Graeme's Signature Thread

[MotherGraham~]

Heh, seeing how we haven't got a graphics sub-forum (and probably won't for a time as we have a sheer amount of graphic 'artists'), I thought I'd post mine here. I'll keep it updated regularly and post in here whenever I've made one. Constructive criticism is always welcome, of course.
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Two recent ones:

Sotw theme - Films
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9176/moviessotw.png

Sotw theme - Black & White
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2825/siggybattle.png
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Some older ones:

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/babe14graeme.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/graemebabecopy.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/babe13.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/binair-1.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/babe16.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/gothicsetting.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/lightningsig.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/skull.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/Signature1212.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/popcopy.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/graemezor.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/Garrussig.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/siggy2copy.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/siggy1copy.png

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/graemesiggy.png

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9105/sotwgraeme.png

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3933/mysig.png

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4949/dragonsig.png

[MotherGraham~]

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/5251/deadspacesotw1.png

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/8374/demonsig1.png

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8724/signature1y.gif

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5738/user203030pic7425127686.png

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5030/sotwswsharpened.png

[pigarmy]

very nice

[Steph]

Wow, those are really cool.

Got some sexy ladies in there too I notice, haha.

[Lance]

They're all pretty excellent Graeme :D I LOVE that Templar one though, that's just plain awesome

[Diachron]

Wow, these are amazing. Love the Garrus one.

[MyNameDidntFit]

The Black & White one stands out as really the only exceptional one there, to me. The background is simple to accentuate the render, the sparing use of the glow effects adds a nice touch and the snow/sparkle 'blending' (for want of a better word) works really well with the render -- even if I'm not a fan of the blurring at the edge of it :p

The majority of the others look like very basic backgrounds on poorly to reasonably blended renders, or cropped stocks, with text that looks like it was an afterthought to my eye.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but it's how I've always 'critiqued' GFX work. I'd say in more detail my thoughts on more of them, but there are too many :p


... this also reminds me that I should put some of my work up here some time...

[MotherGraham~]

Thanks guys. And no problem MNDF; I love C&C. Most of the ones in the OP (spare the top ones) are old ones. At least, the ones that were on my PB account. I've got some on my other computer that're pretty nice too. I've improved much in the meantime.

My favourite ones would be the rainbow-styled one and black&white.


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9105/sotwgraeme.png

I actually won the SOTW with that one over at FF. :lol:

Beside that, the babe ones are all stocks, nothing special. And the remaining ones, I thought, were too much of the same, grunge-y style.

[MyNameDidntFit]

For a second I thought you were telling me you loved Command & Conquer. Was so confused :p



I'll assume this is the rainbow-styled one?
http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu242/James_Hough/graemezor.png
The background is quite nice but, to me, sharpening of renders when you're trying to blend them -- especially when you sharpen and blend beyond the edges -- looks... bad. That's just me, though. The border is also an issue for me; it's way too bright and attention-getting -- you want peoples' attentions on your render/focal, not on the 2px line around the edge.

The Templar one is quite good too, I'm going to throw out a guess and say that the background is a stock and the Templar is a separate render? If you used a small blur eraser on the white line that's on certain parts of his body (right arm, bottom of shield, etc) I think he'd fit in a bit nicer without blending too much. The simplicity of it is definitely good, though -- rays of light are a great touch to go with the background and theme of the whole signature and, for some reason, I've always been a fan of the 'text on a band' style.

[MotherGraham~]

Actually, the entire signature was sharpened; not just the render. And personally, I don't think the border is too bright, and it doesn't distract me either. Of course it's mere preference and personal taste.

As for the Templar one, I'd have to agree. I think it was poorly done in overall, and wasn't blended at all, in-fact. The background is a stock, yes. Someone at FileFront (Victoria, a.k.a. Floydian1) takes awesome screenshots of in-game modifications (that she makes herself) and spends hours working on the screenshots. She has a huge collection of them (I believe 49 pages by now).

[MyNameDidntFit]

Actually, the entire signature was sharpened; not just the render.

Aye, but there's a certain effect of sharpening renders that makes their edges stand out ridiculously and I don't actively recall any instances where I've thought that effect looked even OK. Perhaps it's just me, but then that describes 99% of any graphical work >.>