[blitz]

I know there are a bunch of these tuts but a lot of them are either too complex or too simple and don't explain very well, I got a couple of PM's from some people asking me how to make sigs, so I thought this little tut might help.

Useful Resources. (Fonts, etc.)

So in this tutorial I'll be showing you how to make a basic signature using Photoshop or GIMP. I'm using Photoshop, but it's pretty much the same with GIMP so don't panic. Also, I'm using a Mac but everything I do will be the exact same on PC, so again, don't panic.

Step #1
Let's start of with loading Photoshop, now click on File>New



Have these as the dimensions, since those are the signature size limit in the forum.
You should now have this on your Photoshop/GIMP canvas:


Step #2
I'll be using a random GTA IV screenshot I liked to be the background on my signature, so to open that up click on File>Open and select it from your Desktop, documents folder, or wherever you saved it on. It should pop up on another window.

Now, once it's opened press (M) to bring up the Marquee tool, now select a rectangle over where you want the part of the screen to be on your signature.
Like this:



Now press Ctrl+C if on a PC and Command+C if on a Mac, and switch the window back to your empty signature one. Click Ctrl+V if on a PC and Command+V if on a Mac. It should look like this:



You should have two layers, one with the picture and another one with the white background on the back. Select them both and click on Merge Layers. You should now have one layer.

Step #3
Click on the crop tool (or just press C) and select the whole image, now press enter.

Should look like this:



Step #4
So far, so good. Now, double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Styles, we're going to add a stroke to make the signature look better. Click on 'Stroke' and click on the following options:


You can make your stroke any size or color you want, but I chose 2px and color white.

Step #5
Let's add some text, it can be your clan, a quote, your username, member title, whatever. I'll be using my username as a text for now. Bring up the horizontal type tool by pressing (T). Now create a text box. Like this:



If you move your mouse outside the text box, you'll be able to move the box around, which is what I've done. Now type in whatever, I'll type in my name in the font Devil Breeze.



Toggle the Character and Paragraph panels, to do that click on a square that looks like this

You can change many things with it, it should look like this when it's opened up.

Step #6 (Optional)
Now, go back to the first layer, the one of the screenshot in the background. Click on Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or Ctrl+U for PC users and Command+C for Mac users.



I'm not a big fan of these adjustments, but I do use it every once in a while to play with the saturation, colors, light, etc. You can ignore this step if you're fine with the lighting and colors, but if you want you can play around with the controls and get some pretty nice results.



Step #7
Double click on your text layer and bring up the layer styles. You don't have to do this step either if you like plain text, but just in case I'll play around a bit with some options to get a nicer effect. I'll be using Drop Shadow and Bevel and Emboss.




It should give the text a nicer effect, like this:



And that's pretty much it, Go to File>Save and save it as a .jpg or if it has transparency save it as a .png. Also, remember that the maximum file size allowed is 80kb.

Also, it is possible that saving it as .png will make it go over the limit in most of the cases, you will have to use posterize to lower some color levels from the actual picture.

Photoshop: Image>Adjustments>Posterize or
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Posterize, bot ways work the same.

GIMP: Colors>Posterize

Keep in mind that you should have all layers merged before applying posterize.
Info provided by Narcis_speed6

I hope you learned something from this tutorial, now get sigging!
Questions? Comments? All accepted!

Remember, this is how I do it, there are other ways to do them too.

This post has been edited by blitz on Tuesday, Aug 30 2011, 19:54

[Method]

Nice, I already made a tutorial on this, but your's seem's to go in depth more.

[Rojo.]

Great work blitz, I'm sure this will help some people and encourage them to make their own signatures, especially in the gang section.

I'll like to add two things that people ask over pm the most:

1. To do a diagonal pattern like this

Just follow this simple tutorial.

2. To add that second stroke that everybody loves, like this one

It's necessary to use a white stroke and set the blending mode to Overlay.

[Mockage]

QUOTE (Meth0d @ Tuesday, Aug 30 2011, 14:21)

Nice, I already made a tutorial on this, but your's seem's to go in depth more.

This.

Like I said, it's pretty in-depth. Well done.

[Narcis_speed6]

QUOTE (blitz @ Tuesday, Aug 30 2011, 18:51)

or if it has transparency save it as a .png. Also, remember that the maximum file size allowed is 80kb.

Saving it as .png will make it go over the limit in most of the cases, you will have to use posterize to lower some color levels from the actual picture.

Photoshop: Image->Adjustments->Posterize or
Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Posterize, both ways work exactly the same.

Gimp: Colors->Posterize

Keep in mind that you should have all layers merged before applying posterize.

[blitz]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

@Meth0d, I knew that, but I still wanted to re-make it my way

@Rojo. Thanks, but I don't really know if I shoudl just link the Tut or add it in somewhere.

@Mockage Thanks

@Narcis I'll add it right away.

Also, can you add [TUT] in front of the title somewhere? If it fits, that is. Thanks

[SmC12]

QUOTE (Rojo. @ Tuesday, Aug 30 2011, 19:24)

2. To add that second stroke that everybody loves, like this one It's necessary to use a white stroke and set the blending mode to Overlay.

Or Soft Light

Sometimes Overlay is too strong depending on the background, reducing the opacity of the stroke helps in most cases but Soft Light works alot better if the background is "busy". And also just to expand on that, it's two seperate layers, one with a 2px white stroke set to Overlay, the other a 1px black stroke set to Normal. Both are Inner Stroke.


Great Tutorial! Very easy to follow.
Maybe this will help stop all the overly-simple requests lately..

This post has been edited by SmC12 on Tuesday, Aug 30 2011, 20:22

[methodunderg]

Nice tut; thanks.

I'm an absolute novice when it comes to programs like PS/GIMP/Paint.NET ..

[NeedForSpeedXP]

This should be pinned1 Well done.

[Gta Lion King]

If you could rate I would rate 5/5 create 1 more profile and rate 5/5 again!

[blitz]

Thanks.

@NeedforSpeedXP It doesn't need a pin, there are many other tutorials in this section all which can be seen in this pinned topic.

[R0ad-Kill]

Thanks a million, this is so helpful. I'm off to practice!

[NaidRaida]

Thank you blitz.

Hey, you like these two? I was just trying some things. If this is not your cup of tea... okay!





(with PhotoFiltre/Gimp 2)

[blitz]

Those are really nice, I like it that you used my name

[NaidRaida]

Yeah, your name is funny, do you know what it means in my language? (german) It means "lightning". Anyway, nice tutorial, keep it up.

[The Rockstar Boy]

Thanks man. This TUT really helps. What is the font which you used over there?

[MMD-FireBird]

How did you get that font and also how would you go about putting a pic inside the sig also?

[Method]

QUOTE (MMD-FireBird @ Wednesday, Jul 18 2012, 16:14)

How did you get that font and also how would you go about putting a pic inside the sig also?

Dafont in my opinion would be the best place to get freeware as far as fonts go, and I'm pretty sure thats where she got it.

And do you mean blending images (i.e. the forum banner)?

If so, theres a pretty decent tutorial here and here are a couple of YouTube videos I gathered for you as the process is pretty difficult at first.







And heres a GIMP video if you do not use Photoshop.



Goodluck.

[MMD-FireBird]

Is there any good tuts on making avatars?

[nic_23]

QUOTE (MMD-FireBird @ Thursday, Jul 19 2012, 03:22)

Is there any good tuts on making avatars?

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=413272


also great topic blitz it should be a real help for people who are finding it hard, the best way of learning the tutorials and having a play around and learning new things

This post has been edited by nic_23 on Thursday, Jul 19 2012, 03:03