Dark Bit Factory & Gravity

ARCHIVE => Archive => GFX & sound => Topic started by: bikerboy on November 30, 2008

Title: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on November 30, 2008
i've noticed those little sigs some of you guys have from varius compo's you participated, and since i'm no coder  ::) , i took the liberty to create a little something, so i thought i'd contribute in my own way.

i don't know who makes those sigs or if you guys make your own, and by making those i don't mean to take anyone's place.

doesn't matter if those sigs don't get used, what matters is 3 things.

1: i made my idea into a graphic
2: you saw my final graphic
3: you commented

that's all what matters to me ;D

hope you like them


(http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9430/ledcomp1vx1.png)

(http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1770/ledcomp2ld2.png)

(http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2387/ledcomp3fw5.png)

Ps. if anyone want's the .psd file to make something of his own or get an idea for a graphic of his own, just ask ;)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on November 30, 2008
Cool idea!

The sigs are usually given away as prizes from winning.

Thoughts on your design:

You might want to increase the intensity of the lighted LEDs.

Consider making the centers of the LED's bright they are currently grayish a lit light is going to be bright in the center.

Maybe you should make the letters the same width for consistency. The exceptions being single pixel characters like i . l and such.

Just some thoughts. ;)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on November 30, 2008
thanx for the feedback man ;) ;D

yup that's why i made them for the winners ;D (that is if they will be used).

it's difficult to change the letters b/c what i did was to see the existing sig size the guys have and then improvise.
i guess i could add one more row of leds and make all the other smaller.

i'll give it a shot to make em brighter ;)

and some info about the graphic i neglected to mention before is that every dot you see (LED) is an individual layer.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on November 30, 2008
I wanted to take a crack at this idea too.

Made em blue LEDs so I don't look like I'm ripping you off.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on November 30, 2008
nice one man  ; Di like that blue tone ;D

nah you're not ripping me off we just had the same  :inspired: at the same time.

i'll go now and make a new version of those sigs with better led light and better letter design.

brb .... :P

EDIT: i think those are much better than the red ones.


(http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/8237/ledcompo1dt7.png)

(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4382/ledcompo2lr8.png)

(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3649/ledcompo3ja6.png)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on December 01, 2008
Have you considered making an animated scroller?  ;)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
Have you considered making an animated scroller?  ;)

you mean as in a .gif animated scroller?

i did think of it at first when i made the red ones but then i thought it would require a lot of frames and the filesize will get a lot bigger than 2kb's than it is now per sig.

you think i should give it a try?
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on December 01, 2008
Well, you might I have the feeling that most people doing LED work in this comp will have LED scrollers. It should only be about 20 some frames of movement to get the entire thing across the screen. Sure you have to have extra but there are only about 20 some key frames. You might want to see what Shockwave wants to do. He has been making some quality sigs for some time and has some decent art skills. You might be jumping the gun a bit here. You can always call them personal practice though.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
the first one is ready ;D, it's 81 frames lol :P

(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1373/ledcompo1animox9.gif)

i have no doubt that Shockwave, you, or anyone else in DBF are better than me ;)

like you said, i'm doing graphics b/c i like it and for personal improvement.

"jumping the gun"? , sorry man English is not my native language and i don't get the meaning of the expression :)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on December 01, 2008
That looks really really cool!

Jumping the gun is an expression that goes back to times when racers started when a starting handgun was fired. It means to start something quickly without checking out the situation. I didn't know if you were doing this for personal experience but now I see that you are so the former statement doesn't mean anything.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
thanx man glad you like it ;D

thanx for clarification man, now i know an expression i didn't knew before :)

i mainly do graphics b/c i like it and for personal improvement, for example i never did a led scroller before and i enjoyed doing it b/c the outcome is what i hoped to be ;D

just b/c i make a graphic doesn't mean that it must be used, the point for me is to improve ourselves and others by giving them  :inspired: with our graphics and tips if requested.

and that's why i said if anyone wants the .psd file i'd be happy to share it. :)

i've been in a lot of forums (first time in a demo coding forum), but in others with graphics and DBF is the only one that has so many people willing to help others with questions and such.

and that's why i like it here b/c i act the same way :)

so if it is decided that my led sigs should be used i'd be happy to make the pos 2 and pos 3 sigs :)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Shockwave on December 01, 2008
I like the scrolling one, and I'll be very happy to use them as a sig for the challenge.

I usually draw them / rip them myself. Gjost used to draw them for us but he's not around so often these days.

To me though the lights in the scrollers don't look like lights. They are kind of dull.
Look at the way P_O has made his, they look more LED like.
Maybe you could brighten them up a little and make them scroll faster?

Possibly make it more densely packed too i.e pack more led's into the same space so that the image can scroll more smoothly and the letters can look more detailed?
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
glad you like it man ;D

i think i know what you mean, smaller leds, faster scrolling, and a more lifelike feel.

i can give it a shot and see what comes up, don't know if i can make it happen though ::)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Shockwave on December 01, 2008
i can give it a shot and see what comes up, don't know if i can make it happen though ::)
Seems like a pretty simple thing really, you just need to draw 2 fairly small lights.. One off and one on and put them in the right places.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
i can give it a shot and see what comes up, don't know if i can make it happen though ::)
Seems like a pretty simple thing really, you just need to draw 2 fairly small lights.. One off and one on and put them in the right places.

yup that's how i do them now ;)

i made 240 small turned off leds and now i'm putting on the turned on ones, here is a preview of what i've done so far, should i continue it?
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Shockwave on December 01, 2008
It looks nicer than before, please do carry on.

Here's some inspiration?
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
it looks really nice :goodpost:, you used square leds, i used round ones.

i think square ones looks nicer ;)

i thought i'd give it a go at the old looking round led signs.

here it is hope you like it ;D


(http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/3812/newledsig1stdu6.gif)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Hezad on December 01, 2008
Heya :)

That's a very very cool sig imho !! Good work  :D
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
Heya :)

That's a very very cool sig imho !! Good work  :D

thanx man ;D glad you like it  ;D
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Inc0gnit0 on December 01, 2008
 :clap: lovely looking sigs bikerboy  :clap:
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: benny! on December 01, 2008
Indeed. Thanks bikerboy! Cool sigs.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
thanx guys i'm  :updance: you liked it  :D
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on December 01, 2008
I think your lights could look a bit more glassy. Glass has very small bright specular reflections. You want to probably put this over a very bright internal glow which is inside the light bulb.Consider thinking in materials and how different materials reflect light differently. A rubber ball will reflect more shades of light than a glass ball. When you are attempting to light a material it is best to think in terms of how much light is reflected, usually the more rough the material the more amount of light shade colors you need. It is hard to do with so small lights but you can see that with mine I made a very small specular reflection on each glass bulb. Photoshop tends to make blurry reflections if you are just smudging things. It is great if you are doing rubber or leather but man made materials if shiny are going to have far fewer shades of light reflected because the surface won't scatter light so much.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 01, 2008
yes you are correct in everything you said ;D

the reasons i didn't but a light effect in those leds are 2

reason 1 i thought to make the sig in night time conditions

and reason 2 is that there are 240 leds in a 240x30 space so it wouldn't look so nice if i'd put a light reflection, so i chose night time  ::)
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on December 02, 2008
Ok fair enough. ;)

Looks good man. I don't want to seem pushy. I did a quick gradient map on your image. Just something to think about. ;) I'll include the gradient file if want to use it.
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 02, 2008
it looks really nice and it's definitely improved :goodpost:

how about this one? i played a bit with hue/saturation and brightness/contrast
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: Shockwave on December 02, 2008
Definately looks more crisp :)
Just needs that little specular highlight for greatness now :D
Title: Re: L.E.D. comp sigs
Post by: bikerboy on December 02, 2008
/me is speechless  :boxer:

i forgot to save the .psd file and i have to remake it now from scratch :telloff:

EDIT:
/me going to draw those LEDs pixel by pixel this time and add more and make them square :D

EDIT2: changed my mind about the square thingie and made them + , also invented a new font in the process lol :P

i hope you guys like this one (worked my pixel off to make it) lol  :P


(http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/8833/newledxs3.gif)