Chagryn

Here you go Nulgath, let me know what you think. 

Nice contest. Made two here with both variations of text. Good luck everyone!

B&W:

Neon:

Type: Avatar

Render: http://i.imgur.com/ybpiESB.png

Name: vlkfenrir

Guildname: The Swordsmen

Note; Great to have a nice bastard sword somehow in the avatar.

IM SORRY BEANOPOLY --- I thought I already posted this one... Here you are... I hope you like it... It wasn't something where that bastard sword would have looked convincing if he was holding it so the only logical thing I could do would be attach it to his hip. But I made it noticeable. 

I'm dead. These entries are merely a figment of your imagination induced by magikal milk consumption. If these images so happen to be the elusive guild avatar you have been desiring please send funds (or alteration requests) in game. If the real Chagryn where here he would apologize for his absence in the GFX forums and wish every body good luck. He would also tell beanopoloy "Excellent work!". Without further ado you will begin to imagine that there are three submissions here that suck terribly bad and is a result of a lack of sleep. Enjoy the proceeding illusions and good day chaps.

Neon Light

Korova Milk Bar Maiden

Goblins Love Milk... duh. 

trying not to get rusty

*Also, I didn't save my results for someone reason or I would have posted it LOL*

In this tutorial I discuss adjusting images, gradients, and curves! 

My objective here is to teach you how to alter images to match backgrounds (or visa versa). Its fairly simple I would imagine. However, if you have any difficulties please feel free to ask me any questions. 

Tips:

When you are making a signature and you want to use a background with it try to grab art and renders that are similar in technique. For example, If I am making a anime signature and I have found me a nice anime themed render I want to grab an anime background to go with it. Or if I am using, a HD 3D based render I might want to grab a HD (High Definition) background. Selecting your render and background are CRUCIAL to the overall quality of your work. Select them wisely and don't be afraid to browse. 

I recommend using Google Search, deviant art, or any other search engine that utilized a "image search" function. 

Pay attention to the lighting in each piece as well. Often times you can locate pieces and renders with the same directional lighting or even same color schemes. These will work best. As you can see in the video I utilize Neutral based colors. In the image you can see its primarily gray and tan but its possible to work with other color effects. 

I use gradients for every signature I make. Get used to them. Practice with them. They can really add to your pieces! feel free to play around with their Mode i.e. screen, soft light, overlay, lighten etc... 

Experimenting with settings is the best way to learn your program. 

Optional Assignment:

I want you to locate a render and a background that almost match. Apply the lesson I taught you here to unify the image. Please use the standard CSOA sizing for this SIGNATURE. 475x200. I would like to see two different example if possible. Good luck guys and feel free to ask questions here. EVEN if you use a different program I may still be able to help!

Hello all, I have decided that it would be easier to just host the classes here on the forum. I have also decided that I will not exclusively limit content to just my students. However, the only people that will receive one on one attention, CnC, and advice will be the student's who expressed interest prior to this post. I think this will help more people and that was my goal. Hope you all don't mind. Without further ado. Lets get down to business.

You should have Adobe Photoshop CS2 downloaded and installed. Link here:

https://www.adobe.co...e=cs2_downloads

(you will have to make a free account to obtain the software - after creating the account Photoshop will be towards the bottom of the page)

Placement, Canvas Sizing, and Rule of Thirds

Week 1 January 14th 2014 - January 21st 2014

Lesson

     Creating a signature is more than slapping some layers together. Everything about the signature matters. Designing a piece too large is unsettling on the eyes. Remember, just because the canvas is BIGGER doesn't mean its BETTER. Our goal while creating signatures is to create something nice while making it pleasant for the viewers. The same concept applies to signatures that are too small. When we look at a signature that is too large or too small our eyes and brain struggle to find details. So starting off with an acceptable size is the first step to creating a good signature. For the remainder of this course all assignments will be made on Canvas size 475x200 (lengthxheight) pixels. There is not a perfect signature size so when you are making custom work (not for this course) experiment with different sizes. 

    Now that we have a good appropriate canvas size we are ready to move on to the next step. Sizing and placing our render. ( We will talk more about renders in next weeks lesson ). Here is where some of you may learn something new that I learned here on the forums. Its called the Rule of Thirds. This is primarily in regards to placing your renders on the new canvas. Basically, you take your canvas and imagine the canvas broke into three even pieces. See below: 

     This is a piece I made for the Grand Graphics Tournament and I have used a red brush to break the canvas down into three "semi-even" pieces lol. Please notice where I decided to place my render. You want to place your desired render roughly onto one of these lines. On a blank canvas of course you won't have these lines but you can easily image where they would be no matter your canvas size. This is the ideal placement. Placing your render in the middle implies heavy focus for the viewers and creates "odd" space on each side of the render. Placing the render either too far left or too far right creates too much "Negative Space" and will draw the viewers attention to the negative space. See below:

Assignment

Please take this time to review the lesson and understand the concepts. Also, understand that this is fundamentals course and better material is coming. We must work our way up. I am giving you a few assignments here and they can be seen below. 

1. I want you to PM me a link to your latest signature. This is in good spirit so that we can have before and afters for the course. If you don't want to participate in the before and after portion of this course you are not forced to but it is encouraged. The pieces will be kept until revealed at a later time. 

2. Using the course signature size create me a signature with a SOLID COLOR background and a random render placed in what you think is the rule of thirds area. DO NOT include the red lines. This should be conducted on a visual basis only. Please post your results here!

3. A educational video will be posted shortly and you must watch it. ( If you have a youtube account I want you to comment with your forum name to let me know you watched the video ). 

If you have any questions about this weeks lesson please ask here. There is no dumb questions and we are all here to help each other. Someone once said "The only dumb question is the question not asked" so remember that. Also, the deadline for assignments is the last day of the lesson week. For this week it will be the 21st of January.  Good luck guys!

Graphics Community 

I am absolutely flabbergasted at the number of orders I have received since I opened my shop. Its very nice of ALL YOU GUYS to support my love of graphics. However, I have been thinking for awhile about our thread "reinvigorating" the graphics forums and I want to help. I try to remain as active as possible but my shop activity is not contributing to the "Big Picture". I have literally made thousands of FSP in graphics. While I do enjoy a good pay check why should I be the only one? I'm not going to be able to do this all time. School for me start January 13th and I am more motivated than ever to graduate with my nursing degree and that is going to take time and concentration. I don't want what slight activity I add to the forums to drop. So I think I have an idea of how to possibly increase our visitors, help the forums, and put some FSP in the pockets of its patrons

Introducing

Chagryn's School of Art. 

This is going to be a program I am starting. I will accept 3 Students at a time with 1 Alternate Student (In-case we have a person drop out). Each course will be 2 months long with 8 sessions (1 each week). My goal is to help you with whatever program you use on a personal level. I do not have a "finalized" curriculum. We will start off with the "Rule of Thirds", Placement, and Text. My objective is to start a new task each week. Since this is my first trial run I don't know what kind of results we can expect. However, I hope to produce 3 excellent graphics makers every two months. 

Lets talk business:

What does "Chagryn's School of Art" cost? You can pay in commitment, activity, a willingness to progress and a empty palm of FSP. (FREE!)

Pay nothing!?: Actually, to participate you must agree to give me your permission to donate all your work in my course to the NEXT GRAND GRAPHICS TOURNAMENT AUCTION. This is nonnegotiable.

What do I need?  You will need to be competent in your current graphics editing program. I use Adobe Photoshop CS6 but I hope to assist you in whatever program you use. I am debating on going to photoshop CS2 so that everyone can use this free software and its easy to obtain. 

*Edit* just made this in CS2 very similar to CS6. We maybe using CS2!

There will be more official topics coming at a later date. 

Now, since I hope this takes off and I am going to commit myself 100% I will be closing shop temporarily. I thank all of you for supporting me and paying me oh so graciously but I think I am doing this in the betterment of the community. Wish us luck!

Will accept orders until the 11th.

Thanks!

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL OFFERS ARE HERE!!!!

First I would like to give a big thank you for this community supporting my love of graphics. Art is apart of who I am and what I love to do. So to keep me on my toes I have a few special offers here to help you Graphix Addix get your holiday fix! 

This offer expires December 30th 2013. 

As a friendly reminder I would like to take this time and remind everyone that while I love to make graphics I also have a life outside of Photoshop and Fallensword. I will finish orders as fast as I possibly can so please be patient. Especially if you notice there are orders ahead of your own. With that being said here we go! 

*Frequent Shopper Special is only available to those who have placed 3 or more TOTAL orders in my shop prior to this offer. Limit 1 per "Frequent Shopper"*

*During this time all sales are final. There will be NO EDITING!* If editing is absolutely necessary please PM me in game and we will resolve any issues privately. 

ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS! 

Hey guys, thanks for taking time to place your orders with me! I wish I could have finished these a little quicker for you guys but I just got bundled up doing so many things this evening. 

For Master: I used the word "Master" instead of using your in game style. Is that going to be okay? If so here you are sir.

For GhetoGhost: Gheto, I don't know if this is exactly your cup of tea, but I modeled it after my last GGT entry. Personally this is one of my favorite styles of art. Let me know if this is way off or if you would like something different. I incorporated some of my sig only techniques in into this one. I think it turned out pretty good. 

For HBKLIVES: I was wondering when I would catch you browsing around this shop! lol, its been awhile! Thanks for coming by! by the way, I think all three of these turned out pretty good. However, you may have some trouble from the PNG chibi style avatar. I know some of them frackers love the transparent background style. I didn't know if you would like it or not and typically I don't make this style but I felt like its pretty cool. Your name is featured on her blade btw Hope you love them!

Bunny Variant

Champion Variant:

Regular (PNG):

LoL, I was knocked out first round. 

Cq, I have tried to stand by your decisions the best I can but I was totally un-aware this was going to be a 1v1 contest. Nay, did I realize that it was a "lottery" pick or luck of the draw event. If the highest skilled artists are not moving on (not talking about myself mind you) then what kind of contest is this if there are clear differences in the quality of work. Just something to ponder on. 

Good luck advancing artists. 

I intend to post 2 more entries if my time permits. 

Here are two for now. Same render different text variations. 

#1

#2