So having discovered how to add a glow affect around stuff – I’ve done some more playing.
Lots of flaws.. and the more I look at them the more I find things wrong with . ( see that squared like affect that the glow on the name made on the one below – need to fix that) I thought I would make a banner for a friends guild – incase he decided they got big enough for a guild website – the suit of armor is because thats what a Panoply is, a full suit of armor ( see you learn new things every day) I will do a few more mock ups, but I really need a little more creative direction
My Banner Portfolio shows the evolution of my gimpage skills. I was going to do a evolution of PP in Banners, but my earlier ones really scared me.
They are pretty basic to do. I use Cooltext for the logos – I try and use Blizzard art or a part of the sky/screenshot for the image background, and what ever toon/accessories required from google images or Wow Modelviewer, and Gimp because I can’t afford Photoshop, and before you say there are otherways of obtaining it. I know, just think that there are some awesome free tools like Gimp that are certainly useable.
I need to work on embellishing borders more as well so they aren’t as crisp. So yes you can tell I’ve never done graphic design.
These are my two Priests, one DPS which I was trying to give a purple glow, and the other one a green healing glow – they also aren’t really priestly….
So – I’ve got 2 free raid nights this week – and will have some spare time – and I enjoy fiddling with image tools – if you want anything, A Banner, A forum Sig, A button, like these below. ASK! I need stuff to practise on , and yes it’s free and I want to get better.
Need size / some creative direction /who / what ect ect
Leave a comment and a way of contacting you by email ( very important when I need to ask questions) or email me at PugnaciousPriest @ Gmail.com ( no spaces)
I will do also do Gimp Tut maybe over the weekend, on using gimp for banners,
OR
If you want to get creative on your own, and have no idea where to start
Make your own thumbnail with Photobucket like I showed you here “Make your own thumbnail for Azeroth United”
and
You can even make a pretty easy banner using photobucket too, How to make a quick and dirty Guild website banner
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
“I can’t afford Photoshop.”
Can your work afford it? Adobe has a generous licensing scheme with their products that allows a single home license per corporate license on some of their purchasing plans.
Not really an option, all stuff like that is handled by marketing and so on I assume, and I’m sure any home licences allowed would have been snapped up
Join Marketing? 😛
Or graphic design etc…
You might be surprised… my brother works for a machine company and he gets free junk all the time from the Tech Department… and they aren’t some small company either, third largest company in Florida…
Eitherway, I don’t think you need Photoshop. It didn’t even occur to me, but for most my stuff, I use the old Macromedia Fireworks (which was bought out by Adobe back in 04 or 05 or something, so old software, gets a lot of the jobs done though).
If you’re really bored, how about you do something with my priest xD. I’ve used the WoW Model viewer to make things happen, but I’ve been disappointed the WoW Model viewer doesn’t seem to handle Val’anyr too well.
I imagine you can see my email, so my armory http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonblight&cn=Physique Dun dun maybe one day I’ll make a blog.
Ugh, p.s. I hate that tabard, I just logged off with it.
Sorry not read all your article, just the comments (Banners don’t float my boat), so at the risk of restating the obvious.
Have you tried the Gimp?
Its freeware ,Ithink its real name is GMP 2.0, but its very “photoshoppie”, I use photoshop at work alot and I’ve had a look at the Gimp, it seems to be all there, and you can even save as a .psd
sorry, just looked at your first line 🙂
Does it have to be a WoW related banner? I could use a banner on my site. Its mostly WoW tm, but it will be moving to mostly a blog about my upcoming deployment.
Oh and if you need me to toss an email let me know, i check your blog a couple times a day (what can i say; i get bored and rotate through the same 5 sites all day lol)
no, thats fine 🙂 you will prob need to send me some of the graphics you want on it though – am keen to give it ago 🙂
ok, i’ll see what i can get you.
The red hue over Dalaran reminds me of the burning streets of Stratholme. The green priest makes me think of a warlock.
I’ve not used Gimp before, but if it allows you to adjust the size of the “canvas” you are working on (which is seperate from the “image”) that will help you get rid of the square edges on your Panapoly banner. If you can, just adjust the canvas by a few pixels (10 to 20 or so on each side) and that should do the trick.