This is my first tutorial, so don't expect it to be very good.

I'm going to show you how to make a sig that looks something like this:


It might not end up exact, but I'll try to remember what I did.

Open a new document 400x120 with a transparent background.

BASE
Go Select/All. Now go Select/Rounded Rectangle - 50% radius, concave unchecked. OK. Now make your foreground colour black. Fill in the selected shape with the bucket, so you have a black, rounded rectangle. It should now look like this:


GLOW
Go Select/Shrink - 10 px, check shrink from image border. OK. Create new transparent layer called 'Glow'. Have it selected. Make foreground black, and background colour of your choice. I used red in the original sig, I'm using blue in this sig. Use the gradient tool. Drag from top of selection to bottom (use ctrl to make it straight) so it looks like this:

Go Select/All. Go Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur - 30px. OK. It should now look like this:


HIGHLIGHT
Create new transparent layer called 'highlight'. Right click on the Background layer in the Layers box. Go Alpha to Selection. Go Select/Shrink - 5px. OK. Select rectangle tool. In tool options, select the 'Subtract From Current Selection' box. Drag rectangle across the bottom half of selection, so you are left with this:

Select 'Highlight' layer in Layers box. Select gradient tool. Have foreground as white. In tool options, make it 'FG to transparent'. Now drag gradient from top of selection to a bit past the bottom, so it looks like this:

Drag guides from the top of the Image box, and left side of the image box, so it is set up like this:

Select Perspective Tool. Click on selection so that little boxes appear on the corners. Drag the two bottom boxes to where the guides intersect, like this:

Click Transform in the little box. It should now look like this:

Drag the guides back to the sides. It is now a floating layer, so click the little page icon in the bottom left corner of the Lyers box:

You can delete the Highlight layer now, and call the new one Highlight. Now you've finished your glassy thing! Here's what mine looks like:

Sorry, I forgot to change transparentcy of highlight - make it 80%.

METAL CORNERS
Right click on the background layer and go 'Alpha To Selection'. Now go Select/Invert, so that the corners are selected. Make a new, transparent layer called 'Corners', and put in on the top of the layers stack. With the bucket, fill the selection with grey. I used 909090.It should look like this:

Duplicate the 'Corners' layer, and fill the corners of that with white, like this:

Go Select/All. Then go Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur - 8px. Now select original 'Corners' layer and go Filters/Map/Bump Map. The Bump Map you are using is 'Corners Copy'. Map type is Linear. Compensate for darkening checked. Nothing else checked. Depth - 8. OK. Delete 'Corners Copy' from Layers box. It should look like this:

Have 'Corners' layer selected. Go Layer/Colours/Curves. Make it look like this:

OK. Now it should look like metal like this:


METAL BAR
Using the rectangle tool (make sure you click the 'replace' box, since we had it on 'subtract' before), select a bar across the image, like this:

Make a new transparent layer called 'Bar'. Fill the selection with the same grey we had before (909090). Duplicate the layer, and fill selection on the new layer with white. Go Select/All. Then go Filters/Blur Gaussian Blur - 10px. OK. Select original 'Bar' layer. Go Filters/Map/Bump Map - Use 'Bar Copy', keep other settings. OK. Delete 'Bar Copy' Layer. It should now look like this:

Go Layer/Colours/Curves. Have the graph like before:

It should now look shiny like this:


TEXT OUTLINE
Put in some text in any colour.

Duplicate it. Right click on the newest text layer in the Layers box. Go Alpha To Selection. Go Select/Grow - 5px. Fill with 909090 - use ink or large brush to fill in gaps.

Select the first text layer, right click and go Alpha To Selection. Go to newest layer and go Edit/Clear. Go Select/All. Do the same that you did with the pipe and corners with the text outline, using 8px on the Gaussian Blur. It should end up like this:


COLOUR OF TEXT
Make the original text a colour that looks good with your glassy thing.

Right click on original text layer, go Alpha To Selection. Go Select/Shrink - 2px. make a new transparent layer called 'Text Glow'. Fill the selection with a lighter version of the text colour.

Go Select/All. Then go Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur - 8px.

Go Alpha To Selection on original text layer. Cut the bottom half off using subtract with the rectangle tool. Create new transparent layer called 'text highlight' Fill with white fading to transparent, like highlight on glassy thing.

Go Select/All. Make 'text highlight' layer 80% opacity. Add drop shadows on text and pipe.

Add lots of small text behind the 'highlight' layer, saying whatever you want. Make it 60% opacity.
I adjusted the 'highlight' layer to 70% opacity because it looked better.

Here is my result:


Original:


Hope you can understand everything in this tutorial!

Wow I really like this tut it will be great for my site banner thx :w:

Great tutorial! I was curious how you made that signature. Great job, could you link me to the text in both signatures please?

Yes. I'll go see if I can find them

looks cool ill make it tomorrow

This looks really cool, thanks =D

adding the text on the bar took me a long time but heres my result (didnt wana add little text in bg)

nice tut :w:

Looks really good! But you didn't get the silver border on the text. Or did you mean to do that? Thankyou for trying it anyway! I'd love to see some other peoples results.

A nice tutorial and a good looking signature too. I don't do sigs, but I like that metallic text.
.
Griatch

Nice job, might do this later

Also it might look better with no corners

nothing but AWSOME, thanks from a newbie

excellent tutorial for your first. pretty cool results!

forgot to do the levels thing on the text, though....

i tried to get silver border on the text but it wansnt working out then i got that and figured it was good enough also i used a diferent method on making the metal edges

sweet tut but i suck wit h text

Nice tut!

I'll add the little text tomorrow...

You look like the only one who got the silver text border to work jJmF1226. These are the steps to make something shiny:

1. Duplicate
2. Alpha To Selection on top layer
3. Fill with white
4. Select/All
5. Filters Gaussian Blur
6. Filters/Map/Bump Map on bottom layer, using top layer
7. Delete top layer
8. Layer/Colours/Curves (like in picture)

^ Remember to do all of this ^

Haha, you're right. That's cause I'm awesome, lol. But really, it took me a little while to get it like that...

Anyway, I added the small text and arranged it in a little pattern:


What do you think?

Nice tutorial! I'll try in a second and post my outcome :l:

i like the little text! good job

Really great tut! I love the outcome! This might be one of the easiest tuts for me to follow (which is saying a LOT) it was so detailed and in depth. ^.^

Here's my result:


I don't like how my text...died like it did. Any advice on how to make it smoother?

Keep making tuts!
-CBD

Interesting result, I might try this later

how do i do this. i cant remember. :

CelibateButDashing, try blurring the text copy a few pixels with Gaussian blur after you clear the original text from it.

I tried this and combined it with a grunge-ish image I made a few months ago instead of the basic 1-color glow:

I think it came out nice.

I cant do the metallic outline no matter how hard i try. It just doesnt want to work. I keep going back to where i insert the text over and over again following your directions exactly. Please help me out.

The text proved to be a bit problematic but other than that this was an excellent tut.