Spoiler (Click to View)
You want to start by creating a new Photoshop document.
You can do this by opening the Photoshop application, and finding the word "File" on the main menu bar. After you have clicked "File", you want to select "New"

Photoshop>File>New

Gif Tutorial:


Once you have completed this, you should be at a screen that looks something like this:


If you are unaware of what this screen is, or what to fill out, I have made a diagram of what each field means below:

There are two main fields that we will be filling in for this project tutorial.

1. Project Name - This is the name by which you will identify your project by. This can really be anything, or left unchanged. In the long run, it doesn't matter.

2. Project Dimensions - This is how large your project is going to be in width and height. width being how large your project is from left to right, and height being how large your project is from up to down.

For my project name, I put "HF tutorial". Again, this doesn't really matter. For my project dimensions, I put 650(Width) by 200(Height) - As this is the maximum signature dimensions for HF. Also please note: your signature can not be over 500kb or annoying - See here for details.


After you have successfully created a new Photoshop document, you are going to configure the background. Now you have one of two options here. You can either:
1. Create a background with the same color as HF's standard forum color (#333333)
2. You can create an invisible background. - I do not prefer invisible backgrounds, as the text could end up looking scratchy or LQ.

So for the sake of this tutorial, we will be creating a new background color matching the background of HF.

You want to start be selecting the "Rectangle Tool (U)" on the tool panel of Photoshop:


Then you want to choose the correct color matching HF.
HF's color code for their forum background is 333333 or #333333
See the Gif tutorial for selecting the correct color here:


Gif Tutorial using the rectangle tool combining the past two gifs to create the full background:


If you wanted to create an invisible background, you would simply add the text and the picture, and then just delete all the other layers.


Now you want to choose a font, and a background picture.
The font I will be using is called: Bebas Neue - Created by: Dharma Type

The image i will be using can be found here: http://nature.desktopnexus.com/get/1984879/?t=idoia7eokdf0judaj649ct6u72559803baa7c2e

Remember, you are free to use any font, and any image that you would like. just remember, fonts resembling calligraphy or cursive handwriting will not show the background as widely as the sample image above did for FlashyOG; thus is why I am using a wider based font with a lot of room to show off the background image.

Spoiler (Click to View)
Now we have made it to the part where we will actually write the text.
congratulations.

First you are going to want to select the "Horizontal Type Tool (T)" - or more commonly reffered to as the "Text Tool" on the Photoshop tool panel. As seen here:


Next - We want to select the font we would like to use in the text creation process.


Now is the fun part, you want to click the canvas (the giant black square in the center of the screen), and begin to type. What you type can really be anything, for me - its just my name, Kygo.


You can resize your text using the text size tool located at the top of the page while the 'Text Tool' is selected. See here:

To resize the text properly: make sure your text is highlighted, then type in a new text size, or click and hold your left mouse button down and drag either left (shrink) or right (grow) to change the text size.

To align the text properly (to make it centered): Simply press CTRL+A (Mac is Command+A) - and select the "Move Tool (V)". Then simply press the two buttons located at the top. See the gif below for details.

Move tool:

Please note: The gif below was made AFTER pressing CTRL-A or Command+A (MAC) and selecting the move tool.


After pressing the two buttons located at the top (see the gif above), simply press CTRL-D (Command-D for MAC's) to deselect.

Now you are done positioning the text.

Spoiler (Click to View)
This is the big part you have all been waiting for right here. Remember pay close attention. All the steps are listed out in great detail, so the chances of you messing this up is significantly lowered.

In order to make this easier for all of you nice people, I have organized this subsection of the tutorial into individual steps.

Step 1:
Make sure the picture is in an extremely accessible location. I am using my desktop as the primary location for the picture.

Step 2:
Drag the picture onto your Photoshop canvas (big black square with your name on it), and drop the picture down so that it creates a free transform image object. This is all shown in the gif below.


Now you should have something that looks like this:

Don't be alarmed, this is that free transform image object that I have been telling you about this whole time silly. Now all you have to do is stretch that image over your canvas. The parts over your canvas/text is whats going to show, so make sure you place the image wisely.

Step 3:
Stretch the Image over your canvas/text and position it correctly.

Normally I would have more time to do this, but when those gifs end - is when my time runs out.. so.. - You should take your time with this process though. This is the part that is going to either make or break your signature.

Step 4:
Click the check button to confirm your images position. See here:
This is located at the TOP of the page (much like the text size bar was, or the buttons to align your text). Also please note: If you ever wish to re-position your image, just hit CTRL-T (Command-T for MAC's) while over the Image on the layers tab to enable free transform on the image object again.

Step 5:
Make sure that the Image layer is above the text layer directly. No matter what happened, your layers should look like this at this point:

As you can see, My image is directly above my text layer, as it should be.

Step 6:
Add the clipping mask to your mage to overlay it onto your text.

-Select your image layer
-Right click on it
-Select "Create Clipping Mask"

You have now overlaid the image onto your text. The next part of this tutorial will be making it look as though FlashyOG's looks. So if you get the gist of it, and don't want your image to look like FlashyOG's at all, then feel free to leave now - don't forget to leave feedback on whether or not this helped you though. A lot of work went into this tutorial.

Spoiler (Click to View)
This section will mostly focus on the text attributes, and how to make your text really stand out as a signature.

Step 1:
Select your text layer. Right click on it, and hit the option titled: "Blending Options".

Step 2:
Enable the box titled "Stroke" - don't worry, enabling this wont mandate that you go to the hospital afterwards. Stroke simply adds a carefully placed outline over your text.

As you can see here, I enabled a stroke of 1 over my text. Feel free to choose your own color; although I recommend either black or white. I chose white - I end up making it black because I felt like white didn't look that nice. I also greatly lowered the opacity.

Make sure to play around with this though. Get a feel for how it works and experiment. Do whatever you think looks nice.

Step 3:
This part is really all about personal preference. I chose to add a drop shadow onto my text.
You can do this by checking the drop shadow box on the options list where you also found "Stroke".

As you can see, I added a small drop shadow to the letters, just to make it pop a little more.

You can add more if you would like, but this is where I stop, and your experimenting begins. Have fun!

Spoiler (Click to View)
At this point, we are assuming that you want to use this sig with HF. Well now im going to show you how.

Firstly, lets save this correctly. If you made this an invisible background ALWAYS save it as a .PNG - If you made it the HF colored background save it as a .JPG or .JPEG file

You can do this by going to:
File>Save As...>*Save*

Name the file whatever you want to. This is all personal preference.

Make sure the file is under 500kb, and does not exceed HF standard 650x200 standard sig size.

The options I checked for my JPG/JPEG save is as follows:


No you want to upload the finished file to imgur.
Start by navigating to their URL: https://imgur.com/

Next - Click the "Upload Images" button, see here:

Then your going to want to choose whatever options best suits you. I personally choose "Browse Your Computer"


After navigating to your signature, click upload.

Now after your file uploads, you are going to need the "Direct Link (email & IM)"


After you have that link, navigate over to your HF profile's Control Panel

And find the tab titled "Change Signature". Once your there, just click on the insert image button HF has on every post and enter in your Imgur link.

Now, update your signature.

Spoiler (Click to View)
So earlier today I made this image:


If you would like me to make a tutorial on it, I would be happy to show you! There are a lot of possibilities to express creativity with this image! There are so many styles you can make - the possibilities are endless!

(Jul 4, 2015 10:59 AM)Febreze Wrote:  Very good tutorial, Kygo! This will help people improve their signatures a little bit :p

(Jul 4, 2015 11:41 AM)ZebraRape Wrote:  thanks for taking the time to do this tutorial bro! <3

edit: is it possible to do this with a GIF?

(Jul 6, 2015 09:37 AM)Remained Wrote:  Thanks for the tutorial, although there's a shortcut instead of right clicking -> create clipping mask, you could press ALT and click on the gap between the layers