Manju's Icons & Sigs

[White Manju Bun]

Yeah so Im a tad obsessed with Umineko Actually I like making icons more since the color is so nice. Sigs Im not that great at. C/P from the Umineko image thread.






I know this one sucks, the qual was horrible u_u. I really liked this pic too I wish I could find a better qual one.


I really liked this one, I almost used it for my sig. I made a bigger one over at Redmoon as a Friends Only banner.


Currently the only one in use is by Vega Lyra

This was a request from Avira

[PreSage]

Love that sig you made for Avira. Hmm, seen this character around but don't really know what the series is about.

Icons are awesome as always!

[White Manju Bun]

Originally Posted by PreSage

Love that sig you made for Avira. Hmm, seen this character around but don't really know what the series is about.

Umineko is a lot like Higurashi as in story repeats itself with different twists. I really love it but its totally up my ally. Battler (the guy) is voiced by Ono Daisuke and the butler Ronove (the guy with his hand over Beatrice's mouth) is a hottie and voiced the same seiyuu as Raven from HtY How funny is that.

I really like that sig as well but the pic it came from was gorgeous, I did little to it since it already was awesome.

Current sig, just a simple crop of a Pandora Hearts scan. Glen and Jack <3

[The Chaos]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

I love all these Beato avatar
Great work on them Manju-Chan ^__^

[White Manju Bun]

Originally Posted by The Chaos

I love all these Beato avatar
Great work on them Manju-Chan ^__^

Thank you~~

This isnt my SOTM entry, it was my first attempt at the theme (Kimono/Yukata) but I found a render I like better. I do like this sig but the scan wasnt great quality. When I finish my other one I might post both and ask which one people like better.

[White Manju Bun]

Small update. Mostly SOTM related.

First vers


Second vers and I aready see a few things I need to fix.


Ive gone a bit wild with this theme, Im not submitting this but I really wish Id thought of Takasugi before I made my entry. Current sig


C&C is welcome.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Ive gone a bit wild with this theme, Im not submitting this but I really wish Id thought of Takasugi before I made my entry. Current sig

There's nothing stopping you from entering this instead of your first one, you know. (I suspect I know why you'll stick with the first though. Bet it has something to do with what we've often discussed in the past, yes?) Like I said in the SOTM thread, the second version with the smaller borders and fewer dots is an improvement. Far less distracting. My focus stays on the central figure now.

Edit: If I can have one quibble, I don't particularly like the SOTM on the edge. I don't know if it's the font itself. Maybe it's the depth of the color? Something in a lighter shade? It just doesn't mesh as well as it should. Personally, I'd remove it altogether or at least reposition it off of her. But if you want to keep it where it is, consider changing the color or font.

[PreSage]

I totally love your current sig...*stares and drools* I recall vaguely seeing the original pic somewhere. He's from Gintama right?

You're SOTM entry is very nice. It seems that you may have gotten a handle on the lighting effect? Did you use that tutorial I gave you or did you find something else better? I only have one reservation on the entry is that it may lack some "shadowing" that could give the sig more depth. But overall really nice and eye-catching.

[White Manju Bun]

@LKK-Sensei glad the bars are less distracting, I like that effect but I was worried I wouldnt be able to pull off anything smaller. As for the font, I tried several places on the sig but nothing looked right since most of the bg is bent or curved. I decided on the kimono just so there was some text but it was small enough that it wasnt distracting. Not happy with the font I chose but meh

Originally Posted by PreSage

I totally love your current sig...*stares and drools* I recall vaguely seeing the original pic somewhere. He's from Gintama right?

Yes he is, he's the hot evil genius bent on destroying everything <3 Plus he's got a super sexy voice, Koyasu Takehito who's one of my faves...looking at ANN Im trying to find an anime youve watched that he's been in...OH! He was Sasuke in Sengoku Basara AND he's gonna be in Uragiri <3

You're SOTM entry is very nice. It seems that you may have gotten a handle on the lighting effect? Did you use that tutorial I gave you or did you find something else better? I only have one reservation on the entry is that it may lack some "shadowing" that could give the sig more depth. But overall really nice and eye-catching.

I didnt really get a handle on the lighting effects, more like I lucked out since the scan was such good qual and light already but I did tweak a view things. I know it lacks depth, that was something I wasnt able to figure out how to do without totally darkening the sig. Depth is something I totally fail at most of the time.

One thing you might want to try is (well at least in PS) there's a filter>render>lighting effects tool that lets you decide the light source. I tried that with the very first vers of my entry but decided it made the render look too washed out (this was a vers I never submitted to the thread) but it did add shadow to the bg since the focus was on the girl but still...something to work on for next time.

Recent sig request I did for Grace


If no one has noticed Ive gone crazy with the Magic Pen tool lately I used it on my SOTM entry twice, the butterfly effect on the Takasugi sig and again now with Grace's.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

If no one has noticed Ive gone crazy with the Magic Pen tool lately I used it on my SOTM entry twice, the butterfly effect on the Takasugi sig and again now with Grace's.

I noticed. Been meaning to ask you if you'd used that vectoring technique that Rick wrote a tutorial for a while. The glowing swirl one. How do you manage to get your bends to look so neat and so nicely rounded?

[felix]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Recent sig request I did for Grace


If no one has noticed Ive gone crazy with the Magic Pen tool lately I used it on my SOTM entry twice, the butterfly effect on the Takasugi sig and again now with Grace's.

Pen tool ftw?

[PreSage]

Argh, I still need to get a handle on the pen tool. orz It's still having it's own mind and not listening to me. Dx

I think getting a really good render to make those lighting effects work is probably one of the key factors that I've been missing - but most bishie pics don't have that brightness or high quality that I often see in female images. O_o - at least at the sources that I usually lurk in.

One way I add shadow or depth to my sig is to blend in a dark shaded texture to certain areas or paint it in with a dark coloured brush. Oh and I forgot to mention that the second version is better. Good Luck Yami-pin! 8Db

[White Manju Bun]

Originally Posted by LKK

I noticed. Been meaning to ask you if you'd used that vectoring technique that Rick wrote a tutorial for a while. The glowing swirl one. How do you manage to get your bends to look so neat and so nicely rounded?

Rick explains it all in the tutorial its really quite simple, just using points and counterpoints to pull the lines into bends.

Originally Posted by Cats

Pen tool ftw?

At the moment...yes

Originally Posted by PreSage

Argh, I still need to get a handle on the pen tool. orz It's still having it's own mind and not listening to me. Dx

I think getting a really good render to make those lighting effects work is probably one of the key factors that I've been missing - but most bishie pics don't have that brightness or high quality that I often see in female images. O_o - at least at the sources that I usually lurk in.

One way I add shadow or depth to my sig is to blend in a dark shaded texture to certain areas or paint it in with a dark coloured brush. Oh and I forgot to mention that the second version is better. Good Luck Yami-pin! 8Db

Read Rick's tut its really easy and allows you to start messing with it not just doing lines. I agree with you on the bishie thing also scans a lot of time lack a good light source, you need something thats already been tweaked.

One main reason my kimono girl lacks depth but Takasugi's doesnt is cuz I used alot of the actual bg for the kimono girl since I liked it so much. So doing that didnt give me a way to add to it besides erasing parts of the bg. With Takasugi's I created the bg myself so I was able to keep the light source on him and create depth in the bg.

[The Chaos]

I love you current Sig Manju-Chan
Takasugi look Cool as always

[White Manju Bun]

Ugh who would have thought a made up pop star would give me soooooo much trouble in this SOTM...

Vers 1

I followed a tutorial that used colorful backgrounds, also got the bars from it as well. I was able to use about 80% of what the tut did.

After major problems getting the file size down this is my actual submission


...but you know...I think Im gonna fix it again...KiNA's gonna kill me

Ninja edit: Change my final entry again This is it.

Sides dont look washed out, her face isnt as bright but was able to save it under better quality.

[Aimingan12]

Great work Manju, I really like your sig for the SOTM, very well done.
And your Umineko avatars and sigs are awesome

[White Manju Bun]

Oh yes I have DRRR fever

Current sig, Shinra from Drrr.


I really liked how this came out, I was going for a cloudy/star effect and though I do think I need some different cloud brushes the overall effect is what I wanted. And no I did not use the pencil tool to create the circles this time

[LKK]

Cool sig. You know how I like me some Shinra.

So if you didn't use the pencil tool to make the circles this time, how did you make them?

"pencil took". Manju's typing skills for the win.

[White Manju Bun]

Originally Posted by LKK

So if you didn't use the pencil tool to make the circles this time, how did you make them?

Elliptical marquee tool with outer glow effects. Id never use the marquee tool for that purpose before, Im happy with how it came out. Im also happy with how the lighting turned out though the original image wasnt that dark, I think Im finally getting a handle on lighting.

"pencil took". Manju's typing skills for the win.

Oi... /facepalm

[LKK]

Marquee tool, eh? Sounds like yet another tool that PS has that Paint Shop doesn't. Maybe I can use an elliptical vector object with just the outer lines? But that won't give me the varying width yours has. Hmmm... Will have to investigate further.