Okay, the first part of sig brushing is figuring out which to use. Let's go over some of the types, and I'll show some examples of each. Excuse me if it's not the greatest tutorial in the world...I was tired and got bored and rushed it a bit.

Abstract -- Abstract is pointed out by 3d shapes or by triangular-ish shapes. It's kind of hard to explain, but you should be able to recognize it if you see it, although some brush designers have different ideas of abstract. Basically, abstract brushes are useful in tech sigs.



Fractal -- Fractal brushes are defined by many lines and swirls, also hard to describe, but VERY easy to recognize. Fractals are one of the coolest looking brushes, IMO, but unfortunately, they're very hard to use. There's no real good way to use them...they just come in handy every now and then.



Normal Grunge -- Grunge is basically a dirty, scratched, or eroded looking style. It's probably the most used type of brush, simply because it's so versatile. You can use grunge in just about any sig.



Hard/Rust Grunge -- Bah...these are hard to describe...hard grunge is sort of a really chaotic looking grunge, that almost looks pixellated sometimes. Hard grunge is one of the more useful kind of brushes, and it's used for a really dirty or destroyed look.



Soft Grunge -- Soft(Cloud) grunge is a softly rounded grunge, that basically, looks like clouds. DO NOT use only soft grunge as your background. Soft grunge is more for details and blending, than backgrounds.



Sparkle -- Sparkle brushes are shown in a couple different ways. The main kind is by little balls of sparkles, or stars. These should rarely ever be used solely as a background, but more of an effect of an explosion or a spell. The second kind looks sort of like shattered glass, and it's very useful for blast or beam effects, but it can also on occasion, be used as a background.



Tech -- Tech is tech, plain and simple. It's made up of lines, numbers, etc. It should never be used as just a background, but it's used in tech-themed sigs, of course.



Vector -- Very similar to Tech, but it uses more arrows, circles and other shapes. It's used mainly in "different" sigs, ones that stray from the norm. Simplistic, stylistic, or minimalistic sigs.



Now, there are many more types of brushes, or variations/mixes of the previous ones, but those are the main ones. Now, the next step in choosing your brushes is to figure out which ones to use WHEN. This is usually decided by the render used with your sig. I'll go over the main brush types and which renders to use them with.

Abstract -- Mainly tech renders. See the Tech part up soon.

Fractal -- It's hard to decide when to use fractals, so I'll leave this one up to you.

Normal Grunge -- Just about any render can be used with grunge, as I said before, it's very versatile.

Hard/Rust Grunge -- This is mainly for "destroyer" renders, like war ones, tanks and such, or fighters, from tekken or street fighter or something. That's definitely not all it's limited to though.

Soft Grunge -- Like I said before, it's more of a detail and blending style, so it's also used in many different situations.

Sparkle -- It's used for explosions or beams or blasts, or spells or whatnow. This would be a weapon-wielding render, or a "magical" render, like a wizard.

Tech -- Tech brushing goes with tech renders. Robots, vehicles, futuristic things.

Vector -- This goes with "different" renders. Sleek and minimalistic ones, mainly.

Okay, that pretty much sums up CHOOSING your brushes. The next one I make will show you how to actually USE them.

As before, I'm linking a PSD that has the different brush styles, and an example of a render that might fit them. They are grouped into sets with the render and the brushing together, named after their style. Just make each set visible/invisible to check out the different ones.

"Now, remember, this is not for you to use as your sig. You may not use this or any part of it as your own. If any layer or part of it is found in a sig of yours, that is called a rip, which is basically image plagiarism, and I will not only make you remove it, but I'll also publicly declare you as an art theft, and the download will be taken away from everyone, to prevent further problems. Remember, this is just for you to LOOK and LEARN, I'm not giving it to you to use as your own. I've never had any of my art ripped, and I'd appreciate it if I could continue with that. If you REALLY want one of my sigs, send me a request through PM or instant message, and I'll most likely make you one anyway.

Okay guys, have fun, and look forward to future tutorials by me. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to help you out. And remember, this is just a general guideline. You don't have to follow it directly, and you can add/remove/replace steps as you wish. Experimenting is the key to becoming a good designer."

Made in Photoshop CS, so things may vary, but you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever with this one in particular.

Link to PSD:
http://www.pic-host.com/files/jfnli070cc.psd

This post has been edited by Johnny: Jul 23 2005, 09:52 PM

Very nice stuff, dude. You might wanna add links to you second tutorial now since you mentioned "in future tutorial" in it....

Again, I'll try this out later when I have enough time.

Meh, shouldn't be too hard to find it.

Hey Johnny,

At some point someone had to ask it.. But could you share with us, where you got those awesome tech brushes?

Thanks,
Kay (AKA Moonwitch)

Part one of the tutorials has a list of resources. Most of the ones here though, are from wurklash and nickmeister. Some other ones thrown in there too though.

well the thing with tech brushes though, you sort have to do take your time with them that means alot of trial and error to make them look good, you can't slap it on and say this is the best, i would have to say tech brushing is one of the hardest to and the one johnny did not even close, cuz the image is to flat, he had a good start but its need to stand out.

vectoring is next due to it bening able to make it stand out.

and then grunge, abstract, fractal are next due to them being the most easy to brush due to so many combinations to use them with.

Mike, you suck at sounding smart. j/k

Nah, I wasn't trying to make anything too great here. These are just examples of the different kinds of tech. You know how I operate. Nothing but the best.

And the reason that they're so hard to use is that they're small. So you have to use more of them to fill up a sig, so it's harder to get them to flow nicely, as opposed to grunge or whatever where you can find some big brushes and fill it up with one or two brushes, if you really want to.

And nah, fractal's are definitely the hardest to use, IMO.

This post has been edited by Johnny: Jul 24 2005, 05:17 AM

Thanks for this great tutorial! I actually understood it and that's saying something! It is well written and very easy to understand. The images really helped me see the difference between the different types of sig brushes. Now I'll be able to put a name to some of the styles I've seen. I look forward to reading the next part. Woot, brushes here I come!