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

[Cyndaquil]

I did this edit a couple of hours ago, after I saw your post. Tried to take those points you (El Capitano) made in account, and yeah, I tried to make it more clear that the focus is supposed to be to the swordfight in the front.
Personally, I don't really think the black "banner" with the text fits the theme a lot. I also increased the contrast and colors a bit, but the grayish and unsaturated environment gives it a more historical feeling, IMO...

Anyways, 'ere it is:

Motsuko Live, I really like the way you use blur to put focus on certain objects. The first impression I got of the first image (looking at it without reading your text, and without looking on the second one), was that my eyes started to look on the head, rather than the hand. However, when I compare them after reading your text, I find the one with the hand in focus more "interesting", more appealing to me, if you get what I mean..

 

[Comic Tragedy]

Cyndaquill: Hokay. Definately better than you're first try. Getting rid of that awkward textures definately helped it out. But I guess thiss has been the theme today, depth. You definately improved the depth alot. There is not much to say since the idea of this banner I'm guessing is simplicity. sooooooo yea. Its good :)

 

[Motsuko Live]

El Capitano: Thanks ^^;
Yeah, I was thinking of making a tutorial. Problem is, I've never made one before xDD I'll definitely try though... I've got alot of things going on right now, so it may as usual take a while.

Anyway, I think I'm going to make another one (now that I've got the hang of this style), see if that one's better, and make a tutorial on it.


Cyndaquil: Yeah, I know what you mean. And thanks!

 

[Pikabloo]

Oh, um, I pen tooled all of it, except for the stars, where I used the custom shape tool, and, well, the text. Thanks for the comments, though ^^

I guess I'll rate some stuff while I'm here.

Motsuko: Nice depth work ^^ Maybe to add to the depth, add a touch of burn/dodge tool-ness? Or use a soft brush to brush in some black around the edges. I tend to abuse clipping masks like there's no tomorrow, so, I like that as well xD Yeah, a tutorial on depth would definitely help some people here. And that banner seems like a good candidate for that. Or the new one. Whichever. :3

Cyndaquil: What's with all the depth-ing-ness going on? xD Anyway, it looks nice and simple. The the blurriness sort of gives a feeling of movement, and it puts the focus onto the sword people. Ah, I'm not so sure about the text, though. It seems to just stand out a bit too much. Add a bit more of a blur to it, to make it blend into the background, maybe?

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Another sprite tag...

 

[Comic Tragedy]

Shiranui: Ok ma'm you keep haulin in the awesome with some big pickup truck sprite. *long wierd sentence high 5* What I mean is, although the style (besides it still being a sprite sig) is different from before, but you still nail this in concept and idea. I realy like what you did with the line c4ds (makes me want to use those thingies) it is really a good effect like draping you're focal. You did an awesome job with the lighting, it looks so fluid unlike some people's mistake of just making singular blurbs of light.

I like what you did with the lighting c4d, but in some places it could be cleaned up a bit. You know, ( i don't 0_o) like it just looks like a few bulbs of light just sit their for heck sake.


Ok just try to figure out what I am saying up there ^^ *sigh* I don't understand myself half the time.

I made a samus sig kuz YOOM-TAH said he was in a rivalry with someone about making samus sigs, and I wanted to join! Plus my vertical sigs need help.

 

[YOOM-TAH]

^^The blurring and sharpening here fails. It's all too drastic and doesn't blend, and it's misplaced. Her whole body should not be blurred. Then the sharp parts are too sharp, makes her look all pixelly and LQ.

BTW it's not really competition for our rivalry. Just Samus and effects. We're long past that. We're into recreating/designing actual scenes. ;)

 

[Comic Tragedy]

O flip I miserably failed *hits self repitidly* Sorry for posting a horrid sig 0_o.

I got a new one. and I do like this one.

 

[Gummy]

El Capitano:I suggest a blur of the background, but not too much. I like what you did with the light source, I have been trying to do something like that but I fail miserably. I also feel that the upper-left corner is too black.

~~~~

I'm liking this new banner of mine:

 

[Loki]

RAWRRR I REFUSE TO RATE YOUR BANNER UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHERE YOU GOT THAT STELLAR TEXTURE.

No, just kidding. xD;; Though I'd love to know where you got it, if it's not a big secret or something. :B

Annnndddd....

The texture doesn't go with Aizen at all. xDDDD;;; Everything look great, except for the fact that it looks like all you did was use a texture as a background, paste Aizen on, add a few effects around him, and stick filmstrip borders on with some text.

Textures as obvious backgrounds is a general no-no. :<

You need a little more white in there too, to balance Aizen's outfit. :/ It's a good banner to me overall, but that's just because I love the texture which is 90% of your background. Lighting, composition, focal, you kind of just.... blasted them out of the water and threw them away. xD I don't see it anywhere.

But definitely better than some of your old banners. Just try using textures as accentuation, not actual backgrounds, ya? :<

Oh and, El Capitano short, sweet comment here about your Persona banner: Too much negative space. :P

 

[Renneh]

Loki- Nice Banner. I love the style. I'm not sure about the blue lines through his body...then again, I'm not sure that I'm not sure. Makes it seem a little flat and see through which I can't decide whether I like it or not. =)

Really do love that style XP

hmmm can't decide whether I like this or not, there is something off that I can't quite put my finger on..so thought I'd put it here.

 

[Nell]

Loki:
Oh, I didn't see this one! O:
Well, firstly, it seems to be a bit overcrowded near his torso, clearing that up would make a huge focal difference, which seems to be a must in this kind of style~ The concept is great though, I'm loving all the patterns and textures you've thrown over Neku. But btw, clearing that blue on his torso would also clarify the colour scheme :3 The text is a nice addition, and it's well-placed. Good job! :>

Renneh:
The clipping masks look alright, but that shadowy-line-thingy under the text is immensely distracting. D: Also, because of the monotone nature of your background and the amount of negative space, it's lacking quite a bit of depth D: You should probably try varying the initial colour of the BG, and overlaying a gradient or some patterns/textures/whatever. :3

And one of mine, because I haven't posted anything here in a gazillion years. XD;

 

[Hazuki]

Epik: Is the banner supposed to be transparent? If so, I'm not seeing it. I think it would look a lot better if it really is transparent because the white background really isn't neccessary. Neither is the gray text, if it was supposed to be something happy, make more colors in the text. Because gray-blue-red=kills it. I like the light sources and brushes, maybe do some more of that.... Also do some selective coloring. Like, the picture just looks way to plain. Make her color stand out. If you don't know how.... layer > new adjustment layer > selective color. Play around with that and see what you come up with. Also same with your above rate, it's lacking depth as well.

 

[Jake♫]

Hazuki: Too much text!!! It is all over the sig, and none of it seems to match any other text, so it seems more like a cluttered mess. The coloring is awkward as well, seeing as there are just too many colors! Just stick with a few, and use different shades so it seems to blend well. The shadows sort of add depth, but other than that, there is nothing.

*Points to sig*

 

[Renneh]

Renneh:
The clipping masks look alright, but that shadowy-line-thingy under the text is immensely distracting. D: Also, because of the monotone nature of your background and the amount of negative space, it's lacking quite a bit of depth D: You should probably try varying the initial colour of the BG, and overlaying a gradient or some patterns/textures/whatever. :3

Thats it! Thank you! *huggles* I could tell it was something with depth but my brain was too fuzzified to work out what to do. I might go back and change that when I have time.


Hazuki: Its too grainy, which makes it look LQ. And there is no proper light source, the shadows of them in the background make that fact worse. Too many textures for them to all work together like that. I like what you've done on the bottom left. I might use that idea in a signature..in the future sometime. ^^

 

[Renyui!]

Yayz! Free rate!

These thingehs...

 

[Hazuki]

Hazuki: Too much text!!! It is all over the sig, and none of it seems to match any other text, so it seems more like a cluttered mess. The coloring is awkward as well, seeing as there are just too many colors! Just stick with a few, and use different shades so it seems to blend well. The shadows sort of add depth, but other than that, there is nothing.

*Points to sig*

Well now unfortunatly, you are someone that needs a lot to learn. I have too much text, it's style of a flatist and a clutter mess? How about there's none. And too many colors? How about yours? It's too little colors. I mean just too little isn't good, because it lacks eye candy. Shadows aren't neccessary, in fact I did add a shadow, but if I did drop shadow, it would suck. Why? Because there is no need to be there. So unfortunatly, you have no rights to say that my banner sucks.

As for you Espeon banner, it's way too plain. So tell me, is too plain good or not? Exactly. Not. The lighting from the filter light source isn't neccessary, use a soft 100px brush next time. It's only because there's some dark spots and some light spots. And Espeon is supposed to be bright right? Dark doesn't match Espeon. There's also too little brushing, if you want to have a better banner, your chances are to add some brushes and textures. The text is good I guess, I like the low ocpacity. As for Espeon itself. Too plain. To make it stand out, just play around with the image like I dunno, duplicate later > overlay. Or go to selective color and play around with that. Or add a new layer and fill it with a color > set to soft light > create clipping mask.

Renyui: Ugh... is it ok if I just rate your Lukas one? I don't really know how to rate the Silver one. Anyways, "platnium" needs to move away from Lukas a little because it just looks way to close to him. I mean if you want it to be there that's fine, but I would rather have the text a little bit away from him. I like the textures and brushes you did on him, maybe add a paper texture on top of him and then it would add some kind of flavor to it. I would also suggest to add more brushes at the sides because right now it just looks to plain like it's just there. Add something that would make it look like "woah, that's his signiture there" or something you know? Add a light source somewhere, I think it would make Lukas stand out more. I also like the widescreen borders, it definently suits the mood of this banner. Good job on the banner, it can be better, but it's not bad. ^^

 

[Renneh]

^ To the above.. they weren't saying it sucks. ^^ It was constructive criticism.


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Rényui- For the Second one. I JUST LOVE THIS. I love the way the hand is the focal point. Nice blurring. I like it alot. The only thing I don't like is the text. and I can't tell the exact thickness of the border as the 2 banners are together but I think I might prefer it without a border.

EDIT: Scratch that part. If I could see the complete hand.. and the banner stopped just at the bottom of the hand with no border.. that would be completely awesome.

 

[Renyui!]

Ooo.. Thanks renneh, I'll try editing it, but it was a request so I can't get rid of the text.

 

[Jake♫]

Yay free rate :D

 

[Loki]

Yay free rate :D

KP-Jacob: WAO. O_O HE HAS LIKE, FOUR ARMS. Yeah definitely not digging that effect. xDD

The text is alright, but your colors are definitely nonexistent. And your light source is a little too soft and spread out for my tastes; I mean, see how contrasted his arms are? D: That indicates a pretty strong light source.

I love the negative space though, it fits really well with the tag.

In general, I agree with Hazuki on the note that your tags are too plain.

Hazuki: But I agree with KP on the note that your tag is too cluttered. (Though the text is fine since most of it is more decoration than actual text. o_o) With your banner, I think what bothers me the most is the render. It looks like you attacked it with the magic wand. xDD (And there's so much more NekuxJoshua fanart that is so much better than that one. DDD: Although I don't tend to save them unless Joshua looks amazing in it.) Anyway, I'm not going to go any further, since you didn't explicitly ask for it to be rated. I just wanted to let you know that the render is an even bigger problem than the cluttering. xD;

^ Took waaaay too much time. :|