Topic: Smudge tut

[refried_mobert]

Hello all. a couple of people have asked me about my smudging style and so i thought i might as well make a tut. so here it is! if anyone would like to do a whole bunch of work for me and convert this into one big image that would be great.


so here goes nothin!

1. first create a new document, any sig size will do. mine is 400x125. now pick your render. any render works for this style of sig - anime, video game, etc. re-size and place your render where you like.



2. get out your color picker tool and pick a light color from your render. then swap your foreground with your background and choose a darker shade of that color from your render. take out your radial gradient tool and make a radial gradient starting with the light color at the center of your render and the dark color in the corner of your sig.



3. duplicate your render layer 5 times so that you now have 6 render layers. make all of them invisible except the bottom one.

4. take your smudge tool and leave all settings at default accept the rate. set this at 80. choose the "Galaxy, Big" default brush. now smudge your bottom render layer until you get something that looks like this. this may take a couple of tries because you have to get the right technique down and brush it the right way.



5. set that layer to overlay or soft light.

6. on your next render layer make it visible and then smudge the same way, only smudge outwards a little more so that it covers a larger area.



7. set this to dodge. set the opacity to your liking.

8. repeat on the next layer.



9. on the next layer smudge again and set to screen. adjust opacity if needed.



10. you should now only have two render layers left. take the next one, and smudge only the outsides of it. everything but the face.



11. set that layer to value and then duplicate it. set the duplicate layer to either color, hue, or saturation, whichever looks best. adjust opacity if needed.



12. take your last layer and set it to either darken only or lighten only and lower the opacity to 50%.



13. go to edit>copy visible. layer>new. then filters>colors>gradient map with the colors you already had picked from the render. make sure the darkest one is the foreground color before gradient mapping.



14. set this to color at 60-70%.



15. now go back down to the bottom render layer and go filters>noise>pick. click the box that says randomize. then put the randomization(%) all the way up to 100. set the repeat at 11. click ok.

16. do this to the four bottom render layers.



17. on your value layer use your lasso tool to make a selection just on the face (the unsmudged section). feather the selection by 40. go to  selection>float and bring that layer back down and set to value. then on the smudged part do your noise>pick.



18. now google search either stars or fireworks. or you can use the one i've provided. paste it into your sig. desaturate it and set it to dodge. move it so that the stars are over the smudge part and erase parts that dont fit.



19. make any adjustments you want. i usually go with 1 or 2 more gradient maps. maybe sharpen it. then add text and a border and your done! i hope that you all can use this tut wisely and learn from it. if you have any questions feel free to pm me.

20. FINAL PRODUCT:



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please c&c and post results if you try it!

[watup]

Aespme you're definatly getting a result from me!

[Joe]

Awesome tut RM!  I'll try it when I have a chance.  Only thing is, your render doesn't really match the style, but who cares  .

Joe

[paladin169]

Hmm guess I didn't smudge right, mine came out so wrong..

[OmegA]

Myr esult Not as good as yours in the SOTW but I kinda like it. Thanks for the tut RM!!

[paladin169]

my second try ;o

[refried_mobert]

thanks for posting guys. like i said. the smudging is the hardest part. it will make or break your sig. and i really wish i could tell you how but i really dont think there's a way.

sponge your second result is a lot better

omega, great result just try  not to smudge around the whole sig.

[Lilith]

Great tut...ok so here is my first try with the tut...kinda like my result.

[Runite]

I'll definatetly have to try this out. I love the outcome of yours

[Fozzy]

Nice tutorial i'll try it after my homework

Here we go new the smudging technique but hey its mixed with droz's tut: