Scouting for Girls, Kerry Ellis and most musicals is what i adore on my iPod. Twilight Series and Doctor Who are my babies so are john barrowman david tennant and robert pattinson. 15 years old on 21st June 2008. I also love my theatre school and alll my friends!
Photoshopping a Forum Signature Tutorial
This tutorial will show you how to make a signature on
photoshop that you can use on emails, forums, etc.
This is the final product of mine of this:
The first thing you need to do after opening up Photoshop is set the size and resolution of the signature you want. Go to File > New
From the menu that comes up, use these settings for this signature:
Width: 450 - Pixels
Height: 150 - Pixels
Resolution: 150 - Pixels/Inch
Colour Mode: RGB Color - 8 Bit
Background Contents: Transparent
A blank photoshop space should appear now. Next you need to choose a picture, im going to use this one:
Open up this image in photoshop File > Open > (select picture). When opened, drag the picture onto the blank space you just created. Position it wherever you think it looks best.Changing the contrast and the brightness of a picture can instantly enhance it. Adjusting the settings Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Usually it can work by turing up the contrast slightly and turning down the brightness. In this case, Iv put the brightness at -19 and the contrast at +22. But this will depend on the starting picture, so do what looks best. If you like, you can play around with the colouring as well. Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. Move the sliders until you get the effect that you want.
Next select the first option on the panel to the left. Draw a small square or rectangle around one section of your picture. Edit > Copy Merged. Then create a new layer by Layer > New Layer. Edit > Paste. Then using the moving tool (second on the left panel) move the small square to somewhere else on the signature that looks good. eg. far left. Next do the exact same thing again but for a different part of the signature. Creating new layers each time.
You can change the Blending options of these layers to make them stand out more. Select the layer from the menu of the small sqaure you want to use, then right click > blending options. Choose the options you would like to use. I have used Outer Glow (default settings) and Bevel and Emboss (default). This is what mine looks like at the moment:
You can add some texture to the image by Layer > New Layer. Edit > Fill > Black. (dont panic) now right click on the black layer and click Blending Options. Select Pattern Overlay and choose a texture you like. Then click OK and down just above where you select the different layers it says 'Opacity:' with '100%' beside it. Change the 100% beside the Opacity to about 15%. I havnt done this on mine, but it might be useful for other signatures.
Adding Text. On the left hand panel, select the big 'T' icon. Drag a box to the place where you want text to appear. Try to be creative with the fonts you use, and where you place it. Try using two completely different but complimenting fonts in complementing colours. Fonts i have used are Will & Grace and Quentin Caps. Try searching them on a free font downloading site such as dafont.com. Here is an example of what i have done:
You can try changing the contrast of the main pictures again just to tweak it into what you want.#
Adding custom brush effects. Well, downloading new brushes from the internet can enhance your graphics a lot, and can be the centre of your designs. You can use the brushes already loaded on photoshop, but downloaded brushes are more flexible and exciting.
On mine im using brushes call 'Lady Victoire Foliage' which i downloaded off of www.deviantart.com. If you search 'brushes' on that site, and have a look through and download some that you like. You may have to unzip them before using them after downloading. Once you have downloaded your brushed, click on the layer of your main picture, and then Layer > New Layer. Select a colour you want your brush to be in, then click on the paintbrush icon on the left panel. Right click on your picture and then the brush menu should appear. Click on the small round arrow near the top right of the menu.Then click 'Replace Brushes'. Select from the browser where you downloaded the brush, and click open.
On the layer you just created above the main picture adjust the size of the brush by right clicking then sliding the 'master diametre' to the right size. Then click on the blank layer and place on the picture where you would like to put yoour brush. Adjust the 'Opacity' of the layer again if you want it to go more transparent.
Add anything else you would like to add, but for me, im satisfied with what i have. Click on the top of all the layers, scroll down to the bottom, hold down shift and click the bottom layer. Go to Layers > Merge Layers. All the layers should now merge into one. Click on the crop tool on the left panel. It looks like a dark outline of a square with a diagonall line going though the middle. Select the whole of the picture, moveing the lines to the edges of the canvas. Then click off of it onto the bush tool (as an example) and then click [apply crop] when the menus comes up. Basically, you have just shaved off the edges of the picture so that the whole picture is the canvas only, and nothing more over. You can Right Click > Blending Options and add as Inner Glow to the picture to finish it off! Now your done! To save your signature as an image go to File > Save for Web > Save.
Here is my final product:
Just ask if you have any problems!