The Graphics Rating Thread [READ THE FIRST POST. D:<]

[Loki]

Crappy ratings are a-GO!

DarkChild: I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT- EXCEPT THE BORDER. xD; Dashed borders very very rarely if ever look good on a banner. It's especially dangerous to use the dashed border when the color of the dashes are so dark. The textures are great, positioning is great, could definitely lighten up the places the render isn't at to bring the focus back, but the text is really pretty and it's a great stock manip. ^^

Hazuki: NOOOOO. ;; I LIKED THE ORIGINAL THE BEST. Disregarding Haruhi, you must hop onto MSN sometime and teach me how to do that. I absolutely adore the style used in the original one. xD The texture doesn't look too great on top of Haruhi though, and the render most definitely is the most degrading point of the banner. And no, this isn't just me being anti-Haruhi, this is me saying that the shiny-shoujo-thin-lines look doesn't really flow very well with the vectory-grainy-pop-edgy background. xD

Perfectionist: THIS IS WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR! |D

First things first: You're right, this banner really did turn out rather well. The brushes are adorable, and the placement is pretty nice. With arrow brushes, it's usually good if the arrows go in the direction of the flow, in this banner that's vertical. However, they do deplete from the flow here because they're not vertical. xD; If you're working with a vertical render, arrows aren't usually your best bet.

The brushes at the bottom are great, and I hate you all for finding all these heinously adorable little dotty brushes while I'm sitting here wondering, "WHERE DO YOU PEOPLE GET THESE AWESOME BRUSH SETS?! D:<"

The color is great, but I think you definitely could've added just a little touch of that yellowish beige somewhere. Of course, you'd want the yellowish beige to be lighter in color than the actual color you'd extract from the render so that it didn't clash too much with the background. The scanlines are great, I absolutely love them. and want them.

Again, there's an issue with the thin-lines clashing with the vector style. I try not to use renders with really thin lines in these types of vector banners, because then it's very very awkward looking.

And there's no depth or lighting in this banner, which would definitely add that last bit of pizazz that the tag needs. ;D

No border > border in this particular banner, IMO.

 

[Twinx]

DarkChild: I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT- EXCEPT THE BORDER. xD; Dashed borders very very rarely if ever look good on a banner. It's especially dangerous to use the dashed border when the color of the dashes are so dark. The textures are great, positioning is great, could definitely lighten up the places the render isn't at to bring the focus back, but the text is really pretty and it's a great stock manip. ^^

@Loki, lol why does everyone keeps thinking that my banners are manipulated stocks?
hehe here's the render:

Spoiler:

I should really go back to smudging ^^
oh I'll fix the border and the lightning. 10x guys.

 

[Loki]

DarkChild: O_o?!

That's because you're really good at blending... 'Tis a good thing! *goes off still wtf'ing*

xDDD WOW. You did 10 times awesome-r on that then. I totally thought it was a stock. xD;

 

[/Circa]

Ive got some stuff here I forgot to post :).

A little icon:

And a banner (two version duhh :P)

 

[Decypher]

CheesePeow:

I prefer the sepia tone on your sig. It matches the sig better in my opinion. I like the font choice and the positioning of the text. The background and render blend well. 8.5/10

My Sig to be rated:

Two versions:

 

[Perfectionist]

Decypher:
I like the colour version the most. But that's just cause I like my colours. =)
I like how it is simple and complicated at the same time. (If that makes sense..)
I would suggest lowering the opacity of the background colours in the colour version. Kinda distracts the eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, I tried something which I normally would avoid but I thought of an idea and wanted to test it out.
I am thinking of tweaking it and entering it in SOTW.

Anything I can improve on?

 

[Azonic]

Perfectionist: Well, yeah. The render is more of a greenish tone while the background is more red, and they don't go well together. But its hardly noticeable anyways. The text might need some tweaking, but thats it. Its plain, but its good. ^_^

*image removed*
Yay for emptiness. \o/
I have no Idea what to put in the middle. T_T

 

[Renyui!]

Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade.: Arggh! i luv it! emptinesss is what makes it looks so cool! nice lighting there, good brushes, although you kinda used the same colour scheme as your beautful wings one.
mee!

shira-chan's tut is used here.

my first banner using textures. you learn something new everyday!

 

[evilcheese]

@Poke'd - Well ill rate the second one. That c4d on the right doesnt fit especially when it doesnt fade in that good. colors arent really all that good either and that white thing in the top left corner is mehish.

rate the best one so i know which one to enter in the sotw. the transperency can go way on the sasuke one.

 

[Perfectionist]

EvilCheese:
I like the Sasuke one the best. However I don't think that the curved sides suit it that well.
The font is nicely placed and looks great.
The cracks look awesome! Makes it come alive!
Nothing wrong except those curved sides but that is just my opinion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now for mine. I tried using a different style once again and I like it.

 

[Pikabloo]

evilcheese: ... make the transparency on the Sasuke one go away, and I would probably like it more xD I love how it seems, er, dynamic, and you can almost feel the movement to the banner. The lighting source is definitely good, but I think you should stroke the Chidori lightning with some light blue soft brushing, because it looks somewhat awkward how the center bit is glowing, but not all the lightning bolts. Oh, and additional lightning bolts might look cool -shot'd- The effects are cool, in my opinion, but that blue effect on (the lines where you placed the text on) should be tilted just a bit more, so that it looks like it comes from the Chidori.

As for the text itself... better font, pls :x I'm one to use mainly default fonts, so it's probably just me who has something against those kinds of fonts, but whatever. But the placement has definitely improved, so I give you props for that~

Colours need a bit of work, though. I'm mainly talking about the gray-ish purple in the background. The blues in the Chidori looks great, though. And the orange-y yellow coming from behind the render looks like the sun emerging from the horizon… -shot'd- Oh, yush, and everything seems to be a bit over-sharpened. Especially the render. It looks quite pixellated.

On the second one, a nearly centrally placed focal is a no-no, even though I tend to do it at times :\ But I think that the background on this one is really good. The style reminds me of that guy… I forgot his name >.> He used to post in the G&P… He's pretty good now, though. I've seen his work in PR. Anyway, I just think I'm a sucker for those space-y type backgrounds. I think that the colours here definitely look better. It also doesn't look quite as messy as the other one.

What I don't like about it is the blending. I think it's just because in comparison to the colours of the background, the stock/render/focal looks a bit too monotone. It's also pretty much empty towards the sides, despite the cool effects. Ah, and I think you need to define the focal more. My eyes always drift away towards the pretty lights o.o

Perfectionist: It sort of looks cool… but I think that it looks a bit too similar to the banner in your signature :x The scan lines seem a bit unnecessary and overused, though. Oh, and a darker, 'truer' black might look better instead of the faded gray, as banners with vector brushing tend to look better with bolder colours.

I also think that it needs moar colours rather than just the black and the yellow. The red in Electivire's eyes and tails (at least I think that those things are his tails) seem a bit isolated. Try adding a touch of red to the background, and see how that goes.

Ah, and the text looks… isolated as well. Make it an effect, rather than making the effect and the text two separate entities –shot'd- I didn't steal that from anyone >.>.

What I do like is that you have a good flow thing going on with the diagonal brushing behind Electivire. I'm unsure about those arrows, but the brushing in general seems to look alright.


wait... why am I posting here again? -shot'd- -Is meant to be revising-

 

[parallelzero]

@Perfectionist: You really need to download some fonts or something. It's the first thing that throws me off when I look at that banner. Also, a border, that banner would look better with a border. The concept is good, but it still feels empty in the bottom right. It's good overall, though.

I hate it, Loki likes it, so hey, guess I'll post it anyways. XD

EDIT: And another simple one. it's not that great, but boredom spawns things. XD

 

[evilcheese]

@reply to shirauni - i didnt put the blue line there it was there while i was making the banner so i have bo idea how to get rid of it >.<

 

[parallelzero]

Well, I have no intention of rating myself, so I'll just throw my newest one in this post...

EDIT: Geez guys. Nobody on top of ratings today?

EDIT2: I'd really hate to be the next person to post, since you have 5 to rate now. >.o Ignore the horrible rendering job! *shot*

 

[Loki]

David: Yeah... um.... I already commented on like... all of them. xD; But, you actually never showed me the finished product of that Cloud Banner, so I'll tell you what I think of it.

+ Those wavy lines are an awesome touch, they definitely make the empty bits of the WIP you showed me disappear!
- The scanlines kind of conflict with the direction of the other lines though- I think you should pay some attention to not adding too many lines. :<
- Only having the wavy lines on one side is throwing it off balance a bit, everything seems heavier on the right because there's more lighting and effects on that side.
- Your text really needs to be curved to flow smoothly with the curves of the line if you're going to put 'Cold' and 'Killer' where you've got it. xD You can just use the text warp tool and use like, bottom arc or something, and it would look 100x better.

--------------------

Would you believe this started out as a Yoite banner?

​

...Yeah me neither. *SHOT'd* This is my first attempt at working with/rendering a real-life person render, so... xD;;

Stock found in Ender's Resource pack. I may use this banner for the SoTW instead of my Throne Eins banner. I'm still debating.

 

[/Circa]

Loki:

Banner 1
I think what you did here was give the idea that the white across was graffitied by the person, but I think different colours would of made it better ;p. The black on the sides makes sure you look towards the left, but at the same time looks like a v horizontally >. Dunno if its bad, i just wanted to mention it. I dont think theres any place you could of added text. I like it though :)

Banner 2
Ooooh, gundam. This banner has some nice effects going on there, except the background on the side doesnt really suit the darkish feel to the banner. But it doesnt stand out either, so I wouldnt worry about that. The text comes in nicely on this one, plus the c4d(?) is positioned nicely, though I reckon some width between the two strokes would have been better. (but thats not your fault xD) I like it overall though.

Heres a banner by me:

I was thinking of using it for SOTW because of the light in the middle of the render, but I didnt know what to do with it. So it came out like this, yes its supposed to be VERY black on the sides. But I also dont know what else to add.

 

[Unforgettable]

I can't tell what the render is. D: Sorry...I think that it is way too dark and that it needs to be lightened up some.

Here are two simples ones I did:

Yaoi FTW. XD

 

[evilcheese]

@cheesepow - quality hirts my eyes the size isnt very good too he looks squished. other than that its kinda messy but c4ds are use nicely.

@yunadances - Well there ok i cant really rate a banner on a small canvas with big renders and plain effects so ya got me there.

 

[Twinx]

@Cheesepow, it does look like it's overcrowded... and the colors aren't so nice on the eyes. It's hard to see the details probably because it's so small..

@Yuna, the first one is nice and simple. You have a good render there and that helped you. Anyway, I like it, I don't know what else you can do to it..

The second one, mm you have to tell me what you did.. The only thing that caught my eye is that the image is of bad quality.. Did you put the render on a another background? Did you manipulate the colors? I really don't know...

 

[Unforgettable]

Epic reply to DC:
I changed colors. and cropped that is it... I didn't mean to post that one... ^^; Sorry about that! I rendered the first one myself. XD