In this tutoriol, Ill show you advanced gradient map manipulating, c4d effects and few other tricks.
-For Gimp and Photoshop-

First, you'll need a good looking stock (or render if you want), preferably a high quality one. I used a Wacka and Peach stock.

Make a new image of 440x140 and put in your stock (or render if you used one). Mine didnt fit in all the layer, so I took out a soft round brush and smudge parts missing and erased area that didnt fit in well.

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Now, were going to add a texture to our stock. In mine, I used a cloudy 100x100 icon. Since it didnt fit in all, I duplicated the layer, merged all of them, smudged it around and erased everything that was over the focal.

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Set it as Overlay 100%

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This is now the time to add a C4D. In mine, I used a Cinema C4D that you can easily find here: Signature Stop, Photoshop signature tutorials, renders, tag tutorials and signature backgrounds!

Place it well and erase all parts that is over the focal.
Set it as Overlay 100%

Now, to add few effects, lets add few effect C4D`s.
Set them all to Lighten 100%

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Make a new layer, C.Visible & Paste.
How do you gradient map?
Simply duplicate the pasted layer how may times you want and add a gradient map to each layer you've duplicated. In this case, I duplicated it 5 times.
To active your gradient map, just choose the gradient & colors you want, go in Colors>Map>Gradient Map and voilà!

Duplicate the pastied layer 5 times and hide all except the bottom one.

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Black/White Gradient Map

Erase the left part except focal.
Set is as Darken 30%

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Black/White Gradient Map

Set it as Lighten 15%

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Dark Purple/Pink Gradient Map

Set it a Lighten 32%

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Orange/Blue Sea Gradient Map

Set it as Overlay 100%

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Dark/White Gradient Map

Set it as Darken 20%

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Now, lets add a soft light effect. In this case, I used a soft round brush and lightly brushed near the focal with a yellish color.
Here is how it looks on a black background

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Now, lets add few lines close to focal. Remember to always try using colors from the render/stock.

Stroke a 5 p.x yellow line.

Using the same path, stroke a 5 p.x pink line. This time, put it closer to the focal and move it lower than your past line.

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Now, lets add few shiny circles close to our focal. In this case, I used an Extacy.Sinous brush that you can easily find on DeviantArt. Brush few of them close to your color and again, try choosing colors from your stock/render.

Here is how it looks on a black background.

These shall be set as screen

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To make them more shiny, gaussian blur the layer (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) and duplicate it few times.

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Next step, sharpen a bit your focal and areas around it with the sharpen tool

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Now, with the blur/dodge/burn tool, have fun putting more dept and few realistic effects.

Blur: Blur a bit the background with the blur tool.

Dodge: Slightly dodge few parts that are hit by the light.

Burn: Burn a bit the background and edges of the image.

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You may add a border if you wish.

Easy way: Go in Filter>Decore>Add Border

Harder way: Rectangle select top, depending on where you want your border, fill it with a color & duplicate to do as so for bottom.

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Text (Optional)
You may as well add a text if you want. In this case, I clipped masked mine.

-Make a new layer> C.Visible & Paste
-If you are clipping masking brushes, you must add new layer, but if your doing so with text, it makes a new layer automaticly.
-Brush or write what you want
-Select your text or brush layer
-Alpha to Selection (Layer>Transparency> Alpha to Selection)
-Hide the layer
-C.Visible & Paste and Anchor the layer.
-You can either move it or leave it there.

You got your clip masking.!
Note: You usually set the clip masking to Screen or Lighten, dependig on how you want it. You may as well set it to normal... do as you wish. In this case, I set it as Screen & duplicated my clipped mask text.

DO NOT RIP THIS TUTORIOL
If your going to post this tutoriol on another website, ask me first.

Outcomes
Post your outcomes and Ill add them here.