Gradient Bar Rainbow Sig

[elizapandagirl]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

 

 

Plugins Needed:

Gradient Bars

Step 1. New Canvas (720x240)

Step 2. Render Gradient Bars (Effects>Render>Gradient Bars) at the settings below. Make sure your primary color is white and your secondary color is black.

Step 3. New Layer. Set blend mode to overlay.

Step 4. This is the fun part! You color with the paintbrush all over Layer 2. I used a paintbrush tool at 150, but you can use anything around that size. It looks best to use a bunch of colors that are similar to each other (e.g. 0718FF, 78FFFF, and 78B2FF) This is a very creative step, though, so this is a part to experiment on.

Step 5. Your screen should look a little like this right now. You can use any colors you want.

Step 6. Switch back to the Gradient Bars layer and do the Glow effect on it (Effects>Photo> Glow). I would say at a radius of 6, Brightness and Contrast at 10. You can do whatever looks best to you.

Step 7. Add a new layer and text. Since you're making a signature, make it your screen name.

Step 8. Go back to Layer 2. Add noise (effects>noise>add noise) at the below settings.

And Wha-la! You're done. Critiques and comments appreciated!

Here are some others I've made.

These next few were made a little differently. You don't color the whole second layer, just the picture you want to show. You do everything else the same.

To be used on this forum you have to re size it to be under 500x150 and here's how to do that

 

1. First,you select all (Ctrl+A) and re size it to the size you want by using the little tabs in the corners. Check in the bottom left corner to make sure it is the right size.

2. Move the selection into the middle.

3. Re size the canvas. (Ctrl+R) and where it says length, put 500, and where it says width put 150.

Aaaaaaand you're really done!

[delpart]

Well to start with, Step Two is showing layer properties and not the settings for Gradient Bars ... Start by fixing that.

The coloring part needs to be explained more so that someone completely new to this can understand what they should see and why that works that way. For example that its the Paint Brush tool. What size brush since you've specified the starting size, etc.

Obviously since its a beginner, you may want to include further information and examples of dialogs to help here. For instance, in your examples, you are probably leaving out the fact that certain blend modes and other approaches potentially used (plus links to how to do that) will garner some of those results.

Not too bad for a starting point tut as it covers layer use and utilization of a rendering plugin. Main thing with beginner tutorials is to encourage use, just make sure you dont frustrate and leave the user having to guess too much. Plus the explanations, even if generalized are key to explaining why this is a tutorial in this area and not just an effect walk-thru.

Cheers.

**EDIT: Also, the size of the starting signature wont work here until resized, etc. You should probably caution of that or include a resizing step ...

Edited February 19, 2012 by delpart

[stewie1]

thanks so much i messed around and i got this.

[elizapandagirl]

Cool, this was my first tut so

[pdnnoob]

Well to start with, Step Two is showing layer properties and not the settings for Gradient Bars ... Start by fixing that.

...

**EDIT: Also, the size of the starting signature wont work here until resized, etc. You should probably caution of that or include a resizing step ...

Actually, I think the step 2 image is just broken. I checked out the link (I love how the images are named, btw) and it gave me an "insufficient privileges" error.

Sigs aren't necessarily required to be a maximum of 500x150 on other forums, so technically, these are still viable as sigs. like you said, though, a caution would be very helpful

Very nice tutorial. I love how open-ended you left it! I would, however, recommend saving the tutorial images as .jpeg images instead of gif. GIF images tend to be of poor quality and sometimes hard on the eyes All things considered, though, nicely written tutorial!

EDIT: looks pretty cool!

Edited February 26, 2012 by pdnnoob

[delpart]

The original image for step 2 was a duplicate. Now its just broken ...

On the resize suggestion, I'd just go 50 or 60% reduction, otherwise you are going to distort the image as the dimensions are not proportional ... Though I often find taking screen captures of the reduction to be cleaner than what the methods provided do to the image ... Just trivia there. It causes me a lot of heartache to find artifacts when the visual 50% and the image reduction 50% dont match. I've used Xor and other things to verify I'm not wishing it differently mind you.

Thanks for taking a couple of refinements on it. Hopefully that link for Step 2 can be replaced soon. Thankfully these can be edited and updated with whatever feedback comes your way. The filetype can vary but typically the jpg will be better quality and similar size reduction. Though in some cases a PNG is actually capable of being smaller. Depends on final use as well of course. Some places only accept certain filetypes and all that.

[jesusboy58]

hello eliza,

this is my result:

its a sig for a gaming website henceforth the two usernames that don't match mine on here:P also used the tut: beginner image merging(image heavy) or whatever it is called. i would love some feedback from anyone

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Added PDF link

[Seerose]

 @elizapandagirl! Thank you so much!  

 

*The pictures are in my gallery!