Yes I didn't get the best result but this is quick and easy to do. It is better than tossing pics and text together. This is meant for a quick and intentional sig made to have a nice graphical sig, no a funny one so it is not the best route in a lot of cases such as sprite sigs, comic sigs, and joke siggys. I am not that great at making tutorials, so if you need help understanding where to find stuff, just ask

This is a photoshop tutorial. soyy I dont have or use gimp

i dont own or know how to use gimp or Pain.net

Hmmmmm, simple and effective.

This thread should be stickied in Incredible Art btw

Cool man I have always wnated to be good at making sigs so I could be something I might start working on.

Nice Tutorial. I just hate using C4Ds...but thats just me.

You don't HAVE to use C4Ds. if you want you can use brushes or renders for the same effect if you use the right ones. C4Ds are used to help with flow, color, or filler when this is too much solid space around in an area.

Some people hate using brushes that aren't part of the defaults as well, this is one that doesn't use custom brushes so you dont have to hunt for any I used as I only used the defaults

You can make,a whole sig without C4D or custom brushes, but soemtimes you will want them to help with flow, but with the right editing knowledge you can get a good effect with images. Though thta is the same as using C4Ds in its own way.

When using a C4d, you dont want to make it the central editing portion. some people just toss them in there as is, but they should be used to help flow the sig or add color and depth through erasing, styles, etc.

I used a couple of C4Ds here but I didn't toss in as is and leave them there. they look ugly without editing

You can make a good signature with very little editing if that is its purpose. However, you don't want to put too many renders on a sig as it will not look right. This is because the size of it will usually have too much content and not have a focal. A good signature needs a focal. When you have too many renders, you usually end up losing focal and thus the eyes naturally won't be directed towards it.

Though I think the one you posted is quite boring, it has a focal because its hard to miss the giant joker head.


The purpose of the tutorial was to show you to make a simple sig using graphical elements rather than simply throwing a render on and some text. Though if done properly it can look good, it was not the purpose of the tutorial. If you can make good signatures, both with minimal to with a lot of photoshop-like effects, then it is probably gonna end up with the better being the one with some more effects, because that is how the eye works unless your are colorblind or just blind period. Though keep in mind they would both need to be well done for that scenario to happen.

A good sig with a render and concept will beat out a ugly edited signature any day because of how it looks.

Point of this all is this: you can't just throw a few renders on there(for multiple reasons) but you also can not just wildly edit something and suspect that it will be good. Regardless it all comes down to fundamental things like focals, color, concept, etc. You can't always get everything done perfect, but you need to at least keep it in mind regardless if you want to do minimal stuff like that joker signature or highly edited stuff.

A sig with little editing that keeps all of the fundamental ideas intact is always gonna beat out a sig with great photoshop effects with none of these working. However against one with good eiditng and the same fundamentals intact will always win just ebcause of how it works. Not that the one with less is not a great sig, it is just how general judgement works.


Lesson here for the third time stated: As Link said, you don't always need graphical editing for a good sig, but you need to keep in mind other things no matter what

Could someone explain C4D to me in Lamen's terms? I don't quite understand it...