learning to make banners

[Mr. Rogers]

I'm trying to learn how to make banners, does anyone know of any good tutorial sites or anything?

[Straylight]

I learned to make graphics/banners/etc. mostly by experimentation, and I'd recommend doing the same yourself. You will definately need a decent graphics app such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or the GIMP...

I'd recommend therefore that you google for you chosen graphics app and learn from the tutorials you find.

[Mr. Rogers]

i got PSP. looked around on google for some tutorials, and just messed around with it too. here is what i got:

[LorentzForce]

long time ago (a year or two back) my dad bought me a copy of photoshop 6.0 with a thick book to go with it.

the book was mostly on this artist's 1) obsession with girls and 2) his graphic skillz with photoshop. the latter part was useful, but not the former part. absolutely no image he edited DIDN'T at least have a girl of a sort. be it anime/manga all the way to movie posters. well, i guess that's why; he mostly did movie posters, and most movies all contain at least one girl...

anyway, that book didn't teach me much than to 'start the engine'. after few months of more experimentation, i figured out most of things i would need to know to do most anything.

well, good luck getting tutorials. but don't rely on them to do what you want; graphic designing is art, and in most times, you want your own style. learn, experiment, and be happy

[Tet-chan]

I remember my friend told me about some good tutorial site about using photoshop.Let me check.....If i found it,i will post it here

[Straylight]

well, good luck getting tutorials. but don't rely on them to do what you want; graphic designing is art, and in most times, you want your own style. learn, experiment, and be happy:)

yup, 95% of it's all about finding your own way. that's how you get your own individual style. banners are a great way of practicing anyways

[LorentzForce]

and i remember the days when i painfully went to trouble to draw individual frames for an animated .gif file for one of my original homepages as its banner... it was only four frames, but it took ages to do in that situation when i barely knew what the lasso tool was. or even the magic wand. maybe just selecting a box and copy/paste it somewhere...

[JediSonic]

Jedisonic wants a magic wand

Yeah anyway, I made mine with plain old paint but... it's obviously nothing spectacular from a technical point of view. Making animated gifs sounds cool.... my friend has a program that does that. Best thing I can do right now is use Javascript to simulate one on my site

[redkorn]

here is a tip in photo shop stay away from the filters use the brushes they will look more professional.

[cbwing0]

One question: how do you make the cool letters and such with the banners?

[Straylight]

That greatly depends on what app you are using.... what do you have to work with? I use Photoshop/ImageReady

[madphilb]

Jedi (and anyone else who only have MS Paint for editing images)... check out The GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org/ ), it's free. It's also for Linux, but there is a Windows port that works quite well (I've been using it for several years).

You can find the Windows Intaller files here: http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/ be sure to get GTK+ (Gimp won't run without it), The GIMP itself and the LZW files (otherwise you won't be able to edit GIFs).

You can find several tutorials online (some are for older versions of The GIMP though). One thing I've done in the past is to look at tutorials for other graphic editing software (PSP, Photoshop) and adapt the techniques to The GIMP. (and feel free to PM/e-mail me with questions too).

PHIL

[Straylight]

madphilb is correct, the GIMP is good. It does work a lot better in Linux though.

[inkhana]

This is how I do it. Really.

1. Figure size of banner.

2. Gather random elements. (Pics of characters of varying sizes....ALWAYS make the sizes vary unless you actually need the uniformity for some reason)

3. Arrange them on the banner. (This step continues until the end of the process)

4. Apply filters randomly.

5. Apply layer transparency randomly.

6. Decide you hate the background color and change it.

7. Put a border on it.

8. Decide you hate the border and change it.

9. Add text (optionally, decide you hate the font and change it.)

10. Also optionally, mask off small areas on corners (see my current banner for reference) and delete those areas out for cool effects...

11. Throw the whole thing out and steal Noz's ideas instead... Bwa ha ha....

Ok, so it was only true for the most part...

[Straylight]

*decide you hate*

A very important part of the banner-making process for me
I do LOVE your current banner though.

[inkhana]

^^ Thanks! I do a lot of that "I hate" business, obviously...

[redkorn]

filters=bad stay away from filters

[inkhana]

:shady: And what's wrong with filters? Or are you being sarcastic?

[madphilb]

I think he's being serious.... it's the 2nd time he's mentioned it.

Actually, it's not filters that make an image look unprofessional, it's people with a poor handle on the tools at hand, just like any tool.

PHIL

[inkhana]

Very true...^^ There are some effects that just can't be done by hand, though. (Nor am I particularly inclined to try, )

[MyrrhLynn]

:shady: And what's wrong with filters? Or are you being sarcastic?

If you know what you are doing you can get some very cool effects with filters in Photoshop. Brushes are cool, but combining filters is a quick and easy way to make a neato background. (Of course you have to find tutorials that list the steps to make the cool effects.)

[Lochaber Axe]

Want is the maximum size for a banner? The one I am working on now is too big.

[inkhana]

If you're talking about for CAA, I don't know the exact pixel width but I'd guess that anything above 500 px wide is too big (because it makes the window too wide for 800x600 users like me...^^). Mine is 350 px.

MyrrhLynn: that's how I feel about it...^^ A well-filtered background can be a lifesaver...

[Straylight]

I use filters occasionally.. most of my work is done via the use of transparent layers though

[LorentzForce]

i mostly use path tool. i believe it's one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop.

filters can be used very, very efficiently. for example, that honeycomb filter with some transparent layers with transformation skillz will allow you to draw sea-bed, where that cool water reflection is drawn. pretty cool effect, when making under-water images.

i think what redkorn means is that don't use filters until you know exact combinations for such effects etc etc. because one filter alone looks pretty... bad.

[inkhana]

Transparent layers are awesome...