Hey guys,looking at adam's GFX and also mine i was talking to him about blending and making sure the render fits with the background.
If you would like to achieve better looking results just read below,and if you have any questions just ask me,Nancy(Aventura'),Luneth or any other GFXr's on the forum.
Rule 1: Color/Size
Whenever you are making a wallpaper,emblem,avatar or signature you should think about what size is appropriate. If your doing a wallpaper you should consider anywhere between 1440x900 through 800x600. If you are having trouble finding your desktop resolution you can right click on your desktop>customize>resolution there you should see your size. Now the color. What's cool about this part is that you can choose any color you want,so be creative! Trying mixing some standard colors to adjust the flow of your design. Its not really a good idea to stick to one color. People want something visualy creative,not some obscure one color everywhere. Again feel free to ask in a reply for help.
Rule 2: Renders!
Renders are objects which are cut to show only the object itself and nothing else. Also if you want to avoid finding non renders you should look for your render with the extension .png. This is crucial to an actual render. When putting your render on the background you shouldn't stretch it out to much because it will either lose quality or look oblong(weird). If your looking for a render site to the link section at the end of the thread to check it out.
Rule 3: Don't touch that!
A mistake alot of people make is editing too much. Which can make your effort go into the trash. The common mistake is effects. Too many effects ruin the GFX. The art of the design doesn't have to be difficult to look professional. And sticking with one render is fine if it isn't two people renders. For example if i wanted a Naruto render i wouldn't add a whole different Saskue render. The point of this rule is to play it safe! Stick to the basics and keep it simple.
Rule 4: Layers
If you already know about layers and changing to soft/hard light then you can skip this rule.
With layers you have the ability to manipulate the GFX. Look at my signature,the blur in the background matching with the clear C4D in the front of the GFX shows depth and placement. When i did that part i had to make sure that the render i wanted to push back was under the render and over the background. The cool thing was the blur part(it's fun to do). The blur should be added to the C4D in the back to add depth. Also the blurred C4D had to be sized down. Now onto Soft/Hard light effects. Soft like is usualy done with a light image and a dark image to mix the two. It's hard to explain how it works but i'll try my best. If you have an image with a black and white gradient in one layer ontop of a layer with standard blue color, then put the gradient layer with soft light on it will blend the two to look like one image and make the blue layer has a gradient. Same with hard light except it fits better with lighter images.
Rule 5: Borders
Probably my most used edit in photoshop. I literally use it for every image because it looks nice. If your curious as to how to make a border follow these steps.
1. Make a layer
2. Take your bucket tool and fill the whole canvas with any color
3. Once the canvas is full go to 'fill' and turn it to 0%
4. Right click layer and go to blender or blending options
5. Once your there go to Stroke>Inside>choose a number to fit the border size then find a color
6. You have now made an awesome border!
More Rules soon.
Links:
Bakarenders.com
Renderplanet.com
