Result:

1. Find a good wallpaper, render or image, and place it on a 390 by 200 pixel canvas (size is not that important though). We’ve centered our focal point in this tag:

2. Right click on this layer, and duplicate it. Grab the burn tool, and start burning around the edges and some parts of our focal point:

burning:

3. Next, grab your eyedropper tool, and select a lightish color on your canvas. Brush close to your focal, and slightly smudge this brushing with the smudge tool. Try not to overdo it. To illustrate what we’ve done, this is our brushing shown on a black background:

shown on our render:

4. Duplicate this render, and set its blending mode to Lighten:

5. Repeat this step on the right side, brush and smudge, then duplicate the layer and set it to lighten. Our brushing:

our result:

6. Keep repeating this until you’re satisfied. Try not to overdo it to keep the tags general color scheme and feeling. Remember to set the layers to Lighten.

result:

7. Place a wireframe Cinema4d render on top of the tag, and erase parts around the focal. Set this wireframe layers blending mode to Multiply:

blending mode set to multiply:

8. Grab a splatter brush, and tap once around your render. If you’ve picked the wrong color, simply add a color overlay by going to Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay, and select a new color.

9. Add a light render next to your focal, and set its blending mode to lighten. Repeat this step on the left side. To illustrate what our render looks like, we’ve set a black background behind it:

blending mode set to lighten:

10. We’re going to fix the lighting now. In the following steps we will add adjustment layers. To do this, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer… and select the layer we need.

We’re going to start with a Brightness/Contrast layer with the following settings:

11. A black to white gradient map set to Soft Light on 20% opacity with these settings:

12. Another gradient map set to Soft Light and 20% opacity, purple to orange:

13. A Photo Filter set to soft light on 20% opacity:

our result after applying the adjustment layers:

14. Make a new layer, and apply the image (Image > Apply Image), and grab your burn tool again. Add more depth by darkening the section around your focal area:

burning areas around our focal:

15. Keep burning until you’re satisfied, then add your text in a good spot. The tags nearly done by now:

16. Apply the image once more, and select Filter > Sharpen. Erase areas that come off too strong, or reduce the opacity.

Done! We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to post comments, questions and suggestions!

Please note that the colors in some images may look poor, this is because the images are saved in GIF files to reduce file size. The results at the end and up here are saved in full quality.

1. open up a new file with any size you like, I picked 350 by 120. Find a good looking render. If you like you can download one from our resources page, we have plenty of great looking c4d renders available gathered from around the web. Place your render in your file and decrease/increase its size until you’re satisfied with the way it looks.

2. Make a new layer. Pick your brush, use your eyedropper tool to pick a blue color from anywhere at your render. I picked a blue color. Tap once or twice where you want the focal point of your signature to be with a large size. My brush size was 65 pixels.

3. Repeat this step with a white brush, however decrease the brush size to about 35 pixels.

4. Now make a new layer, and go to Image > Apply image. Hide the layer for a second, and with a splatter brush, make some splatters in the middle of your file.

5. Select your applied image layer, and hit CTRL + ALT + G (Or go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask…). Move the layer around a bit, and you’ll see your applied image underneath.

6. Apply image, and go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Crosshatch.. and select the settings shown in the picture. pick larger splatter brushes, and create a clipping mask. Move the layer undearneath around till you like what you see. You can find plenty of free brushes at our resources section.

7. Make a new layer, and pick a black brush. We’re going to darken the corners and give the signature a bit of flow. Brush around the corners of your signature. Don’t worry yet if you’ve made it too dark, we will light it up a bit in the next step.

8. Make a new layer, set it to Soft Light, and with a white brush this time, tap around the darkened edges to smooth it out a bit.

9. We’re going to add a channel mix. Go to Layer > New Adjustement Layer > Channel Mixer… Basicly at this point you have to toy around with the settings to get the color you like. If you want to highlight the red tones a bit, select Red from the dropdown menu. If you want to compliment the blue colors, select blue from the dropdown menu and toy around with its settings. It all depends on the render you picked and the color you want it to be.

10. Make a new layer, and go to image > apply image. Move it around to the left or right direction, depending on where you have your lighting. I moved it to the right because I thought it looked best.

11. Add your text and perhaps an outer strike to outline your signature. My text was fairly simple, I picked Georgia in a light blue color and decreased the opacity to about 80%. Changed its angle a bit to make it match the side of the applied layer, and there you have it.

Feel free to post suggestions, questions or results in the comments!