Kage's Sweet Sig Tutorial

Ok well I was bored so I made a tutorial on my newest Itachi sig that I like very much. It's my first so be gentle [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

1. Alrighty so first start off with your background black and a nice beautiful render (sweet Itachi huh?) The render is the foreground of the sig. A foreground should always be in focus, never blurred, colorful, contrasted.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/1.jpg

2. Add some nice white abstracty brushing (I'll post the brushes I use at the end of the tutorial)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/2.jpg

3. So now we have the background and the foreground. Now we add the subforeground. The subforeground should be slightly blurred, but can still resemble a shape. It should be similar to the foreground, but slightly less saturated, a bit different in hue. In this case it really doesnt represent the foreground but whatever.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/3.jpg

4. Now go to the layers pallette and select the subforeground layer. Lower the opacity to around 30-40% to blur it and blend it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/4.jpg

5. Now go to the layers pallette again and click on this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/5.jpg

6. Go here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/6.jpg

7. Now we add the color with the color balance adjustment. When using color balance never put any number above 30 because the colors will be much too saturated and look like shat. After you edit one go to highlights then shadows. Try all different kinds of combinations. Some results wil turn out cool. And don't always set it to 30 try putting one color around 25 and another around 10. So many possibilities!!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/7.jpg

8. Here's what we get.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Lee89/1312.jpg

9. After we have added the color, click on your layers pallette and select the color balance adjustment layer. Then take a black brush and brush in a design or whatever. It will come out a grayish color but wait I'm not done....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/RockLee89/8.jpg

10. Now we hold ctrl and left click on the adjustment layer which will select everything. Then press ctrl+shift+i which will select your brushing. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...kLee89/534.jpg

Do steps 5, 6, and 7 again with a different color.

Here's the final product:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...chiSigBlue.jpg

Just add a border and some text and you got a kickass sig [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Brushes:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19807319/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19518668/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/15847830/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19912499/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19911889/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19912499/

So what'ya think?

I don't agree that the image should always be in the foreground (or at the top), in my experience you can get some awesome results by moving it around in the layer hierarchy and experiment with differents lights & blends. Anyway, not a bad tutorial, I am sure some people will find it useful. You've come a long way since your paint sigs... (it was you who did those right?)

I'm a fan of the main image always being on top. It makes the main focal point of the piece to stand out more.

If you want it to blend in more, you can just put a mask on top of it.

Then from there you can use different brushes to make parts of the render transparent.

EDIT: You can also just put an additional layer on top of the render and star doing some light brushing on that.

Nice tutorial Kage, but you should have explained how to get cool text. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

Quote:

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Originally posted by: Terracosmo
I don't agree that the image should always be in the foreground (or at the top), in my experience you can get some awesome results by moving it around in the layer hierarchy and experiment with differents lights & blends. Anyway, not a bad tutorial, I am sure some people will find it useful. You've come a long way since your paint sigs... (it was you who did those right?)

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If you mean the guy who did the Kakashi and Naruto with claws sigs, I think it was either Thi3f or Fox_Fire. I'll have to post a sig request about that..

Then again... if you're talking about the ones that were images cut out (with paint) and text added in....then those were my first sigs I posted. Hehe... I didn't have Photoshop and so that was the best I could do. Please forgive me... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Nah, it wasn't any of you. I'm quite certain of that. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Great tutorial Kage! The backgrounds you make are great but as for the render, I'm the same as everyone else. I like to mess around with the Render Layer rather than just putting it at the top. Take my Duel sig for example. I put the render with him in it and on top of his layer, I put the Color Balance layer and then on top of that, I began my brushing. Then I messed around with the Renders Blending mode. But good job on the tut man! I'll give it a try your way and see what I come up with. You've come a long way from what you call as the "good old days" [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img].

Quote:

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Originally posted by: _naruto_X
Nice tutorial Kage, but you should have explained how to get cool text.

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For the text, just type something, change the font to one that you like...set the text color to one that matches the scene (you can use the eyedropper to pick a color already in your sig for a quick swap that matches well)

Then, if you want an effect like kage's, go to blending options and add an outer stroke (personally i prefer inner stroke, since outer tends to leave aliased edges, but sometimes you dont have as much of a choice)

Thanks guys, and I know blended renders look good too but for this tutorial I wanted to show good color balance work.

Edit: yea that was me who made that pakkun sig in paint [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Nice tut. IMO, The main image can be in front, in the back or blended with the pic. Doesn't matter. Keep up the good work Kage.

did u do the pic of Itachi ? i mean only itachi not background

No.

What ps do u got ? i got Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9 =S

Yea thats no good. You need adobe photoshop cs or cs2

Where did u get that pic of Itachi??

I have no clue now, I found some naruto fanart site with a bunch of art done by one person

Kage how do you make things shiny like in your current sig? : )

I am all most done with a sig but i have some problems with brushes cant the background right =S

I use metal-cx's stuff. He's makes the greatest brushes.