Syk3 Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 [color=teal]Well, here we go. I had a feeling that one time or another I'd put all of my banners in one thread. While I'm still unsure of whether or not I'm going to be putting new banners in here as I make them (I think that this may cause banners to get lost among pages and become difficult to comment on), I've decided to try to put [i]most[/i] of my banners that I've made in this thread. A lot of my older banners really aren't very good, I've lost files and such, and I think you'll agree that I have enough now as it is without putting up [i]every single banner[/i]. Overall, I just want to show you my first banner, so you can see where I started, and then show my decent ones. They're not all the best, but they're not as bad as my earlier ones, so they're.. decent. The reason I post these even though I'm sure many of the older members may remember them from months and even years past is because the boards have gone through a significant change, both visually and member-wise, and on the eve of v7 I want to present members with a chance to view and critique these banners. Every single comment will be greatly appreciated; you'll notice that while I have improved over the years, if you help me understand what I could do even better that started as a habit in these earlier banners, I will finally be able to rise above these faults. Don't feel obligated to reply to every single banner. There are a lot here, and I understand, so I've numbered them for your convenience. If you want to reply to each of them, or simply one banner, all is appreciated. Different banner types that can be found include black and white, abstract, comical, serious, picture with border, animation, picture editing, and a slew of different kinds of effects. I'm going to try my best to put these in the order that I made them, but I can't garuntee that I'll remember, lol. Descriptions can be found under each banner. [size=1][list=1][*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/GohanChamber.gif[/img] I've come a long way since my very first banner. Made in Paint Sho Pro 7, I really had no idea what I was doing, so I messed around with different things for days before finally creating this banner for my geocities website at the site (bite me <_<). Some interesting things to note are how well, I thought, that I did at cutting out Gohan on the right, fading Gohan in the middle, and smoothing the text. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/GregS2.gif[/img] I made this banner with Photoshop 7 during my stay at FFR boards. In the end, I basically left because they were a bunch of ******** about art, but I stop by every now and then for a little inspiration. For this banner, I was basically expirementing with grids. They didn't like it because everyone was using grids, and everyone was using that picture. :p [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/SolidSnake.gif[/img] I've found that when people think of Solid Snake (my old user name, that is), they think of this banner. I think this was really my highlight when I actually started getting some credit for my banners and being recognized for the little talent I had. While right now I can think of a dozen ways to improve it, it was quite a feat at the time. Made about...a year and a half ago, give or take. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Syk36.jpg[/img] Probably one of the most general banners I've made, I had at the time made quite a few different color versions and ended up picking grey in the end. Simple.. but it fit, I suppose. This was one of my first banners that I made as "Syk3". [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Edged.jpg[/img] I believe that this is so far the only abstract banner that I've ever made, and it really isn't much. No one liked it when I posted almost a year ago, so I don't suppose you'll like it now, but I don't think it's that bad, myself. <_< I mean, sure, it's just a ton of effects put together in a creative fasion, but I don't do this stuff, lol. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/theObanner.gif[/img] I actually recently posted this banner in OtakuSennen's banner thread to compare it to an image that he made using this as an inspiration. Ironically enough, I had used another banner as inspiration to come up with the idea of seperating technical parts with a faded white. As I recall, I never actually used this in my signature, mainly because I posted a version without the "theOtaku" text, and no one liked it so I only had it in my sig for a couple days. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/GameCrap-ban.jpg[/img] I loved making this banner, lol. I edited three controllers; GameCube became GameCrap, PlayStation became LameStation, and X-Box became X-Lax. I have the pictures if you want to see them, but I only used the GameCrap picture in my banner. Props to Charles for the names GameCrap and LameStation, and to Semjaza for X-Lax. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/eva.gif[/img] This is my first complicated animation that actually meant something, lol. I made it around the time that the theOtaku: Evangelion section went up to promote it, of course, and I think I did fairly well on this piece. Works best when your computer is processing at the correct speed, like all animations, lol. The animation was [i]completely[/i] made from scratch, except for the Eva unit 01 picture and the static part. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Moderator.jpg[/img] I made this banner shortly after I became moderator of the Anime Lounge. While the banner was overall simple, I got fairly high praise for it when I posted it here, so I must have done something good, lol. The person in the background is Kauro from Evangelion, if you couldn't tell. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/OtakuBoards2003_2.jpg[/img] Back around the beginning of version 6 of OtakuBoards (or it might have been the middle, I really have no idea anymore), there was a contest held where people made banners for the header, which would turn into a new skin. This was my first entry. Well technicially, it wasn't, since the first version was blue, but I made it red later when someone suggested that it would look better. Unfortunately, I believe the contest was over by the time I had done this. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/OtakuBoards-banner.jpg[/img] After I made the blue version of the banner above this one for the contest, I thought I had a prety good chance of winning, so I made this to stick in my signature. Gotta love those scan lines. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/OtakuBoards2003_3.jpg[/img] My second entry for the contest. I think many people, including myself, under-estimated how well I had really done this, and when I look back, I like this possibly better than any of my other entries. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Boards.jpg[/img] My final entry to the contest. Incidentally, it won, so you may have seen this banner at the top of the page if you registered around this time. ~_^ James put "powered by Syk" in that bottom right corner right, and I had a few people who thought I atually made the forums. @_@ Man, I love those colors. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Steiner.jpg[/img] I made this banner in accordance with a request by a member named Steiner. I didn't know them, and just made it from something in the request forum. Two weeks later, he was banned. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/DetectiveStory.jpg[/img] When I saw the AniMatrix, I was blown away, especially with the short clip "A Detective Story", done completely in black and white and by the same director who did Cowboy Bebop, my favorite anime. I believe that I saw a similar banenr on OB that gave me the idea, and I went to work making it. Check out that awesome border I made for the text "A Detective Story", lol. Fits the rest of the image pretty well, I think. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Matrixbanner.jpg[/img] Another banner based off the Matrix hype of May 2003, but I didn't do much with this. I never posted it, didn't put it in my sig; I just made it in Photoshop one day and left it there. Someone requested a Matrix banner a month or two ago, so I slapped on a name and gave it to them, but they ended up using someone elses. I don't blame them, though, I just used some quick posters I found on the net and didn't use any many effects. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Mei.jpg[/img] Made shortly after Mei and I got married, I gave this to her as sort of a present to show how much I loved her, and to charish the occasion. ^_~ She needed a banner anyway, so it all worked out. For myself, I made a goofy animation of the chat we got married in. xD [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Alex.jpg[/img] This banner was done for my friend Alex on a different message board. He's an IRL friend who admires my banner talent, so he requested a banner and I gave it to him, heh. I used a lot of effects and such, and I think it turned out nicely. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/MoonBeam2.jpg[/img] For those of you who still remember miss MoonBeam, this was a banner by her request for a new album that she wanted to get. I made one for her with the arriving date, and once it came out, I changed the text to this. She has since left the boards for the most part, so that's a shame. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Kenshin.gif[/img] When I got to this part in the series, I just had to make the banner. Even before I saw the actual fight, all the events leading up to this had been fantastic, and I felt that I needed to comemorate the moment. The animation is smooth and everything, but it always degrades after you use a lot of frames. Also, I feel that I could have done better with the text at the end. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/OtakuSennen.jpg[/img] Sen was a lot of help with this banner. Before he even requested the banner, he went out of his way to make a 5-hour-long Paint example of the banner, and tell me exactly how he wanted it set it. I felt bad when I made it in about 15 minutes. :/ [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/AniFinal-Raiha3.gif[/img] This, of course, was a banner requested by Raiha. She gave me some pictures to work with, I chose one and made it the color of her posts and sig and got to work. After many, many tests and versions, figuring out which banner would fit into the sig, and which wouldn't, I finally came up with this. It was worth it, I think. ^_^ [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Boondock-Saints.jpg[/img] This banner goes out to one of my favorite movies of all time: The Boondock Saints. Basically, it's about these two Irish brothers that feel that something needs to be done about all of this red tape in the judicial system, so they go out and kill mob bosses and other scum off the street. The words on the edges are part of a prayer that they say when they put the criminals on their knees and are about to assassinate them, and the gun in the image is aimed at the back of one of the bad guy's heads. The tattoo either means 'truth' or 'justice', I think. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Berserk.jpg[/img] Quick and easy banner, but can you deny how good that looks? Sure, it's just a crop and a border, but the image itself (from the anime Berserk) looks way cool in my opinion. ..yeap. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Enishi.jpg[/img] This is from a screenshot that I took from Samurai X: Reflections of the main bad guy, [spoiler]Enishi, the brother of Tomoe, Kenshin's first wife.[/spoiler] You can see a reflection of what he looked like in a previous movie in his sunglasses. A pretty simple banner again, but I like how I combined the two texts at the top. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/FoolyCooly.jpg[/img] I watched FLCL, and I made the banner. Pretty self-explanatory, lol, especially if you've seen the anime yourself. Big eyebrows in Japan equal maturity and other stuff. Doesn't make sense to me either, but it was funny. O.o [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/Snatch.jpg[/img] My current banner. *points* I went out to make this after watching the movie Snatch with the intention of using my talent to actually [i]really try[/i] on a banner, and this is the outcome. I think I could have done better, but I was still very pleased with how this turned out. Brad Pitt's character is in a bare-knuckle boxing match with some nameless other guy near the end of the movie. Great fight, great fight. [*][img]http://dg369.250free.com/banners/AniFinal-Monthscolors.gif[/img] What colors do [i]you[/i] see the months in? This is just a little something I whipped up yesterday when I remembered Mei telling me something about how she saw months in colors. And when I thought about it, so do I. Light blue, brown, green, purple, yellow, blue, dark blue, sunset, orange, black, navy blue, and light pruple. I made that, then went into Animation shop and chose a technique that switches the colors around, depending on how dark or light or whatever the color is in the first place.[/list=1][/size] So there you have it. Constructive criticism is all that I ask, like every Art thread. I very well may edit this and add more, and if I do I'll make a note of it. -Syk3[/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen Asuka Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 [color=hotpink][size=1]I like them all. I remember alot of those, too, even though it's been a while since you've used them. You definiately have talent. ^_^[/color][/size] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hittokiri Zero Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 [quote]I like them all. I remember alot of those, too, even though it's been a while since you've used them. You definiately have talent. ^_^[/quote] *figures it's time he plays Syk for a change =)* Constructive criticism ay! Constructive criticism ay! Constructive criticism ay! BLARG ^___^''. That post needs contructive criticism =O! Anyway, it's safe to say you've progressed a long way from your Gohan banners day (XD... I still remember the days when I made DBZ banners x___X)... Probably my favorite banners of yours here would have to be your "GameCrap" banner, while I am a big fan of Nintendo that was very well done ^_^, nice photo-manip right "thurr". I do think some of your newer banners such as the enishi and FLCL banners are just "too simple" though, while the FLCL banner looks nice with the matching text and all the Enishi banner is just too lacking in my opinion, anyone can stick some pixel font in the corner of a banner and make a banner like that, banners like that just need some way to differentiate themselves from others they need some sort of... some sort of... puzzaz XD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katana Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Too many damn banners...I'll comment on one of them... The thirteenth one...I REMEMBER THAT!!! Incidently, my friends and I had just watched Spirited Away the week before and, for some reason, that Image reminds me of that movie...or something created by Hayo Mayizaki. I really like it though. It's a relativily simple banner, and very clean cut. The dark blue gives me the feeling that the girl is sitting across from a bonfire or something. Let's see...*thinks some more*...I also liked the joke James put "powered by Syk3". ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baron Samedi Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 I'll reply now, before we run your bandwidth out of existence. XD #1- Your cropping on the yellow haired one was great, and the background is pretty good. You have improved a thousand-fold since then though. #2- Excellent work here. Really neat banner, great picture... marvellous work. #3- I think this banner is great. Incidentally, I wanted the name Solid Snake.. someone had it though >.> I love the effects. #4- Short, simple and sweet. Gorgeous. I love it. #5- Not too bad. For some reason, I always prefer definitive edges though. #6- Nifty. I love the barcode, and the actual idea for it is excellent. I love the feel of this one. #7- Nice work here. Gamecrap. lol. Lamestation. lol. Very funny. Excellent work... you did a tight job on this. #8- Not too shoddy at all. Heh. #9- Nice work. Quiet, smooth and sweet. It ... has some definitive property to it. Heh. #10- Not too bad, but not as good as your later submissions for the contest. #11- Self advertising never hurts. Especially with such a neat banner as this ^_^ #12- Nice work. I am always insanely jealous of your cropping work. I love this banner. Bloody legendary. #13- Aah. Fond memories. This was... a symbol of... life to me for quiet a few months. lol. I loved it. Great work... I actually used to think that you had called yourself Syk after the engine or whatever that 'Powered' OB. lol. Silly Baron ^_^. #14- Shame he was banned, because this is a great banner. Very good. #15- The font for this isn't the best, but I love the banner none the less. Your work always seamlessly blends the elements together. I am envious. #16- I love this Matrix banner. Excellent.. especially how you cropped off at their faces. Very unique and stylish. Also.. "didn't use any many effects". Did you use some or not? #17- I can't say I like how it is all faded. I think one of the images brightened would do it a world of good... however I love the gesture. Very sweet. #18- Excellent. The character isn't the best, and would probably look better without the scanlines on him, but this banner uses every single aspect well. Marvellous work. #19- =\ Tis OK. Not my can of beans. #20- See above. #21- I loved this when Sennen was using it. Great work here. You love those damn scanlines don't you? Wish I had scanlines u.u #22- I liked this one. Anything relating to Raiha is a double thumbs up XD. Good work for this. #23- Marvellous work. Your banners have a refreshing cleanness to them. I believe 'Veritas' means Truth. Correct me if I am wrong though. #24- 50/50 Half and half. I kind of like it, kind of don't. #25- I loved this one. Excellent work indeed. This is so... you. This one has Factor 'X' indeed. #26- I loved this one too. So funny. The blend of cartoon and anime style pictures is flawless and innovative. #27- You think you could have done much better? This piece is already excellent. I love it. So dark and... bah. Plain awesome. #28- This one isn't too bad. Some of the colours could be a bit dulled or faded I feel... but I love the idea. I had an idea a few months ago for a 'button' Banner and avi set. Might even make it one day. Heh. Good stuff. To sum it up, you are without doubt, one of the best banner makers on here. You have a particular style to your banners which I love. Keep up the excelllent work. I would rate you in the top *counts* 6 banner makers on OB. For sure. [size=1]A half decent comment for every banner here. Half an hour. Iyeh. I rock![/size] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MetalSonic700 Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 I remember everything from 13 and up and I love them all! I was one of te people who thought you made this place. Then I thought it was you and Shy, the OB KINGS! My favorite is the Kenshin/Shishio one. I was SO FREAKIN PSYCHED by the fact that battle was coming, I worshipped the banner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaiyanPrincessX Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 [SIZE=1]Heh, I remember all of those; they bring back alot of memories. I forgot how much you loved scanlines, silleh. :p [COLOR=royalblue] 1.) Wow, thats so diffrent from your current work. That is one I never saw, you have definetely improved. 2.) I like this but I don't like the Japanese font, its too large, though the color matches well with the rest of the banner. I don't really care for the large grid either. 3.) I completely forgot about your previous username. I did associate that banner with you back then, like many others. I think its very nicely done. The whole banner matches, and the fonts you used all seem to fit nicely. 4.) Heh, Syky's first Sky piece. ^_^ This is very plane, but I like how the S and arrow match the corner dividers. I think thats the first time I had seen a dotted border. 5.) Hm, I think I was one of those people who disliked this. I find it very appealing now however. I find grungy/scratchy look very eye catchy, it looks almost like chalk. 6.) I'm not to fond of this one. I dislike all the tech borders, they clutter the image. They really don't fit together either. 7.) Whee, GameCrap! Heh, I remember laughing so hard at those renditions. ^_^ I love how you captured the controller, its so clean and crisp, with a nice little logo to top it off. :P 8.) This piece amazed me. I remember seeing this before even knowing of Neon Genesis. I can tell alot of effort was put into this. The only thing that bothers me is the white tet; its a bit hard to see in some areas. 9.) So simplistic, yet appealing. The fading squares and line really improve the image; it would be rather blane without them. 10.) I was very impressed with your work in that contest. The red Vashness is much better than the blue. The dotted line through the banner is a great addition. 11.) Ah yes, teh lord of scanlines. ^_~ As much as I like blue, it really doesn't fit Vash. I loved the way you have Syk3 with those two dots. Its strange how something so small can bring out so much. 12.) I have to agree, it was under-estimated. I didn't like it because there wasn't much to it but now that I look at it again its perfect; aside from positioning of OtakuBoards, and the font of 2003. The clearness and colors go well together and bring out the characters. 13.) Ah yes, sir Syk's well known piece. T'was a nice addition to the OB layout. Strangely, I think my favorite part is the menu box. 14.) Well I do like the image you used for this but overall its not the greatest in my opinion. I think its over done, not by you, just that style in general. Although thats probebly because alot of my previous banners looked somewhat like that. 15.) Heh, I remember telling you how I loved the flame; the only piece of color in the image. Truelly a master piece that story is. That quote really sticks out. 16.) You know I love this. That was such a big hype in May; especially with me. Although you didn't do much to it it is nice. The images you used are so crisp. Its also helps with the title; "The Matrix Reloaded' isn't blurred. I've seen the logo used many times and often its hard to read. I also like how the images are placed; evil on both sides while Neo resides in the middle. 17.) Eep! That looks very much like an "Alcoholic bread" banner I made for Kenji last year. o.o Anyway, its very nice. I can see the love. ^^ 18.) Such coolehs. I love the techy look. Although I think the boy is placed to far to the right, he should have been cropped to the side a bit to rid the banner of the gray space on the left. 19.) Well I was lost then and I'm lost now. I like the black and white but its hard for me to critique this because I've never seen nor heard of whatever this is from. 20.) Ah, Kenshinness. You chose good images for this. It really expresses a feeling of wonder. I love the frame where the two simply move their swords. Heh. I don't like the font either, and the red looks rushed. >.< 21.) Bah, I don't like this one at all. It simply looks rushed. 22.) I'm not to keen on the image quality of this but I love the quotes and how there randomly placed. The image gives a since of honor or triumph. 23.) I've never seen or heard of this movie but it sounds interesting. The torn edges with the prayer are great. I also like how you've added the image of the hand with the tattoo. I don't think you should have added the black border though. 24.) I don't really have much to say about this one. Although its a nice quality image, and cropped nicely, it really doesn't appeal to me. 25.) Great expression. The text is the best part of the image. 26.) Heh, awesomly funny. I do think the banner is a bit cluttered though. But hey, the quote is top notch. Heh. 27.) I've seen this movie either. -_-; The grungyness really brings out the fight nicely. I also like the font you used for Snatch and how its faded into the background. The color scheme works well also. 28.) Thats definetely very unique. I suppose I see where your coming from with this. Very colorful.[/COLOR] I look forward to more of your artwork Syk.[/SIZE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinmaru Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Hey, I remember every banner from thirteen on - not too shabby, I'd say ~_^ I'm a bit strapped for time, so I'll just comment on my favorite of your banners - #15, A Detective Story. I just really like this banner a lot. The shots you chose are nice, crisp and clear, the font looks good and the eyeball in the background ([spoiler]from when the Agents were giving the detective the bug via eye exam, of course[/spoiler]) really goes along well with the quote, I think. "A case to end all cases," indeed. The flame in the banner really draws a lot of attention, as it's the only piece of color in the banner (it's the only piece of color in that animated short, too, I believe). I think it looks rather cool, heh. I think most of your banners are quite good, but #15 is easily my favorite, heh - probably because I love A Detective Story so much ^_^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted January 12, 2004 Share Posted January 12, 2004 [size=1]This is like the fourth time I've posted something after Shin, and I wasn't even stalking him this time! It's [i]crazy![/i] But yes, time to focus on Syk. 2. Final Fantasy X is probably the one and only FF I'll ever know all the way through. >.>;; It's a great picture of Auron, though, and I love how you put the Japanese characters under your name. It's not so obnoxious that way. That, and the grid thing is cool. 13. That's my favorite one out of the OtakuBoard series, and probably out of all the ones ever made. Too bad I missed it. :p 18. It looks very professional - like an actual character profile. The lines and squares and other odd shapes are also great details. Much fun. 24. Heh, that's essentially my banner, just a different picture. Simple is the way to go. ^_~ 27. Snatch: Brad Pitt. Blood. Half Naked Men. How can you not like it? Right, seriously, the images are well-chosen and it's all put together seamlessly (is that a word?). The fuzzy, TV quality is a great effect, and gives it a darker feel. Probably one of my favorites of yours. Overall, everything you make is top quality - even if it is really simple - and for that you rock. Definitely one of the best on the boards, if not [i]the[/i] best. I've praised you enough. :p[/size] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimmsicle Posted January 20, 2004 Share Posted January 20, 2004 [COLOR=darkred]For someone who hasn't been here very long (aka me) it's really interesting to see how people have progressed over time. You started out pretty good, but have obviously gone really far from that Gohan banner *nods* I'll list what I find strikes me, personally, with some of the banners.[/COLOR] [COLOR=indigo]2. Auron is my favourite character from FFX, which in itself makes this banner cool in my eyes. I like the orange "aura" (haha) around him, it gives the banner depth. I've noticed that grids can really damage a banner, but it works here, I think. 4. This one is really clean and crisp. The specks of orange gives it a touch of life, insuring that it doesn't come off all sterile like. The dotted line gives it some extra flair. 10. It looks really good, apart from the fact that it felt odd that the guy was boxed in, but not the toolbar. That's just me though ^_^; 12. Also looks really good, but I find that the girl on the right disturbs more than she adds. Though she is faded in well. 13. I can see why it won. Simple, yet not. Nice balance in the placing of text and image. 21. I felt that the blue could've been better blended in with the pictures. Other than that it's fine. 22. What can I say ? Spot on. At first I had an issue with the text not being as visible as it could've been, but it just fits somehow? 23. A subtle bullseye. It has layers, meaning it changes from first glance and becomes more and more appealing the more you look at it. You end up wanting more >__> 28. A new fun idea. It stands out and the animation is pulled off well. Overall goodness.[/COLOR] [color=firebrick]I'm sure I could say something about every banner, but I only took a few. You clearly have talent, good ideas and you improve progressively. - Mimmi[/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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