GM Signature Contest - Week 1

[FUS1ON]

I'm going to start off the first week's contest a little early and with everyone's favorite buddy Sammy.

Maximum dimensions: No larger then 500x150 @ 72 pixels per inch
Maximum file size: No larger than 300k
Animation: Allowed
Design Theme: Up to you (Personalize it by using your name, your clan's name or whatever you prefer in it)

Because of the file size, please do not host your submissions here at GM. You can post your submissions using a FREE hosting site like the ones below:
http://imageshack.us/
http://www.photobucket.com

This week's render:
http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/749/serioussam22ub7kw.th.png (http://img480.imageshack.us/my.php?image=serioussam22ub7kw.png)

Once it loads, right click and save

[Seriously Deadly]

here mine :) i thinks its my best yet :D i DL'ed new brushes for it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v424/SeriouslyDeadly/bestyet.jpg

[FUS1ON]

Looks nice SD. Where did you DL brushes from? It seems like most of the contests that I see these days peeps are always saying how they used brushes to do the backgrounds. I need to figure out how to do that because when it comes to using a brush to do that stuff I don't know jack squat. I know what a brush is, but I use them more for painting, erasing or fades. Off to Google for some brush tuts.

[Scorch]

w00t w00t did I hear a sig contest

[Seriously Deadly]

Looks nice SD. Where did you DL brushes from? It seems like most of the contests that I see these days peeps are always saying how they used brushes to do the backgrounds. I need to figure out how to do that because when it comes to using a brush to do that stuff I don't know jack squat. I know what a brush is, but I use them more for painting, erasing or fades. Off to Google for some brush tuts.
you still need them, or did u find em? tell me if u still need links

[FUS1ON]

You can't have enough sources for Photoshop stuff so yes please.

[EXEcution]

You can't have enough sources for Photoshop stuff so yes please.
Unfortunateky I can't recall the tut I used to familiarize myself with creating backgrounds with brushes. But this site has a good amount of tutorials and brush downloads. http://www.pslover.com/search/grunge/1
Most are links to other forums that have the brushes available for download. Installing the brushes is pretty easy all u gotta do is find the PSbrushes dir and copy them there.

I like the grunge brushes the most because they have a rough look to them. You might be interested in some tech brushes for the car sigs. Just search around photoshop forums and google, there is so much to learn with PS.

EDIT: Make your own tech layout without the need for external downloads/files. http://www.greycobra.com/tutorial/Tech_Lines/Brushes/

[FUS1ON]

Thanks Exe those are nice sites. The problem I run into is that i'm using PS v5.5 and most of the brushes are either for CS and do not work with older version or they do not specify at all. I guess it's time to update to PS CS.

[EXEcution]

Thanks Exe those are nice sites. The problem I run into is that i'm using PS v5.5 and most of the brushes are either for CS and do not work with older version or they do not specify at all. I guess it's time to update to PS CS.
Yea gotta stay updated. :(

[Seriously Deadly]

alot of stuff wont work with mine either, i have Elements 2.0, and when i get home i will pm u tuts i got, but they r mostly 7.0 and up

[FUS1ON]

Thanks buddy but no need to PM/post more tuts. :)
http://www.gamemecca.net/forums/showthread.php?t=72146

[FUS1ON]

One entry so far? :rolleyes: There are only a few days left to get your entry posted so hurry up.

I've got an animated one just about done but i'm not submitting it since i'm judging and do not want to reveal it until after the contest.

[JIMINATOR]

so what is this contest really about? :hmmm:

[FUS1ON]

so what is this contest really about? :hmmm:

Any or all of these will work:
To give new members a reason to register and visit here.
To give our current GameMecca members something to do.
To give peeps a chance to show off their creative skills.
To breath some life into a dead section of the forum.

[FUS1ON]

And when I picked that render to use, I picked it because of Sam's popularity here and figured it would get the contest kicked off good because of that as you can see in my original post .... looking back and since you posted I see that you used it in your signature and I probability should not have used it. The only other Sam one that I was able to find was that one of him on a ATV and that one lacked in comparison to this one. It wasn't intentional or anything, sorry bud.

[JIMINATOR]

sorry, hope I didn't come off as critical, really i was just adding a "clever" comment and showing off my sig.... :) although technically it is 600 wide, so I am disqualified.... :)

[BobtheCkroach]

I don't know how you guys do this stuff. I messed around for about an hour, and all I got was pissed. :P
Kudos to all of you, though :thumbs:

[FUS1ON]

We've come up with a new rule about signatures at GM and i've been thinking of a way to announce it and this seems like as good a way as any ... 'New' signatures need to be no larger than 500x150, BUT if you are currently using a signature larger than those dimensions you are grandfathered in, but if you change to a new one, it needs to be 500x150 or less. I'm sure we all have visited some forum where peeps are allowed to go wild with a bunch of graphics and stuff, we are just trying to keep GM from looking like that and to keep the pages to where they load fast for everyone.

Bob, your comment brings up another reason for this contest or section. This section could be used to teach others how to do this stuff with some simple tuts. We have many talented members here, maybe some of them could help if you post where you are having problems. I know i'd be glad to help.

Right now GM's heartbeat looks a little like this _________ , We want it to look like this /\___/\___/\_ again. Yeah I know that doesn't look exactly like a heartbeat, but it's the best I could do. :D

[BobtheCkroach]

kk, that makes sense. I can't figure out why my sig space is so full of white space - I've checked, there aren't any blank lines in my sig, but I still get that big thing. If it can be fixed, and anyone knows, tell me.

As for the help, that'd be great. I actually took a class on PS last semester, but that tells you HOW to use it, not where to find resources, etc.

I understand most of the hows...I'm more interested in stuff like where you guys find backgrounds to use, etc. I'm actually using the Gimp, not PS, b/c I'm a poor college student, but most of the concepts remain the same there. I worked for an hour and basically had the render, a few words, and a white background...stuff like SD's background - that was cool! Where do you find that stuff?

Are you serious about activity in GM, and if you are, what way are you referring to it? Are you referring to posts per day, or what? B/c I notice that while a lot are guests, we're getting way more online users than I can ever remember.
(sorry, that's sorta spammy, but it was connected w/ what you said)

PS: See what I mean? Look @ the sig 2 posts ago for me - tons of white...in this one, none?

[FUS1ON]

The space happens because in the first post you only used two lines, in the last post you had 14 and the forum software just formats it that way to allow for post size. It's nothing to do with your signature.

I'll start a thread for graphic sources, that's a great idea, thanks!

As far as activity I don't know official numbers, but if you look at the global announcement for this contest that can be seen in every forum section, the last time I checked it has been viewed around 135 times over 4 days IIRC. That's pretty good if that is all living breathing members, but if it is with search engine bots included well it is not very good. The majority of the 'guest' you all see here are search engine bots.

[BobtheCkroach]

The space happens because in the first post you only used two lines, in the last post you had 14 and the forum software just formats it that way to allow for post size. It's nothing to do with your signature.

I'll start a thread for graphic sources, that's a great idea, thanks!

As far as activity I don't know official numbers, but if you look at the global announcement for this contest that can be seen in every forum section, the last time I checked it has been viewed around 135 times over 4 days IIRC. That's pretty good if that is all living breathing members, but if it is with search engine bots included well it is not very good. The majority of the 'guest' you all see here are search engine bots.

Mkay - good to know...

I'm a genius :D...

I see. and what is IIRC?

[FUS1ON]

IIRC=If I Remember Correctly

When you get older, you will find yourself using it more often :P

[BobtheCkroach]

IIRC=If I Remember Correctly

When you get older, you will find yourself using it more often :P

I see. If I guest views a post, does it actually add to the "views"...I would think only logged on folks viewing posts would add to the viewCount. SAL?

EDIT: That's most last post on the subject...if I'm causing Shogun of all people to help me 'jack a thread, I think I'll explode...:P

[FUS1ON]

It's ok bud, we are discussing some good stuff that needs to be covered. ;)

Sal would be the person to answer the part about unique hits and stuff.

[JIMINATOR]

Hi Bobster, not sure what you are trying to do, but....
The main concept of photoshop is layers (gimp too, but in a different form).
You start out with a background and add layers on top of it to create the final pic.
For mine, for instance, i have like some gradient painted background I made.
On top of that is a image of skulls, but the opacity is low, about 20%, so
the background shows through.
On top of that is the image of sam. you have to modify the image,
I selected the white space and cut it, to let my background show through.
I also copied the second gun to another layer, erased the first, and
moved it up to make it fit better in my image.
And then there is the rotation of the sam image and resizing it, to make
it fit better in the given space.
The font is the next layer. I use special effects on it, like shadows and embossing, to make it pop out.
Similar action for all the game icons, to make them look 3-D.
Anyway, with the PSD I can swap in and out layers at will to modify
parts of the image and keep the rest the same....
hopefully that helps some.

[FUS1ON]

Jim that was a great explaination.

Bob you can pickup Paint Shop Pro 10 new in the box on eBay for just about the price of a game. It's around $100 on Corel's website.
http://search.ebay.com/paint-shop-pro-10_W0QQfromZR8QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQssPageNameZWLRS

BTW That Gimp website had some really nice screenshots of Gimp for Windows .... in German. :rolleyes:

[BobtheCkroach]

Thanks for the explanation, Jim, though I did know most of that. I have some experience with Photoshop, I can do the layers and stuff. I'm more curious in where folks get resources, like backgrounds, fonts, etc.

I guess while I'm interested, more than anything it comes down to the fact that I'm not really very creative. I suppose if I was i'd be elbow deep in PS everyday, not visual studio.

[<<Hybrid>>]

Thanks buddy but no need to PM/post more tuts. :)
http://www.gamemecca.net/forums/showthread.php?t=72146

nice one

[Caged Anger]

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/8282/gmsigcontestentryweek14ex.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here is my Entry of The Week

And a note Jim, your skulls may look clearer if you up the Opacity but change the layer option to "Overlay" ;)

[JIMINATOR]

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/8282/gmsigcontestentryweek14ex.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here is my Entry of The Week

And a note Jim, your skulls may look clearer if you up the Opacity but change the layer option to "Overlay" ;)
good call caged. that works well with the lighter backgrounds... :thumbs:

[FUS1ON]

This week's contest is now closed. Thanks Seriously Deadly and Caged Anger for participating, i'll let you guys know who won on Monday.

Next week's contest will deal with transparent .gif files.
Here's a tut to help get you started:
http://www.grafx-design.com/08photo.html

Caged Anger
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/8282/gmsigcontestentryweek14ex.jpg

Seriously Deadly
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v424/SeriouslyDeadly/bestyet.jpg

[FUS1ON]

There were only two entries to choose from so the voting was easy and pretty close .... This week's winner was Seriously Deadly, congratulations! :thumbs:

Caged there were a few comments about placing Sammy upside-down so I think that hurt yours in the voting, but otherwise it was really nice work bud. :thumbs:

Come on peeps, I know we can do better than just 2 entries this week.

[BobtheCkroach]

Congrats, Serious!

Good Job to you too, Caged!

:thumbs:

[Seriously Deadly]

Thanks for all who voted for me. Im very glad to have won :D

[Caged Anger]

meh, not surprising, it was a long shot I took that it would look so different that it would be appealing. gg seriously...but this is war now ;)