Little Project on GIMP

[DEXIS]

So I got the idea to bring the banhammer to life using a little GIMP magic, I like using the SB as the background for this pic but I think it could be better. : / Opinions everyone? I also don't feel like this pic is done but I don't know what else to do with it.

Spoiler for Male Banhammer: 

Background 2

Background 3 +retouched hammer

Oh and before I forget, I'm also going to make a female mod pic but I've yet to find a good render. I'll make one myself if I can't find one but if I can save myself hours of rendering I will.

[cyrax43]

whats it used for?

[rexxar007]

whats GIMP??

[kimono031]

Lol! I like it (it's amusing haha), but it would be pretty hard to read the shouts from the shoutbox with a background picture.

whats GIMP??

GIMP is a photo editing software much like Photoshop, but free.

[Sora Kasugano]

LOL It's kinda hilarious. I don't really mind if we have a background picture for SB, as long as it wouldn't cover the shouts from the members XD Of course, it's pretty hard to read if the Background is that visible in SB.

[DEXIS]

Oh no no there's no purpose behind the picture. ^^*
I was bored and I wanted to do something kind of cool. XD

When I said "SB background" I meant using the SB as the background for this picture, not the actual shout box background. Sorry for the mix up. ^^*

[mlcdl]

Hohoho and even my name is on the background xD


Well I wonder what Ill see next on this thread

[cyrax43]

i guess thats a good idea for us who are using the sbv1.. it would be better if we could actually see it firsthand.. could you test it?

[DEXIS]

Test? No, again, this was just for fun I don't have to power to do that even if I wanted to. ^^*

[kimono031]

Oh no no there's no purpose behind the picture. ^^*
I was bored and I wanted to do something kind of cool. XD

When I said "SB background" I meant using the SB as the background for this picture, not the actual shout box background. Sorry for the mix up. ^^*

I see.

Well then, you must make the hammer more epic lol

[DEXIS]

I know, I looked for a really awesome hammer but that was the only one that really went with the Light render. Those ribbon things were a hassle too, in the original render Light had a huge scythe so I cut that out and replaced it with the Lavi hammer. XP
I may take another shot at this if I can find a better render/hammer. ^^

[Daedalus112]

Epic. It has my vote.

[pilcrow]

I like the sb more than the logo and red stuff as a background, but it seems like it's stretched kinda strangely. Light with the hammer looks cool, though. Also, Lavi's hammer seems grainier than the render of Light; I'd have done a selective gaussian blur on the hammer, personally...

[DEXIS]

I know, I actually did some sharpening to the Lavi hammer because it was far blurrier than the Light render in the beginning, I did the best I could with the sharp/blur but I just couldn't seem to find that perfect medium. I can still go back and re-blur a little I suppose.

[pilcrow]

Have you tried using the Selective Gaussian Blur yet though? Because a standard blur will get rid of distinct lines, but a selective blur only blurs similar colors. So if the Max Delta bar is adjusted right, it'll keep the borders between white and black sharp, but smooth out the grainy gray spots within the black sections. Then adjust the Blur Radius to change how much those gray spots gets blured...

[DEXIS]

I've used it before but not on this pic. I may just bring the original hammer back and resharpen and just be sure to not go overboard. Yea now that you've pointed it out I think I need to fix that. Thanks ^^

[pilcrow]

No problem! If you're not opposed to a few more tips, it might be beneficial to add a black glow to the foreground (around Light and the hammer) if you know how, and it may look better to increase light's contrast a bit.

[DEXIS]

Ok the blurring really wasn't helping so I went back and retouched the whole hammer by hand
Then I put in a gradient background along with a shadow drop and a FG to transparent gradient on top of that for the shadow effect. Opinions?

[pilcrow]

Wow, the new one's just awesome! The hammer's good (maybe a little bumpy on the left, but so's the original), the background is sweet, and I LOVE the pole! Bravo, dex~ ^^

[Revelix]

That looks really funny seeing Light standing there with his banhammer lol.