Well, I thought I was doing alright in the sig making business (ok, not really business, but more of a hobby) until I came on here. Buuut thanks to a tutorial (just one simple tutorial) I drastically upgraded (even though it's still not great, it's better than my other ones by far.) Old: New: Feedback please!
You can obviously see the improvement, the second is much better, and with more time, they'll keep getting better. You get more comfortable with photoshop, techniques, filters, lighting, etc and you'll be cranking out higher quality sigs in a shorter amount of time. Well done man!
I'd say it's a great improvement, and for tips I say get rid of the border, make the focal point (render) tad bigger . try t find tutorials which show some info on lighting and depth and text placement (there are separate tutoriasl for those only too). And if you like snazzy effects Check out the resources for nice c4d's
As I said, use tutorials. You work nice with the lighting although it is a bit too strong why you cannot really create depth / flow. Your lighting has to be the flow in that tag. ;D Looks a bit odd anyways and the text is not working well but keep doing tutorials, they are the best way to learn!