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I'm going to make you a tutorial on how to make a sig, since a lot of people seem to want to get better, and there aren't any full-length tutorials on KI yet. Hopefully this will help someone.
If someone finds anything I left out that should be there, or if I told you to press the wrong button lol >.< just tell me and I'll change it.. this is my first public tutorial evar XDD so it will probably suck at first.
Your sig won't look exactly like mine, and that's ok; it's impossible to make the same thing twice, in any kind of art. Also know that it gets faster/easier to do the more you practice. You don't "suck" at making sigs, you just need more practice.
What you will need:
- Photoshop CS, CS2, or CS3. You can download a free 30-day trial here. (I am using CS2; and you have to find this one yourself or buy it because i'm not posting a links to illegal downloads.)
- The GIMP 2.2 (in order to use this you must download and install gimp and GTK runtime environment)
- FFXI Model Viewer
- FFXI Installed on your computer (sorry PS2 people; you may use my render but you won't be able to make your own.)
- The will to create
- I would recommend getting this brush set. To install it, click the brush tool, open the window to choose your brush tip, click the round arrow at the top right of the window that pops up. In the list, select "Load Brushes" and then open the .abr file that you just downloaded. If you do not know how to find the brush tool, keep reading, I will cover that later in this tutorial. You can install the brushes at that time.
- If you want to use other brushes, that's fine with me. There are many nice ones out there, though I'll be using these ones for the tutorial.
With that, onward...
Step 1: Setting up our render
The render (or stock, or model, or whatever you'd like to call it) is our basic picture of our FFXI character (it can be anything, but we'll be using a FFXI character for this tutorial, since this :is: a FFXI forum.)
Open up Model Viewer. This is a pretty simple to use. on the right, you have your race and npc/pc buttons at the top. You have buttons in the center to specify the face number and armor/weapons, and at the bottom you have animation controls and exporting/importing tools.
Let's use my character for this tutorial; make sure the PC button is checked, then select Hume M
The cool thing about MV is you can have gear that wouldn't normally work in combination.
The gear we're using will be as follows:
Face: F4-B
Head: Magus Keffiyeh
Body: Darksteel Cuirass
Hands: Magus Bazubands
Legs: Yigit Seraweels
Feet: Darksteel sabatons
Main weapon: Sword; Kilij
Sub weapons: the same as main.
Ranged: (No equipment)
This is my vision of a "heavy blue mage"
Now for lighting, pose, and taking a shot.
I'm going to use custom light settings for this shot. you can use the default, but I recommend something around .1 to .3 for all the ambient light colors, and around .9 for all the specular and diffuse light colors. light settings is under settings>lighting.
Now I know everyone likes action poses, but let's try something simple. Making a sig with an action pose is difficult, because usually arms and legs are failing all over the place. They could get in the way, and we don't want that.
I'm going to use the guarding animation, which is under animation set common, and listed as "gdi"
select that one.
Using right click on your mouse, rotate the character so he is pointing towards the left of your screen. Use numpad buttons 8, 2, 6, and 4 to rotate the lightsource so it comes from the left as well. Next hold down both mouse buttons and zoom in on the character. it's ok if his legs get cut off because we won't be seeing those in the sig
Here's an example of how it should look:
If you want, you can use my rendered image for the rest of the tutorial, or use the one you rendered. It's up to you.
Open photoshop at this time.
If you're going to use your own render, press print screen with MV open to the pose we made.
Switch to photoshop, press ctrl+N to make a new image, press ok(the default size is always that of the clipboard) and then press ctrl+V to paste the
image.
If you used my image, just right click on it, press copy, press ctrl+N in photoshop, press ok, then paste my image.
Step 2: Preparing the render(almost a continuation of step 1.)
Now you have your image in Photoshop.
Click on the selection too (it looks like a box with a dotted line around it, and should be located in the long bar on the right of your screen. that's the toolbox.)
Drag-click to make a big box around your render. Make sure you include the whole upper body, but don't go to the edge of the render screen. Like this:
Press ctrl+C to copy that image, press Ctrl+N to make a new image, Press ok, press Ctrl+V to paste the copied selection onto the new image.
Select the magic wand tool (diagonal from the selection, it looks like a line with a star at the end of it); at the top of the screen, under the bar with file etc on it, you should see the tool settings. set them to this:
Click somewhere in the green area (or whatever color you have, it should be a bright color that isn't white), and press delete.
Go to Image>Image size.. and select 50% in the width and height boxes.
Make sure the box that says "resample image" is checked and set to Bicubic mode.
Now press ctrl+A to select all, then press ctrl+C to copy the whole thing.
Press ctrl+N again for a new image. select the dimensions you want (no more than 500x250, but I prefer something around 370x110)
Paste the copied image onto the new image; this is the image we will be using for our sig. With the move tool (it looks like a cursor with a cross by it), drag the render around so that the head is slightly cut off at the top, and it is a a bit off-center. Mine looks like this:
Step 3: before continuing...
There are a few things I want you to pay attention to.
First of all, and most importantly, is the light source for the image.
As you can see, the light is the brightest on his face and his chest. It's also somewhat illuminating his arm. The light is coming from the right side of the render
Notice how the shadows are on the opposite side:
Now, we don't want to have the left side of the sig illuminated if the light on the render is coming from the other side:
[green]YES:[/green]
[red]NO:[/red]
We also have to be concerned about the actual size of the light source.
Open the brush tool (looks like a paintbrush) and set it to soft round 100:
In the "Layers" tab (usually on the left) click on background layer, and set the brush color to black and play around with the opacity (the power of the brush when you click). Brush around the sides of the sig, making sure to leave the lightsource white. make sure the left side is darker than the right side...my Example:
Of course you won't have the orange circle, but I drew that so you could see where the light is going to be coming from. Brushing the lights/darks works fine with a mouse, but having a tablet helps a lot. If you have one, use it.
QUOTE (For Tablet Users:)
Go back to your "Layer 1" with the render on it. Make a new layer, and grab your brush tool. In the "brushes" tab (top left of screen) check the button "Other Dynamics". make your brush small (10-20 px) and brush around areas you think would be hit by your lightsource with a white color. Use the eraser tool to erase and brushing that goes outside of the render. Repeat for the dark areas, only with a black or very dark grey color. Try to imagine where shadows would fall; say the head is illuminated from the left. You would want to make it casting a shadow on the left side of the neck and the left shoulder. If you are brushing in highlights and think they look too light, undo them and put them on a new layer. set the layer to overlay blend mode. Since FFXI has no data for shadows on PC models, we have to brush it in ourselves; here is my example:
With extra brushing:
Without extra brushing:
Note:This step is optional and intended for advanced users, you may skip it if you would like.
With extra brushing:
Without extra brushing:
Note:This step is optional and intended for advanced users, you may skip it if you would like.
Ok, so we've got everything set up. Now you're ready for the fun part
Create a new layer above your background layer.(it's the button at the bottom of the layers tab, next to the garbage can button. it looks like a piece of paper.)
Grab your brush tool, and look through your new brushes from the pack I had you download (or your favorite brushes from before)
Set the color to white, and splat, stick a brush near the light source. change brushes and do it a couple more times. Don't always leave the opacity at 100 either, some variety is nice to have.
This is what I got:
Do the same thing with some black brushes, but in the dark areas. Keep brushing until the light and dark areas blend to your liking. If you did something you don't like, press Ctrl+Z to undo it, or use the eraser to erase some parts of the brushing and leave other parts. It's all up to you.
This is how mine looks:
If you want to blend the render even deeper in, create a new layer above the character's layer. Set it to overlay blending mode (the default is normal. there should be a drop down menu right below the layers tab that you can select the blending mode from) and then brush lightly (low opacity or use the eraser) over the darkest or lightest areas of your character. Here's what I came up with:
Congratulations! We're almost done! Brushing is almost always fairly important area of making sigs and is what gives many makers and artists an individual style. Have fun with this area, and don't be afraid to try different brushes...just google them or search on DeviantArt.
Step 4: Color, and guess what? Yes, more lighting!
This is my favorite step
Let's have some more fun.Select your background layer, and open the menu Image>Adjustments>Color Balance
Check the box shadows, make sure "Preserve Luminosity" is checked, pick a color for the darker areas of the sig. I'm going to use a reddish-blue color.
QUOTE (Hint:)
Make sure you don't add too much color. Having a lowly saturated background will bring your character out as the focal point of the sig. A general rule to use would be dont make any of the sliders go above +20 or below -20.
Adjust the "Highlights" checkbox accordingly. I would make it them a slightly different color than the shadows.
Do the same for the render layer, but don't make the colors quite as strong. You can fool around with color as much as you'd like. This is one of the hardest parts of making a signature, in my opinion. Try to make the render look as though it fits into the background.
Now comes my absolute favorite part haha
We're going to use Fractal Flames rendered in the GIMP to enhance the lighting on our sig, and give it some more life.
Remember calculus? remember the lines that swerve all-the-F over the place? Well that's pretty much what a fractal is, only it's even more complicated and it's colored in with a gradient.
Open the GIMP. After it's done loading, go to File and make a new image. Click advanced options and set the background color to transparency. Make the dimensions the same size as our sig is (mine is 370x110 so I'm making this image 370x110.)
on top of your image in the gimp, click Filters>Render>Nature>Flame.
As no two fractal flames are the same (unless you save the formula), my flame will look different than yours. In the Flame window, click edit. You should see 9 black screens with lines, swirls, dots, crazy stuff of that nature in them. under the dropdown "Variation" menu, select random. Hit the randomize button. Look at all the flames. Look for not only which ones look cool, but also for the ones that match the lightsource in our sig. eg., If you have a huge flame that is a big circle, and looks really sweet, it may not look good in the sig. If the light in the sig is not in a circle pattern, it won't look good. since our light is radiating out from the center of the sig, towards the top left, and penetrating the render, I'm looking for a fractal that's got a basic diagonal pattern in the same direction. Also, the sharper, the better. You don't want a flame that just looks like a cloud. If you don't see a good one, keep pressing randomize until you find something you like. Click on it and press ok.
Click the tab labeled "Camera". Use the x, y, and Zoom sliders to scale the flame to fit into the sig (doesn't have to completely fit! it can go off the edge. in fact it should go off the edge..) and then move it so it's in the position of the lightsource.
Click on the Rendering tab and look at the bottom. From the dropdown menu "colormap:" select a gradient. I picked calcoast09 as mine, since it's a similar color to my sig, and will blend well. use the default settings for the sliders in this window, and click ok. Your flame should be rendered on the image you created, like this:
Click layers>New layer and repeat this process, with another flame (make it the same direction and a similar shape, but don't use exactly the same one) once you have your second flame rendered, go to file > save as. Type in a name like "My Fractal Render for Tutorial sig" and put .psd at the end, so you can keep the layers and open it with photoshop. Select a folder to save it in (I usually use desktop because I delete it after the sig is done anyway and that makes it easy to find.)
You can now close GIMP and go back to Photoshop.
Open your fractal render from the GIMP with Photoshop. It should have two layers, click on the background layer, press CTRL+A to select the whole thing, and then copy it.
Switch to your sig, click on the background layer, and paste the fractal. Move the fractal around with the Move tool until you get it to a spot where it looks like part of the light source. Set the layer the fractal is on to overlay blending mode(the dropdown menu right below the "layers" tab)
Now go back to your fractal image and copy the second layer. Go back to the sig, click on your character render layer, and paste. Move this fractal around until it just slightly overlaps the character render, then set it to overlay. Right click on the current layer and select duplicate. Switch to the layer copy, (if not already selected) and go to filter>blur>gaussian blur. Set the radius to 3.00 px, and click ok. It should have made your fractal have a glow around it. Set this layer to either overlay or hard light; whichever one you think looks better.
If you don't like where the fractals lay, you can try erasing some areas of them. Also play around by dragging their layers up and down in the layer tab. you can make the sig look different depending on how the layers are arranged.
The last thing we will be doing is making a new layer at the very top of the sig for more intense lighting.
select the topmost layer on your sig, and make a new layer.
Grab a Round soft 100 brush (like the one we used at the beginning) and a white color. use 100 opacity. Make 1-3 sploches with this brush around the area you think would be most bright on the sig. I'm probably going to put mine right above his shoulder. If this looks too bright, lower the opacity bar on the layers tab to your liking.
This is my finished sig:
That's pretty much the end of the tutorial; if you want to go back and re-adjust the color balance, do that. I will because I'm not fond of the colors I picked.
I don't really want to go into adding text. I think it's better not to. If you want to add a border, it's pretty simple, and I'm sure you can figure it out
I might add typo/borders/design concepts later
I might not
Oh, and if you see anything that you think needs to be changed about the tutorial, let me know, and I will see what I can do
I really hope everyone enjoyed this and learned something
Happy sigging...And post your finished sigs from the tutorial in this thread, I want to see what I have taught people to make O_O
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Krill, what are you talking about your sigs own. I especially like that top one.
b
I kind of took the idea from a post I read of Kagerou's a long time back. I'm not sure why it stuck but I now consider lighting in everything
