How to create a custom abstract background

I discovered this abstract background by accident, obviously the settings shown could be changed to give a different look, hope you like it.

Dark Jessica Alba Skull, Free Forum Signature

I created this custom forum signature and large art for the game torn. They are all the same base concept, dark Halloween-esque Jessica Alba graphics. This is a set of so the sizes vary. 

I started with a Jessica Alba image that I though would work well with the concept then I resized and shaped a skull image to layer over her face. The background came next I applied several layers of texture, a layer of text and a cannabis leaf to a flat black base layer. The large art is the most like what I started with, it just resized to about 50% of my original. There were two smaller flash animations the second just being a hue changing background but it was just taking too long to load with both up.

Destroyed City, Free Forum Signature

I created this custom forum signature for someone in the game torn. They requested a signature that was "slightly dark, slightly destructive... of a destroyed street scene or city scape". They also request it be 400 to 450 px by 100 to 150 px.

I started by putting together the background. The background of this signature is actually composed of 5 different images. After I pieced together the background I altered the colors and luminosity of the individual layers until they all flowed together. Next I duplicated the furthest back layer with the clouds (twice) and moved to the top/front. I removed the foreground in both layers and cleared away much of what was covering the building in one layer, using it only to create a heavy smoke/fog effect in certain areas of the image. Finally I added the text, duplicated it, change the duplicate to white, filled in most of the transparency in the white duplicate and blurred it to separate the black text from the dark image.

Aurora Abstract, Free Forum Signature

A free forum signature created for a Cybernations player. The background started as a picture of an aurora borealis. Through duplication and filtering the image was made to look more abstract but not so far as to loose the concept of the image.Vignetting was applied to the background, a star shaped lighting was placed on top to prevent the graffiti font from getting lost in the darkness.

One Piece, Free Forum Signature

I got bored so I went searching for free signature requests on forums. I ended up coming across a request for a one piece themed forum signature, text that reads "Luffy", grunge style font, and bright colors. I originally created at 1500px so the textures were just really popping on this signature but scaling it down definitely toned that down some. I do think it still came out pretty good though, even though the background fairly basic, I added multiple layers for shadow and motion blur(which also were more impressive with a 3 times larger image).

Dark, Free Forum Signature

This is a simple dark forum signature. The signature has an abandoned asylum with a red overlay for the background. The background was darkened then a red filter was applied. A little more time was spent on the text, two layers with motion blur to give the effect that the letters are running down. Then a layer of black in between the text and the motion blur to keep the layers from blending too much and this free signature was done.