[1] Making the Userbar
Here are the basic steps of whipping up a Userbar.
Note: This tutorial is made for Gimp, but it is easily converted to PhotoShop
Step 1
Make a new image, 359 x 19 px
Step 2
Use the blend tool to create a gradient with two colors of your choice.
Step 3
On a new layer, use the fill tool on Pattern Fill to fill the the layer with the scan line pattern, which you can get here. Set that layer to about 30% opacity
How to Install ScanLine Pattern
Step 1
Download the Pattern from the link above
Step 2
Save the file to C:\Documents and Settings\[Your User Account]\.gimp-2.[Version Number]\patterns
Step 3
Restart Gimp (or start it if you didn’t have it open)
Step 4
On a new layer, use the Elliptical Select Tool and select the top portion of the image, fill it with white and set the layer to about 35% opacity
Step 5
Now, go to [url=http://spriters-resource.com/]The Spriter’s Resource[/url] and get the sprite sheet of your choice. On a new canvas, paste the sheet in and use the rectangle select tool to select the sprite of your choice. Paste it into your Userbar on a new layer, get rid of the background using the fuzzy select tool, and position it
Step 6
Now, using Visitor TT1, type your text in either black or white size 10 and position it on the opposite side of your sprite
How to install font
1. Extract the files out of the .zip file
2. Move the .ttf file to C:\Documents and Settings\[Your User Account]\.gimp-2.[Version Number]\fonts
3. Restart Gimp
Step 7
Now duplicate the Text Layer and move the copy under the original. Go to Layer>Layer to Image Size then Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection. Now go to Select>Grow by 1px. Now use the fill tool on Fill Whole Selection and fill the selection with the opposite color of your text color.
Step 8
Now go to Filters>Decor>Add Border with the X & Y size to 1px and the color as black.
Your final product should turn out like this:
That’s it on making the Userbar, now we go to color choice
[2] Userbar Color Choice
Userbars may seem simple, they are, but there are things that make your Userbar good or bad. One of those things is Color Choice.
When choosing colors, you want to make the blending flow. By that I mean you don’t want a quick blend that is just, for example, red to black, as it creates a weird effect. Something like blue to a lighter blue would be ideal. You also want something that matches you’re sprite, for example:
Good:
Bad:
Notice that the Red/Black one doesn’t look as good as the Blue/Lighter Blue one.
[3] Sprite Choice
For sprites on userbars, you want to be able to easily take one color and a lighter/darker shade of that color from the sprite using the color picker tool on PS and Gimp (or whatever GFX prgram you use). A bad sprite to choose would be this:
See it has two sets of colors that are used widely. Making a userbar with this sprite would work, but you could easily mess up.
An example of a good sprite would be this:
Notice it is mainly blue, but with two or more shades. This Megaman sprite would be the way to go over the Hunt
[4] Making your userbars ‘Pop-Out’
You may see people’s userbars have the render outside of the userbar boundaries. This gives a cool 3D-effect, many users may not know how to do this, so that’s where I come in.
Step 1
You need to go back to the .xcf/.psd of your userbar (if you don’t save the .xcf before the .png or whatever, you should do that, it will help you with sigs and other graphics) and turn the layer with the render invisible. Then go to Edit>Copy Visible.
Step 2
Create a new image the width of your userbar, but the height of the render. Paste your userbar in.
Step 3
Now paste your render in, position and scale it to your liking.
Now save it, and you’ve just made a pop-out userbar!
