The Banner I Made

Hi

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6338/mainback2xf8.jpg

This is the new banner to my website!


What do you think?

Thanks for any advice!

well, its very big. it doesn't seem very practical for most situations unless you made pat of it a background. although because we don't know what your plans are, we cant really talk about practicality because different situations require deferent stuff.

i think it is a nice change over those complex flash banners you see a lot in many websites and i love how the guy it like,a tank person

I could show you the site in construction but I've just realised it doesn't work in Firefox! (I used too much relative positioning)

But thanks for the comment!

At least tell us what your website is about if you want us to judge your banner...

First, the title is too blurry. It should be crystal-clear so people can read it comfortably.
Second... I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but the image of the guy in his tank doesn't look very serious (I mean it doesn't look like you've put a lot of effort on it). Also, the compression on this particular image is awful. I'd bet my next pay that it's low quality JPEG. You should try using PNG for web designing.
Third, your banner is way too tall. No one likes to scroll down half of their screen to actually see the content of a website.
And fourth, there is a whole lack of cohesion on your whole work. There's actually no color scheme at all. Also, I don't understand why you're mixing a cartoonish image with a photorealistic background.

All in all, I highly recommand you to scrap this banner and start over on a good basis.
Try putting your ideas on paper first, it could really help.

I see what you mean about it not being serious... But its for an online games website(sorry I forgot to say)..

yes its jpg..

I've never done any graphics before so.. Whats compression?

If I want to make it PNG do I have to start again?

I put the cartoon image on top of a black and white photo because I like the contrast....

I don't really care whether you want to make your banner look serious or not. What bugs me is that it doesn't look like serious work was put on it.
I understand that you're beginning and that it's your first banner. I'm not expecting you to create extremely refined images when you're just starting out. But, to me, it doesn't seem like you've gone through the process of asking yourself what you want your banner to represent.
You can't possibly create a banner without having previously thought about basic things like composition, colors, size, placement or style.

Read this to find more about image compression.

I highly recommand you to start over so you can work on a PNG image. But remember not to save your image in PNG until you're completely finished. It's better (and way easier) to work on a PSD (or something similar) file.

OK so you like the contrast. Is there any other reason why you chose this setup? Is there a link between this particular contrast and your website? There should be a reason (other than "'cause I like it") why you chose this constrast.
For example, let's say I like wearing flashy blue shirts. Even if I like it, it's not a good reason to wear this on my grandmother's funerals.

Yeh I see your point.

The only thing I can explain is the tank man, the focus of the website is shoot 'em ups.

I definately need to start again and think about this more..

Also what software would you recommend I use? Because my PSP trial has run out and I really have no idea about this area...

Gimp?

thanks very much.

i don't really do to much serious image editing, but when i need something done, paint.net does it for me very nicley. its very easy to use but doesn't support many of the features photoshop or gimp has. other downsides are that it doesn't support non-windows OS's

you can download it here

for the more fancy stuff, i ask my photoshop buddy... everyone needs a good photoshop buddy to do their image editing stuff if they don't really want to spend to much time. i found mine at school. (to get a photoshop buddy you need to use IM)

The Gimp and Paint.NET are great free tools. But don't fool yourself, they are only tools. No tool can ever do the whole job for you.
You should start by putting your ideas on paper, choosing a color scheme (and stick to it!) and by thinking about how you want your banner to look.

ok

I will do

thanks for the advice

Quote: yabberyabber
Is that what you think of me? Why didn't you invite me to my own birthday party!?!?!

ouch

Quote: asmodeus
nonononono, that was a joke from school... you go up to a random person you don't know and say "why didn't you invite me to my birthday?!?!"

Well, I don't really like the character on the left. He's not very pretty ! Excluding that, I love your banner !

Be careful when creating png images, they can be troublesome in earlier browsers such as IE6 and even IE7 when the width and height margins are edited.