. As for improving, these things take time and very often I need to decide if I have the time and energy to try new things, or if I'm kind of short on time and if I should just stick to using what I know works as it always has.

My objective now is to get better at doing my own art and images, though this adds loads of extra time and there are always those days when I just can't crank out the art the way I want it to.

I think I do. At least I hope so. I know for sure some of them are on.....the ever lost Photobucket. The others were on the flash drive I threw away that I’m sure had viruses on it. Aaaaand an external HD I think. I hope I still do xD. I wish I could find all my Detective Conan wallpapers again too. Man I loved the fall season Conan and Kaito Kid (Phantom Thief Kid) one.

Yeah GIMP isn’t anything like Photoshop, yet sort of is. It’s just not as refined and doesn’t do it as well as Photoshop. I’d love to get a tutor or something for Photoshop one day. Also help kinda explain things to a point that makes it more understandable. Most I’ve tried reading are just bad at it and confuse me xD.

Yeah I’ve tried to draw things before. I showed it to Gemma once and....yeah it was still bad xD. It does take time though and tons of practice. You’re right about that. Though I feel a lot of my practice didn’t help or Fate much. Maybe cause I never showed it off or got feedback? I dunno.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah I can make a mean graphic, I've done it for politicians after all so I've got to have some skill with it, I just usually don't put a ton of effort into these things because I don't really want to. Especially now that I can draw stuff.

I remember when I worked for IFF, I did some graphics, but in my excitement, I made them too over the top. Simple, elegant, and to the point would have been the way to go, but instead I was doing all kinds of crazy things with reflective text and other crap that looking back, probably wasn't the best idea. Sometimes less is more.

I think I do. At least I hope so. I know for sure some of them are on.....the ever lost Photobucket. The others were on the flash drive I threw away that I’m sure had viruses on it. Aaaaand an external HD I think. I hope I still do xD. I wish I could find all my Detective Conan wallpapers again too. Man I loved the fall season Conan and Kaito Kid (Phantom Thief Kid) one.

Yeah GIMP isn’t anything like Photoshop, yet sort of is. It’s just not as refined and doesn’t do it as well as Photoshop. I’d love to get a tutor or something for Photoshop one day. Also help kinda explain things to a point that makes it more understandable. Most I’ve tried reading are just bad at it and confuse me xD.

Yeah I’ve tried to draw things before. I showed it to Gemma once and....yeah it was still bad xD. It does take time though and tons of practice. You’re right about that. Though I feel a lot of my practice didn’t help or Fate much. Maybe cause I never showed it off or got feedback? I dunno.

The big thing that I wasn't doing before was when I first starting drawing stuff with my tablet, I wasn't using reference pictures. USE reference pictures. No matter how much you remember how a character looks or how many times you've drawn them before. You'd be surprised at how many times I've gone "oh, Emolga's nose really isn't THAT close to his mouth, my bad" or "oh, the bottom of the eyes should be exactly level with his nose! Forgot about that!" If you don't do this, funky things happen and it never looks just right. Even if you're drawing an entirely new character, use an already existing one as a starting point and as a basis. Things like the size of the ears relative to the size of the head and length of the tail in proportion to the rest of the body all become clearer and more apparent. And for me, proportions were MURDER on me for the longest time. Using reference pictures helped with fixing that issue immensely.

[Noblejanobii]

I remember when I worked for IFF, I did some graphics, but in my excitement, I made them too over the top. Simple, elegant, and to the point would have been the way to go, but instead I was doing all kinds of crazy things with reflective text and other crap that looking back, probably wasn't the best idea. Sometimes less is more.

Oh yeah definitely. If you look at the graphics that I did for politicians, they're very very very simplistic. Just adding some text and maybe a hue change here or there. I did do a few very complex ones towards the end of my first internship this past summer, but they were very carefully monitored to ensure they weren't over the top.