Originally posted by another user
For you 3rd sig it's ok but up agains pro's its not got a chance. Here are some tips:-
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-Don't use that king of glow around the c4d's
-Use c4d's for backgorund design
-Use more than just a gradient background
-If your going to use a render try using more than just the one copy and set some to different opacity and delete parts of the image so i focus' on a main part of the render.
-Try using a border
-Try a more signature like size (I use 480x180)
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Hope this helped :p
Maybe it's medium art? Doesn't have to have a border. No need to duplicate the render and set on low opacity, I never do that. You can use c4ds not just on the backgrounds. Often, if I use renders, I don't make my backgrounds out of c4ds.
What you're saying is what you prefer to do, and as you said "pros", there aren't any pros here for sure, hardly see any pros around. Most gfxers here are amateurs or beginners.