tutorial to using and to making a BASIC signature with the gimp.

Okay so i know somepeople dont have photoshop (me) and would like to start creating GFX. The gimp is a free program that can be downloaded HERE.
This program is basicly a free photoshop. Well anyway i guess im going to show you how to make a signature using The Gimp. and i may make more tutorials for The Gimp.
NOTE: These are all my own pictures etc as you will see during this guide/tutorial.
sorry if theres other guides out there, please note this was all my own work and i haven't seen another guide to making a basic signature like this on sythe.
Note: This was a quick and basic tutorial so please dont flame or judge my GFX skills by what has been produced in this tutorial, if your going to judge anything it should be my ability to educate other users and to help them learn things that they did not know before.


Okay

Step1
Download. and open The Gimp

Step 2
Go to File>New> and enter the dimensions you want for your signature, im using 450x150. Click ok then you should see your canvas, this is where your going to make your signature.


Step 3
Press 'L' and it should put you to your gradient tool. Then go back to Gimp and choose what colours and wich type of gradient you would like to use. Once you've chose them go back to your image and drag the gradient tool across your canvas and you will notice it has been filled with a mix of colour.

I did mIne and it looked like this



Step 4

Now its time to add some text, while on your canvas press 'T' to open up the text option. You can now go back to Gimp and change the font, colour and text size.
Click on your image and add some text.



Step 5

Ok, now you have a basic signature with a gradient and some text, now its time to make it look good and add some effects.
At the top go to Filters>Light and Shadow>Lighting effects,
a little window should open called lighting effects should pop up.
In the lighting effects window click on the light tab. Here you can add different lights to your picture and change the colour of them aswell as their position.
You can also click on material to change the strength and intensity of your lights.
At the top left corner will be your preview image, move the blue dot around to position your lights,
then click on the tab thats called bump map, click on enable bump map and at the bottom where it says maximum height change that to 0.01 and click ok.



Step 6

Ok well your practicly done and it doesnt look bad for your first attempt at a signature.
Now you can experiment with the other filters/effects.
Also a note, if you want to try to make another signature with gimp instead of using a gradient you can download brushes and use them to make your image look better. Here i added some brushes to my current demonstration to show what it could look like.

Once you've finished save your image, For Example call it 'gfxtest.png' and save it to My Pictures



Step 7

Now your done and all you need to do is go to Imageshack.us and upload your signature to there. Once it has been uploaded copy the link that says 'Direct link to image'.
Next go sythe.org and go to User CP>Edit Signature
then click on insert image and it will ask for the location of your image, all you have to do now is paste the link to your image in the little box that pops up. If you've done it correctly it should look like this.



All you have to do now is click 'Save Signature' and your done.