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Basic Banner Tutorial (using a free program!); Using Pixlr
Topic Started: Dec 9 2012, 03:31 AM (565 Views)
Layla
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I'm going to show y'all how to make a basic banner using Pixlr, a free online editor.

I've been wanting to make an easy tutorial for beginners for a while now, but I had to find a program that anyone can have access to. Not everyone has Photoshop, and plus, there are thousands of Photoshop tutorials out there that can do a much better job of explaining than I can. GIMP (AKA Photoshop, except it's free) is complicated and takes up a lot of space to download. I found Pixlr and after experimenting with it, I found it to be perfect for beginners who want to start making banners.

This is going to show you how to make a very simple banner. The result isn't going to be some fancy, schmancy banner with a gazillion effects, but hopefully it'll be something nice enough to show off in your signature! :)

This is what I came up with:
Posted Image

Yes, you can come up with something similar to that too if you follow this tutorial! I gave step-by-step instructions and added pictures (located under the spoiler tags) so hopefully no one will get confused.
What you need:

  • A picture of what you want your banner to be of
Screencaps work best for this tutorial. Here are a few examples of pictures that would be good for this tutorial:
Spoiler: click to toggle

Notice how the pictures aren't square? You want to find a picture that has a width that's longer than its height. Pick pictures that are 500x225 or larger.


  • Effects picture
Pick a pretty picture that you want to use for your banner. Simply type in "textures" in Google Images and you'll see a bunch of gorgeous pictures that you can use. Here are a few textures you can choose from:
Link 1
Link 2

For this tutorial, I picked an EJami screencap and a light blue picture as the effects.

--

Steps:

1) Go to http://pixlr.com/editor/. Click on the first box that says "Create a new image". Once you do, it'll show a window where you have to set the size of your banner. The default size is 800x600, but that is way too big. Change the width and height to 500x225 (or whatever size you want). Once you change it, click 'OK'.

Spoiler: click to toggle


2) You should see a white 500x225 rectangle. Maximize the window so that it would be easier to edit.
Spoiler: click to toggle


3) After that, go to the top of the page and click on where it says 'Layer'. Then click on 'Open image as layer'. It should show your files. Click on the picture you want to use in your banner. (The picture should be fairly large.) I'm going with a picture of EJami.
Spoiler: click to toggle


4) The picture we just opened is way too big. We're going to have to resize it. Go to the top of the page where it says 'Edit' and click it. Then click on 'Free Transform'. There should be these blue rectangles around the sides of the picture you just opened. While pressing the SHIFT button on your keyboard, drag the upper left blue square inwards, until the picture is smaller. If you are doing it right, the image should not look squished together. Once you think it looks like it's 500x225 (it's okay - and even recommended - that it's bigger than that size), click on the image and move it so it covers up all the white rectangle.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Once it looks okay, click on the light gray background outside and a box that says "Do you want to apply the changes?" will pop up. Click 'Yes'.
Spoiler: click to toggle


5) You've now laid out the foundation of your banner! It should look something like this now:
Spoiler: click to toggle


Now you want to add effects. To do that, click on 'Layer' and then 'Open image as layer' again - like how you did in Step 3. This time, you should click on the effects picture that you saved. I'm going to go with a light blue one. Again, you can resize and move it using the Free Transform tool, just like how I did with the EJami picture. Or you can leave it just as it is. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to leave it as it is.
Spoiler: click to toggle


6) Now click on 'Layer' again. Then click on 'Add layer mask'. Once you click on it, the effects picture should disappear. Don't freak out, that is okay!
Spoiler: click to toggle


7) Go to the toolbox on the left and click on the Brush Tool. Then near the top of the page, there should be a section that says "Brush:", "Opacity:", etc. Change the Brush size to 200. Change the Opacity to 50. Click outside in the light gray background to save the changes.
Spoiler: click to toggle


8) Now you're going to color in where you want the effects to appear. Don't freak out if it appears green at first - it will change to the right color of the effects later! I'm going to try to avoid to color in EJ's and Sami's face and just focus on painting the background.
Spoiler: click to toggle

Note: It's okay if you accidentally painted in a place where you didn't want to paint in. Just go to the Eraser tool (on the left toolbox) and erase the part where you messed up.

Remember that you can change the Brush size and Opacity to try to color in small spots too.

I decided that the contrast between the effects and EJami were too much, so I decided to change the Opacity to 10 and paint over EJami.
Here's what it looks like now:
Spoiler: click to toggle

9) Now we're going to change how the effects look. Go to the Layers toolbox (NOT the one at the top, but the one on the right.) and look for the tiny box on the left, which says Toggle Layer Settings. Then see where it says 'Mode'? It should currently be at 'Normal', but who the hell wants normal? :P Click on the different modes to see the effects change!
Spoiler: click to toggle


Here is what the effects look like under the 'Hardlight' mode.
Spoiler: click to toggle


However, I'm going with the 'Add' mode because it really makes the banner pop.
Spoiler: click to toggle


10) You're almost done now! Now I'm going to show you how to add text. Go to the left toolbox and click on the button with the letter A. Then click on your banner where you want to put the text. I'm going to put it in the bottom right corner. Then type in the text box whatever you want your banner to say. I put EJami (creative, right!? :P ). You can change the font type, font size, and color too.
Spoiler: click to toggle


11) Go to the right Layer toolbox again and change the Mode, just like how you did with the effects. This time I went with 'Overlay'.
Spoiler: click to toggle


12) Ta da! You're done! But remember to save your hard work! Go to 'File' and click on 'Save'. Then a box should appear and all you have to do is click 'OK' and you're done!
Spoiler: click to toggle


--

Now that wasn't so hard, was it? :)

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to post them below!
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Layla
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Also, it would be awesome if y'all were to try this tutorial out and then post what you came up with!
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