42 replies to this topic

[clemsonfight]

So perhaps you've seen some of the excellent artwork and banners on this site before and wondered to yourself: How can I do that?
Perhaps you've asked questions about how to make a banner. Perhaps you haven't asked anyone, but you have a lot of questions you need answered. Maybe you're a newbie. Maybe you're a veteran of this board. Regardless, this thread is for you!

Helping everyone out with tips and tricks, from the newbie to the pro, are three four FIVE of the top Banner Design firms on Whitney-fan.com. We will all be offering advice, and feel free to ask ANY questions relating to banner design, whether beggininer or veteran, and share any advice!

Other designers are also welcome to chime in with anything you have!

Here to offer advice, and answer your every question are:

Larry of Nippy House Productions



NippyHouse Productions (NHP) is the board's premiere and self-proclaimed banner boutique. Firm CEO, Larry A. and his famed assistant/vice presdent, Connie Spalding, state that the firm is "very intimate and personal" at NHP. NHP is known for banners that have overall art and conceptual direction and its CEO can often be seen wearing banners that infuse a lyric from Whitney Houston's prestigious catalogue. Not just anyone can obtain one of NHP's highly sought after banners; it's an exclusive selection process to which only the priveliged are privy.

Over the years, NHP has catered to only a select few clients, ConclusiveTruthz, Eboni, Mr. Jace, and Helltothenah, being among those.



Terrence of Ford Illustra



Founded in 2001 by Terrence, Ford Illustria, or FI for short, has had a long history of creating trailblazing works of art for the Whitney-Fan community. Obtaining a banner from original banner king Rocky, Terrence began to whet his thirst for making banners while using Microsoft Paint. His love for banner making was defined when he switched to Microsoft Picture It and acquiring the first contract under the FI logo; T. Shortly after, FI acquired its second contract member Conclusivetruthz and began to continue its meteoric rise. A mere seven years later FI has designed works for such members as NippyfanNy779, Nippy4eva, Clemsonfight, Hewdigadef, Smeckles, and Smann among others. FI has had the honor of multiple best banner nominations, with one win, and multiple nominations and eventual wins as best banner designer. Now as FI enters the 21st century and designing groundbreaking banners using Adobe Photoshop and a direct hands on approach, Terrence stands posed at the pinnacle of the banner design realm as one of the leading designers of his era.

Buddha of Zen Productions:


Zen productions of Buddha creaters banners, wallpapers etc. to everyone. Customer satisfaction
is number one importance. Creativity, style, and edge are the tools that Zen uses to convey a message trough visual design.
Zen looks to establish long partnerships with it's customers, and has helped Whitney fans in a few forums, not only in banner design, but also with website design and myspace and youtube channel backgrounds.





From debut, johnoNIPPY Productions (jNP) was shot to stardom, being compared to the banner greats. jNP specializes in making Whitney Houston graphics of all kinds available to any fan of the incomparable Whitney Houston. With the client at mind and the strive for perfection, johnoNIPPY Productions hopes to continue to grow and prove that they are not the ever so common "one hit wonder" and prove their longevity in the business.

johnoNIPPY Productions has worked with many, spanning the Whitney Houston community, but most notably being chose to design the graphics for the 2008 Summer Nippy Awards.


And finally...

Clemsonfight of Tiger Paw Productions



One of the newer firms on the board, Tiger Paw Productions was founded by star poster clemsonfight. Starting out with just a couple of newbies, TPP has quickly grown and gained some respect. During its existence it has faced much criticism, including being referred to as the "Walmart of Banners" by certain other designers. However, Tiger Paw Productions prides itself on being accessible to nearly any member of Whitney-fan. It has provided banners for both long-time posters and newbies and simply continues to grow. The company's shining moment came in 2008 at the Nippy Awards when founder Clemsonfight took Best Banner Designer and the award for Best Banner. Expect more in the future.

Some of the most notable to wear the paw include Fernanda, smeckles, and Tiger.


Good luck everyone!

Edited by clemsonfight, 23 August 2008 - 09:37 PM.

[Xandi]

Okay Clemsonfight i'm ready to get in on the action! LOL..so could you help me out by telling me which program I should you use

[clemsonfight]

Well it all depends. I started out practicing in Paint and I think most people here started there as well....but Paint obviously can't do much.


Right now, I use Photoshop and I've been pretty pleased with it. It's tough to figure out but after working with it a LOT, I can work my way through it. However, Photoshop IS expensive. There are.....other....ways of getting your hands on it, but I'm not gonna condone that right here officially. But I've had a lot of luck with Photoshop. So as long as you are willing to put in the work and figure it out, Photoshop isn't bad.

But Larry, as far as I know, uses Microsoft Picture It!...and he says it can do anything Photoshop can do and is easier to use, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't used it personally though. Perhaps he can post and tell you about it.

But if you don't want to spend lots of money, you can always go Ellen's route. I've never personally used it, but Ellen uses GIMP and apparently its worked out well for her. And its FREE. Available here: http://www.gimp.org/

Regardless of which one you get, the most important thing is to practice a lot.

Any programs I'm leaving out? Anyone wanna discuss what they use? Feel free to chime in.

Edited by clemsonfight, 13 December 2007 - 04:13 PM.

[Xandi]

Okay this is to ellen..do you think you give me some tips on using gimp?

[Mind Speaker]

Well like Zach said, I use Microsoft Picture It! aka Microsoft Digital Image Suite. I love it. I have Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, too, but I've come to find that I can do like 95% of the stuff I can do in those other two, more expensive programs, in Picture It! I swear by Digital Image Suite.

[WHITNEYFAN4LYFE]

Well i have Photoplus, don't know if u all are familiar with it, but it can do all of the same things as Photoshop, but when i'm trying to do certain things its all just one big BLUR, because i really don't know where to start.Working with stuff like:

Navigator, opacity(Normal, Dissolve,Multiply,Screen,Overlay,Soft Light,Hard Light), paths, extracting,Image sizing,instant effects,scale......Not to mention other things like: Abstract, Category,Metal Text,Wood,Add Layer Mask, Add Layer Depth Map...And the list continues with ALOT of other stuff that it does, but i look at it like, "Where in the hell do i start?"

[Mind Speaker]

I've just stopped in to say that I'm officially addicted to airbrushing! I was just telling Zach that I need an intervention! Since I learned about the airbrushing function in MS Digital Image, I've been airbrushing up a storm! In fact, that pic of Whitney in my banner below I airbrushed to all get out just because I could and also because I wanted a real, overdone, kinda painting type look without going all the way there. Added/changed makeup and everything...

Compare the below pic with the pic in my banner and you'll see:

[Xandi]

Mind Speaker, on Dec 14 2007, 12:30 PM, said:

I've just stopped in to say that I'm officially addicted to airbrushing! I was just telling Zach that I need an intervention! Since I learned about the airbrushing function in MS Digital Image, I've been airbrushing up a storm! In fact, that pic of Whitney in my banner below I airbrushed to all get out just because I could and also because I wanted a real, overdone, kinda painting type look without going all the way there. Added/changed makeup and everything...

Compare the below pic with the pic in my banner and you'll see:

WoW! It's really amazing how you did that! great Job!

Edited by kandykane8816, 14 December 2007 - 02:54 PM.

[buddha]

Yes Mindspeaker, my eye immidiately catched that thing in your great banner, I was wondering how in hell did you make her look so great and sharp and incredible?? Lol.

That was one of the inspirations from your banner to mine, I tried to do something similar to this picture:

[clemsonfight]

Actually...I have a question...Anybody know some good sites to get fonts from? I used to have one from Terrence but I forgot the link....

[buddha]

clemsonfight, on Jan 18 2008, 03:19 PM, said:

Actually...I have a question...Anybody know some good sites to get fonts from? I used to have one from Terrence but I forgot the link....

www.dafont.com, I have used it only once but I think it's good.

[buddha]

Zen banner tutorial(made in photoshop):

First I looked for a nice background image, and a pic of Whit. Then I extracted the Whit pic of it’s background and placed in the new background, like this:



Then I started working on making Whit look better. I filled and erased all the scratches on the edges. Then I used the smudge tool and smudged all of her skin and clothes to make her appear all smooth, as the original pic was really grainy. Then, I used the soft light brush and painted her skin brown, and dress a little purple, as the original picture was black and white. Then I slightly blurred the edges of the picture so that it would blend better in the final background. So this was the result:



Then I started working on the background, I slightly smudged it too, and removed the green part of it, and replaced it with a pic of cherry trees or something. Then I smudged the cherry tree part as well, as it was too sharp. Here’s how it looked:



And then, as a final touch, I used some marble brushes and painted the pillars so that they looked a little marbly. Also I used some vine brushes, and arranged the vines from smaller pieces, and also painted over them a bit, so that they (hopefully) would look a bit better. Lol and then used that interesting looking brush to paint some blowing leaves kind of thing, as if her dress was making wind. Here’s the result:



And I thought that quite wasn’t completely the effect I wanted, so merged all my layers together and added a lighting effect from the top left corner. And then I created a new “fill layer” with purpleish color and set it to “exclusion” and lowered the opacity quite a bit to make it appear so:



Finally, put the text zen there and there I had it! Step by step, bit by bit, lol. Very easy but the part that consumed me some time was to actually figure out how to make some of the effects I wanted! lol

Edited by buddha, 31 January 2008 - 09:52 PM.

[Terrence]

buddha, on Jan 31 2008, 09:51 PM, said:

Zen banner tutorial(made in photoshop):

Love that! That banner is SOOOO beautiful and you just broke it down like it was just so simple to make! I hate you! LMAO! (Kidding)

[buddha]

I don't wanna sound like I actually deserve to be mentioned in this thread but I see three great banner designers have their own presentations on the top so I wondered could I have mine?

[Terrence]

Send Clemson an PM. There shouldn't be a problem with adding you to the top once you create a logo. Wait, let me shut up. I am not a mod over here, I can't be usurping Clem's powers.... (PM him tho)