The Sig Critique Topic

[MojoMan]

here 'tis.

Oh, and the depgh and lighting are off because there are items to close to the front that are blurry, and some in the back that aren't. Also, the light is too far from the focal, making it distracting. The light should be closer to the focal, and towards the upper right, not the lower, because the shadows are in the bottom left.

 

[Neon Ness]

This is really late but I do like that photomanipulation, Mojo. Besides the technique the image itslef looks really high quality... hi-def. I think the lighting around her eyes might need to be played up some more, such as on her eyelids.

I should try something like that sometime.

 

[Yoon]

PurDi, that sig is really conufsing. The depth and lighting are totally out of wack, and I'm just confsued at what I'm supposed to be looking at. Sorry, but i would scrap it.

relatively simple sig, just a warm up.

this is a photomanip (cracks and stuff weren't on her face already).

That top one is really simple, you oversharpened her hand, not really appealing to me anyway.

that photomanip would've been better if you used the atmosphere as lighting instead of that forced lighting above her face. looks weird.

 

[Wschl]

this is a photomanip (cracks and stuff weren't on her face already).

Awesome work, may i ask u for a tutorial 'bout that one?

 

[DFEAR]

tryin to get myself back :\

 

[cmpr94x]

The text is ridiculous, I don't like it. I think line should come from behind the render if you're going t have one, but I don't like the color scheme of the line. I effects on the left look a little random and I think there could be more flow. There is a lot of empty space behind the bad text and I think you should crop part of the right side off.

 

[Yoon]

tryin to get myself back :\

The spacing on the bottom text is horrendous. Top text isn't really that much better. If you didn't have any text it'd probably be better. Overall your use of effects are pretty good. Color scheme is alright.

Needs more depth, less negative space.

 

[Shök]

Oh shi-

Teh Yoon. How have you been? Lol.

 

[lordunicorn3]

tryin to get myself back :\

i like it, too much empty space, and the text/white line bug me
wow, been a while lol, this i something i found while looking through older stuff, did a little touching up
still a work in progress though

 

[Neon Ness]

@ DFEAR: Great colors/lighting as usual. The left side seems really refined and well thought out. Some more transparent spheres might flesh out the right side somewhat.

The white line looks good design wise but that text "apocalypse" is hard to read... then again I need to wear glasses sooo yeeaah. The horizontally split color is probably what makes it illegible. I think it looks better without the bottom text.

Basically I would just flesh out the right side more, but I'm not sure how. It's really good work.

@ lordunicorn3: Good work with the color scheme. It's always useful to draw colors from the surroundings to make a good scheme.

It doesn't look... finished, I guess. Everything has an equal level of importance and nothing stands out more than anything else-- there's no focal. I think one good way to create a focal is to create some sharp contrast. Try the Burn Tool to darken areas of shadow. Using a low exposure (15% or less) , small spatter brush of 14 or less size helps make smooth, natural looking shadows. A small soft circle brush also helps get smoother, natural areas with the Burn Tool. Pay attention to lighting when darkening/brightening areas.

The fuzzy cotton stuff around his shirt is distracting. I can see where a low opacity circle brush was used, so try to even those edges with the eraser. The primary color rainbow would look better if it was coming from the S symbol, and not jagged looking.

Hope that helps.

 

[A_man13]

i like it, too much empty space, and the text/white line bug me
wow, been a while lol, this i something i found while looking through older stuff, did a little touching up
still a work in progress though

I'm gonna have to agree with Neon Ness, here. While it seems like you did a lot, there could be a lot done with it. The lighting source could be improved; that bright ball of white on the left side feels real forced and the goal of the game is to make it feel natural. It is also on the wrong side of superman. While I don't agree with Neon Ness about needing to burn to create the focal (I can see some blurring around the arms), burning might be fun to play with if you want to keep your current light source. Otherwise, remove it and place it on the top right corner.

I notice a real awkward C4D on the right side of Superman. It just seems like it's floating and, since it really doesn't add much to the signature besides filling negative space, I'd suggest taking it off.

You might want to sharpen bits around the signature; outside of the Superman logo, everything seems way too bury for comfort. I know that bluing is used to create a focal, fine, but the goal of the game is to make the blurring seem natural and, by sharpening, you'll make it seem a little less forced. Another personal tactic of mine would be to copy render, place it on top, and play with opacity and blending till you get something that keeps the effect, but makes the render stand out a bit from the blurry smudging.

The brushes, while a cool idea, might be better done with pentooling. It takes much less room than the brushing and it just seems a bit less haphazard. You also might try moving it to the logo as seeing those really blurry lines come in contact with a real sharp image just doesn't flow in my mind. Heck, if you want to take Neon's advice and make the lines a rainbow, maybe making the edges of the logo glow with some brushing on soft light would look cool and give some meaning to those lines besides flow.

Other than this, you might just wanna play with gradient maps and such. Good start, but it seems incomplete.

 

[Hentekorino]

Hey look I idea ripped off Dfear, need suggestions for neg. space, should I fill it up or just keep it?

 

[A_man13]

@Hente: My problem with saying "Sure, fill it" is that the best part of the sig is the simplicity of it. You could add more C4Ds or some text, but I don't think there is much you could really add nor do I feel like you have to add anything. Maybe another C4D, but I'm at a loss of ideas ATM...

 

[cmpr94x]

Oh looks its Aman.
Hente, I think the render is a little blurry. It also doesn't seem to fit I think you could blend it better. You should add more stuff.

Lol, eyecandy

 

[A_man13]

Oh looks its Aman.
Hente, I think the render is a little blurry. It also doesn't seem to fit I think you could blend it better. You should add more stuff.

Lol, eyecandy

Yes I am alive...at least, until the week is out. Then I'm gone...

The lasers and the clipping masks are a cool effect, but the rest of the sig seems real chaotic. Some of it comes down to not having a real defined light source. I also feel like the man's body is a bit blurry. Your focal should never be blurry unless you want to add perspective of an object coming out of the sig. Otherwise, pretty good...

I got some sigs I've been working on to post, but I'm not really seeking CnC since they are pretty much meant to get me back into the swing of sig making.

EDIT: Whoops, sig on. That would be considered a "Hello, please critique me" if I left it on since I changed it since last time.

 

[cmpr94x]

Why are you gone when the week is out? Also, the focal is supposed to the clipping mask, but I totally forgot some components.

 

[A_man13]

Why are you gone when the week is out? Also, the focal is supposed to the clipping mask, but I totally forgot some components.

I know. Still, the body should be at least neutral. It feels off when it's blurred.

It's called 3 AP classes and one that is practicly one. I don't have time for the forums like I used to and I'm only on since it's spring break and I was hoping to get back into GFX for the laughs. Heck, I was even thinking of opening a one-week spectacular sig shop. I'd have to be tight with rules and what not, but I could live making a couple sigs for people. I'm already doing requests here and there as is...

 

[cmpr94x]

I understand, I'd love to see your comeback sigs though. We should take this to message, preferably AiB, assuming you aren't gone.

 

[A_man13]

I understand, I'd love to see your comeback sigs though. We should take this to message, preferably AiB, assuming you aren't gone.

No problem by me. I just logged it at AiB...

 

[Player-4]

 

[A_man13]

@Player-4: I don't know why, but there is something about that sig that says "Unfinished." I think a lot of it is the color scheme; as with your transformer one, there isn't a constant color scheme. The BG is white and blue, but the render has the guitar (at least, that's what I think it is) that is sticking out like a sore thumb because it isn't as well. Get the color scheme a bit more constant and use gradient maps to do so. I'd also suggest fixing the lighting; there isn't a strong source and I can only see shadows on that C4D. Make sure that you add a lighting source and burn/dodge pieces to get a nice light source going. You might want to fix that little blue mark on the right side; it goes 90 degrees opposite of the flow and is extremely distracting. You have a strong start, but spend some more time with it to get it shining like I know you can do.

 

[Player-4]

Yeah I just threw this together in like 20 minutes. I've been having creative block lately.

 

[A_man13]

Try experimenting then. A Ton of my favorite effects didn't come from tutorials but me just messing around. Play around with blending, filters, stock, etc. and you might just come up with a cool new effect to use.

 

[Hikatori]

Sorry if this is a bump/necropost. But I wanted some CnC on this tag. =/

 

[cmpr94x]

I think its blended pretty well but the render s centered and there isn't much flow. The text is very not good you should work on everything else before putting text into signatures.

 

[Hikatori]

Thanks for the CnC mate. I really appreciate it. =)
A new one:

My typography sucks, atleast I have that tut faved. That sig was made for a GFX school, in which I'm trying to learn how to not suck at sigs. xP
The BG was a cloud stock and some photo filters if you're wondering.

 

[lordunicorn3]

:O
that is beast
yeah, my one comment would be the the text, other than that, i really dont have much to say lol.
like i said, very slowly getting back into GFX, i think this is one of my best

 

[Neon Ness]

@ lordunicorn3: Awesome colors. The rainbow effect you went for looks better than in your other Superman one. The text looks pretty different than most sigs, but it's not a bad thing. Consider where it's placed more carefully, it's sort of just stuck on there. I wish the woman was in color, or had something about her that stood out.

@ Hikatori: Yeah, that is pretty beast. Just take out the text. It looks better to me without that distracting word in the dead center.

 

[Shök]

@ Hikatori: Yeah, that is pretty beast. Just take out the text. It looks better to me without that distracting word in the dead center.

Or just a better font would do good as well.

 

[Special E.D.]

@ lord, i see where you are coming from... but the text looks a bit weird.....

here's mine. i haven't done sigs in a couple of months maybe more so here are my attempts.

 

[Player-4]

@Special E.D.

It's pretty messy, and the lighting is terrible. You need to work on the lighting more than anything.

 

[Deleted member]

made this one in about 10 minutes with sprites from the game.
kind of horrible at photoshop to make anything better though

 

[Special E.D.]

fixed....

what u guys think..

 

[Black Waltz]

looks much better. now take out the text.

 

[Player-4]

Lot better, look up some tuts though to get a better idea of lighting, it could still use some better lighting. Don't get me wrong though, the lighting now is 100 times better, but it still needs work.

The right side of the sig seems too messy, if you were to clean it up and "smooth it out", so to speak, I think that would help.

Also, get rid of the text.

 

[Zolga Owns]

Thanks for the CnC mate. I really appreciate it. =)
A new one:

My typography sucks, atleast I have that tut faved. That sig was made for a GFX school, in which I'm trying to learn how to not suck at sigs. xP
The BG was a cloud stock and some photo filters if you're wondering.

Dude. Just passing through but...the artist left a DO NOT USE sticker on it.
http://zemotion.deviantart.com/art/Redemption-52628727

 

[Player-4]

 

[Black Waltz]

Dude. Just passing through but...the artist left a DO NOT USE sticker on it.
http://zemotion.deviantart.com/art/Redemption-52628727

Good call, Zolga. This tag should be removed immediately.

 

[Special E.D.]

at first i thought it was just a picture... then i saw the c4ds in the back.... the only thing that distracts my eye is the c4d in the front on her shirt and arm. for some reason when i look at the piece my eye is drawn into and focused on that green c4d in the front.. other than that gj.

do you guys think its to choatic? i was playing around with alot more c4ds this time around. im trying to stay away from brushwork.

 

[Hikatori]

Good call, Zolga. This tag should be removed immediately.

Sorry about that, my GFX Senpai told me to use that stock, I'll go tell him now. >.>