Undr's Graphical Art and Older Crap!

[Undrdog]

I've been trying to teach myself photoshop. and I've been taking requests from friends and whatnot, and I figured I'd post them and see what you all think I should do to either improve on them or if you know of any cool effects I could use.

This is a friends request.

these two I did awhile back in MSPaint

editing my current banner

my latest

well... its a start anyways.

 

[Jamo]

Impressive work man. Alot better then some new Photoshoppers I know. Here's a really easy photoshop tip that many like to use for BG's.

#1. Open a new document with a size of 500x500, or whatever size you want.
[size=-2]Note: Make sure your colors or set to default, by pressing D.[/size]
#2. Apply a Filter>Render>Clouds.

#3. Apply a Filter>Pixelate>Mezzotint with the type: Long Strokes.

#4. Apply a Filter>Blur>Radial Blur with the following settings:

Ammount: 65
Blur Method: Zoom
Quality: Best

#5. Create a new layer above the current one, and fill it with any color you want.

#6. Set the blending mode of the layer to Color.
[size=-2]Note: This looks alot better with more white then dark, so if it looks like there is too much black, just select the bottom layer and hit Control+I to invert the black and white colors.[/size]

And there you go.

Now add a some other stuff, or crop it for a sig pic, and it looks awesome.

Hope this helps.

 

[Undrdog]

...wow... Thanks... thats amazing.

Edit: I just figured out I have an old version of photoshop... going to get a newer version i guess...

 

[azn_danny]

hey im kind of a noob with photoshop, can u tell me exactly how u would add color to it? thx.

 

[Undrdog]

I got Adobe Photoshop 7 now. and it rocks. thanks Jamo! if you have any more tips you would like to share... >_> LoL.

 

[Undrdog]

more attempts
learning borders and the different effects of APS.

yeah, not that good, but I'm getting there I suppose. anyway thanks for the advise!

 

[Undrdog]

w00t for the magic wand. anyway, my very first serious sig! yay, and I think its pretty good too.

 

[Bedi Vegeta]

Good stuffs...try mucking around with all the filters, especially the edge ones (find edges, glowing edges, accented edges)...and always remember; the key to a good banner is lots and lots of layers...just keep piling them on and experimenting with different blending modes, and try adding borders, even if they're just little ones like mine...I cannot stand sigs that don't have borders....

azn_danny...I don't quite know what you mean, but...if you want to change the colour of a layer, press ctrl+u to open the hue/saturation box, and then check colorize...or you could make a new layer, fill it with whatever colour you choose using the paint bucket tool (G) and the colour toolbox, and then change the layer's blending mode to colour.

EDIT: Oh yeah...I forgot about tutorials...they really helped me when I first started...here's a bunch of sites:

(some of these may not work, they're from a long time ago)

www.shadowness.com
www.voidix.com
www.phong.com
www.absolutecross.com
www.thewebmachine.com

 

[Undrdog]

thanks for the input FDV, I'm still just expirimenting but I'll take what you said and put it into my next attempt. the ice text was hard to figure out and then I found a tutorial on how to do it better. oh well, at least I figured some of it out on my own.

 

[Undrdog]

another new one. I'm loving the Ice effects. but i do hava a question. I wanted to import this jpg into Flash and then make it into an animated gif with a Mr.Freezie going back and forth under the work Ice Climbers. its easy enough to do, but fo rthe life of me I cant get it to impor the picture of the freezie without the surronding white background. my only attempt ended with a square image with a freezie in the middle going back and forth. anyone know how to fix this?

 

[Undrdog]

uhh... I need help. something is screwed up with photoshop! maybe I did something weird, but my font size has been getting smaller and smaller as I use the program. now 72pt font = 6pt! whats going on and how can I fix this? even if you dont know, please post. let me know that you have read it so that i can determine to give up hope... kinda funny, yet sad.


should look like this looks like this...

 

[DoH]

good-tutorials.com is awesome for photoshop tutorials

 

[Jamo]

When you create a new document, make sure your resolution for the document is set at 72.

 

[Undrdog]

thanks alot you guys, I got it working. the Res was changed because a game I had played decided not to revert the res back after I was done and I didnt notice it.

 

[Prof. X]

why didnt you make me a sig like that the ones you making now?

 

[Undrdog]

you do realize that you could've asked me when you where here... =_= anyway I wasnt that good with photoshop then. nor am I now.

anyway I got some questions real quick mainly for Jamo cause I love your borders. I just want to know how you make those great borders. I'm not going to copy them because you they seem to be your bread and butter. they kinda seem like your sig on the banner they seem so unique to you. but how is it done? I got no idea. the tutorials I've seen might as well be in Latin. this goes out to anyone who knows though. I'm utterly clueless.

 

[Shade520]

...what do you know, I am in the same boat as you, man. I have no idea how boarders are made, but I'd sure love to know. Hopefully, we figure this part out because, In my opinion, boarders are key to a good banner or picture.

 

[Undrdog]

Yeah they are key. and all I know is to put a line around the sides of the banner. so I dont bother while practicing. I dont know what to do.

 

[Undrdog]

Holy Crap my first border!

 

[Undrdog]

another banner I just made. Its getting really easy to do this. is there anything that I can do to make these better? well, I'm sure there is, but I cant think of anything.

 

[Undrdog]

another one. man if I'm going to keep mutli posting I outta start cutting out my sig.

 

[Undrdog]

last one for tonight...

 

[Dapenda]

nice job, some of those banners look pretty good, the ice climbers fonts look really nice

 

[Air Grady]

Hey nice job! I used to be decent at photoshop...**** subscroption ended...</random>

Try to use a lot of the filters to add as many cool effects as possible. Read some tutorials also, it helped me. I like that blue Samus one.

 

[JJ]

you guys are Genius hey Jamos can you make me a sig.

 

[Undrdog]

dont forget his thread is now excepting requests. he is very popular.

anyway I'm running real low on ideas... V

 

[JJ]

Ok i want. Just make me a tight background and Letters and everything else that go on a sig. And the Characters DOC and Sheik. And my Screenname JJ. And thats about it.

 

[Undrdog]

Ok, I'm working on it now, just dont be to disapointed.


Oh and if you want it to be tented a certain color such as the Samus banner further up let me know.

 

[JJ]

hey ok Make the overlay color the color you think that will look good with it. And do u know how to make that line in your sig that keeps moving back and forwards. If so do that for me. And make my name the same place you put your name. And at the bottom of that put "Noobish Doc"

 

[Undrdog]

LoL, I have no Idea how to do the animation sorry.

 

[Undrdog]

Ok, I really suggest you have someone else to make you a banner. this is most def not the best banner in the world...

Remember I wont take any offense if you decide not to use it. I dont think I would if I were you.

 

[Undrdog]

On another note, I would def like to know how you get rid of the fuzziness in the images... it makes that banner I tried to make for JJ look horrible. =/

 

[Aruun]

You have Photoshop, right? When you go to save the image as a JPG, it should ask what size/quality you want the image to be. If you don't want it to be poor quality (and therefore fuzzy) then slide the bar all the way to the right, just realize this will make the image larger in return. Or you could just save it as a PNG.

Not bad for having such little experience though, nice job! :3

 

[JJ]

Thanks

Thanks alot

 

[Undrdog]

there, I fixed it up. but it still seems alittle fuzzy. I guess its the best I can do though. and your welcome... (I feel so dirty saying that...)

 

[Undrdog]

Read or Die. so any more tips coming my way? LoL.

 

[Shade520]

Wow Undrdog, those banners rock. It seems you are getting the hang of this whole deal pretty fast, nice job. I especially like the blue Samus banner, I think that one turned out well with the boarders and everything. Keep it up!

 

[Undrdog]

thanks, I'm trying to figure some of this stuff out. I'm just running out of ideas... >_> thinks of Guinnea Pig banner... =/

 

[Undrdog]

hey, I have to say thanks again for all the help you have given me thus far. and as for my next question, I was looking around the net for good background tutorials but didnt come up with too much. I was wondering if any of you have any suggestions like what Jamo showed me on the first page. I really appreciate all of the help you guys, maybe soon I'll be able to give back to you all with help making banners for people!

 

[Aruun]

Backrounds are pretty easy, really. Just select two colors (each in the color-chooser on the bottom of the toolbar) and use Render > Clouds. Then go Filter-happy. Seriously, just use random filters until you get something that looks cool.

I would give you some specific backround ideas but I'm going to a Christmas Eve service in like, a minute, so maybe I'll edit later :3