Rabies Style Tutorial

[MartinBabies]

Since I've been asked to write a tutorial on how I to sigs/whatever in my style, I've finally decided to write one. The signature I'm making in this tutorial isn't suppost to look awesome, I'm just showing you how to do.

Ok, first of all, let's get all the preparations done!

Preparations

1) Go to Annika von Holdt's site and then go to Resources > Visit the muse and download some brushpacks from there. The more the better, these brushes are really great, so get a bunch of them.
You will also probably need some other grunge brushes. Try to find some cracks and dirty stuff. I'm sorry that I have no url. :/

2) Get a render! Should be some scary stuff, so no anime or photo models (except if you manipulate them to zombies, hehe). If you have a digital camera, a good idea would be to take a picture of yourself or a friend, making a scary face! And remember that if you want to include some of the body, take of your shirt, clothes doesn't look too good, just a tip. I will use a picture of myself that I have used before. Here is it:
http://img190.echo.cx/img190/6760/hehu3rd.jpg
Weird and scary, I know. :P

Let's move on to the next step!


Making the signature

1) Now open up a new document in Photoshop. I will use 360 x 90 - my favourite size for the moment. B)
Fill the background with black color.

2) Create a new layer. Grab some nice Annika von Holdt brushes and do some white brushing, like this:



3) Add your render! You will of course need to scale it down to make it fit. ;P
Press Ctrl+Shift+U to make it grayscale.



4) Hmm, the background of my render doesn't look that good, does it? Let's remove it. :P I usually just take the eraser and erase the unwanted stuff, like this:


Fast and easy.

5) And what is the rabies style without the great contrasts? Go to levels and add alot contrast. A tip is to use both levels and the contrast via Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and tweak some till you get something like this:



6) Let's get on with the rest of the brushing! Create a new layer (always create a new layer, it's easier to make changes then). Select black as foreground color and some new kewl brushes and brush around a little till you have something like this:



7) Now to the tricky part: we need some dirt and cracks and stuff. You should by now have some of that stuff in you brush collection, right?
Do some nice cracks, scratches and dirt. A good idea is to create a new layer for each kind of brush. My result:



8) Something that adds a great effect is the 1px white border:
New layer, then Ctrl+A to select everything. Choose the marquee tool (M) and right click anywhere on the image and select Stroke. Create a 1px black stroke around the image. Then go to the blending options for the stroke layer, add a white 1px stroke there, with an opacity of around 30%. You can also add shadow and stuff for an even better effect. Note that you will need quite alot shadow for it to show.
This is what I came up with:




Finishing touches

9) Now for some magic. B)
Save your signature as a JPG, then open it again. Now open the Levels or the Brightness/Contrast and tweak till you get something like this:



10) Let's add some text! My favourite fonts for this style is Aqualine, Monsterchild, Diediedie and Scriptina. I used Aqualine with white color for this one.
Open up the blending options for the text. Set the opacity to 30-40% and add some strong shading behind the text so that it can be seen. Now add some inner shadow with opacity around 40%. If it's needed, you can also put a black 1px stroke around the text, but that's not always needed.
My result:



Congratulations, you have now (probably) made a signature in the so called rabies style. I hope this tutorial helped, comments are appreciated!

[Morphius]

It looks very good and it isnt too hard to do . A great tutorial you have done there m8. B) .

[robgasm]

thats really good, its great tha you finally made one cuase it gets a bit annoying with new people how you make them on all your sig posts (that use rabies style)

[MartinBabies]

Thanks!

DB: Yeah, I know. I've gotten like tons of PM's from people asking me to write a tutorial on this site AND another forum. :P

EDIT: And if you want to see how the render looks on a better sig, click here: http://forums.gfxvoid.com/t-4835.htm

[rapidx]

Finally...! Master reveals his secrets.. :P
Man this looks amazing.. i will try it really soon...
thx for sharing.

[Illegalx17]

Great job!! Thank you so much for contributing to the community! This is a great tut! Man i love this. You have some great tips in there. I love it!

[KRAZEE]

Nice worrk man, always wanted one Rabies style

[Sanji]

Nice!
My result:

[Shigeko]

Wow , this one realy looks good , keep it up like that ^^

[MartinBabies]

Great job, Sanji! Looks good.
Please post your results!