How To Make A Sig Using GIMP (Guide)

The-Dwarf

Guest
In this guide I'm going to teach you how to make a sig using GIMP.

GIMP is free and you can download it here




I'm going to start off simple.




SIG 1. - The starter


Step 1. - Picking the size of the sig Go to file -> New... -> and choose Width 550 px and Height 80 px


Step 2. Picking a background color The background may be white, if not then use the bucket fill tool and make it white.


Step 3. - Picking a picture To input a picture you'll have to save it to your pictures. Then you drag the picture from'Pictures' into the sig. If you got some background to get rid of you can use the magic wand. To take away alot of the background on the same time hold in 'SHIFT' while pressing the spots you want to go away. If you want to move the picture use the move tool (4 arrows)
I'm using
2czbrk8.jpg


and
1zxt6p3.jpg



Step 4. - Writing the text To type a text you'll have to use the text tool. I was making this sig for 'sugarwater' so I'm typing her name on it. I'm using the 'Jokerman' font. I did pick blue colors and size 40. Now it should be like this:
13yqywk.png


Then below I typed: 'Makes Everything Sweeter' (using the Jokerman font, size 20). Now it should be like this:
2iawf28.png



Now it should be useable.






SIG 2. - More Background - You all know step one so staright to step 2.


Step 2. - Making a background In my sig I did it a bit harder. You need a black background. Then you use the paintbrush tool -> pick the confetti brush -> pick white color -> opacity: 75 -> Now use the brush and make most of the background gray.
Now it looks like this:
ie1afd.png



Step 3. - Picking colors In my sig I did use red so I'm showing you how to make red. Go to colors -> Colorize... -> First set 'Saturation:' to 100, then if your going with red you need to set 'Hue:' to 360. Now I did use a dark red color so I go below 0 in 'Brightness'
Now it should look like this:
nqs39y.png



Step 4. - Putting in the picture Now you all did this before but I'm saying it anyways. Save the picture you want to use to 'Pictures', Now drag the picture from 'Pictures' into the sig. To take away the background you can use the magic wand. To move the picture you'll have to use the 'Move Tool' (you can't use it if the mouse is also. Only the 4 arrows are aloved to be seen if you want to move it). If the picture is to big you can scale it by going to 'Layer' -> 'Scale Layer'. If you have a ghost or something you can adjust the opacity in the 'Layers' window.
Now it should look like this:
14tqwlf.png




Step 5. - Adding the text Now as I wanted a text that was cool and could be seen well I did pick the 'Milano Let Ultra-Light'. So it could be seen better I did pick the white color. To make the letters going from top left to bottom right use the 'Rotate Tool'.
Now it should look like this:
2j5yidw.png




NOTE:
I suggest that you will not write tribe names or worlds as people change tribes and join/leave worlds.
To post a sig here on the forum you'll have to upload it on the internet using sites like Tinypic



Please show us some of your work and don't be afraid of pointing something out in my guide. My first one so...



Enjoy

The-Dwarf
 
Last edited:

DeletedUser

Guest
Erm, did you just tell people how to merge pictures together and write text?
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Well good work friend but this guide is soo old :icon_confused:
show us something new
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Your sigs are so...poorly done. They look like they took 3 minutes, tops.

I started the SAME time as you, using that same ripped off guide. Yet, I began coming along.

I admit, I am no master, but hell, I am no longer using one simple stroke background, and pasting a render, I think I deserve some credit. Want an example? Look below.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
I also use GIMP... I think my siggy is a bit better than yours The-Dwarf
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Let's give this a go, shall we?

Making DC's Signature

Step One
This is pretty simple, but it's probably the most important part. It's time for us to Open the program. But uh-oh, we get this screen!
TutStep_001.png

That wont do, so we have to change a couple things. Namely we click on the time and roll the clocks back around about 400 days.
TutStep_002.png

Now that we're back from the future, we can open the trial of the program we just downloaded to test, only 40 days ago, right? Right? Don't worry, if anyone doesn't agree with you that's what the taser's for later on.​

Step Two
Time to open up a copy of our Deluxe DC Logo VIP Edition, with the transparent background. I call this "DC_Logo_9038586" simply because "DC_Logo" was taken, and they were the first 7 numbers I bashed in the keyboard. I was actually quite surprised that I didn't hit any letters, but I suppose my fingers were in places they shouldn't be, as per usual. We also want to create a new canvas of 700px by 70px as these are the forum rules' limits.
TutStep_003.png

Anywho, once you've opened your images, it's time to open a Google search because we forgot yet again to save the Guy Fawkes mask, but it's easily found by typing in "Guy Fawkes Mask" and clicking on Images. This is explained in the image below.
TutStep_004.png

Step Three
It's time to set up the masks. This involves some resizing, brightness/contrast altering and drop shadow-ing. Various things may differ depending on what you want to achieve, namely the size of the horizontal/vertical aspects on the drop shadow and what kind of shadow you want or otherwise crave for in an image. Hang on, a couple of people are talking to me in skype, but we'll get back to the physical aspects of this project in a minute. Darned Skype. Solution as seen here...
TutStep_005.png

And so we're ready to resize, we want it so that the largest dimension of the mask is equal to avatar size, which is 80x80, and since the height of this image is greater than the width, we'll resize the image based on the height to be 80, which leaves the width around about 67. Of course, this is after we make sure that all required areas on the image are transparent, this includes the background, the eyes, the nose and the mouth.
TutStep_006.png

Step Three Point One Four
Alrighty, now we want to become familiar with a few short cuts.
  • Function 1: [Shift] + = Resize
    [*]Function 2: [Ctrl] + [N] = New Canvas
    [*]Function 3: [Delete] = Deletes The Canvas
    [*]Function 4: [Shift] + = The Brightness/Contract Modification
    [*]Function 5: [Ctrl] + [C] = Copy
    [*]Function 6: [Ctrl] + [V] = Paste
    [*]Function 7: [Ctrl] + [E] = Paste Into
    [*]Function 8: [Ctrl] + [Z] = Undo Previous Action
    [*]Function 9: [Ctrl] + [M] = Switches The Image's Direction
    [*]Function 10: Menu: Image -> Effects -> Drop Shadow = Adds a Drop Shadow

Call them FX for short, X being the number of the function. Now let's give a code, starting with focus on the Guy Fawkes Mask now resized and transparent.

[Click:x] Indicates a click on the canvas to combine the layers, or in other words, deselect anything selected. X being the picture in which to click.
[Enter] being a press of the enter button.

Specifics for F2:
Width: 500
Height: 500
Resolution: 72
Background Color: Transparent
Image Type: 16.7 Million Colors (24 Bit)​
Specifics for F4:
Brightness: -16%
Contrast: -40%​
Specifics for F10:
Color: Black
Opacity: 80
Blur: 5.7
Vertical: 8​
Commands: F5, F2, F7, [Click], F4, [Enter], F5, F6, F9, [Click:500x500 Canvas], F8, F10, F5, F6, [Click:Darkened Mask], F5, [Click:500x500 Canvas], F3, F7, [Click], [Click:Drop Shadow Mask], F5, [Click:500x500 Canvas], F7, [Click], [Click], F5, F6.

And if you did it right, you'll have this! :icon_smile:
TutStep_007.png


Don't you just love this tutorial? ​


Step Four
Hang on, I did it backwards. If you follow the guide to this point - Opps! The commands are actually something more like this...

Commands: F5, F2, F7, [Click], F4, [Enter], F5, F6, [Click:500x500 Canvas], F9, F8, F10, F5, F6, [Click:Darkened Mask], F5, [Click:500x500 Canvas], F3, F7, [Click], [Click:Drop Shadow Mask], F5, [Click:500x500 Canvas], F7, [Click], [Click], F5, F6.

But I figured, if there's a mistake in here, then that's the worst that can happen, right?

That's step four, backwards Aussie logic is essential. Rightio, now we want our two "magic" colours. One of them is the post background, or otherwise known as "#F8F4E8" and the other is the member bar to the side
<------- There
Or otherwise known as "#EFE6C9". These are some of our best buddies, as is our good friend "Arithmetic". When this baby is set to Average, it can do some killer stuff. Right about now, you'll want to colour your original canvas of 700x70 in the pretty colour of #F8F4E8. Then, we want to function 5 and 6 this, and function 5 and 7 the DC logo onto the new copy we suddenly have. Using Arithmetic between the two images, with all colors ticked, function set to average, and the modifiers set to 1 (divisor) and 0 (bias) we can OK that and we'll get what we want to call our signature base, with a "faded" DC logo on it.

And now it's time to get attuned with "Linear Gradient". This is another one of our best buddies.

So, Function 2 yourself a 100x300 canvas and set up colour 1 as #F8F4E8, and colour two as #EFE6C9. Let that Linear Gradient do it's stuff, and rotate the image to the left 10-30 degrees depending on preference. We want to Function 5 and 7 that onto our signature base. Making sure there's no missing bits and so it looks as though it's fading on a bit of a curve to it, we then want to fill the side that it fades darker, in the magic colour of #EFE6C9 so that it gives a legitimate effect of fading.

If you've done it right, you're looking at something like this:
TutStep_008.png


And if you've done it wrong... well... time for a break I think, you're doing it wrong.​

Step Five
Add the masks to the picture and it starts to take a bit of shape. Now all that's left to do is add the text and perhaps a border around the faded side of the image, making sure that one line starts before the other to make sure the slant of the fading isn't ignored by perfectly parallel lines.

If you've done it right, it should look something like this:
TutStep_009.png


Though, my guide's like a cooking recipe, and chances are if you're suppoed to be making blue berry muffins, you've just made green tasting, yes that's right - tasting, blobs.​

And there you have it, a tutorial on how to make a signature like mine, with only 9 images and 5 steps. This will hopefully be my fifty seventh book now, I wonder how my sales are doing.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Dark Chaos said:
Step Three
It's time to set up the masks. This involves some resizing, brightness/contrast altering and drop shadow-ing. Various things may differ depending on what you want to achieve, namely the size of the horizontal/vertical aspects on the drop shadow and what kind of shadow you want or otherwise crave for in an image. Hang on, a couple of people are talking to me in skype, but we'll get back to the physical aspects of this project in a minute. Darned Skype. Solution as seen here...​
Click to expand...


Ya I see what you did there o_O

I haven't put any effort into my sigs for... a couple months at least... as seen below :icon_eek:​
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Ah nice work DC. I don't think I will actually waste time on making a sig though. still this seems very likely to be of some use to people.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
ive always wondered if STOMP. was another famous player doubt it though. on topic good work DC
 

Kepica

Guest
Well am using gimp and its pretty nice to use you should need to play around with and get the heng of things...
 

The-Dwarf

Guest
Kepica said:
Well am using gimp and its pretty nice to use you should need to play around with and get the heng of things...
Click to expand...

That's kinda my point. I'm not really teaching you to make some great sigs like TTC does. I'm just teaching you to put in pictures, take away the backgrounds, move them around, etc.
 

Kepica

Guest
Practice makes perfect so if you dont try how will you learn, and thanks for the guide dwarf it helps out with the fundamentals and help you with moving around the program...
 
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