Signature Question

[Premezilla]

I was wondering....

What kind of program would one use to make custom signatures? For example, NiteFox, how did you go about making yours? That's the only person who springs to my mind now...I'm sure other people out there have signatures like that as well. Could someone please shed the light on the situation for me? Thanks.

[NiteFox]

Uh, me? Well it all depends on what signiture happens to be displayed. On other forums that allow PHP script images, I have a sig that randomly selects one of three images to use as a sig.

But that ain't happening here. Uh, I can't remember which sig I have on this board so I guess I should walk you through how I did the two main ones (The third random image is for a long-cancelled project that, uh, I really should get around to replacing).



Ah, my personal favourite. The second sig I actually used, and since my first was a rather generic FlamingText.com creation I guess this counts as my first. I started off with the blue eclipse on the left using a free graphics package I got off the a cover disc. I can't remember what it was called, and the only thing it was good at was its starburst filter. I made a 100x100 image, and made a 100-radius starburst offset by 0y 50x pixels (So that only half of it appeared) and saved it. I then imported the image into Macromedia Fireworks, placed it on a 400x100 black image. I had to put a black circle over the centre of the starburst creating the "eclipse" effect. Text is Verdana font with a space between each letter, black font, blue glow.



I suppose there are easier ways of doing this, but even though I did it ass-backwards it came out all right. I got a receipe for a "fur" effect that really wasn't great. The black and orange was slapped onto a white BG in Fireworks, and the kanji symobol added and greyed and saved. Opened it in Adobe Photoshop, and then applied the "fur" effect (I had to rotate it 90 degrees, as the effect only worked for a vertical pattern and I wanted horizontal). Saved, opened back again in Fireworks, then applied the text. Total amount of work - Ten minutes, with two hours looking for a decent and easy-to-follow filter effect tutorial. FYI, the kanji means "kitsune" or "fox."

Oh, and: - RPG Maker 2000 characterset (Werewolf), head decapitated and recoloured. Two frames, one eyes open and other shut, all in JASC Paint Shop Pro 7. Animated in JASC Animation Shop. Incidentally, Nico asked me for a wolf "smiley" (Though I tend to use it mainly as tags for news and articles and when I edit the posts of others on the forum) which resulted in me spending a few minutes trying to remember the old colour of the wolf, before realising I still had the original charset saved on my hard drive :P

[Count Duckula]

My signature came solely from Macromedia Fireworks. I'd use Photoshop because I'm more familiar with it, but that program is easily $400-$600. Fireworks is up there too--at least $200.

Like NiteFox said, there's always cooltext.com or flamingtext.com. They'll make decent ones. Or you can always take a game screenshot and edit it down in Photo Editor or Paint. I'm currently using a D2 screenshot as my signature on another gaming forum.

[WarLocke]

I guess I don't have the talent of some others here. <_<

The signature I'm using at the moment is a simple screencap, cropped down. It's lasted this long because it happens to have much sentimental value for me, since I took it the first time I reached the Ancients in the LOD beta.

I also have a few sigs I've cropped from the handful of Bryce landscapes I've done (but that's a different topic altogether), and for awhile I had some other D2 screencaps with (kind of) funny one-liners or non-sequitors overlayed in Paint and/or GIMP.

Edit: Here's the other sig I sometimes use; the full image can be seen along with a couple others in my Renderosity gallery here

[NiteFox]

I guess I don't have the talent of some others here.&nbsp; <_<

Don't say that. Your sig is a mighty fine piece of computer artistry, it must be said, as well as transmitted on all radio frequencies, painted along the length of the Great Wall of China, and written in the sky for all to see.

... Or at least I like it. Really, really like it.