GDD: Official Tips Thread

[Anselm]

In order to help new designers get into the fold and the more experienced designers improve, I have decided to post a tips thread for any designers to post their tips.

Once tips are posted, they will be placed to from the posts below. They are divided into Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and General and sub-divided into programs.

Please note that this thread is only for short tips. Large tutorials should go in the Tutorials sticky.

Tips should be posted in the following style:

[b]Tip Name:[/b]
[b]Program:[/b]
[b]Skill Level:[/b] Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
[b]Tip:[/b]


While we appreciate all tips, try to make sure they explain everything clearly and are correct. I may modify them to rectify problems.

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Beginners
Intermediate
Advanced
General

[Anselm]

Beginners
These tips are aimed at those who are new to designing, and have little or no experience at designing.

Photoshop

• Borders [by Anselm]
  The best and easiest type of border to make is the 1px. Create a new layer on the top of the rest, Ctrl+A to select all and then go to Edit > Stroke on the top menu. Use 1px, and black is usually the best colour for it.
  
• Creating a layer under the current [by ssdlpf]
  When creating a layer, hold "CTRL" while clicking the new layer button (in the layers window) and it will create a layer underneath your current selected layer.
  
• Image Flipping [by ironmangfx]
  When you finish a sig, make a new layer, click image > apply image and then flip it horizontally. You wouldn't think it could make any difference but it really does - a sig can look totally different when flipped.
  

Paint Shop Pro

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Gimp

• Using gradients to focus on centre [by .shnb]
  First, make sure your selected color is black. Then use the gradient tool and select "FG to Transparent" then use it around the edges of the sig. Set the layer to overlay or grain merge so it darkens the edges of the sig and brings out the center.
  
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Other Programs

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[Anselm]

Intermediate
These tips are aimed at those who have some experience, but do not know their program entirely well and can still improve somewhat.

Photoshop

• Smudging [by ironmangfx]
  A good way to make a sig is to take a wallpaper and use a hard mid scatter round brush and a wallpaper. Duplicate the wallpaper layer and smudge, then flip it around, erase and set to styles like dodge, lighten or darken - see what happens.
  
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Paint Shop Pro

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Gimp

• C4D Lookalike/Flame Filter [by Rekkin]
  If you don't like C4Ds, or just don't want to bother with finding one, there is a filter in GIMP that produces something of the sort. First, go to Filter>Render>Nature>Flame. A dialog box will be brought up with many options. The only one that you really need to worry about is the "Brightness" option under the "Rendering" tab. Next, go to the "Camera" tab, and play around with horizontal and vertical placement, as well as the "Zoom" option (all this does is increase or decrease the size of the flame). The last thing to do is hit the "edit" button at the top of the dialog box, and play around with that. Choose one of the options from the "Variation" Drop down box, and click on the boxes under "Directions" to create what you want.
  
  After this, you can color it, play around with levels, etc.
  
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Other Programs

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[Anselm]

Advanced
These tips are aimed at those who have a lot of experience and know their program well, and are looking for ways of further improving their work.

Photoshop

• Clipping Masks [by [dude]*]
  A great way to really finish off your sigs is to add some clipping masks. What these do is create a duplicate of your image that is in a different place, shaped by another layer. To create one, first of all make a new layer with the shape/text that you want the clipping mask to be put in. When you don't want it make it transparent and where you do want it fill it with any colour. Then create another new layer and make the one with the shape on it invisible. On the layer you just created go image-apply image. After that right click on the applied image layer and click create clipping mask. Then move that layer around and distort it however you want to create something nice.
  
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Paint Shop Pro

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Gimp

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Other Programs

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[Anselm]

General
These are just general tips not aimed at any skill level or program.

• Creating a Focal Point [by ironmangfx]
  A great way to create a focal point is to blur the outer effects or add a glow to the focus.
  
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[Shine]

Tip Name: Using Gradients to focus on Center
Program: GIMP
Skill Level: Beginner, i guess...
Tip: First, make sure your selected color is black. Then use the gradient tool and select "FG to Transparent" then use it around the edges of the sig. Set the layer to overlay or grain merge so it darkens the edges of the sig and brings out the center.

Did i do that right?

[Anselm]

You did that right. I'll add it

[Shine]

Do I win a prize?

[Deathnote]

Lets see if I can do it right also.

Tip Name:Making decent backgrounds
Program:Any
Skill Level: Beginner
Tip: When making your background for your graphic some ideas you can use are duplicating your render enough times to fill up your space then merging them down and smudging them together. Then Rinse and repeat until the background you want is made.

If I did it right give me a cookie..

[Anselm]

You wish

If I notice someone who takes the time to write a lot of good tips, I will give something back.

[dude]

Tip Name: Clipping Masks
Program: Photoshop CS2
Skill Level: Intermediate/Advanced (not entirely sure which)
Tip: A great way to really finish off your sigs is to add some clipping masks. What these do is create a duplicate of your image that is in a different place, shaped by another layer. To create one, first of all make a new layer with the shape/text that you want the clipping mask to be put in. When you don't want it make it transparent and where you do want it fill it with any colour. Then create another new layer and make the one with the shape on it invisible. On the layer you just created go image-apply image. After that right click on the applied image layer and click create clipping mask. Then move that layer around and distort it however you want to create something nice.

[Anselm]

That suits advanced more.

[://Atticus™]

Well heres a simple one, i think?

Tip Name: Renders
Program: All
Skill Level: Beginner
Tip: Instead of cutting out your own images to use in Graphic work, try www.google.com, and search for renders.
Renders are cut out images, on plain backgrounds, making them very easy to practice on, and very easy to find and use.
you can add other images, brushes, masks etc to these, to eventualy create a very good piece of work.



I'm not sure whether this is a tip or not, but if people are really new to graphic design, they may want to know this?

up to you Anselm.

[Anselm]

I'll have a think about that one, not sure myself whether it's a tip or not.

[captain awesome]

Tip Name: Creating a layer under the current
Program: Photoshop CS2 (not sure if it works in versions below, but you can try it)
Skill Level: Beginner
Tip: When creating a layer, hold "CTRL" while clicking the new layer button (in the layers window) and it will create a layer underneath your current selected layer.