the first thing is an idea, and if you can picture it in your head, you can probably render it just fine. A lot of great ideas start as crossovers, such as, idk, if you're here, pootisbirbs are probably at least part of the equation so, what can we do with that? obv, part of what you can create depends on the tools you have, which in this case is a copy of paint.net or GIMP or photopea or whatever. anyway, for this example, we'll use a nice filter in paint.net to create a comic style image

anyway, the only tools we'll need is paint.net and loadout.tf, which are both free

ok, so the background is obviously important and the characters are hopefully the main draw of art, so ideally have at least a vague idea

lets use a screenshot of tf2!



ok, looks good.

now the characters. loadout.tf if a site where you can dress up your mans and marvel in their glory or whatever, but you can also sort of pose them too. lets look at it; goto https://loadout.tf/@loadout/RTTPNvZIT8fax7JB for an example of a v cute birb.



now the interesting bit is the selection box on the top right of the screen, under the row of icons



this lets you select a limited amount of taunts; the birb will play them for you in the main screen. the pause button (fourth from the left in the row of icons) will pause the animation, letting you screen grab it (press PRINT SCREEN on windows11), or you can save direct from loadout.tf, and even make the background transparent in Options (Cog, fourth icom from right) (Ty Dr Demento!)



when you press PRINT SCREEN, you will be able to drag a selection box around the part of the picture, which will then copy it onto the clipboard. i cant show this because you cant screenshot the screenshot grab

but anyway! now open paint.net, or whatever and open the background image from earlier



now, after youve screengrabbed the model you want, go to Edit -> Paste into new image in paint.net



select the "magic wand" tool



and click on the background of the picture



and now we can remove the background of the image. the tolerance tool will change how the tool adheres to the difference between colours, just play with it until youre happy. when you are, press delete



now pick the selection box



and select the birb. now press ctrl+c (or Edit -> Copy) and go back to your background image

now press crtl+shift+v (or Edit -> Paste into new layer)



now you can move and resize the birb so it fits in to the background, and maybe compose it a little. in this pic, the stockiness of the left side of the hut is contrasted against the birb on the right



youll probably have to flatten the image (ctrl+shift+f or Image -> Flatten)

Now go to Effects -> Artistic -> Ink Sketch



ta da!

ok so now we have a background, a character, and a filter, lets do something with it. since we're going for a pseudo-comic style, lets use a nice font. i like komigo but im sure theres tons.




this really didnt need its own section, huh. in fact this whole thing is basically "now use a font". i dunno. i hate titling stuff. its almost as if graphic design is a high skill profession or something. anyway im hungry