Hey, guys!
I got a request today from a sig-maker that would like to me to show you how to make the World Cup sigs that are currently floating around the boards. Believe it or not, they are ridiculously simple to create and nothing I do is extremely complicated. However, in the interest of making the section a little better and the techniques a little more accessible, I will do a tutorial. However, I decided to post it here instead of the actual tips and tricks thread because it’s not worth it. So yeah, let’s get on with it…
Start off with a 396 x 196 whit canvas and find a render that you want to use. For this one, I will be doing a Germany signature and thus will need a German player and the German flag. I will be using these images:
http://psd-dreams.de/render.php?image_id=28006
http://www.balloons.co.uk/shop/images/german_flag.jpg
So, import your flag into Photoshop and rotate it a little to give it a bit more dynamicity. I’ll be rotating it to the right and after you have done that, you should get something like this:
Next, import your render and centre it. Once you have done that, you should end up with something like this:
Now, we are going to add some layer adjustments. Got to “New Adjustment Layer” and then “Gradient Map”. Choose a black to white gradient and then hit OK. Set that layer to “Luminosity” and reduce the opacity as necessary. Repeat that step and pick the purple to orange. By the by, I left the first gradient map at 75% opacity and the second at 50%.
After that you should have something that looks like this:
Now, duplicate the render and hit control + u to bring up the saturation panel. Reduce the saturation on the uppermost render and set that to overlay before reducing the opacity as necessary… Thanks Doc.
After that, take a new layer on top of everything else and choose the rectangular marquee tool and darw a little rectangle near the bottom of the signature. Fill it will the colour black and go to the layer blending options and choose a white stroke of 2 pixels and set it to “Hue”. You should have something like this:
I’d like the marquee up a little higher so I will be doing that before picking some nice text and adding the text. Add a stroke and a drop shadow to each of them and once you have done that, you should have something like this:
Save all of that as a PNG and then open the PNG file. Burn and dodge some of the bits around the edges, add a border or two and you should end up with a finished product of this:
Word to the wise... I didn't do this tutorial so that y'all could steal my thunder, so to speak.
