Last time I posted a sig it got some heat and I didn't take criticism too well. This time I think I'll just post the sig and not say anything to negative comments. LOL
Dolph Ziggler. My favorite wrestler going right now.
So, how did I make the sig? To start out, all I had was a white canvas and a sick cut of Ziggler that I got from psd-dreams. I duped it a few times and smudged the background layers to create a background that blended with the cut's shape and color. I had 3 smudge layers, two of which I duplicated and set to 50% overlay to enhance the depth+color of the sig. Then to add some color I added a small brush layer to the top left and gave it a gradient overlay set to Color and lowered the opacity to get a rainbow-ish effect.
I tried a new blending technique on this one that I'm very happy with. I took a copy of the render and enlarged it so that it basically was a 10-15 pixel outline of the original render. I then used the Displace and Fragment filters to make it look almost like shattered glass, and set it to Lighten. Then I gaussian blurred the original render and just put it behind the main subject so that it still stood out to a degree.
At this point there still felt like something was missing so I went ahead and added another color layer behind Ziggler's head to make him pop a bit more. I then added another new blending technique that I came up with where I used the "make this thing look like it's on fire" technique that every goddamned tutorial site under the sun has, but set it to a bright yellow-orange color and set to Color blend mode so that it just looks like energy is radiating off of him.
I always try to work some geometric shapes into my sigs, hence the diagonal bars between his head and hand. I'm a real sucker for shapes, as strange as that sounds. Then, I did a simple color overlay to enhance the blue in his eyes - just trying to make him really pop out without compromising the overall blending and flow of the sig.
At this point the sig was complete empty in the top right corner so I added some pen tool lines that I thought added to the flow of the sig as well as adding something to the empty area in the top right. I put the #HEEL in the top right because I really wanted that to pop since it has almost become his new internet calling card, which I love.
As far as text goes, I tried to just use your basic arial black but it just wasn't enough so I went with a fancier font with his first name with the intention of making both his first & last name fancy, but once I changed the first name and resized it, I think it looks awesome. It almost looks like the ZIGGLER is an underline to the fancy-looking DOLPH and I wasn't even going to change that dynamic.
To finish the sig I added a border, but I get so sick of simple 1px black borders. I added a little flair with a 50% rainbow gradient overlay - I think it works. Then I did some finishing touches with gradient maps and a High Pass layer for depth and voila, this is my result.
What do you guys think? Is this one better than my Alex Riley sig from a few months ago? What could I have done to make it better? I'm all ears on this one.
Dolph Ziggler. My favorite wrestler going right now.
So, how did I make the sig? To start out, all I had was a white canvas and a sick cut of Ziggler that I got from psd-dreams. I duped it a few times and smudged the background layers to create a background that blended with the cut's shape and color. I had 3 smudge layers, two of which I duplicated and set to 50% overlay to enhance the depth+color of the sig. Then to add some color I added a small brush layer to the top left and gave it a gradient overlay set to Color and lowered the opacity to get a rainbow-ish effect.
I tried a new blending technique on this one that I'm very happy with. I took a copy of the render and enlarged it so that it basically was a 10-15 pixel outline of the original render. I then used the Displace and Fragment filters to make it look almost like shattered glass, and set it to Lighten. Then I gaussian blurred the original render and just put it behind the main subject so that it still stood out to a degree.
At this point there still felt like something was missing so I went ahead and added another color layer behind Ziggler's head to make him pop a bit more. I then added another new blending technique that I came up with where I used the "make this thing look like it's on fire" technique that every goddamned tutorial site under the sun has, but set it to a bright yellow-orange color and set to Color blend mode so that it just looks like energy is radiating off of him.
I always try to work some geometric shapes into my sigs, hence the diagonal bars between his head and hand. I'm a real sucker for shapes, as strange as that sounds. Then, I did a simple color overlay to enhance the blue in his eyes - just trying to make him really pop out without compromising the overall blending and flow of the sig.
At this point the sig was complete empty in the top right corner so I added some pen tool lines that I thought added to the flow of the sig as well as adding something to the empty area in the top right. I put the #HEEL in the top right because I really wanted that to pop since it has almost become his new internet calling card, which I love.
As far as text goes, I tried to just use your basic arial black but it just wasn't enough so I went with a fancier font with his first name with the intention of making both his first & last name fancy, but once I changed the first name and resized it, I think it looks awesome. It almost looks like the ZIGGLER is an underline to the fancy-looking DOLPH and I wasn't even going to change that dynamic.
To finish the sig I added a border, but I get so sick of simple 1px black borders. I added a little flair with a 50% rainbow gradient overlay - I think it works. Then I did some finishing touches with gradient maps and a High Pass layer for depth and voila, this is my result.
What do you guys think? Is this one better than my Alex Riley sig from a few months ago? What could I have done to make it better? I'm all ears on this one.
