^&^^
ah, now i see it. must be because of how i did it. first i smudged the a render layer around to fill the canvas, then add layes of brushes on top of it, add a layer of gradient then change blending to overlay, make a new layer and apply image then change blending to overlay, and add text below another render layer and toy around with their opacity and blending mode.
i think that's how he does some of his sigs, but i'm not sure.