RPHKR
National Board President
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2008
Detailed Signature Tutorial
Hello guys, I gonna post an detailed signature tutorial in which you can learn
1. How to blend a render into the background? (The basement)
2. How to add a texture to improve the render?
3. How to place a text that fits in the signature? (The tricky part)
4. Finishing touch
So you might think that I am not a great graphics maker to teach others and blah, blah, blah. I am just posting my technique which you may or may not know. A good graphics maker accepts what he does not know and improve on it.
My request: Post your outcomes after reading the tutorial. So I could know what you learned from here and it will encourage me in making more tutorials. A tutorial without response is a waste of effort.
If any step needs more explanation, then ask me.
Here is my outcome
1. You think you know how to do a signature like this? Okay then there is no point for you to continue reading.
2. If you like to learn then continue reading.
I recommend you to follow this step by step to achieve the outcome I have produced(It is the key to learn a few small techniques I have used). Or you can just skim through it.
Resources I used in the signature
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
1. Background texture (Shared by @futurecricketer)
2. Texture 1 - Blue star texture (Shared by @Neer.)
3. Texture 2 - Red texture (Shared by @Neer.)
4. Texture 3 - Blue square texture (Shared by @Neer.)
5. NOVA font (from dafont.com)
6. Render cut by me
A decent font which looks professional, it will be useful for your graphics.
1. How to blend a render into the background?
i) The background
Hey geeks, remember
"Your background is like the basement of a building, so lay it strong"
There are two ways to make a background,
1. Texture background
2. Manual background
1.In texture background, you use a texture which fits your idea.
2. In manual background, you fill a colour and add some effects.
For a rookie graphics maker, I would recommend a black texture bg with some light.
You can learn manual background making in my next tutorial.
Now open a new document in PS, 500x200 pixels.
Paste the background I used.
Rename the layer as background(for the ease of use)
[Double click the name of the layer in the right, then type]
You can successfully done the bg part, now it's time to paste the render and blend it.
ii) The render
Paste the render in your document. Press CTRL+T, hold shift while you resize the render. Put it in the centre of the canvas like I did.
Name this layer as 'Render'
Click the 'Render' layer, then press 'CTRL+J' twice to get two copies of it.
To blend the render,
Render copy - Hardlight - 60%
Render copy 2 - Overlay - 30%
Right click the original render layer, 'Render' and choose blending options.
In blending options, goto Outer Glow, set the color of the glow #c80e26
Outerglow - #c80e26 (Choose a color which suits your render)
Use the settings I used, you can see a red stroke line around the render.
So far so good, now the render has blend with the bg. Now we are moving on to the next part.
2. How to add a texture to improve the render?
Okay now we gonna put a texture to make the render glow.
Paste texture 1 on the render, rename the layer as 'Texture 1'
Put 'Texture 1' as color dodge and look at your render.
It looks a bit clumsy, isn't it? So we should put it right.
Grab your eraser tool.
On the top you can see the settings for eraser tool. Use a round soft brush 40 pixels with flow 30%.
Now erase the glowing parts on the top of the render, his face, his hands, etc.
Leave some glow at the corners. You should get an outcome like this:
Now you have improved the look of the render without making it look clumsy. Play as you wish to get your desire result. Now we move to the next part, i.e; to make a good text in the signature(a challenging part).
3. How to place a text that fits in the signature?(The tricky part)
A good graphics without a good text looks incomplete. Text is the as important as the work you do in the effects.
The text in the spoiler is just an additional information on texts in signature. You can skip it if you want only in the tutorial.
When I started to do gfx, I struggled a lot in the text part. Whenever I did it, it didn't blend well. I sometimes used a psd template text from sites because I can not make them well. Once I downloaded Megh_Raj's psd file, where I could see his technique in texts. He made them using gradient overlay and that fits well. I improvised on that strategy
Check this out - http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs45/f/2009/081/8/4/Signature_text_tutorial_by_xylez.png
It's a cool tutorial on text by xylez in deviantart, he has some valuable tips. Find time to read it.
What Megh_Raj did in that psd was, he made a white grey gradient to make the text look shiny.
The colour code for the gradient is from [# e1e1e1] to [# ffffff]
Then he would stroke(blending options) the text with a color in the render.
The color code of the stroke is #166eb2 - 2 pixel stroke. Look at the text with a blue stroke, it looks fine, when a texture is put on it in color dodge mode, it will look better.
Check this out - http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs45/f/2009/081/8/4/Signature_text_tutorial_by_xylez.png
It's a cool tutorial on text by xylez in deviantart, he has some valuable tips. Find time to read it.
What Megh_Raj did in that psd was, he made a white grey gradient to make the text look shiny.
The colour code for the gradient is from [# e1e1e1] to [# ffffff]
Then he would stroke(blending options) the text with a color in the render.
The color code of the stroke is #166eb2 - 2 pixel stroke. Look at the text with a blue stroke, it looks fine, when a texture is put on it in color dodge mode, it will look better.
Okay, now 'DINESH KARTHIK' using the NOVA FONT. The size should be around 35 pixels. Place the text in parallel with the render's arms or bat.
Right click the text layer -> blending options -> gradient overlay
The gradient color code is from #ff0000 to #fc5959
Place the Texture 2 above the text and put it on colour dodge
Hmm, great work now we should enhance it with the finishing touch.
4. Finishing touch
Now paste the Texture 3 in the canvas and put it on colour dodge
The signature will look like:
Now create a new layer and put a soft white brush above the render, make the layer as overlay with opacity 75%
Okay you have done the signature at last, here is the outcome:
Outcome:
Post your outcomes here or it will be a waste of effort.
you're better than this !
Yeah thank you.
