This technique largely grew out of frustration because, a while back, I was doing a project and needed a really realistic branding effect on a wood grain. Every tutorial I found just fell short of what I needed. So, I started playing around and finally got a result I was happy with. You know the old saying: If you want it done right
STEP ONE:
First, we need a cool background texture to apply the effect to, Here, I have a great aged-wood image that has some nice... more