Photography Forums

I'm going to write this tutorial now (should take me absolutely ages) and try and cover some points to help people make their own. This is for a car signature.. But obviously any object can be used here instead of the car.. a bike.. an animal.. camera..



I'm going to use Photoshop 7, Although photoshop 5, 6, CS1, CS2 and CS3 will work for this. There are other programs that you could use like Corel, Paintshop Pro, Swish, Gimp.. among many others

First make a new document (file > new) and choose a height, and width. I'm going to use 468 x 60, which is usually the largest (and most common) signature size. Hit ok.

Now you're document is open, you need a picture. So either

• Right click a picture and click copy, and then Edit > Paste on Photoshop
• Click File > Open and open a picture from there. In which case, you will need to click Select > All.. and then go back to your signature, and then Edit > Paste

I'm going to use this picture of Baz' car



Once it's on your image, it will more than likely be too big. So, click Edit > Free Transform and drag the corners in (Holding Shift will keep image proportions) and you can move it around by using the move tool (found on your toolbar)



If you want to add a border.. make a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and click Select > All... and then Edit > Stroke.. and then play about with thoes settings (Inside, Black 1px is what most of you will probabally want)



That effect was done by first making a 3px black stroke.. then a 2px white one, and then a 1px black one too.

Next we will make a see through background. So we need to remove some of the car. There are a few methods to do this, but for simplicity we will use the eraser tool. So, make sure you click back on the layer with your car on and grab the eraser tool. We are going to want a small-ish.. 10px? hard brush.

Maybe we should add a layer mask. Click this button..



With this, we will be able to 'hide' parts of the image, and not delete them. With this, you need your foreground colour and background colour as black and white. (Just press D on your keyboard)

Now. This might be confusing if you've never used it.. Just remember.. white hides it, and black unhides it.

So, change your foreground to white (if it isn't already) by pressing X (which swaps the colours around) and just take away some of the car.. and then swap the colours around again.. and paint away, and it will show the car

Confusing? Ha. Well.. more to the point, just take away the left hand side of the car.



Of course the background of it is white.. so we need to fix that. You need to find out whatever colour the background is to the forums your signature is going on (ours is #DEDBCA)

If you don't know it.. then.. Take a screenshot of the forum post bit.. paste it onto a new document in photoshop and then grab your colour picker tool.. now set the colour as your foreground

Now select your background layer.. and then click Edit > Fill - Foreground color (Or Alt and backspace for quick keys).

Sexy ey? Woops, now we need to remove some of that border. So click on your border layer.. and grab your eraser tool. A bigger one will be better for this.. and softer too. Maybe 45px with 0% hardness



Nice. Let's add a flag. I'm just making this up as a go along so..

Search on google for the flag that you want.. or you might want a football logo or.. a picture of your mother. Whatever. Just find one.



That will do. Ok. Slap it on your signature, and scale it down too.. and rotate it (That's whilst your scaling it down.. near the corners, move your mouse about until a rotate icon comes up)



Yehaw. Now.. on your layers palate, it might be a good idea to drag it down.. below your border.

Now erase the left hand part of it so it doesn't look as bold. A soft eraser will do again.. or if you have a brush or anything. Grr.. damn shitty photoshop brushes.



Erm. I've tried to be fair and use a brush that everyone has got.

Let's take some colour out of it. Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Or CTRL + U). Just take some colour out of it's ass... that's the saturation bar by the way, drag it to the left.



What about some 3D to the flag. Ok. Make a new layer and grab your paintbrush tool. A soft one at that.. maybe 30px. Right follow carefully now.. Set your foreground colour to black. Now because the image is on a tilt.. it will make it a little more harder to get the straight line.. well, a little harder for me to try and explain.

Click above the image (on the grey bit).. and then let go. Then hold shift.. and click below it. It makes a straight line straight through it ye? Probabally not right first time though, so edit > undo and try again until you get it right



Right. You might want to play about with the opacity.

Duplicate it. Layer > Duplicate layer (Or CTRL + J) and nudge it to the right with the buttons on your keyboard. Then, click Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.. and move the lightness to +100.. and hit ok

Now duplicate it again.. move it to the right.. and then Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and move the lightness to -100.. play about with the opacities of thoes 3 layers too though



Ok. It's not the best example but you get the idea. Right let's add some.. I have scanlines.. erm.. *thinks* Ok. I'll explain.

Make a new document File > New.. 3px by 3px.. and zoom right in Make a new layer.. and delete the other one (the background one) so you have a transparent canvas.

Now grab your pencil tool.. set it to 1px.. and make it look as follows



Ok. Then Select > All........Edit > Define pattern

Now go back to your signature. And click Edit > Fill.. and then choose the fill with pattern and find the pattern and hit OK



I set my blending options (on the layers palate) to soft light.. and then erased some of it

Right. Let's add some text. Click the text tool on your toolbar.. and then click on the document. I'm sure you know how to choose the font and whatnot so.. i'll leave that down to you.

I'm sure some will ask.. so mine was set to ITC Franklin Gothic.. with -80 for character spacing.

But. Click Layer > Layer style > Blending options. I'm sure you will have played about with this too so i'm not going to go too crazy.

- But i added a black stroke, outside.. 3px
- A gradient overlay.. white going into a very light grey..
- White inner glow.. (blend mode to normal by the way) white.. 4px
- Small black outerglow.. opacity down, blend mode to normal..



Make a new layer and drag it to the bottom.

Now with your text tool.. write anything.. i have pf.org. and make it black. Drag it into place and adjust the opacity. I've done that.. added a little blood splatter to the upper corner whilst i was waiting for the images to upload.

But that's pretty much it.





Didn't take me too long actaully. Good luck =)

Woop i took that picture, wow im famous!
Great tutorial, im gunna have a go later tonight and ill post the results.