Some of my latest works

[Protoss_Honor]

Here is my most recent works, from the past few weeks or so.

These I made by using a sig tutorial for Gimp, with some extra's thrown in. The solid orange line around the ship, and the orange tint on the ship is shielding, I was trying to make it look like the shields were deflecting or absorbing the heat. The orange and white cloudy stuff and orange and white wavy line stuff around and on the ship is explosions. The big red/yellow/orange thing the ship is heading for is a huge explosion in space.
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/425/explosionstars45.jpg
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/5305/explosionstars4.jpg
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/8632/explosionstars42.jpg
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/6772/explosionstars418ll.jpg
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/1964/explosionstars422ul.jpg
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/642/explosionstars41.jpg
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/6295/explosionstars3.jpg
http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/8940/explosionstars4220ku.jpg
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/4204/explosionstars4217tn.jpg
http://img422.imageshack.us/img422/7922/explosionstars4114hr.jpg
http://img422.imageshack.us/img422/8571/explosionstars430jj.jpg
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/678/explosionstars2.jpg

Yeah I'm addicted to Legend of Zelda, can you tell?
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/474/thelegendofprotosshonor6av.jpg
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5002/thelegendofprotosshonor49ap.jpg
http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/7741/thelegendofprotosshonor410ba.jpg

F-117A Nighthawk's are one of my two most favorite aircraft. The SR-71 Blackbird is my other favorite one, but I haven't found a good render of one yet. And I couldn't find a good backround for it, and jpegs don't do transparency, so I made the backround color the same as Warboards so it would seem transparent.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3044/f117a17ud.jpg

I finally found a semi-okay render of the Enterprise, just in time for Holo to make me a sig that totally blows my attempts outta space. In hindsite, I think adding a shadow to a ship that is supposedly going at warp speeds was stupid, as Warp speed is faster than light. But whatever.
http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/9296/entesig9ga.jpg
http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/8215/enterprisee20hg.jpg
http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/5439/enterprisee27qr.jpg



Alot of pics you say? I like making changes to my work then saving for later possible use, and for showing off various stages and designs and stuff like that. By the way, none of the pictures are in any particular order, so it's not like i am showing how it progressed from start to finish or anything like that. I just picked them randomly on image shack and pasted them in the order I had them hosted. If you see any duplicates of waht seems to be the exact same picture, tell me, and I will fix it, I tried to get rid of all the duplicates, but I may have missed one or two.

So, opinions, criticisms, praises, comments, tips, suggestions, C&C, anyone?

[Markpyro]

The first one with the ship moving away from the exploding star looks nice, considering you used a free program. I've never used gimp, but I think you could still make the background-white stars look a little more realistic, possibly blur them a bit and add more with different opacity and brightness.

As for your Zelda sigs, i have to say the text looks really ugly. On such a blurred background, I suggest not blurring the text as well and letting it stay sharp and crisp, same goes for the insignia above the text. The background is rather dull, but I'm not sure what to suggest as far as how to spoof it up. Possibly make a new background? Lastly, The two photos of link should be more defined. They are just... there, and it doesnt make the image exciting nor do they draw your eyes to themselves. Either dont blur them or add a stroke or glow or make them brighter so they stand out.

For your enterprise sigs, let me start on the photo. The ship still looks very copy-paste and poorly... how should I say... cut from its original photo. Try blurring the outside just barely so that there arent any remnant pixels from it's previous image. Also, the image is quite small, and like your previous images, it doesnt really draw my attention to it. It looks amazingly flat on top of a varied-looking surface, try lowering the opacity. The background of the image doesnt really fit, and it is really the only exciting part of the piece. Lastly, I cant say that I like the font, but it doesnt degrade the image.


Overall, I have to say that you've improved from other images I've seen of yours, but you still need to work on making the elements of your artwork work together.

[Protoss_Honor]

The first one with the ship moving away from the exploding star looks nice, considering you used a free program. I've never used gimp, but I think you could still make the background-white stars look a little more realistic, possibly blur them a bit and add more with different opacity and brightness.Yeah, that was one of my hardest problems, either I had too many stars, or not enough stars. I obviously couldn't solve the problem. I will try your suggestion.

As for your Zelda sigs, i have to say the text looks really ugly. On such a blurred background, I suggest not blurring the text as well and letting it stay sharp and crisp, same goes for the insignia above the text. The background is rather dull, but I'm not sure what to suggest as far as how to spoof it up. Possibly make a new background? Lastly, The two photos of Zelda should be more defined. They are just... there, and it doesnt make the image exciting nor do they draw your eyes to themselves. Either dont blur them or add a stroke or glow or make them brighter so they stand out.Those are images of Link actually, but yeah I thought the sigs were not all that good either. And I didn't blur the Links, I actually sharpened them some because the original render was much larger. They are blurred because they are jpgs. Which text is better in your opinion? the Protoss_Honor with the glow and bevel and stuff? or the Legend of Protoss_Honor that is flat and plain? And wow, how did it get so blurred? jpgs are evil, but they keep the image size small.

For your enterprise sigs, let me start on the photo. The ship still looks very copy-paste and poorly... how should I say... cut from its original photo. Try blurring the outside just barely so that there arent any remnant pixels from it's previous image. Also, the image is quite small, and like your previous images, it doesnt really draw my attention to it. It looks amazingly flat on top of a varied-looking surface, try lowering the opacity. The background of the image doesnt really fit, and it is really the only exciting part of the piece. Lastly, I cant say that I like the font, but it doesnt degrade the image.I noticed that also about the cut and paste look. it is so hard to render an image well. For me anyway. That is one reason I decided to try and give it a warp blur look, to blend it more. Lower opacity of the image? or the backround?

Overall, I have to say that you've improved from other images I've seen of yours, but you still need to work on making the elements of your artwork work together.What about the F-117A?


okay, for future information, everything is blurred because it is jpg. As png or bmp, the smallest is at least 30 kbs, and the largest proly over 100 kbs. If you know how to retain quality, but keep it within the size limit, that would be great. One thing I could do I guess is sharpen them alot then let the jpg tone it down some.

[Markpyro]

Those are images of Link actually
Whoops X_x, I knew that. Zelda == princess, no?

Which text is better in your opinion? the Protoss_Honor with the glow and bevel and stuff? or the Legend of Protoss_Honor that is flat and plain?
I prefer flat, and also, change the text color. It might not stand out as much, but red doesnt compliment the image. I'd suggest more, but I've never used Gimp. Gogo Photoshop.

Lower opacity of the image? or the backround?
Lower the opacity of the image. I dunno, it really depends, sometimes you can find a better background that goes well with a seperate image, and sometimes you have to play with it. Fiddle around; Try changing the hue or contrast or do some brushing around the outside.

If you know how to retain quality, but keep it within the size limit, that would be great.
I've always had good luck with .png's, I'm surprised that they're that big. I wouldnt expect bmp's to be low in size, but jpegs are usually much smaller while retaining the same quality. I'm not sure what to reccomend here, have you tried .gif yet?

[Protoss_Honor]

Nope, I though gif was animations. you can use it for unanimated pics also? and it is small? thats good.
Yeah, Zelda is the princess, and I will do as you suggested about the font color and backround.