From Crap to OH SNAP!!! - a quick sig fix

[Virtue]

I enjoy nothing more than seeing people progress in their photoshop skills from brushing twice and adding text all the way to using their own pictures and experimenting with new techniques.

Here's a quick fix guide for beginner sigs:



A sig I made (Looks a lot like the ones I made when I started):



First, what's wrong? The background matches the render. The text is different and has a bunch of effects on it. There's a SWEET tech border I got off of a tut (Not really). It's not 1, not 2, not 3, but 9 layers!!!

Okay. Honestly, the sig is crap. Here's an improved version and a list of things to change:



1st. - Get rid of the totally brushed background! Paint a little, smudge a little, use adjustment levels, and have a difference between light and dark.

2nd - Text text text. RARELY use fonts other than those that come with Windows or that are clean and simple. I used Times New Roman, made it different sizes (which is attractive in most cases), moved it somewhere where it doesn't draw attention, and erased parts of it to make it blend in.

3rd - Blend in the render. There's lots of techniques of doing this, but I just erased and blurred around the edges then smudged those into the background.

4th - The stupid tech border needs to go. Usually a 1px black or white border works beautifully, as in this case. Tech borders go on tech sigs. Period.

Lastly - I messed with the render a bit to make it look a little better and a bit unique. I changed the clashing red mouth to a dark grey and I changed his eye to look a bit more sinister.


Use some of these tips and you can turn an ugly sig into one that's not all that bad. =D


-Virtue

[Shane]

Hmm only thing i have to say is it's very vague...
Maybe add more details about what exactly you did?

[Dark Method]

I think it's more intended to be a rough guide on how to re-vamp a sig more than a detailed tutorial myself.