Beketov

Hey look it's me! I like the idea behind the effects and stuff you have going on but the execution could just be a tad better. get some curves and exposure layers in there to blend everything together a little more and I think it would help a lot. The effects blend well into the render but the text and the BG stick out like sore thumbs. Ideally I always look at sigs as "could this be a taken photo if physics went wonky and text appeared in thin air" It sounds weird but it works. basically what I mean is that you want to see effects but you also want to have everything seem like it occupies the same space. Proper exposure and depth is the best way to do this. That was a bit longer than I was planning on that but oh well. Aside from the above I would suggest blending the text a bit more, having the lighting effect the render a bit more (curves layers clipped to the render help a lot with this) and darkening the whole thing up a little bit so that the lighting and effects really pop.

Tim made some really valid points above so I'm going to try and give different things you can work on. The render placement is definitely of major concern though so follow his tips regarding that. My main concerns with that aside is the colouring and the text. More advanced concepts can come later but getting good colour flow and text can really take sigs up a level. First off, use colours that mesh well together and make sure that they don't contrast too much. Right now the BG in this has a pink and orange thing going on (where it isn't way over-exposed at least) and the render is green. This confuses the eye and makes it hard to pin down a focal point unless you give it another way to do so. It's a matter of knowing what works so that you can branch out into techniques that normally shouldn't like crazy colours. For this one I would suggest using some exposure layers to blend everything together a bit better and maybe using different stokes or re-covering the ones you did use so that the work better with the render. Remember, it's not about using the exact same colour but rather about using colours that look good together. The text, as mentioned, is my other main issue. The font choice is iffy but that's low on the concerning factor. What I want to bring up is the placement and the effects. Putting text in the corner of a sig makes it look like an afterthought and it draws attention away from the render. Both are big no-noes. Get the text higher up and more over the render to make it work well with your render choice. Effects are trickier to master but a good rule of thumb is to avoid the effects window (at least I think that's what its called, I don't use it). That's where you got the stroke and emboss effects from. Those effects have their uses but they should not be put on text IMO. It just makes things look awkward. Go for clean text and work with colours, stocks, lighting, blending, etc to make it pop more. These effects do nothing but make me distracted.

Effects and colours are on point, as I would expect from you. Everything blends really well together except the face. i see what you were going for with the B&W head and it works a lot of the time but I find it sticks out a lot in this one. I think it's because of how much the other colours in the piece pop so desaturation really stands out. I would think if you want B&W to work there maybe play with a curves layer to help bring the brightness of his head down in line to match the other parts of the piece. I would also get the left side of the sig a tad bit more out of focus so it plays with the depth as well as the right does but I get GFX boners for blurring so that's probably why.

It would have been pretty darn easy to change the spelling. However making a Czech player and using an English spelling of the name didn't seem to make any sense to me. Besides, are you really complaining about ease of pronouncing my name? I'm one of the few members who finds European names that AREN'T impossible to say haha.

Very solid first game of my career, I'll take it.

I do what I can :)

I've known this was coming for a bit now but it feels nice to finally see it. I enjoyed my time with Cologne, just as I enjoyed my time with the many teams I was apart of over the past 8 seasons; however it just feels right to come back to the team that drafted me for one final cup run. I want to thank everyone in Cologne for 1.5 great seasons and Greg especially for giving me a chance to compete, especially with Helsinki. Now to see if I can end my career on a high.

It's officially Monday the 7th which means it's time for me to finally let Miller go. This was the first time I've ever had a player go all 8 seasons so it was a hell of a ride. I never got as much TPE as I was hoping but managed to get 825 which is my personal record I believe so I can be happy with that. Also never got any personal awards but that's nothing new. I got my cup, that's what I care about. Thanks to all the teammates that have helped along the way. I did a lot of team jumping so I've played with many of you. It's been a blast to prove I can still create a decent forward, even if I have never managed to figure out how to get more goals than assists haha. Anyway, this is getting too long. New player will be created later today when I'm not on my phone.

I don't have much in the way of textures. Mostly use stocks that you gave awhile ago actually haha. Best I could offer is some PSD's or a tutorial

If you want any of my things for the pack (for some reason) give me a shout and I'll donate. As far as what I'd like to see, anything from you should be pretty awesome.

If this generation for us was any indication it wouldn't be much of a battle TPE wise haha

I guess so? Although usually it's goaltender in hockey and goalkeeper in soccer. In any case, yeah, I'm going goalie. Shouldn't be too shocking. Aside from White I have always gone back and forth between forward and goal.

I think my internet slang is lacking a bit...

For my next player who's coming tomorrow.

Even longer since the last time I made a sig on my macbook but I was on a bus so it got the job done haha. CnC?

2 spaces has been fucking me up since we changed it. I got very comfortable with smacking return twice to great paragraphs long before you were even here. I demand 1 space back!

I don't know anything about PC's so try some of the stuff suggested to you by others first. However, if you need warranty work done what you do is call the company up, Acer in this case, and they'll send you a shipping box. You pack he computer up in that and ship it to them. Generally it's all pre-labelled so the shipping is free. They'll fix it and send it back. Thats how I handle all my warranty work. Almost never worth it to get one of the Best Buy ones or whatever because they usually don't add much. It's convenient sure but they love to find ways out of helping you so you pay a bunch extra to barely get anything. Better to deal direct with the company.

4+1

I don't much like the idea of it being a competition where people get a "winner" badge. Especially in GFX I feel as if it would be the same people winning every week which isn't fair. I do like the idea of the bonus point for following a topic. My only worry would be if it results in every PT being basically the same in a given week and 590's becoming worthless.

In my day we only got 4 TPE from PT's and we bloody well had to earn it! Damn yungins these days just want everything handed to them! *grumble grumble grumble* I just hope people don't use this as an excuse to get stagnant and not try to improve their work any. Is the grading team allowed to keep an eye on progress as part of our judgement if the piece deserves full points? I just wouldn't want to see GFX makers stop trying to do new things or get better because they can get 6's no matter what.

4+1

Effort 2/2: Effort looks spot on. Look 3/3: I really really like this actually. Depth is great, text is great, lighting is spot on, blurring is done well. I find his stick stands out a bit too much, would like to see that removed or covered but it's not worth docking over. Well done. Creativity 1/1: Definitely. Overall: 6/6 Final: 6/6

Effort 2/2: Yup, I can see the effort Look 2.5/3: First off, I like what you did with colour. The red with teal-grey works really well. I do agree with Boub's that if you wanted to go with clouds you should have committed to it a bit more, especially on the left side, but it looks good. The lighting could be a little more concentrated, his face looks a bit washed out as is, but overall well done. Creativity 1/1: Yup Overall 5.5/6 Final: 6/6

Effort 1.5/2: I see 5, maybe 6 layers here with no effort to make them work together. Sorry but that isn't enough. Look 1.5/3: Para hit the nail on the head for render effects and you asked for text advise so that's what I'm going to give you. Refer to the above grade for the other issues. A good text starts with good positioning, this isn't it. The render should always be a sig's focal point so moving the text away from the render draws the eye away as well. Get the text in close. Even if it covers the render a bit or gets covered a bit that's okay as long as you can read it. Second, blend it in a bit. My text layers are always very near my render in the layer order, maybe 4 layers away from it at most. The closer they are together, the more they will be blended together. Putting text on near the end means all the effects and blending of the sig are underneath it and, thus, in the BG. It makes the text stand out. Clipping masks, lighting, brushing, all these things can help to make text catch the eye while still keeping it blended so try out different things and see what you can do. Text is always the trickiest part of a piece but that doesn't men it should just be slapped on and accepted however it turns out. Creativity 1/1: Sure Overall 4/6 Final: 4/6