I put this guide in gaming forum because 1: Its a gaming signature were making and 2:nobody looks at the gfx forums and it would be easier for ppl to find it here.
THIS GUIDE WAS MADE BY ME! DO NOT POST ON ANY OTHER FORUMS WITHOUGH MY PERMISION
if you see the name Anirray in there anywhere thats my name on guild forums and thats where i orignaly posted
PART 1 OF 3 Photoshop Basics
Hello everybody, today we are going to learn how to make a "Pixel stretch signature" step by step. Before we get started lets go over some photoshop basics to make you understand the program better.
Brushes: Brushes are stamps that make all the shapes and forms on your work, they are all different sized, shaped, some are transparent some are stretched etc. Brushing is what makes your signature look so cool and today we'll learn how to do a great job of it.
Layers: You can have hundreds of layers in your photoshop work, but today were gonna have around 10. What is a layer? to make it as clear as possible here is an example: You take 5 clear plastic sheets and put a mark on each of them, say you have 4 large blobs of ink on 4 out of 5 layers and on the 5th layer you have 1 pink blob, in photoshop you have your layer pallet, and if you can re-arrange your layers however you want, so say you want your pink blob on the top. You will click and drag it to the top of your laer pallet so it will apear the pink blob is sitting overtop of the black ones, If you dont like it you can simply move one of the black blobs overtop of the pink one and set them up anyway you can, this is pretty much exactly what we are going to be doing in our layer pallet in photoshop today, You will have layers set up as so:Background, brushing, render (cut out picture), text. so it will apear your black background will be on the bottom just to fix the lighting a little and then we will do everything overtop of that.
Renders: Renders are basically cut-out pictures that you will use in your signature or tag. We wont be doing any rendering today but I will provide some already cut out gaming renders for you to use in your sig.
Text: This is what you will see your name as, for example on my signatures I will have "Anirray" in my own custom font to show that I made this signature and it is my tag.
Filters: Filters are basically effects that came with photoshop that give your signature a cool effect, for example: If I opened a picture of a boat in the ocean, and I selected the water part of the picture and went Filter>distort>ocean ripple it will add a nice effect of ripples into the water, there are many more this is just a easy example. When making a signature just by using filters you call it a "Stock Signature"
Select: This is a tool that makes it easier to select certain parts of layers, say we have layer 1, 2 and 3; layer 1 will be your all black background, layer 2 will be your render and layer 3 will be your brushing. To make it look like a Grundge signater we have the render before the brushing, so we will brush over it, after your done brushing, if you think your render is hard to see because its brushed over to much you can select layer 3 (witch is your brushing) and select some parts around your render and then hit cut. This will take out everything that was in that selection on the layer, so if you selected your whole render while on layer 3 it will take out all brushing over your render, If you did this while making a grundge signature you would want to add some settings first to make it look like there isnt just a large cut out spot but it is blended in more. This is just an example of what selection does, ou can also select areas that then add a filter to them or add lighting or color etc.
Opacity: Opacity is the transparancy of your selected area or render. It is showed in a percentage of 100%, say your render is on 100% opacity, that means you will not be able to see through it at all and will not be able to see the layers underneath the part of your signature the render is on, but when you change it to around 75% you will be able to see through slightly.
Eyedrop tool: Eyedrop tool is a basic tool that lets you select a color of your selected layer or render and make it your main color.
background and foreground color: Your background and foregrand color are located on the left side of your photoshop window and are at the bottom, it looks like 2 boxes, 1 underneath the other and an arrow above them. This is your color pallet. Foreground color is your current color and background color doesnt do anything when you brush, IMO the only reason you use this is for easier switch through colors, when you click one of the boxes a new window will come up with a large color box, click around the square to find a color you like. to the right side of it is a slider that goes through the differnet colors.
layer style: This tool is located at the bottom of your layer palet window, it looks like an f inside a circle. when you have a layer selected you can click this for some options like
pacity, blending options, shadow, backdrop, bevel and ebose, gradiant, stuff like that.
These are all the basic photoshop tutorials you'll need to know for the tutorial.
reserved For Part 2 parts 2 And 3 Are Coming Soon! 
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