Simple Signature Tutorial
 

Super Simple Signature Tutorial
Hello. Here's a new tutorial. I haven't made one in a while and this is a a simple tutorial on making images look much nicer for signature-ready use with very subtle elements.. While prior knowledge of GIMP/PShop isn't necessary, it really helps. Enjoy.

Materials Needed
- GIMP 2.6 or Higher (Photoshop might work, not sure)
- At least 30-45 minutes of time
- A nice looking background stock
- A render (character/subject) of choice

Information
Difficulty: Easy with prior GIMP knowledge/moderate without. I tried to help the ones that had no prior knowledge.
Time: 30-45 minutes
The Result
http://i.imgur.com/mRmohrL.png

The Tutorial
1. Create your canvas (mine was 400 x 120) and hide the default white background. Pick any render or stock of any character you like, preferably with a darker background as to not complicate the image. Duplicate this layer and hide the layer on the bottom. Here's what I have.

http://i.imgur.com/pNovvFx.png

2. If your chosen subject doesn't fill the whole canvas like mine, or if you chose a render, fill the background by either placing a generic dark wallpaper behind it (make sure it's not too distracting) or picking a color from your render and creating a solid background. I chose the latter. This is what I had.

http://i.imgur.com/Gpcm8No.png

3. As you can see, choosing the latter like I did, you'll end up with some cut-off lines unless you chose a render. To alleviate this, I took my smudge tool and smudged the hard edges to help the image better blend in to the background. You can use the default smudging brush, but I chose the Vines preset brush and lowered the spacing to 0.01 and made it a little larger. If you don't know how to do that, you're fine with the default smudge tool.

http://i.imgur.com/hORnJrj.png

4. Here's where you can pick your color scheme to fit your subject. I opted to go for a pinkish-yellow scheme, and I added a smoky C4D. Google "C4D" on images, and pick one that fits your color scheme or looks nice to you. Copy the image and paste it into a new layer, and set the layer to 'Lighten Only'. Adjust and rescale as necessary. Make sure to make it surround the render, and erase any bits that are too distracting or on top of the render with a low-opacity eraser. Here's an example of what you can use: http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2349/blooming.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/gdkPmpv.png

5. Seeing as I went to go with a solid background, the image felt very lacking in texture. So I searched up a papery texture, scaled it down to just barely fit the canvas and set the layer to 'Overlay' at 60%, and erased all of the bits over her. You can keep it there if it looks nice, however.

http://i.imgur.com/5Vt3mal.png

6. I then repeated Step 4 with a much more subtle fractal light to accentuate the image. This was set to 'Lighten Only' at 60%. After this, I did an Edit -> Copy Visible and paste it into a new layer, directly above the canvas so it fits perfectly. Go to Filters -> Gaussian Blur and blur it, leaving the settings on default. Set this layer to 'Overlay'.

http://i.imgur.com/s4J1Jw4.png

7. I then switched my primary color to white, and created a new layer. I used my gradient tool and set the option to radial, and chose the gradient FG to Transparent in the Layers/Brushes panel. I then created a white radial gradient directly on top of her, and set that layer to 'Overlay' at 80%. This is what the image should look like before setting it to overlay.

http://i.imgur.com/Axak0Lq.png

8. I decided I was pretty much done with effects here, so I decided to add a very simplistic border. It's a one-pixel line at the top and bottom of the image in a new layer. This is what I had, after the above step and the border:

http://i.imgur.com/h3hXxUt.png

9. To keep the signature simple and minimalistic, I added very modest text in the bottom-right corner of the signature. I chose the font type 'Britannic Bold' at set it to 9-point size, and set the layer to 50% opacity.

http://i.imgur.com/mRmohrL.png

And there you have it.





Good job on making it this far! This concludes my signature tutorial. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did making it and sharing it with you guys. Eager to see your outcomes if you dare tried to make one. If you did, I'll love you forever. Thank you for reading!

Talon

Mikasa is not impressed.

Thanks I'll try making my own... eventually.... when I actually stop having artist block.... make a video you ninny <:3?

I hate making videos.

but when is she ever impressed

When eren kicks ass

Going to try this!

This is what I finished up with-
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J.../Katarasig.png

The Katara image was very 'pixely'

Yesh I can see's the changes.

Just do this, and proceed to give yourself a pat on the back, a small slow hand clap, and say, "Y'know...I did I good job today. I'm proud of myself."

And another-

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...reninjasig.png
This one of Greninja

Nice +rep

Is this what gimp is supposed to look like after step 3? (i'm really confused).
http://i.imgur.com/L5FKR6c.png

Nice, but try to cover a bit more of the canvas so his whole body isn't visible, just his upper body or something by making the image bigger.

Yup, that's fine.

I'm impressed with Greninja.

Did this one on PS touch (IOS), and actually i found it easier.

-The first (top layer) consists of two gradients. A black to transparent and a radial white to transparent gradient.

-On the middle layer is the render, which already had transparent background.

-On the bottom layer is the background with just a Gaussian Blur (if thats how you spell it).

Its just a bit bigger.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U...89971222_n.jpg

________________________________________________

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-R.../wintersig.png
Winter

I've done some photo editing before, but, although I've heard of renders and seen them, I never knew how to use renders 0: I also liked the smudge effect you did. so I followed ur tutorial and tried it out on this;

http://i.imgur.com/DddD5EJ.png