SOTM 2011 - February (Couples!) - Entry Thread

[PreSage]

@Mr. Wang: if GIMP doesn't have a slice function, one possible way of circumventing this problem is to crop the edges of the sig and save them as PNG, while saving the remaining piece of the sig (with the edges cropped out) as jpeg. Then put them together as you would a sliced sig. It is basically slicing but you just manually do it with the crop tool. I don't know if it will work but, in theory, I don't see why not.

[Mr. Wang]

Well Ganbaru, LKK, PreSage, I appreciate the feedback. And yes LKK, I still think that making the effort for actual transparency is still a credible one, and I don't blame you at all.

As for the slicing, slicing is a method I use quite a bit, and it's verrrrrry prevalent throughout my usual sig styles. Though... due to the shape of the signature, I have personally questioned the success of slicing when it comes to 4 separate png's + a central jpg... My biggest concern was that if I were to do that, it might be a bit over the size limits... but for now, I'm going to try out the idea.

I'll edit this post later with results of my... continued work.

Edit:

Okay, here we go...





Sliced five images, 4 png and 1 jpg, and... it took me a while, but it should be 49 kb as is... Now then, since this issue has finally been settled, can I get C&C on the image itself, and suggestions as to what font to use so I can type "Febuary 2011" on the upper lefthand corner? Or something... I've got a possible version 2 I suppose you could say, since I feel like I need some sort of starting point...

Spoiler for Ver. 2 ?:

Personally, I think the text is a bit off, and I feel the font needs to look more... ink-ish... I'm actually wondering if people can read it.

[vandakiara]

@Mr. Wang - the font is indeed a bit hard to read and the text is a bit too long.. How about changing fonts and writing only "true love never dies" or something along those lines? it's smaller and it's almost the same
As for the rest of the sig I honestly don't know what to add, but it doesn't seem complete this way either.. :s I guess we'll just see how it goes with another font and decide after...

also, there's a crop function in GIMP? where?

[milan kyuubi]

Mr. Wang I like your sig The only thing that needs to be changed is the text. Now I like the font you chose but I still couldn't read it, maybe some color changing
____________________

Thanks everyone Now somehow I erased my pdf file for the first sig On another note I reduced the amount of green in the second sig.

Spoiler for previous:

c&c?

[ganbaru]

milan kyuubi it's looking better now. A border wouldn't hurt.

[White Manju Bun]

Ok closer crop of Howl and Sophie, added text tho Ill probably change it later, just wanted something to break up one side. C&C?


Ver 1 for comparison

[Rennir]

I think you could clean up the sig and make it more HQ

[Suomi]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Ok closer crop of Howl and Sophie, added text tho Ill probably change it later, just wanted something to break up one side. C&C?


Ver 1 for comparison

I like the text, but maybe choose a different font?m

Originally Posted by milan kyuubi

Mr. Wang I like your sig The only thing that needs to be changed is the text. Now I like the font you chose but I still couldn't read it, maybe some color changing
____________________

Thanks everyone Now somehow I erased my pdf file for the first sig On another note I reduced the amount of green in the second sig.

Spoiler for previous:

c&c?

much better, but perhaps bring it in a little on the right and scale back the flowery stuff on the same side away from Sakura just a little. Otherwise I like it...though maybe add a couple more pastely colors to the green area?

[distorted_momentum]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I will join! XD

First try :

C&C?

[ganbaru]

@ White Manju Bun I would suggest to experiment with fonts for the text and to move the render a littles to the left ( maybe 20 pixels)
@ distorder momentum the render could be more blended and why mot moving the text?

[milan kyuubi]

Thanks for the advice

New version.......

Spoiler for previous:

[Mr. Wang]

@milan kyuubi

Personally, I think that it looks great right now. I really like the color scheme, and it seems that all the advice taken up to now really was implemented, and all the little details from the pastel colors to the floral designs make it really pop and eye-catchy. Heck, I'd vote for it now, probably.

Anyway...





I dunno... I adjusted the text, made it more noticeable, as well as shortening the phrase... but... I feel that the text itself could be blended better, and... something still feels missing from this sig, but I can't bring myself to come up with what exactly that missing thing is... For example, the corners... the leftsidde corners seem to plain to me. C&C?

[LKK]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wang

I dunno... I adjusted the text, made it more noticeable, as well as shortening the phrase... but... I feel that the text itself could be blended better, and... something still feels missing from this sig, but I can't bring myself to come up with what exactly that missing thing is... For example, the corners... the leftsidde corners seem to plain to me. C&C?

What is that thing at the tip of the guy's hand? It looks to me like a falling flower or maybe a butterfly. Is it something you can copy a couple of times and spread it around (with various visibility levels for depth) to help fill in the empty space?

[Suomi]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wang

@milan kyuubi

Personally, I think that it looks great right now. I really like the color scheme, and it seems that all the advice taken up to now really was implemented, and all the little details from the pastel colors to the floral designs make it really pop and eye-catchy. Heck, I'd vote for it now, probably.

Anyway...





I dunno... I adjusted the text, made it more noticeable, as well as shortening the phrase... but... I feel that the text itself could be blended better, and... something still feels missing from this sig, but I can't bring myself to come up with what exactly that missing thing is... For example, the corners... the leftsidde corners seem to plain to me. C&C?

perhaps use clipping masks on the text? if there is such a thing in GIMP? Or something else to blend it better... and making it smaller...and then maybe some subtle grunge texture brushes on the background?

[Dist]

Originally Posted by LKK

What is that thing at the tip of the guy's hand? It looks to me like a falling flower or maybe a butterfly. Is it something you can copy a couple of times and spread it around (with various visibility levels for depth) to help fill in the empty space?

It's obvious it's a butterfly even if you just glance at it .. Personally I don't see a problem with the signature apart from the text. Everything about it is VC-ish and I don't think it needs anything to fill in this '' empty space '' you speak of.

[Haladflire65]

@Mr. Wang - I think you should move the text a bit farther to the left, and maybe make it a more similar colour to the renders (the red doesn't really seem to work for me), and I'm agreeing with Illusore about some possible grunge brushwork - maybe an ink splatter somewhere? I dunno.

[Mr. Wang]

The font color comes off as red? Good lord, I must be colorblind... or lacking sleep... right then, I'll try to move the text farther to the left, although that means I'll have to create 4 new .png slices, and oh, how I could go on about how fun it is making five images under 50 kb... well, maybe at least replace the left-side one... who knows, the text is only placed where it is, because it's within the boundaries of the original plain jpg image.

Right, I'll get on that. As well as some grunge-brushes around the canvas...

[White Manju Bun]

thanks for all the help everyone

Final Entry

[rikikai]

Final entry :

[PreSage]

Originally Posted by distorted_momentum

First try :

C&C?

The overall idea for this sig is really nice. Just a few comments for improvements:

The render is very blurry - perhaps find a better render or sharpen the image if you can. Also, the render isn't blended well with the background. The vibrant green of the background doesn't go well with the colours of the two figures. You can try doing a colour balance to get the colours to agree with each other more. Having a green text over a green background is often not a good a idea. The text blends too well into the background, so it is hard to read. You can change the colour of the text to something more contrasting, you can change the outline of the text to a different colour to bring out the words more, or brighten the area behind the text to make it more readable. I also would suggest lowering the green tone of the background down a bit - it appears slightly over saturated.

Originally Posted by milan kyuubi

Thanks for the advice

New version.......

Looks much better. I still think there may be too much green in the sig. And there doesn't seem to be a distinct light source and shadows to add depth. I would suggest to add those in, which may also help to balance out all the green.

Originally Posted by Mr. Wang

I like the idea you have here. Gives a very wistful feeling - like an old photograph or a memory. I guess you may be limited with your filesize but I wonder if adding a light source somewhere will enhance the sig (or colour dodge some features just to add a little depth and brightness to the sig)? The red text doesn't fit very well with the overall colouration of the sig. I would suggest perhaps putting the text beneath a softlight layer of the sig, so that it will get that same old brown colour, and maybe, if you can, give the text a sandpaper like texture to go with that old photograph feel. That butterfly in the corner is a bit difficult to make out but it is up to you whether you want to bring it out more or just leave it.


...and Happy Valentine's Day everyone.