MCA Forum Guide

[Chaser]

MCA Forum Guide

Where am I?
You are in Member Created Art buddy, commonly known as MCA. Anything art related except Comics and Spriting, will go here including things not made by a computer. It's a fun forum and following every outlined here will make it a better experience for you and everyone else. Have fun making art!

Why a forum guide?

~It came to our attention that we need some rules and guidelines stuck back at the top of this forum because honestly, this forum is becoming a bit of a mess (lack of moderation on our part too), so I'm rewriting a version of Chaoszero/Antonie's old forum guide.

This will stand as the updated version and the rules will be enforced beginning now.

It's a fun forum but it will function a lot better if we stick to some easy to follow rules, so here they are:

• One request thread and one gallery thread per individual. If you want to start a new gallery, ask a moderator to close the old one.
• When requesting signatures, you must post in a gallery or request thread, threads asking for sigs will be closed.
• NO RIPPING. Ripping is when you take anything you haven't made and claim it as you're own. You absolutely cannot do this, if it was made by someone else, make sure you say it wasn't made by you. You cannot rip any form of GFX, including sig layers that weren't made by you. If you are found ripping you will be banned for a week, repeat offenders will be permanent.
• This is not really a rule, but give good criticism that will help the member instead of insulting a member. Saying 'that sig is crap, just quit' is being a jackass and is spam so don't do it.

All the rules outlined on the forum index stand in Member Created Art, flaming, swearing, unwanted behavior - not welcome here either.

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Requesting Signatures/Avatars & Banners - Guidelines
Oh yes =). We need this for those who are new to sig requesting. There are no rules for what you request (besides common sense rules - sexually explicit content, swear words etc) but you these guidelines will make your request easier on the people making your sigs.

• Try and aim for only one character per signature. Good sig makers usually only use one 'render' or 'character' because they want to keep a focal point. 5 characters is never going to look good in a signature style (maybe in large art) so try to not request it.
• Remember, if you ask for 'Goku fighting teh Naruto', it's going to be really hard because finding a render of Goku fighting Naruto probably doesn't exist. Sig makers don't make the renders guys, they use them to make your sigs.
• Another thing is if you ask for a really hard to make sig, then you're probably not going to get such a good result, so it will benefit you if you make it as easy as possible in your request.

If you follow these guidelines, your requested signature/avatar/banner will result in the best look at the end result. So it's not just for the sig maker's benefits, it's for yours too.

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Important MCA Links

Official Sig and Galleries Thread
Want to get some criticism for a sig, or get extra coverage for your gallery? Then this is thread for you! Tip: post sigs here, get the criticism and post the improved version in your gallery

Sig Help Thread
If you want help learning about signature techniques, or learning how to use GIMP/PS to make signatures, you can have your questions answered here.

Official Digital Arts Program
If you really want to improve yourself graphically, this is the thread for you. You will have a hands on experience from our experienced teachers.

Friendcodes.com Tutorial List
A list of art tutorials on Friendcodes. If you want extra coverage for your tutorial post it in this thread.

Member Created Art Resource Thread
Art goodies can be found here. In the words of the nesh, here you will find 'PSD'S, Tutorials, C4D'S, Brushes, fonts, renders, and a whole bunch of other free stuff'.

More to come (any suggestions for links, just PM me)...
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~Now that's it! Have fun making art guys.

[Chaser]

Offering critique (advice) to sig makers

This is a revised/shortened version of link64's critique guide here, I suggest you all read it if you want to become good at giving advice - http://www.friendcodes.com/forums/member-created-art/69208-critique-guide.html

It's terrible when good work is ignored for something that isn't actually that good. It might be a sig that has a render of something popular so people will instantly say its good without really looking at the sig itself.

These are the things that actually make good sigs:

-Depth
-Flow
-Concept
-Effects
-Text/Misc

Going over these now, you will learn how to spot these attributes. This will also help you give good, constructive advice on someone's sig..

Depth: In a sig you should always have a focal point. This is what the viewer will be focused on. The main focal point in sigs usually is the render in the sig but not always. Good signature's focal points stand out the background and the effects. So in other words, things that are suppose to look further away in you sig should be blurrier make the sig look "deeper". This effect is called depth.


A sig displaying some good depth

Flow: Flow is a little harder to explain but it pretty much means that the render/effects in you sig seem to all move in a certain direction (flow in a certain direction). The direction of flow would depend on the render you are using. If you have a sig that is facing a certain direction (left or right) I would suggest making it flow in the opposite direction of that sig. In some case it will work the other way around.


A sig with 'flow'. Notice how the effects move in a certain direction.

Flow doesn't have to be linear (i.e. move in only one direction), it can burst from a point of focus and move outwards, or it can move it two directions away from the render. There are many types of flow.


Concept: The idea behind the sig.
This sig's concept is death.

As you can see the guy who made this sig pulled off the idea really well. Looks like he has just collapsed onto a table has blood running from his mouth blood then running across the glass table. You should really take you time when looking at peoples concepts. Have a look at the render/stocks etc that they used and see how much effort really went into the sig.

Effects: Effects really do make a great sig. There are so many effects a sig maker can use. A lot of people tend to use Effect C4Ds now but effects can also be added by smudging and clipping masks. Brushes rarely look good unless they are for lighting or in a vector (block color) sig.


Sexy effects =O

Text/Misc: Text is in aid to everything. It gives concept by explaining it, effects via the look of the text and even flow when placed in the right spot. When doing text try to make the colours match the sig, blend it in and keep the fonts simple and the text to a reasonable size. Good things to look for in text: Clipping masks, Gradient maps and Strokes. Borders: Some sigs look good with borders. Lighting: Good lighting is visually pleasing and gives a good focal.

Sorry to link64 for mutilating his guide, I wanted to sort of make it a non-personal explanation lol (but also I didn't rip this guide either, he asked me to use it so just keep that in mind before you attack me =P).