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Photoshop Mastering 1# {All Things You Should Know}

RafaQQ

By RafaQQ
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RafaQQ Newbie

RafaQQ

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Photoshop mastering 1# {All things you should know}


 


Wellcome to this first guide from my series called Photoshop mastering. This guide is unique, cause I made it only for MaxCheaters. In this guide I will tell you every important things you need to knnow before you start doing anything in Photoshop. You will find this informations usefull in every piece of graphics, not only in signatures :-)


 


Photoshop Mastering:


 


Part 1 - Basics (This girl below is One of my older sigs :-))


 


 


▼ Signature


 


This term refers to your identity. In our case, signature is little picture with dimensions about 500x200 px (but can be even bigger). With signature you can show others how good you are with Photoshop (basicly its really great way to learn Photoshop, so doing signatures will boost your skill and ego rapidly) or you can show them what do you like, what do you do, your nick designed with imba effects. It should "catch" your eye with its colors, effects, etc...


 


2aaiwqo.png


 


 


▼ Stock


 


Basicly, stock is every picture with background. It can be gaming wallpaper, your fav. character, car, flower, cat, photo of your grandmother, everything. Stock is the picture you are starting with.


 


stock.jpg


 


 


▼ Render


 


Render is a picture without background. It is easier to work with render, anyway you will have to create or find good background for it. Render must be saved as .png (or .gif, not suggested), or it will lose transparent background.  You can make your own render, or you can find tons on the internet. http://planetrenders.net/


 


render.png


 


 


Part 2 - Terminology. Your future signature should have this:


 


Composition


 


Composition is a placement of your image in signature. It is important to make good composition on the beginning, because it can be really hard to change it later.


 


▼ The best think you can do is to place it somewhere in the middle. This will also become your focus point.


 


stredova.jpg


 


 


▼ Or, you can place it in to 2/3 of signature, on the left or right side. It depends on your character's chest - there should be more place in front of the chest. In this case it is harder to fill the space. F3rd4 used sharped C4D renders here and it looks great :-)


 


kompozice.png


 


 


 


Focal point


 


This is very important. It is the point your eye will catch. It should be light, text (typography = typo) or character itself.


 


▼ This is great focal point made with little light


 


spravne.png


 


▼ This is bad. There are many lights = many focal points. Character is also lost in effects


 


spatne.png


 


▼ No lights. Three figures side by side. Not like this :-(


 


jestehur.png


 


 


Light


 


It is really hard to create good light in signature. It should have sensible direction, intense and color. You can create great focal point with light.


 


 


▼ Logically placed light can make your signature amazing


 


svetlo.png


 


▼ Too much light. Overheated


 


svetlo_spatne.png


 


 


Depth


 


In my opinion its the most important part of signature. Depth can help users to see what objects are on the same level as character, what objects are in front of char and behind him. Take camera, go outside and make a picture of apple on the tree. Apple will be focused, tree will be blurred. This is depth.


 


▼ There is good depth used by bluring objects (Filter > Blur > Gausian blur). One of my older sigs :-)


 


160pgtu.png


 


▼ Blurred ground, focused character. Great job.


 


sign.png


 


 


Flow


 


It means flow of effects. Effects should have good direction (basicly from the front to the back of character). Imagine your hair under the hard wind. Thats flow


 


▼ Great flow. Watch this car going by one direction same as effects (lightning). Typo (logo) is also in that direction


 


nfsdavepb.png


 


▼ He is falling down - effects are going up. He is also smudged. One of my older sigs :-)


 


2cf5wkw.png


 


 


Blending


 


Same as depth, blending is very important thing to make good focal poin. Blending means connection of background and your stock/render. Blending is usualy done with effects.


 


▼ I used C4D renders in this effects to meake ultra super great blending. It looks that character is part of the background. One of my older sigs :-)


 


282nzwo.png


 


▼ Great blending by To.per. Such blend. Much beauty. Wow


 


2uge4op.png


 


Effects


 


This is main part of signature. Effects can bring your sig to the bigger level. There are tons of effects you can apply. Tons of tutorials. Tons of inspirations. Use everything you want - C4D renders, brushes, colors, smudging, filters.. Everything. Remember - "more is less". Don't overstuff your sig with brainless effects. Later, you will find YOUR OWN UNIQUE STYLE, which will take you to the top of sigmaking :-)


 


▼ I used many effects in this work :-)


 


2jcver9.png


 


▼ Smudge effects


 


fraktaly.png


 


▼ Brushes, smudging


 


stetce.png


 


 


Typography (this is hell)


 


Typo is the hardest part of signature. Nobody knows where to place it, what color, what font... Basicly - typo should be close to your focal point, because your eye should see it easily (if you want to show it, I'm not talking about "watermark"). Typo should be in same color as your sig or in black/white. There are also many things you can do with typo.


 


▼ Text close to focal point. Is readable, looks good, looks like part of signature. Please get inspired by this :-) Don't create bluffs


 


vincentdevilkompozice.png


 


makotokonno3.png


 


hldevil.png


 


▼ One of best typography works I have ever seen :-)


 


vincent4devil23.png


 


Colors


 


Have on your mind that signature is not a jungle. Don't make combinations of various colors. Stay with your stock/render, edit it a little bit with gradients/color balance, but don't go far. 


 


▼ Orrange, purple, red, white. Nothing more is needed here :-)


 


dualfocalsunday.png


 


▼ Stay blue... sig by F3RD4


 


8_7.png


 


 


▼ If you chose black/white stock, you can color it with effects. One of my older sigs :-)


 


289bnnn.png


 


▼ Monotoing is not bad too. One of my older sigs :-)


 


2lmwhax.png


 


▼ If you are lost with colors, try to go for black/white, edit levels and highlights. You can get amazing result


 


mafia_by_katri_n-d47x13n.png


 


 


Borders


 


You don't even need borders... Anyway, if you want one, try to do classical black "cinema" borders. You can't get bad with cinema borders.


 


 


 


I hope this tutorial was usefull for you. Feel free to comment and commend 


 


Pictures © to lefiath, Devil, ferda, nobody, Simi, To.per and Me :-)


Edited by RafaQQ
  • Upvote 2
`iAndre Newbie

`iAndre

Posted
Posted

What you've done here is great.
I really admire your signatures , they are freakin' awesome and so unique.

 

Plus, the way you "merge" the background with the c4d renders and your main render is so beautiful.
KIU mate and congrats. ;)

  • 4 weeks later...

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