Silkroad Online Forums

first couple of things that came to mind. these are a
few simple tools that can give a great finish to your sigs.

i'm not the pro here, i just wrote down some of the tools i normally
use when making a sig. if anybody wants to fill me in on this one, and
have us make a big guide of handy sig-making photoshop tools, let me
know and we can write up a nice guide with nice layout n stuff ;]

Gaussian blur
Something lot of people use to blur the background a bit. select the
background around your render, like, select a bit of the render as
well to make it blend in nicely, then blur it with the option shown
in the screenshot below.



Apply image
Something i use a LOT. make a new layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N) on top of your
other loose layers. do as the screenshot below, apply image. now you
will have all your layers on one layer, and you still have your layers
seperated on other layers. great tool.



C4D renders
Used for effects around the focal, mostly. bringing a bit of action to
your sig. you find em at http://planetrenders.net/renders/thumbnails.php?album=1.
Example of a c4d render:



Layer modes
Play around with these. I mostly use Multiply (basically makes dark spots
darker), Overlay and Soft Light (those make light spots lighter, the first
one does it hard, the 2nd one does it soft). Play around with these, like
do the apply image trick first, then put that layer on soft light, then
play with opacity. most of the times this brings up the contrast giving the
sig more depth at the same time.



Gradient maps
Follow the screenshot. Mostly i use foreground color to transparent. put a
gradient map on a new layer (it automatically puts it on a new layer), then
put that layer on layer mode "Screen" or something, just try some modes out.
Usually gives it a nice finishing look.

You have explained most of the basics so nice work.

isnt this like rizla's?

viewtopic.php?t=45409

lol i guess it is. won't happen again.

anyway, imo this is easier to read. i never clicked any links to
other sites for these tutorials, i normally asked here what the
tool does. i like to read in srf format i guess..

but whatever, Rizla's is probably better.

o lol. yours are really easy to read tho, rizla's at least some common sense understanding with some knowledge about photoshop i think.

looks nice Cin (Y)

Thnx for the tut, cin. It looks awesome. :]

Added you to the stickies <3 Wasn't quite sure on a title, so just titled it basics2. If you want to change that feel free.

....

I'm doing Sae's sig tut but I have no idea what C4D is...

I fail, I know... but

explain how to find c4d and stuff, cuz now I'm stuck..

iam having a bit of a troube, i need a c4d rendered, but everyone has a blackground, how do i get rid of that, magi wand tool dont work ;(

try putting the c4d layer on a different layer mode, like
lighten, dodge color, etc. and just go to deviantart and
download a couple of c4d packs. most of em have no bg.

try changing the tolerance? :O

i always put it on exculstion but it add a darker color to the sig >.<

Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge and Lighter Colors always removes the black BG and only keeps the colorful effects.
PR also has rendered C4Ds but they are 3D and the two work completely differently.

plus there's only a limited amount on pr. i hate working with the
same ones over and over again

Thanks cin. The Renders are very helpful. I just downloaded Photoshop CS3 recently so I'm still swimming around the pond.