I'll have to fix up that first FSN set, since I could see the red stuff on my old computer. This should be finished after I transfer my GFF folder onto the new compy!

Here's another FSN set, since I only have those FSN pictures on this computer. I'm thinking about fixing that white bubble thing at the top so that it doesn't end right at the edge of the sig, but the zoo calls! Therefore, I'm not adding this to my master index yet.

Fate Stay Night Avatar and Sig Set 3

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1...eavatar8yl.jpg
http://img327.imageshack.us/img327/4...tagged27fu.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1...plesig29bd.jpg
Usage History: Imkylepiano=)


I was also planning on posting a poem, but I'm still thinking about it. It may end up in an anthology or magazine (of the amateur variety, of course), so I don't want my name getting out. *****coooouuuuggghhhhh***** The chances of it gettting posted here are very high! :edgartpg:

I love your stuff! It's a really interesting style to it that I can't figure out how to put in words.

Thanks, DarkLink2135.
-----------------------

Okay--I still have to fix up those old wallpapers, as well as that sig, but because I'm such a huge procrastinator, that obviously hasn't been done yet. Rest assured, I will do it, since I'll have plenty of time over the summer.


http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9...ackj0mp.th.jpg http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/5...s4icon25ev.png

"Reach for the Stars" Wallpaper 1280x1024 w/ Matching Icon
Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Here's a quick mashup I made while waiting for the shower, as I don't really want to attempt something involving more effort right now. Once I start something, I have to finish it all in one sitting, except for quick changes, and I don't have hours to spare during the school year. Yadayadaya. :p

I can't seem to figure out how to make an arc. The help file in PS isn't quite responding, and my quick Google didn't help much, as it only rambled about warping text. In the end, I made the blue swish out of "__________." So yes, that's text! :D

I also threw on a matching icon for XP. HAH! :edgartpg:



http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/6...024j7sh.th.jpg
"Reach for the Stars" Wallpaper 1024x768
Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
It's the same as the one above, but resized and cropped to 1024x768.



I'll have a story up as soon as I move it over from the old computer. ;) If I can dig up my birdie photo, I might post that up too. It's somewhere....
In the meantime, here's a prehistoric Haiku I composed years ago. Yes, it's old, and I've shared it before.


Snow
Falling snow shall rest
upon the sleeping mountains,
eternally still.

I'm still procrastinating.

I can't find that story, so it's probably in one of my backup discs. JOY! However, I do have the abridged and poem-ized version, so here you go! Because I stink at titles, I shall name it, "The Camel Man," even though it's not about a camel man. There's a reason why I'm not a writer!

----------------------------------------------------


"The Camel Man"
On a not-so-special day,
the camel man
died
beneath the
burning sky,
a brilliant red sun
descending behind an
endless curtain of golden crops.

Doug carried the man’s sparse frame
to the makeshift graveyard,
a desolate spot of land
surrounded by an expanse
of emptiness.

He then headed toward
that rocking chair, now
worn and battered by age
but still standing,

From there,
he watched,
with cloudy eyes,
the brilliant spectacle before him
the sky, a palette of vivid colors—
crimson, indigo, mauve, amethyst—
bridging the gap from the fading sunlight
to the darkness that inevitably followed.

Ah,
the man thought, as he did ever so often,
this is life.

And he began to sob
in joy--
for the beauty of the sunset,
in sorrow—
for his departed friends.

Tears streamed down the man’s
weathered face as
the sky’s many hues
washed together and
became a blurred,
kaleidoscopic world
before his teary eyes.

Somewhere in the distance,
he heard a faintly familiar rumble.
The crops bowed down solemnly as
a sudden gust of wind swept past them,
rattling the loose timbers of the
old, wilting house that stood nearby.

As the darkness closed in around him,
the man,
hunched over in his creaking chair,
could hear--
amidst the swaying of the crops,
the drums rolling away in the distance,
and the calculated cadence of his rocking chair--
the soft,
comforting
pitter-patter of
raindrops—
one,
two

That new FSN set is really sweet. I was wondering, do you watch the show now? Or was that set just made out of spite? I really like it. I think it's better then the Rin one I'm using from you! That character you used is Caster if you didn't know ^^.

Thanks! :p No, I'm not actually watching it, but I just had a folder of FSN pictures saved on my computer, so I decided to use them!

Caster, eh? See, I would have never known! :tpg:

Hehe, it's a really good show if you like fiction/action. It of cource has it's funny moments, and it isn't HIGHLY fictional. It has a lot of realistic figures in it as well.

Hope you don't mind if I try on your new sig ^^

I'll see if I can check that out over the summer then! :) Those screenshots looked mighty fine, yes.


It's photo time, but not really!

Once upon a time, I went to Disney World, where I purchased a disposable camera at a wonderful price--$18. I thought to myself, "Well, that's okay, as long as I get my pictures!" HAH! Well, none of them turned out good, and the only one that wasn't all dark and faded was this:

http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/7...opsm4ov.th.jpg

Okay, it's still pretty bad. Well, I decided to do something about it! >:B

Luckily, I just read a little about Layer Masks yesterday. Earlier, I was having TONS of trouble with the image because when I decided to change saturation or contrast settings, some parts of the photo would end up all messed up. Since I was having trouble with getting the image to look more colorful without completely ruining other parts of it, I decided to give the Layer Mask thing a go! Because I have a horrible habit of skimming over tutorials, you can imagine the fun I had with it, even though it wasn't rocket science. ;)

The end result, which was a tad too blinding, was this:
http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/6...ight9qr.th.jpg

2 whole hours. :(


Here's a less blinding version:
http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/7...ight8xe.th.jpg


They both look too dark (or saturated?) on one monitor, and on the one I'm using now, they're "fine." If I make it any lighter (and I don't mean vivid), it ends up looking too light here. Both my monitors are at similar settings, but the image end up on the extremes. I give up! :ninja:

Revised image (6/8/06)

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6...empt7rb.th.jpg
(More sizes and versions here)

It's Xenosaga time! Erm. I guess I discovered the magical powers of Distort>Wave. :tpg: Actually, the background is both a mix of a distorted lens flare I made beforehand as well as a screenshot from the official site. Anyways, this one's 1280x1024, not 1024x768, unlike most of my other ones.

It started out having a different version of KOS-MOS over on the right in normal colors, but it looked a bit funny. I'm planning on trying that again for the 1024x768 version to see how that fares. I predict horrible, horrible things.

Oh, and I'm finally going back to fix those other failed wallpapers. Haha!

I absolutely love layer masks. I used them a lot back when I took a photoshop class. Good job salvaging that image. The second one is a tad bit over saturated but the third one seems just about right.

Hm. Now that I've looked at them both side by side, you seem to have taken out the shadows cast by the birds and the two in the top right area. Was this intentional? Also, did you smooth out the feathers on the bird in the foreground? A lot of the texture in the original photo seems lost. I mention this because to me, the bird in the background looks a lot more natural simply because of the textures created by the feathers.

G'day, Kazyl! :)

I didn't even notice the absence of the shadows in the 2 new versions, so no, that was completely unintentional! It was probably one of my clone rampages. :p

Yes, I did smooth out the feathers on the bird in the foreground. Let's see if I try to get some of that texture back. It's finger-crossing time!

Thanks for the feedback!

Double Post:
Okay! I went back to the original, but I couldn't really find too much texture there. Regardless, I tried adding some of the texture from that one onto the third image. Hopefully, it's a bit better.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/1...ietx1yk.th.jpg

On a related note, is there a way to make the texture more dramatic? I tried Levels and a couple other things, but I'm just taking a shot in the dark here. :p I'm not quite sure how to go about this.

I love the new Xenosaga wallpaper you just made! In fact, I think I may use it for my desktop (especially since I'm still playing the game at the moment)!

Thanks, Rockgamer!
___________

By the way, here's a 1024x768 version, since the 1280x1024 version will look funny if scaled down to 1024x768.

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1...24hi4lr.th.jpg


And here's another version of the 1280x1024 one, with KOS-MOS a little darker. I saved this one at a much higher quality level than the other one, which explains the fact that it's around 500 kb.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/874...0big8pg.th.jpg

(For reference, the original can be found here)

_________________________________________

And on a completely unrelated note, I finally fixed up those wallpapers that I promised to fix ages ago. Yay!

My screen resolution is set at 1440x900, so I don't need the smaller version. The second version of the 1280x1024 one works fine enough for me!

haha i like the first avatar the best :]

Really nice new titles on the first post of this thread I like!

And would it be too much trouble for the great Elwe to make me a new Sig+Ava?

I loved the past 2 you made for me and I just can't get enough of it ^_^.

If you have the time, I would like a Naruto styled sig. Be as creative as you like unless you want me to request with detail.

You are amazing!

Kyle

Naruto, eh? I'll see what I can do? Any deadline in mind? Also, would you prefer "the usual" style sig, or a rectangular one?

Wow, elwe! I really like that Xenosaga wallpaper! I like what you did with your photo as well. You're really good at this! I might need your services in the immediate future! :)

Thanks, Lady Miyomi! Services, eh? :tpg: I doubt I'll have enough skill for that. Crystals, ice shards, and awesome swirlies still elude me. And I actually consulted a tutorial for those out of desperation!

Oh, and sorry for the looooong delay, Kyle. I just got back from vacation not long ago, and I still have to get some images. :)


Okay, then! Here's a banner I've been working on a while ago. Okay, well, it also contains some of the page beneath the banner. Anyways, it's still not done, as there are parts that I need to fix up some more. I've obviously been playing with blending options again. :(

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/709...banner15be.jpg


If that's too confusing, I've cropped out the stuff beneath the banner in the following image and deleted the leaf, which technically isn't part of the banner. Yay for .psd!


http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1...anner120je.jpg

Wow, that looks awesome! Are you working on that for something or someone in particular?

No, not really. :)

It was actually for a site which I'm not really planning to make. :p Originally, I had wanted to make a new site for myself--one of those free ones. It wasn't going to be a fansite, like my previous ones, since there are already plenty of those. And they're pretty good, too.

Thus, I took this as an opportunity to actually make a site banner from scratch, which was pretty fun. I think all of my previous banners contained videogame or anime characters!

As for the site--I fail at coding, so I'm still playing around with the idea. I seriously doubt that it'll go anywhere, as I usually trash my sites and start all over again before reaching the halfway point. :tpg:

I like it, it looks really sleek. I think those would work well as buttons on the website. I don't know if it would be too busy, but I think it would look even better if you could bring each element closer togather. For some reason I could never really get the polished look of you graphic artist. :3

Thanks, Magi! :) Yay for the :3! Closer? Mmm, you mean something like this, with less space between the jewels?

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4...anner139hd.jpg

I thought the same about the buttons, but I did make some buttons anyways. They turned out a bit funky, though! :( The backgrounds aren't transparent in these, and I do think the banner buttons would look nicer.