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by acsguitar » Tue May 17, 2005 3:42 pm Feel free to post your own advice/questions/downloads or anything you find helpful! Enjoy
Another New Tutorial!:
http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/foru ... p?t=218721
NEW VIDEO TUTORIALS!!:
http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/foru ... p?t=178006
FAQ's:
Q: How do I make an avatar or sig fall within the memory size limit?
A: Open your picture using a photo editing program; This includes but is not limited to:
Photoshop
The Gimp
Irfan Viewer
Take your picture and open it with one of these programs. The Gimp and Photoshop let you create and resize while Irfan Viewer is only a viewer but is good if you just want to quickly resize images.
After it is open go ahead and do a File > Save As
The program should now let you choose the quality. It will probably say save between 0-100% quality usually on a sliding tool. The Gimp allows you to also check the file size as you raise and lower image quality.
See below for a screen shot from The Gimp. Notice above the Sig it says 400 x 100. Also, notice that due to this size I have to save the file at 70% quality (not good) in order to get it below 12.0 KB.
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Q: How do I make a sig?
A: If you want to do it yourself then download a photoediting program.
Photoshop is not free.
The Gimp is free.
Both are extremely powerful. I won't go into total detail right now but I will post some Tutorials later. I use The Gimp because I'm cheap and poor!
Basically your sig has to be 12kb and below and 468H x 100W.
One thing to realize is that a 468 x 100 sig takes up more memory therefore I like to make sigs about 300 x 100 to make that 12kb picture look clearer then it would at 468 x 100.
You can use layering, coloring, and any other number of effects to make your sig look rocking.
Or if you don't want to make a sig you can request one from anyone here in the forums. We like making them!
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Q: How do I make an Avatar.
A: Basically Av's are the little pictures in the left hand corner right under your "Username" or "Handle". You make them the same as you make sigs..Except they are much smaller.
Under 6 kb's total and 80h x 80w. An easy way to make one is to download Irfan Viewer which is free. Then take your favorite picture and just simply do a Scale Image as seen below using IRFAN VIEWER...Different programs have different options but its usually called Scale or Resize.
Next set it to 80 x 80 pixels and make sure that it lets you change the height and width seperately..Notice the perserve aspect ratio check box...This means if you change a 120h x 60w image to 60h it will automatically make it a 30w. Don't check this usually. Sometimes this will be symbolized by a chain, for locked aspect, or a broken chain to signify that you may change it however you like it. Check below.
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Q: How do I get my image from my computer to the Forum?
A: For an Av you upload it through your profile. For a sig you need to host it. I use http://photobucket.com its free and there is lots of space! Use it!
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Now some links to some good tutorials! But of course using GOOGLE and typing in Tutorials is a good way to go!
For the GIMP:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials
http://empyrean.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nem/gimp/tuts/
http://gimp-savvy.com/
For PHOTOSHOP: Thanks to Joshyboy for these
http://www.good-tutorials.com
http://www.photoshopcafe.com
Brushes (and some more tutorials)...
http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/ ... psbrushes/
http://www.silent-sceptiks.com/conscell/
http://www.greycobra.com/index.php
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FONTS: Making text is fun and crucial to a sweet sig, but finding the cool font's can be tricky. Simply download the font's into your windows font's directory, which is somewhere I don't remember. Or in the case of The Gimp just download them to the Gimp Font's directory which is under Documents and Settings > (username) > .gimp 2.2 or something like that. If someone could tell me the font's directory location that would be cool too!
Leal told me about this one and so this is what I use cause they are free and because there are lots of them!
http://www.acidfonts.com
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DOWNLOADS
A bit repetitive since I have them above but here ya go again.
Photoshop
The Gimp
Irfan Viewer
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My Really Quick Sig Tutorial:
Ok here ya go. We are going to make a sig very quickly and easily. I'm not taking my time so please don't tell me how bad it stinks
I'm using the GIMP and I assume that others in the future will post how to use photoshop and what not.
This is the Gimp:
Anyways Lets make a sig!
Step#1
Open a new file: Make it 300 x 100 and make it have a white background to start. This will be our main background. Notice you can also make it transparent or foreground or background color. Exciting!
Step#2
Make a background: You can cut and paste other pictures onto this or just color it and add effects. I'm going to color it and add effects. Notice the pretty colors and selection of square brush. Looks ugly oh well.
Step#3
Add effects to the pretty colors: This way I can hold onto some of my man hood. Under filters there are lots and lots of cool FX's. Play with them learn them. They can make stuff stand out, Lights flare, etc. I choose for this to do an IWARP under distort. But if you wanted to blur or something you can do that through the blur feature as seen below. I also do some bump mapping and lighting that im not showing.
Step#4
I use the Iwarp and swirl up the colors manually. Ok I guess we are doing some sort of 60's backdrop.
Step#5
Download dirty Hippy from google and cut him and paste him into our hippy backdrop. Anchor him down good we don't want him getting the munchies and running away.
Step#6
Create text in other "New" file. Make this file transparent and copy and paste the text into the background/hippy layer.
The Finished Product
Ta Da! Hippy Sig Hurray! Maybee AA would like it j/k! Go to Image > Flatten image or else it won't save as a JPEG..Now you can resize it like I showed above and post it up here. Simple and easy!
Any questions?
Got CS 2 myself 
