Basic Signature Tutorial

[Takushi Rena]

After going on a signature making frenzie, I'm made... a tutorial. YUSH. I hope it's helpful!

Going from this to

Step One:
First, we start off with a 450x150 canvas. Yush, 450x150. I like big sigs... :D Next, put paste our image onto the canvas and position it to where we like. I normally put mine to hide the eyes just a bit [You can see they're barely visible on the image] If there's a space in between, that can easily be fixed. Take black, white, or any color that you took from the image and take a 100-300 sized soft brush and brush, on a new layer, with it. You can take the eraser at a lower opacity and erase any bits to make it blend in better.

Step Two:
Now, duplicate the main image twice, setting both on Soft Light. For the first image, go to Filter>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur and put it at a 3.0 radius. Then, on the second image, go to Filter>>Other>>High Pass and put it at a 5 radius. The High Pass filter makes the edges and lines stick out more while the blur makes it soft and will make the image an even higher quality. Too bright or too dark? Go to Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Brightness and Contrast and move the Brightness up or down while moving the Contrast up just a tad. If you want it to be darker, move the Brightness down until you're satisfied. If you want it lighter, move the Brightness up until it looks good. I didn't use that layer on my image because it was both light and dark so, it was inbetween more than anything.

Step Three:
Here comes the fun part: Lighten and placing the images! This is probably the best part, next to text, in my opinion and adds a lot of edge to your sig. First, duplicate the 3 stock images and link the duplicates together, merging them all down at once. Why do that? So you have the actual stock saved! You can also duplicate the merged layer again and use the bottom one as your stock. Now, put the duplicated image on Lighten and move it around just a bit. See anything weird? On my image, Sora started out with half his face in the original image's face! That's perfectly normal but, once you move it around to your liking, it will look MUCH better. Feel free to do that several times [I normally do it 1-2 times] and place the images in positions to your liking.

Step Four:
This is an optional step but, helpful nonetheless. Duplicate one of the images set on Lighten and set it on Soft Light. It makes the image stick out more and it adds a richer color to that spot, along with other bits.

Step Five:
Now, it's time for the gradients! Pick a color that goes along with the rest of the image, or one similar to another, and pick the gradient tool. Instead of two colors going into each other, choose the gradient with only one color. Then, make a new layer and drag the gradient across from a corner. Now you have a nice little gradient at the corner! What next? Put it on Lighten. You may need to change the opacity just a tad because it might be too intense on the stock. Next, get another, if it lacks a certain edge, and repeat the steps in the same corner or in another one! Keep in mind of the primary and secondary colors while you do this: Red plus blue equals purple, yellow plus blue equals green, and red plus yellow equals orange. If you use another primary color over one primary color, you will get a secondary color. Keep that in mind when you're doing this because it might effect the turn out of your sig.

Step Six:
Now, get the original stock image, duplicate it, drag it to the top, and set it on Soft Light. This makes the original image stand out more but, if you don't want to do that, skip this step.

Step Seven:
Okay, the actual image is done but now, you've come to that last bit: the text. The text, in itself, is an art of sig making and your choice of text will either take away from the sig or add onto the sig. So, I normally use a text called Baskerville, on smooth anti-aliasing. I normally use a big font and play around with all the sizes, picking the ones that look best. I also normally put them in a sort of "block", piling them one on top of the other. Another thing I do is either put it on Soft Light or Overlap, adding onto the sig thus far. Then, I add an outer glow with the normal settings of Normal and 100% opacity. This adds onto the Soft Light effect and keeps it from fading in too much. Be warn when you use this: too much outer glow will make the sig look icky. And, you don't want it to look icky.

Step Eight:
Last step! Select the canvas, create a new layer, go to Edit>>Stroke and make sure you foreground color is either white, black, or any color that blends in with the background. I chose black for this step. Now, put the pixel size at 1, pick the "inside" option, press OK and, you're done! Save it, add anything onto it, whatever but... you are done! :3

Other examples of this style:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...PiratesSig.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ra-Trapped.png

Feedback? Results? :D;

[Lord of Chaos]

WOOHOO! -tackles her- You rock Rena... I already gave you your gift, but here's some rep.

[Sweet Raine]

nice tut.. though, i don`t really like the top out come.. ^^;; oh well. will post result later.

Don't like any of the outcomes.

By the way, it would help if you included pictures of the steps >.o
Or if you just made the tutorial in Photoshop.

[Mr.SpaceShipDriver]

Originally Posted by tux_

Don't like any of the outcomes.

By the way, it would help if you included pictures of the steps >.o
Or if you just made the tutorial in Photoshop.

yup yup...I agree with tux on this< dont like the outcome

[Color Me Evil]

A very nice tutorial. I'm not liking the outcome much though... but I will rep you anyways because you are lovely for sharing your stuff with us. ;D

[Hanatori]

Nice job, it can really help those who don't currently have a style.

Might post with a tag with this.

[~Leo~]

Hey thanks for sharing, if I have time I'll post a result.

[Rikus_Aus_lover]

love this tut!!! but my result turned out weird... i don't think i did it right but oh well.

here it is:

[_Odin_]

nice 3rd tut, Takushi.

make one in photoshop, wouldja?

[Roxas iz Punk]

your outcome for that one was pretty good, but i didnt like the other 3 examples you gave.

[DogCoolBlue]

I just want to know two things. What program did you use and what other programs are there to use.

[square-enix]

Photoshop and Paint I would say. Everyone here uses different versions of Photoshop but the main one would be CS2 because its the best :D

[quitejaded]

I'm following the tutorial and its NOT WORKING. I dub this a bad tutorial. It confuses me. You use terms I don't understand. You don't explain how to do the things you want me to do. I gave up. :/

[Ultima Star]

I like this tut and will try it later^^;
The result is really nice^^