Creating a Signature (Using Gimp)

[Horsa]

I created this over at Mod Realms, so I thought I'd post it here too.
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Ok, so I'll create a nice tutorial on creating a signature/banner (or whatever you want to call it) with Gimp.

Gimp is a free program for all of us tight arses that don't want to pay for Photoshop. If your looking for a download link, look no further.
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

1. OK, step one... size.

Some say its not important, but we all know it is .
A good signature size is around 550x175 (that's something for now anyway).

So open up Gimp (that's hard work huh?), after loading, the Gimp should pop up:

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At the top of it, click file and then click open.

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You should see the width and heights selections. In the width box, put 550. In the heights box, put 175. Now click the "OK" button.
This is what you should see open in a new window...

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2. Now's the fun stuff.

Here's where you should use you imagination, but for the sake of teaching, just copy me.
So a good way of finding pics is to use a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Ask... etc). I'm gonna go for a medieval look, so I've chosen this knight:

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As I have no interest in background, I'm gonna remove it. So go to the new Gimp window you just opened, and at the top of the screen click Layer, then Transparency, then Colour to Alpha.

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Once you've done that, this should pop up:

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Since the color is already white, all you need to do is click "OK".

So here's what we got:

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Now copy the knight from before and paste it in. Place it like I have.

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Hint: you will need to zoom in on your knight now, to do this find the magnifying glass called "Zoom Tool" on the Gimp, you will notice at the bottom of the gimp there is a section called "Tool Toggle" with both zoom in and out choices on it.

Once that's done you will need to use the "Free Select Tool" located here:

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Hint: When doing this make sure the "Antialiasing" feature on the bottom of your gimp is disabled.

Know go to the picture of the knight again, left click and hold down, and move the mouse around the edge of the horses face until the top of its ear, still holding down, circle back around (going right ) until its meets up to the beginning. Now let go.

This is what you should have:

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Right click it and click cut.

Continue this with the whole knight until he looks like so:

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Note: The edges won't look perfect, you'll still see a few bits of sky. Just fix those little bits.


3. Finding a background.

Now that your knights prepared, you will need to look for a background. Back to a search engine.

Here's what I got:

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Go to your knight again, and at the the very top left of the page click file, then new, then "OK". post that stone picture onto the newly opened window which will have a white background.

Still with me? OK then, now go to your knight, copy the picture, then paste it over the stone one.
You should now have this:

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4. Adding the Title.

Next you will need some font, the basic Gimp ones are pretty boring, so here's an interesting website where you can download some nice fonts.
http://www.dafont.com/

First of all, copy the stone with knight on top signature and paste it over the old knight with transparent background one.

For this tutorial, I'm just gonna use Gimps Arial font.
First off, you will need to click on the Gimps "Text Tool" button

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You will see the font settings at the bottom of the Gimp, use Arial. Below is the size setting.

Click on where you want the text to be on the sig and this will pop up:

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Just type something, I'm doing "Mod Realms".

Now exit the text box, and you should have this:

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Note: I have also resized my text so its bigger.

You will see the text is surrounded by a yellow box. Click on the inside of the box, click copy.
Now you need to go to the Gimp and use the "Rectangle Select Tool"

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Now go to your second copy of the signature I told you to make earlier. (If you didn't, just click edit, undo until the text is gone.) And right click, then paste. You should now see the the text, and you can move it where you want it to be by left clicking on it and holding down while you move the mouse.

And that's it! Its not an amazing looking signature, but its a start! good work.


And with a different font:

[Killerbee]

Simple and good for starters ! Great job

[EVYATAR]

like what KingTheoden1 say good for starters and easy

[Maяcel]

great tut, very detailed

[Horsa]

Thanks guys!

[Prince of Yunderup]

Thanks mate, I found your tutorial really helpful.
I was reading a forum last week about a mod under development and some bloke asked if the mod was dead, the question seemed to annoy a few a people, to cut a long story short one of the old schoolers said 'modding is hard work you should try it' so it got me thinking, to right, people like me should try and contribute if we can so I thought maybe the best place to start is some 2d graphics and sigs is a good place start. I already had GIMP and your tut has given me the boost (I've still got to master layering but I'm getting there)
I will rep you when I'm allowed.
I do have one question I'm using png format for my current sig, but what are most people using?

[Raglan]

png is the format we mainly use for pictures, since it preserves the picture quality better than .gif or .jpg

[Prince of Yunderup]

png is the format we mainly use for pictures, since it preserves the picture quality better than .gif or .jpg

Thank you mate!

[Horsa]

Your welcome! That's what I created this for.