My first!

Well, I downloaded GIMP a few days back, and I messed around with it, watched some videos on YouTube and I came up with this.

Spoiler:

It's my first so don't be too hard on me (:

This is my second. I know it doesn't compare to you guys, but I'm quite happy with it.

Spoiler:

« Last edited by Pravinj on Apr 22nd 2012 »

for a first signature that is a good start. try focusing on placing some effects in front of the focal to create depth. a lot of tutorials on depth are a good start.

some simple ways of creating depth in a sig are, like I said, putting effects in front of the focal. also be familiar with the sharpen and blur tool, usually the rule is blur objects far away and sharpen those closest.

but thats just a bit of advice, keep on what you're doing and just keep experimenting. try not to follow too many tutorials for your sigs, even though they are a great help for beginners they can sometimes kill your own creative flare. I usually quit the tutorial halfway through once Ive gotten the hang of techniques I wanted to use and just start applying my own.

like I said good start, keep it up

Thanks, I'm gonna try a lot of things once I finish my exams. Thanks for you help dudette (:

Good starts. Download a a few brushes to help with basic background creation for now, and then later clip masks. Do tuts like ozzo said, but try to look for educational ones, that basically can apply to all tags, and feel free to take liberties and do your own thing with them, especially when you get good enough to to do PS tuts in GIMP :D

Main thing to learn now, use actiony focals, static ones may prove a tad hard at the moment.

By actiony I mean this,



You want that movement, as it helps beginner tags look a better, and help you establish flow, or where the focal is going. Stay away from Zabuza's, like the one in the current, as he is too static and too low quality. Always work with high quality stocks at first, and even later on

Thanks Crai, by brushes do you mean grunge brushes or brushes with shapes and colours?

And another thing, what do you mean be flow?

« Last edited by Pravinj on Apr 25th 2012 »

Brushes can be any set design that you can brush on to an image - be it grungy, splatter brushes, regular shapes, or whatever.
Gimp Brushes
Photoshop Brushes

Flow is the... way effects run with an image. For example, in that action-y image that Crai posted, of the ninja thing, you would probably have flow in which the effects are kind of... popping out at you. The ninja looks as if he's jumping towards you, so you'd have effects that emphasise that action - that flow with it.
Flow can also be used in a way to... lead a person's eyes. If you have a flow that goes from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner, a person will follow along with that line. So, use that with order of importance, sort of.
Static images, like the one you used in this sig, are harder to create flow with, because they're static. So, use action-y images - where the focal is doing some type of action, be it jumping, running, punching, or whatever. You can use flow to emphasise the focal's action.

To simplify, flow is like the aerodynamics of the tag.

Study your render and the effects and make them sync so the tag has direction.

Oh, I get it, thanks guys, my exams are almost finished, tomorrow I'm gonna do some subbing here, and the I'm going to try to make a better tag. Anything else I should know about?

You'll probably learn the most from trial and error. Focus less on what others think is good and trust your artistic intuition. You'll start out rough, probably, but as you develop your own style your artistic eye will develop more and more on its own.

That's exactly what I was thinking too, thanks guys for all your help, now to get to work.

Well, I tried again with a static position, just to pass the time, and here's what I came up with,

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And another

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« Last edited by Pravinj on May 19th 2012 »