All You Need To Know : Sig making for dummies

[Kanozaki]

The Question
Have you even been interested in making your own forum signatures?

I have been noticing the amount of hidden potential STS forums has in regards to sig making. I have asked many of the sig makers on the forums to share any tips they may have for you all. Like any form of art their is many many styles, each having their own personal touch to them.

Before you start venturing off into your kingdom , you will need :

One of the following
- Photoshop ( recommended )
- Gimp
- Paint ( if you are daring enough :P)

and most importantly a sense of creativity , think of making a signature as expressing your self as expressing your self.( Try and think out side the box )


Personal Background
Let me introduce my self , many of you know me as kano and i have been playing STS games for little over a year. I first started to make forum sigs a few years ago due to constant urging by my friends.( actually it was because i was too stubborn to ask people to make sigs for me , shhh :P). I still dont consider my self good , so much to learn . In my opinion the worst thing that can happen is sticking to a certain safe zone and not venture out and try different things. Believe me when i first started out my sigs were just terrible ( no joke ) but i still took pride in them , as should you.

The Guide
Lets begin you may call me Kano sensei.

Step One
The first lesson that you need to master is knowing is your style, mine is Cinematic. As in mine is more sort of story telling. The only way to figure out your style is to experiment and chose something you really enjoy making. Once you figure this out , you may move to Step two.


Step Two ( Your weapon of choice )

You should have already chosen your weapon of choice ( Photoshop , Gimp , Paint , ect ). If you do not have previous knowledge , i would suggest looking up some tutorials for the basics.
examples :
*Note this is for photoshop.

Smudging
Layer Styles
Clipping masks
Brushing
Adjustment Layers.
C4D
Blending modes.

Plenty of tutorials out there.
Once you have step two down , move on to step three.

Step Three

Introduction
Huzzah ! The fun part begins.
The very first thing you need before you start venting out your emotions is a render. A render is an image which you want your SIG to be based on. Your toon (SL/PL/DL ) for example can be your render.

** Keep in mind**
1) You dont need to have your entire render to fit into your SIG. Only chose an interesting portion of it.
2) Try not to over crowd your SIG.Think of your render as a Thesis statement , you want to enhance and enforce the idea behind it , NOT confuse the viewer and stray away from the point.Keep it simple ( Some of the most simple SIGs can turn out to be amazing ).

Examples:




Note that the focal point is clear and not crowded around. Stay on point.

Great! you should by this point have a solid foundation. Time to roll with the big boys.
Once you get better start playing around with Brushing and C4D to make your sigs pop.

**Keep in mind**
similarly to the saying " too many cooks spoil the broth", too much spoils the sig.

1) Try not to put too much in , set a max ( i use 3 C4D at the most for any sig ). C4D tend to be very big , use different portions of it.
2) If your playing with brushes , try playing around with blending modes and opacity.

examples:

An example of brushing.


an example of C4D.

Borders and text ( makes or breaks a SIG)

Text : If your starting out keep your text simple ( Verdana , Arial ). Its better to go simple than chose a text style which does not flow and ruin the sig completely.

Borders( optional ): I prefer using borders on my SIGs but if you are unsure go without.

Other examples:

Keep experimenting , we all have a creative side to us.
Thanks for reading this ginormous wall of text.
Kano.

Mitchturbo

Good Job Bro :-)

As has been said everyone has a Style and a program,they specialize in.
I find mine always range in a few different areas... Sticker style to Hand drawn comic style to Artistic brush style to Absolute mess.
We also find that we become our toughest critics and need to learn when to stop on a certain signature.

Here are some examples of my ranges:,

Sticker style:





Hand drawn comic style:




Artistsic brush style:




(both of the above)


Absolute mess: (where signatures go wrong. But strangely like em)




I find there is a very fine line between beauty and ugly, and its realizing those that make you a better Sig artist.
For personal or commercial.

My advice for you all, if you enjoy making them stick with it, the more you practice the better you become.
I've been doing signatures ever since Xmas 2012 so im no expert yet I developed a huge fan base in a very short time,
When i thought I was at the top of my game, i faced a lot of tough criticism too, its using that to your advantage that pushed me to better myself, My artistic Brush style is what became of that and I must say is my new fave style to use. It is Mitch at his best I would say.
Although I personally have stopped commercial sales of my signatures now to encourage myself to play Star Legends more,
I feel now is the time for everyone else to step up to The challenge of signature making and proove to themselves that anyone can do it!

You can do it!
If I did it lol I know you can too!

For those that are interested, there is a new signature maker on the scene and I'm proud to say it's Killaings!
She has kind of made herself my prodigy, My finest pupil lol, The Karate Kid of the signature world.
Her work as she says is inspired by mine and yet, wow her work is growing stronger and stronger and I can quite easily see her as being top of the game pretty soon. Good luck to her :-)

Ofcause lol its good to have a laugh, but I hope I've given you all inspiration to start out on your own.
If a noob like me can do it, you can too!
Peace and care- Mitchturbo.

P.s Thanks for making the thread Kanozaki :-)

Other SIG makers on forum:

Mitchturbo
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...o-s-Signatures

Rittik
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...Signature-shop

Artstar
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...hop#post639358

Dugantale
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...sig-shop-again!

This Post is still under construction. Feel free to add tips or share some of your work as you can never be short on knowledge.

Have Fun !