Graphics

I'm new here, thought I'd start of by writing a tut on one of my sigs:

I'm writing this tut for strongermw2 over at se7ensins.com so he can develop some grunge style, any help you can give him is appreciated.

Don't be scared by the length of this tut, it's very easy.
Also, I made this awhile ago, so this isn't 100% exactly what I did ;;
Also, since I'm going back through the psd, there is extra space on the top and bottom where the border was, ignore it.
First, create a new document, I chose 450 by 183 (Don't ask why, I made this a while ago ;;) Fill it with white.

For a render, we want something with mainly black and white(or close to white), colors that'll mix to make some sort of grayish hue.

Once you've chosen your render, resize it and drop it in, make sure it conforms to the Rule of Thirds

I chose this render and put in on the left side so that the wing is shown off.



Now duplicate it 2 times(ctrl + J) and spread the duplicates around the sig, hide the original render's layer.
(You should now have a background layer filled with white, a layer with your original render and 2 layers with duplicates of the render)
Make sure that the body is prominent so that you get a good blend of colors in the next step, kind of like this:



Merge all the duplicate layers (Click on the top one then Shift + Click on the last duplicate layer) and then merge that with the background layer


Take your smudge tool at 50% strength, use one of the spatter brushes that comes with Photoshop and settings similar to mine:



For your scattering, take a value somewhere between 450 and 700% and make sure "both axes" is checked
Now, smudge it around until you get something that you like, I got these two results:




Also, try to get lots of white around the right edge, if you feel like you don't have enough white, make a white dot or two and smudge it in.
Hide this layer
Now, unhide your render layer and duplicate it.
Hide your render
Smudge it with the same brush and set the layer to "linear dodge(add)"


Duplicate this layer and then merge it down.
Duplicate your render, smudge it again with the same brush. Set this layer to "lighten"



Hide these two layers and duplicate your render again.
On this layer, use filter>Distort>Wave,and mess around with the settings until you get something you like.


Hide this layer and duplicate your render again
On this layer, use filter>distort>ripple, Use something between 600 and 900, medium.


Duplicate this layer and move the duplicate to the bottom of the screen:


Now, unhide all of your layers, make sure your original render is on top.
They should be in this order,
-Original Render
-Ripple filter at bottom of screen
-Ripple filter
-Wave Filter
-Smudged on lighten
-Smudged on Linear Dodge(add)
-Smudged Background
Now, make a new layer, filled with transparency and go to image>apply image
Hide all layers except for this one and go to filter>Distort>Ripple, use a little lower than your first ripple effect.


Hide this layer and duplicate your original render
Go to filter>Blur>Motion Blur, and use a distance of around 100 and aim towards the upper left hand corner


Unhide your original render layer, make a new layer(Above everything else) and highlight it with a medium-dark, 65% opacity, gray, soft brush(Pretty big size)


Now, make an adjustment layer/gradient map(The half circle at the bottom of the layers box and select gradient map). Make this a black to white gradient.
Another adjustment layer, this time a photo filter, chose the color box and use this color: "ec8a00"
Unhide all of your layers, they should be in this order
-Photo filter
-Gradient Map
-Gray highlight layer
-Motion Blur layer
-Applied image layer
-Original Render
-Ripple filter at bottom of screen
-Ripple filter
-Wave Filter
-Smudged on lighten
-Smudged on Linear Dodge(add)
-Smudged Background
!!!Don't!!! rehide your layers this time.
Duplicate your render again and use Blur>Gaussian Blur, I used around 60 Pixels.
Erase the part that covers the motion blurred part of the body(Not the wing!) and set the layer to multiply
While you're at it, using a soft brush, erase the part of the ripple effet layers that cover too much of the bg. These steps should get you this:


Almost done!
Duplicate your render.


Make a new layer and apply image again, Gaussian blur it and delete most of it except for this:


Make a new layer, take a 200px soft brush and make 1/4 circle in the bottom left corner
Make a new layer and add your border [Make canvas 189 px height and fill the extra space with black]
Add text with a grunge font, I used birth of a Hero and some sort of decoration to the text

YOU'RE FINALLY DONE
Outcome: