[Tutorial] Make a Maxie's Signature Style

[Maxie_M0us3]

? How to Make a Maxie's Signature Style! ?

 

Hi everyone! When I was showing up for the first time into these Forums, people asked me how did I design my signature, people complimented how everything was well placed and well done. Because of this, I thought that it would be awesome to share how I actually do this Picture + Trophy Card combo! The result will be that your Trophy Card is placed right in the middle of a picture, while being updated every time your PSNP is synced!

 

All you simply need:

• Any Art or Image editing software such as GIMP, Photoshop, Paint.NET, SAI Paint Tool, etc.;
• A Trophy Card picture;
• Picture(s) you want to edit with.

 

Unfortunately, having a such signature displayed on your PSNP Forums Profile requires you a Premium Membership: You can get one easily by paying a Membership OR creating a guide within the Project Guide Creation program. Being a Premium Member allows you to display up to 5 images in your signature area and this is what you'll need to be able to display your awesome looking signature! Keep in mind that my signatures have been designed to fit into PSNProfiles forums, I cannot guaranty that it will work properly in other forums if they allow 5 images and a such size.

 

Step 1: Getting Started

So let's start by creating the canvas for your signature! First thing you need to know, each user on the forums has a limited height size to display pictures on the signature area. If you would have a signature too high, the lower part of your signature will be cut! I recommend to have 240 pixels of height for your canvas. The weight of the canvas is up to you - for example, I prefer my signatures at 920x240 pixels. I suggest not too large though. The Trophy Card size is 405x120 pixels so make sure that your signature height size is between 120 and 240 pixels.

 

Step 2: Insert your Trophy Card

Once your canvas is created, insert your Trophy Card in it. Make sure to have it into a different layer for a control of your editing. 

 

 

Step 3: Start the Editing!

Insert the picture(s) into it and here comes your creativity! If you have some editing skills, it shouldn't be hard to do. For this tutorial, I'm using a Overwatch's Zarya wallpaper (created by CryptiKau), I add a few more resources found on the web, a little montage here and there... and voila my signature! 
Remember to have the Trophy Card layer over everything to give you a better idea of how your signature will look like. Also, place the card wherever you want and edit your signature overall as much you like it. Once you're satisfied of your signature, here comes the great part!

 

 

Step 4: Split Your Signature 

Make sure to save your project before proceeding and, in some extend, backup your project into a different file in case of overwriting the project and all your creation is screwed. In this step, you'll need to split the signature into 4 individual pictures, around your Trophy Card. You'll need to have your different parts of your signature like the image below:

 

 

It exists two methods to do this!

 

Method 1:

Use the Selective tool on your software. Make sure that the selective area is right against the Trophy Card. Don't select a single pixel of the Card or it will end in bad results!
1) Once your area is select, use the Crop option (depending where it's located on your software), doing this will resize the entire picture and will display only the part you have selected. 
2) Once your cropping seems fine to you, save it into a different file and name, for example "maxiem0us3_signZaryaPart1.png", the other ones "Part2", Part3", "Part4". Simply choose how you want to organize and name your pictures.
3) Once the new file saved, revert your changes with CTRL + Z (or CTRL+SHIFT+Z on Photoshop) or the same equivalent on Mac computers until you see back your entire signature.
4) Repeat the same steps with the other three remaining parts.

 

To help you better with selecting your signature parts, here what you should do:
⦁    For the Top and Bottom parts, simply select everything until the selective area is against the Trophy card:

⦁    For the Left and Right parts, make sure to select exactly the same height size of the trophy card, then select all way to the border of the signature:

 

Method 2:

If you're using Adobe Photoshop, it exists the Slice tool, allowing you to "cut" the images into different parts without having to crop your project and risk to mess up your work. Thanks to @mumpel for shouting this tip!

Quote

If you are using Photoshop, you can use the Slice tool to make it a little easier to split the image into different parts. The Slice tool is in the right click menu on the Crop tool (shortcut C).

 

There are two ways you can use the Slice tool. The easiest is to draw a rectangle around your trophy card (after you've done all your background graphics) and Photoshop will automatically split the canvas into different sections for you. This is handy but it's not the most intuitive as it sometimes creates more sections than necessary.

 

Using the slice tool the other way is very similar to cropping the image only you can see the boundaries of each section clearly before you save it.

 

The slice tool also lets you save each section as an individual image if you use the "Save for web and devices" option in the File menu instead of the normal save function. When you save it this way it will create a folder in the place you want with each of the images named "mynewsig_01.png" "mynewsig_02.png"

 

Step 5: Host Your Images

There you have it! Your signature is now cut into 4 different images! All you'll need to do is to upload them in a Image/File Hosting website of your choice. Imgur seems the best choice since you'll have a full control on them (with an account) and the images don't lose any quality. Once your images are uploaded, you'll need to copy their direct link (which has the image extension by the end like ".png", ".jpg" in the link).

 

Step 6: Place your Signature

Once in your Signature settings, simply paste your images link addresses you previously copied. In PSNProfiles, it will display automatically any direct link with an image extension. Make sure to paste right after the other - no space or enter keys. Don't forget to paste your Trophy Card image link directly from PSNProfiles! You should paste the pictures in this order: Top, Left, Trophy Card, Right and Bottom.

 

Once done correctly, here goes your signature displaying right now!

 

 

Enjoy your new sick signature! ?

 

Disclamer! Despite the awesome signature, the result isn't perfect. In fact, it may happen for some people to see your signature with the parts of your signature stacking on top of each other. The reason of this is all about the screen resolution and the internet browser's windows size of the viewer. When the browser's size or the screen resolution isn't big enough to display the whole resolution of aligned images from left to right, it shrinks the website and at the same time press on the images and this is when occurs the images to stack on top of each other. Unfortunately, there is no known way to fix this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edited April 27, 2017 by Maxie the Mouse

[reckscollie]

Great work Maxie! I'll be bookmarking this tutorial. Thanks! ?

[LeeMcD-]

If you are using Photoshop you can use the slice tool to make it a little easier to split the image into different parts. The slice tool is in the right click menu on the crop tool (shortcut c).

 

There are two ways you can use the slice tool. The easiest is to draw a rectangle around your trophy card (after you've done all your bg graphics) and photoshop will automatically split the canvas into different sections for you. This is handy but it's not the most intuitive as it sometimes creates more sections than necessary.

 

Using the slice tool the other way is very similar to cropping the image only you can see the boundaries of each section clearly before you save it.

 

The slice tool also lets you save each section as an individual image if you use the "Save for web and devices" option in the File menu instead of the normal save function. When you save it this way it will create a folder in the place you want with each of the images named "mynewsig_01.png" "mynewsig_02.png"

 

 

Edited April 9, 2017 by mumpel

[grimydawg___]

YO LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

19 minutes ago, mumpel said:

If you are using Photoshop you can use the slice tool to make it a little easier to split the image into different parts. The slice tool is in the right click menu on the crop tool (shortcut c).

 

There are two ways you can use the slice tool. The easiest is to draw a rectangle around your trophy card (after you've done all your bg graphics) and photoshop will automatically split the canvas into different sections for you. This is handy but it's not the most intuitive as it sometimes creates more sections than necessary.

 

Using the slice tool the other way is very similar to cropping the image only you can see the boundaries of each section clearly before you save it.

 

The slice tool also lets you save each section as an individual image if you use the "Save for web and devices" option in the File menu instead of the normal save function. When you save it this way it will create a folder in the place you want with each of the images named "mynewsig_01.png" "mynewsig_02.png"

 

 

 

[Zanreo]

Nice tutorial, thanks x3 might try this later!

Edited April 10, 2017 by Zanreo

[Zanreo]

And done

 

[Maxie_M0us3]

On 2017-04-11 at 1:17 AM, Zanreo said:

And done

 

 

Good!  Enjoy your new signature! ?

[Maxie_M0us3]

Btw @mumpel I added your tip into the guide. Thanks, I'll try it out sometime soon.

[HaserPL]

Very good looking :). Thanks for sharing it.