Banner Tutorial TCG 1

[rashiea]

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CREDIT TO: mmrobitussin for the icon.
Icon used with permission. Placements and contests are fictional for tutorial purposes only.

	Copy and paste the icon to a 300x100 canvas. Align left.
	Copy the little fin/lace waves on the top right of the icon.
	Duplicate and merge the above step to create a full lined background that covers the whole icon.
	Use gaussian blur to smooth the waves in the background. Radius 3.3%
	Use smart sharpen on the background layer to create firmer lines so it isn't so blurry and out of focus. Amount 217% Radius 22.6% *note: the settings in this say it removes the gaussian blur, however it would just sharpen wavy lines if you skipped the previous step
	Duplicate background layer. Set to soft light 100%
	Duplicate background layer again. Set to screen 20%
	Add a brightness contrast layer. Play with this to adjust the colors to your liking.
	Add the appropriate text you want for your banner. Font color #FFFFFF Name font Charlesworth Placement font Vivaldi Community & week font Times New Roman
	Add drop shadows to the name and community text.
	Duplicate the placement text layer. Change the color of the bottom layer to #213559 *note: I used the teardrop function to pick this color up from the banner background itself.
	Move lower placement text layer (the dark one) left 2px and down 1px to offset top layer.

This is good for texture banners. Similar text styles can be used for image banners. Personally I don't like image banners because:

1. They take a lot of time to match up the images.
2. They can make text very hard to read.
3. They can make it hard to tell what is the icon and what is the banner.

That's my preference though. Hopefully this all makes sense to anyone who wants to use it. XD;;