Stock is here
I apreciate the text is awful, but i can't work out how to do decent rext (i can't do decent designs ither but this is getting there i hope)

Also, can anyone tell me a good way to add rounded edges?

not bad for a first piece... ill explain it to ya.. 1 sec

for rounded edges i use the tool under the text tool called 'rounded rectangle tool', when you select it you can change the radius to make it rounder... but to use it as a shape you select it and delete the mask and keep only the shape..  

some more tips

Actually that's pretty good for a first try!!!!

As for rounded edges what I usually do is make a round rectangle shape and if I'm using a stock then I will use a clipping mask on it to fit to the edges.

Type in clipping mask into google :P

ill give ya example of how i use stock and renders...
heres the finished product of the last wall i made


i used these two other wallpapers to make it... i erased everything from this one but the girl (takes FOREVER but its easy)


and i overlayed it onto the top right section of this picture of new york city


i did all the effects and text by hand.. mehhakker gave me tip about the effects behind her.. the flame is a smoke brush with a simple color gradient applied to it...
if you really want to check out how i did it and you use photoshop here the psd... take a look.. that's how i learned what i know lol
psd - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=909I2IWO

im no expert but i know a few tricks lol

thanks for that, i will take a look.
I always take a look at PSD's, but before now its jsut been to see how it was made. I can actually learn from it this time

Thanks to all for your help, im going to use all (help that is, i don't think they'd appreciate anime forum sigs and WP's) of this for my college DG assignment

What did you do to get the effect in "layer1" ie, the funky cloudy type thing?

roberth Wrote:Thanks to all for your help, im going to use all (help that is, i don't think they'd appreciate anime forum sigs and WP's) of this for my college DG assignment

lol your right about that but what you should do is participate in th SOTW or in a few battles and you will get better.... i don't participate in all of them.. only the topics i like.... but any exp. builds towards getting better is what i say

roberth Wrote:What did you do to get the effect in "layer1" ie, the funky cloudy type thing?

filter/render/clouds
make whatever colors you want it to be your foreground and backround colors on the selector

^^ hahahaha that is funny! i got that pic in a pack of really high resolution wallpapers on some torrent site... the original i have 1680x1050.. ive got a ton of nice photos like that

looks good roberth.