Message to EVERYONE that is new to Graphics Design

[Colin]

I'm not trying to deter anyone here, I'm just letting people know what they are almost guaranteed to do wrong with the first sigs they make. There have been a lot of people flooding the boards with all kinds of bad sigs, whereas this section was mostly great stuff when it first opened. Here's a few steps you need to take when you first use the program.

1 - When you install the program, don't immediately try to make a sig and post it here. Check the tools out and stuff, but try looking through tutorials first. Both Good-Tutorials and Pixel2Life are great places to start. In the same vein, download all the resources you need. Check the [url=http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic25637.php]Photoshop Resource Thread[/url here for that.

2 - Start off simple, and don't just throw filter effects together in a big explosion of neon colours. The kind of tutorials you should look at are: brushing, part as brushing, grunge, and full-sig tuts; cutting, also in rendering and extracting; and text. And remember, tutorials are just gudielines. If the tutorial says your drop shadow is at 67% opacity, with 4 pixel size, and 7 px distance, don't be afraid to change that to make it look better.

3 - Take your time. When people are first starting they have a tendency to make 3 sigs a day. A lot of the time you will overlook things because of that. I almost always make sure I take a look at something I've made at least an hour later before I post it. You can miss little flaws, and generally see things in a different light that way.

4 - If someone criticizes your sig, don't just say "I'll do better next time". This goes hand in hand with number three. If something is wrong with your sig, don't be scared to re-work it and add to it.

5 - Finally, remember that you are going to get some harsh criticism. In these days everyone on the internet is a critic, and everyone has Photoshop. I even suggest makign 4-5 sigs when you first start that you don't even show people. Go through tutorials and do everythign in Photoshop without posting it. Then use all those skills to try and put together your first real sig.

I will try to get some more tutorials ready to go. Next on my list will be some text effects.

Remember to follow everything here and take it slow ans simple from the start. Happy Photoshopping.

[nbalive744]

thank you so much colin,
you da best

sticky to the photoshop tutorials if you may?