SRL Archive - Graphics and Multimedia

So i know quite a lot of you are good at photo shop round here and i was woundering how you learnt as i have never done much in it but want to start.

Short and simple, thanks for any help :)

P.s. i want to make sig's mainly and i have never really used it before, thanks :)

go to youtube and type in "you suck at photoshop" there are 20 episodes each really helpful. theyre also made by dane cook so its fkn halarious. that was my best photoshop experience. just to make sure the channel is right its : mydamnchannel

I just google'd "Signature tutorial" :p

Tutorials, tutorials, tutorials. And just trial/error.

Tutorial after tutorial and experimenting with everything.

I prefer reading tutorials rather than videos. Because videos are too slow and when you read you can stop and do whatever, whenever you want. Although, I'm not very good yet.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/

and

http://www.delta-visions.net/forums/index.php

Good luck. :D

mostly messing around… Honestly, black canvas, test the tools :)

Cool thanks guys :)

And Mr. Doctor you are good i love your sig :)
So just videos/tutorials or muck about all seem good, there is loads of great art on here :)

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this.. but tutorials. That is the place to be and what to do. Mostly messing around. Google is great, < http://planetrenders.net/ > is a great place to start out for png renders, < http://www.deviantart.com/ > is a great place to get ideas and look an cool different styles.

You might be able to learn a little from :
http://villavu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52163
http://villavu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41414
http://villavu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58658
http://villavu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41399

I think the easiest ways to begin are via:

> Tutorials[video, read]
> Trial/Error
> Enjoying it!

Obviously, you need a source to learn from[tut's], practice[trial/error], and enjoyment[imho] because I don't know about you, but if I am not enjoying what I am doing, I end up giving at one point.

Well its not that good but i have made a sig, its the first thing i have EVER made in photoshop and it looks bad :( So how can i do better? thanks


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

P.S. its anime because thats the first image i found where looking for one lol

Thats actually not that bad, are you using bevel and emboss with high size? Seems so. What other blending options do you use?

I suggest adding some effects to another copy of that layer and playing with blending modes.

Not bad at all! Admittedly better than my first one!!

GJ - yea, try adding more layers and playing with a few different effects.

Two of my favorite filters are spatter and distort.

First I use my smudge tool and duplicate the layer I want to spatter. Take the duplicate and put it behind the original layer. I smudge from the inside (like from the center of the torso) to the outside of the body so it creates sort of an aura around the original layer. Then, I would either blur it a little or just spatter right away. The spatter is under filter > brush strokes > spatter. Make sure you adjust the levels accordingly so you will have a noticeable filter without the pixels becoming messed up (they become blue, yellow, or red if you spatter too much)

Here's an example.
(You can see some pixels being different colors on the Link to the way left)

Your text placement is way better than mine. Nice job :D

Another filter I like is distort, but you'll have to play with it to get what you want because sometimes it gives some unwanted results. Use a .PSD with many effects to get the best distortion.

Here's the beginning of a signature. Just a white brush stroke and a Ferrari render.


Note that make sure your the .PSD you're choosing for distort is doesn't have any faces or guns or w/e. Just mainly effects. Because I used the .PSD from my RE5 signature, you can Chris' shotgun and part of Claire's face. So I switched to something else.

Now after fiddling around with spatter, distort (and a large ripple for the ferrari) I got this. Just more brush strokes, added and beveled the Ferrari logo, I got this.

(Not the greatest but meh, it works for what we're talking about)
The distort makes a decent background, and spatter adds some… uhhh… toppings on the pizza I could say.
I also use more techniques other than this, other cools things to look into are C4Ds (3D-ish images (if you look at My Chun-Li signature, the flower looking thing behind her is a C4D)), gradient maps, more filters, and some tutorials on effects like making something look glossy and such. Though, I don't really have much time to look at tutorials. I try to do something when I can and learn as I go on.

Good luck.

Wow thanks for all the help guys :) So ill try and change some more on it after school and play with some more layers/fliters/blurs, thanks !

I made a tutorial once on how to make a simple signature.. I could re-do it if you'd want :)

From: Zyt3x
I made a tutorial once on how to make a simple signature.. I could re-do it if you'd want :)

Id love it if you could :) Please

I got my start with photoshop when learning to mod Halo 2, I learned how to use photoshop to skin maps and vehicles.