I dont seem to be able to edit my first post so here's the faction symbol chapter:

Faction Symbols:

As above you'll need Photoshop (any version from 6 and up) to make the gfx, and preferably a Wacom tablet, but a normal Mouse will do just fine too.
when graphics for m2tw you can go two ways with it: stylized or realistic. Stylized is kind of how the vanilla symbols are. we'll be aiming for Realism!
Here follows my symbol for the Kingdom of England:

1)
Open photoshop, and make a new canvas size 500x500 and fill it with black (shift + F5)

2)
Go on google and seach for a photography of a shield, and copy it into your canvas. I found this one:
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid4/turke...s/DSCN6342.JPG

3)
The image is huge, so we need to resize it. Do this by pressing Ctrl + T and, while holding down shift, minimize the shield until it takes up a good portion of your canvas. So far it looks like this:


4)
Take the erase tool (E) and delete the background wall from the photo. Make sure you erase with a round, hard edged brush:



5)
You have probably noticed that the top of the shield is missing. This is probably the hardest part of the tutorial, because we have to paint something entirely from scratch. We address this by using the Clone-Stamp tool combined with the Brush tool. First select the clone-stamp tool (S), and make sure it has these settings:


6)
Make a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N). Pres and hold down the alt key and the curser changes into a bullseye. Click this bullseye on a part of the neighboring shield rim. You can now copy the part you selected with the bullseye onto the missing shield rim. This is Hard! for a first timer it takes alot of practice and alot of bullseye samples to get it right. If your relatively new to photoshop I suggest you find a different shield than i did. This is how mine looks like after repetitively sampling and painting. i used the brush tool to paint in the base and then the clone-stamp tool to add the photo-realism:


7)
Take your erase tool and erase the middle section of the shield:


8)
Go to mayang (http://www.mayang.com/textures/) and find a good wood texture. One of these are good:
http://www.mayang.com/textures/perl/...ks_5160263.JPG
http://www.mayang.com/textures/perl/...ds_6190214.JPG

9)
paste the wood texture into your canvas, and place the layer beneath your shield layer. Use Ctrl+T to rotate and minimize the wood.

10)
Make sure your wood layer is selected and press Ctrl+M. This bring up the Curves tool. It is THE most power tool to manipulate lighting, colors and a whole punch of other things. Make it something like this:

After this you could use the Brush tool to make the wood look better (i did that on my symbols).

11)
So, to sum up what we have so far: A border and a background. and both of them are on separate layers to that we can change their colors independently.


12)
Now we need to find the symbol itself. Im making the English symbols so i go on google and try and find a good symbol:



13)
And now for something completly different: Color editing. select your rim layer and open up curves (ctrl+M) or color balance (Ctrl+B). Color Balance is pretty straight forward, and i recommend it to people not so accustomed to photoshop. But for the best result use curves. First select red and drag the line upwards (putting more red into the color), then select green and pull the line downwards (to remove green from the color):



14)
Do the same for the wooden background

15)
OPTINAL: take the brushtool and lightly paint some scratches and dirt onto the shield, it will make the shield look better in preview, but it wont be visible in the game.

16)
Congratulations! you've made your first faction symbol!



For how to add the symbol into the game i recommend alpaca's tutorial:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=81326

Some of my Symbols put into a menu im making for the Stainless Steel modification:


My faction symbols, which you are free to put into your mod (but kindly leave me a note):
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92839