Tutorial: Finishing Up Your Sig
Screenshots and Tutorial by: [Poke]. -NO RIPPING-
Table Of Contents
- Introduction
- Opening Your Image
- Effect 1: Border
- Effect 2: Scan Lines
- Effect 3:: Whole-Signature Drop Shadows
- Effect 4:: Instant Render Blending!
- Conclusion
- Contacts and Copyrights.
Hello and welcome to my tutorial. In it, you will learn how to do four different sig effects to touch up that sig that needs a little oomph. By the end of the tutorial, you'll know how to add borders, scanlines, and drop shadows to your sig, as well as a fast way to blend your renders. All in one tutorial! Wow! Let's get started.
Opening Your Image
Go to File --> Open. Find the image you want to touch up.
Make sure it is a PSD file.
Effect 1: Borders
Borders are one of the key elements of a sig. In fact, sometimes they can make or break a sig. There are many different types of borders and I'm going to show you two.
Border Type 1: "Simple"
Step 1: Create a new layer on top of all your other layers. Here's how to do that:
Step 2: Hit CTRL+A to "Select All." You should see a marching trail of dotted lines around your entire sig.
Step 3: Go to Edit --> Stroke. Use these settings:
And that's it! Nice and easy.
Border Type 2: "Sandwich"
Step 1: Do Steps one and two from Border Type 1.
Step 2: Go to Edit --> Stroke three times, making sure to hit 'OK' after each setting change. Use these settings, IN THIS ORDER:
Hit 'OK' and reopen the Stroke Window.
Hit 'OK' and reopen the Stroke Window.
Hit 'OK' one last time.
And there's your sandwich style border. Now onto our second effect.
Effect 2: Scan Lines
The second effect in this tutorial is Scan Line patterns. Scan Lines are low-opacity lines in a pattern that make the sig look better, even though they don't change it much.
Part 1: Making the Scan Line Pattern.
Step 1: Go to File --> New, and make the size 3px by 3px. Make sure that the file is set to transparent, not white.
Step 2: In the bottom left corner of Photoshop, you should see a percentage, most likely 100%. Change that number to 1600% and hit enter. This will zoom in all the way.
Step 3: Get your Pencil Tool. Choose the 1px brush, and make sure your main colors are black and white by hitting the 'D' key. Here's how to pick the 1 px brush:
Step 4: Brush three times in a diagonal direction, making the image look like this:
Step 5: Go to Edit --> Define Pattern. Name it and hit 'OK'.
Great! Now onto part two.
Part 2: Using the Scan Line Pattern.
Step 1: Create a new layer. Make sure the new layer is placed above all layers that you want the scan lines to affect, and placed below all layers that you don't want it to affect.
Step 2: Hit CTRL+A to "Select All".
Step 3: Go to Edit --> Fill. Use these settings, but make sure you pick your own scanline pattern.
Hit 'OK' when you're done.
Step 4: Make sure the scan line layer is highlighted in the layers palette. Lower the opacity down very low, between 5-20%, to finish the scanline effect. The following screenshot will show the opacity bar.
And there's your scan line effect! It may be barely visible, but it works well. You're good at this!
Effect 3: Whole-Signature Drop Shadows
The third effect in this tutorial is a tiny bit hard to follow, but you'll find it easy after you successfully use it once. Adding a drop shadow to your entire sig is a really great touch, just don't overuse it, or it'll begin to be boring to the people that view your art.
Step 1: Hit CTRL+A to "Select All." We do that a lot, don't we?
Step 2: Go to Edit --> Copy Merged or hit Shift+CTRL+C. This will copy your entire image as one layer, for pasting elsewhere.
Step 3: Go to File --> New. Make the height and width of the new file 5px more than your original sig. (e.g., 375x135 becomes 380x140 for the new file.)
Step 4: Hit CTRL+V or go to Edit --> Paste to paste the entire sig into the new image.
Step 5: Select the Move Tool and move the sig so that it's in the upper right corner of the new image. Like this:
Step 6: In the layers palette, make sure the layer with the entire sig in it is highlighted. In the bottom left corner of the palette, you'll see a button with a circle and a fancy "f" in that circle. Click that button, and select Drop Shadow from the drop-down menu that appears. When the Layer Style window appears, simply hit 'OK' without changing any settings.
Step 7: When you save the file, make sure you save it as a PNG file, because PNG files support transparency, and will show the shadow without a white background under it.
And there's your drop-shadowed sig!
Effect 4: Instant Render Blending
Here is the fourth and final effect of this tutorial, Instant Render Blending. Blending your render into the background almost always makes for a better sig. I'll show you a really quick and easy way to do this now. (But be warned: This works only if you have 1 or 2 render layers. Any more than that, and the effect will be useless.)
Step 1: Look at the layers palette, more specifically look at your render layer in the layers palette. Next to the name of the layer, you should see a small image of a rectangle with your render in it. Hold down CTRL and click inside that tiny image. This will select your entire render.
Step 2: Make sure you have either the Magic Wand tool or any marquee tool. Right click within the selection you just made, and click on "Feather". In the window that appears, change the Feather Radius to 10 pixels and hit 'OK'. You will notice the selection change a bit.
Step 3: At the bottom of your layers palette, you'll see a button that is a circle inside a small rectangle. Click on that button. It will make a "Layer Mask" that instantly blends your render!
BEFORE LAYER MASK:
AFTER LAYER MASK:
And there is your render blending.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading my tutorial. I hope it was easy to understand, and that you learned a lot from it. Expect more tutorials from me as well. If you need to contact me, read below for more information. And thanks again for viewing this tutorial.
Contacts and Copyrights
Contact Information - How to reach [Poke].
AIM: DimensionXero24
MSN Messenger / Hotmail: [email protected]
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IRC: /server irc.scrollrack.com -j #xc-xdcc
Copyrights
Under no circumstances may anybody use any part of this tutorial (including images, text, or anything else) anywhere but the following websites:
http://www.iphotoshop.org
http://www.ddgfx.com
http://www.pixel2life.com
http://www.good-tutorials.com
NO RIPPING PERIOD. Thank you for viewing my tutorial.
Copyright © 2006 [Poke]. All Rights Reserved.