How to make a signature....

[GFB]

Ok, so I've been biting my tongue about this for some time. It's been touched on a few times by a few members, but I thought it was finally time to address the problem...

I dislike the "team logo" signature. In fact, I pretty much despise it. I just don't see how a cookie-cutter template with your teams logo slapped over a two-color bar with some web 2.0 effects can be an accurate representation of all the unique individuals on this board. I've been to several other boards around the web (boards with much less talent to say the least) and they kick our butts at signatures. Here's a few examples:

So after pondering why this is, I came to the realization that the time had come to introduce this version of signatures to the CCSLC. Sounds good, right?

Just to show everyone here just how easy it is to create your own personal sig, I decided to make a very simple signature and the post the .psd file so every could download it and learn how to do it themselves!

So for this sig, I wanted to keep things very simple, but I didn't want it to look boring, so I limited myself to:

1 Texture

1 Logo

2 Pictures of the player

2 Free Fonts

Everything else is a combination of blurs and filters...

This was my final result! You can download it here. If you really want to learn how to make a sig like this, download the .psd. Once you open it, then I would turn all the layers 'invisible' and start from the background, and see how the layers work together from the ground up...

From here you can add quite a few finishing touches to give your sig a different feel. Here's some examples of what I did to my sig:

I know that with the kind of talent and creativity we have here, many of you should be able come up with some pretty amazing sigs.

So if you feel up to the challenge, try making your own! Even if you don't like these kind of sigs, these sigs are great ways to learn how to use photoshop properly...

[GFB]

Once you begin to master the personal signature, you can move onto more challenging tasks, like this:

Anyways, I'd love to hear your comments or see the sigs you create... you can even talk about my distain for the "template signature" if you want to...

~Matt

[chestnutz]

Nice Matt. As a member on other boards, sigs like these are definitely pretty big. Maybe because this is a team logo board instead of a player-follower board, which is why members want to show their allegiance to their teams.

I've done several of these types myself, though they're from last year, and nowhere near as good as yours.

[MiK]

Maybe because this is a team logo board instead of a player-follower board, which is why members want to show their allegiance to their teams.

Agreed. I'm on the contrary, I find it annoying when people idolize one player instead of the entire team.

sweet sigs none-the-less. but i like mine too...

[dmhtfld]

ive been making signatures for about 2 years now and its pretty great

i have also moved onto web design and wallpapers

its pretty fun once you get the hang of it

[GFB]

Nice Matt. As a member on other boards, sigs like these are definitely pretty big. Maybe because this is a team logo board instead of a player-follower board, which is why members want to show their allegiance to their teams.

I've done several of these types myself, though they're from last year, and nowhere near as good as yours.

Don't sell yourself short, Erik. Those are all pretty sweet... I do enjoy the light beams wrapping around the players... it's a nice touch.

While I do understand that it is a team based board, everyone still has their favorite players on their team... and I've also seen this same type of sig done with other subjects.: teams, celebrities, video game characters, etc... when it comes down to it, I wish we were all a little less cookie-cutter. We'd be a better board for it in the long-run...

[GFB]

ive been making signatures for about 2 years now and its pretty great

i have also moved onto web design and wallpapers

its pretty fun once you get the hang of it

oh, no doubt! that ovechkin one with the visor is pretty sick.

[rentz]

Where would one look to obtain high resolution pictures of athletes? Not so much for sigs, but I can't find much for making custom covers of games.

[maz]

I usually like sigs that involve one photo that are one edited photo, and it reflects in the ones I make. Same also goes for my wallpapers. Sometimes just a few tiny tweaks of color, contrast, and such are all you need. Sometimes I think sigs like you've shown are too much. I like simplicity.

Though I'll admit, light beams wrapping around players has always been a favorite effect of mine. I oughta find a tutorial on it.

Here are my best self-made sigs ive used here:

[chestnutz]

maz, it's pretty simple to get the light beams actually.

1. download a texture of light beams from deviantart

2. put them in a layer over your player in photoshop, and set it to color dodge

3. erase the parts on the texture where you want the player to be in front of.

voila!

[GFB]

I usually like sigs that involve one photo that are one edited photo, and it reflects in the ones I make. Same also goes for my wallpapers. Sometimes just a few tiny tweaks of color, contrast, and such are all you need. Sometimes I think sigs like you've shown are too much. I like simplicity.

Though I'll admit, light beams wrapping around players has always been a favorite effect of mine. I oughta find a tutorial on it.

Here are my best self-made sigs ive used here:

I like both clean and cluttered sigs. For me, it all depends on the image you are going to use. If you can find a great image that's interesting and dynamic, simpler is probably better. But if you can't find a great picture, then I prefer something a little more busy.

Here's my newest sig...

And I use Daylife.com for all my sports images... They have Getty Images (among others), no watermarks, and are usually between 480-800 pixels, which is plenty big enough for a signature...

[chestnutz]

Thanks for the tip on the site GFB, I'd always have to google search for some pictures.

[9erssteve]

Part of me finds it kinda ironic that there would be a tutorial for "unique" signatures but then again everyone has to start from somewhere and creating something unique when you dont know the basics is very difficult so I can appreciate where you're coming from. I'll be honest the whole grunge, spray paint thing has kinda become a bit long in the tooth for me but other if other people like it and want to give it a go good for them. Like I said everyones gotta start somewhere, and with that in mind here's a list of places to get hi-res player shots for those interested in giving these a go.

http://www.o2designz.com/cutgallery.php?cat=6

http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q239/Friartown/

http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o240/Blacksburg2010/

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn111/B...%20Orb%20Logos/

Props go to RALPH77GUT as he posted these on another board I use, (dunno if he's a member here? He might be we've bumped into one another on a few different boards now).

9erssteve

[fkaKrock5cent]

Here's my shot at a sig. It's not as elaborate as ones that you more experienced guys posted but I don't think it's too bad. My only issue is finding texture, I just used the rendering that came with paint.net. Any advice would be cool.

[maz]

Using some brushes I just downloaded, and some color-changing actions, here are two wallpapers I just made:

[rentz]

"Weathering the Strom"?

[Jamikel]

"Weathering the Strom"?

Did Eddie Royal grow up in South Carolina?

[Drew22]

Maz: 1st one good, second one not so much. You can't really tell what's going on. I do like how the other two players look though. Maybe take off all the shine on MAF?

[fkaKrock5cent]

"Weathering the Strom"?

Yeah, too corny... But other then that what did you think?

[Drew22]

Dude, you spelled storm wrong.