Lesson 3 - making a signature

[Astaroth]

Lesson 3 - making a signature

Hello everyone,

today I'll show you how to create a basic signature. We will use our knowledge from the first two lessons and learn a few new things in the process. However, you have to keep in mind that making signatures is a lot about creativity and it would be impossible to teach all techniques which could be used. Therefore, I'll try to focus on the most important things in order to create a basis for you. If you don't understand anything, want to have a better explanation or are simply interested in how something works, don't be afraid to ask. But let's get started.

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Part A - blending images

To begin with, I'll show you how to blend two images in order to create a beautiful signature. First of all we obviously need pictures and a basic idea. For this signature, I'll go with an ETW picture which I edited for the POTW contest and a British flag on top of it. If you cannot find any good images, I highly suggest visiting deviantart.com where you can find thousands of great renders or backgrounds.

First of all, resize and crop your image so it is 550x175 pixels (the maximum size which is allowed for signatures on this site) or smaller. Sharpen it a bit if necessary as well (see lesson 1). Afterwards, open your second layer (File -> Open as Layers) and put it on top of the first one as shown here:

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Now the blending fun begins! Right-click on your top layer (in this case the British flag) and choose "Add Layer Mask" from the drop-down menu.

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Then select the gradient tool from your toolbox and left-click on the right edge of the UK flag. Keep pressing your mouse key and pull the line to the other side of the flag before releasing it:

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This will make your flag partly transparent, with its right side being completely transparent and its left side completely visible. Now simply right-click on the UK flag layer again and choose "Apply Layer Mask". This process is extremely useful for everything ranging from signatures to huge wallpapers or banners and it's essential for blending. If you want to increase the power of this effect, simply repeat it several times (but remember to apply the layer mask to the layer after using the gradient tool). Finally, lower the top layer's opacity a bit and you should get something similar to this:

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As you can see, the ships are visible behind the flag which blends in beautifully with the rest of the image. This blending effect can be done with anything, ranging from faces and people to various objects. If the top layer still has a somewhat visible border towards the bottom layer (unlike in this example), you might want to use the eraser tool with an opacity of around 50-70% and remove it. But let's move on.

Our next goal is to add a basic text. You should already know how to download and install fonts (see lesson 2 B) so feel free to check out dafont.com for new ones. In this example I have used the "English" font. Slap a text on top of all existing layers and move it around until you found a fitting location for it. Feel free to duplicate the text layer in order to make it more visible and bold. Eventually, you might also want to add a neat shadow behind the text to make it stand out more. Simply use the same technique which you already used in lesson 2 A to create a shadow behind your avatar (add an outline, then apply a Gaussian blur of around 10-20 to the outline and lower its opacity a bit). Your signature should now look similar to this:

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Now that we're finished with the main part, we can merge the layers. Right-click on one of them and select "Merge visible layers". If your bottom/background layer is as big as your signature is supposed to be in the end, you may choose the following option in the window which will pop up:

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For a final effect, I am going to darken the areas close to the edges of the signature a bit. In order to achieve this, we could for example use the burn tool in your toolkit. However, I personally prefer a different method. Create a new layer on top of your single remaining one and choose a Circle Fuzzy brush with a size of around 2-3. Select the color black and begin painting an outline on your transparent layer as shown here:

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I'd suggest not to paint on top of the text, though. If you wish, you can use a different color as well. E.g. white will obviously make the image brighter. In order to switch between black and white quickly, simply go to Colors -> Invert. Afterwards, keep the top layer selected and apply a Gaussian blur (see previous lessons) of around 50-100. Finally, lower the top layer's opacity to around 50 and add a border (see lesson 2 B).

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And we're finished! The signature was easy to make yet looks rather good and professional, thanks to a few nice features such as blending and darkening parts of the image. Your result should look similar to this:

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Part B - the "Colors" tab and brush work

After creating a rather basic signature in part A of this lesson, we will now attempt to try out a few other features. First of all, we need a background image to work with. This time, I've chosen a different image:

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After resizing and cropping it, we will try to add depth and to make it more 'epic'. In order to achieve that, we will increase the image's contrast while darkening it a bit. Go to Colors -> Brightness/Contrast Tool and the following window will pop up:

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Just play around with the controllers a little until you're satisfied with the result. This is what I came up with:

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Now we will attempt to darken the image even further while adding a bit of red to make it even better looking. Simply duplicate your existing layer, then go to Colors -> Colorize as shown here. "Hue" decides on the image's color (360 is dark red for example) whereas "Saturation" is used to change how "strong" the colors are (100 being the maximum whereas 0 will turn the image completely gray). Again, you need to experiment with this tool and it's impossible to give clear numbers or to tell you what to go for exactly. Generally, I wouldn't set the saturation too high, though.

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If you want to adjust only one color at a time instead of doing everything at once, go to Colors -> Hue-Saturation Tool instead. You can select a single color at the top of the window which will you pop which will allow you to adjust that color's lightness and saturation in your image.

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Alternatively, you can use the "Curves" tool (Colors -> Curves) and play around with it. It can also be used to change your image's various colors and lightness. These tools can all be found in the "Colors" tab and are extremely useful. Just by playing around with them you can increase your picture's quality significantly. But let's move on to the next step.

Our next goal is to add some brush work to the image. First of all, it helps to have a few good brushes which you can use. Good brushes for GIMP can be found on deviantart or other websites like this one (making your own brushes is also possible. Check out this tutorial for that). You have to decide which ones you want to use but generally it helps to have some blood brushes, grunge brushes and various 'fancy' brushes. In this example I'll be using grunge brushes only.

In order to use the brushes in GIMP after downloading, you must unzip them (for example via the program Winrar). Afterwards, put them in GIMP -> share -> gimp -> 2.0 -> brushes and restart the program. You should now be able to use them.

Anyway, put a new transparent layer on top of the main layer and start using your different brushes on it. Simply experiment a bit and undo it if you're not happy with it. You might use whatever color you wish but here I've used black as it goes well with the theme of the signature. Eventually, I set the brush layer to "Overlay" (in the layer options). There are many different layer options, all of them having their pros and cons. It would be impossible to describe all of them here but I'll try to explain the most basic ones. Figuring out how the other ones work is just a matter of trying them out. Anyway, "Multiply" and "Overlay" are arguably the most popular and common ones and will darken or brighten your image respectively by making white (in the case of "Multiply") or black (in the case of Overlay) transparent.

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After adding several black grunge textures with my grunge brushes, I also cut out a piece of graffiti, darkened it a bit and played around with the layer options. Sometimes it is also useful to duplicate a layer several times and to use different layer options for each layer.

Now there is only one last thing I want to do. Instead of adding a regular border, I will make the signature's edges somewhat fuzzy in a grunge style. Doing that is easier than it might sound. Merge down all of your layers (see part A of this lesson), then select your eraser tool and choose one of your grunge brushes. Use it and some of your other grunge brushes to erase the signature's edges. If you mess up, go back via Edit -> Undo. Last but not least, I added a black shadow to the whole signature (see part A of this lesson) and turned down its opacity to around 30-50%.

Eventually, your result should look similar to this:

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Part C - reflections and miscellaneous

In this part of the lesson I'll show you a few more neat effects and features which can be very useful when creating a signature. To begin with, we will create a text with a cool reflection below it.

Take a background image and edit it however you want to, then slap a text on top of it. In this example I've simply filled the text's outline with a blue pattern and blurred it afterwards. On top of that, I made the text seem 3D by adding a white outline of the text behind the original one. Finally, I also applied a soft white glow in the same way in which we added a black shadow to the text in part A of this lesson.

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Afterwards, duplicate the text layer and use the Flip Tool to reverse it vertically:

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Now all there is left to do is using a layer mask and the gradient tool (see lesson A) to blend in the reversed layer. Also lower its opacity a bit. And it's finished! You got a nice reflection below your text which really adds to the quality of the signature.

Our next goal is to add a nice wave effect to the image. However, we obviously do not want to affect the text or its reflection. Therefore, use the ellipse selection tool to select the area around them and go to Select -> Invert to invert the selection. Now everything apart from the area around the text and its reflection will be selected.

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Make sure that the background layer with the waves is selected, then go to Filters -> Distorts -> Waves. Feel free to use whatever settings you want to and apply the waves to your image. This way of selecting parts of your image and/or inverting the selection can be used to apply all kinds of different filters and other effects to parts of your image.

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Now there is one last thing which I'd like to show you, namely yet another way to add a border. Our goal is to create a semi-transparent border. Merge down all of your existing layers once again, then create a new transparent layer on top of them. Use the rectangular selection tool to select an area within your image which is around 3-5 pixels away from the image's edge. Afterwards, use the Select -> Invert tool once again to change the selection to the small stripe near the edge of the image. Finally, use the bucket tool to fill it with a color of your choice (I went for white).

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Afterwards, lower the border layer's opacity a bit and you're finished. Feel free to add other effects to the border such as a Gaussian Blur or possibly waves. The great thing is that you can change your border that way without affecting your main image. Furthermore, a semi-transparent border is more subtle than a normal one and suits many images much better. Your result could now look similar to this:

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And that's it for today. GIMP is such a vast and deep program which offers so many features, effects and possibilities that it would be impossible for me to cover all of them. However, with the knowledge which you've hopefully gained today, I believe you're capable of creating your own signatures from now on. What you've learned today is the basis for many other GIMP features and techniques and the main thing you need now is probably practice. Create signatures for yourself, for friends or for people in the signature request thread, try out all of the various features covered here and combine them. Since blending is extremely important, you might want to practice with the eraser tool (remember to lower it's opacity and to use a crazy fuzzy brush for better results), layer masks and the gradient tool and opacity in general.

That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed this rather long and detailed lesson. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.

Cheers,
Astaroth

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Homework

This week your task will be to create at least two different signatures. Utilize the techniques explained above and describe in short which effects or features you have used in each of your two signatures. Furthermore, post the images which you used as a base for your signature so I can see what exactly you have changed. Good luck!

[Lü Bu]

My sigs:
Default pics:

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Sigs:

[Lü Bu]

Za dom spremni!

[Roloc]

Here are all pics

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here is my work




here is another pic

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here is my work

[Lü Bu]

Just on 1-st sig try to erase this line on banner and pic if you know what I talking about.It must look like 1 pic

[Lü Bu]

but anyway good work

[Ratbag]

Made 2 so far.

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EDIT: Karlost, could you spoiler those bigger pictures?

[Subuatai de Bodemloze]

nice Ratbag

[Killerbee]

So far , i only did the first one :



Part 3 :

Again , failed miserably

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Great tutorial Astaroth !

[Lü Bu]

EDIT: Karlost, could you spoiler those bigger pictures?

Done!

[Atatürk]

Nice tutorial. I'll give it a go when I have some time tomorrow.

[Nevada]

Ok, so there we go:

Original Pics:

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Signature:



Original Pic:

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Signature:

[dragonsign]

[Astaroth]

Good job everyone so far.

My sigs:
Default pics:

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Sigs:

Not bad. However, I would suggest removing the flag's white background layer in your first signature. In the second one, you should also add a border and play around with brushes, brightness and contrast a little more. Furthermore, both signatures exceed the size limit of 550x175 pixels so you should fix that as well.

Here are all pics

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here is my work




here is another pic

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here is my work

Nice signatures, although I would suggest working a bit more with both of them. Add some brush work to both and make the German flag blend in better by erasing the 'line' on its left. Do that with an eraser with an opacity of around 50-60% or less. The second signature could use a shadow but remember to apply a rather strong Gaussian blur to it and to lower its opacity to around 30-50% at most.

It would also help if you did more with different color layers and contrast, curves and brightness.

Made 2 so far.

Spoiler for Picture's used: 

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Spoiler for Pic 2: 

Spoiler for Picture's used: 

EDIT: Karlost, could you spoiler those bigger pictures?

Good job. However, I would suggest using better pictures for your first signature because especially the eye is a bit hard to recognize. The second signature is a bit too red for my taste and you might want to lower the color layer's opacity a bit.

Ok, so there we go:

Original Pics:

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Signature:



Original Pic:

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Signature:

I think the text might be a bit bland (try to experiment with it, for example by filling the text with a pattern and blurring it. Be creative!) and the dark 'stripe' which you used as a border here is a little too strong still. I'd suggest turning down its opacity and blurring it further. Generally, the two pictures you used aren't really perfect as well so you might want to darken them to increase their quality.

The second signature isn't bad but you should really lower the red layer's opacity. Furthermore, I'd remove the white background layer before saving the signature.

Quite good. The text could use an improvement however (how about adding a reflection and adding a white glow around it?) and you could make the signature more 'epic' by darkening it and increasing the contrast.

@Everyone: please remember to describe in short what you did with your signature. You should also keep in mind that you do not have to follow this tutorial to the letter. The effects and techniques you use should fit to the image and while e.g. grunge signatures might look good with a fuzzy border (see part B of this tutorial), others will not. You do not strictly have to use a red duplicated layer, either. Try other colors as well and lower the color layer's opacity so it enhances the picture instead of dominating it.

Art is a lot about experimenting so try out the different techniques you know by now instead of doing everything strictly as described here. Just play around with the GIMP's many features until you're happy with your result.

[Nevada]

I think the text might be a bit bland (try to experiment with it, for example by filling the text with a pattern and blurring it. Be creative!) and the dark 'stripe' which you used as a border here is a little too strong still. I'd suggest turning down its opacity and blurring it further. Generally, the two pictures you used aren't really perfect as well so you might want to darken them to increase their quality.

The second signature isn't bad but you should really lower the red layer's opacity. Furthermore, I'd remove the white background layer before saving the signature.

Thx for the criticism.

Just sad I don't have the working files anymore....

[Icedie El Guaraní]

And these are my creations:

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,

And these are the images in use:

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This one is an image taken yesterday from the new Viking museum in Iceland, and i think you wont find anything like it on the internet, its a scaled version of the settlement in Vinland( New FoundLand Canada)

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[Tzar]

First part of my homework.

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[Lü Bu]

Good as always

[Scandinavisksoldat]

Alright, first signature:

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And the files that I used (All of the files I will be using in these signatures are in the public domain, GNU free documentation license, or Creative Commons):

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What I did was pretty straightforward. I blended the Swedish Naval Ensign in with the HMS Helsingborg, a Visby-class ship. Then, I simply darkened the border as described, for the most part, in lesson 1. I finally added in a simple text label and added a border to it.

Later in the week, I'll work more on the second signature. I hope to get a better one completed, but I am in the last two weeks of school, and I am very busy, so it may be of very low quality...

[Theodotos I]

Personal life has been topsy-turvy the last few days, so I'm just getting started. Is this the last set of lessons?