Making a Clan Template

1. First create a new document for your clan template/clan header graphic.

I used a document size of 880x1000.

Now fill the background with a suiting color. I used a dark grey (#262626)

2. Now you need some game renders/wallpapers. I got my wallpapers from GameWallpapers.com, but you need a paid account to get most wallpapers. You can get some nice game cutout renders from ClanTemplates Renders.

First I added in a wallpaper of Battlefield 2142 then touched it up a fair bit.

(Touching up as in: Blurring background, brightening, contrasting, sharpening.)

Next I added in a wallpaper of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. I re-sized it down to fit and erased most of the edges.

Lastly for the header graphic I added in an image of Crysis in the top right.

Looks pretty good with those games in it doesn't it?

View my header so far.

Click to enlarge

3. Now let's make that cool text holder that you saw in the preview image of this tutorial.

First start by making a rounded rectangle selection. You can do this a few ways, you can just use the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a radius of about 10 px.

Use settings similar to the following:

So on a new layer make your rounded rectangle. You can use ANY color for this, so just use white.

Right click the rectangle layer and go into the Blending Options... now click and apply the following layer styles:

Not looking the best so far.. but we're getting to it.

Create a new layer then merge the rectangle layer and the blank layer together. This is to merge the layer styles into the layer.

Now apply the following layer styles to the same layer:

(Download pattern from here: Warning Tape.)

You should be left with the following result:

(Note: To turn an image into a pattern, open it into Photoshop, select all, go to Edit > Define Pattern.)

Lastly for the te xt holder I added a 1 px line near the bottom of the rectangle, the color of my line was red (#ff0000) and I applied an Outer Glow to it.

4. Now let's add the text.

First get the Horizontal Text Tool (the normal text tool :P) then write out your text inside of the box.

I used basic white as my text color, then I applied the following layer styles to the text layer:

Lastly for the text I added a bright shine halfway at the top of the text.

All you have to do to get that effect is create a new layer, select the text (Hold Ctrl and Click the layer thumbnail), fill with white, delete half, lower the opacity.

This part of the tutorial is complete, you can view the result here:

Click to enlarge

Thanks for reading, and if you need the PSD file for any learning purposes you can download it from here.