Art OtakuSennen banners

[Mimmsicle]

[COLOR=firebrick]Went through you banners (so far) and I really liked the "red Asuka" and the "excelsaga-banner". Very simplistic and easy on the eyes.
The other ones are nice too, of course. But the two I mentioned appealed more to me, personally : )

The .hack one required a bit more looking at, to appreciate it fully.
At first I was bothered with some kind of shadowing that started above the guys head.... then when I looked, I saw the text *cough*^_^

The banner itself looks sort of like a flag. Interesting approach.
Colors are soft and are "blended" well together.
Good work !

- Mimmi[/COLOR]

[OtakuSennen]

[quote]
[i]Mimmi originally wrote:[/i]
[b]The banner itself looks sort of like a flag. Interesting approach.[/b]
[/quote]

[color=midnightblue]Ah, an example of how the unintentional things are sometimes the best. Excellent.

[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=529208[/img][/center]

M-hm, a third Rei banner.. I bet none of you saw this coming. This time I had assistance from AzureWolf, and even then I didn't change much that he advised me to do (No offense, Azure. You didn't even tell me that much to do).

I just cropped this one, added a couple light layers of a burn effect, and put in some text.. Oh, I also put in some transparent white lines. Not very visible and poorly done, but they are there.

Argh, I need a .PHP file..[/color]

[AzureWolf]

Oh man, you were on a roll with your latest banners, and then you go back and make the same mistake that was in your first few. Yeah, that's right, you need to remove all things Eva in this banner and it will then be possible to be considered "good." ;)

Nah, in all honesty, it's very vibrant, and possibly one of your best works to date. You are improving, keep it up!

[OtakuSennen]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by AzureWolf [/i]
[B]Oh man, you were on a roll with your latest banners, and then you go back and make the same mistake that was in your first few. Yeah, that's right, you need to remove all things Eva in this banner and it will then be possible to be considered "good." ;)

Nah, in all honesty, it's very vibrant, and possibly one of your best works to date. You are improving, keep it up! [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=midnightblue]Silly Azure. You and your absolute hatred for Evangelion.

Well, just to make Azure happy (And because I stayed home today and am desperately bored) I made a non-Evangelion banner, based on the back of the Excel Saga manga volume three.

I bought the third volume of Excel Saga at Waldenbooks yesterday with some birthday money, and on the back I found an absolutely amazing picture drawn by Rikdo Koshi (The Excel Saga guy). I automatically knew I had to make a banner about it.
[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=529984[/img][/center]
After scanning the page in and cropping it (With a little image quality improvement courtesy of Azure Wolf and his Photo Shop), I decided to add a softening light layer of a shade of purple to give the image a little luster. I then decided to add a banner based on the color scheme and design of the Excel Saga graphic novels. It didn't take very long, I just made a little caution tape selection and pasted it over and over for the black-then-orange slanted lines. I then put in a very OtakuBoards logo-esque rendition of the words "Excel Saga", complete with the little heart inbetween the words, and then the word ACROSS vertically down the blue side in bold Tahoma..

And that's about it.

EDIT: I fixed the bottom right hand corner some, so that the image isn't a perfect rectangle.[/color]

[AzureWolf]

Haha, you don't have to give me any credit: I just got rid of the debris that came with scanning - nothing special.

Anyway, this is one of your better works, IMO. The picture is nice, and you captured the essential parts that give the pic its essence. Love the border (not as much as my rainbow borders, though). ;) You should be creative like this more often.

[OtakuSennen]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by AzureWolf [/i]
[B]Haha, you don't have to give me any credit: I just got rid of the debris that came with scanning - nothing special.

Anyway, this is one of your better works, IMO. The picture is nice, and you captured the essential parts that give the pic it's essence. Love the border (not as much as my rainbow borders, though). ;) You should be creative like this more often. [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=midnightblue]Yes, but what [i]is[/i] my best banner yet? We must figure this out soon.

Here is another banner.. It isn't as good as I hoped it would be, but I did not know what else to do with it.

After finding an archive of nice CG pictures such as this, I decided to modify the hue some and add a home-made sunburst-ish effect.. I then added a transparent black border, intentionally thicker on the top and bottom for a sense of a kind of cinematic widescreen effect.

Rather dull and poorly done, I know, but the picture made Azure and I go "Aww..!" enough to put it up.

Enjoy.[/color]

[Shinmaru]

I still think that banner is cool. Bright and cool. My only problem with it is that the font makes the word 'sweet' seem a little bunched up. It's a bit distracting, since I was looking at the banner under an intense microscope. :p

And thanks for the help with my new avatar (which I will be posting up later on today, hopefully) Sennen is very cool. Now go ahead and post up whatever you're working on at the moment. ~_^

[OtakuSennen]

[color=midnightblue]Oh my, I've had to bring this thread back from the second page of the forum two times now. I feel bad.

Well, I made this banner maybe two weeks ago, and have spent a lot of time revising and changing things around.. And I've been busy, so I haven't bothered posting it. I enjoyed making this one quite a bit. I found this picture of Rei (with brown hair, [spoiler]So it might even be, perhaps, Yui)[/spoiler] on TheOtaku's Evangelion site, liked how it was drawn (In a non-perverted way), and happened to be fooling around with different paint brushes and colors at the time in Paint Shop Pro. The background I was making seemed to fit the image some, and I decided to make a cool banner from it. The fruits of my labor are sweet indeed.

I find Continuum to be my select Evangelion font.. It just seems to fit the series.

By the way, it says "Rei Concept" because that image was supposed to be some sort of early version of Rei in her plug suit.[/color]

[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=535961[/img][/center]

[Stuart]

[size=1]Why dont you increase your banner sizes? just wondering. Maybe 400x70 would even look better, I dont know I just dont like them so small and tiny.[/size]

[OtakuSennen]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Hack Helba [/i]
[B][size=1]Why dont you increase your banner sizes? just wondering. Maybe 400x70 would even look better, I dont know I just dont like them so small and tiny.[/size] [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=midnightblue]With my banners, I see no purpose in creating a larger banner now. Everything I need to be in there can fit, and with my kind of banner (Normally cropping jobs with some color changes, I'm sad to say) extra space would be irrelevant.

Okay, I made this banner a couple weeks ago as well, but was too lazy to post it up until this point. Yes, with every previous banner I have made I had somebody at least advise me on the text.. But this time, though, this was all on my own, and the only thing Syk had to say about it was that it had a hidden meaning, with no real critiques (That I paid attention to).
[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=537103[/img][/center]
The quote "Hedgehog's Dilemma" comes from what Ritsuko mentions in Evangelion rather early on. It's about how a male hedgehog wants to get close to a female hedgehog, but he really can't because of the fact that the spikes on hedgehogs' backs are painful. In a sense, the same goes for Shinji, who is afraid to get close to anyone in fear that he will get emotionally hurt.

I just thought this phrase fit the first Evangelion graphic novel cover, so I made this.[/color]

[AzureWolf]

I thought we were over this EVA thing before... ;)

Who is the guy in the back, and what does he have to do with the banner? That's all I'm wondering.

Also, I think it'd be cool if you made that glow you had on Shinji more like spikes on a hedgehog. Not greatly, just subtely. It would put more emphasis on the words, you know? Besides that (and it suffering from Shy Syndrome), it's just like the rest of your cooly-styled banners.

[OtakuSennen]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by AzureWolf [/i]
[B]I thought we were over this EVA thing before... ;)

Who is the guy in the back, and what does he have to do with the banner? That's all I'm wondering.

Also, I think it'd be cool if you made that glow you had on Shinji more like spikes on a hedgehog. Not greatly, just subtely. It would put more emphasis on the words, you know? Besides that (and it suffering from Shy Syndrome), it's just like the rest of your cooly-styled banners. [/B][/QUOTE]
[color=midnightblue]I thought you said you saw Eva, Azure.

That's Shinji's dad, Gendou. He is a major part of Shinji's Hedgehog Dilemma. After all, a very young Shinji was basically disowned by his father, setting Shinji's opinion about the world and himself for the rest of his life (i.e. life isn't worth it, but what's even more worthless is himself).
[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=538541[/img][/center]
Here's a new banner, inspired by a nice Harvest Moon picture I found earlier today. This one really didn't take me long at all. It's just a crop-job with a thick border and the kanji moved over to the side. I had nothing to do with that texture thing.

So there you go. Shroom is saying it "****ing owns" every banner I've ever made. Go figure.[/color]

[Mei]

[color=lightblue]I like, Sen, I like.^^

I think it's adorable, though simple, which fits into the theme of the Harvest Moon games. Living a simple life, on a farm, trying to get a girl.Oo

Anyways, I love the sheep in the background, and the texture, though you said you had nothing to do with it, fits well with the banner. The only thing bothering me is the kanji.

For one thing, it's brown, which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the colors. Another thing, it's right in front of the cute lil guy, and you just can't have that.^~

Overall, it's a nice banner, as are many of your others/[/color]

[OtakuSennen]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mei [/i]
[B][color=lightblue]I like, Sen, I like.^^

I think it's adorable, though simple, which fits into the theme of the Harvest Moon games. Living a simple life, on a farm, trying to get a girl.Oo

Anyways, I love the sheep in the background, and the texture, though you said you had nothing to do with it, fits well with the banner. The only thing bothering me is the kanji.

For one thing, it's brown, which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the colors. Another thing, it's right in front of the cute lil guy, and you just can't have that.^~

Overall, it's a nice banner, as are many of your others/[/color] [/B][/QUOTE] [color=midnightblue]Well, if you look at the original [url=http://www.rpgamer.com/games/harvest/hmawl/art/hmawl005.jpg]image,[/url] I just moved the Kanji over and resized it. I suppose it looked better when you could see the swirling wood effect, but by that point I was tired and wanted to get making the banner over with.

Hm, maybe I should have listened to Maladjusted. She insisted I put the kanji between the HM: 64 guy and the HM: IWF (It's a Wonder Life abbreviation?) people, so it covered that one sheep.
---
[center][img]http://otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=539923[/img][/center]
This is what I would consider to be my first actual humorous banner, I suppose, even though it's a rather dry in-joke. First off, for those of you who don't know my name is Nick, and I just went from there. Some rather weak inspiration struck while I was doing homework, which led to this. I guess my mind will do anything to get out of group project assignments I'm doing all alone because of incompetent team mates.

This took me five minutes, and I really don't expect any praise for it, but Charles, Syk3 and AzureWolf thought it was funny enough to post.

So [i]this[/i] is what I get for going to Final Fantasy sites and reading all of the fine print at the bottom of the home page..[/color]

[Shinmaru]

No mention of Shinmaru thinking it's funny enough to post? lol

I think that the N looks a bit odd, but that's hardly your fault since there's not really much space to put the N, anyway. Also, the banner is a bit small, so it's hard to read the part where it says 'content rated by the ESRB' (yes, I know what it says through a combination of knowing the ESRB ratings by heart and having sharp eyes). I don't know how it would look if you made it bigger, though...it might be too stretched out, heh.

In any case, I think it's a clever banner - obviously you're using it for more of a humorous slant rather than aesthetic appeal. Good work.

[OtakuSennen]

[color=midnightblue]My dear friend Syk3 officially dubbed this banner, and I quote, "****ING A" via AOL Instant Messenger. I think he may be right, this may be my best banner ever.
[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=541755[/img][/center]
The first took a picture of a couple of cooling towers at a power plant from Google, then I made the entire image either orange or black. It took me a while to find the fill tool's proper tolerance level, but it was worth it.

I then did the same thing to a couple pictures of clouds, and added them to a few paint brush strokes to give off the effect of smoke exiting the cooling tower. I added in some water, softened it, then added in the word "Industrialization" in a second layer in a nice, new font that I downloaded off some web site just for the occasion.

There's a radioactive symbol on the cooling tower, but the text basically covers it all. That may be a good thing; I kind of ruined it after a little accident with some paint brushes that Paint Shop Pro wouldn't let me reverse.

Actually, I was being lazy when I pasted in the text with it set so that white would be invisible. The gray-ish stuff you see around the text is actually leftover blurred background that wasn't quite white enough to be erased. Syk and I think it actually turned out to be a good thing, though.

Enjoy.[/color]

[Baron Samedi]

Oh my god. I have not, ever, once, one single time replied to any of the multitude of banners you have created.

Shock, horror. May as well start with this newest one. I repeat, this newest, best, most wonderful, excellent one.

Enough with the gushing compliments. Time to tear this piece apart. XD

I don't really think the grey around the text looks good. I don't know anything about PS/PSP, but why not type the text in as a new layer, and then rotate the layer? Much cleaner. The font for it is excellent though. Another problem with the typography is that you have used 'Multiply' or something on it. Much better to have it as Normal layer I think, because with what you have done, it is darker and lighter in different places. The actual towers... aren't too bad. There is some sort of grid on the righter-most one... which looks horrible. The right one could also be moved down soemwhat, so you can see the top of it.. because it looks like it finished just at the top of the banner... which isn't good. Aside from that, this banner is quite good indeed. I like it, as I do the accompanying avatar.

Aesthetics: 8/10
Technical: 8/10

[Shinmaru]

Heh, I was there pretty much through the entire creative process - go me :p

I like the text that you chose for the banner - makes it look like an old-school horror movie or something (I can just imagine the dramatic music sounding as a deep-voiced narrator shouts out "THE HORRORS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION!").

The rest of the banner, in my opinion, looks simply incredible - you've improved a ton since your first banner, without a doubt. I especially like the thick black smoke and the filmy stuff covering the ocean in the background - gives the banner a real dirty, grimy feel, which is usually associated with industrialization, heh.

Overall, a fantastic effort - very aesthetically pleasing. I'm not inclined to give out number ratings but, if I were, this would rate pretty high, I'd say.

[OtakuSennen]

[color=midnightblue]Wow, two replies without me having to make a new banner. That hasn't happened since I first created this thread.
[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=542247[/img][/center]
Well, here is a second banner that's not Evangelion- Heck, it's not even anime (I threw that in because I'm sure Azure would comment on that again). I made this one on a whim, with no particular motive, except for some stuff going on in my social life right now and a boring phone conversation that sort of led me to make the quote.

All I did was make a gray background, put in some interesting text (I reversed the N for effect.. Also for no real reason), and used a paint brush and the softening tool to finish it off.

Personally, I prefer Industrialization. It had more reason and motive behind it, coupled with the fact that it had some sort of message and took me more than half an hour to make.

I kind of like where I'm going with these more pseudo-abstract banners, though I suppose I'll eventually lose interest and move back to my anime roots.[/color]

[Shinmaru]

This one is good, but I think INDUSTRIALIZATION is better.

I do like this one, though...the sludge (for lack of a better word) dripping down the banner is a nice effect and I think it's rather neat how some of the letters look a bit smudgy, almost as if someone has wiped away some of the stuff the letters were written with.

My only problem with it is that the color makes the banner seem a bit too drab...I mean, it's obviously not supposed to be upbeat and jovial, but the heavy gray seems kind of weird to me. Ah well.

[Haze]

I like it. I absolutly love the background with all of the "smudges" and stuff. The sludge, as Shin put it, looks great too. My only problem is that I don't really like the font. I love how parts are kind of whipped away, it's just kind of hard to read. When I first looked, I thought it said "Fainful Memories." And it obviously is not that. No real problem though.

Since this is my first time to post in here and all, (still can't believe that) I figure I will tell you what my favorite banner is. It would definitely be the shinji-gendou-noir one. I love the black and whiteness and how Shinji is in a whiter stripe. My only problem would be that it has no border. >__< But it is excellent work all the same.

Great work here. Your awesomeness is shown all throughout this thread. Keep it up.

[OtakuSennen]

[color=midnightblue]Eh, I really don't care about borders. I just put them in so Syk and AzureWolf don't yell at me. :p
[center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=544925[/img][/center]
Here's a third devoid-of-anime banner, but I really don't like it so much. All I did was use Paint Shop Pro's alter hue tool, and it make a plethora of vividly colored splotches. I then made a blue filter, and went from there.

It took me maybe fifteen minutes to make, but apparently it's better than I think it is, according to associates.

I am all out of inspiration. I need some new influences.[/color]