Sonic Stock Tutorial

I really have been making a lot of tutorials recently. Anywho, you should learn how to make a hot piece of win like this.



1. I made a new thing at 400x130. Find a good stock you want to work with. I used this image. Paste it in and duplicate it. On the duplicate, smudge everything not named focal in the direction you want the flow to go. I used a vine brush with spacing 1 at 20% rate. leave both layers at normal 100%.



2. Duplicate the original image and go to Colors - Desaturate, leave it on Lightness. Then, set the layer to saturation at about 40%. Erase over the focal.



3. Make a new layer from visible and smudge it again in the direction you want the flow. I used a 19px brush at around 30%. Erase over focal and set it to normal at 50%.



4. Brush around a little with a big, black, galaxy brush (it's one of the default brushes). Set this layer to Saturation and mess around with the opacity.




5. Then, do a new layer from visible. Set your gradient to Full Color Spectrum and do a gradient map by going to Colors - Map - Gradient Map. Set this layer to Soft Light (or Overlay) at 10%.



6. Do another new layer from visible and Desaturate it at Lightness. Erase over the focal and set it to Multiply at 30%.



7. I made several small spark clipping masks here. To do this, first do a new layer from visible. Then, make a new layer and brush over it with the sparks brush with a spacing of 80-100 and a size of about .20. Then, right click on the sparks layer and select "Alpha to Selection"> Go to Select - Invert. Then, go back to the new layer from visible and hit delete (Ctrl + K should also work). Hide the sparks layer and move this layer wherever you want.



8. Make another new layer from visible. Go to Filters - Artistic - GIMPressionist. In the presets tab, select Furry. Leave everything else how it is and hit 'update' and then 'ok'. Set this layer to Overlay/Soft light at 30%.



9. I made a new layer from visible, took out the big galaxy brush and smudged outwards with the rate at 50-80 and the spacing at 1. I erased over the focal and set this layer to grain extract at 30%.



10. I made some more clipping masks, this time, with the vine brush. I set the spacing to about 80 (hopefully, you know how to do the clipping masks from what I told you in step 7, if not, Google it). After all of that, I made a new layer from visible and took out my vine brush again. I set the spacing to 30 and smudged in the direction of the flow at about 50-80% rate. I then blurred over the focal and set this layer to normal at 20%.



11. I made a new layer from visible. I did some more vine smudging by setting the rate to 100% and smudging from the most colorful parts of the sig (the sword hilt and the hand Sonic is holding it in) in the direction of the flow. I erased over Sonic's face and upper-body and set this layer to Darken Only at 30%. I then made another new layer from visible. I smudged in the direction of the flow with the vine brush with spacing 1 and rate 20-30. I set this layer to normal at 40% opacity.



12. C4D time! Use whatever c4d's compliment your sig's flow and mood. Remember, you can always change the colors by going to Colors - Colorize.



13. Gradient Map time! This may be a little tricky because I use a ****load of Gradient Maps. To make it easier, I will make a list of the G-Maps I used and at what opacity/setting.

Orange to Purple: Overlay 20%
Blue Green: Overlay 20%
Dark 1: Overlay 20%
French Flag Smooth: Overlay 20%
German Flag Smooth: Overlay 30%
Incandescent: Overlay 10%
Romanian Flag Smooth: Overlay 20%
Full Color Spectrum: Color 6%
Black and White (***I went to Colors- Brightness/Contrast and set the contrast and brightness high***) : Multiply 30%
Deep Sea: Overlay 30%

Told you I do a lot.


14. Finishing touches! I made 2 new layers. On the first one, I set my color to white and set my gradient to FG to Transparent and set it to Radial. On the first layer, I blended it by dragging from where I wanted the whit to be to where I wanted it to end. I then duplicated it and set the duplicate to Overlay at 100% and the original to normal at 60%. I then went to the other layer and set the color to black. I dragged from the opposite 3 corners to where the light appears to end. I set this layer to Overlay at 30%. And to finish it off, I made a new layer from visible and sharpened it by about15-20. And voila, you just made this very sexy sig.



Comments, criticism, and results are all appreciated.