Stone85's Render Sig Tutorial

[Stone85]

Do not try to use this tutorial to make your first sig... This will be frustrating and scary for you. I will make a tut for first (few) sigs if you want.

Today we will be making something like this:

You need many many plugins to do this.

That sig took somewhere between 30-45 minutes because it was my first smudge sig and I didn't know what I was doing

First off, find a render that you like. Mine is from the game Crysis (which I've never heard of...)

Make your canvas whatever size you want, I used 350x130. Try to stay somewhere around 350x120!

Paste your render onto your canvas. Don't resize it yet, just put a part of your render onto the canvas, and if it doesn't fill up the whole thing, paste your render on a layer below and merge the layers. The area I picked was of his chest (he has cool armor) and his gun. Then I used Pyrochild's twist plugin to distort it so you couldn't make it out very well, but still keep the cool colors and bits of his armor. Don't actually twist it up, just real lightly "distort it". You should now have something like this. (if you have blank spots on your canvas, make a layer below this and paint it black. This isn't really important)

:NewLayer: Next, paste your render in a little smaller than before, but this isn't your real render. Place it in an area that looks bare, or that you want to add something cool to. I placed mine in the far left. Smudge it around, I smudged mine outwards, both left and right. Set this to overlay, and lower the opacity as needed. I kept mine at 255.

OPTIONAL: Duplicate that layer, flip horizontally, and lower the opacity to around 100.

Next, paste your render in for realz this time. If the backround doesn't match the render as much as you like, add a layer with a light or dark color, depending on what yours looks like. My background looked darker than my render so I added a light gray layer on overlay with dropped opacity between the render and backround layers.

Don't ever leave your render on normal. I sometimes duplicate mine twice, set the top to multiply, middle to color dodge, and bottom on normal and lower opacity as needed (thanks Darkshock) but on this one I dupped it once and set it to glow at 90px. Whatever looks good for you.

Now lightly smudge the render you kept on normal. I smudged mine outwards, very lightly. This is just to "lose" the edges.

OPTIONAL: If your render looks too plain, add in your render a little bit bigger than what you currently have, smudge it around where your main render is, and set it too glow at around 80 opacity.

Next I picked pieces of the backround near my render's shoulders and pasted them on layers above his shoulders, and set them to glow and lowered the opacity to around 130 opacity. Never let your render look pasted on.

Now add some light to your render. Look at my sig. You see the render's right shoulder? (his right ) See how it's glowing? To get something like that, try a radial gradient with whatever color you want your light to be as your primary color and black as the secondary. Set this to color dodge, then feather the "circle" you got from your radial gradient and gaussian blur it as needed so that it doesn't look like a circular shape, it looks distorted. Duplicate this and drop the opacity waay low if you want.

Nooow for the fun part, C4Ds! I only used one c4d, and it's at the bottom of this tutorial. I placed my c4d on top of my render in a V shape to add blending to it. I set it to lighten with lowered opacity, and duplicated it and set that to screen with lowered opacity. I [lightly] smudged the edges of the c4d towards the render too because edges are bad. I made the c4d match the rest of the sig by using the plug in "color tint" and guess-timating it. Now you're not going to have the same results as me, but this is what I have.

Next it looks like (lol) I smudged the c4d into a big black mess and placed it on top of my render towards the bottom on overlay at 40 opacity. You should now have an ok looking sig (or as some would say, chaotic)

That pretty much just darkens the bottom of the render.

Then I added the same c4d again, kept what I liked, and smudged everything that didn't look good. I set this to lighten, though I use screen for my c4ds 99% of the time.

Let's add some more blending. I added my c4d in again (all of this is happening above the render layer) and set it to overlay with 90 opacity and smudged some away, not much.

The edges of my sig looked a little boring, so I added my c4d in again and set it too screen on full opacity and did this on the other side. Fill up what looks boring. Repeat as needed, I did this again and set the c4d to color dodge.

OPTIONAL: Brush some black onto the sides of your sig and gaussian blur it at around a 55 radius. Don't go overboard, I didn't do much at all. Duplicate as needed.

Next I repeated the light source/radial gradient method on parts of my c4d to give it more color. I used gray again, feathed, blurred, etc.

Then I did this again about 4 times in different areas, some on the c4ds, some on the render. Keep these on color dodge, lower the opacity if you need to. Change primary colors as needed.

Now add your border. This is up to you, you can use one of those overlay looking borders or just a black border. I used a vertical border only. Don't make this too big.

Add some text. I'm not good with text... I like to type my text in white, find a font, set it to overlay, duplicate it and lower the opacity as needed on the top text layer, and use Pyrochild's outline object on the bottom font layer.

Good job, you just made a hopefully good sig! Now save it as a PDN, flatten it, duplicate it, sharpen at the full amount, and lower the opacity on this layer as needed. Keep it on normal. I put my opacity on like 130 I think.

Flatten this, and add a g-map if you need to, or scanlines or whatever. Save as PNG/JPG! Then post your sig on this thread!

What's wrong with this tutorial? If anything doesn't make sense or you need some pictures or something, let me know!

C4D: http://i861.photobuc...oneryan/c4d.png

Wow that took forever!

Edited October 17, 2010 by Stone85

[chrisco97]

I think you should have added more screenshots.

[Stone85]

I added one in a complex-sounding part, but is there one specific spot where you think I should put one?

You should try the tut It took forever to make

[csm725]

Rich in content, but needs to be more organised (more screenshots and step numbers).

[Stone85]

I don't really want people to remake my sig, I'd rather them make it their own, with their render, text, etc.

[chrisco97]

Well I was just warning you...I think there is a rule that says it needs screenshots. Not just one.

[Stone85]

Meh, I don't like that rule.

I don't think it needs screenshots, it's pretty easy to follow imo. If someone who's actually doing the tutorial doesn't understand a part, I will post pics/explain better.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Meh, I don't like that rule.

Screenshots are not optional. You risk this tutorial being locked if they don't appear pronto (I'm NOT joking!).

I don't think it needs screenshots, it's pretty easy to follow imo.

Two users have already asked, and I've told you they are necessary - so it needs screenshots. The clock is ticking......,

[Stone85]

Screenshots are not optional. You risk this tutorial being locked if they don't appear pronto (I'm NOT joking!).

Two users have already asked, and I've told you they are necessary - so it needs screenshots. The clock is ticking......,

Wait what? For real? Alright....

[Stone85]

Is that enough? That's 5 screen shots. After the 5th one, it's up to the person following the tutorial to add the c4ds the way they want. I just helped with blending modes and suggested where to put it.

[Heat Stroke]

nice tutorial. not too specific, i like the wiggle room. but not too vague. (the screen shots helped). unfortunately, my outcomes were... embarrassing:

Hidden Content:

this one was soo bad, i didnt even add the C4Ds

100th post!!! and i ruined it with these sigs (if you can even call them that).

Edited October 17, 2010 by Heat Stroke

[Stone85]

lol, have you used c4ds before? if not, this would be a tough tutorial for you. I'm not sure how your background is red on one side and blue on the other if the background is made from smudging the render, "mad max". If you do that, then that makes your background brownish with some of the color from his skin.

The second one is a little chaotic, but it's kind of cool.

[Stone85]

Second result. Made that in like 10 minutes with the tutorial.

Note, that c4d won't match every render, (I used the same one again) but it went together really well with my first result.

Myriad Pro is a great font!

[Heat Stroke]

no i have never used c4ds before. and honestly i dont know how one side is blue and the other is red either. i night try it again, later. again, thanks for the tut!

[St1cki3]

By screenshots I think it means showing the steps you said in the tut, not just the sig. So that includes the interface and whatnot. (I think) But other than that, good tut.

[WhyHelloThere]

Edit:Made a new one

Edited October 17, 2010 by WhyHelloThere

[Stone85]

nice job. you should add some more 'blending' of the render with some c4ds!

[WhyHelloThere]

:3 The game crysis is awesome :DD I decided to play it after I read that the guy in your sig is from it..

[WhyHelloThere]

I made another one

[Stone85]

I like the new one a lot more. I don't really like the text though. You should try using some c4ds.

Keep it up!

I've never played it.

[chrisco97]

- He did.

P.S. Try using smaller text, and a font that fits the render.

[JulioCoolio]

This is my first render sig. I'm not sure how it is, but some tips would help!

Edited December 9, 2010 by JulioCoolio

[Stone85]

sorry, missed your post

thats really good for a first render sig! keep it up. i suggest taking the text out of the corner, and maybe changing the font. try to blend the render in a little more next time, but it is your first render sig... awesome job!

[JulioCoolio]

Thanks for the advise!! I'll try changing it up a bit!