My first attempt at the Sig. in Photoshop

[ontos]

Well I just got started and don't really know what I.m doing, but giving it a try. I've been looking at allot of tutorials on how to use this thing. So with no more gab, here is a picture of what I have so far. Please by all means help.

 

[GrauGeist]

Well I just got started and don't really know what I.m doing, but giving it a try. I've been looking at allot of tutorials on how to use this thing. So with no more gab, here is a picture of what I have so far. Please by all means help.

Well, for a first try, you have definately done well!

As for the brown background, are you considering a "transparent" effect, where it shows the forum background? Or were you thinking about adding a different color?

 

[Marcel]

It does look good Missing is of course the shadow of the plane, but I think you know that. I always make my shadow on a new layer, so I can copy it and work with it without disturbing the object.
The areal picture is great, looking 3D. I wonder howerver what it will look like after you've resized the pic.

 

[Thorlifter]

Not bad at all for a first try.

Marcel, this is the first time I have seen your new siggy. Looks great!!!

 

[Heinz]

I agree with Thor, Marcel that looks great!

 

[Njaco]

Not a bad first try. Also remember that the height for a siggy will only be about 175 - 200 px so make sure you can work within that range or detail will be blurred and lost.

 

[ontos]

Thank you all, I'm just winging it . I agree GrauGeist, I don't really like the brown background. It was what was left over of my canvas. I'm not really that knowledgeable on Photoshop or digital drawing terminology, so if you can bear with me with some silly questions. How do I make the background transparent? I just wanted the picture and plane to show.

Thanks Marcel, I was looking up some tutorials on how to make shadows when I was interrupted and had to quit. I guess you can tell I'm really new at this. I did the plane from the P-38 I just finished for IL-2, I made jpeg then took it out of that. Should I have done it different?

Njaco, I think I made this 1024 X 1024. Should I start over and do it 175 - 200 px? No problem if thats what I should do.

Thank you all so much for your help. This is great . Cheers

P.S. How do I delete the second picture I have in this post. I think I only need one.

 

[Thorlifter]

Ontos,

1. One your first post, you should have an Edit button. Click on it then go to your attachments. You can delete your 2nd image from there.

2. The size of your siggy should be around 200x500 pixels. No bigger.

 

[Marcel]

Thank you all, I'm just winging it . I agree GrauGeist, I don't really like the brown background. It was what was left over of my canvas. I'm not really that knowledgeable on Photoshop or digital drawing terminology, so if you can bear with me with some silly questions. How do I make the background transparent? I just wanted the picture and plane to show.

Thanks Marcel, I was looking up some tutorials on how to make shadows when I was interrupted and had to quit. I guess you can tell I'm really new at this. I did the plane from the P-38 I just finished for IL-2, I made jpeg then took it out of that. Should I have done it different?

Njaco, I think I made this 1024 X 1024. Should I start over and do it 175 - 200 px? No problem if thats what I should do.

Thank you all so much for your help. This is great . Cheers

P.S. How do I delete the second picture I have in this post. I think I only need one.

The idea to set this up is like this:
Create a new file with a big playing ground (you can always crop). Make sure you have enough room to move things around. I'm pretty sure that you can choose the basic layer to be transparent. Otherwise you can select all and press del.
Then create your first raster-layer for the areal photo. I usually copy and paste from the original image into the new layer and then make it into shape and size (You can always change later as long as you keep this on a separate layer).
Then create a raster layer on top of the previous one for the aircraft. As you already deleted the surroundings, you probably don't need to make a mask-layer, but the normal procedure would be pasting the image with your object on the layer and create a mask-layer. With this mask layer you can "delete" stuff on it's coupled raster-layer without being irreversible, meaning you can get it back as well. Another advantage is that you can create different types of transparency by using different shades of grey on the mask-layer.
Then you can use the effect "drop shadow" on the group of the plane-mask. In paintshop you can choose this shadow to be drawn on a new layer underneath the group. This is what I usually do.

Key is: Keep the "objects" on separate layers as much as you can. This also counts for the name. Many layers means many possibilities to change, while doing 2 things on one layer means the two objects will eventually interfere with eachother.

For the background: You can only keep a transparent background on the forum if you save you pic as png. Gif will do it, but it's bad with shadows. JPG, the best format requires a recreation of the forum-background on the lowest layer.

 

[ontos]

I really feel ignorant here, Sorry, what is " Forum-background" ? I looked up Raster Layer, I don't quite know how it works so some playing around with it. Theres so much I don't know about this program, learning as I go.

 

[Marcel]

Ah, the forum-background is just the background as you see here on the forum It's if you want to use your pic as a siggy here , nothing magical really
Maybe the terms in paintshop is slightly different, but you really should try and create a few layers. you will see them listed on the right side of the screen. Make different things on each layer and try to turn them on-and-off. You'll see the use of these layers.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good for a first try.

I normally start my siggy in the same size it will be when finished and then work it from there.

 

[ontos]

OK, this is what I have so far. It took me 2hours to figure out how to do a Raster-Layer, LOL Then add the drop shadow. I think I need a Beer. I changed the size to500 X 500.

How do I get the Forum background in ?

OK, let me try it as a png file.

Finally, that did it. I guess it won't work in a jpg file. Hummmm. Can you make it work in jpg?

 

[Njaco]

Not unless you do like Marcel said and save the background. If you look real close, you will see a tan background with faint lines running through it. Save that as a pic and then use ift for your .jpg pic.

 

[Marcel]

Ah, looking great, good job. But as the areal photo is slightly higher than the "floor" I guess you want to change the drop shadow slightly where the plane's shadow runs off the photo.
For jpg backgrounds you'll have to use the gif from this page itself.

 

[ontos]

Thanks Marcel, I didn't quite think the shadow looked right either. I was thinking of making it smaller and reducing the opacity more. Should I bring it closer to the plane? I think I should go back and look at the sigs. in the other thread. By the way I really like your new sig. Cheers

 

[Marcel]

Well, it depends on how high you want your a/c over the photo. The furhter the shadow, the higher it looks.
But what I mean is, when you look at the T.V siggy:

You see the shadow of the wing shifts slightly when running of the map. This gives you the idea that the map is not flat, but a bit higher.

 

[ontos]

These are two concepts I'm playing with.

 

[Wurger]

I think it is not a good idea.The P-38 is grey rather and the grey movie tape causes that both the plane and the tape are less seen.

 

[GrauGeist]

I agree with Wurger on that...

Perhaps relocating the film strip so it doesn't distract the viewer from the P-38?

Maybe an image of the film strip (curled) in the lower right corner, and the photo-recon squadron's logo with it?

That way the P-38 remains the center of the viewer's focus, but the film strip and the squadron's logo reinforce your photo-recon theme.

Either way, you're doing great!