yeah i completely understand. i know you can animate in photoshop, but i'm use to just working on animations in gimp. everything else i do in photoshop! (:
I like the second banner more. A bit of an improvement compared to the monotone nature of your other tags. But I think the lighting needs work. Spam more dodge and burn tool, man! XD; As for the first tag, the render has blended nicely and I like that. But the lighting's messed up here as well because there isn't really one single light source. You probably went a little overboard with the effects as well, imo. Keep it down a bit because the render is being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of effects in there, as I see it.
I could totally do that if I remembered where I got them from. :c But unfortunately, I've gathered stuff from various sites. Quite a lot from deviantart. So I don't really have any link, per se. But I definitely plan to upload my resources sometime soon. When I do, I'll link you.
I'm a member of quite a few graphic forums. If I want criticism, I just post in those. Not really interested in joining another atm, sorry. Maybe sometime in future.
You tend to rely on fractals a little too much in your works. They look good, but I suggest moving onto some other resource that you can use. Why not use a combination of c4ds, textures and fractals?
And expect a comment in your gallery today. Really glad you decided to post a gallery, btw. :]
Lol. Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder. Some people may prefer your stuff over mine and some might prefer mine over yours. :p We are all learning here! :]
People have ways of getting photoshop if they need it. Most of the ones who use it did pirate it. lol And I really don't know why there's such a less % of user-base interested in graphics. Maybe they're just intimidated. :[
Oh, and post message on my profile. Not your own. XD;
Very few people, man. The ones who made it active before have all but left the site. Only I, you and the super moderator Abnegation still love graphics. Others are a little busy these days and don't really post a lot. :[