Home Photoshop Special Effects Grunge Signature

Grunge Signature

Author: PhotoshopForce.com More by this author

Added: Sep 25, 2007 Rating:

Level: Beginner Software: n/a

Step 1

Open a new document in photoshop of any size for this tutorial I am using 350x150 - a good size for a forum signature.

Step 2

Next you want to find a good picture to use in your signature. Be it an image from your favorite game, a sports car or even a super model.

For this tutorial I will be using this solider render:

Render available in PNG format in the download pack for this tutorial.

Go ahead and open your image in photoshop.

Press Ctrl + A to highlight everything, and press Ctrl + C to copy it.

Switch back over to our 350x150 signature document and press Ctrl + V to paste the render.

Some resizing of your image/render is usually needed. This is easy enough. Simply press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to bring up the "free transform tool", you'll notice 8 small boxes around the outer bounder of the render/image, simply place your mouse cursor near one of these "nodes/boxes", press and hold the Shift button on your keyboard (to restrain proportions); click and hold your mouse button and drag inward towards the center of the image/render.

Your canvas should look something like this:

Step 3

Next we're gong to work on the background for our signature. Set your foreground color to white (#FFFFFF) and open up a grunge brush.

For this tutorial I will be using a brush set called "Phazon Graphics Grunge" which you can download for free here: Phazon Graphics Grunge Brush Set.

Create a new layer UNDER the game render image that we already have.

Select one of the brushes in the set and brush a little around on the canvas to create a nice texture for our background. You should have something similar to this:

Step 4

Create a new layer on top of this, and do a little more brushing onto the document. You can use the same brush as before, however it is better to get a different brush for more contrast in your final signature.

Once you've done so, change the blending mode of this layer to "Soft Light":

Continue to do this on another three layers, changing the blending mode to "Soft Light" each time, here is what I've got:

Step 5

This will leave us with a good base to work with. What you will want to do at this point is to darken each of these layers. So go ahead and do the following:

Click on each layer to select it.

Press Ctrl + U to open up the Hue/Saturation box.

Do not check "colorize" box

Use a different amount on each layer, start with -20, then -30, then -40 and so on and so forth, just make sure they are each a little different.

Continue to adjust each of the "soft light" layers until you are happy with the result:

Step 6

Next we're going to attempt to blend the render image in a bit better with our background. Go ahead and click on the layer with the game render // which should be the very topmost layer.

Get out the eraser tool ( ), set the opacity of the brush to 50 percent:

Select one of the grunge brushes once again, and brush over the Render image until it blends in well with our current background, here's what I've got:

Step 7

Now we'll go ahead and add color to our background.

Go to "Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Color Balance" and apply the following settings:

Press Okay

Highlight:

Midtones:

Shadows:

Result:

Step 8

Next we'll create the background for our grunge signature.

Create a new layer on top of everything else.

Get out the rectangular marquee tool ( ), make selections around the outside of the canvas such as I've done here. You do this by holding down the Shift key on your keyboard while you make the selections this will allow you to make multiple selections: