1. Create a new file, our signature is sized 360 by 140 pixels. Size is not really important when you create signatures, just use whatever you like:

2. Apply your wallpaper, photo or render on your canvas. This photo has its focal point in the middle of the canvas:

3. We’re going to apply a black to white gradient map to darken the signature a bit. Set this gradient map to Soft light on 28% opacity:

4. Make a new layer, go to Image > Apply Image, and smudge the background a bit. Remove the parts near the focal point. To illustrate what this layer looks like I’ll show it to you on a white backgound:

shown on our render:

5. Add a large textured render on top of the signature. remove parts over your focal point or important detail in the background.

6. We’re going to desaturate the canvas. Make a new layer, and go to Image > Apply Image. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate:

7. Smudge, erase and move around some of the textures around the focal:

8. Apply the image on a new layer (New Layer, Image > Apply Image) and select Filter > Sharpen. Erase parts that come off too strong, and smudge some more parts of the background:

9. More smudging, and use the sharpen tool to sharpen some of the sections:

10. Apply the image, smudge, erase and sharpen parts. We’re going to repeat these steps a bit until it looks good. This is one of the layers shown on a white background to show you what it looks like:

11. After doing this step a few times and desaturating the result:

12. Time for some colouring. Go to Layer > New adjustment layer > Gradient Map… and select settings something similar to this:

This Gradient Map is set to Soft Light on 59% opacity. The result:

13. Using the pen tool, we’re going to create some lines around our render. Use your eyedropper tool to select 2 contrasting colors, and stroke these lines (right click > Stroke, set it to 1 and select the color you like):

14. Apply an outer glow to this layer (Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow):

Result of our lines:

15. Make a new Gradient Map, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map… and select some good looking gradient. If you use my adjustment layer, make sure you set it to reverse:

This layer is set to Soft Light on 21% Opacity:

16. We’re going to add some renders on our canvas, smudge and erase some of these parts. I’ll show you what my layer looks like on a white background:

Set this layer to soft light:

17. Make a new layer, and apply the image. Hide this layer for now, we’re going to need it in step 20.

18. Apply this layer on a new layer, and add a new photo filter. Image > New Adjustment Layer > Photofilter:

Leave this layer on normal and full opacity (remember to set the density to 25%):

19. Add another cinema4d layer, and smudge this a bit. This is what the layer looks like on a white background. Set this layer to Color Dodge:

Remember to set it to color dodge:

20. Grab the layer we applied in step 17, and move it on top. Reduce its opacity to 50%, this is the layer shown on a white background:

21. Apply the image on a new layer and sharpen parts of it. Erase pieces that you don’t need. This is the layer set to a white background:

The result:

22. We’re going to create another gradient map, Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map:

Set this layer to soft light, and reduce its opacity to 30%:

23. We’re going to apply the topaz vivacity filter (You can view a tutorial on the Topaz filter in this article, select Filter > Topaz Vivacity > Topaz Sharpen, and use the standard settings. After that, select Filter > Topaz Vivacity > Topaz DeJPG. Our result:

24. Add another photofilter, and select a nice looking color. my settings were:

This finnishes our tutorial, the result after applying the photo filter:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. Feel free to comment, suggest or ask any questions in the comments below.

The image we will start with:

First of all, you can use the filter by going to Filter > Distort > Displace. a screen will come up asking you for settings. For the start of the tutorial, I will be using the standard settings, which are horizontal scale: 10, vertical scale: 10, Stretch to Fit and Repeat Edge Pixels:

After picking these settings, you have to select a PSD file to displace it with.

I’m going to create a pretty soft image with a few randomly drawn lines, after which I will use the Displace filter. This image has little texture and there’s not much going on.

I will apply the Displace filter (Filter > Distort > Displace, standard settings) with this file:

You can clearly see the lines drawn into this file. It already looks kind of twirly, which we can use for some nice textures. To test some more, I drew the following image and smudged it a bit:

My result after displacing our Lara Croft:

Now if you change the standard settings to Tile and Wrap around, the result will not vary much:

Lets add a little bit more detail to the PSD we’re displacing with, I randomly brushed, smudged, sharpened, blurred and so forth to create this image:

Now after displacing with the standard settings:

Not good enough, need more detail! Experiment with settings, this is what I’ve done:

my result:

Now this is something I’m going to work with. You can use this effect to create a background or texture that matches a good looking render, however it does not really remind people of the original image. For example, if you smudge this background, this is what you might get:

With some (admittingly poor) coloring and transforming:

Well, we now used the displace filter and some smudging to create our background. You can continue to do whatever with it, make a signature, a texture, and so forth. A possible example could be this poorly made (sorry, sleepy!) signature: