Sig 1: 5/5
Really cool. technically sound and takes a bunch of risks. The consistency of the "Commander Shepherd" signatures is apparent in the theme (although im not sure of the non-'canon' use of kessel, it seemed to be well received). The background is nice and works well with the middle groundm and is complimented further by the text and its style. The signature appears very complete and cohesive. The render itself is very carefully manipulated to give it an interesting depth. The lighting is done very well, and showcase in the animation. The flyover effect is great. the shaky lighting/flashes leading into it (complete with the eye reflection) really ties it all together.
Payout: 1.25M
Notes for beginners:
check out the lighting on the shoulder, how you can see the pills in the jersey. this was a great image selection; it already had a good field of depth with quality lighting, (along with being high res), which allowed you to work in a larger range. one way to manipulate this is with a "levels" filter. By calibrating the foreground and background, they appear to be part of the same cohesive image (no major lighting changes).