Signature :O

[Shaibana]

i want a new signature, i sort of started it, but unfortunalty i suck at it...
got 3 pictures of 3 different anime´s and i cant blend it with eachother
its all too different :(

This is what ive got so far
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i dont like it :( Zack has to be more on the background, but when i fade him you can see the background through his head..
Would love to have these kind of effects in it:
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But i have no clue how...

Anyone know how i can make it better? or any tips?
or can anyone make it for me? (a)
thanks alot already!!

[Pheesh]

Are you using photoshop, and if so, which version?

[Shaibana]

Photoshop Cs4

[Pheesh]

Hehe, I was bored >_>

The easiest way to 'fade' your stock is with blending effects, they're located in the drop down bar at the top left of your layers panel.
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Try messing around with various effects in there; overlay, lighten, screen and soft light are ones that I find myself using often. The only thing is that because your background is a plain black more or less they may not work so well, but if you add effects like that second sig then you should have more luck.

As for how to get effects like that second sig; it looks to me like a mixture of a starry brush, a c4d, a layer mask and various layer effects. Then he's added a glow around the actual stock.

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Here's my best quick attempt at it (ignore the hastily chopped out stock). In this image I've added a simple black to white gradient, then put the first bit of glow around my stock. I also went to filter>artistic>film grain and applied that to the layer that my glow was on (layer three in the image), but it looked fine without it as well.
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I decided to do the C4D next, probably not the smartest order tbh but whatever (I moved the stock and glow to the right because I had no room to put the C4D in). Obviously I don't have the same C4D as that guy, but I found one that's similar, then dragged it into the image. I copied it three times, keeping the first (layer 5 in the pic) completely devoid of effects. The second (Layer 4 Copy) I went to filter>blur>motion blur and then blurred it a few pixels diagonally; after that I added a filter>disort>glass effect, which is how I got that ripple that's coming off of the c4d, it also has a 'colour burn' blending effect, which is found in that drop down menu in my first pic. The third only has a filter>blur>gaussian blur (Layer 4) so that it fills in any gaps. Then I rubbed out about half of Layer 5, so that the distorted Layer 4 Copy was more visible.
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*takes deep breath* Finally, I added some swirly glow brush strokes off the top of the stock and set them to 'overlay' in the blending options so that they merged into the white on the right side of the image. I added a filter>render>lens flair on the bottom of the image. And finally I added a Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter and set the blending option to...*checks*...lighten. I also smurfed up and took a print screen before I'd put the photo filter on top of the other layers, but you get the idea.
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Obviously that image I've made looks like an absolute bucket of assholes, because none of it merges together and the stock is completely wrong, but hopefully you get a good idea of how you could replicate some of those effects in your sig. If you need me to explain anything further or take some more print screens then just let me know :)