At least they're better than Cobalt's.

ya.. wow even a piece of horseshit with a fucking stroke would be better ...

At least they're better than Cobalt's.

aw cmon don't be so hard on poor colby






they aren't as bad as you guys make them out to be

o.o
new one.

First of all, your technique for this sig and all the others you've shown is just a background, with a render smacked on top. While it is good that you make the background reflect the colours of the render, you need to develop your skills more: your aim should be to have a render that looks like it is "part of" the background, yet still has depth to it. This may sound paradoxical, but by looking at some good sigs, you can see there is a difference.

Your first step is to learn how to make a background from scratch. Starting from a blank document, the basic technique is as such:
1. Put your render in, and resize.
2. Duplicate your render and hide the original.
3. Duplicate the render and move the duplicate to an empty area. Continue doing this until you cover the entire area.
4. Merge all the layers apart from the hidden render.
5. Start smudging. Try to retain the colours and not blend it too much.

That technique will get you a background in the right colour, but it is very simplified. For a decent result, you need to look at a tutorial. As Habbe says, you also need to put something on top of the render as well, to make it look like he is "part of" the background. For this, tutorials are the best option as well, as techniques vary depending on what outcome you want, as well as a number of other factors that I cba going through now.

Find good tutorials on http://www.guildinn.com and http://www.tech-gfx.net. Best of luck =)

thats what cobalt never wanted to do ;)