DarkShadowLink9's Homeroom

[Wired]

Students in Study:
ACCEPTING NEW APPLICANTS!
Moop
Frozen

Hello! And welcome to my (DarkShadowLink9/DSL9) homeroom!
Here you will learn:

• Basic Program [Photoshop]
• Signature Making

Congratulations to you for being chosen to be put into this homeroom and having me as a teacher. I promise that you will learn all that there is to know in Photoshop and how to make signatures by using different styles and different techniques that will suit you!

In my overall experience with Photoshop I have been using it since Feb. 2006. The program I use is obviously Photoshop but my version is CS2. I have also been trained by some very professional people with this program but I still think I have a lot to learn aswell. Here you will be given the proper training and the right kinds of tools you will need to be succesful in your Photoshop desires. I would like to know some of your general background information with Photoshop so please, on your first post do tell. I will be giving out different assignments (as you may already know) and will be following up on them. I am going to say this now: I typically will be harsh on critiquing. It all depends on what type of a level you are at, and you will accordingly be judged by that. If you are ever struggling with something or having a hard time with this please do tell and I will help you out. Contact information is as followed: AIM: Davo8990 MSN/e-mail: davo8990@hotmail.com

I hope you can find your time here beneficial and I hope my students can have an enjoyable time here along with a valuable learning experience. I wish you all the best of luck in your journey ahead into the graphics world, and with that - let's begin.

First Assignment: Creating a Sig
Create any sig to show your ability on Photoshop and your progress in Photoshop. I would like to see what you can do and show me what you did during the process.

[PhantomGanon23]

Hi there, I've made sig's before with photoshop(example is the sig I have now) but I can tell they could be much better... anyways I'm ready to learn from a master so when can we get started? I've been using photoshop for maybe a year but I still don't think i knwo everything about it that I should...

[Wired]

Just checking but did you send in an application?

Ok, now on to your sig. By the looks of it, you have explored Photoshop only a little. You haven't any depth in the sig and its only gradient - picture - text. Ok so I can start at the base of sig making, backgrounds. I have to figure out how I can make this into an assignment so for now, chill out and explore Photoshop on your own.

Edit: Ok, this is what you shall do. On any canvas lower than 400x150 and higher than 350x120 make a background that you would like to use. Keep in mind some basic techniques that you should use: gradients, smudging, and brushes (don't whore it). If you need some more indepth explaination on this then ask me please. That is all. This is going to be a step by step process in building up a sig. While you do this you will learn different techniques as well. Post your results in a separate thread titled [DSL] (name)

[Hyperbadox]

:embrsd: This was the best I could do. It's okay I guess, but I really need to get better.



I have Photoshop 7 and I've had it for a while now. I'm really familiar with most of the tools, but I just got into sig making a couple months ago.

[Wired]

Hmm, actually very nice. I learned PS on 7.0 for the last year and I recently got CS2, but I can help with it anyway. If you think you need to get better, than that is fine with me but I think that sig is great, besides scanlines that are used a little too much.

Anyways, the way I'm going to teach you is by building a sig, from the base up. I have 1 assignments due for it, which is creating a background:

Second Assignment:
Create a background for a sig that is less than 400x150 and more than 350x120 in size. You can use gradients, smudging and brushes and whatever other types of designs or techniques. Also pick a picture you're going to use and have it be something different then a Zelda theme.
Look at this tut on tools to get more info on how to use brushes and using their settings: Tools Tut

[Hyperbadox]

Backgrounds are what I have most trouble with. I'll give this a shot, but let me tell you, I don't have any good brushes.

[Hyperbadox]

Okay... here's my background

And the image I chose is here.

[Wired]

Hm, you might be able to work with that. Try changing the green to some other color, because I don't think it would go good with that picture. If you don't want to change it, you can always see what it looks like later. The size is a good canvas, but you might want to crop it shorter (as in vertical wise) and take the size down to 120. Have you tried adding filters? Go to layer>new adjustment layer>gradient and pick/make a black and white gradient and then mess with the blending options, usually darken/multiply work well with this. Also lower the opacity of that. Try adding more adjustment layers like curves, and gradients and experiment with those until you find something that looks better. Fix and then show me after, and then move onto the next part of the assignments. I'm setting a goal here for students: 25+ layers in this sig. =]

[Moop]

Hey, Ive joined now. Assignment one: see sig. I'll get started on assignment two now.

[Moop]

EDIT: I decided not to change the size only because I found it looked much better that size. I darkened it, lowered the opacity of the squares and added more "personality", if you will, to it. So here's my (revised) second assignment:

The picture that goes with it:
http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games..._up_your_a.jpg

[Wired]

Hmm, that is almost perfect. Try adding some more stuff in there and lower the opacity of those square you put in there. If you want make it a bit bigger, I like a bigger canvas, but go with what you prefer. Fix it up, show me, and if it's better, move on.

[Moop]

lol DSL9 You might not've noticed but my new background is in the same post as the first one, just I edited it. I'm still working on assignment 3 although.

[Wired]

You edited it. For real? Anyways, go on then. I'm glad to see that one of my students is taking this seriously and actually working.

[Moop]

I bear some sad news...
I can't continue here. My parents found out that my Photoshop was pirated (silly me!) and they took it away. Sucks, too 'cause I was sort of making some progress.
Therefore, I'm gonna have to bail. Thanks alot for having me in your school and I hope youget more students soon cause you're very good at making sigs.

[Wired]

How would they find that out? XD Well I guess I'm lucky to have my parents. Anyways, it was nice to partially work with you, and I'll be sad because you seem like the most active kid on here. Hope you can get Photoshop another way or something and possibly come back!

[Moop]

I'll try
I think it's cause my brother pirated it and told my parents that he got it, but they told him to uninstall it. He didn't, of course, and I began to use it. At first I thought it was too tough, so I downloaded the simple Paint.NET and began to use it. Realizing it was too simple, I found out how to use Photoshop and began to use that. My brother did a really poor job of hiding it, though, because all he did was delete it from the desktop. When it popped up on the Start Menu, they saw it and told me to uninstall it, and they watched me do it.
I still have Paint.NET, though, and I could possibly use it. My work won't be as good because the program is quite primitive, but if you want me to continue then I could try

Off Topic: In your avatar, it's a girl

[Moop]

AND WITHIN 15 MINUTES OF REJOINING... KOKIRI LINK HAS DONE IT AGAIN!

Yeah, I'm done it. I genuinely tried hard, and when I reopened the pic I realised how far I had gotten. It's not great though, because there's some effects I aim for that I cannot acheive because I have no clue how to do em.



It's not in my sig because I've been having some problems with that...

[Moop]

So...

What do ya want me to do now?

[Wired]

Ok well, now I critique. The picture looks bad. The speckles, the pencil marks, the boarder. Get rid of all effects. The pixil font is another bad thing. It's only good when you have it at size 8 or so, small, not big. The effects behind the picture are bad too, it's too sharp of a difference from the background you have and what you made.

Try using blending options, opacity, fill, smudging, and some gradient maps. Next assignment will be to add onto your sig improving it in what it looked like and adding more things to it. Do another total of 7 more layers. (remember gradient maps can be counted as layers ). Also ask questions about effects and what you'd like to learn.

[Moop]

Heh. Alrighty then, I'll get to it.

[peahat]

Hi... um... I kinda know how to make a basic signature, but I was specifically looking for tips on making better backgrounds... I keep seeing these really colorful ones and I just can't figure it out (like your current signature... nice!)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Moop]

Mmm.
I'm done the assignment. Contrary to the last one, (well as I look back on it at least) I really like this one. Tell me what you think.

I'm not sure If I like the font or the border being behind the render, but I dont know any other way of making a border and I though the font was alright for this.

EDIT:

I figured out how to make a border that encompasses the entire sig. So,:


Still not sure if I like the font, though...

Yes, actually I did go into tutorials. When a question arises, however, I'll ask you because sometimes, tutorials, are, well, tutorials and they can only explain so much.
I look back on this and realise this is not to the best of my ability. You can critique it, but my next sig will be much different from that.