Alright, I've been thinking about making a guide for Topia for awhile now and with Iky's sudden interest of helping our Graphics community it inspired me to also help out.

THIS GUIDE IS FOR PHOTOSHOP CS2, I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF GIMP

First off this is for members that know how to operate most of Photoshop's functions, I don't want people that can barely use the gradient tool or something.

.:.:.:Table of Contents:.:.:.

-Introduction to Photoshop

-Pentool Tutorial

-Uses of Filters and Adjustment Layers

-Smudging Secrets

-Effects and Tricks

-Forming the Tag

-Giving Your Tag the "Wow" Factor
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Introduction to Photoshop

I've had a lot of painful and joyful memories with this program, I just want to say if you feel like your in a slump or something, DON'T GIVE UP! Even the best photoshopers went through slumps I'm sure. But that doesn't mean you suck it might mean you need to go into a new style or look at other tags for inspiration, use music, movies, the world in general to find inspiration just make sure not to give up when things look dark. When you learn how to cope with slumps your already on the path to getting better at sigging.

Now I'm going to go through the things I went through on my old topic "Intermediate Graphics", the terms of sigging.

.:Focal Point:.

Your focal point can honestly make or break your tag, if you do not find the right balance of under blending and over blending or even sharpening or blurring your going to find a pretty lousy focal point. Focal points are USUALLY the render or stock in your sig, but it could also be a effect in an abstract tag that you want to stand out and be the center of attention. That's right you really want the person looking at your tag to see your focal point, having multiple focal points is even harder to do but I have seen it pulled off and it can look beautiful if done correctly.

Examples

Good Focal Point



I find this to be a pretty solid focal point, it's getting your attention but it's also not demanding it and throwing off your attention to the rest of the tag.

Bad Focal Point



Not really a horrible Focal point but it doesn't really grab my attention. The render seems to be WAY over blended and that can make people looking at the tag be confused and stare at other parts of the tags instead of the render such as the C4D on the render's shoulder.

.:Depth:.

Depth- If you look into a tag, you can see layers upon layers of effects, The thing I love a about tags is every time you look at it you see something new about it, and a lot of people make depth easier by blurring the tag and erasing it off the focal point. It's a nice effect to the tag. Again blurring and sharpening help depth, but I also find the Dodge and Burn tool to work wonders on depth as well. A thing I like doing is putting loads of C4D's and renders and stuff putting a gradient map over them and smudging like there's no tomorrow, it's a great starting point.

Some examples of depth





You see what I'm getting at?


.:Flow:.

Honestly I'm not even going to go over this in my own words, this Iky quote shall get the point across.

"Think of it as Movement, one of the principles of Art. It involves movement of the eye, so when trying to create flow in a sig, you have to create some sort of device in your work that will lead the person's eye from one location to another."

Thanks for it again, Iky. <3

Some examples:







This isn't flow, like at all:


.:Lighting:.

For some this can be a really tough effect for tags, I find it pretty easy honestly.

Now for some pointers I really like getting a gradient with the sphere effect and setting it so it's white on black, now get it so you get the white sphere where you want it and set it on screen or lighten for a nice lighting effect and adjust the opacity. I also find soft brushing to be highly effective. Try getting some light colors from the tag, get 65 soft brush and start brushing, again set it on screen or lighten and adjust the opacity, it can give your tag a much needed "pop". Also try the dodge and burn tools they come in handy.

Ahh, I think this is all I can do for this update, hope you guys find it helpful my next update is coming fast don't worry.

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.::Pentool Tutorial::.

Ok, the pen tool can be effective in sigs, they offer good effects for the focal point in a tag, and they are used alot to make flow.

Now I shall show you how you should set up so you can make a pen tool line.

After clicking on the pen tool Itself you should have those buttons near the top of Photoshop. Now, draw your line, this sounds simle, but it takes some getting used to, but after you get your line drawn, go and click on your brush tool, and select the size of the pen tool you want, anything in the 3-5 area make a pretty nice looking line. After you select the size, go back to your pen tool then right click on your line. A window pops up, click on "Stoke Path", then this window pops up.

Now, scroll down to Brush on the window, then hit ok, you should have a line something like this:

Also to get those lines that you had before you did stroke path off, right click on it again, and click on "Make Selection".
Also in that box you saw the option Simulate Pressure, didn't you? If you check that off, this happens to your line.

Awesome huh?
But wait there's more to this amazing tool.
Now read carefully as my paint's acting up and I can't past in my screenshots right now, near the top of Photoshop after you click on the brush tool, on the far right do you see a button that looks like a folder? It's the one besides the last button. Click on that there should be a whole lot of options, Click on scattering.
Now do everything we did up above and this should be your outcome:
*Before Scattering*

*After Scattering*

Wow, pretty awesome, right?

I know I took this from my old topic but I couldn't really think of anything to add.

.::Also another update!::.

I've decided that I'll take requests for what people want to see, didn't think a skill was given enough attention during the guide? PM me about it. Wanna see how to do something specific? PM me about it.

Also I'm having trouble, I can't post screen shots because my Paint says it's an error when I try to paste my screens. Can anyone help me with that?

Thanks again!