Sig Tutorial

[Scwible]

Here's a tutorial on how to make a simple Sig. Nothin to special but it'll get people started.

 

This was made with Photoshop 6 but should still be good.

 

OK first load up Photoshop

 

Create a new image.

I've sized mine at 500 pixels width and 300 pixels height.

This is a bit bigger than you want a sig (usually about 400x200) but it gives you a little play room which you can remove later on.

 

Make sure that under contents you select transparent.

 

OK, first you need to decide whats gonna be in your sig.

As you will see there are usually 3 basic elements:

 

1. A cool background

2. A picture of a hot chick

3. Your name in a fancy font

 

 

Cool Background

 

For the background you can use anything you want, if you see a picture you like that you think will look good try it!

 

For the sake of this exercise we're gonna use a little trick I found last night.

 

Also, you will need to have at least the 3 "windows" I have open.

These can be found under the Windows menu.

You need Swatches, Layers and History.

 

OK after all these 3 are open lets make our cool background.

 

Firstly, click the new layer button:

 

Now you will have Layer 1 at the bottom of the list and Layer 2 above it.

Layer 2 should be highlighted in blue.

 

Now, to make you're cool background we need to do the following.

 

Select Black as your foreground colour and Blue as your background colour.

To do this go over to the Swatches Window and left click on the colour you wish to have as your foreground colour (in this case Black).

To select your background colour you need to hold down the ALT key and left click the colour you want (in this case Blue).

 

After you have your colours set do the following menu options:

 

Filter - Render - Clouds

 

Now you have your cool background

 

Picture of a Hot Chick

 

OK now we need a cool pic.

As it was around and cos it will impress bloo I'm gonna use the Salma Hayek pic from the Members Rest Room thread.

 

To use this image, right click and choose save as.

 

OK, open up the picture.

After opening it the first problem you have is all them white bits.

 

Click the magic wand tool (the tool this is selected on the left toolbar in the image below), hold down shift and start left clicking the white bits.

 

Theres 5 in total (the 5th is a very small bit on the right hand side, just above the shoulder and below the bit of hair).

 

Now do the following menu options:

Select - Inverse

 

Then do:

 

Edit - Cut

 

Then do:

 

CTRL + F4 to close the image, choose NO when asked if you want to save.

 

Now on your image with the nice background create a new layer (as shown earlier).

Then do:

 

Edit - Paste

 

There you go.

You now have a cool background with a pic of Salma on.

 

 

Well first thing we want to do is move Salma into the right place.

Click the Move tool and then move her over to the left as show below.

The move tool is the one highlighted in my toolbar in the screenshot.

 

Well I'm pretty much OK with the size of Salma in that picture but if you wanted to change it so you could fit more of her on (or increase the size so maybe you just got the face, do the following menu options:

 

Edit - Transform - Scale

 

Click and hold one of the diagonals and move it.

To keep the same aspect ratio hold on down shift whilst doing it.

Once done click one of the tools on the toolbar to accept your changes.

 

For this tutorial though we are not going to change her size at al.

 

 

Your Name in a Fancy Font

 

So you have your background, you have your hot chick, now you need to finish off with that fancy text.

 

OK select the text tool on the toolbar (thats the one thats a T).

Click on the left hand side of your image about half way up.

 

In the text options choose the following:

 

Verdana

Bold

72 Point Size

 

Leave any other options as they are.

 

Now type in your name.

 

If your name is to long on the screen you will need to reduce your pointsize until it fits but for most names 72 should be fine.

 

Now click OK or in the case of Photoshop 6 select one of the other tools on the toolbar.

 

You should now have something like this.

[Scwible]

 

Next thing you need to do is right click on the text layer name (it should be called whatever you typed in) and choose the "Rasterize Layer" option.

 

Now choose the following menu options:

 

Layer - Layer Style - Bevel and Emboss

 

OK, now you want to have the following:

 

Style = Pillow Emboss

Size = 7

Highlight Mode Opacity = 100

Shadow Mode Opacity = 100

 

Every other option leave as there default value.

 

When you get the hang of it you can play around with different layer styles but for this tutorial we're gonna stick with that.

 

OK now select the Move Tool again and move the text to where you want it.

I think here is best as it now allows us to crop the sig down to a decent size.

For more precise movement with the Move Tool, after getting the image roughly where you want it use the cursor keys to move the image in the direction you want.

1 press of a cursor key moves the image 1 pixel.

 

Now what we need to do is crop it.

To do this use the selection tool (the one thats highlighted on my toolbar in the pic).

Select the area you want to keep and then do:

 

Image - Crop

 

At this point you might want to save your works in case you want to play around later.

 

Select File - Save and save as the default format (Photoshop)

 

 

OK, now we want to flatten the whole image so we can do the final effect for our signature.

 

To do this choose the following menu options:

 

Layer - Flatten Image

 

All your layers will disappear and you will be left with one called "Background".

 

OK now do the following:

 

Edit - Select All

Edit - Copy

Edit - Paste

 

This copies the picture and pastes it again as a new layer.

 

Now we can do the final effect which is to give the edges that bumped effect you see.

 

OK, now choose as earlier on:

 

Layer - Layer Style - Bevel and Emboss

 

and have the options set as the following:

 

Style = Emboss

Size = 8

Highlight Mode Opacity = 100

Shadow Mode Opacity = 100

 

Every other option is whatever was the default:

 

Click OK and there you have your sig.

 

File - Save for Web

 

And here it is, the final product

[Xero]

Wow, nice. Once I get my new computer I am getting Adobe. This will come in handy. Thanks

[Goober]

awesome work man. thanks

[chimpy2121]

Here's a good website for sig-makers

www.good-tutorials.com