My first signature.

[Panic]

Ok, so I've taken all the suggestions into mind, and with the blur for the background and the white text here is my product. Thanks guys for all the suggestions I honestly make these for fun because I dont really use them. I am a guy as i seen that someone said "he/she" so I wanted to clear that up. I would really like it if a couple people posted some ideas on what to make next, that would be awesome and when I'm done I will post them on here

Edited October 1, 2010 by Panic

[csm725]

An impressive sig for a newbie. The text would have been nicer in white though.

[Panic]

I tried the white, but for some reason I thought the white lines looked better than the white text. But atleast I thought of that though and tried it

[csm725]

Here's a tip: on the one with the white text, merge all of the background together (the red and the glowy lines) and run Gaussian Blur (Effects > Blur) at a radius of 5-15.

[Panic]

Just tried the Gaussian blur, and at any radius its too blurry to make out. Thanks for the suggestion though

[Heat Stroke]

I think what csm725 said would add more depth to your sig. the background being unfocused and the foreground (text) being sharp. this will also make your text easier to make out and distinguish from the background. great sig though! and i like the one with the white text.

[barbieq25]

Panic, welcome to the forum!

Here's my general tips:

1. No matter what size you want the image to be at the end, I always work on a canvas 4 times bigger than I want at the end. So if I want a sig 500 x 150 - I make it 2000 x 600.

2. Gaussian bluring will smooth the work if you use a low value say 1 or 2.

3. Put as much on a new layer as possible - that way if you make a mistake on one part you can correct it without having to start again afresh.

4. Save everything twice - once as a .PDN & again as a .PNG (.jpg lose too much)

With your sig, increasing the size by 400% will enable you to blur it as suggested by CSM.

With your text on a new layer, Drop Shadow (under Effects - Object), Offset X @ -5, Offset Y @ 5, Widening radius: 2 or 3, Blur radius: 0, Colour: black. Use Drop Shadow again Offset X @ 5, Offset Y @ 5, Widening radius: 0, Blur radius: 24, Colour: black. This should give it a bit more "pop".

I would avoid using a font that is very much like the background. Sniper Shot from Dafont.com is good I think.

I just re-read your comment to CSM about it being too hard to make out. Also I notice you saved it as a .jpg. Yes, that would look pretty blurry. What CSM meant was to have the text on a layer of its own, I think & just blur the background.

Anyways, there's some tips for you. For your first image, you have done very well. I love your sense of style & colour. It is very good & you should feel proud of it!

I look forward to seeing a lot more from you.

[chrisco97]

Great sig, but I would blur about 2px. I think that would help it. Welcome to the forums!

[csm725]

I don't if this user works with layers, I'm assuming he/she does because the text has a drop shadow. I think that it's a bad font choice and hard to distinguish between the fore- and background so I suggested to unfocus the BG by blurring it. I think a good font for this sig would have been like a spooky ghost font, which is available on Dafont.com.

[Panic]

Edited.

[csm725]

Nicer, but still I think too little. I would have used Gaussian @ 5.

[barbieq25]

There are a huge stack of tutorials here

The first thing I did was to try out almost every tute ever written. Some are easier to follow than others. Tutes are a great way of learning your way around the program. I printed most of them so I could follow them more easily, ticking off steps as I did them. If you could see my folder, you'd also see UNABLE TO COMPLETE for one reason or another. The most important thing is to make sure you have all of the plugins you need & put into the EFFECTS folder before you start the program.

Also many of the tutes tell you to flatten the image at the end - don't! See my earlier post. If you flatten you have no chance of going back to fix it. Also if you create a background or something that you really like (even by accident ) you can use it later on. There is no law that says you cannot recycle or reuse. So keep as much on a new layer as possible, save often & two copies .pdn & at the end - .png.