♬Cam's GFX Gallery♬
- Thread starter Cam1
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You already know what I think of the piece, buuuut I just wanted to drop a comment anyway and say that the coloring adjustments you added are super nice. Breaking the text up in three lines was a great idea as well 
(I'd put the text up closer to the guy's face though, in the northeast direction. That'd probably look a bit better. I know, I nitpick a lot :-/ )
(I'd put the text up closer to the guy's face though, in the northeast direction. That'd probably look a bit better. I know, I nitpick a lot :-/ )
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Oh no you dont nitpick hahaha. Im just awful with text haha. Its kind of annoying when I wanna use text cause Im so bad with picking fonts and placing the text.You already know what I think of the piece, buuuut I just wanted to drop a comment anyway and say that the coloring adjustments you added are super nice. Breaking the text up in three lines was a great idea as well
(I'd put the text up closer to the guy's face though, in the northeast direction. That'd probably look a bit better. I know, I nitpick a lot :-/ )
I remembered you saying that you struggle a bit with text, so I have some pointers for you.
I'm on mobile rn (ugh) so I can't link to any examples but just hmu later and I'll show you some if you want ;-]
That being said, this was a complete pain to type and I hope you get what I mean if there's like an overabundance of typos or something.
TEXT TIPS:
- Already told you this, but breaking text up in lines is the way to go when you're expected to write a lot of words on a tag. Most of the time, text doesn't look good in a straight line. This limits your options for placement to generally three areas - the top, middle, and bottom - and all of those placements will look bad unless it's something like decorative text.
- Grouping lines of text together in the same area is pretty much always good, since no text will look out of place that way. You have this problem in the latest sig, actually, because "It's too late" looks far away due to the close spacing between "For me... I've lost my" and "sanity".
- Putting text on top and behind the render can add some depth/make it look interesting.
- Adding layer styles makes text a lot more eye-catching. You may think this is bad, as text should ultimately blend in with the graphic, but if you're putting text on a tag with heavy effects or something, layer styles won't look out of place at all. This is normally a Photoshop thing, but GIMP has a pretty good plug-in for it as well. I should know, because I used it a lot, haha. I can try to find it again for you if you don't have it yet.
Anyway, often-used layer styles would be Gradient Overlay, Stroke, and Drop Shadow. And that's because they're all tried and true methods to get text looking good fast. Hell, people even blur their text too (myself included). This sounds weird, I know, but a controlled blur can make text more subtle/blendable while still retaining readability.
- There are a lot of things to experiment with. Size, color, fonts, tracking, etc... it's obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people can forget this. You can vary these elements of your text to make it look better. Seems like you haven't really tried this, but you're getting there with mixing fonts and I would encourage you to test out other forms of variation eventually ;-]
- Rotating/slanting text can be the easiest solution. Following the lines of your render/subject can work nicely as well, and it's a win-win situation because the text'll end up looking cool and it'll be close to the render as well, haha. Unfortunately I forgot how to create a text path in GIMP, but I'm pretty sure there's an option for it. THERE MUST BE.
- The size of your text can be very important. If you have a graphic with lots of small and delicate details, using a GIGANTIC, BOLD SANS-SERIF FONT may not be the best idea. On the other hand, if your graphic is bold, complex and full of large textures or something, using a tiny little script text just isn't going to cut it.
- Attach an AI copy of your tag to your text to make a clipping mask. This looks great paired with a stroke or drop shadow!
- Make containers for them (such boxes, lines, and stuff) which can go behind or surround your text.
That's it; tell me if it helps! I feel like there are still some things I forgot to go over, but... take it from me, I used to stay away from text at all costs but I've became comfortable with it and the same can happen to anyone who works at it ;-]
Loved the latest signature you posted, btw. Disregarding the text, it's nearly perfect. The effects are nice and the render is so HQ as well. You did a nice job with it :-]
I'm on mobile rn (ugh) so I can't link to any examples but just hmu later and I'll show you some if you want ;-]
That being said, this was a complete pain to type and I hope you get what I mean if there's like an overabundance of typos or something.
TEXT TIPS:
- Already told you this, but breaking text up in lines is the way to go when you're expected to write a lot of words on a tag. Most of the time, text doesn't look good in a straight line. This limits your options for placement to generally three areas - the top, middle, and bottom - and all of those placements will look bad unless it's something like decorative text.
- Grouping lines of text together in the same area is pretty much always good, since no text will look out of place that way. You have this problem in the latest sig, actually, because "It's too late" looks far away due to the close spacing between "For me... I've lost my" and "sanity".
- Putting text on top and behind the render can add some depth/make it look interesting.
- Adding layer styles makes text a lot more eye-catching. You may think this is bad, as text should ultimately blend in with the graphic, but if you're putting text on a tag with heavy effects or something, layer styles won't look out of place at all. This is normally a Photoshop thing, but GIMP has a pretty good plug-in for it as well. I should know, because I used it a lot, haha. I can try to find it again for you if you don't have it yet.
Anyway, often-used layer styles would be Gradient Overlay, Stroke, and Drop Shadow. And that's because they're all tried and true methods to get text looking good fast. Hell, people even blur their text too (myself included). This sounds weird, I know, but a controlled blur can make text more subtle/blendable while still retaining readability.
- There are a lot of things to experiment with. Size, color, fonts, tracking, etc... it's obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people can forget this. You can vary these elements of your text to make it look better. Seems like you haven't really tried this, but you're getting there with mixing fonts and I would encourage you to test out other forms of variation eventually ;-]
- Rotating/slanting text can be the easiest solution. Following the lines of your render/subject can work nicely as well, and it's a win-win situation because the text'll end up looking cool and it'll be close to the render as well, haha. Unfortunately I forgot how to create a text path in GIMP, but I'm pretty sure there's an option for it. THERE MUST BE.
- The size of your text can be very important. If you have a graphic with lots of small and delicate details, using a GIGANTIC, BOLD SANS-SERIF FONT may not be the best idea. On the other hand, if your graphic is bold, complex and full of large textures or something, using a tiny little script text just isn't going to cut it.
- Attach an AI copy of your tag to your text to make a clipping mask. This looks great paired with a stroke or drop shadow!
- Make containers for them (such boxes, lines, and stuff) which can go behind or surround your text.
That's it; tell me if it helps! I feel like there are still some things I forgot to go over, but... take it from me, I used to stay away from text at all costs but I've became comfortable with it and the same can happen to anyone who works at it ;-]
Loved the latest signature you posted, btw. Disregarding the text, it's nearly perfect. The effects are nice and the render is so HQ as well. You did a nice job with it :-]
Oh god, we literally talked about text for a good hour or so yesterday, but I still have some things to say/suggest (y'know, since I had to leave early. Whoops). First, putting it up in the upper left corner isn't a great position most of the time. I like how it's diagonal, but the text looks cramped in that area. Of course, since it's next to the render's eye, it doesn't create a new focal point or anything, but I still think better placement would be to the left of her neck/collar. There's not much going on there, after all.
Or, alternatively, the text could be divided into even smaller lines and then placed along the lines of the left of the render, from the top all the way to the bottom. That could've been interesting too :-]
Or, alternatively, the text could be divided into even smaller lines and then placed along the lines of the left of the render, from the top all the way to the bottom. That could've been interesting too :-]
Haha, all right! I will play around with it after I finish the sig Im currently working on!
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