AnimeSuki Forums

ahelo · 2011-10-01, 08:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix

(well, you asked for it)

This is just personal preference, but you sure have a lot of noise around the character (particularly the lower right and lower left). Is that because of the JPEG compression? can you post a PNG version for comparison.

I'm not sure about the yellow text. Maybe try position both above the leaves—should give better contrast on "forums" that way too. Some other things, the font doesn't have to necessarily be fancy, you can just take a simple font and treat every letter in it as a seperate component; it's easy to get into a state where you just see the entire text as one entity. I also recomend you avoid effects like glow or shadows or bevels, etc. Get it to look good with out them, they're really cheap and will easily make you think there's no room for improvement after adding them. In your case you could probably treat the background as a lake, and give the letter a slight reflection and maybe submerge them slightly in different positions; like debris from a sinking ship floating in the waters.

The character could probably use a little adjustment on the tones, black is still not really back.
Maybe some slight sharpening of certain details on the clothes and hair to make them pop too.

The whole Leaf Circle is kind of nice, maybe you can do several layers and put the character inbetween? Just an idea.

I will try to work on that

. I really like it that people are giving in-depth suggestions in this thread.

Frailty · 2011-10-01, 09:52

wow, the gradient is totally off the theme
this'll be hard

time to work on my entry~

Faeyice · 2011-10-01, 09:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illusore

I personally think both look good but prefer the one with less orange, the orange is less obtrusive that way

Thanks! Overall I like the one with less orange better too, but it doesn't really convey the fall theme as well imo, so I'm really torn between them.

@ahelo Looks good, but your yellow text is looking rather green in comparison to the orange in the background. Maybe make it a different/lighter shade of yellow?

ganbaru · 2011-10-01, 10:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frailty

wow, the gradient is totally off the theme
this'll be hard

time to work on my entry~

It's more working with the halloween part of the theme than the fall part, but given the material, it can be done.

@ ahelo, the second version is a improvement. BTW you can go up to 60kb so you could use JPEG in a higher level of quality.

Frailty · 2011-10-01, 10:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganbaru

It's more working with the halloween part of the theme than the fall part, but given the material, it can be done.

I don't really like making Halloween themed banners

but given the gradient, looks like I'll have no other choice

unless I could think of something to make the colors of the gradient and the colors of Fall blend hmmm

ahelo · 2011-10-01, 10:13

PNG

JPG
Tried to improve it a bit. I'm not exactly a photoshop expert so. . . more comments please. I'd love to hear more criticisms so I can improve it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganbaru

@ ahelo, the second version is a improvement. BTW you can go up to 60kb so you could use JPEG in a higher level of quality.

Really??? I'll check if I can make it higher

felix · 2011-10-01, 10:22

You made the text fade the wrong way.

Nudge the forums part so it doesn't touch the leaves (not as much anyway) and you can cover the Animesuki text. You can also use a contrasting color for it.

Character looks much better.

You need to get rid of some of the orbs on the right and left. Maybe bottom Yellow/Orange blobs on the left and top yellow, bottom yellow on the right. The idea is to make it more simetrical or anti-simetrical and have it go towards smaller ones so as to not mess with the effect of them going in the distance (hence why I suggested removing the big ones that look out of place). If you look at the preview you'll notice it currently feels very boxed in.

There's this smodge on the left of the character, maybe cover it with some more leaves?

Not too sure the new text color is that good. It doesn't really fit the theme. It's good you added a gradient to it though. You want also want to experiment just changing the font for "ANIMESUKI" since I don't think it's really working with the rest of the elements in the banner.

@Frailty

Oranage Blue is actually pretty awesome if you manage to get it just right.

ahelo · 2011-10-01, 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix

If you look at the preview you'll notice it currently feels very boxed in.

Wow there's a test page?!?!?! Well I guess it does look a bit boxed in, I'll work on those orange blobs. And I cannot believe I didn't notice the text fade.

rikikai · 2011-10-01, 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Something more like that?:

Very lovely! Love the background and how you put Alice

The text is much better like this!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patchy

@Dan-sama, how's the text now?

V2/ Cleaned/Sharpened/Lighter

V3 More light, aligned the text to left

Nice! but I don't really like the leaves on the right side, it looks to symmetrical ^^
the text is very nice I think I prefer the version 2

larethian · 2011-10-01, 12:00

I think Patchy uses the same leaf as a base?

Ganbaru's one looks like it's Alice? Or someone drawn by Kishida Mel?

MagicaLideaL · 2011-10-01, 12:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Something more like that?:

It looked better now. U could still mess around with the font effect though.

Athena · 2011-10-01, 19:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by larethian

Ganbaru's one looks like it's Alice? Or someone drawn by Kishida Mel?

It is definitively Alice.

Suomi · 2011-10-01, 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahelo

PNG

JPG
Tried to improve it a bit. I'm not exactly a photoshop expert so. . . more comments please. I'd love to hear more criticisms so I can improve it.

Really??? I'll check if I can make it higher

I think the color for forums is good, not so much for "animesuki". I would also bring the texts together a little more, move "forums" to the left some.

I agree with Felix on the blobs, they could be smaller and fewer/more symmetrical or antisymmetrical. Also the smudged area and the key thing are kinda distracting...

ganbaru · 2011-10-01, 22:48

While the girl on my entry is from a artwork from Kishida Mel, it isn't Alice ( I haven't any idea of which Alice you are talking ), it's suppoesd to be Shionji Yuuko from the serie Kami-sama no memo-chou .

GundamFan0083 · 2011-10-01, 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix

The link is incorrect. To make auto-fill just add these parts togheter: (meaning no newlines/spaces)

http://forums.animesuki.com/banner-test.php?
The base...

css=2
2 = gray, 1 = blue

&bg=http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/8881/nighti.jpg
The gradient URL, you don't really need to change this, just copy/paste it in.

&bnr=http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq83/oldschoolanime/animesuki_bannercopy-1.jpg
Change it to the URL of your banner.

In the example I used your banner, so you don't have to change nothing.
css, bg and bnr can actually come in any order, just make sure to put a & between them.

In some situations, such as when you're hosting the banners here using albums (like how the 7 images in my signature are hosted) you'll have & in the URL. This is a problem since now the system won't pick up the URL properly, so what you need to do is replace the & with %26 to tell the system "hey that's just a average character". For example say we're using an alternative link for the background, http://forums.animesuki.com/album.php?albumid=3426&pictureid=40894 (note the & in the middle), then the bg part would be:

&bg=http://forums.animesuki.com/picture.php?albumid=3426%26pictureid=40894

Everything toghter: http://forums.animesuki.com/banner-t...nnercopy-1.jpg

It's a lot of long text (because of the URLs that go in) but it's quite simple really. I recomended making it into an easy to use tag in the other thread, maybe we'll get that in the future.

Thank you ganbaru.

That helps quite a bit.

larethian · 2011-10-01, 23:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganbaru

While the girl on my entry is from a artwork from Kishida Mel, it isn't Alice ( I haven't any idea of which Alice you are talking ), it's suppoesd to be Shionji Yuuko from the serie Kami-sama no memo-chou .

That's Alice's real name actually.

But she's more commonly known as Alice. In fact, she wants to be known as Alice.

ahelo · 2011-10-02, 03:50

JPG ver.

PNG ver.

I would really appreciate more comments and stuff.

felix · 2011-10-02, 04:01

I think I like the one where it's more zoomed in better. Also you've gone a little too far with the black. You want black to be black (on shadows, etc) but you don't want to hide detail; for example here hair is now this black blob where previously you could see the individual strands. You can just duplicate a layer, adjust to a certain tone, then mask to the original layer to get back the detail where the adjustment ruined it. If you're using global filter you can just use the mask that comes with it.

Also too many leaves around her, it ruins the effect of a leaves circling behind her. The light spheres looked better then the butterfly and stars too IMO.

The Comic Sans "A" kind of stands out too much.

Good job getting rid of the smudge though.

ahelo · 2011-10-02, 04:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by felix

I think I like the one where it's more zoomed in better. Also you've gone a little too far with the black. You want black to be black (on shadows, etc) but you don't want to hide detail; for example here hair is now this black blob where previously you could see the individual strands. You can just duplicate a layer, adjust to a certain tone, then mask to the original layer to get back the detail where the adjustment ruined it. If you're using global filter you can just use the mask that comes with it.

Also too many leaves around her, it ruins the effect of a leaves circling behind her. The light spheres looked better then the butterfly and stars too IMO.

The Comic Sans "A" kind of stands out too much.

Good job getting rid of the smudge though.

I get what you mean with the black. I'm trying to fix it more now. And I kinda like the A though (Its not Comic Sans anyway) but I'll see what I can do with that. I think the leaves effect got ruined because I changed the wallpaper so I'll try to fix that too.

The Drunk Demoman · 2011-10-02, 08:05

Hmm, it will be tough to fit in Fall/Thanksgiving/Hallowe'en on such small sized background, but I'll try something.

We don't have to put all of those themes in, right?

2011-10-01, 09:52	Link #62
Frailty Constellation Graphic Designer Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Pearl of the Orient Seas Age: 31	wow, the gradient is totally off the theme this'll be hard time to work on my entry~ __________________

2011-10-01, 10:22	Link #67
felix sleepyhead Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: event horizon	You made the text fade the wrong way. Nudge the forums part so it doesn't touch the leaves (not as much anyway) and you can cover the Animesuki text. You can also use a contrasting color for it. Character looks much better. You need to get rid of some of the orbs on the right and left. Maybe bottom Yellow/Orange blobs on the left and top yellow, bottom yellow on the right. The idea is to make it more simetrical or anti-simetrical and have it go towards smaller ones so as to not mess with the effect of them going in the distance (hence why I suggested removing the big ones that look out of place). If you look at the preview you'll notice it currently feels very boxed in. There's this smodge on the left of the character, maybe cover it with some more leaves? Not too sure the new text color is that good. It doesn't really fit the theme. It's good you added a gradient to it though. You want also want to experiment just changing the font for "ANIMESUKI" since I don't think it's really working with the rest of the elements in the banner. @Frailty Oranage Blue is actually pretty awesome if you manage to get it just right. __________________

2011-10-01, 22:48	Link #74
ganbaru books-eater youkai Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity	While the girl on my entry is from a artwork from Kishida Mel, it isn't Alice ( I haven't any idea of which Alice you are talking ), it's suppoesd to be Shionji Yuuko from the serie Kami-sama no memo-chou . __________________

2011-10-02, 03:50	Link #77
ahelo Criminal Unrequitor Graphic Designer Join Date: Jul 2010	JPG ver. PNG ver. I would really appreciate more comments and stuff. __________________ Traveler on Revenge / Ahelo Sigs / Saimoe Report! Signature by ganbaru

2011-10-02, 04:01	Link #78
felix sleepyhead Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: event horizon	I think I like the one where it's more zoomed in better. Also you've gone a little too far with the black. You want black to be black (on shadows, etc) but you don't want to hide detail; for example here hair is now this black blob where previously you could see the individual strands. You can just duplicate a layer, adjust to a certain tone, then mask to the original layer to get back the detail where the adjustment ruined it. If you're using global filter you can just use the mask that comes with it. Also too many leaves around her, it ruins the effect of a leaves circling behind her. The light spheres looked better then the butterfly and stars too IMO. The Comic Sans "A" kind of stands out too much. Good job getting rid of the smudge though. __________________

2011-10-01, 12:00	Link #70
larethian Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010	I think Patchy uses the same leaf as a base? Ganbaru's one looks like it's Alice? Or someone drawn by Kishida Mel?

2011-10-02, 08:05	Link #80
The Drunk Demoman ~ fabulous ~ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Serbia	Hmm, it will be tough to fit in Fall/Thanksgiving/Hallowe'en on such small sized background, but I'll try something. We don't have to put all of those themes in, right? __________________