I realize the phrase has been done to death (I'd guess), but I really wanted to do something with my 'holding bomb' screenshot. Each 'line' in the bkg was generated with a LineDings font. Lots of manipulation, lots of masking, and a lot of time in this one (compared to previous ones, that is). Whatcha think?
The spartan you cut out looks horrible. You can see pixels, and choppiness all over. The idea isn't bad though. Also, instead of doing all that masking and crap, just use the "Animation>waves" effect. I'm sure it will work much easier.
Yeah, I wasn't willing to spend the time pen-tooling him out of the picture... but I might go over him with a softer brush to help things out a bit. and... K... the 'waves' effect was just a spiral gradient... which didn't have anything to do with any of the masking... feels... like... angry internet kid... doesn't know... as much as... he thinks... he does... lol.
You could try blending patterns to create effects. Or go to planet renders and search C4Ds. They are essentialy effects that you could use as a background on certain settings. Message me if you have any questions
You've got so much green in there, the blue spartan looks out of place. I don't know what you could do about this since making him green would mean it would be monochromatic (or monotone, don't start this again).
The waves effects is HOT. I've never seen it done like that. I gotta remember that technique. Also, try doing some Image > Adjustments to the layer with the spartan to get him to blend a bit more.
Monochromatic for me, lol. And yeah, the color might not be the best (I was going for blue/gold, but the colorblindness made it green... like I worried it might. Thanks, man. I'll mess around with that layer a bit. And as far as the bkg effect goes, I made the background patten, then I-Warp-shrunk it (w/ progressively smaller brushes) to the center, applied a radial gradient, then a blurred spiral one. I also played around with bump-mapping and displacement mapping the layer, but the factors I used are so small they don't make much of a difference. (in case anyone wants to repeat the effect)