Well, since there is hardly any GIMP signature tuts out there, I thought I'll make one.
This one out of my 3 starting series is a full Tech Sig using brushes (yes brushes not all the other tuts that use GIMP effects only).

---Section 1, Getting started
1.First open up GIMP. Then star a new file, 400x100.


http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3466/29tx.png

2.Then go to Edit>Fill with FG color, this color should be black, if not change it.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1428/34kj.png

3.There, we got our black background on the canvas, now lets go to the fun part....brushing.

---Section 2, Brushing the grunge

Now look at the main gimp window, I'll refer this as the main gimp window. Look at the little icon that loks like a painting brush, click it so we can get started.

http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/8844/untitled6cf.png

4.Now lets choose a grunge brush, for this tutorial I will be using Spazz Set 15, (the link to download will be at the bottom of the post) Now switch your fg color to white and lower opacity to 70. Choose one of Set 15's brushes.

http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/6917/40wb.png

5.Now switch back to the canvas and start clicking 3 to 5 times with 1 or 2 brushes. It should look something like this

http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/986/57um.png

6.Now go to Layer>New Layer and 400x100 and transparency.

http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/984/61od.png

7.Now repeat steps 4-6, 2-3 times. Going back from White to black for the fg each layer, so it should be, White>Black>white>black>white. The last white depends if you repeat 2 or 3 times.

It should look like this now.

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/1262/74wf.png

http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/9531/89vt.png

8. Now for giving the signature depth. Go back to the main window. Like you added the layers tab, click the little arrow, then Layers Menu. Then find Flatten Image and select it.

http://img493.imageshack.us/img493/8509/93ad.png

9.Now lets add depth to it. Now that you've flatten the image, go to the canvas window and Layers> Colors> Brightness and Contrast

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/1415/106df.png

10. You have the brightness and contrast screen up, move contrast to 43 and brightness to 10.

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/8051/116oz.png

---Section 3, color

11. Now for color, I have yet to find a useful way other than this of coloring in GIMP. You know how to create a layer, so create a layer. Than select the Graident tool on the main window. It should should look like a small rectangle with green on the left and a bit of white fading on the left.

http://img492.imageshack.us/img492/8448/127ku.png

12. Choosing colors..., I'm not going to explain how to make 3 or more colors on a graident but only 2. Pick your 2 colors like you would choosing black or white. Double click one of the squares that should be black or white. A screen should pop up. Choose your color. Do the same for the other block.

I'm going to do Red and Yellow

http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/7310/136ji.png

13. Now I have a canvas of yellow and red. But now it just covers up the background...so we have to blend it in the background. Go to the layers tab (you should know where it is) and look at a little part called "Mode". It should say normal, but not for long. Click the drop down menu and select "Overlay". Now your graident should blended into the canvas.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/pokem/14.png

14. Wait...it looks bland again...so lets do Brightness and Contrast again, but this time with a contrast of 30 and brightness of 26.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/pokem/15.png

Now, a good colored background, now for brushing the tech.

---Section 4, Brushing again...

15. For this part, I'm going to need tech brushes, well I do, and I'll include some downloads at the bottom. but first create a new layer.

16.Select some tech brushes, make sure your fg color is white, and start brushing in the border area and work your way inward, and try to connect your tech brushes, they all go together like a puzzle. This can take a while, making it look just right. Also raise your opacity to 100.

Do not forget to leave room for text.

This is what mine looks like after a while.

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5918/166rw.png

17. Now duplicate your layer, by going to the Layer>Duplicate Layer. Then set the layer you duplicated and the duplicated layer. Then set both layer modes to soft light. Then Merge them together

Now your sig looks a good brushed tech sig but were not done yet.

---Section 5, The Render

Well we need a render, choose something that goes good with it, mechs or futuristic types of renders work well.

18. Make a new layer, above your tech layer. Then paste your render onto the layer, and do anything you know to make the render look cool. I'm going to share a tip, Duplicate the render layer twice and do a gaussian blur of 2 on each. Then set the dupli layers on Soft light or Lighten for each one. This is what mine looks like now.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/5379/176kc.png

(You see I have a little strip of white right of the render, that happens if you feather when cutting it. Just erase it.)

---Section 6, Text

19. Choose a font you want and choose the text tool. It should look like a "T". Select you preferences and type it in the space you should have left open. If you want a outline on it

---Section 7, Finishing Results
20. Okay make sure you have everything in check. Touch up everything you need and it should look like a good tech signature.

Also make any good finishing effects you might have. One of mine is flattening the image, duplicating it, and doing a gaussian blur of 3 and set it to lighten or soft light.

This is my finished results.



(This is a more cleaned up version below)





Well this is not the best way to making a tech signature but it's somewhat good 0.o.

Credits and Downloads

First I would like to say thanks to Droz928 and fence-post for converting all these great photoshop brushes.

Also all of the brushes makers.

Spazz-Set 15

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24155410/

Leiyla Tech brush Pack 3-7

#3 http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22469230/
#4 http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22469366/
#5 http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22469524/
#6 http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22518994/
#7 http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22886160/

To get a brush into GIMP, move the brush files (.gbr) to, Program Files> GIMP> Share>Gimp>2.0>Brushes

welcome to GIMPTalk havok.

omg that much writing and screenshots.

I will try to grab all the images and host them at GT when I get some time.

Thanks so much for your contribution.

regards

well i did it so here my result..but which is better?





and what else do u recomend for me to add to make it better

hey,
im a newbie to gimp and this tutorial has really helped me :l: you really explained it thoroughly with pics so even people like me could do it :l:
gr8 tutorial!! thanks m8!!

Very nice job, Havok! Welcome to the boards!

Good details, screenshots, and I like how you explained which brushes you were using. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Art

i just cant seem to make anything, i try and fail all the time....

could anyone point me off in the right direction like something to start out with?

this is mine



im new to tech burshes so im not that good with them but there it is i hope it is good

Thanks everyone, I got banned off the comp for a week so i never got to everyones posts,

To the above quote, It's nice, try moving the slippy render above the tech part, and make the text more visible



Try to learn the interface of GIMP, try some stuff out, then look at some tutorials. That should help.



Thanks man.



Glad to hear that I could help.

hey,
im a newbie to gimp and this tutorial has really helped me you really explained it thoroughly with pics so even people like me could do it
gr8 tutorial!! thanks m8!!


well i did it so here my result..but which is better?






and what else do u recomend for me to add to make it better

Use the one with the border.

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

voila first tech sig ever

Cool my one is my sig, i think it is a great tut. I still need to add text but i like it. The stomr trooper render was hard to ciut out i was not siure what was background and what was the pic :h:

Now move onto next step....basic animation!

hmmm.... not my first sig ever, but my first tech, dont like it much

w00t ! first post:


what do you think?

Mark

I like the symbols they add a nice touch to the tech, i think the render should not be blended in as much though, but overlall that is a nice tech sig :h:

This is my second try at this tut. The whole Red and Yellow thing looked like puke, so I did it over and used orange, used your flatten duplicate softlight trick, then added the render. It looks better that way.

But Nice tut. And I like how you not only said where to get the brushes but how to get them to appear in GIMP. I never knew how to do that... :s:


Any way here it is:

heres a cd-covery-thingy i created with this tut



Edit : btw in the background i used some neverwinter nights brushes from deviantart

Mark

Umm.. yeah this is my first sig ever. So tell me how it is:


Also, how do you make images more transparent so that they blend into the background, as well as text like the word "Havok" in this signature?:

set the text layer on dodge? hard light? grain merge or grain extract, those usually work for text blending.

Yet another great tut on the forums. I'm going to make a hybrid of 3 different tuts sometime today.

Any good avatar tuts here?

Did this fast

****, It won't let me use brushes when I do the 'Color to FG' or whatever is used. Same thing when I add a new layer. Was that optional?

EDIT: My bad, I missed the "Change FG color to white" part.

Thanks Havok for your tutorial.
I'm new on gimptalk an new on GIMP :s:

This is my first attempt...



Not to bad for a newbe :l:

Very nice tutorial. This is what I used to do my first sig in Gimp. :h:

Here's what I got:

Very good tutorial, this is just one of the sigs that i have made using it :l:

Here's what I came up with in the end.



I like it very much. :h: