Logo Help

[Spook]

Okay...I know this is going to be a VERY lame question to a lot of you, but here goes:

I am setting up my solo league to use with OOTP 6, and I have most of the logos, stadium pics, etc...set up, but I am attempting to make a league logo (just to have...won't really do anything with it). The league name is USBA (United States Baseball Association), and I want the logo to be something to the effect of this: picture of the political continental US (like you'd see on a map...but without states' borders) with the letters USBA across it, possibly incorporating the American flag (maybe "layered" into the US...if that makes sense).

So, my question is this: how do I "trim" a picture of the US to put into my image? Do I have to zoom in and go all around the border and color it whatever my background is pixel-by-pixel or what? I'm sorry if that doesn't really make sense, but I'm pretty illiterate about photo/paint programs. I have Macromedia Fireworks 4, and I know most of the basic functions, but I'm lost after that. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

[bigD4VT]

This is what I came up with but it's not that great

[PrestonKaye]

Big D does this mean your brake from logos is over with??

the logo is sick. i especcially like the blue/white/blue font

PK

[MizzouRah]

Not that great? I think its unreal, great work! You could make the background true black and just have the logo.

I would love one just like that but:

TVBL

Todd Volmert Baseball League




Todd

[bigD4VT]

Thanks guys! The reason I think it's not that great is because the terrain doesn't show up as well as it does on the full size version. The flag is actually layered into the landscape

[Spook]

bigD...


Yes! That logo is exactly what I have imagined in my head. Thanks so much for posting that.

I was wondering if you would be able to help me with how you did that. Is there anyplace I can go online to learn the techniques you used or anything? I've gone through a few online tutorials for graphics, but they generally don't do much more than teach you how to create animated gifs, crop, recolor, and other very basic stuff. And maybe the techniques you use are basic, too...I dunno. But if you'd be willing to offer any advice or other places to check out for help, I'd be greatly appreciative...and if you don't, I'm still extremely pleased with the logo you posted and your help.

[JoeRockEHF]

Great work bigD, that looks sweet!

[Andy]

Wow!

[Eugene Church]

Just another bigD masterpiece.

Way to go, big guy.

[bigD4VT]

Originally posted by Spook
bigD...


Yes! That logo is exactly what I have imagined in my head. Thanks so much for posting that.

I was wondering if you would be able to help me with how you did that. Is there anyplace I can go online to learn the techniques you used or anything?

Using Photoshop, I started with this map, then layered this map over it, and reduced the opacity to 50%. I used this tutorial for the text effect but I didn't follow it exactly. As you can see my text looks a little different than the tutorial.

I mostly use tutorials from goodtutorials.com they have quite a few.