Ctrl+U = Colors
Ctrol+J = Duplicates
Ctrl+E = Merge Down
For now, you only need those.
As a start, you shouldn't be creating your own Backgrounds, It's super hard. Instead, you could Google something that could fit into the signature and blend somehow with the render Itself. For that particular render, I can imagine a buildings or ruins behind this guy would look good. As for the C4D, there is 3 type of C4Ds:
1. Effect C4D (The one you used, and most of the times you set the mode on either Light or Soft Light, sometimes Screen but you'll have to lower the opacity/density a bit)
2. Mechanical C4D (It's used for flow most of the times, you keep it on Normal, or duplicate it, and set the second copy on Multiply and reduce opacity, it helps when you want more depth on your C4D. And the same technique works on the render itself, duplicate it, and set it on multiply, then reduce opacity a bit until you get something you're satisfied with)
3. Bubbles (It's also an effect C4D; however, this one can either be set on Soft Light, or be used as it is to serve the flow, or as a background.)
In all of those types, eraser is your best friend. You always want to erase parts from your C4Ds that you don't want, after re-sizing them and placing them of course.
For light source, first you need to see if the render you're using has some natural light. For instance, the render you used above has some natural light on the bottom, in this case you can't just put a light source behind him or above his head, It has to be in the bottom. You can use a normal rounded brush, opacity down to 70%, one click is enough to create a big circle, then reduce the layer opacity if it doesn't feel right, like too strong. Then you can move it around a bit, you don't want the whole circle to be showing up on the signature, only half of it is good, also make sure your brush edges density/hardness is at 0% so it give it that gradient feeling.
Next is Adjustments, which can be fount bellow where you create the new layers, a small icon when you hover the cursor above it a word appears: Adjustments. You can mess around with those to learn how to use them. They're pretty simple once you get to use them. Most important Adjustments are: Levels, Exposure, Curves, and Gradient Color.
That's all for now ^^
EDIT: Forgot to mention the size .-.
Standard size for signatures is 400 width x 150 length; extended to 450 width x 220 length. You can mess around with those a bit to create a comfortable size for yourself.
First ever try at somethingSat Apr 13, 2013 9:44 pm