Java Security

Hello everyone, my question is very newbish but i failed to find any help on the net

I have a project for a class im undertaking where im supposed to simulate communication between 2 users using digital signatures.I decided to accomplish this using java and keytool. Im going to use keytool to create the certificates used and software to emulate 2 clients and the CA.
So far i have created a self signed certificate using keytool that will be the CA's certificate, at this point i need to create 2 more certificates for the 2 users. I understand that the certificates must be signed by the CA but the knowledge of the private key should be exclusive to each user.

As i understand the events to finish the project should be something like this

1.Create self signed certificate for CA and export it to .cer file
2.Each user creates his key-pair (certificate?)
3.CA creates certificates for the users and signs them
4.Export the certificates of the users
5.Sofware uses the local .cer files and the keys to sign/verify signatures and verify certificates using the CAs certificate.

Well my question is if this series of events is correct and how am i going to accomplish them.As i stated atm i have a self-signed certificate, from here do i create 2 more keystores,one for each user? A keytool comand tutorial would be grealy appreciated.

ps: Im very confused about the steps 2 and 3 and if someone could type the commands used it would be great :P

Thanks in advance.