[Annelies]

How To Make A Basic Forum Signature by Annelies

Before I start, let it be known that I am no expert at Photoshop. I am barely an intermediate. I don't even use half of it's features. I hardly use a fourth of them, so I may not be able to answer some of your complex questions. With that said, let's get started.

Requirments

1. Photoshop CS3,CS4 or CS5
2. Render(s)
3. Some nice backgrounds (At least 2)
4. A little patience

What's Photoshop?

Photoshop is a well known photo editing program that is used by millions of people around the world. People use Photoshop to make wallpapers, signatures, tattoo designs, advertisements, magazine covers... everything!

Photoshop isn't a free program, but a trial is available at Adobe's official website.

Photoshop Trial

What's a Render?

A Render is a very precise cutout of your favorite musician, anime character, video game character or idol. Renders allow you to place any background behind them.

You can acquire free Renders from PlanetRenders OR OfficialPSDS.

*Registration is required at PlanetRenders.

What's a Nice Background?

That is for you to decide. Find and save all backgrounds that you find attractive, you will want to use them in your future projects.

What's Patience?

Don't worry. You've made it this far in the tutorial already. You have it.

Making The Signature

1. Open Photoshop and click 'File' --> 'New' and match these settings:

2. At this point, you should have a transparent bar on your screen, like this:

3. Fill that bar with a dark grey color by selecting the color and pressing 'Backspace + ALT' at the same time.

4. Copy over the first of your Nice Backgrounds. It will most likely be larger than your signature size, so move it around until you're satisfied with it's position.

5. Copy the second of your Nice Backgrounds and set it on Linear Dodge. Place this second image in a position that satisfies you the most.

6. Now that you have the background made, time to bring in your Render. Your Render should also be placed in the most desired area of your signature. If your render is too large and you want to re-size it, press 'CTRL+T' at the same time and re-size it by holding down the 'SHIFT' key and use your mouse to click one of it's corners and bring it down to the size of your liking.

7. Your render should now be placed in an area that your proud of. Now, duplicate your layer twice by selecting the Render's layer and pressing 'CTRL+J' twice.

8. You should now have three layers of your Render. Select the first one (original) and click 'Filter' --> 'Blur' --> 'Gaussian Blur'. Set it to 4.0 and click OK.

9. Select the second copy of your Render and click 'Filter' --> 'Blur' --> 'Motion Blur' and set it anywhere between 25 and 45, though you may select the number that pleases you the most.

10. Keep the second copy of your Render selected and change the Layer Effect to whatever pleases you the most. My second layer is set to Linear Light. This step is also entirely up to you. I am not creating your signature for you! I don't set a Layer Effect to my first layer, but you can if you want.

11. Do not edit the copy of your Render that's at the top with any effects in the 'Filter' menu or with any 'Layer Effects' unless you feel like experimenting, but for this tutorial, we'll leave it alone.

12. Now you should add text to your picture so people know who made it. Click on the letter T in your toolbox and then click anywhere on your signature. This will bring up the Text Tool.

Select the font and size that you want to use and get to work. Add as much text as you like. You can edit the Text even further by selecting the layer of Text that you wrote and right clicking it. Select 'Blending Options' and you will be presented with a list of things to click on.

Experiment!

I used checked 'Outer Glow' because I like the glowing effect it gives to the text.

13. When your text is finally in place and you are proud of your work, you are done and the signature is ready to be used.

Click on 'File' --> 'Save As' and change the file type to either PNG or JPEG. I don't know which of these image types is higher in quality because they look the same to me.

Select either and save it...

14. Use your signature and if anyone asks, say "I used the sig guide by Annelies" :P

If you have any questions, post them! I will gladly answer all questions to the best of my ability.

This was also a BASIC tutorial! I may make a tutorial of that requires considerably more work if I'm not feeling lazy

:P

[japsander]

moved and stickied

[kipabc123]

Cool tutorial. Nice addition Annelies. =)

[lernatix]

Nice, but I use Gimp. (It's free and works on PS3 Linux!)

[samson]

me too , i use the gimp..
if you need any brushes or scripts or plugin's this is a really good site
http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/

annelies , can you please stop blocking me.. its really messing up my viewing of hax threads and i'd like to read your tut. <--can someone quote me, so he see's it, thanks.

[Mistawes]

Originally Posted by samson me too , i use the gimp.. if you need any brushes or scripts or plugin's this is a really good site http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/ annelies , can you please stop blocking me.. its really messing up my viewing of hax threads and i'd like to read your tut. <--can someone quote me, so he see's it, thanks.

Sumo paint's handy too when you're stuck (sumopaint.com), depends what you're working on though..

[Thelostdeathknight]

Originally Posted by samson me too , i use the gimp.. if you need any brushes or scripts or plugin's this is a really good site http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/ annelies , can you please stop blocking me.. its really messing up my viewing of hax threads and i'd like to read your tut. <--can someone quote me, so he see's it, thanks.

Thanks for the link!! I can't wait to play around with some of the stuff they have. WOOT WOOT!

Hey Anne, you should use the slowking sig, that would be badass.

[CrystalWolf]

Awesome thread Anne. Really deserves to be stuck

Gonna try this out tomorrow.
We should give Anne a title like design specialist or something like homebrew developer.

[Annelies]

Thank you all for your nice comments. You guys should also experiment with this a little! After a sig or two using this guide, you should branch off with your own additions/twists.

Samson: I asked Pirate to have you taken off of my forced ignore list. I don't know if I'm on yours as well but I'm trying to get you as unblocked as possible.

lernatix: I didn't know that the PS3 could run that O_o That's awesome.

And finally can somebody quote the bit about Samson so he can see it.

[CrystalWolf]

Originally Posted by Annelies And finally can somebody quote the bit about Samson so he can see it.

That's been done already