I love making siggy tags, thought I would share a few with you. This lesson is done in Digital Image 10, but probably possible in other versions if you have basic knowledge of fliters/gradients and animation. I will hit on making gold text with only using the filters in all PI/DIP versions, then adding gradient and changing the color, then making a reflection and finally making waves. So here we go!!!

First you want to open a new project by clicking...

We need to resize it down to a tag size, I like 300x200 pixels. To do this you will go to FORMAT/RESIZE CANVAS/CUSTOM RESIZE. Make sure it is set at PIXEL here

Now click on the first box and type in 300.

And type in the second box 200.

Go to INSERT/SHAPE/SQUARE when the shape is added, you will see this

You want to get rid of the border (sure wish the shapes added without it...LOL!) To get rid of it, you want to go to this icon on your toolbar

And then click on MORE and in this new window click NONE & OK. You have to resize your added shape to fit your 300x200 box. Just click and drag the size balls to the out side. Now we are ready to start on our tag!
First lets fill the background with out gradient. You will go to EFFECTS/FILL WITH TEXTURE OR COLOR. Choose to fill with GRADIENT.

I add this gradient

Now I add this direction filter

And I get something like this

Click DONE and now we are goning to add text. I like a nice fat font, but that is up to you.

Now we need to make it look like gold. First click on the text, and now we need to make it gradient, sort of like the background we did. I use these 2 options

I now add a little texture, so that it will look more like gold. Go to EFFECTS/FILTERS/ALL FILTERS. I add this filter to my text

Click done and now go back in to the filters and add this one

Your name will look like this

You can leave it black, looks pretty that way, but that isn't what I want, so I will duplicate the name (CTRL+d), choose the top layer and fill with yellow.

I now go to EFFECTS TRANSPARENTCY/EVEN and make it transparent enough to see the bottom layer.

I am not finished tweaking it yet! Now click on the first layer in your stack and then hold down the CTRL key and click on the 2nd layer of the name, you will now see a lock at the bottom

Click on it to lock it.

Now go to TOUCHUP/EXPOSURE AND LIGHTING, here you will use the Brightness and Contrast tools. I used these settings on mine, but you can choose whatever you like.

And mine looks like this

We need to make a duplicate of the text. Click on the text so that it is selected. And click CTRL+d. You will see it in your STACK list.

Click on the bottom name and we need to go to FORMAT/FLIP/SELECTION OBJECT. You need to click on the middle option. And click done. You may have to move the first name up a little, so that you can grab and move the bottom name down to the bottom of your tag. Now place the top name down so that the letters touch. Each font is different. Mine only touch on the first and last letter, so you choose how you want yours to look.

Click the bottom name and now go to EFFECTS/TRANSPARENY EVEN, I chose to make it 60% transparent, so that it looks like a shadow. And it looks something like this

I want to change the background color to make it look more like water, or at least set off the color of the text. So I click on the background to select it and go to TOUCHUP/COLOR AND SATURATION, I choose these settings

And it looks like this

Right now go to FILE/SAVE AS and name your name, this will be the first frame. Save all your frames in PNG. Now for the animation frames for the waves. You want to click on the bottom name and go to EFFECT/DISTORT (not distortion brush!). You will choose this filter.

The setting is always +40, but we do not need this much distortion. So you will adjust it to just "one" in the first frame. Once you add it, click done and again go to FILE/SAVE AS. Once you save it, you need to click UNDO, and go back to the orignal, and again go back to effect/distort and add a #2 wave. You will repeat up to 4, then you when you get to 4, you will save, click undo and then go back in and go back down to 3...2...1, once you get to 1 and save, and click undo, you will now go in and add a -1...-2...-3...ect, again saving and undoing each time. up to -4, then again go back down to -3...-2...-1 and then stop. You do not want to make a "0"frame here. Of course you can always go higher than 4 if you want a bigger wave. It is up to you. Close your tag, and now open all your frame in order...1, 2, 3, 4 ect. And click TOOLS/FLIPBOOK. Click next without doing anything. Click next again without doing anything. If your size is the same size as what you started off with, then again click next without changing anything.

In the next frame you can choose how fast the animation moves. You can set something like this

Click next and see if you like it, if you do save it, if not, then click the little arrow and go back to change it. And there ya have it! Have fun, try different filters and gradients and see what you can come up with :-)