first sig in probably 6 years lol

[8Ovechkin8 262]

[Gustav 6,418]

I'm certainly jealous because if I take a month off from sigs they go way downhill (and I've done much more than a month off lately)...

 

Whenever someone comes back, or when I see older sigs in general, I feel like the style has evolved over time and what we've done to make sigs over the past few years is way different from how it used to be done. I'm wondering if you could give me any insight on what you did to blend the background in with your render and how you got the lighting to work the way it does--I certainly couldn't pull off either with what I know!

[Frank 5,211]

[Victor 10,942]

yo it's the don himself

[frescoelmo 1,276]

better than any sig i ever made

[Anthique 221]

In 6 years? Wow! Can we see something before you stop?

[8Ovechkin8 262]

On 6/2/2022 at 12:09 AM, Gustav said:

I'm certainly jealous because if I take a month off from sigs they go way downhill (and I've done much more than a month off lately)...

 

Whenever someone comes back, or when I see older sigs in general, I feel like the style has evolved over time and what we've done to make sigs over the past few years is way different from how it used to be done. I'm wondering if you could give me any insight on what you did to blend the background in with your render and how you got the lighting to work the way it does--I certainly couldn't pull off either with what I know!

 Blending is a lot of just trial and error. Stock images at different blend levels, erasing what doesn't work keeping what does, keeping a similar theme etc. It's all the process to try to get things to blend and look natural. As for lighting, I do a lot of just simple brushing with bright colors, then put the layer on linear light/lighten/screen/overlay just depending on the mood of the graphic, then erase what doesn't work. You have to be careful with it though. If you do too much of it, it can wash your graphic out a ton. I've fallen victim to that multiple times so its important to not over do it. I have no idea what a newer style of sig looks like so I'm out here whippin stuff together in my couple hours of free time haha

 

 

On 6/2/2022 at 6:11 PM, Anthique said:

In 6 years? Wow! Can we see something before you stop?

I wish I had some of my old stuff tbh. I think most of it is on an old computer than I may not have access too. I'll lurk around though and see what I come up with! 

 

This is one of the only ones I've been able to find.

 

[Gustav 6,418]

30 minutes ago, 8Ovechkin8 said:

Blending is a lot of just trial and error. Stock images at different blend levels, erasing what doesn't work keeping what does, keeping a similar theme etc. It's all the process to try to get things to blend and look natural. As for lighting, I do a lot of just simple brushing with bright colors, then put the layer on linear light/lighten/screen/overlay just depending on the mood of the graphic, then erase what doesn't work. You have to be careful with it though. If you do too much of it, it can wash your graphic out a ton. I've fallen victim to that multiple times so its important to not over do it. I have no idea what a newer style of sig looks like so I'm out here whippin stuff together in my couple hours of free time haha

 

To preface/clarify a bit: I'm not at all a sig master, so excuse me if what I'm saying makes me sound like an idiot.

 

If I had to guess I'd say that "newer style" is a bit less focused on brushing for the lighting--a lot of what I see (and a lot of what I've done) tends to rely on the stocks themselves for lighting, with more of an emphasis placed on making the player fit in with the stocks and the background used rather than creating light, more than just making brighter/darker parts of the sig.

 

For example, probably the best sig I made before I stopped for a very long time is this, and the lighting is still off (excuse the awful text):

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that your background/all the stuff around your player IS the light source, while in mine the light source is just assumed to be somewhere else off screen. I don't have the experience to back it up, but I feel like I've seen that a lot more in older members' work (as well as in a lot of sigs that get dragged up from years ago). And there's nothing I see as significantly better or worse about either way, but the "old way" is something I have no idea how to do (though now I guess I'll have to try it!)