Well, I don't think the blending of the C4Ds with the spartan is the best... it just looks a little off. The scanlines aren't the best either... I would get rid of those, personally. The text should probably be in a different font, too. The colorization is ok, and the lighting is interesting. Overall, its an ok sig, but your first SOTW entry was much better.
The blending looks better in this version, and the removal of the scanlines is a huge improvement. The one thing I think that needs to be changed is the colorization of the background. It seems to be two different colors, a pale gray-green on the left and a bolder, darker yellowish-gray on the right. It probably would look nice if it was all one color, or else a subtle gradient or something... Overall, though, the new version is much better, nice work.
Thanks.. this was experimental... I was trying to come up with something with my knowledge of photoshop thus far...
ohai der.. mmk lets see.. i actually like a mix between the two. in the first one my favourite parts are the crystaline structure in front of the guy and the brighter text. in the second one, i like the lack of scanlines, and overall smoothness. the crystaline structure in the second one is too dark IMO. now i shall cnc... the seond one? since it is a v2 i assume i should. i'l start with what i just said, the crystaline structure should be brighter and more apparent.. well not that it should... i just like it like that. next, although the sig is already kind of tall for its width, i would suggest cropping its width a slight bit more (on the left side). thirdly, the actual dissolving works kind of well, but isn't apparent enough to really get the idea across if one didn't read the text or your post. other things.. i like the transition of colour from one side to the next, and how it is basically black and white in between. good job on that. also, i like how bold you were about the text. not many designs can have such large text, but you managed it, and probably because you burnt it so it wasnt flat.. it was textured. one last thing is the lighting. not seeing much of a light source, but then again, most of the spartan's face is dark, so i suppose that is reasonable. you may want to give a tiny light source to give reason to the small reflection on the left side of the helm though.