Guide How To Signature 101

Warning: This is how I make signatures and is far from the best method. This wont be the most fleshed out guide, but it will at least be of some use to those who wish to make sigs for themselves.

This is a picture heavy guide so be warned.

Before We Start: The Resources
I use paint.net to create my signatures, you can get it here.

• I also download extensions to the program called Plugins. I use the Outline Tool from Pyrochild's Plugins and moc426's Align Plugin
  • A guide to install plugins can be found here

Gathering the Components
To start off a sig, I'm going to use others artwork to create this sig. This sig will be to honor my Waifu Kagerou from the recent Fire Emblem game, so we will be using her image as the icon and one of the Fire Emblem: If Wallpapers.



I may get another picture to overlay it, but for now this is what I want.
Starting the Sig
To start off I always open a template picture that has the dimensions I always use for the forums. I open that template and every component in Paint.net and the first thing I do is crop the background to fit the signature dimensions (1572x218).
Important Note: Paint.net has layers, which determine what goes in the front and what goes in the back. Using any effect or adjustments will only affect the layer selected. I usually have 1 layer per component. the background gets its own layer, Kagerou will get her own layer, and the text will get their own layer.

Getting The Icon
Usually, when I use an icon they have their own background. I have to take that background out and single out the image. Things I use to do this are:

• Magic Wand, this easily gets the majority of the background. This leaves some of the image still on the character, so I use the next few tools to clean up the image as much as possible
• The Eraser Tool
• The Alpha Blur, blurs out the outline of an object. [Effects>Blurs>Alpha Blur]
• Feather Tool, smooths the outline a bit, it's good to do this when the grain is bumpy, use this then use the Alpha Blur to get rid of the extra grain.

Once you do this, I create a black background layer to double check that it is as smooth and clean as possible.

Combining the Icon and Background
Now that the icon is done, it's as simple as putting the Icon onto another layer of the sig. After that I apply a Gaussian Blur [Effects>Blurs>Gaussian Blur]. I do this because the background is not the main focus. The Icon and Text are the main eye catchers while the background is meant to add to it, not steal the spotlight.

After blurring the background, I outline Kagerou to add more depth. I use the Outline Object Tool (The one with the Kanji, not the donut) [Effects>Object>Outline Object]

• For a standard Outline, I set the Softness at 200
• For a shadow to add depth, I max the softness at 255 for subtle depth and 254 for intense depth.

For Kagerou, I used 2 standard outlines to complement the Black and White theme as well as a depth outline to make her stand out from the background more.

The Text
The Final Part of this signature is the Text. This will be the Layer that stands out on top. It's all about the Font in this case, usually I put the Main Text and the Subtitle Text as a much smaller text bellow it. I prefer just having my name on the signature since I believe too much text defeats the artistic purposes of a Sig.

For Text, I treat it similarly like an Icon by using outlines to make it pop out much more. This time, I'm working on being simple with the text to keep it subtle. I forgot to screenshot the early stages of the font, but I did use the Align feature [Effects>Align Object] that I recommended to download to make sure the text is centered correctly. If there was no Icon I would simple center it completely, but because of Kagerou I only centered it vertically.

After working on the text a bit, I did a few more edits that dont really need to be elaborated to make the signature look a bit nicer. This is the finished Product:


I save the Image as a .pdn to preserve the layers if I want to fix something later, as well as a png to use it as my sig.

This may not be the best Guide, so if you need help just ask.

 

Copperplate Gothic Bold
Dimitri
Ethnocentric Rg
Xirod
SAO
Nevis