Well it has some way to go but what do u think so far (i know its sorta big im trying to work on the size issue already). For some reason when i save to a jpg it keeps blurring that text i type there stupid compression.

Are you using photoshop? If so do Use the Save To Web feature it works quite well. Also make the text a little brighter, its a little hard to read with the dark background. But not a bad start IMO.

yeah the jpg saving made the dang text darker i didnt like that. Oh btw if anyone cares the pic im using as a background is from Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ahh. I knew it looked familiar..

Indeed the text needs to be clearer/easier to read (other colour?) and for my taste it's too blurry & crowded. It needs to be sharper & brighter in general, IMhO. Since you said you are using a pic from Ghost in the Shell as background, I presume the guy with the gun and the complex/background are two different pictures/layers or am I assuming wrong here and is the guy & the complex one picture/layer, making the text the foreground? (the latter seems more likely in my eyes). I would suggest using a different background on the guy cos for me there's too much in the whole pic. My approach would be to get all the focus on the guy with the gun hence using a more one coloured/gradient background and work from there, f.e. by adding a second smaller pic to the "background".

As basis I would do something like this (I erased by accident a part of the gun, I think). I separated the guy from your pic and I took a green (gradient) background cos I think you like the colour green. I did it a bit in a rush therefore I may have cut a bit too much and maybe I made the outlines a bit too smooth...


Just my input

I think I agree with Godcha, the background needs to contrast the picture so it's easy to distinguish between the two.

alright thing is yeah the whole pic is together and when im trying to take the dude with the gun out with extract and then with the eraser every edge starts looking uneven

dont use the eraser, just use the lasso along with the CTRL key, it lets you stop and pick up where you left off. also when you're done selecting it you can use the ALT key and subtract things from your selection (parts of the backround for instance). once you get your guy all nice and selected how you want it, just cut him out, make a new layer, paste him, then delete the old one. its cake my boy! CAKE!!!

Hey Fret, we're not all pro's yet huh.
J/K

okay i tried that lasso tool but still i cant get it to be smooth cas theres always a bunch of left over pixels from the part i was trying to get rid of

hmm, you could just try the "feather" tool. its under Select > Feather. that will sort of blur the edges a bit on your selection. then just add some leet scanlines to the backround or something and it'll look really nice. theres some tuts on scanlines @ spoono.com that are really easy if you havent yet learned how to do them.

sigh trying to get this thing selected right aint easy Im gonna try to find an easier pic that i could use instead. since im not that good yet.

Hmmm...even tho I didn't spent alot of time (15 minutes or so) on it I didn't found my hasty version of the guy such a big disaster. Okok I did "forgot" a wee bit of the gun and I smoothed the edges too much/quick

I until now always use the blur tool, with a small brush, to smooth the edges of a picture that I edited out but one have to be very careful not to overdo it. I also zoom in when cutting/selecting delicate/difficult parts of a pic.

The edited jpg & psd files are binned

i like godcha's attempt, but with some work i believe this image will make a great sig.

ps. digitaldude could you post the wallpaper? i like it

http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~alau/images/gi...-sac-saitou.jpg it as not a wallpaper. The one im basing this on.

it as a wallpaper someone made with a couple other images: http://www.animewallpapers.com/wallpapers/...host/index2.asp Its on this page somewhere

First link is okay, but I get the following error on the 2nd one:

thanks DD

save link as taco

changed 2nd link to the page its on instead.

Thanks, but that's weird. Why did my quoted link change? Oh well. Both work now anyway.

Back on topic, FWIW, I also agree that your original is too busy and like godcha's rendition better.

I spent some time on cutting it out because I was bored

This is the GIF : Bad quality the cut-out may not look that great.



Here is the .PSD File

Hope it helps

Latez,
Dan

-=EDIT=- I really only had some trouble around the nozzle... It blended in well with the background and gave me some trouble.

durrr, i managed to cut him out pretty easily (just raise the contrast ) and i threw this together in about 10 minutes, i still have all the psds if you wanna mess with the nicely cut out guy.



if you wanna use this, host it yourself.

nice fret. Im gonna go back and try to cut it again cas i wanna accually be able to do this. i found that the image copy i had was sorta messed up no wonder i couldnt do it straight heh

yeah no problem. what i did was...

opened the backround image
put it ontop of a bright red layer
cranked the contrast up on the image layer (with the guy)
then just started deleting shit.

took about 15 minutes.

working..............

now how did u get that black border around the selection again? Also which lasso is better polygonal or freehand?

Select the layer you want the border on (usually the background, first layer), ctrl a (select all), edit > stroke, inside (select desired width & colour)

If another layer also touches the border of your sig then in order to have a complete closed border you also have to use the same stroke on that particular layer. Like in my sig I stroke the first layer being my background and the layer which has Claudia on it.

actually you do the stroke on the OUTside of the selection. what i did for your sig dd2k5, was copied the guy to another layer, then did a 2px wide black stroke around him, then blurred it a bit. thats how i got the effect of the blur behind him without making the image all wacky.

Aha, well I have a 1 px black stroke on the inside of 2 layers in my sig, being the background and the Claudia pic.

I guess DD was referring to the stroke on the guys selection as you explained.

give us an update dd

Yeah, we wanna' see it dude.

dont worry its comming

YOU LIE!!! like an unwanted red-headed step child, YOU LIE!!!

...well time for me to head off to school. cjo0 guys.

Well im doing damn crappy so theres no progress.. but its comming.

I have started thinking of ideas for the new bg though.

Update: Okay I haven't worked on it in awhile due to school and being busy and shit but expect another attempt beta pretty soon just got back to it.