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What you will get from this tutorial:
- A sweet Signature.
- Some Interface Tips.
- Organizational Advice.
- Happiness =P
- Tutorial Difficulty: Easy
- Description:This tutorial shows you how to find excellent renders for your sig and
how to implement them with a "stretched" background to create the awesome effect seen here
Requirements
- Photoshop
- A render.
- Literacy
- Music (Feels so right during art)
*Whenever you are given a list you only have to choose one because they all do the same thing*
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2) Just right click the full size image and then save it!
*might be different depending on your browser*
Remember where you saved it!
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 3) Now lets open up that picture in Photoshop and hope it is everything you need.
You can open it in a number of ways:
-right click the file>Open With
-open up Photoshop first and then pull down file>open
-dragging the picture onto the Photoshop program or onto a Photoshop shortcut
-right clicking the file and choosing open with>Photoshop
Make sure you meet the following for easy going Photoshopping:
-trasparent background (checkered background=transparent)
-picture of what you want (duh...)
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 4) If your Photoshop doesn't have the same layout as mine go ahead and reset it by Pulling down Window>Workspace>Default Workspace
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 5) Make a new Photoshop Document by pulling down File>New...
Go ahead and make it any size you want. Although most forums will prefer a wide one because a vertical one wastes way too much screen estate. Mine is going to be a decent 420x160.
Make sure your background is transparent.
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6) Lets put our sig on our new document.
We can do this by:
-clicking and dragging the render onto the new one
-Select all of the render (ctrl+a) and paste (ctrl+v) on the new one
*That is Open-Apple+c and Open-Apple+v for you mac noobs*
You can close the original Render window now
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7) The render will usually be much bigger than your target document size.
To fix this you need to make your document window bigger. Do this by dragging the window to the upper left part of your Photoshop and then dragging the bottom right corner towards the bottom right.
*Alternatively just click the maximize button or double click the title bar if you prefer that*
Now magnify the image to fit your new window:
click the magnifying glass and click on the document
click the magnifying glass and click the fit screen button in the dynamic toolbar
in the navigation pane drag the slider to the right
Now click on the layer that the render is on (probaly layer 2) to select it.
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To shrink the render to the size you want:
pull down Edit>Free Transform
pull down Edit>Transform>Scale
The dynamic toolbar will display transforming tools now.
To scale it:
hold shift and drag the corner of the render to scale it down
click the chain link on the toolbar between height and width and change the percent values
*The image will look like it has very poor quality while you are transforming it*
Now either hit enter to save it or click the check mark when it is the size you want.
Now choose the Move Tool:
Press the Move Tool button on your toolbox
Move the render to the spot you want
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8) Now for the stretch background!
Copy your render layer:
select the render layer and pull down Layer>Duplicate Layer
select the render layer and select all (ctrl+a), copy (ctrl+c), and paste (ctrl+v)
drag the render layer onto the new layer button at the bottom
*Depending on the method you chose your layer might be positioned in the center, but that does not matter*
 Grab the Single Column Marquee Tool by clicking and holding the Rectangular Marquee Tool and then choosing Single Column Marquee Tool
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Now drag the stretched layer below the render layers you made.
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9) Now with the top render layer you can do whatever blending you want. I Gaussian blurred mine and then did a darken blending effect, but you can be your own artist here. Just get it to how you want it.
*Almost unnoticeable difference*
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10) Now we'll use some brushes to stylize it a bit. I'm going to look for a cute brush like a flower or something on one of the sites listed above.
Once you get one load up the brush in Photoshop.
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Now make 2 new layers to brush on. One layer only brush on black and the other only brush on black.
*You can make as many layers as you want to do this because it can add much need depth*
I added 4 layers with 2 black and 2 white.
Now rearrange these layers in any order as long as they are above the stretch layer. Then change the black to overlay and the White to Soft Light.
*You can experiment with these blending options endlessly almost*
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11) Now lets get a border
Create a new layer on the very top, Select all, pull down Edit>Stroke
Now you can choose your border color and width
*Generally try a black or white border and sometimes a 1 pixel border is good*
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12) Another use of the Single Column Marquee Tool is for the background.
Create a new layer. Then select a vertical or horizontal line and fill it with black and white and then give it a blending option.
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13) If you think you need even more in the background try copying your render and then giving it a transparent and/or blurred look.
*I did some blending and layer masking on mine*
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14) Now slap on your text and call it a day =P
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Now select a single column through your render that doesn't have any transparent areas in the vertical line selected.
