10. When you're happy with the way your shapes look, go up to the layer palette, turn off the background layer, right click in the layer palette and choose Merge>Merge visible.
Grab your Magic Wand, and be sure that Feather is set to "0".
Be sure you're on the "Merged" layer. Click in the area outside your shapes with the wand. Go to Selections>Invert.
Go to Selections>Modify>Select Selection Borders.
Type "8" in the box.
11. Go to your layer palette and change your layer blend mode to Dissolve.
Go to Edit>Copy (Ctrl+C), then Edit>Paste>Paste as New Layer (Ctrl+L). De-select.
12. Be sure the new layer (Raster 1) is active. Go to Image>Flip. Move the layer to a position you like, or just leave it where it is. (That's what I did.) Go back to the layer palette, change the blend mode to Dissolve, and set the opacity to 76.
13. Turn the Background layer back on so you can see better. Go back to the Raster 1 layer, make sure it's active. Go to Effects>3D effects>Drop Shadow. Change the shadow color to something that goes well with your sigtag and use these settings.
14. Add a new layer. Name it signature. Set the foreground on your Materials pallete to null and change your background color to whatever color you want your name to be. I chose Black.
Note: If the little null button is greyed out, choose your text tool and you'll be able to use it.
Choose your text tool and select your text size, style, etc.
Then add your text.
15. Choose your deformation tool to turn the text. As soon as you start to turn it, this annoying screen will pop up:
Unless of course, unlike me, you're smart enough to click the Radio button that says "Always take these actions" (VBG).
Just click O.K.
Now turn your text so it's pointing toward the lower right corner.
16. Go to Effects>3D Effects>Drop Shadow. Choose a contrasting color, and use these settings:
17. Go to your layer palette, turn off the background layer again, right click and choose Merge>Merge Visible.
18. Grab your crop tool
. Use these settings, then click Apply. (This gets rid of all the excess.)
Your sigtag is finished unless you want to resize it. Don't forget to Sharpen it if you do.
Since it's composed of solid colors, it will look best if saved as a GIF image. Go to File>Export>GIF Optimizer.
Use these settings in the color tab and you will get a good balance between image quality and kb size.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
This tutorial is my own creation, any similarity to any other tutorial on the Internet is unintentional. It is copyrighted by me, *~Nightshadow~*, on May 21, 2003, and is not to be copied or reproduced in any way under penalty of law. Graphics lists, please e-mail me for permission to post my tutorials, especially because I would love to see the results :O)
NOTE: Any image you make using this tutorial is completely your own property.
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