Signatures are little graphics which can go at the end of your e-mails, after
posts to online forums, commenting systems, etc. They are as individual as your
genetic structure and often go alongside avatars as ways to express your
identity online. There are, of course, thousands of different techniques
used to make signatures - here's a few of my favourites:
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Step 1: Create a new 500px by 100px document with a transparent
background, and reset your background & foreground colours to default (i.e.
black & white).
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Step 2: Pick the gradient tool, set it to the angle gradient
(third gradient type) and mode to difference. Now go wild with your gradient tool, drawing as many
lines as you like. You will notice that adding gradients makes the image
alternate between light and dark colours - stop when it looks good to you on
a DARK colour. You should end up with something that resembles my image
below
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Step 3: Run Filter > Stylize > Find Edges, with the
default settings.
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Step 4: Almost done! Now select Filter > Stylize >
Glowing Edges from the main menu and tweak the colour to your own
personal taste using Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation with the
colorize box checked.
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Step 5: And that's it! Just add a simple border and a
little text and you're finished!
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Step 1: Create a new 500px by 100px document, and add a background of
your choice. Good 3D renders and/or abstracts are best.
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Step 2: When everything is in place, hit the 'd' key to select default
colours, then the 'x' key to invert those colours. With your
background layer active, use the Polygon-Lasso Tool to create a random
shaped selection inside your image borders. Keep in mind that you will have to invert this selection to create a border for your sig.
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Step 3: When your path is complete, invert the selection with Select > Inverse or
Ctrl+Shift+I on your keyboard. Create a new layer on top of all the
others, make it active, and Edit > Fill the selection with black. You
should have something like this:
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Step 4: Using the rectangular marquee tool and the eraser tool (or
delete key), remove the big black area on the right.
Now duplicate the existing structure by selecting Layer > Duplicate Layer
from the main menu.
This should create a new layer with a copy of your border. Run Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal
then drag the duplicate layer to the right to complete your border.
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Step 5: Select the top-most layer containing the border and hit
CTRL+E on your keyboard to merge this layer down onto the one underneath it.
Do not go too far and merge onto the background layer though!
Once you have all the borders consolidated onto a single layer, go to Layer >
Layer Style and enter in these properties:
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Step 6: And that's it! I used the Polygon-Lasso Tool
to create more border type objects using the same steps as above. Then I
merge them onto the border layer and voila - a sig is born. A little text
and it's pretty simple..
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