I really like the effect that you have blending the render into the lighter background, but it looks a bit pixelated... I think that it might look better if you lightly blur the effect, so that it is smoother. The text is well placed, and I like the way that it blends into the background, but I think it looks a little odd because the blending/smudging effect sort of stops around the text... you could try having the effect there, with the text overlapping the effect. The lighting is pretty good, and the border is nice. Overall, very well made sig.
wow thanks. im actually working on that pixely thing right now. just experimenting on what looks better and what not. but yea when the text is on the blue and darkness it looks bad
Version 2 looks much nicer, but I think that some of the nice detail from the first may have been lost. Try reverting to v1, but make a new layer, apply image, duplicate the layer, Gaussian blur the bottom layer, and then play around with the opacity of the top layer. That way, you can smooth out the edges while retaining the detail of the original. (I use PS btw)