[Tutorial] Loki Signature

[† poetictragedy 415]

Tutorial: Loki Signature

This thread will outline the method I used to create the Loki signature I'm currently sporting. I'm using Photoshop CS5 on Windows 7. There are probably differences between versions of Photoshop and/or between operating systems. I just don't know what those might be.

General Setup: The process behind this signature was a little different that what I normally do. Usually, I find a render and make/find an appropriate background. When working with renders of real, live people, it's hard to make or find a background that matches well enough. For this signature, I took a screencap from an Avengers trailer and used that as my base. Here's the image, if anyone would like to follow along.

Step 1: Open your image. Crop the image to an appropriate signature size; my standard is 500px x 150px. Note: I always name my layers so I know what I'm working on. I strongly recommend this; it makes it easier to keep track of everything.

Step 2: Add a new Group . I make one group at the top of the layer stack, and put all of my Adjustment layers in it. This way I can easily turn it off and see what the original image looked like, and whether my adjustments made an improvement, or made it worse.

Step 3: Add Adjustment layers , starting with a Gradient Map. This gives the image the overall color scheme. The one I chose can be found by clicking the gradient drop down box, and there's a little arrow to the right of the drop down menu (marked in red). From the next menu, choose Metals.

I want a greenish signature because I know the character wears a green costume. Double-click on the gradient drop down box and a new window, called Gradient Editor, should pop up. To change the color of the signature, I'm going to change the dark blue (marked in red, below) to dark green, and the light blue (marked in yellow, below) to light green. Double-click the boxes and a color picker will open. For the dark green I used #0d4e0b, and for the light green I used #e9f5e9.

I set the Blend mode to Hue, and the Opacity to 70%. The image will now have a green gradient to it. Note: Blend mode and Opacity are things that can be experimented with. I usually cycle through all the options before choosing the one I like the most.

Step 4: Add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer. The image is very dark, so I set the brightness to 90. I also wanted to give the image a little more contrast, so I set the contrast to 20.

Step 5: Add a Color Balance Adjustment layer. I don't really have a method for using this; I just slide the bars left and right, and see what looks best. In this case, I used Cyan/Red +4, Magenta/Green -18, and Yellow/Blue -21.

Step 6: Add a Vibrance Adjustment layer. Once again, there's no real method to this. I slide the bar up or down and see what works. In this case, I used Vibrance +50.

Step 7: Add a texture above the background layer. I used this texture. Again, I cycled through the blending options, and chose Color Dodge, Opacity 40%. Note: The texture lightened up the image quite a bit. Some of the adjustment layers may need to be readjusted to counteract this.

I don't know why I didn't screencap this step, whoops. But you can see the effect of the texture in the step 8 picture.

Step 8: Add a Gradient Fill layer, but DON'T put it in the Group; put it right above the background layer. A menu will pop up; the settings I used were the transparent to black Gradient, Style: Reflected, Angle: 0, Scale: 105%, and Reverse is checked. This serves to black out the sides of the signature a little, bringing the focus to the character.

Step 9: Add text. The text I used was “You were made to be ruled,” a line spoken one of the movie trailers. I made two text layers, one plain (“You were made to be”), and one a little fancier (“ruled”). For the plain text, I used Times New Roman 15pt, and for the fancy text, I used The King & Queen Font 23pt; the color of both was white. The blending settings for the both text layers used the Outer Glow effect. Right-click on the layer, and select Blending Options. Click Outer Glow to bring up the menu.

These are the settings I used for the plain text layer:

Blend Mode: Screen

Opacity: 45%

Noise: 0%

Color: #b95bfb

Technique: Softer

Spread: 13%

Size: 4px

Range: 70%

Jitter: 0%

And this is how the fancy text layer differs:

Opacity: 100%

Size: 13%

Range: 50%

For the plain text layer, change the opacity to 60%, and the fill to 0%. For the fancy text layer, the opacity is 50%, and the fill is 0%.

Step 10: Add a border. Create a new layer above the text layers. Press Ctrl+A to select the whole image. Select Edit, then Stroke from the top menu. In the new window, select the width and color. I chose 1px and black. Click OK.

And voila! This was a more complicated signature, and it was even difficult for me to recreate it. I'm not sure if this is the exact order I did things, but I think it's close. If there's something that doesn't make sense, let me know, and I'll edit this post.

Edited August 26, 2012 by poetictragedy

[† Shazi 122]

fabulous work poe! might have to try some of these technique myself

[† ballard 3]

Thank you for the tutorial. I haven't touched a picture editing program in awhile, and this helped me to remember quite a bit. I have a small request if you're taking any. I'd love a tutorial on text placement. I've always had trouble getting it to flow good with the rest of my signature as I'm sure you can see from my current one XD... It would be highly appreciated .

[† poetictragedy 415]

Thank you for the tutorial. I haven't touched a picture editing program in awhile, and this helped me to remember quite a bit. I have a small request if you're taking any. I'd love a tutorial on text placement. I've always had trouble getting it to flow good with the rest of my signature as I'm sure you can see from my current one XD... It would be highly appreciated .

I'd be happy to make a text tutorial! I'll work on it as soon as I can.

[Nina 0]

wah !! Thanks a lot for the tutorial !

[blackhazex 0]

Awesome work put into this. I'll give it a shot.

[swordandblade 0]

I will have to try this

[BobbyCool123 0]

Informative. Thanks!

[spidey5443 19]

Learnt quite a few things there. Thanks for the tutorial!

[uloveonce 0]

wow cool

[lameay 1]

It's a nice sig and a very nice tutorial! Thanks for this