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We will be making this guitarist signature created by Castro. Optional in this tutorial is the use of the topaz filter. It does not add that much to the final result, so you can simply skip this step if you don’t like the plugin or the filter. This signature uses a lot of adjustment layers, I tried describing them as good as I could. Premium members will be able to download the PSD file of this signature within 3 days, when we will be releasing the Premium Section. You can download the cinema4d renders in the Resources section. Enjoy!

Do not redistribute this tutorial on ANY website.

This is our final result:

Important in this signature is its flow and the lighting used to create depth. Shown in the image below is the lightsource (in the circle) and the direction of the signatures flow. Try creating an effect like this:

Start by creating a new file, our size was set to 380 pixels by 100 pixels.

Add in a cinema4d render effect. You can find these in our renders section. Optionally, you can use the topaz filter to give it some extra effect. This is not necessary though (you can find an article on Topaz in this post).

Paste your stock somewhere on your canvas:

Press CTRL + T to rotate this stock slightly, if you used an effect render like this you should try to have it follow its flow:

Paste another cinema4d effect render on top, and erase the section that covers your stock. Rotate this if needed to match the angle of your stock:

Set this effect renders blending mode to Lighten:

We’re going to paste 2 more cinema4d effect renders on top, and we’re going to set its blending mode to lighten. Make sure they have some detail. Our first render:

Our second render:

Our result after setting both of the cinema4d renders to lighten:

We’re going to make a Selective Color adjustment layer. To do this, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color… You have to play around with the settings to get a result you like, however to show you the settings used in this signature I created this animation to illustrate all the settings:

The result of our Selective Color layer:

We’re going to use some splatter brushes create a clipping mask. First, create a new layer, and go to Image > Apply Image. On another new layer, start brushing with some splatter brushes. Smudge this slightly if you like.

Then while having the Applied Image selected, move it on top of the brushing layer. Now go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask, or press ALT + CTRL + G. Move the layer around slightly. Our result:

Because this step was a little hard, here’s an animation to illustrate exactly how it’s done.

Make a new layer, and fill this with a greyish color. We’re going to start blending the signature now.

Set this layer to Lighten, and reduce its Fill to 65%:

We’re going to create a gradient map. The colors we’ve used were: #FF2222 and #BAA61E. To create a gradient map, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map…

Set this gradient maps blending mode to Hue, and reduce the fill to 85%:

We’re only going to apply the gradient map to our stock and clipping mask, so click on the Gradient Map its Layer Mask like shown in the image below, and brush with a dark color around your render.

This is the section that we’ve left untouched:

We’re now going to invert the canvas, create a new Invert Adjustment layer (Press the black and white circle on your layer panel or go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Invert...)

We only want our stock to be inverted, not the entire canvas, so while you have your Invert layer selected, press CTRL + ALT + G or Layer > Create Clipping Mask. Your layer panel should look like this now:

Create a new Photo Filter adjustment layer, and pick settings that look good on your tag. We used these:

result of the tag at this point:

Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast) and change the settings to sort of blend your stock into the background a little more:

Our result:

We’re going to brush softly with a light grey brush, following our flow. This is the brushing shown on a black background, however just brush lightly with a light color. Afterwards, set the blending mode to Linear dodge and reduce the Fill to 50%:

Fill set to 50% and blending mod eon Linear Dodge:

To create extra depth we’re going to brush with a dark color around our focal, and exclude the lighting point.

Set this layer to Soft Light, and reduce the fill to 35 to 45%. Our result:

We’re going to add a few adjustment layers. First we’re starting with a Channel Mixer. Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer, and play around with the settings. Here’s an animation to show you our settings used, however it’s best just to experiment.

Click on the layer mask, and brush with a black color over your lighting point. This should exclude the adjustment layer. In this image you can see the area that we’ve brushed selected, the section outside of the selection was brushed with black on the layer mask:

Apply a Selective Color layer, we’ve only changed the neutrals in this adjustment layer:

Result:

Another Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer (our settings shown in an animation):

We’re only trying to color the render with the last Channel Mixer layer, click on the layer mask, and brush with a black brush around our guitarist. Set this layers Fill to 30%:

Selected is the area that we’ve applied the adjustment layer to:

We’re adding a Photo Filter, and 3 Gradient Maps. This is the settings we’ve used:

Photo Filter with the Fill set to 30%:

Gradient Map, Fill on 10%. Colors used were: #0A00b2 , #FF0000, #FFFC00:

Gradient Map, Blending mode on Soft Light, Fill set to 45%

And a black to white gradient map, blending mode set to Multiply, and fill to about 50%:

This is the result of the adjustment layers we’ve just made:

We’re going to sharpen our tag. Apply the image on a new layer (New Layer, Image > Apply Image) , and go to Filter > Sharpen. Reduce the fill to about 75% if it comes on too strong.

Optionally, use the Topaz Filter. We’ve reduced the fill to about 35% to make the filter less visible.

Apply the image on a new layer, and select Filter > Blur, and repeat this once more.

Set this layer to Soft Light, and reduce the fill to 55%:

It’s a little too blurred, so apply the image and use the Sharpen Tool to sharpen our stock (not the sections around him) and set the fill to 85%:

Create a new layer, and use the eyedropper tool to grab a color from your canvas. We used color #310B0D, fill the canvas with this color:

Set this layers blending mode to Lighten, and this gives us our final result:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. Premium members will be able to download the PSD and extra instructions in our Premium Section. Good Luck!