I'm fairly sure E.G could be persuaded not to charge.. ;) I mean, i didn't detect much seriousness in his statement :P

But poor old Nato is reading guides and tutorials to try and make his own anyhow lol :P

I guess by design that would be the structure of what your whole title screen should/will look like :)? before you actually make it ?

I'm a clueless guy as well :P

They mean don't use presets. You can go find and download and add or install new brushes, and such. You can use the oens you have, or new ones, to create various effects, and to alter things yourself. You can literally make your own backgrounds, effects, patterns, and probably even filters.

Further more, you can use a lot of the built in stuff alongside this to further it even more, because I am pretty sure some people are just giving you crap because All you're using are some basics the program comes with.

The options with photoshop are virtually limitless, all you need is some googling, some creativity, and some time/practice.

That logo that guy made is nice, but nothing real special. It's more so the idea/concept that was good.

I don't really think many people mean to bash you, maybe one or two, but I believe what they're trying to say is that you don't Need to go about it that way. It's great that you have that book, but you don't have to stick to it or a few tutorials.

I have no such book, I've read very few tutorials, but I've downloaded lots of brushes, and experimented with lots of things and learned a lot. You'll find that in classes, at least with art and sometimes programming, you can often learn a lot more on your own if you put in the time and effort.

The same applies to a book like that, and it's why some people debate about going to classes etc, and why some even get ahead of the classes. It's not that the book or classes are wrong, its that you can grow well beyond them if you get the hands on experience, and the determination to expand beyond their limits.

They're holding your hand and keeping you at a slow steady walk for your safety, but where's the harm in going for a little run every now and then? This is art, your own determination and ability to practice are your best lesson tools.

Someone else will have to chime in on that, but I just want to add that searching for brushes and experimenting with them helps, and also that you don't need tutorials.

Just go in and create things, play with the various features, brushes, layer effects, and such. Just be creative, and see what you can come up with. You can mix in some images from online if need be, but only if its only the foundation and not the main emphasis and such of your results. Though, I guess it could be in practice cases.

That's just it, though. When it comes to GFX, it has almost nothing to do with drawing or doing pixel art. It's all about starting with something basic, like some text, or a starfield, or a background made with cloud filters, or one of countless other things, and then just experimenting and gradually creating your own art.

You can play with levels, and colors, and layer multiple effects, you can use wave, and twirl, and varying layer types, and you can mix in brushes, or new filters, you can use blur tool, smudge tool, and such to shift parts, it's just infinite options.

I'm sure some people might think I'm offering basics, or the wrong thing, or something; but I'm just mentioning some of the countless things you can Toy with. I'm not saying they're good, I'm saying they're all a part of the big picture. You just have to get in there, and play around with everything you can find, try and get ideas, and just be artistic and creative.

I'd like to interject and say that Graphic Design (or as BYOND seems to be fond of "GFX") can entail drawing (though pixel art, I don't think much so). Logos are typically drawn out before computerized, posters, decals, etc. You typically draw out your ideas of what you want to make (rough sketches), after you weed out ideas try to make a colored composition, then move on to a computer composition. The computer composition is where you will start to add some effects, however you do not want the effects to make up the entire design.

Damn tablets.