New Banner for my Gaming Guild Forum

Hello everyone. As you all probably don't know, I posted a thread in the Free MMORPG section talking about starting guilds in Dragonica and Dragon Nest. I pooped out a random banner the first time around, but this time I came back and remastered a completely different one. I also plan on reposting a completely new thread about the guild, since there have been many changes since I let the thread die.

I'd like some comments on this banner please.

Constructive criticism is also lovely.

Duo

http://i39.tinypic.com/i4mom9.png

Note: This is a work in progress of my new banner. I have yet to decide what else I should do to it.

im not the greatest photoshopper but ill put in my 2 cents..

the font on top looks a bit funny and i dont fully understand what you mean by at your ready...might be a typo dunno though...

i love the green backround and the design on it

that design in the middle of the page above the word freestyle looks pretty weird as if it doesnt blend in well with the rest of the image


other than that its pretty kickass...i love the freestyle text and its placement

and maybe add a border to make it look purrtier

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Originally Posted by TheWiseGuy

im not the greatest photoshopper but ill put in my 2 cents..

the font on top looks a bit funny and i dont fully understand what you mean by at your ready...might be a typo dunno though...

i love the green backround and the design on it

that design in the middle of the page above the word freestyle looks pretty weird as if it doesnt blend in well with the rest of the image


other than that its pretty kickass...i love the freestyle text and its placement

and maybe add a border to make it look purrtier

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Thanks for the comments.

To explain the "At your ready," that is intented to be the slogan of Freestyle. I personally believe that "At your ready, Freestyle" sounds better than "Freestyle, at your ready," so I placed "At your ready" on top.

You are correct, the image inside of the design is not supposed to match the background. I have a different version that uses the background itself as the filler, but I felt that it was too bland and repetitive. I can upload it as a comparison though.

I would add a border, but this is going to be a banner on a forum site that will have a black background, so the border is made by the forum itself.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, there's a reason beyond not looking bland that I'm after with the different design fill. If you notice, the background on the left side is dark and it progressively gets lighter as it moves to the right. Inside the design, it is dark on the right and progressively gets lighter towards the left. Basically, the brightness is working against itself from design to background. The wind is supposed to flow with the wind carrying the leaves in the background, as well the cross intersecting Free and Style.

its not that its ugly the design its just i think the outer glow and the...bevel doesnt really look that good on it either...if you dont mind can you try taking off the bevel and maybe putting a light green stroke on that design

"At your ready" makes no sense to me. Sounds like something you'd get out of google translator, or just a bad translation. Maybe I just dont know english as well as I think I do....

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Originally Posted by Duo

@Serix: I said constructive criticism, not insults to the manufacture behind the image I presented. I AM a novice photoshopper. Having made less than 30 passable signatures and avatars (to my own eyes), I probably only know 20% of what I can do with photoshop. I only discovered the brush for the wind effect today.

Evanescent is a font I discovered only a few months ago. I have never seen it used in other images and slogans, thus I chose to use it believing that it would be an original construction. Again, proving my novice skills in the field of image creation.

Bevel and contour is a feature that I have not learned to put down yet. I do not know how to do effects at a magnitude of Cereal&Milk's creations, and I believe that leaving an image purely unedited is worse than adding some meat to the content.

I also cannot stand having just a background and just a text box. It is far too plain for me to be able to click Ctrl + S without sending shivers down my spine.

I do not understand if you are a professional graphic artist, but please understand that our tastes are most likely different.

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You've presented me with quite an oxymoron. Harsh criticism usually yields the best results. But I must say, you've made more signatures and avatars than I have, kudos.

Evanescent has been around since Evanescence's Fallen album, I saw when the font came out, and I saw the wave that it brought with it as one of the most popular fonts on the web. Drawnzer uses it repeatedly in ****** his own signatures, which has grown to annoy me.

I'd suggest you mess with blending modes on beveling, keep your designs as sharp as possible. The wind effect used on its own doesn't make a pretty sight, again, blending modes are effective at adding depth and tonality.
But sometimes simplicity is really so much better than clustered mismatching elements.

In degrees of skills and devotion I am in no way a professional graphic designer, unless we go by technical terms because I do get paid for most of my designs. But even so, differing tastes aren't an excuse for badly rendered effects.

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Originally Posted by Serix

You've presented me with quite an oxymoron. Harsh criticism usually yields the best results. But I must say, you've made more signatures and avatars than I have, kudos.

Evanescent has been around since Evanescence's Fallen album, I saw when the font came out, and I saw the wave that it brought with it as one of the most popular fonts on the web. Drawnzer uses it repeatedly in ****** his own signatures, which has grown to annoy me.

I'd suggest you mess with blending modes on beveling, keep your designs as sharp as possible. The wind effect used on its own doesn't make a pretty sight, again, blending modes are effective at adding depth and tonality.
But sometimes simplicity is really so much better than clustered mismatching elements.

In degrees of skills and devotion I am in no way a professional graphic designer, unless we go by technical terms because I do get paid for most of my designs. But even so, differing tastes aren't an excuse for badly rendered effects.

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I guess different tastes is not a synonym to "experimentation." Excuse my poor terminology.

I have messed with the blending modes of beveling. By sharp, I do not know if you are refering to sharp as in edged, or sharp as in looking good because of being a smooth balance. I agree that simplicity is sometimes the proper replacement for over glorified image editing. It seems that I have tried too hard on this one.

I did not know the history of Evanescent font. Then again, ignorance is no excuse is it? I will still use the font, overused background or not. As I stated to someone who was picking a class for an MMORPG, "it's only overused if you pick it just because everyone else is, or for any other reason beyond your own will." Not a direct quote, but the idealogy is not different. I chose the font out of dozens and found it to match the meaning behind "at your ready" that seems to need to fall under some change as well. I don't believe you would be interested in the theories behind my title, slogan, and font selection, for you have already run away from my guild after seeing such a horrific rendering of photoshop.

Harsh criticism usually does wield the best results. I will admit that I am already working on editing the banner, but by my own guidance. It seems that quantity will never replace quality in this world.

UPDATE: Performed some minor edits on the banner. Font style for "At your ready" has been changed, bevel has been lessened on all objects besides the design frame. Wind effect has been removed after discovering questionable effectiveness in reflecting both meaning and good looking graphics.

Some things that won't change: Font of "Freestyle." The background. The overall green theme.

Still determining the necessity of the design and fill.

"at your ready" makes sense to me 0.o
Well, I've heard the term used several times, anyways.
I fail at art so my opinion here really doesn't matter, cause I think EVERYTHING looks good lol
but I totally love the whole dark to light thing!

You say your taste in fonts and such are quite different from Serix. Well, if you're going to try to attract other people into your guild, you're going to have to be in favor of what they like, not what you like.

Also, if I had to say anything, Serix spoke for me.

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Originally Posted by Xynh

You say your taste in fonts and such are quite different from Serix. Well, if you're going to try to attract other people into your guild, you're going to have to be in favor of what they like, not what you like.

Also, if I had to say anything, Serix spoke for me.

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Isn't that such a simple thing to grasp when everyone only thinks from their own mind? I can fire your own words back at you and say that, as an individual, it is impossible for me to understand the tastes of everyone that will pass by my image, so I did my best by putting in everything I had - people should understand that and accept it for what it is. Ha, what a stupid thought to ask for understanding from strangers. To satisfy the entire public is impossible, so the least I can do is satisfy myself while minimizing negative aftermath. You also make it sound as if Serix's tastes are the "correct" ones, as if there exists no one in this world that holds similar tastes as my own. If I were to ask someone who likes all the aspects of my banner to post their opinion on the matter, he/she would say that you have poor taste and a sharp tongue that has no appreciation for other people's taste, quite like how you have supported the view that my tastes are flawed.

It's all based on perspective. If I chose a perspective that is less favorable, then shame on me and shame on society. I also don't see what saying "I agree with Serix" contributes to the overall analysis of the image I presented. Your failure to even address the updated version of the image I posted forces me to believe that you simply posted in order to weed a reply out of me such as the one I am typing now.

"Silly Duo, he's obviously going to post back with the same silly counterargument everyone gives by throwing my words in my face."

Perhaps if you would follow your own advice and extend it beyond the world of photoshopping banners, you could understand that I have already attempted to satisfy the tastes of others by even caring to edit the work I spent an unspoken amount of time on to better suit whatever tastes may exist out there. The effort obviously goes unnoticed, but based on your own words, you seem to have contradicted yourself by not making a post that would suit my tastes. I ask you to edit your post into language, content, and tone that I accept. If you cannot read those words without faltering your emotional state, then don't bother posting again.

Oh, and if you think that it will be clever to say that my post also ignores what you think a good forum post should look like, then let me slap a "Duo knows, and Duo doesn't think that any amount of editing will be able to perfectly match the taste of a single person on this forum."

It seems like the late night is getting to my head. I have probably said more than I needed to, but then again, it will be quite interesting to read my own words when I look at them at my own changed perspective.

At your ready,
Duo

Cereal does not want!
And that is all I am willing to type out with a SIXAXIS.

I think people will like it more once they see what it looks like on your forum with the border on it and everything, because atm without that it looks good, but unfinished.

oh and though this is offtopic Duo, i wanted to ask you (if you made that gif in your sig anyways) what program you used to convert video formats to gif.. thanks ^_^!

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Originally Posted by Cereal&Milk

Cereal does not want!
And that is all I am willing to type out with a SIXAXIS.

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You just made my morning.


Duo, you need to learn to take criticism, not going to bother throwing words out into the void with you anymore.

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Originally Posted by Serix

You just made my morning.


Duo, you need to learn to take criticism, not going to bother throwing words out into the void with you anymore.

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I believe that I already know how to take criticism, given that I have already edited my banner addressing some of the basic things you pointed out, such as the font choice of "at your ready," the wind effect, and the bevel.

Just because I haven't edited it further doesn't mean that I don't plan on making more adjustments. This is going to require a big change that I'm not going to jump into randomly like what I did with this banner by throwing in a random design on a nice background and fiddling with the images a little.

I admit I was an *** last night, but I'm capable of change and accepting criticism as well. I will be working on making a new banner. The only things that will definitely stay are the current background behind the design. I'm considering changing the font of Freestyle, but I do not know if I will.

UPDATE: New font for Freestyle selected. It looks somewhat similar to Evanescent, but it seems like my font simply being that overused look was the main problem, so I believe the problem is resolved by choosing a similar, but different, font. Design and Design Fill have been completely removed.

I have a better idea that just hit me. Rather than combining random pictures with the techniques that I used, why not just use those techniques from the background itself?

Hopefully this new edit will satisfy you guys. I'll be done with it tonight.

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Originally Posted by Naitomea

I think people will like it more once they see what it looks like on your forum with the border on it and everything, because atm without that it looks good, but unfinished.

oh and though this is offtopic Duo, i wanted to ask you (if you made that gif in your sig anyways) what program you used to convert video formats to gif.. thanks ^_^!

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It does look better on the forum than on a plain white background, but there is no graphical feature of the forum that can turn the disaster I created into something that's good looking. The edit I plan on doing will be much more simplified, but at the same time, better looking.

The programs I use to convert video into GIF are Sony Vegas and Adobe Image Ready. I use Sony Vegas to convert .avi into .mov. Last time I tried to open a .avi file with Adobe Image Ready, it denied me and said that it could only read .mov video files, but when I tried it with this signature I made, it could load a .avi, so maybe you can get away with just using Adobe Image Ready.

To be completely accurate, the programs are Sony Vegas 8.0c and Adobe Image Ready CS2.

I'd also like to say, if I offended Serix or Xynh in anyway, I'd like to apologize ahead of time. Letting a simple photoshop job and some stabs from the public get to me was my mistake.

It looks alright I guess, for a forum it should be transparent rather than have a green background with brushes on it. If you keep it then when you put it on said forum it'll clash with the background colours.

Here we go, a work in progress of my new banner.

Comments please, I'm going to put this in my main post as well.

http://i39.tinypic.com/28wkle8.png

Isn't it a bit thick vertically?

naturiso chakusika naruso tinaka achicho san muy ah vey do tanisho.:D
[TRANSLATION:I have no ide why i am here at all.O_o]

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Originally Posted by Duo

I wanted the leaves to stick out, so I guess it is a little fat vertically. Perhaps if I made the inside of the text flat, it will look a little more graceful.

@Cereal: I made it huge because this is going at the top of a website. I'm not putting it in a signature.

Guess I can't satisfy your text style yet, bevel is at 5% and turned green to brighten the leaves, and I used no filter for light.

Update: I merged the leaf layer to the background and made too far progress to revert it, so I'm going to start over. Notice I didn't comment on your comment on my shadow, because I agree with it. I don't know what I'm supposed to do about the lighting since it's pretty much at default.

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The glare on my monitor had made the orbs look like lighting filters. At any rate, if you're going for a website look, then large, unsightly banners are usually a turn off.

The length of the banner is good, but the width is ridiculous. 250px is too large; try to settle for 200px or less.

Other than the size, I can't really tell you much else without seeing the theme you're matching it with. Want to post your website so I can see the rest of the theme? Maybe I can give you more appropriate feedback then.

would help kk,but im heading to my aunts wedding and away from my Pc so i cant do it>_>

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Originally Posted by Duo

Guess the internet really is serious business. How trivial that one image and over 9,000 words can piss off people so easily.

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fixed xD lol



xD

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Originally Posted by Duo

I thought you'd have something more important to say than that.

I take back my last post.

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Nice, now you're a hypocrite for responding to my post after posting this.

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Back to more important things than having random people on the internet get pissed at me.

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I do hope that involves reading some photoshop tutorials.

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Oh, and nice ego Serix.

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Thank you, I've worked hard on it.

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An artist that can't even maintain his own composure

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When did I lose my composture? You're only grazing on the threshold of fresh hell.

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should probably judge himself before judging a piece of work on photoshop.

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I've judged myself plenty, not that a scrub like you would know anything about that.

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The fact that you can't even take my responses

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I take them and I disintegrate them due to you riddling it with a swamp of shit.

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is just proof for me to think that your posts are full of more crap than a pms'ing cow can give in a day.

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How is that proof? there's absolutely no correlation between my method of responses and the factuality of my statements.
Which I repeat, are completely true.

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Guess the internet really is serious business. How trivial that one image and a few words can piss off people so easily.

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So says the harbinger that couldn't go without moaning about every piece of constructive criticism and taking it like Elton John does.