Any tutorials on how to make a signature on photoshop?

[trinity.]

Hello!! As you can see my signature is prettty ugly right now. I want to make one in photoshop instead, as that seems like the go to program for many of the signature makers out there, but I don't even know how to start as I've never used it before.. Any tutorials on photoshop and/or making signatures with photoshop that you guys would recommend? Thanks!

 

[trinity.]

bump cause i'd like help

 

[allainah]

i've never made a good signature before but i can try to help, i've practiced a couple times?

The only things I can advice is find a photo on google of what shape you want your signature to be, ex: if you want it to be a heart then google "heart outline" or silhouette / shape etc.
Open the outline into Photoshop then add your background you want inside of it. if it's a still photo i usually just open my pictures folder then drag it into photoshop cause if you do "open" in photoshop it will add it to a new window. you can still move it onto the other easily but yeah i just drag it in
Then simply just put the background layer on top of the shapes layer & right click the background layer and choose "create clipping mask"
f.y.i the background will fill in any SOLID areas, not transparent. so for ex: if the inside of the heart is transparent the background wont show inside it. so i'm assuming you would want a solid color in the shape, and the outside to be transparent.
you can easily make the background transparent go on youtube to look it up it's easier to watch & i learned it in like 5 minutes.

for an animated background you will need to "open" it, not drag it in. animation is more complex & idk how to do that. if you want to practice you can just go on youtube and type in "photoshop how to put a gif on a still image" that's what I did & i find the tutorials really helpful just haven't quite gotten it yet.

Always create new layers w/ each new thing you do.
also when adding text it looks really nice to use the "fx options"; color gradients, outter/inner glows, drop shadows etc. just go to your text layer and click "fx" you will see all those options just experiment w/ them and they really make the text look wayy better than just a plain color.

 

[A r i a n e]

everything Allainah said is good advice. for animation I recomend looking up simple tutorials, once you get the basics down it only gets easier, though seeing your current signature you seem to have that part down

I can also recomend not changing the size of the pixel sprites so the quality stays good. same for backgrounds, if they're pixels they often lose in quality when you change the sizes

the effects Allainah mentioned "(fx options)" also work on backgrounds and any shape you add!

also add things on new layers so you can change anything at any time

experiment! try new effects, shapes, texts, images, don't hesitate to look up basic photoshop tutorials as they use basically the same techniques for everything and can be applied to signatures

I think that's pretty much it for the basics have fun!

 

[ali.di.magix]

If I can say one thing: Photoshop isn't the easiest thing to learn, it takes a lot of time and practice to perfect! You probably look around here seeing all these people making amazing stuff, but a lot of these people have been using Photoshop for years perfecting their skills (myself included ^^).

Once again, everything that Ariane and Allainah said pretty much sums up making AC signatures!

When searching for tutorials, you kinda have to know what you're looking for. Don't be afraid to google the basics! I'm pretty sure we've all done it Just google whatever you need, like "how to rotate things in PS" or "how to use text in PS". Google has almost all the answers you need, and if you need extra help for specific things joining some of the forums out there and asking will hep you!

Searching for resources is probably one of the most time consuming things about making signatures. Deviantart is a great place to look - you can find colouring/filter PSD files on there, background textures, custom shapes etc. Otherwise just googling what you're after will work ~

Random other tips I can think of:

• If you're making smething that's not animated, always save it as a PNG file! PNG files don't compress the image so it makes the quality of your image better!
• Also if you have transparent images, use PNG to conserve transparency!
• dafont.com has some amazing fonts <3
• If you're making something animated, then File>Save for web & devices is how you save it as a gif!
• When making something animated you need the gif background saved & then open it in PS, you can't directly paste it in PS. Also have the Animation window open! (View>Animation)

I hope this helps! Have fun experimenting and trying new things ~ Good luck with your art!
Feel free to PM me and I can try to help with anything

 

[trinity.]

Wow, I just read all of these and they were all so incredibly helpful! Thank you all so much! <3 I hope to be up and making signatures soon!