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First Avatars


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#1 Mao

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Posted 26 March 2011 - 06:56

These are my first avatars that came out decent enough that I'd decided to put them on the forums. Looking for any recommendations on brushes, smudging, and coloring effects I could use. I don't know much beyond what you see here, I used Colorize, Color Balance, and Smudge with Scale set at 2.0, and Rate set at 30.0. I use Gimp 2.6 looking for any advice, thank you.

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Render - http://i1123.photobu... ... Render.png

Background - http://i1123.photobu... ... ariusz.jpg

Edit:
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Version 2
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Render - http://i1123.photobu... ... llidan.png

Background - http://i1123.photobu... ... kway-3.jpg

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Rendered this myself - http://i1123.photobu... ... onsxx9.png

Background - http://i1123.photobu... ... elo666.png

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png


#2 DarkWillie

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Posted 26 March 2011 - 11:54

Just real quick... you did the same thing all of us do when we start out... (believe it or not I used the same render in your second avi for my first avi LOL! and I tried to fit it all into the pic)... You tried to fit most (or all) of the render in the avi... you lose a lot of detail when you put that big ol' render in that little 200x200 pixel box. Try using a larger version of the render and "cutting" a 200x200 piece out of it. Also... try and find a background (bg) with similar colors to the avi... If you are going to smudge the bg, try using a piece of the actual render to smudge. I can't give you much advice on the text... I am still struggling with that myself... but I can tell you the text in the corner is a no no. Try using a smaller font as well... you want the test to say something, but you don't want it to say everything. The way your text is now, it draws you away from the character in the avi. My 2 cents (looks more like 57 cents but probably worth only 1 ;p)

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#3 Mao

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Posted 26 March 2011 - 19:15

Thank you DarkWillie, your CnC was great, and very helpful. After I made the avatar, and started looking at others I noticed the same thing I need to use less of the render to get more detail out of him. When you say smudge using a actual piece of the render what do you mean? I have a lot of work on my font/text to still do, but thank you again for your helpful advice. :)

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png


#4 Nazgul07

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Posted 26 March 2011 - 19:33

ok, nice for a beginner :) hehe, I used your second avi render as one of my first :D

anyway so if you're using renders then I suggest you do this for smudging:
-remember to sharpen the render
-only past in anything from the avi up to the hip
-paste the render onto a see-through background, duplicate the render (start with only 4 - you can increase it though)
-take the lowset render and take a brush set rate to 80, (try to use a brush with a lot of colour difference)
-brush that layer around the avi, don't forget to use ctrl z when you make a mistake, try to smudge it in all directions to the end of the avi
- do the same with the render above which you just smudged (rate 60), this time don't go to the far
- same as above
now remember to introduce some lightness and darkness into the avatar, use a raound blurred brush and just play around.... once done just blur it by going to gausing blur (do about 100x100) then turn the opacity of that layer down, you can also change the mode of that layer to "overlay", others work too :)
-do the same this time but with te light (white, sometimes other colours)
-rememer with those to usually turn down the opacity :)
- add a broder (ctrl a, right click, select, shrinh, 1px, ctrl i, take a brush and brush it black/white)
and text

enjoy the tips :)

also you can at then end make it brighter by creating a new layer above everything apart from the border, fill it with white, set the layer to overlay
you can do the same with colours but beware: never over do it (usually I use overlay 25ish on filters)
be sure to have the text close to the render and not too big or too samll :D

ps. sorry for the mistakes and don;t forget that this is a very quick, from heart said tut, there are other things you can do but that will probably be enough for the beginning

enjoy your time in gimp :wink:

#5 Mao

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Posted 26 March 2011 - 20:41

Thank you very much Nazgul you gave me a whole lot to work with now, I'll try putting all your suggestions to the test later tonight. Thanks again for all the helpful advice I really appreciate it.

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png


#6 DarkWillie

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Posted 27 March 2011 - 07:08

Naz pretty much spelled it out... you make several copies of the render and smudge the bottom ones, that gives you a similar color for the bg.

If you are using a bg (like you did in the first avi) it is usually better to blur or slightly smudge the edges of the render to blend it in with the bg. If you sharpen the render with a tree or building or something like that in the bg, it has a tendency to make your avi look like a render slapped on a bg instead of the avi being a part of the background... I am still working on this, but you want to set your blur rate low and use a soft brush. I use GIMP, so it is hard to talk in PS terms, sorry.

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#7 Nazgul07

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Posted 27 March 2011 - 08:07

he uses gimp too :D

#8 Mao

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Posted 27 March 2011 - 20:50

Nazgul is correct like in my first post, I use Gimp 2.6 thank for the continued help DarkWillie. :)

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png


#9 Mao

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Posted 29 March 2011 - 10:02

Night Elf version 2 is up tell me what you think. I added some light/shadow effects, change the text to draw less attention away from it. I sharpen the render, but I didn't like the results. Added a 15px fuzzy boarder colored/shadowed. I mostly used filters still haven't got the hang of smudging, and brushes.

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png


#10 Nazgul07

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Posted 29 March 2011 - 14:16

nice, however it is not sharp enough, the border... never make a border thicker then 2px, I usually do all of mine 1 px, not blurred ane either black or white, never a colour :) here is what I just did with the same render:

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it might not be the best however I'm sure it can help a bit, here is the .XCF if you want to download it:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9TE96YH7

#11 Mao

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Posted 29 March 2011 - 17:50

Thank you Nazgul, and very nice avatar I really like it. I just got the Xcf went looking through your layers, and happen to find out how you were changing the layers with opacity. I'll be trying another avatar tonight, thanks again. :)

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png


#12 Mao

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 14:07

Another one added present for Amber. :) I used G'mic, and had another version of the background made up with it being much brighter, and I had a bunch of colorful bubbles floating around. I also duplicated the render twice, and blur two of them outwards then set the Optic to around 40-70% on each of them, took the 3rd render, and sharpened it. The background I just played around using G'mic for the first time. I don't remember what exactly I did, but I kept switching it up till I felt comfortable with it. Looking for any tips on how to use G'mic a lot of options to play with, along with the combined filters of gimp. Still working on gaussian blur.

Mao2_zpsd2e6a8ef.png



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