Very cool idea for a thread.

Let's see, when I first joined, my sig was completely text-based and looked like this:
-Jeff
Then I made it bigger
-Jeff
Then I saw some sigs with text gradients, so I made my own.
-Jeff

I had that last one for a while, but I started playing around with Paint.net since I was using it to make images for the main site. I saw some online tutorials for some neat effects like the shiny brushed metal look, and added a gradient tint to it, to keep that green-cyan gradient that I had for so long. I had just registered at serebii with the name Pokemaster Jeff (since Jeff was already taken), so I used that as the name on my sig.


I ended up changing it mostly because of Bulbagarden. They were planning on upgrading to VB4, but due to the new layout (with the sig sitting underneath the avatar and profile info), the admins there decided to put some heavy restrictions on sig height, and my sig didn't make the cut. I also figured it was time for something new, and decided that it was time I added the Pokemon font to my Pokemaster Jeff sig and gave it a brighter look, so I came up with this:

Looking back, it could have probably been better, but I was rushed since I had to switch to the shorter sig. I accomplished what I set out to do though, this one is only 75 pixels tall, compared to the older one, which is 100 pixels tall.

My current sig (as of me writing this post) came about when I was working on re-doing the TPM logo in 2011 since my image editing skills had improved since I had made an older version of the logo back in 2009. When looking at the image with just the blue outline and shadow, I actually really liked the look of it. I figured I'd stick with the traditional blue and yellow look for the logo, but liked the outline and shadow only look so much that it became my new sig. With the same green-cyan gradient I've had since the beginning and a faint dark outline to make it work on light backgrounds, I came up with my current sig, which I don't intend on changing any time soon:

It's also even smaller than my previous sig at a mere 61 pixels tall. The actual text is bigger due to it having no background.