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uberfearr

uberfearr


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PostSubject: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:11 am




A Siggy Makers Journey
(I show you mine you show me yours? :])
In the time I've been making siggies, I know I've come a long way. I look at past pieces I've created, and look at the art I'm making now and can't help but laugh. My skills and techniques, the pictures I use, it's improved so much. Just for laughs.. I'll show you some of my work, from past atrocities to recent goodness. (A bit graphics heavy)

Year 2006..or was it '05? I don't know but..
Spoiler:
yeah...terrible, I know.

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

Then, behold.. the first siggy I ever made for Shaiya:
Spoiler:
Yeah. It really is just a probably-copyrighted image with a stroke and some text.

.......

Moving on, here's a few more of my first 4 siggies made for Shaiya
Spoiler:

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

The first one I made for somebody else..
Spoiler:

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

I'd say this is when I started getting better, I was learning layer styles, different borders, and shapes.
Spoiler:
..but still not great

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

The very first siggy I made when I opened my shop in the Fan Art section:
Spoiler:
Ehh once again, just a probably-copyrighted image with fancy text, fancy shape and lens flare. Back then I was all too proud of it.

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

My 2nd attempt ever at a pop-out.. it looks terrible.
Spoiler:

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

Then I started getting better at pop-outs, but the siggies still lacked.. pizazz!
Spoiler:
I'm pretty sure they are all far too big for AGE requirements too. My bad lol.

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

And so begins a new style. I ditched the funky shaped pop-outs, which at the time I considered my "signature style" and tried something new - C4Ds...but totally failed.
Spoiler:
Needless to say, that style just wasn't my forte.

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

I got that. Wasn't trying to fool anybody. So, I went back to my "signature pop-out style" but tried to incorporate a little of that failed style to expand on it, and improve. I'd still say, these weren't too bad, imo.
Spoiler:
-------------------

Once again, I tried something new. It didn't turn out bad, but I never did it again cause it took 8749343 years to make.
Spoiler:

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

Cue yet another new stye attempt - Real people! GASP! - I also was focusing on different lighting effects I hadn't used in previous works. Eh.. in hindsight, they don't look the best. But, at the time I made them I was so proud.
Spoiler:

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

I'd say my skills were getting better at this point. I was going out of my comfort zone, learning new techniques, daring to try different things, and it was working out for me.

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

So began a new endeavor. I reopened my siggy shop after ages of inactivity and charted a course on finding a new style...again!
Spoiler:
Different borders, different lighting styles.. andd

........

hey! even a little bit of my old pop-out style.
Spoiler:

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

Fast forward a few more rounds at my shop and here I am now..still striving to get better and ever moving out of my comfort zones..at a slow pace.
Spoiler:


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

Now you've seen my journey..




Care to post some of your first pieces to some of your best or most recent pieces of art?



Last edited by Pharwynd on Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:46 pm; edited 2 times in total (Reason for editing : consolidated the images so the page isnt so obnoxious to load.)
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Mathy

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:49 am


KILL ME, I CLOSED THE TAB WHEN I WAS ALMOST DONE WRITING THIS.



When I first got fascinated by sigs, I used MS Paint. But then I switched to a website called picnik.com
My first sigs made in picnik:

Spoiler:


My first attempts at GIMP!

Spoiler:


... I didn't like it very much, so I switched back to picnik

I got better!

Spoiler:



Then picnik closed down... So I switched to GIMP again.
First GIMP work made from scratch:

Spoiler:

I found them very hard to make, so I went back to cropping wallpapers xD

Spoiler:


I started using renders when I witnessed a huge fight on the forums about someone using a copyrighted wallpaper for a sig.

Spoiler:

First popout attempts!

Spoiler:


Behold the era of PS Very Happy
First attempts:

Spoiler:


I've tried many styles, but I can't seem to find one I can stick to for a longer time period =/

Spoiler:

Most recent pieces:

Spoiler:


I still haven't found a style I want to stick to, although I like the 2 last sigs I posted ^


K I'm done xD
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uberfearr

uberfearr


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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:53 am

lol! I hate when that happens, I've done that to tonsss of AGE long post/debates =.=

And dang Mathy, you been through quite a few programs lol, for me I've been with Photoshop since I started..which makes it even worse I think, that my first siggies were so terribad. xD

I'd love to see more people's stories. Phar? Lumi? Konte? and moar pl0x! Don't be ashamed if your first siggies sucked, so did mine Very Happy Be proud! Razz
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Pharwynd

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Thu Aug 23, 2012 3:02 am

Nice posts! Everyone starts somewhere and you never stop learning

Um well mine is uber long journey so sorry for minor detour gonna have to send you to meh gallery...
Pharwynds Nubbygirl to Nubbylady Gallery
(saves some post space XD)

The first two signatures displayed were the first ones I had ever made (AGE was my first forum) I started in PS, then went to GIMP when my computer finally caught on to me constantly downloading trials and rebooting my comp... and now I move in between their are somethings I find better in each of the programs. Style wise... I try anything.. but I have always been a fantasy freak and love creating fantasy like scenes from multitudes of images. Skill wise... I am still fighting a war with tutorials (will upload some of my recent scrambles soon) and im always learning, testing things out.

Cannot wait to see more journeys =)

(Just got back from holi's will bore everyone with details in another post XD)
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Konte28

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:58 pm

Well,I think I have the shortest journey of all of you.
I made my first signature last year somewhere in the middle of january while I was playing Shaiya.
I got in this "business" because of a small event that my guild was making (Family United --Gaia) regarding signatures for guild members + a banner for our guild website.
I use at that time PS CS2 (I think) and used this website as a guide on how to make my signatures:
SigTutorials
The tutorials were great,but I was a total noob regarding PS and everything that went with it.
I made a couple of signatures,but I must say that I lost them all.
The only piece that I managed to save was a signature I made for myself:

How far have you come? Siggy1

After that,I stopped playing Shaiya and with that stopped doing signatures.
From that time and until this year in May,when Lumi asked me to make her a signature after she taught me a few tricks.
This is my first try after a year of "vacation"

How far have you come? LumiDivaChoco

And since then I started making lots of signatures,but the majority of my signatures are for Lumiere
I am not going to post every signature that I made since then(not many tough),but I can give you the link to my pb ^^


My PhotoBucket gallery

Well,this is my short journey in the signature business. ^^
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uberfearr

uberfearr


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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:51 pm

lol Phar, love the 'nubbygirl' to 'nubbylady' made me laugh xD and I can see why you wanted to save space, as I said before, your gallery is HUGE!

Konte, you have some great siggies considering you haven't had a whole lot of time at them. and P.S. that sig you made for yourself there is ginormous lol!

P.P.S - I want moar journeys!
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Lumiere/Diva

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:21 am

So here I go o.o
I started some years ago doing sigs when I entered a guild named The Legendary on Teos AoL (got inspired by Elly, Katava and Elfsruck) but I got bored of makeing them because they never looked how I wanted them to look like so I quit.
Than some day I came back to AGE and found alot of threads in the fan art section with signature shops. I knew nobody that was active there anymore and was afraid and a bit shy to ask ppl how they make signatures, soo I started watching tutorials, trying new things in photoshop and so my signatures came out to look like this:
Spoiler:
After some time I realized they were too blurry so I tryed some splatter brushes.
Spoiler:

But it wasnt enough for me. I wanted something more complicated and good looking. Something different, and tryed C4D's
Spoiler:

Annnd yes I totaly failed at it. Got so mad that I never used C4D's till some time ago in recent sigs.
After the big failure I came back to smudged sigs and tred combining brushes with it.
Spoiler:

At the moment when I made those up there I was fascinated but than I got bored of them and tred something even more complicated. Real people stocks.
Spoiler:

Never liked the real ppl siggehs so I moved on. Tryed different types of brueshes and perfected my smudging style and came out with some siggies that I am proud of even today.
Spoiler:

Got bored of this one too and than saw some new styles and combined them all together and made a madness.
Spoiler:

Than it suddenly hit me. Signatures that have depth in them. Tryed it out, liked how it came out and even made the name on it as a logo.
Spoiler:

Than time passed I completed some challenges here on artifex and started to like this place. Countinued combining styles and came out with a similar resault to all that is above from here.
Spoiler:

Than I found out about fractals...
Spoiler:

Didnt like the fractals. They never blend in well and never knew how to blend them in at that time. So I started rendering stocks, asking for permision of useing stocks from different artists and so on.
Spoiler:

Liked how those came out but got bored of signature makeing again and tryed makeing simplyer things.
Spoiler:

And from simplyer things came the urge for more complicated ones, so I got back to smudgning, clipped brushes and depths.
Spoiler:

After some time I came to find out about pop-out signatures. I had no ideea how they were made, so I had to improvize alot till I..hmm..let's say till I got my own way of doing them.
Spoiler:

Got bored of the pop-outs too fast because they required alot of patience to do them my way so I learned about textures and photo filters, oh and also about gradients.
Spoiler:

Slowly started playing with colour efects and layer styles.
Spoiler:

Than one day Aggie told me about the little C4D lights.
Spoiler:

After some time got bored of the lights and I didn't really like my outcomes with them, I started looking for different textures and I found png textures.
Spoiler:

Soo time passed and I did stick to the lights, improvized pop-outs, png textures, clipping masks and other that I have mentioned above aannd opened my siggie shop.
Spoiler:

Some round in my shop passed requests kept comming and my signatures were boring. So I started with C4D's again little by little.
Spoiler:

Discovered light bokeh o.o
Spoiler:

Got better at pop-outs.
Spoiler:

Started perfecting smudging.
Spoiler:

Than suddenly some day I saw a grafic design website that had some custom shapes as freebie. Didn't hasitate to take them and play around.
Spoiler:

Than again' time passed and I sticked to the curent syle. Sincerely I liked them but I did combine all the lights and layer styles and played with them till I got a hold of them at least and found out about actions.
Spoiler:

So I failed. At that time I didn't understand blending modes and I totaly failed with actions and I realized my signatures were even more boring than in the begining. They had no reality in them. At least that is what I tought at that moment, so I started useing backround images and fitted them with stocks and renders.
Spoiler:

Didn't work. That thing with makeing the signatures look more real absolutely did not work so I went back to the only thing that I was secure with. Smudging.
Spoiler:

In the mean time I even tryed out different tutorials.
Spoiler:

Nothing worked for me at that time so I put them all together, started practicing and in the end I did learn about blending modes, layer styles, filters, C4D's and actions.
Spoiler:

Those are what I stick to even today in my signatures.
Spoiler:

As you can see I went trough many styles but even now when I got a hang of them all I can sincerely say that they bore me and that I absolutely don't like them. Will be looking for more styles in the feuture and I hope that I will actualy find one of my interest and likeing.

Hope my story isn't too long x.x Also please do excuse the typos. Will corect them when I get the time *-*
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uberfearr

uberfearr


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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:02 pm

aww yay lumiii ^^! you've been through a lot of different styles lol

I had the same problem with C4Ds. I failed soo bad and my whole giant folder of C4Ds was never used after that till recently. And I'm in the same boat with you when it comes to finding siggies boring. Not yours ofc! But I'm always trying to change my siggies up so I don't keep making the same old boring stuff. But there's still lots of siggies in the past I'm really proud of.

I wish I could say moar ppl pl0x...butttt I think we're the only 5 ppl who come on here and are active anymore. lol Neutral
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Mathy

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Mon Aug 27, 2012 1:36 pm

WTB a Jathy

Also, I hate C4Ds too x.x I can never make them blend well, and they end up looking like a crapload of light trickling out from the render's head. Although I tried them again last night and made this after a 2 hour ragefest:
Spoiler:
I'm rather happy with the outcome. ^^

And smudging... ugh. I could never get that right. I've tried so many types of smudges, and every one of them was failed Razz I should look for some more tutorials x.x Those griffin and Evy sigs are AWESOME!
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Lumiere/Diva

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:28 pm

Yush we shall anounce Jathy and Ayumii about this, and princess bell too. cheers
Und thankies Aggie <3
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Ayumii

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Tue Aug 28, 2012 8:30 pm

I think its my turn =o
After i had first came to AGE i started using forums to check on updates for Shaiya. While i was poking around in different topics i saw people that had signatures. At first i never even knew what they were called but i had asked someone and they sent me to the Fan Art page. While looking i saw some AMAZING signature artist so i decided to take the challenge. However it didnt go so well for me.

I first started off with Photobucket.
Spoiler:

After using photobucket i became discouraged and stopped trying for a long time. However i came back again using Photoshop after my boyfriend bought it for me xD Still didnt work cause i had absolutely no idea what to do other than just mess with brushes and fonts
Spoiler:

I tried to watch some tutorials to see if i could get better, as i watched them i went ahead and did my own thing anyway
Spoiler:

After that i gave up again and took a year away from shaiya... coming back i felt determined to get better at it so i wouldnt have to request so much and seem like a horder. Here's how it has turned out.
Spoiler:

This one took me hours to create looking over different tutorials and messing with stuff i didnt know about
Spoiler:

and finally now where im at now, still not completely satisfied but still trying, i've used fractals,c4ds and stocks
Spoiler:

My journey is still just beginning but i finally feel like i have made some progress.
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uberfearr

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Tue Aug 28, 2012 9:55 pm

Ayumii you've made a lot of improvement. I follow all of the siggy shops on the forum and I've noticed how much better your sigs are getting Very Happy Keep going and you'll get better and better and better ^^
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cuppycake

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:28 am

honestly I wish I was half as good as what I see here X_X. I'm still trying to learn how to use PS atm I only know the basics which suck Neutral
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JathyX

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:50 pm

Mah gawd!

I just spent two weeks in Turkey, and before that I've been really stressed and busy. And I have been on here some, just not posting really. You aren't going to get completely rid of me. Mwuhahaha!

Lumikins sent me the link to this in a PM on AGE, so I promised I'd look as soon as I got home.
Just give me some time to settle again, then I will try to post my story. And I will try to post more soooon! I just feel so tired all the time.

PS. I am not for sale o.o

<3
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uberfearr

uberfearr


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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:00 pm

well, welcome back Jathy ^^
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JathyX

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Sun Sep 16, 2012 2:52 pm

Okay, here it comes: My short, sad story. What a Face

Well, for a looong time I wanted to try the siggy making thing. But to be honest I'm not a very patient person. So I gave it a lot of first tries. Not until sometime earlier this year did I decide to give it a last first try, and it turned out to be the right one, because this time I kept at it (maybe because I felt more obliged after having opened my siggy shop on AGE Shaiya Forums).

Some of my very first ones were... Well, cute I suppose, but horrible. I didn't want to make requests, so they were all premades.

Spoiler:

But after a few tries, I saw a decent improvement... Ahem...

Spoiler:

I quickly changed my mind and decided to take requests anyway. It turned out to be more fun and more challenging than I would have thought - which is of course only good.

I have experimented a lot with popouts...

Spoiler:

... but to be quite frank it's not my thing. I always think regular ones look way better.

Spoiler:

And yeah, sure I'm getting better, whether I go for the simple or the more complex.

Spoiler:

But I still make some embarrassing fails from time to time.

Spoiler:

Lately I have been experimenting with different types of borders.

Spoiler:

As well as sigs made from full pics (though there's not much to that, is there?).

Spoiler:

I still need a lot of practicing with backgrounds and borders, but the learning is half the fun of it imo.
That was my story!
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uberfearr

uberfearr


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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:32 pm

Nice Jathy! ^^ It's funny pop-outs aren't your thing, cause for me they come so easily and they're like always my backup/go-to, cause I rarely dislike any of my popouts, but my non popout ones..ohman I've made some faaiiiillllsss so I know how that feels too. But funny how artists are different like that xD

I lovee the one you made for Error, it's my favorite of the ones you posted Very Happy
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JathyX

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PostSubject: Re: How far have you come?   How far have you come? Icon_minitime1Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:05 am

Yeah, that's funny! No matter how much I practice popouts, it doesn't come natural to me. Though I actually made one today that I think is pretty decent.
I love your popouts, though. I should get PS sometime soon so I can get even better. I'm having difficulty finding more new, nice brushes for GIMP. Hell...
And thanks! I'm fairly proud of that one as well, even though male sigs has always been more challanging for me. It's getting a bit easier with time.
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