Nice sig in Elements Tut....

I am thinking a lot of people on here use Photoshop Elements, so I will
make a megatut on basics,lighting,effects...overall how to make a good
sig.

I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0, but you can do the same thing on
previous versions.

Making a sig with good lighting,blending,focal point preview and overall
composition.

[Tutorial Start]

1. Make a blank file, I made it 400x120, but resize your's accordingly...




2. Insert your render (Image without the extra stuff around) you can get them
from animerenders and planetrenders....you want a render with flow (direction of movement,
or something performing an action). I used Assassins Creed as you can see.
Note* some renders have little watermarks, erase with the eraser tool. Now place the render in
your desired position.



3.Grab a C4D, also on planetrenders. Fit it under your render layer, make sure the
C4d flows in the same direction as the render *very important). Erase parts you don't like
from the C4D. I erased parts around my render to make the render stick out more.



4.Now towards the front of the render I wanted it to be lighter. I took a 100px soft brush,
white and dabbed the front a bit, I the lowered the opacity to 34%.



5.I now blurred his left shoulder and back hand for a sense of motion blur and to
blend it with the c4d. I smudged it at a low hardness.



6.I now clicked on the render's layer and went to->filter->Paint daubs and set
brush size to 1 and sharpness to 5. This is called focal point enhancement...the
focal point now jumps out at you.



7.Time for finishing touches...I made a rectangle with the rectangle tool..rotated
and duplicated 3 times...I merged them by holding shift on the three shapes then
hit ctrl+e. I then lowered the opacity of the merged layers to 40%.



8. I added my text and rotated the text, make it a good font that doesn't jump out
and scream "I'm a newb!"...preferbly smooth not hard-edged for this piece.



9.Time for final adjustment layers...a vital part. It is best to just play around
with them but activate by going to layers->adjustment layers. I added a curves and
dragged the middle arrow to the right a bit, then a contrast/brightness and I
lowered the brightness. Then a photo filter, finally another photo filter.



10.I added a border, and I'm done...I hurried but honestly it's hard to make a
masterpiece in PS elements...so this isn't a masterpiece. I decided to remove the
text.





I hope you learned something...this was made in elements..not PS CS versions!

Finished High Quality:



Notes: Adjustment layers are freakin' important!!!