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Tutorial Preparation

In order to complete this tutorial you’ll need the following software:

• Photoshop CS4
• Karbaras’s IES Generator 3 (Download)
• Richard Rosenman’s Grid Generator 1.7 Plug-in
• Cybia AlphaWorks Plug-in (Download)
• 1589835-nice.IES Profile (Download)

Prior to beginning the tutorial, make sure you have installed the Grid Generator and the AlphaWorks Photoshop plug-ins, and that you’ve downloaded Karbaras’s IES Generator (a standalone app) and the 1589835-nice.IES profile.

Step 1: Setting Up the Texture PSD

This PSD will serve as a place to create certain textures used in the final layout. I find it helpful to create textures in a separate document. It’s like a sandbox for experimentation.

Make a new document in Photoshop that is 1024px wide by 1024px high at 72dpi.

Set the foreground color to #34240f by clicking the topmost color swatch in the Tools palette and entering this number at the bottom of the Color Picker dialog box. Set the background color by the same method to #825826. Fill the “Background” layer with this color by pressing Command + Backspace.

Step 2: Making the Corkboard Texture

Now go to Filter > Distort > Glass. In the Glass filter dialog box, set Distortion to 15, Smoothness to 1, Texture to Frosted and Scaling to 100%. Click OK.

Go to Filter > Render > Fibers. In the Fibers filter dialog box set Variance to 8.0 and Strength to 47.0. You will probably need to click the Randomize button several times to get a texture that has an even distribution of Step 1’s foreground and background colors. The best way to get a feel for the overall effect is to reduce the magnification of the preview image by clicking the minus sign below it until the minimum is reached, in this case 16%.

When done, click OK. The result will be similar to this:

Now go to Filter > Distort > Glass. In the Glass filter dialog box, set Distortion to 15, Smoothness to 1, Texture to Frosted and Scaling to 100%. Click OK.

Name this layer “corkboard.” The result will be similar to this:

The corkboard texture is complete. Save the PSD as “textures.psd” but don’t close it.

Step 3: Setting up the Main Layout

Create a new document that is 500px wide by 300px high at 72dpi. These dimensions are arbitrary and meant for the tutorial only. Save this document as “main_layout.psd.”

Rename the “Background” layer to “floor_color” and fill it with #1a211c. This can be accomplished by setting the foreground color in the Tools palette to #1a211c and pressing Alt + Backspace.

Step 4: Bringing in the Corkboard Texture

Go back to the “textures.psd” document. Right-click the “corkboard” layer and select “Duplicate Layer…” from the contextual menu.

In the resulting dialog, name the copied layer “corkboard” and select “main_layout.psd” as the destination document.

Go back to the “main_layout.psd” document. The new “corkboard” texture layer should appear above the “floor_color” layer.

Step 5: Resizing and Repositioning the Corkboard Texture

With the “corkboard” layer selected in the Layers palette, press Command + T, the keyboard shortcut for the Edit > Transform > Scale command. In the Transform Tool Options palette click the Maintain Aspect Ratio icon (noted with a red arrow in the image below) between the width and height fields, and enter 75.00% for the width. Press Enter twice and the transform will be complete.

Clicking the “Maintain aspect ratio” icon ensures that the layer will be scaled equally in both directions. Alternatively, 75.00% can be entered in both fields without clicking the icon; the result would be the same.

The scaling operation will cause the texture layer to shift out of position so that it’s located awkwardly in the lower right of the layout. With the “corkboard” layer selected, use the Move tool (V) and drag the texture around until it’s in a position that looks pleasing, without great variations in tone across the layout:

Step 6: Revealing the Floor Layer and Adjusting the Corkboard Color

With the “corkboard” layer selected use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to select a region that is 500px wide by about 230px high, starting at the upper left of the layout.

Click the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will add a mask to the texture layer, hiding the layer’s pixels outside of the selection.

With the floor color revealed, the corkboard texture looks a bit oversaturated. This can be corrected using Adjustment Layers.

Select the “corkboard” layer. At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the “Create new fill or adjustment layer” icon, and select Hue/Saturation.

In the Adjustments palette, set Hue to -6, Saturation to -7 and Lightness to -8.

Also, so that the Adjustment layer only affects the “corkboard” texture layer, click the Clip To Layer icon at the bottom of the Adjustments palette (it looks like two intersecting circles stacked one on top of the other). This causes the Adjustment layer to affect only the layer directly below it in the Layers palette, which is indicated in the Layers palette by a downward-pointing arrow on the “Hue Saturation” layer; the name of the layer below it will be underlined.

Step 7: Adding a Shadow Beneath the Corkboard

Make a new layer above the “floor_color” layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (indicated by a red arrow in the image below). Once the new layer is created, move it directly above the “floor_color” layer and rename it to “cork_shadow.” Layers are rearranged in the Layers palette by clicking and dragging them into position above or below other layers.

With the “cork_shadow” layer selected, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection region 500px wide by 10px high starting at the bottom of the cork texture.

Change the foreground color to black by pressing D on the keyboard (this resets the color swatches in the Tools palette to the default black foreground and white background). Next, select the Gradient tool (G). In the Gradient Tool Options palette, select the gradient preset Foreground to Transparent and the type Linear Gradient.

To be accurate, zoom in on the selection. Starting at the top of the selection, click and Shift-drag (hold the Shift key while dragging) to the bottom. In this case, Shift-dragging will constrain the Gradient Tool to the X-axis, so that the gradient is at a perfect 90-degree angle. When done, press Command +D to deselect the region.

Change the opacity for this layer to 60%. Do this either by pressing 6 on the keyboard or entering the value directly in the Master Opacity box for the layer in the Layers palette.

Step 8: Adding a Lip on the Corkboard

With the “cork_shadow” layer selected, press Command +J to duplicate it. In the Layers palette, drag the copied layer (automatically named “cork_shadow copy”) to the top of all other layers. Rename this layer “lip.”

Make sure the “lip” layer is selected and invert the color of the layer pixels by pressing Command +I. Now it will be a white-to-transparent gradient.

Flip the layer vertically by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

Nudge the layer up 9px by pressing Command + Up Arrow nine times. Now change the layer blending mode to Overlay and change the layer opacity to 50%.

Step 9: Adding a Shadow to the Floor

Make a new layer above the “floor_color” layer and name it “floor_shadow.” Make sure the foreground color in the Tools palette is black.

Using the Gradient tool (G) with the “floor_shadow” layer selected, click at the bottom of the layout and Shift-drag to about three-quarters of the way up to the bottom of the corkboard. Finally, change the layer opacity to 50%.

Step 10: Adding Floorboards

Next, we’ll add some lines to suggest floorboards. Make a new layer above the “floor_color” layer, fill it with black and name it “floorboards.”

This step uses the free Grid Generator plug-in by Richard Rosenman. With the “floorboards” layer selected, go to Filter > Richard Rosenman > Grid Generator. Adjust the settings in the Grid Generator dialog box to match those shown below:

This is the result:

Step 11: Adding Perspective and Highlights to the Floorboards

Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective. Adjust the perspective of the “floorboards” layer by dragging the handles in the upper and lower corners of the transformation box left and right (indicated by red arrows) until it looks something like the image below. Note that the handles will need to be dragged beyond the edges of the document. When done, press Enter to apply the transformation.

Change the “floorboards” layer’s blending mode to Multiply and its opacity to 30%.

Duplicate the “floorboards” layer and rename the new layer to “floorboards_highlight.” Move this layer directly below the “floorboards” layer.

Invert it by pressing Command +I, change its blending mode to Overlay and its opacity to 10%.

Finally, nudge it 1px to the right by pressing the Right Arrow once. This will give a subtle highlight to the floorboards.

Step 12: Adding an Overall Highlight to the Floor

Make a new layer and name it “floor_highlight.” Move this new layer to the top of the Layers palette, above all other layers.

Change the foreground color to white by pressing D, then X, on the keyboard (this resets the Tools palette color swatches to default and then reverses them). Select the Gradient tool (G), and change its preset to Foreground to Transparent and its type to Radial Gradient.

Starting at the center of the layout, click and Shift-drag to nearly the top edge of the layout.

Press Command +T to transform the layer. Use the top center handle of the transform region to adjust the layer’s height. Adjust its width outward from the center by Shift-Alt-dragging the left or right center handle. Press Enter to apply the transformation.

Move the “floor_highlight” layer to the spot directly above the “floor_shadow” layer in the Layers palette. Change its blending mode to Overlay and its opacity to 50%.

Step 12: Creating the Light Housing

Make a new layer and move it to the top spot in the Layers palette. Name this layer “light_housing.”

At the very top of this layer, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection that’s 500px wide by 10px high. Change the foreground color in the Tools palette to #17150e and fill the selection with this color by pressing Alt+Backspace.

Duplicate the “lip” layer by selecting it in the Layers palette and pressing Command +J. Move this new layer above the “light_housing” layer in the Layers palette and rename it “housing_highlight.”

Use the Move tool (V) to move the layer up so that its bottom is in the same position as the bottom of the “light_housing.”

Press Command + T to transform the layer. Adjust it from the top so that it’s roughly half its current height.

Step 13: Adding a Shadow Beneath the Light Housing

Select the “housing_highlight” layer in the Layers palette and press Command + J to duplicate it. Rename the layer “housing_shadow” and invert it by pressing Command +I.

Flip the layer vertically by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Then, nudge it down 1px by pressing the Down Arrow once.

Finally, change its opacity to 80%.

Step 14: Creating a Light

Launch IES Generator. At the bottom left of the application window, click the Load button and locate the “1589835-nice.IES” profile that you downloaded in the Tutorial Preparation.

Using the sliders at the lower left of the window, adjust Brightness to 1.11 and Away From Wall to 3.00 so that the image on the right side of the window looks something like this:

Step 15: Bringing the Light into Photoshop

IES Generator doesn’t have an export or save function, so a screen capture is needed to paste it into the Photoshop layout. You can use a screen capture utility if you have one. Otherwise, press Alt + Print Screen (this is a Windows key-combination which captures the active window to the clipboard). After making the capture, return to Photoshop.

Open the “textures.psd” document created in Step 1, if it isn’t already open. Press Command +V to paste the screen capture into the document. It will appear in a new layer above the “corkboard” layer. If for some reason it ends up below the “corkboard” layer, just move it up in the Layers palette.

With the new layer selected, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection around the IES image as shown:

Go to Select > Inverse to invert the selection. Fill this region with black.

Step 15: Extracting the White Pixels from the Light Layer and Positioning It

Now we’ll use the free AlphaWorks plug-in by Cybia to remove all the black from this layer, so that we end up with just the white pixels that make up the light pattern.

Go to Filter > Cybia > AlphaWorks. From the drop down menu at the upper right of the filter’s dialog box, select “LINEAR BlackOut – remove from BW lineart.” Click OK.

This will be the result:

With this layer still selected, press Command +A (Select > All), copy it, then switch to the “main_layout.psd”.

Select the “Hue/Saturation 1″ layer in the Layers palette and press Command +V to paste. The new layer will appear between the “lip” layer and the “Hue/Saturation 1″ layer. Rename it to “ies_light.”

Nudge the “ies_light” layer up 6px by pressing the Up Arrow six times. Now change this layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

Step 16: Intensifying the Light

Duplicate the “ies_light” layer twice by selecting it in the Layers palette and pressing Command +J twice. Change the opacity of the topmost copy (”ies_light copy 2″) to 50%.

The three layers, “ies_light,” “ies_light copy” and “ies_light copy 2″ make up a single effect. Collect them into one layer group by clicking the “ies_light” layer, holding down the Shift key and selecting “ies_light copy 2.” Click the icon at the top right of the Layer palette and select New Group from Layers. In the dialog box that pops up, name the group “light.” Click OK.

Now the three layers will be in a single group.

Step 17: Controlling the Extent of the Light

Select all the layers within the “light” group, and group them again by the same method described in Step 16. It’s not necessary to rename this new layer group.

Select “Group 1″ in the Layers palette and create a layer mask for this group by clicking on the “Add a layer mask” icon at the bottom of the palette. The mask will appear ahead of the group name – it looks like a white box.

In the Layers palette, click the layer mask thumbnail (the white box) to select it. Select the Gradient tool (G).

As described in Step 6, make sure the gradient preset is Foreground to Transparent and the type is Linear Gradient. Starting at the middle of the floor, click and Shift-drag to a spot approximately as shown in the image below. A preview of the mask just created will appear in the layer mask thumbnail.

Step 18: Adding a Highlight Spot on the Floor

Collapse “Group 1″ within the “light” layer group by clicking the gray arrow to the left of its name.

Select the “floor_highlight” layer in the Layers palette and duplicate it by pressing Command +J. The new layer will be named “floor_highlight copy.”

Move this new layer into the “light” group by dragging and dropping it directly on the “light” group’s name.

Press Command +T to transform the “floor_highlight copy” layer until it’s approximately 50% of its current width. Press Enter to apply the transformation. Rename the layer to “spot” and change its opacity to 70%.

Step 19: Duplicating the Light

Two more copies of the “light” group are needed. Select and collapse the “light” layer group in the Layers palette. Drag and drop it on the “Create a new layer” icon at the bottom of the palette. A copy of the group, named “light copy” will appear above the original in the Layers palette.

Copy this new group by the same method. There will now be three groups in the Layers palette named “light,” “light copy” and “light copy 2.”

Step 20: Moving the Lights into Position

With the “light copy 2″ layer group selected in the Layers palette, nudge it left 140px by pressing Shift+Left Arrow 14 times (holding the Shift key down while using the arrow keys nudges 10px at a time). Next, select the “light copy” group and nudge it right 140px by the same method.

Rename “light copy 2″ to “light_left,” “light copy” to “light_right” and “light” to “light_center,” to coordinate with their positions in the layout.

Step 21: Spilling the Lights onto the Housing

Select the layer groups “light_center,” “light_right” and “light_left.” Drag and drop them onto the “Create a new layer” icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Three new copies of these groups will appear above the originals in the Layers palette.

Press Command +E to merge the groups into one layer.

Rename the layer “spill.”

Move it to the top of the Layers palette above the “housing_shadow” layer and change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

Flip it vertically by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

Nudge the “spill” layer up 230px by pressing Shift+Up Arrow 23 times.

Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), make a selection that’s 500px wide by 10px high, starting at the upper left of the layout.

Click the “Add layer mask” icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a mask to the “spill” layer. This will restrict its effect to the light housing area.

Step 22: Adding a Shadow Behind the Lights (optional)

Next, we’ll darken the area around the top of the lights against the corkboard to give them a little more emphasis. This step is optional.

In the Layers palette, select the “lip” layer and click the “Create a new layer” icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. The new layer will appear above the “lip” layer. Rename it to “top_shadow.”

Using the Gradient tool (G), with the preset Foreground to Transparent, type Linear Gradient and a foreground color of black, Shift-drag in the “top_shadow” layer as shown:

The “top_shadow” layer needs to be masked so that it excludes the lights.

Select the layer groups “light_center,” “light_right” and “light_left.” Duplicate and merge them into a single layer.

Command-click the layer thumbnail in the Layers palette to load the layer’s transparency as a selection.

Go to Select > Inverse to invert the selection. Now select the “top_shadow” layer in the Layers palette and click the “Add layer mask” icon at the bottom of the palette.

Change the “top_shadow” layer’s opacity to 60%, and its blending mode to Overlay.

Finally, delete the “light_left copy” layer.

Step 23: Adding Text, The Final Step

As the final step, inlaid text will be added to the corkboard. Any font(s) can be used, but this example uses Arista 2.0 Light and DIN Mittelschrift. (How to use Photoshop’s Text Tool will not be covered in this part of the tutorial.)

The text layers should be placed above all other layers in the Layers palette.

In the Layers palette, double-click in the area to the right of the text layer’s name. This will open up the Layer Style dialog box.

In the Layer Style window, adjust the settings as shown.

Drop Shadow:

Inner Shadow:

Color Overlay:

Final Result

This is the final result:

Further Suggestions

I recommend that this effect be used sparingly. For example, use it only to highlight a logo in the header of a website, or to emphasize a few elements on a page.

Angling the light(s) can further enhance the effect; flipping the effect vertically gives the impression of footlights.

You can also colorize the lighting by use of a Color Overlay or Gradient Overlay layer style.

For this tutorial, I selected an IES profile that has been very popular in 3D art, as it has such a distinct appearance. For this reason it has become overused and clichéd. However, there are hundreds of other IES/photometric profiles freely available:

• ERCO Light Scout
• GE Photometric Files

Karbaras’s IES Generator also allows you to create your own profiles.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

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Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 45 minutes

Preparation

This is an advanced piece, I mean there are no hard to do techniques, but this kind of work requires a lot of good taste, some color experience and casting shadows knowledge. So I do not recommend this tutorial for beginners. I’ll skip basic pointers and go straight to the main point. Basically, I want you to get the idea of how to create an illustration like this and follow your own way with these effects.

Before we start, I wanted to show you how the concept changed during the whole session:

1. This first image below is the main concept, that I planned. It’s the first idea that came to my head: an energy ball with lots of shine lines around it.
2. While searching images I accidently found an image of a man in a very cool position, so I thought this must be used here. So I put him there and wanted to make an illusion that this man is creating all the energy.
3. The first plans were done and I started to work on this project. During the process this concept somehow lacked dynamics, so I decided to rotate the whole piece.
4. Finally, when I had no idea how this energy ball could look like, and this took me some time before I came up with the final idea, I rejected the ball and went into energy touch only for this man.

So you see each project changes when you work on it, so before you get into this tutorial remember to work flexible, not everything needs to look the same way as you planned. Take your time and use your imagination.

Step 1

Before we start, you need to know that the shining effects work best on a black background. The darker the background is, the more visible and contrasted shine you will achieve. So I started with a black background of the canvas around 900px by 1100px (this should work for you fine).

Step 2

Now is the first hard part, searching for the right image. I know many people are unhappy with buying pictures, but well, the truth is: if you want good quality, you need to pay for it. I’ve nothing against free stock photos, if you have the time to search for a good image among mixed quality free pictures it’s OK.

Anyway, if you have the right image, then extract the person (or object) from the image of your choice. The biggest problem of all cut-outs is always the hair. But, as you can see in the image below, I had a short haired man. In this case I simply used the Pen Tool to deal with short hair. And because we have a black background in our main project document, we can easily blend this black hair with the background. To do this I used the Burn Tool with Range set to Midtones and burned the hair edges a little.

Step 3

Now, in the Layers Palette I added two adjustment layers: Levels and Gradient Map to make a better blending between this person and the black background. I used a gradient from black to white and set the Gradient Map layer’s Blending Mode to Soft Light, then lowered the Opacity just a touch.

Step 4

OK, next we’ll create ground. I used a Gradient Tool and on a new layer created a radial gradient from white to transparent (as you see in the first picture below). Then this big white dot needed some perspective, so here I hit Command + T to Distort (second image below).

The dot was blurred using Gaussian Blur at around 40 pixel Radius. Then I duplicated this blurred dot, stretched it a little bit (Command + T) and made two more copies to enhance the ground effect. If necessary, the opacities of these ground layers can be lowered just a touch. It means that this surface shouldn’t be too bright, as this will kinda destroy the concept of having the whole background black.

Step 5

Now, as you can see in the first image below, I started adding shadows under the shoes. It’s not suppose to be great and totally pimped shadow. I just needed to make an accent that this man is standing on something. This always works pretty well, as you start to see how your illustration is shaping up, even thought the shade will change, it’s good to have it sketched.

To do the shadow I used a black brush with Flow set to 2% and Hardness to 0%, then I slowly started creating it click by click (don’t hold the left mouse button while doing this, as you may make a very ugly kind of shadow that way). Individual brush clicks did the job just fine.

Now let’s focus on the second image below. Something didn’t work for me in this piece, so I decided to add the first dynamic touch to this illustration, so I selected all the layers and used Command + T to rotate them at a small angle (for now it looked kinda like a slip).

Step 6

I zoomed out and positioned this man and ground to the right. I kinda wanted to avoid the center focus of illustration. Sometimes it’s good to move the main object/person to the side, looks more dynamic and original to me.

OK, then I decided that this position works perfectly for this piece and started touching up shadows. Looking at this man it’s visible that few sources of light hit him (for example his left hand shows that light reaches it from left and right). So in this case I decided to give this man a soft shadow, only underneath him by using the same technique as previously.

I only want you to pay attention to his shoes which are the closest objects to the ground. Shoes stick to the surface, this means they need more shadow around them. The farther the objects are from the ground, the more they start to disappear (and the shadow starts to soften, then slowly vanish).

Step 7

As I was watching my illustration now, I felt like there are some spots that are too bright, so I used the Burn Tool to enhance the shade effect of the shoes. I also did some blending with the hand, as It seemed too bright on the left side.

Step 8

Finally this man is ready. Now this illustration needs to look more like one piece. So I did some overall color adjusting. I added a Curves adjustment layer and then a Gradient Map with a Violet to Orange gradient (picked from standard presets). Then I lowered the Opacity of the Gradient Map to around 25-30% and changed its Blending Mode to Soft Light. Both adjustment layers were set up to give this illustration a yellowish touch (as I experimented and liked it).

Step 9

Now it looks like this man really belongs to this place, and that’s the thing we want. Next, I started all the light tricks.

Here is something abstract that I prepared for this piece. So I opened these lights and dragged them into the project while changing its Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. It was put above all layers just not to get colorized by two previous adjustment layers.

Now look at the process. As I already had these abstract lights, I took the Burn Tool (Midtones) and burned parts of this piece that I wanted to get rid of (2nd image below). Then many less of these lines lasted, so I used a hard Eraser Tool to erase the rest of the disturbing lines, which I didn’t want to see here (3rd image below). Finally I added Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and adjusted this color exactly for these three main lines (blue, green and yellow). I worked to achieve cool, bright coloring for these lines.

This can be done for each line separately, but before that they need to be cut out into new layers.

Step 10

As I said, if you don’t have some color experience, this tutorial will be difficult for you to follow. Now is the further part when I repeated the same process as in the previous step. I created, erased, separated new lines and added various colors.

Step 11

I was still into adding color light lines, and I want to show you another example of flexible work. During this process I had many ideas of how to connect and set these lines.

First I thought maybe a good idea would be to cross them and make them in different positions (1st image below). This didn’t work out and I decided to make all the lines almost parallel (2nd image below). So I made it, and for some variation I added one green line that kinda crossed the space, but it gave some depth to the illustration so I left it be.

Step 12

Now I added some more brightness in places indicated below using soft white brush. The new layer was created below the lines layers, as these lines are half transparent (cause of the linear dodge mode), so everything put below these lines is visible.

Step 13

I played around with these lines and achieved some cool results (first image below). All done the same way as I showed previously.

Next I felt like this piece needs some more details going all around it and filling in some blanks. You can find some similar brushes to the ones I used for this. Experiment with various brushes in this step.

I picked one my grungy splatter brushes. Then found a nice dark color (coming from the color that I used in light lines – in my case it happened to be blue) and made a brush mark (second image below). Then I brought up the selection of this brush mark and contracted it by 2 pixels by going to Select > Modify > Contract (third image below). Next I hit Delete to get rid of the center brush part (forth image below). Then I positioned it near a light blue line.

Step 14

Now as I had this brush mark placed correctly, I used a soft eraser and erased disturbing parts. Then switching between the Burn Tool (Midtones) and Dodge Tool (Highlights) I pimped out selected dark spots of this brush mark.

When using the Burn Tool you actually darken the spot. When using the Dodge Tool, you brighten it up. So I was very careful in this step, a small overdo can destroy the idea.

So this process is just to show you how it works, the brush mark in the first three images below are just an example. In the forth image below you can see the brushes that I used originally.

Step 15

By the way we’re still with these brushes, pay attention to the little pieces above the man’s head (first image below) and the ones near his leg (second image below). Yes, they were made the same way as previously. To do this you can even use some splatter brushes and follow the same process.

Also pay attention to the second image below. I indicated a spot that points to shadow. This shadow made an illusion that these little pieces are in the air. So if you get more small pieces around the ground, you can cast some shadows underneath them (but on the ground) and this will give your effects more depth.

Step 16

Next to to add some sparkle to this illustration I decided to use a picture of sky and cut the sun out of it. Then I desaturated this piece (second image below) and set its Blending Mode to Linear Dodge and I erased all the unnecessary parts around this sun (with the Eraser Tool). I also brought up the Levels (Command + L) and enhanced the contrast. Then I used Burn Tool (Midtones) to enhance the light effect and darken the rays (fourth image below). Finally, I colored this sun using Hue/Saturation and Color Balance, I made it green and then gave it a touch of yellow.

Step 17

The sun was resized down to a very small size, and at this size it completely stops being recognizable as a shining sun. Now it’s just a shining spot. I duplicated it many times and placed it in various spots. By the way, I changed the color when it was necessary to make these lights fit. To change colors I followed similar steps as before (basically Hue/Saturation and when the tone was not fully satisfying I pimped it with Color Balance).

Step 18

Moving forward I thought I’d use these nice clouds of this sky to make some dust. So I opened the image and desaturated it. Then (as previously) I used Levels (Command + L) to make the clouds stand out. Next, I used a soft Eraser and got rid of unwanted parts (fifth image below). Finally, I grabbed Burn Tool (Midtones) and made some touch-ups to these clouds. I kinda separated them and brought them up more.

Step 19

I named these clouds "Dust" and changed the layer’s Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. Then rotated them and placed them towards the lines direction (as you can see in the image below).

I made a small comparison below, the whole illustration got a little bit smoother when I added this dust.

Step 20

So the illustration was almost finished, but the light lines were still not blended enough with the model. I hit Command + A to select the whole canvas, and then Command + Shift + C (copy merged) and Command + V (paste). This way I made a duplicate of the whole image and put it on top of all the layers.

Then while having this image selected, I went to Filter > Liquify and as you can see in the first image below, I did some stretching using the Forward Warp Tool (in Liquify filter). In the second image below you can see how smooth and nice these lines were blended.

Step 21

As the final touch I wanted to give this piece a little more realism, so I casted light reflections on this man’s clothes and skin. Each arrow below has the color of the nearest line. For example, the first orange arrow point of the shirt spot which should be affected by the orange light line. So I gave an orange color to this spot, and so on with the others.

To do that I made a new layer with the Blending Mode set to Color (Soft Light in some cases works fine also), then I used a very soft brush with proper color, and Voilà!

Conclusion

In the end you can give it a nice overall sharpen using highpass filter, this will bring even more quality to your work. So I hope you liked this piece, thanks for reading. The main purpose of this tutorial was to show you a good direction in how to use these effects. So be creative and try to discover your way of using them.

You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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1. Anthony Dart

Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa

“Ontwerp is a multi-disciplinary Design & Animation studio based in Johannesburg South Africa, founded by Designer / Director Anthony Dart. Ontwerp’s philosophy places design at the forefront. Design is the emphasis. We perceive design as problem solving, we are obsessive with craft and detail, We believe in the formidable communication of imagesand type and their inherent narrative ability. Our interests extend toArt Direction, Motion Graphics, 2D & 3D Animation, Sound Design, Graphic Design for Print and Screen.”

• Website

2. One Horse Town

Representing: Cape Town, South Africa

The creative illustration work and great color schemes are what really caught my eye when checking out One Horse Towns portfolio of work. It is no doubt that this retro look and feel is one that brings them a lot of business. But, they are not limited to only that style. If you check out some of their illustration work, you will find a wide variety of work.

• Website

3. Brandt Botes

Representing: Cape Town, South Africa

Brandt Botes really is an artist without a style. While many of the samples below might lead you to think that he is limited to just a basic illustrator type style, you would be wrong. His portfolio is filled with a wide variety of styles and types of works. Everything from rough sketch style illustration to simply complex patterns can be seen in his portfolio.

• Website

4. Bison

Representing: Cape Town, South Africa

“Bison is the work of Linsey Levendall and Daniel Orme who form a creative studio based in Cape Town, South Africa. They service big to small businesses, musicians, the
arts and culture sector and ad agencies with a range of skills including illustration, graphic design, branding and art direction.

Bison holds the belief that experimentation is the key to discovery and thus find ways around the tried and tested approach producing a fresh and unexpected
result.

• Website

5. Ryan Atkinson

Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa

“Im a young south african designer who loves good design. I love typography, print design, photography, motion graphics and illustration. My icons include, Non-Format, Build (Micheal C. Place), Massimo Vignelli, Jospeh Muller-Brockman, Wim Crouwel, David Carson (Interestingly different I know, but I have my reasons). I am interested in furthering myself and my skills as often as possible, so give me a shout if you think a piece of work is not cool, and you have some ideas why ”

• Website

6. Islam Zayed

Representing: Cairo, Egypt

While Islam Zayed has some really nice typography work in his portfolio, I was more impressed with some of his graphic design work and photo manipulation stuff. There are also of course, his works that combine the two for a truly outstanding finished piece, some of which is very Desktopgrahy-esque.

• Website

7. Mohamad Moftah

Representing: Cairo, Egypt

“Mohamad Moftah is an Egyptian born painter, graphic designer and illustrator based in Cairo, Egypt. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University in the summer of 2008 with honors. Since then he has been working in advertising and design.

Mohamad has focused primarily on painting and design, working with diverse local and international clients like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s,  producing logos, corporate identities, brochures, TV ads, print ads and most other forms of print.”

• Website

8. International Nomads

Representing: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

“We like to describe ourselves as a Collective, an internationally present collective of professionals & creatives from around the globe, and this team of fine individuals is called International Nomads.

International Nomads specializes in Marketing & Digital Advertising. We provide a full suite of integrated marketing and advertising services, broken into 3 main areas of work; Consultation, Creative, and Production services”

• Website

9. JayDz

Representing: Dammam, Saudi Arabia

“My name’s Jay, a Graphic Designer from the Mid-East.. My Passion is My Art.. and My Inspiration’s My Fiance..
I design, I screw up, then I do good.. its how I do it lol … my Senses are my tutorial tools… I observe and learn new techniques by analyzing others’ graphics!
o to all great Designers and Illustrators out there…. Keep posting your great work! =D
Addin’ me/ Applaudin’ or Criticizin’ my Work… Sharin’ ‘em thoughts with me.. iS What Builds Me =)”

• Website

10. Younes Badi

Representing: Rabat, Morocco

“I am Younes Badi. I am a young graphic designer from Rabat in Morroco. Here is my graphic design portfolio from school. I am actually studying graphic design at a local design university. I hope you enjoy looking at some of my artwork and designs.”

• Website

11. Younes ze

Representing: Algiers, Algeria

Younes Ze is one of the younger artists on this list. According to the artist profile, they are only about 21. Whats cool about their profile, is that they have done a nice job at taking rather popular trends and turning them into a more unique style. This combination of mixing popular trends with a unique style is how new trends are born.

• Website

12. Clement de Bruin

Representing: Cape Town, South Africa

As I was checking out Clement de Bruins blog, I noticed that his most recent post was of a blank figure he painted. Anyone who has the skills to do those well gets props in my book. Toys aside, it is Clement de Bruins illustrative work that really stands out. From what i can see, it has really progressed over the years and Im sure it will only get better.

• Website

13. Disturbance

Representing: Durban, South Africa

“Disturbance is a graphic design studio based in Durban, South Africa and one of the continent’s leading design practices. disturbance’s work has been recognised both locally (Loeries awards) and internationally(D&AD, ADC, One Show, Comm Arts, Society of Illustrators).

Over the last decade disturbance has variously won awards for their clients, published a ‘zine, released a music CD, designed and operated a restaurant, a gallery and a design store and launched (and collapsed) the much hyped design brand, “Home Industries”.”

• Website

14. Karen Mc Dade

Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa

“I specialise in designing online and print media from conception to completion. I have a passion for photo-manipulation and will often stay up late at night experimenting with new techniques. I’m especially partial to the surreal and fantasy-esque style and my art has a general tenancy in this direction.
I conduct the majority of my work via the internet as many of my clients reside internationally. I have designed for companies from the United Kingdom, to South Africa to the USA. Clients include the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, and Pegasus Spiele, among others.”

• Website

15. MissYucki

Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa

“MissYucki is an art and design project conceived by Kat Cameron and Alba Poretti. Inspired by the frenzy of down town Johannesburg, we have created a character named Missyucki and employing a range of mediums we create scenes and themes from her mythology as well as curiosities and novelties inspired by her way of life.”

• Website

16. Sam Moshaver

Representing: Tehran, Iran

There are no shortage of, for lack of a better term, gothic type artists out there. But few really have the creativity to take their work to a state of originality. Sam is not one of those few. He is one of the ones who can create dark images to stir emotions without being over saturated with dark cliches and stereotypes. On top f that, he can also use these design skills to create work that is a little more public friendly for ads, websites, etc.

• Website

17. Ahmed Othman

Representing: Egypt

“I’m Ahmed Othman from EGYPT, I was born in 1987 in Mansoura city. I got interested in drawing when I was young so I decided to learn about Art and that’s when I joined the faculty of Art education and this is helped me greatly to improve my talent in graphic design.”

• Website

18. Amr Tahtawi

Representing: Cairo, Egypt

“at designs is a small design studio with a big attitude in web, Print, Graphics, Logotype, and illustration. Relax, watch & enjoy selected work from Amr Tahtawi designz.”

• Website

19. Ahson Rafiq

Representing: Sanaa, Yemen

“My name is Ahson Rafiq, I’m the creator of Gurilla Skateboards and I do freelance web design right here at designatomy. I’ve done over 5 years of Graphic and Wordpress Blog Designing and now it’s time for me to make a portfolio so here’s the site and my work is showcased here officially.”

• Website

20. Mikias Hailu

Representing: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“Currently I’m a freelance worker with graphic design in Ethiopia. I have a good background with drawing and paintings that I have been practicing since child hood,and now I’m working with Web Design, Graphic Design, Digital Art, Illustration, etc”

• Website

See the rest of the series: Top Artists in Europe | Top Artists in USA & Canada | Top Artists in Latin America

1. Luke Lucas

Representing: Melbourne, Australia

There are those who are good with typography and then there are those who are amazing at it. Luke Lucas is definitely in the latter of those categories. Anyone who can create a font entirely out of tongues is pretty amazing to me. He is also an editor at fairly popular blog called Life Lounge.

• Website

2. Justin Maller

Representing: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

“Justin Maller is a freelance illustrator and art director based in Melbourne, Australia. He has been creating digital art for over eight years, and has produced professionally in both a private and studio based capacity for the last two.”

• Website

3. Liu Zheng aka 96k

Representing: Beijing, China

“96k was born in a port city of developing country(CHINA), deeply influenced in his childhood by the different foreign cultures and religions, he addicted himself both into the exotic & traditional arts, At early, adoring the sprint,he was trained to be an excellent professional sprinter, however because of many reasons he had to quit, in future days, art focuses all his energy. As most artists who pursue the liberty, he stopped his school life to start his own art career after graduated from university.”

• Website

4. Nod Young

Representing: Beijing, China

“Nod has carved a niche in the realm of enterprises looking to make their marks both within and beyond China. As the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Khaki Creative & Design, Nod leads a team of multicultural artists and designers that uses clean and strong visuals to fulfill diverse marketing strategies. At the same time, Nod has helped to create an environment that fosters creative ideas both for himself and his team.”

Some of the work below also includes illustrations for friend Popil.

• Website

5. Shadow Chen

Representing: Ningbo, China

Shadow Chen was originally born in China. He also originally went to school for product design. During his post graduate, he decided that he wanted to be an illustrator. After that thought, there was no looking back. Now he has his dream job doing illustrating work for anything from web design to package design!

• Website

6. Ipang Bangsad

Representing: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Ipang Bangsad is a cool vector illustrator and designer from Cambodia. His work has the look and feel of that classic tattoo style which is as timeless as some of Ipangs designs. Although he seems to really favor the classic flash art style, he isn’t limited to it. He seems to have mastered a number of various design styles.

• Website

7. Mike Chan

Representing: Hong Kong (historical), Hong Kong

Mike seems to have a passion for all types of design mediums. While it looks as though his design skills are what bring in the bacon, he also has quite an eye for photography. His love for design started at the wee age of 13. At 15 he created his first web site design, at which point his high school at teacher saw his skills and encouraged him to create the schools website.

• Website

8. Calvin Ho

Representing: Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

“Atomic Attack is the personal website of Calvin Ho. AA was formed in 1997. Working on a wide range of projects that cover design, art direction, illustration & motion for the music, fashion, art, film & entertainment industries. Below are some past projects which are not directly related to design as such but more of Calvin’s love with music, magazines, collecting toys, writing and creating interesting online projects.”

• Website

9. ISE

Representing: Bangkok, Thailand

The designer currently known to me as “ISE” caught my attention because “they” have a cool style that is very much their own. It almost reminds me of a more modern version of the artwork you used to see in salons and fashion magazines during the 80’s. I think the combination of this slightly retro style mixed with modern trends really makes it stand out.

• Website

10. Sajith Jayaweera

Representing: Colombo, Sri Lanka

While probably a lot lesser known than many of the names on this list, Sajith portfolio work on Behance stood out to me because of how unique it was. So many talented designers are just playing off each other and the current trends. While Sajith has some trendy styles, I like that many of his works have a style not widely seen. It is styles and ideas like this that start trends.

• Website

11. Mac Funamizu

Representing: Tokyo, Japan

“For the first 10+ years of my career, I had been a teacher of English and an interpreter. Changed my career path in 2005 to become a designer. By combining my presentation methods and visualization skills which I acquired through my teaching career and design sense, I can always create user-centered designs that captivate and magnetize users’ attention. I believe that design is communication.”

• Website

12. Gaku Imai

Representing: Okayama, Japan

“Gaku Imai is a freelance illustrator / graphic designer based in Okayama, Japan. PEANUTS TASTE is the creative identity of Gaku Imai.

He loves cute objects, funny gadgets, mechanical parts and unique characters. He uses contrasted vivid colors with heavy outline.”

• Website

13. Filter017 Graphic Design

Representing: Taipei, Taiwan

“Filter017 was created by Enzo, Wen, and Nick since 2004. Our team consists of Mixed Sauce & Wonder Work + 99% passion towards creation.
We infuse unique graphics into all kinds of design.”

• Website

14. Kode Logic

Representing: Melbourne, Australia

“I’m a graphic designer from Melbourne Australia first started drawing from when i was 6 and still haven’t took the pen out of my hand and now transferred my skills to a digital platform were i have Been doing it for the past 4 years and I’m still picking up new skills along the way learning many different styles and trying to create my own and my first for knowledge is one that never goes away No matter how much i take in that is why i love doing collaborations with other talented people To learn there take on design and learn off that foundation to create a major outcome and to me remembered for what i have done.”

• Website

15. Christopher Haines

Representing: Perth, Australia

Christopher Haines is a designer that comes from Perth Australia. He has had a passion for all thing art and designed related ever since a very young age. But, it is only recently that he has begun to pursue his love of design by focusing on digital illustration in a variety of formats.

• Website

16. Pixel Pastry

Representing: Singapore, Singapore

Lim Si Ping is a 22-year-old designer who first made her presence known in the design industry at the age of 18. Her portfolio is a spectrum of visionary work that first emerged from an established profession in digital illustration. In the span of her four-year career as a freelance artist, her work has gained her recognition in international media, which includes Territory Magazine (Asia), Lürzer’s Archive (Austria), Computer Arts Magazine (UK), and The Art Directors’ Club (Germany).

• Website

17. Sheena Aw

Representing: Singapore City, Singapore

“I’m a motion graphic designer & animator from Singapore. I do illustrations and digital art in my freetime. Worked with MTV Asia,Sony International and various corporate clients. Hoping to reach out to the world with my art and character designs.”

• Website

18. Masaki Yokobe

Representing: Tokyo, Japan

“My name is Masaki Yokobe and a professional digital artist based in Japan. I have been a professional motion graphics work and 2D . 3D cg . composite artist for nearly four years now. I spent two and half years as cg designer at namco , where I was a key member of the ACECOMBAT5 movie team. After namco , I joined NHK special project (TV program) as a story board artist and 3DCG artist.

• Website

19. K3 Studio

Representing: Osaka, Japan

“I’m a scientist and an artist. My field of science is Physics and Nanotechnology. I think that the knowledge and experiments of science lead to a new field of the art.

Now my field of the art is Digital Abstract. I’ll study more and more, and then I want to create the new field of the art. The Chromatic series is one of the new field. If you like my works, I’m very glad.”

• Website

20. Archan Nair

Representing: New Delhi, India

“Archan Nair is a 26 year old, self developed artist , multi-disciplinary designer and illustrator,Based out of New Delhi, India. Specializing in Art Direction, Illustration, and Digital Art, he has been producing illustrations and interactive designs for Pepsi, Tiger Beer, Canon, Microsoft, GQ etc. he has been featured in publications like Computer Arts, Digital Arts, Advanced Photoshop, Bak, Vanity Fair, and has been featured by Music Artists like Kanye West and more.”

• Website

All we need to do is open up Photoshop, create our final image and animate it the way we want it to move the single elements to achieve the final effect. Additionally, we’ll stop by at the beautiful GraphicRiver website, where we’ll download their logo, which we’ll use to create our GIF.

Final GIF Preview

Take a look at the animated GIF we’ll be creating below. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month.

Step 1

First, open up Photoshop and create a new 125 pixel by 125 pixel document. In our case, a 72 pixel/inch resolution and the RGB Color mode with a white background will be sufficient, since we’ll use it on the web.

Step 2

Now, unlock the Background layer, call it “BG” for Background and select the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Instead of using the rich black (#000000) for the background, I use the slightly brighter #111111 black, which looks better. Click to fill the layer.

Step 3

Gradients in designs, layouts or images are very popular and give your final product an extra glance. That’s why we’ll now select the Gradient Tool (G). Choose the Radial Gradient from the options bar and make sure the gradient goes from white to transparent. The images below show you how to do it.

Step 4

After selecting the Radial Gradient, going from white to transparent, it’s time to operate. Put your mouse in the center, click and hold, and drag it to the right. For a straight line and better control, press the Shift key while dragging. The image below shows you how it should look afterwards. Make sure you give this layer a name like “Gradient” and play with its opacity for a smoother look.

Step 5

You might not have noticed it, but our final image includes a nice dark gray one pixel border, which helps emphasize the logo and text, which we’ll add later. There are multiple ways of creating this border, but the way I did it in this tutorial, was as follows:

First, select the Rectangle Tool (U). After that, open up the Rectangle options in the Options bar to set a fixed size of 123 pixels by 123 pixels. The color isn’t important, just make sure you align it properly. Click inside the canvas to create a square. Make sure it covers the Background layer, but reveals it at the edges. I called this layer “Extra.”

Step 6

Now, it’s time to open up the Layer Style window. To do that, double-click on the Extra layer. What we need to do, is bring down the Fill Opacity to 0 and give it an inner 1 pixel stroke with a dark gray (#4d4d4d) color. Take a look at the images below for reference.

Step 7

As mentioned earlier, we’ll now jump over to graphicriver.net to download the nice pre-designed logo files. I highly recommend signing up to graphicriver.net to join the Author Program, or simply shop beautiful graphics.

Should you already be a member, make sure you check out the Referral Program where you can receive a 30% commission from the first Cash Deposit a referred user makes! By selling or buying different graphics and layered files, you’ll be able to either earn money or support other designers with your work.

Now click on the Make Money button in the main navigation to reveal the sub-navigation. Click on Referral Program and scroll down until you can see the Referral Graphics. You can choose between the different marketplaces and download their logos and graphics in high quality. I chose the graphicriver.net logo, but from this point, you can choose the one you like the most. Please make sure you read the Copyright Policy to avoid problems.

Step 8

This is how the logo will look like inside of Photoshop. As you’ve noticed, each Graphic Pack comes with layered PSD files. What we’ll do now, is drag or copy and paste the logo to our animation project.

Step 9

In this case, the logo fits perfectly, but should it be too big or small, just transform it. As you can see in the image below, I placed the logo at the top and added additional text at the bottom-left side. Those are just a few things that you can find and buy on graphicriver.net. Make sure the logo and text are on separate layers. It is important to place them on separate layers, since we later want to turn single layers on or off to create our animation.

Step 10

In the next step, I’ll be using Illustrator to create the waves, which we’ll place at the bottom right side. Some of you might think: why isn’t he just doing it inside of Photoshop? I could, but the reason why I’m doing this inside of Illustrator is because I want to explain the difference between Smart Objects, Pixels, Paths and Shape Layers while importing. If you don’t have the opportunity to use Illustrator, then just grab the Pen Tool inside Photoshop, or use any other technique you like to create the nice waves.

Step 11

As you can see in the image below, I grabbed the Pen Tool to draw two triangular, but curved shapes. Make sure there’s no border set and the shape color is blue.

Step 12

We don’t want two similar colored waves so make sure you use two different tones. These are the ones I used.

Step 13

And this is how it should look like. It doesn’t matter how big it is at the moment, since we’ll only use the curved part of it and the rest will be out of sight. Select both shapes and copy and paste or drag it over to Photoshop.

Step 14

Photoshop will instantly ask you how you would like to paste the object. As mentioned earlier, you can choose between: Smart Object, Pixels, Path or Shape Layer. Some of them will obtain quality while others will make subsequent changes – without quality loss – impossible.

• Smart Object: Pastes the art as a Vector Smart Object that can be scaled, transformed, or moved without degrading the image. As the art is placed, its file data is embedded in the Photoshop document on a separate layer.

• Pixels: Pastes the art as pixels that can be scaled, transformed, or moved before it is rasterized and placed on its own layer in the Photoshop document. As soon as you confirm the changes, the object will be rasterized which will result in quality loss, should you want to change it at a later time.

• Path: Pastes the art as a path that can be edited with the pen tools, Path Selection Tool, or Direct Selection Tool. The path is pasted into the layer that’s selected in the Layers panel.

• Shape Layer: Pastes the art as a new shape layer (a layer containing a path filled with the foreground color). This can be useful in some cases, but we don’t need this for this project.

Select the Smart Object option and click on OK.

Step 15

We won’t need the entire object, so feel free to resize and position it the way you like. I did it as shown below.

Step 16

Now, it’s time to create the cool shine effect which hovers over our logo and waves. It’s a very simple technique, but the outcome is cool. The first step is choosing the Elliptical Marquee Tool with a 10 pixel feather. I’m using a Feather of 10 pixels on it because we don’t want it to be sharp-edged, which would definitely not look good. Make sure the selection is still inside of our 125 pixel by 125 pixel canvas with enough space around it to be filled with a bright color. Select the Paint Bucket Tool and click inside the active selection.

Step 17

As you can see, we now have a bright, smooth and highlighted ellipse, which will build up the nice glow effect. But one thing’s for sure, it doesn’t look nice this way. We have to limit the highlighted area to the logo, text and waves.

The way I did it, is by selecting the single objects one after another by Shift-clicking on the proper layer thumbnails to create a quick selection of the elements. Now obtain the selection, click on the “Glow” layer and choose Add layer mask.

The layer mask will black out and hide the unselected area, while the white area will display the glow effect on the logo, text and waves. Should the glow be to intensive, simply adjust the brightness by changing its opacity. That’s it. Our final image is done. In the next step, we’ll take a look at how to animate this design.

Step 18

Normally, the animation panel isn’t visible, but you can open it by going to Window > Animation. By default, the Animation panel will open up at the bottom.

Step 19

This is how it will look like by default. It’s the Timeline view, which we don’t want to use in this project. Instead, we’ll work in the Frame view where we can see each animated frame listed inside the Animation panel. To change the view, click on the little fly-out menu button and select Convert to Frame Animation. The images below show you how to do it.

Step 20

In Photoshop, you use the Animation panel to create animation frames. Each frame represents a configuration of layers. The first image below, shows you the Frame listing I mentioned above. The second image, shows you exactly how to configure your layers to achieve the final animation.

Simply select the first Frame, turn on, off or move the elements like mentioned below and you’re done. Work off each Frame after another until you have six frames listed in the Animation Panel. In the next step, we’ll create the tweening, which will add additional frames to create our smooth fade in or moving animation effects.

Step 21

The first step in the animation process is to specify a delay (the time that a frame is displayed) for single frames or for multiple frames in an animation and the tween. As you can see, I’ve changed the frame delay time to 0, which will result in an abrupt switch between the frames.

To make the switch more smooth, we’ll use the Tween command to automatically add or modify a series of frames between two existing frames. You can either tween with the previous frame or the next frame. In this case, we’ll tween with the previous frame. By doing this Photoshop will create the appearance of movement and smooth fade.

To add additional frames, click on the Tween command, enter a number and hit OK.

• Frame 1 – Frame 2: Add two additional frames.

• Frame 2 – Frame 3: Add two additional frames.

• Frame 3 – Frame 4: None.

• Frame 4 – Frame 5: Add five additional frames.

• Frame 5 – Frame 6: Don’t add additional frames, but make sure you give the sixth frame a two second delay, since we want it to stay there before looping the animation.

Step 22

You can of course use the play option at the bottom of the Animation Panel to play the animation, but we’ll skip that and export the animation as a GIF directly. We’ll save our project as a GIF file for viewing on the web.

To open up the Save for Web & Devices Window, go to File > Save for Web & Devices. There are a lot of different options for you to play with, but for this project we can use a predefined setting. Make sure you choose GIF as your output file type, play with the settings and hit save. Give your GIF a name and save it to a directory you like. That’s it!

Conclusion

I hope all of you guys reading this tutorial, will use the tips and tricks to create your own animated images inside of Photoshop. The best thing to do is later uploading them to Graphic River for the others to see and buy.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many GIF’s or animated images on Graphic River yet, so your job is to change that! Make sure you sign up on GraphicRiver and upload your designs. That’s it for now and I hope this tutorial was useful for you and informative. Feel free to leave a comment. I’ll try to answer your questions, should there be any. Thanks!

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Preparation

First thing you will need to do to create this effect is find some nice paint splatter/spray brushes. For this particular piece I used brushes from Brusheezy: 842-Splatter. You’ll also need an image to apply this to. In this case, I shot this image myself.

Step 1

Copy the background and paste it onto a new layer. Rename the new layer Subject and turn the background layer to white.

Create a new layer labeled “Extra Skin.” Then using the Clone Tool, Alt-click on other parts of the face that best match the color of skin you want to copy. I suggest using a soft brush to blur out the edges.

For this I usually just play around with the Cloning Tool until I get close to something that looks right. This may take some experimentation, as you have to pay close attention to the light source in the photograph. To see a more in-depth tutorial on the cloning tool you can visit this page on Psdtuts+.

Step 2

Once we have covered all the facial features, select the “Extra Skin” layer and the "Subject" layer, then press Command + Alt + E on to merge the layers into a new layer. Rename this layer “Faceless Subject.”

Step 3

Now we can start building our paint splatter area. Create a new layer and call it “Paint map.” Select the Brush Tool and start to paint out the area you want the paint splat to appear in. This is where your paint splatter/spray brushes will come in handy.

It doesn’t matter what color you use; here I have chosen yellow (#ffc924). It also helps to lower the opacity of this layer so that you can better line up the splats over the subject’s face.

Make sure that you only paint where you want the splatter to occur, you may have to paint/mask/erase a bunch to get a nice paint splatter. Take your time with this Step; it may be the most important one of the process.

Step 4

Once completed you will want to get rid of any layer masks by right-clicking on the “Paint map” layer and selecting Convert To Smart Object. After that, change the layer style of the “Paint Map” layer to Overlay. You should now have something that looks similar to the picture below; keep in mind that no two paint splatters will be exactly the same.

Step 5

Next create a new layer under the “Paint map” layer, and name this layer “Extra Skin 2.” With this layer selected Command-click the "Paint map" layer to select the paint splat you have created. Next click on the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the layers palette.

Step 6

Turn the visibility of the “Paint map” layer off. With the “Extra Skin 2″ layer selected, grab your Cloning Tool again and start copying portions of skin into the area that has no skin.

Again try to match the lighting of the photo; you are basically creating an extra skin layer that will become paint once colored. I find it helpful to turn off the Aligned option for the cloning tool in the top tool bar.

Step 7

Once you’ve created a nice splatter area made from skin, turn the visibility of your “Paint map” layer back on. You should have something that looks like the image below.

Step 8

Create a new layer above the “Extra Skin 2″ layer and name it "shadow." While holding down the Alt key, click between the “Extra Skin 2″ layer and "shadow" layer to clip it.

Step 9

Grab a big, soft brush and paint some black to amp up the shadows needed for the “Extra Skin” layer.

Step 10

Turn the opacity of the "shadow" layer down to around 75%.

Step 11

Create a new layer above the “Faceless Subject” layer and name it “Paint Background.” With the foreground color set to black, start painting some paint splats with the splatter brushes.

Step 12

All we have to do now is add a little bit of shadow to create the illusion the paint is lifted off the face. First create a new layer and name it “Shadow 2,” then Command-click on the “Paint Map” layer to select it. Making sure you are still on the “Shadow 2″ layer, fill the selection with black.

Step 13

Making sure the selection is still active, click on the Create Layer Mask button on the the bottom of the layer’s palette.

Step 14

Select the mask for the "Shadow 2" layer and invert it by pressing Command + I, or going to Image > Adjustments > Invert. This should invert the mask and hide the black area we just filled.

Step 15

Disable the link between the mask and the shadow paint by clicking on the chain between the layer icon and the mask, as shown.

Step 16

Make sure the paint portion of the “Shadow 2″ layer is selected and go to Edit > Transform > Warp.

Slightly adjust the shadow so that it peeks out from behind the paint splat. Depending on how much you want the paint to appear lifted, you can adjust it a lot or a little. Once you have the shadow right where you want it, apply the change.

Step 17

You are bound to have some unwanted shadow from the "Shadow 2" layer; to clean it up, simply paint over what you don’t want in the layer mask.

Step 18

Lower the opacity of the shadow to around 72% and you should be all set!

Conclusion

The final image is below. Enjoy applying these techniques in your own work!

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Step 1

Ok, our first step will consist of gathering all our possible stocks together. Even before that
I advise everybody to visualize how you want the design to come out. Usually it does not come out exactly how you wanted it to, but it is always good to know the direction you’re heading. When I first thought of the idea I quickly grabbed some paper and a pencil and mapped out the basics. Now I am horrible at drawing so I just used stick figures and labels, but this still gave me a good idea of what I wanted to create.

Now on to our stocks. Once you know what you want to create you can start gathering your stocks. First,I advise you to check out Stock Xchng. They have a wide assortment of free images. Start by looking for your perfect stock. If that doesn’t work out we can always edit the images and that is what I did. Now if you can not find what you are looking for on the free stock websites, then try Dreamstime, as they have high quality stocks for very low prices.

When I mapped out my design I had always imagined Caesar waiving his hand in the air. I couldn’t find a full body statue with him doing that so I had to combine two stocks together: Caesar 1 and Caesar 2. You could see that in the second stock he had his hand in the exact position we need, but with no body; and in the first we have the body but no hand.

Step 2

So now we will combine two of the stocks to make one statue that fits all our
requirements. Once you have the stocks downloaded open them in Photoshop. Now if a stock has a pure white background like we do now we can render it easily by using the Magic Wand Tool (W). If you have a more complicated background,
I suggest you render it out with the Pen Tool (P).

Once both images are rendered, we will then De-Saturate them, meaning take away all their color. Since this is a Black and White piece everything needs to be properly desaturated. To do this we select our Layer, and press Command + Shift + U.

Step 3

Now since we need to put his hand in a new position, we’ll cut out his original one. Grab the Pen Tool, and cut out his Right arm. To do this take the Pen Tool, make your path around the arm, Right-click inside the
selection and click Make Selection. Select OK and once you have the selection press Delete.

Now we have to extract our arm. Open the second Caesar stock where his arm is pointing upwards. After doing that desaturate it. Now take out our Pen Tool and trace around his arm. Once we are done with tracing, right-click again and select Make Selection. Press Command + C to copy it. Go over to the first Caesar stock and press Command + V to paste it. When cutting I also included a part of his armor, just so it can blend better.

Once done with cutting it out, press Command + T to place it at the correct angle, then enlarge or decrease its size so it will fit with the first statue. Place it over the first statue. Once it looks realistic, press Command + E to merge the two layers into one.

Also, if the colors of the arm and the body aren’t harmonious you can always add Curves to either of them to edit their color. We’ll be working with curves a lot throughout this illustration.

Step 4

So we now have our main statue finished. We’ll now move on to our actual canvas where we will do all our designing. My opinion is when making a design you should always make the design 2x bigger than what you want the for the final size. Then shrink it down by 50% once you’re done. This works well for me, so I created a new document Command + N and made its size 1200 pixels by 2100 pixels. So when I save it the size comes out to be 600 pixels by 1050 pixels.

In my initial idea for this design, I wanted a starry galaxy background. So we’ll now need to find a nice galaxy, or star stock. I used this one. You really
don’t need to pay extra to get large sizes, especially with the background. I purchased the Medium size which is 2000px by 1499px.

So open your Galaxy stock and place it into your canvas. Then make a new layer and take the Paint Bucket Tool and fill the most bottom layer with black. After doing that desaturate it (Command + Shift + U). After this Duplicate that layer with Command + J. Do this about four to six times depending on how big the actual stock is. In this case my stock was initially small, but if yours is a lot bigger than your canvas, you can always just find a good spot and leave it.

Now you have the duplicates, pick one and press Command + T to rotate it and move over the empty parts of the canvas. Keep doing it until your background is fully covered in the starry galaxy. If you have edges popping out you can always use the Smudge Tool, or get a small Soft Brush and paint over it with a dark color.

Step 5

Before we actually start placing the Caesar stock onto the canvas, I will take a small detour and explain how to make a C4D Abstract Render. Now I will come right out and say it, I am no master at creating C4D renders, but I will still explain how I made this one. We need to have Maxon Cinema 4D to create our render. If you
don’t have it, you can always download a Demo.

If you absolutely can not create the render from my instructions, you can always download some free ones, from DeviantArt. The reason I made my own is because I knew exactly what I needed, and I figured it would be a lot easier to create my own. OK lets open up Maxon C4D! First thing we need to do is change our perspective.

Step 6

Now start Drawing out our C4D render.

After you have your Freehand Tool selected, bring our cursor to the Top window. Hold down the left mouse button and draw a small part of how you want the C4D to look. Once you did that, select the Freehand Tool again and repeat with different shapes in the Right Window, and then again in the Front Window. This program is somewhat similar to Photoshop in terms of the layers window. On your left you will see your Splines. With each shape you make you’ll have a spline in your layer window. I created about ten shapes.

We are now done with the Perspective windows, so click that Box we clicked on first, this will bring you back to the one window perspective.

Step 7

Now we will add some shape to our C4D render. Next we’ll go and click on the small Green Cube icon next to the Freehand Spline tool. Once you have found it, hold the left mouse button until a window comes up and select Loft NURBS. It will add a new icon onto your layers window.

Go to your layers window on the right side, left-click on the first Spline, hold Shift, then click on the last one. Now you have all your Splines selected at once. The next step is to hold the left mouse button and drag it under the Loft NURBS icon. Move the mouse around until you see an arrow pointing down, not inwards. Once you see it pointing down, let go and you should then see your Freehand drawing has been rendered.

Now I don’t want to get to detailed because this is a Photoshop Tutorial. I will just tell you what
I did after this to kind of alter the shape. If you see on top where all the icons are you will see a Blue-ish shape. If you click on it, you’ll find different types of distortions, like Bending and Twisting. My advice is to just experiment or find good C4D tutorials to practice with.

Step 8

The last thing we’ll do with C4D is give our design some nice color. To do this we need to add a “Material” on it. You can either experiment with making them, or just use mine. Download the Material. After doing that load it into the program.

Step 9

Our next step is to save it and import it into Photoshop. This procedure is a bit tricky so read carefully. Once your C4D is finished click on the Render tab on top and it will open up a window for you. Find the Render Settings and another window will come up. Now on the left-hand side click on Save. Then above that you should see Output, which determines how big your render will be. I needed it big so I picked 2000px by 1125px.

After that just close that window, all the settings should automatically save. Now go back to your render and press Shift + R. This will bring up a window where your C4D is being rendered, don’t touch it until it’s fully done. After it is done on that same window go to File-Save Picture As. Name this what you wish. This will be the main render we’ll be putting into Photoshop.

Once you have saved it, you can save the C4D file and close the program. We are now moving to Photoshop.

Step 10

OK open the main C4D which is a .TGA file. You should have the C4D in all color but with a black background. Now we will get rid of it by doing the following. Select the Channels tab in our layers window. In our layers window, the Alpha layer will be invisible, we’ll then Command-click on that layer, which will make a selection of the whole C4D. Once the selection is made, press Command + C to copy it. After doing that make a new document. The size should automatically be the same size as the C4D. Once you have it press Command + V to paste the C4D.

Now your C4D will be somewhat transparent. To fix that we just duplicate it Command +J four to six times
until it is fully there. After doing that we’ll desaturate it.

So now we have our C4D! Save this and leave it until we will need it.

Step 11

Now we will start on building our main attraction, this will be the focus point of the design. Since this design had a Roman theme I went to Dreamstime and typed in “Roman,” which gave me some ideas. After looking through all the stocks, I figured I would put the Caesar statue on a pedestal. So
I found this stock which is a Roman Pedestal. After downloading it, I opened it in Photoshop. Since we have a straight white background on it we can easily render it by using the Magic Wand Tool.

Now that we have it cut out, we’ll import it into our main canvas. I used Command + T to size it down a bit and place it in the middle of the canvas. After doing that I wanted to make it look a bit weathered and old so
I took the Pen Tool and traced out little cracks on the Pedestal. After doing that, I made the Selection and deleted it. This left some nice looking cracks on the pedestal. Now open up our C4D and cut out a random part of it to place behind our pedestal under the cracks.

Step 12

Ok so our next step will be to shade the pedestal so it can blend more with the background and the other objects that will be placed in the canvas. Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves, once the window comes up just press OK. Do not change anything. Once it pops up on your layers make sure it is on top of your Pedestal and right-click on the curves layer and select Create Clipping Mask. This just makes that curves layer effects specific to the
pedestal.

Now copy the settings I have on mine, but it will not always fit yours so I suggest you play around with them. Once you have added the curves layer, we’ll add some more shading. This one will be a Gradient Map. Go to your layers window and on the bottom you should see a circle that is half white and half back. Click on it and select Gradient Map. Use the default Black to White gradient and select OK. Now make sure this gradient is above your “curves” and your “pedestal” layer’s. Right-click on it and select Create Clipping Mask once again. After doing so I set mine to Color Burn at 47%, so try to experiment with yours until you get something that you like.

Step 13

The next thing I did was build up the background for where the Caesar statue was going to be. I then went to the toolbar and selected the Custom Shape Tool. I went through the default shapes and picked a Triangle. Right now the color does not matter so just select the triangle shape and make a new layer over everything.

Next, just drag out a fairly big triangle. Duplicate it by pressing Command + T and rotate the second triangle to make the shape a diamond. Now merge the two triangles together, and after that press Command + T again and rotate the diamond a bit. Place it where your statue will be.

What we need to do now is get rid of the middle of the diamond and leave a nice border around it. Before doing that lets just duplicate the diamond and leave it in the position it is in. Make the duplicate invisible because we we’ll need it later for cutting off what will be inside of it.

So select the layer where your diamond is, Command-click on it and make sure it makes the selection. Then go to Select > Modify > Contract and put in 5. After it makes the contraction press Delete and you will be left with a border. The white border stands out too much so we’ll need to blend it, but for now we will hide it and make it
invisible.

Now make a new layer over the invisible border and go to Image > Apply Image. It should just copy what you have so far on a new layer, so just select that layer, right click, and make a clipping mask. You can now Unhide the border. Then go back to the Apply Image and take the Move Tool and move around the image. You will see it inside the border. This made my border which was pure white blend more with the starry background. If it still doesn’t blend too much you can add a layer of curves to it.

Step 14

Now get your statue and place it into your canvas, do what you need to do in terms of the size and shading. After you have everything done place it on top of the pedestal. Now place that statue so some of it will be coming out of your Diamond border. Cut it out and leave the statue only inside of the diamond border.

Once the statue is properly positioned we will select that Hidden diamond layer I told you about. It should be that first whole diamond I told you to leave. We’ll unhide it and Command-click on it, then go to Select > Inverse. Next, click on your “statue” layer and press Delete. This should delete everything outside of the diamond.

Step 15

Next thing I did was to make a foggy effect around the statue with the use of star stocks. I found another Space Stock. I then opened it in Photoshop and did the same things to this one as the “background” space stock.

Next, I placed it on the canvas over the statue. Then I made it a clipping mask so the star stock only appears inside of the statue. After doing that, grab a soft eraser brush and erase around the star stock until it looks like black fog around the statue.

Now repeat the step but this time use another star stock. I just re-used the background star stock. Once that is done redo that step again with the same stock and set it to Screen at 36%. You’ll have three Star stocks now and make sure they are all clipped to your statue.

Now sticking to the technique with using the star stock, we’ll take it and place it on top of the canvas again. Take the soft brush again and erase around it leaving small parts. This time put it around the pedestal and the bottom of the canvas.

Step 16

Even though we erased all parts of the statue outside of our diamond I went back to the original statue that we made and cut out the hand. After that I placed it outside of the diamond. Now some emphasis is needed for this hand so we will use some Thunder Brushes to add a nice effect that will bring some attention to it as well as lighten it.

If you don’t already have a set of thunder brushes download them here. After that zoom into the hand and set your main color to white, then select a thunder brush and size it down until you can trace the fingers with the brushes themselves. Make a new layer and trace around the hand with the thunder brushes, after doing that lets add a small outer glow to them and also to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen.

Step 17

The next step is to use our C4D to decorate the pedestal and create the illusion of an arm for the statue. First we will decorate the pedestal. Grab your C4D and Command + T to size it down to a very small size that is a lot smaller than our pedestal. After that duplicate it about 3 times and Ctrl+T again to rotate it around and place it down one of the sides of the pedestal. After that just merge all of them and once merged duplicate them and do Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal and put it on the other side of the pedestal.

Take out the C4D again in full size and place it on the canvas. This will be our arm that will go under the hand. Take out the Pen Tool and trace out a long arm shape. It doesn’t have to be detailed at all. It can be a thin rectangle, which is what I did. Just make it the correct size. Mine went from the hand to the shoulder of the statue.

When tracing out the shape try and use a cool part of the C4D with some interesting patterns. Once the C4D was in place add a layer of Curves, and don’t forget to add the clipping mask so it does not affect the rest of the design.

Step 18

Now we’ll go into adding a couple of extra things over that C4D arm we just added. The first thing we will add is some smoke in the shape of an arm. I used this stock. I brought it into Photoshop, sized it down and rotated it into position. After that, erase the parts you don’t need, and just find one line of smoke that looks good to you, then set that layer to Lighten.

To finish it off take another thunder brush and size it down to about 20px, then make a new layer and just make a stroke with that brush going downward in the motion of the arm. Next, make a new layer and take another thunder brush and make some lightning come out from the top finger of the hand. You can apply the same outer glow as we applied to the first set of thunder brushes.

Step 19

This step requires some cloud and smoke brushes. You can download this and this brush set. If you prefer to use stocks you can, but in this design I mostly used brushes. Once you have the brushes loaded, select one of the cloud brushes, make a new layer and select the color white. Now we’ll go back to that original diamond and Command-click it just so our brush can be directly inside the diamond and not outside.

Once the selection around the diamond is made, you can go back to that new layer and brush a small cloud over the statue on both the right and left side. After doing that lower the Opacity to something that looks good to you. Mine were lowered to 50-70%. Then if they still look too cloudy and not foggy enough, you can grab the smudge tool, select a soft brush, and kind of smudge the clouds around to get a softer foggy feel to it.

Step 20

Now at this point our design is looking a tad bit empty so we’ll now add our first animal into it. I took this stock of a tiger and opened it in Photoshop. Then I just cut out the head, desaturated it and brought it into our design. Next thing to do is find a good spot for it, and on our left side inside the diamond was empty so we’ll place it there. Use Command + T to size it down to a reasonably small size and leave it there.

Next we take the Elliptical Marquee tool and make a layer under the tiger head. Then make a circle just bigger than the head and fill it with any color. Next, make a layer above that circle and do Image > Apply Image and create a clipping mask. Then move it around until you have another part of the design inside that circle.

Merge it with Command + E. Once you do that, make a new layer over the tiger and make a border. I won’t explain how to make it again because we went through this with the Diamond, so just repeat the steps and switch out the diamond shape with a circle. So the layers will end up looking like: “Circle Border, “Tiger Head,” then “Circle Background.”

Step 21

This step we will start adding some nice effects to our tiger head. First thing we’ll do is add some thunder around the tiger head. Do exactly the same thing we did with the hand. Open up your thunder brushes and pick a small size and brush around the tiger head with the color white. I didn’t need to use an outer glow here but you can if you see fit.

Bring in your C4D again and place it over your tiger head, then Command-click on your tiger head and do Select-Inverse and press delete while the C4D Layer is selected. Now set the C4D layer to Screen. We repeat the step but this time it’s with a different part of the C4D. Once that’s done go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen.

Now, the last couple of things we’ll do is color his eyes white. I did this by just zooming into the tiger making a new layer and using the Pen Tool, and painting a nice gradient over his eyes. The last thing we will do is add some smoke coming out of his mouth. Make a new layer and get your smoke brushes, size them down to a realistic size, and brush them coming out of his mouth. You can edit them by smudging and lowering opacity until you get a result you like.

Step 22

Now we’ll just add a final touch to our middle diamond. Make a new layer under the statue. Take the cloud brush, but do not size it down now, as we want full clouds. Command-click on our original diamond to get the trace around the diamond. Go back to that new layer you made and brush enough clouds to fill up the background. If the clouds are too strong, you can lower the opacity. I lowered mine to about 78%.

Step 23

Now we’ll add a small circular design and place it behind our statue. Now make a new layer, take the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a small circle. Then while it is selected go to Edit > Stroke and make it 1px with the color as white. Duplicate it and move it to the side a bit. Leave some space in between the two circles where they overlap. Make another layer and make another circle in the overlapping space, then fill this circle with anything. Now bring in your C4D and add a Clipping Mask to that circle. Merge everything and there you have it.

Step 24

We will now be adding our second and final animal into this design. I wanted to find a very ferocious looking lion and I found this one. I put it into Photoshop, cropped the head out and desaturated it. Then before bringing it into the canvas I first put it in our C4D File.

Put the lion head over the C4D and make sure the C4D covers all of the lion. Command-click the lions head and go to Select > Inverse and press Delete. You will have a C4D layer that is the same shape as your lions head. Put that over your lion and set it to Screen, then merge the layers. After doing that you can bring it into your canvas and position it on the side of the diamond.

Now let’s adorn the lion with some C4D. Take out small pieces of your C4D and place them over parts of the lion, and try to have them flow. For example, I placed some sharp diagonal C4D bits over the lions teeth. Do this about four times. Next set all the C4D parts to Screen and Sharpen them all when you are done.

All you need to do after this is make a new layer and use the smoke brush to have some smoke coming out of the lions mouth and nostrils. If needed you can also add some shading to the lion.

Step 24

So at this point our sides are looking empty, so we’ll now make two more diamond borders. Put one on the right and one on the left side. Just repeat the earlier steps on how to create that border. After doing that take out your cloud brushes and brush a couple of clouds to fill up about 85% of each diamond. We’ll fill up the rest with some cool shapes.

Step 25

Now we’ll make shapes to fill up some empty spots in the layout. Let’s start with the orbs. Make a new layer under the clouds, get out the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make one circle. Once the selection is made, select the Gradient Tool and select the second type of Gradient. Using a black to white gradient, drag from the middle up until you get a nice orb look.

Now duplicate the layer two more times. Use Command + T to resize the orbs and place them in the empty spots. Next, merge them all and go to the “Cloud” layer. Command-click on that layer to select the clouds you made. Take a soft brush Eraser Tool.

If you used the correct cloud brushes, you’ll have them be slightly transparent so the orbs will be seen even under the clouds. So while the selection is made, we’ll go back to our orbs and lightly just stroke the eraser brush over all the orbs at once.

Now on to the triangles. This is a simple technique that resembled how we made the diamond border. We’ll make a new layer under the clouds again and select the Custom Shape Tool. Find the triangle shape and make a small triangle. Once you have it, Command-click the layer and Select > Modify > Contract at 5, then press delete. You now have a border.

Make a new layer over it and go to Image > Apply Image and create a clipping mask. Next, make a new layer over the triangle and use the thunder brushes to decorate them. Now duplicate, rotate, and place them around the diamond, then erase just like I explained with the orbs.

Step 26

To finish off, we need to add some text at the bottom of our design. Once you know what you want to write you’ll need to find a font that matches your design. Since my theme is Roman, I used this Roman font.

Once we have the font, we’ll start by adding a cushion for our font. This cushion will be some more clouds. Grab your cloud brush and make a new layer. Depending on how much room you have, pick a nice sized cloud and brush it. Then on a new layer add another cloud, but this time lower its Opacity to about 38%. The next thing we do is add the lettering over the clouds. If you want you can add the C4D over them and make a clipping mask. Once that is done bring out your star stock, place it over the lettering, and set it to screen.

Step 27

Now to end it we’ll add a layer of Levels.

Conclusion

Our last step is to make a new layer and go to Image > Apply Image. Then apply Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. We’re now done!

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating in this tutorial targeted at intermediate Photoshop users. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or a larger version here.

Introduction

The images I’ve used are: The helmet , the cloud , the red star cloud , other star cloud image. Feel free to use your own images, however you may need to tweak the settings of any of the steps to get the right effect with different assets.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

Create a new document 154.5mm by 216mm in size at 300dpi. Then open the Helmet image, cut it out using the Pen Tool (set to Paths not Shape Layers), and paste it into your blank document. Resize to about 83%.

Step 2

Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate to strip out the color. Then select the Burn Tool, set it to Highlights with an Exposure of around 10%. Use a big soft-edged brush to burn in a little shadow on the left of the “HELMET” layer.

Step 3

Use the Ellipse Tool to draw a circular Shape Layer, it has to be set to Shape Layers and not Paths, as indicated below. Hold the Shift key when drawing to make a perfect circle. Rename this layer “EYEBALL” and go to Layer > Layer Style > Inner Shadow and set it up as in the screen grab. Finally go to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay and set up as shown (the color is #8aabb3).

Step 4

Draw another smaller circle above the Eyeball layer and call it “IRIS.” Double-click on the “IRIS” layers color icon to change it. I’ve gone for a green but it doesn’t matter. Add an Inner Shadow, Inner Glow and Bevel, and Emboss Layer Style as shown.

Step 5

Draw a “PUPIL” in and give it an Outer Glow as shown below. When used creatively, Layer Style effects, or blending options, (however you want to refer to them) are a great way of adding depth to flat shapes.

Step 6

Finally add a small “REFLECTION” (small white circle) to the eye and move it to the right-hand-side of the “PUPIL.” Select all of the eye layers and press Command + G to group them. Rename the group “EYE_RIGHT” and then duplicate by going to Layer > Duplicate Group (the group has to be selected in layer palette when you do this). Now name the duplicate “EYE_LEFT” and position them both to look like eyes.

Step 7

As drawing with the Pen Tool isn’t the focus of this tutorial (and I’ve covered it before in the Splattered Vector and Photography Mash Up tutorial) I’m going to gloss over that quickly. Select the Pen Tool and set it to Shape Layers. Draw a rough drippy, beard-like shape over the base of the “HELMET.” You can be a little rough with this. Use the Direct Selection Tool to clean up any curves you’re not happy with by manipulating the Anchor Points and Bezier Curve Handles.

Step 8

Draw in some more goo as if it were coming from underneath the Helmet visor. Position it above the two “EYE” Layer Groups. Then draw in some smaller drips below the “EYE” Layer Groups.

Step 9

Duplicate the “HELMET” layer and drag it to the top of the Layers Palette. Select the Pen Tool and set it to Paths, then draw around the bottom of the visor and up to the top of the helmet. Then go to the Paths Palette and Command-click on your new path’s thumbnail to make a selection from it. Then select the “HELMET copy” layer and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

Step 10

Now we want to change the color of all our Shape Layers to black. Double-click on the Shape Layer thumbnail to bring up the color window. Then sample a black from the Helmet and OK it. Repeat this for all the Shape Layers.

Step 11

Select one of your shape layers. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Inner Shadow and input the settings shown below. Do the same for Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and Satin. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style and then select another shape layer and go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style. Repeat this process until all of your shape layers are styled.

Step 12

Place a new blank layer under each shape layer. Now select one shape layer and it’s blank counterpart. Then go to Layer > Merge Layers. This will rasterize the shape layer and it’s effects. If anyone knows a better way of doing this in CS3 please post in the comments. I should really know this by now, but old habits die hard?

Step 13

Select the “VISOR” layer (it should be the top layer in your palette) and open the Actions Palette. Call it “AGED PRINT” and assign it a function key. Then press the record icon at the bottom of the Actions palette and apply three filters in this order; Noise, Gaussian Blur, and Smart Sharpen. Refer to the images below for settings. Once done, press the stop button at the bottom of the actions palette. You can now use your assigned key to apply these filters to the other layers.

Step 14

Run the “AGED PRINT” action on all of your layers. Before doing the “EYE” group layers, merge them and desaturate them. At this stage your layers palette should look something like mine.

Step 15

Add a Layer Style (Drop Shadow) to each of your layers except the “VISOR,” the “HELMET” and the “BEARD” layers. Rasterize all these layers as in Step 12.

Step 16

Select the “BEARD_GOO” layer and go to Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All. Then select the Eraser Tool and set the background color to black. Take a soft edged-brush and set the brush Opacity to around 30%. Select the layer mask instead of the layer and chip away at the hard edges with the eraser until it blends in smoothly with the helmet. Change the brush size to suit and reduce the brushes Flow for a smoother transition.

Step 17

As the “BEARD_GOO” layer doesn’t blend with the helmet fully, we need to adjust the Levels. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and tweak as shown.

Step 18

Open the cloud image or any cloud image that you want to use. Paste it into your working document, resize it, desaturate it and then run the “AGED PRINT” action.

Step 19

Open the red star cloud image (or another suitable image) and paste it into your working document. Rotate it 90 degrees, resize it to fit, desaturate and then run the “AGED PRINT” action. Finally, set the Layer Blending Mode to Screen.

Step 20

Open the other star cloud image and treat it in the same way. But rotate it -90 degrees instead of 90. Parts of this layer were too light for my tastes so I adjusted the Levels. Enter 62, 1.00 and 255 into the input values. If your layers palette is a bit of a mess like mine, you might want to group all the layers that make up the face and call the group “FACE.”

Step 21

Create a new layer at the top of the layers palette and fill it with black. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and select 105mm prime. You can adjust the setting but I left mine as is, though I did move it down and right a little. Then run the “AGED PRINT” action twice and change the Layer Blending mode to Screen. Finally, adjust the Levels (29, 1.00, 255).

Step 22

Duplicate the “LENS FLARE” layer and call it “LENS FLARE STREAKS.” Go to Filter > Blur > Motion blur and run a 999 distance blur at 48 degrees. Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and run a 25 pixel sharpen at 500%.

Step 23

Create a new layer below the “FACE” layer group and call it “WHITE GLOW.” Select the Paintbrush Tool and set it to 820 pixels, 0 Hardness with an Opacity of 15%. Add patches of glow behind the Lens Flares.

Step 24

Create a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer at the top of the layers palette. Select the top layer (should be a “LENS FLARE” layer) and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. In the window prompt rename it “GREEN/BLUE” and set the mode to Color.

Click the colored bar to activate the color selection window and set the colors as follows: Left slider color #18374b, right slider #bedec4. Duplicate the Gradient Map Adjustment Layer and position the dupe below the original. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 70%.

Step 25

Now it’s time to get creative with your scanner (if you don’t have one open SCANNER.jpg here). Scan your scanner without putting anything on the bed, so it scans it’s own lid. Open it up and boost the levels as shown below. Paste it into the working document and resize to fit. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Multiply, then duplicate this layer and set it to Color, with an Opacity of 40%.

Step 26

Add some shading to the background by creating a new layer and filling it with white. The layer should be positioned under the “FACE” group but above the clouds and star clouds, etc. Select the Burn Tool and use a 900 pixel, soft-edged brush. Set the exposure to 25% then begin burning around the top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right corners. Feather it in the middle so the edges are darker.

Step 27

Now I resized the “FACE” group to improve the composition. Also, I added some text inside. While the text construction isn’t covered in the tutorial, feel free to add your own creative text solution here.

Step 28

Finally, go to Mode > Grayscale and click Flatten when prompted. Then go to Mode > Bitmap and you”ll be prompted with another window. Follow the screen grabs below and OK it. Select the whole canvas and copy it. Open the History palette and return to before you went to Mode > Grayscale. Paste the Bitmapped image at the top of the layers palette.

Step 29

Finally, change the “BITMAPPED IMAGE” Layer Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce the Opacity to 20%.

Conclusion

You don’t have to stop there though, I went on to add another “LENS FLARE” over the original “LENS FLARE” and some very slight colored glow over the “LENS FLARE” layers. The important thing is to follow the tutorial and understand what each step does, then tweak the settings to best suit your source imagery. You can view the final image below or a larger version here.

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Final Image Preview

Let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Preparation

First let’s grab the photos we’ll be using in this tutorial: girl and teddy, which are taken from one of my favorite stock sites 123rf.com. And one balloon photo from sxc.hu.

Step 1

Start by opening the girl image, then grab the Pen Tool (P) and start extracting. When you’re done making the path, right-click and select Make Selection. Then use Command + C to copy the selected area.

While extracting, take a look at the arrows, they indicate shadows. Make sure you don’t include them with the girl. We’re gonna cast shadows on our own depending on the color of the background.

Step 2

Create a new document that is 1200 pixels by 950 pixels, with a of 300 px/inch. Make a new layer and name it "Background." change your Foreground Color to #f0ce46 and Background Color to #f78414. Grab the Gradient Tool (G), then in the upper bar set the gradient option to Radial. Now drag the gradient from the top left corner. Use Command + V to paste our extracted girl. Name this layer "Girl" and go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and experiment with the Red and Yellow values. I tried to give the girl some color correction to make her a better fit to this orange environment.

Tip: Your background colors are up to personal taste. I’ll show you the way I did this illustration, but if you choose some other colors (for example blue tones), then you should correct the girl’s color into colder rather than warmer tones.

Step 3

Now grab the Burn Tool (O), then set the Range to Midtones and Exposure to around 30%. Make sure the "Girl" layer is selected, and give some contrast to her hair by painting. And if other spots of her silhouette seem to be little dull, you can apply this process again.

Step 4

OK, we did some nice color and contrast corrections. But it’s still not enough. Now it’s something important because we need to make her look more vivid, and also cast some shadows under her body. I made a fast three-step guide below. Let’s take a look at what we’re going to do with this girl image and how.

First thing we wanna do is cast shadows. So take a look at point 1 below. This is the original image we are using. Zoom into the shadows under the girl, and as you see we have quite easy task. This picture already guided us on how the shadows were originally placed. So what you need to do now is reproduce the same shadow effect (as point 3 illustrates). Use point 1 as the guide for this process.

However, before you do anything, let’s move to the next step.

If you’re using some other picture than mine, and there is no standard shadow in yours, then I recommend seeing one of my plus tutorials with moving mannequins. There are tons of tips in that tutorial on how to place shadows when you have no base.

Step 5

Before we move forward, make new layer above the "Background" layer. Name it "Ground." Change your Foreground Color to #ffe07c, grab the Gradient Tool (G), then in the upper bar set the option to Radial. Drag the gradient to the middle of that screen. Now you should have a big yellow dot. Then go to Edit > Transform > Distort and give this big dot some perspective to make it look like there is ground there (second image below).

Create a new layer below the "Girl" layer. Name it "Shadow." Change the color to something around #8f4121 (brown). Grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0%, Flow to around 10%, and keep your Master Diameter quite small. Then start painting under the girl – where the shadows should be. Make the diameter size very dynamic, and change it all the time for various results. Help yourself with the Eraser Tool (E), and set Hardness to 0% and Flow to 50%.

As I pointed in previous step, use the original image to see how the shadows look, and cast them the same way. It doesn’t have to be perfect, give this girl at least a touch of shadow to make it look more realistic. Also, if it’s necessary, change your color to darker and lighter brown. Casting shadows is always a tough part of art, but it pays off well. You need to work with patience.

Remember, every single color depends on the environment. I’m making everything in warm tones, so I mostly mix yellow and orange. As for the shadows, I darkened the yellow tone (which is our ground color) and I turned out with brown. The reason I did this is because every object’s shadow has a touch of color from the ground that it occupies.

Step 6

Now select the "Girl" layer. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels, and add a little more contrast. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and lower the value of Saturation. We don’t want to make this girl too bright though. Next, go to balance the picture and give some nice color depth, duplicate (Command +J) the "Girl" layer, and name it "Color depth." Change this layer’s Blending Mode to Soft Light and then use Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map. Set the gradient from #1b130c to #969696.

Depending on what you want to achieve, your colors in the gradient mapping will be different. I recommend you experiment with these colors. There are many nice results that can be discovered. However, if you have no idea how to take care of gradient map settings, just set it to Black, White and lower the layers opacity just a touch. This always looks good.

The last image below is just a view of how this girl should look (with the background turned off).

Tip: Before you run the gradient map, make sure you changed the layer’s blending mode do Soft Light. Next you will get the final image preview while using the particular gradient.

Step 7

I turned the orange "Background" layer back on, though it needs to be brightened. So, let’s work on that now. We’ll also start working on adding our paths, which will become our malleable colored lines.

Make a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "Back colors." Change the color to #efd8a5 (a nice bright yellow). Grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0%, Flow around 20-40% and make one or several big dots behind this girl. Switch to the Pen Tool (P). Then start creating some nice paths surrounding this girl.

If you’re having some problems with the Pen Tool, you may check out this Comprehensive Guide to Photoshop’s Pen Tool to learn how to properly set the path curves properly.

Step 8

Create a new group above the "Girl" layer. Name it "Blue line" and create there a new layer called "b_line" as well. Then go back to the Brush Tool (B), change the settings to Hardness 100%, Flow 100% and the Master Diameter to 7-10px (depending on how big your image is). Next, go to the brush settings and set the Minimum Roundness to 25%. Then switch to the Pen Tool (P). Right-click and select Stroke Path.

Remember to make sure that the Simulate Pressure option is checked. We will be using this throughout this tutorial with every path stroke (be sure to keep this checked), so I will stop reminding from here forward.

It doesn’t matter what kind of color you stroke this path because we’re going to color it through blending options. So, if you don’t want to get confused, you can use white as the color to stroke this path.

Now press Command + right-click on the "Girl" layer’s thumbnail to load selection. Next, add a Layer Mask to the "b_line" layer, and select this mask. Grab the Brush Tool (B) with the color black selected, set all brush settings up to 100%, to make it hard. Then paint in spots indicated in the second image below. We need to create an effect that the line is surrounding this girl.

Issue: I don’t know what’s the cause of the Brush Options – Minimum Roundness option failure, but sometimes it’s not possible to turn it on. If you receive this problem just simply restart your Photoshop. The next thing to do is to open the brush options and make sure this is set to 25%.

Step 9

Now let’s play around with this line’s Blending Options. The standard blending options settings make everything very flat with an absolute lack of depth. Even though I’ve seen people applying custom settings, they still had problems with avoiding the flat look. So you need to be very accurate with this.

Depending on what color you want to make your line, the layer styles will be different. If you decide to colorize it with blue, you need play around with many various tones of blue.

Also, very important thing is the Gloss Contour in Bevel and Emboss setting (second image below). I customized the Mapping to fit my own needs. If you play around with these anchors you will get the idea how it works. Make sure you have the option Preview checked, then you can apply effects in real time.

Another important thing is the Angle and Altitude of Shading (the option above Gloss Contour – second image below). Spend some time while adjusting this little target. It’s the option that allows you to cast lights properly.

Step 10

Now grab Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0% change Master Diameter dynamically between 1px and 2px by making more paths and stroke them the same way. We will make some touch ups to make this blue line complete.

So create new layer above "b_line" name it "b_line fills", and create paths. Make many paths by starting and ending in different points. Looks images below. At 3rd and 4th image, those arrows indicate some spots, where I placed anchors. I did it dynamically setting various points and various brush size from 1px to 2px.

If you are bothered with some unwanted lines, just simply erase them using Eraser Tool (E) of 0% Hardness and 50% Flow.

Step 11

I assume you got the idea of making these fills. So make more lines, apply them to spots of your own choice.

Now let’s take care of coloring these small lines. Basically, I copied layer styles from the "b_line" layer and pasted it to the "b_line fills" layer. Then I entered the "b_line fills" layer Blending Options and just changed the color of Inner Glow to lighter blue #c1dbff. You may also change the Satin color to some other blue tone. I set the #54abbb color for Satin. It didn’t change a lot. The changes are barely visible, but now these fills aren’t just one color.

I didn’t play around with the "b_line fills" layer styles because these lines are very small and all effects would be hard to notice. It’s enough if you just change the color of inner glow (and if you want, for satin also) as said before.

Step 12

Let’s follow the same process as in Step 9. This new line will cross the blue line and we’ll fill it with green tones. So create a new group above the "Blue lines" group, name it "Green line." Create a new layer in it, and name it "g_line." Grab the Brush Tool (B) and change the Master Diameter size to 6-8px, set Hardness and Flow to 100%. Next grab the Pen Tool (P), draw a nice path crossing the blue line, then right-click and select Stroke Path. After this apply the same effects as previously, and play around with Shading in Bevel and Emboss. And this time use green colors for all options.

When your done, grab the Eraser Tool (E) and make sure the "g_line" layer is selected. Then erase some parts where both these lines cross to give some depth. You’re free to make this using a Layer Mask also. Either way is fine.

Step 13

Now, we’re just repeating Steps 10 and 11, but on the green line now. So make a new layer in this "Green line" group, name it "g_line fills." Now grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness and Flow to 0%, change Master Diameter dynamically between 1px and 2px and make many paths. Then stroke them. After this, copy the layer styles from "g_line" and paste it to "g_line fills", same way as you did previously.

And you don’t need to brighten the colors of "g_line fills" layer, they already look good. But if you want, make sure you brighten Inner Glow’s color. If you are bothered with some unwanted lines, just simply erase them using the Eraser Tool (E) with Hardness set to 0% and 50% Flow.

Step 14

OK, looking good. Now, we’ll make the next line a little more interesting. So create a new group above all and name it "Pink line." Create a new layer in it and name it "p_ring." Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a curvy path around girl’s leg (instead of drawing a path you can use the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a circle instead). Then right-click and select Stroke Path. Next, apply some nice layer styles the same way as previously. You can use my settings or experiment with your own.

Step 15

If your ring needs some touch ups, select the "p_ring" layer, duplicate this layer (Command + J), go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical and adjust it to make an ellipse. Then grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase some parts to make it look like it was surrounding her leg.

When you’re done, select the "p_ring" layer again, duplicate it (Command + J) 3-4 times, and using Edit > Free Transform make those rings fit the girl’s leg.

Step 16

Create a new layer, name it "p_line," grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a nice curvy path. This will be our third line.

Go to Blending Options and apply same effects as previously. In this case, you need to play around with Bevel and Emboss > Shading. Make sure the Angle and Altitude fit your needs. Depending on what direction your line is going and what kind of shape it has, the shading will be different. You need to adjust it while you start getting something satisfying.

Step 17

This is another process to repeat. Use the same directions as in Steps 10 and 11, but for the pink line. In a shortcut: create a new layer called "p_line fills," draw some paths around the main line using the Pen Tool (P), and stroke them with 1px or 2px soft brush. Next, copy the layer style from the "p_line" layer and paste it to the "p_line fills" layer.

Step 18

Now let’s play around creativity. Select the "p_line fills" layer, then grab the Lasso Tool (L) and draw a selection around some cool looking torn lines (first image below). Then right-click, and select Layer Via Copy. This will copy the piece we selected with its layer styles included. Now right-click on this copied layer and select Convert to Smart Object. After this, make around 4-5 duplicates (Command + J) and spread them around this pink line. Make some rotations using Edit > Free Transform.

The reason we used Convert to Smart Object option, is not to let these pieces pixelize. Since they are smart objects, you are able to resize this piece down and rotate it as many times as you want without losing quality. But don’t resize it up, as it is not a vector object.

Step 19

Go back to the "Blue line" group and apply the same effects as in the previous step. And you can do this to each line that you’ve created. I recommend playing around with colors of these line fills, you may achieve some cool results. Try to make them fit to the lines that they are connected to.

Step 20

Now we’ll create some more great effects. People used to make these kind of shapes with Illustrator, and export them to Photoshop. Well, not everyone knows how to properly use Illustrator, so I’ll show you how to create these shapes in Photoshop. The only disadvantage is that shapes will remain raster objects, but it’s OK, as they’re very easy to recreate.

First create a new group above all, name it "blue drops." Inside this group, create a new layer called "b_drop." Go to the Brushes Palette (Window > Brushes). Select Shape Dynamics and apply the settings shown below. Then make sure your brush is set to 100% Hardness and 100% Flow. In the Brushes Palette select Brush Tip Shape (second image below) and apply the settings again. Make sure that the Spacing is set to 1%. About the Diameter size, it depends how big you want your shapes to look like. But for this tutorial, I recommend following all the settings shown below.

Next, select the Ellipse Tool (U), while holding Shift, draw a circle, around the same size as you see in the third image below. Then select the Pen Tool (P), right-click, and select Stroke Path.

Step 21

Go to "b_drop" layer’s Blending Options and play around with these settings. This is important because standard layer styles give a very flat look. To avoid this make sure your shape has proper colors, highlights and shading.

Step 22

Now that you have created the 3D shape, it’s time to duplicate it (Command + J) a few times and fit to the main blue line. Remember, always have one shape as a backup, so make one of these duplicates invisible (you never know when you may need it). As for the rest of the copies, depending on what you want to do, we’ll leave some shapes as regular objects and turn some of them into smart objects.

In the previous steps, I’ve explained how you can use smart objects. And I used it only in one shape here (layer right-click > Convert to Smart Object) because I searched for a good spot for this shape and I rotated (Edit > Transform > Rotate) it many times. As for the rest rest of the objects, I didn’t convert them into smart objects, because I wanted them to retain their layer styles. And as you resize down these normal objects, the layer styles stay untouched, and they stay connected. You can see in the image below that the small shapes are darker. For example, the Inner Glow has the same value, but the object got smaller.

And the point of all this is that you need to rotate these shapes to make them look like they where in motion, while dropping little pieces. It’s good to make each one look different then the others.

Step 23

As you remember, we named this layer "b_drop" (the b letter stands for blue). And I mentioned that you’re supposed to backup one "b_drop" layer. So make a copy of this untouched layer and rename it "g_drop." Create a new group, name it "green drops" and drag the "g_drop" layer into this group. Then change this layer’s Blending Options. Set all the colors for various green tones. Also, play around with Bevel and Emboss > Shading (second image below).

Then repeat the same process as the previous step. Make a few duplicates (Command + J) of this green drop and make them look dynamic (use Edit > Transform > Rotate).

Step 24

Same thing here. As we made three lines, and each in different colors, we need to make their drops in pretty much the same colors. So repeat the previous steps of creating drops and apply this technique creating now pink drops.

You always need to find the right colors. Start experimenting with them, and you will see which setting in Blending Options is more important then the other. Try to spend as much time as you need to get this right.

Step 25

After you’re done with all the lines and drops it’s time to touch up the background. Simply grab the Brush Tool (B), set the Master Diameter to a fairly large brush, change the Hardness to 0%, and Flow to around 12-15%. Create a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "background color." Change your colors as shown below, and just paint.

Apply a very light brushing, the Flow option reacts to pressure. If you brush in one place too much, the color will be more intensive, so brush with single light clicks. Don’t hold the mouse button as you brush.

Tip: you can make each color on a new layer and then play around with their opacities.

Step 26

OK, the background looks fantastic, it’s deep and balanced. Now we can move further. Open the balloon image, and extract it using the Magic Wand Tool (W). We can use this tool, as this balloon is easy extractable. It was probably cut out before and saved on the white background. Place it into your main project, resize it down and flip it horizontally (use Edit > Transform to do this). Rename it to "green balloon" and apply some color adjustments. You can find them under:

• Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
• Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast
• Image > Adjustments > Selective Color
• Image > Adjustments > Levels

Step 27

Drag the "red balloon" to our main project again, and make a duplicate of it (Command + J). Name the first "pink balloon" and the second "blue balloon." For the "pink balloon" use only Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation because it’s red, and we want to get something in between purple and pink. For the "blue balloon" use:

• Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
• Image > Adjustments > Selective Color
• Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

Step 28

Now bring back the brush settings from Step 8. Create two new layers, then name them "blue rope" and "green rope." Next, draw some curvy paths on each layer below the balloon. Make sure your brush size is 1px big and it’s 100% Flow. Right-click and select Stroke Path. Use blue and green colors to stroke the paths. You can also copy the layer styles from previous lines/drops and paste them into these rope line layer styles.

Step 29

Now, this is my favorite part of the tutorial. You probably will enjoy this too. Create a new group above the "Background" layer, name it "Effects" and work in this group now. Grab the Custom Shape Tool (U), set its options to Shape Layers, and pick a shape of your own choice (the settings are shown in the first image below).

Find some empty spot on our illustration and work there. Create this path (you can hold Shift to get a perfect shape). It should automatically be filled with your Foreground Color, which can be white. Name this layer "Orange," the go to Blending Options and apply some nice effects to it.

I tried to get some tones of orange color, from brown to yellow. And it doesn’t really matter where the shading is. The only thing you need is to have some nice one-color variety here (using different tones).

Step 30

Now we have a nice vector shape, and it’s editable. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp, then bend and twist this shape to get a satisfying result. I simply love this step, you can be very creative with these shapes. After each transform hit enter and go again with Edit > Transform > Warp.

The whole bending below is done this way, warp / enter / warp / enter, and so on, to achieve better results. The best thing about this is that this shape remains vector, even though it’s getting bent to the max.

Step 31

What we came up with here is an awesome shape (still vector!), and we can now position it everywhere. While repeating thing process, we can cover the whole back of this girl using various shapes. Now, using this technique make more shapes like this, then place them behind this girl and make them fit. Use the Copy/Paste Layer Styles option every time you make a new shape. Do not adjust each one manually because you’re gonna waste time.

Here is something you need to remember: although this is vector, it may get sharpen sometimes. If you twist this shape so much to get a very thin line, some jagged edges may occur. So be aware, if you receive something like this, start again with a new shape. Or you can rasterize the vector object (right-click on the layer, select Rasterize Layer). Next, use the Eraser Tool (E) with the Hardness of 0% and Flow of 80-100% to erase some bad looking spots.

Step 32

That’s all for the small shapes. Now, let’s take care for the bigger lines. I used the same technique to create the line that you see in first image below. Next, I rasterize this layer (right-click and Rasterize Layer), and the using Eraser Tool (E), I erased some spots. There is a small case study in images below:

• In second image below, I made this line fit the back of balloon.
• In third image below, I created a new shape using the same technique.

In the next images, I just duplicated (Command + J) this curvy line. I rasterized the layer when needed (layer right-click > Rasterize Layer), and used the Eraser Tool (E). To place these lines use Edit > Transform > Rotate. The whole process of positioning these lines took me around 30 minutes because I changed this like ten times. So don’t give up, the more effort you put in this, the better it will look.

Step 33

OK, now just simply repeat Steps 29, 30, and 31, but in green. Using the same technique, create several green shapes and place them behind this girl and mix them with orange shapes.

Step 34

At this moment I thought, I would show you something cool. As you have created some thin, green shapes like you see in the first image below, use Edit > Transform > Warp again. Now try to stretch it to create a nice curve (second image below).

Now go to Edit > Transform, and rotate this shape to make it fit some parts of the green line (third image below). Run Edit > Transform > Warp again and perfectly adjust it with the line. After this you can right-click on this layer, select Rasterize Layer, grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase some unwanted parts.

Also, if some edges got jagged, use the Smudge Tool (R) with a Strength of 12%. Now smudge the edges towards the line (you can see it in the 5-6 images below).

Step 35

OK, now let’s do some final touch ups. Grab the Brush Tool (B), set Hardness to 0% and Flow to around 10%. Change your Foreground Color to #481e39, create a new layer above the "pink balloon" layer and name it "p_drop shadow." Then start painting below this drop to create a nice touch of shadow.

Next, select the layer of this drop (that is shown in images below) use Command + J to duplicate it. Work with this copy now. Take a look at the third image below: in Blending Options change the size of Inner Glow for the drop copy. Next lower its Opacity and place it below the "p_drop shadow" layer to create a reflection.

Step 36

To give this illustration some meaning I decided to put here some funny thing like this Teddy. I thought, there’s a little girl, lots of colors, so let’s give it a touch of cuteness.

So, cut the bear out of its original image using the Pen Tool (P). Drag it to our main project document. Name this layer "Teddy" and place it above all the layers. Now let’s do some color adjustments using Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and then Image > Adjustments > Levels.

Duplicate the "Teddy" layer using Command + J and select this copy now. Change its Blending Options to Soft Light. Go to Image > Adjustments > Black and White, and give this teddy some nice deep colors and a touch of contrast.

I still thought this teddy needs some more color. So I held down Command and left-clicked on the "Teddy" layer’s thumbnail to bring the selection. Then I created a new layer above all layers. Changed its Blending Mode to Overlay. Next, I set my Foreground Color to #fbc83a, grabbed a Brush Tool (B) with a very soft brush and painted inside this selection just a little.

Step 37

As you still have this selection on, hit Command + Shift + C (copy merged) and then press two times Command + V (paste). Place these teddies the way you see in the first image below. Next, take one of them and place behind the "Green balloon," and make his arm look like a leg.

Now create a reflection with the second teddy. So select another copy of teddy and go to Edit > Transform > Distort and make this bear more flat (second image below). Place it below the original "Teddy" layer to make it look like a reflection. If you get some outgoing edges of this reflection – erase them using the Eraser Tool (E). Apply the same technique to make a reflection of his leg (as you can see in fourth image below).

Next, bring the selection of the "Green balloon" layer (hold Command and left-click on the "Green balloon" layer’s thumbnail). Now create a new layer below the "Teddy" layer and change your Foreground Color to #212b04. Grab the Brush Tool (B), make the brush settings very soft with Hardness 0%, Flow 10-15%, and paint under teddy to create some shadow. Hit Command + D to deselect selection.

Step 38

So we are heading to the end. Hit Command + A to select the whole canvas, then press Command + Shift + C (copy merged). Go to the top of the Layers Palette and hit Command + V to paste this whole piece. Name this layer "final colored" and set it’s Blending Mode to "Soft Light." Now go to Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map, and find some nice satisfying colors to balance this illustration. There are my colors written below. I added them and lowered the Opacity of this layer just a touch.

Conclusion

So here it is, the cool colorful illustration covered with lines and shapes. You have to be very careful while creating your own colorful piece. The colors are something that separates good art from weak art. When you understand how it works, all your designs will start to look professional. Always remember to keep the overall balance. Everything needs its own place in a quality illustration. Also, don’t forget about the shading. Objects look good when they are based on reality.

Thanks for reading the tutorial. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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To achieve this we’ll use both Illustrator to design the basic shapes and Photoshop to create the lighting effects. Since everything is going to be done with smart objects and layer styles, the final image will be scalable at any size.

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Step 1

First, let’s create a new document in Photoshop. Set the size to 1000px wide by 1000px height in RGB color mode with a transparent background. To create the background fill, click the black & white circle (Create A New Fill Or Adjustment Layer) at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Gradient from the list. Take a look at the screen capture below to make the adjustements and delete the layer mask by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete The Fusion Mask.

Step 2

Now create a new document in Illustrator. The size and color mode should be the same as the Photoshop document. Draw a wavy shape as shown in the example below and scale it to approximatively 300px wide. Duplicate it below, scale it and rotate it a little. Then go to Window > Brush Libraries > Artistic > Artistic_ScrollPen and apply the second brush (Scroll Pen 10) of the list to both shapes. Delete their fill and set the stroke weight to 0,25pt. Everything is now ready to create the blend.

Step 3

Select the Blend Tool (W) and click where shown below to initiate the blending. It’s important to click on those points in this ordrer as the appearance of the object depends on where and when you initiate it. Refine the effect by double-clicking on the same tool in the Toolbox. A dialog box opens up where you have to select Specified Steps in the menu and enter 60 as the value. We now have a beautiful wave facing us.

Just one more thing: don’t forget to turn the stroke color of the blend to white. Now you can copy and paste your shape into Photoshop as a Smart Object. Name this new layer “Shape 1.”

Step 4

Transform the shape you just pasted (Command + T) to flip it horizontally and scale it. Turn the blending mode of the layer to Hard Light and apply an Outer Glow by clicking on the FX button down below the Layers palette. Starting from the default settings, modify those marked in red in the image below. Then select the Gradient in the first section of the window and click on the spectrum to edit it.

A new dialog box opens in which you must select Noise in the Gradient Type menu. This very simple operation creates multiple strokes of color around the shape. Click several times on the Randomize button in the bottom-right of the window until you get something like in the example, also activate the option Add Transparency.

Step 5

Let’s now apply another layer style to give color to the shape, use Color Overlay with the following settings: Color Burn, #0024ff, 100%. You should get something like this:

Step 6

Notice the main area of the shape is totally solid and therefore, quite pointless for this composition. Click on the Add Layer Mask button down below the Layers palette and with a big black soft round brush, paint that area. Accuracy isn’t required, just take care keeping the left part of the shape visible.

One little tip that will improve your painting efficiency: you can adjust the opacity of the current tool just by typing the desired percentage on the numeric keypad on the right side of your keyboard. For example, typing 2 with the Brush Tool (B) selected makes your brush opaque at 20%. The first shape is now finished.

Step 7

To create another shape without starting the drawing process from the beginning, double-click on the thumbnail of the first shape layer to open it in Illustrator. Select the blend and set its stroke color to black. Go to Window > Brush Libraries > Artistic > Artistic_Ink and apply the 10th biggest brush titled “Marker.” Double-click on the Blend Tool (W) icon from the Toolbox and set 20 as the value for the Specified Steps option.

Now in the Brushes palette, double-click on the selected brush (the one you just applied) and in the dialog box enter 30% for the size and activate the Proportional checkbox. After clicking the OK button, a dialog box asks you whether you want to apply those new settings to the brush itself or not, choose Apply To Strokes. Turn the stroke color of the blend to white, then copy and paste the new blend into Photoshop as a Smart Object. Name it "Shape 2" and close the document in Illustrator without saving the changes (unless you want to apply those last changes to the first shape you drew and adjusted in Photoshop).

Step 8

Transform the shape (Command + T) and scale it proportionnally at 190%. Duplicate the layer styles of the "Shape 1" layer using this little shortcut: drag the FX icon of this layer holding down the Alt key of your keyboard onto the "Shape 2" layer, and you’re done! Just set the blending mode to Linear Light. Using the same technique as in Step 6, hide the top-left part of the shape.

Step 9

To create the next shape, open the second one in Illustrator. Next, turn the stroke color to black and in the Brushes palette delete the one which is selected. A dialog box pops up, select Remove Strokes. Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the uppermost path and check the box Dashed Line in the Stroke palette. Enter 1pt in the first one of the boxes below it and leave the other ones blank. Select the other path (still with the Direct Selection Tool), set the weight to 1pt, and dash it with 9pt in the first box. Also, activate the Round Cap option for both paths in the same palette.

Don’t forget to set the stroke color to white before pasting it into Photoshop. Scale it at the same size (190%) and in the same place as the second shape, nudge it a few pixels above and on the right to avoid hiding the first shape. Next, it’s the same drill again: name the layer, copy the prior layer styles ,then modify them, and mask the object.

Here are the settings for this third shape: Normal as the blending mode for the layer, a reddish spectrum for the Gradient used in the Outer Glow (use the sliders in the Gradient Editor to restrain the colors as shown below), #ff0000 as Color Overlay and Linear Light as the blending mode for this last layer style.

Step 10

The design is beginning to look good but lacks some volume. We will achieve that by creating a colored surface on the frontmost swirl. Duplicate the third shape by Alt-dragging it between the two first Vector Smart Objects, then name it "Shape 4." Nudge it approximatively 100px upwards and 10px to the left (press Shift while hitting the keyboard arrows to make 10px increments). Shift-click on the mask to temporarily deactivate it and double-click on the FX icon of the layer to modify the Outer Glow (see the image below for the settings).

Don’t forget to move the sliders at each extremity to use the whole spectrum while modifying the Gradient in the Outer Glow, nor unchecking the Color Overlay layer style. Now go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply it with a 50px Radius. Notice a new section appeared below the thumbnail of the layer, and a new icon too. You may delete the mask of the Smart Filter by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete Filter Mask. Set the blending mode of the layer to Screen with 10% Opacity.

Now click on the layer mask to reactivate it, press D on your keyboard to reset the foreground/background colors and press Alt + Backspace to fill the mask with white. Now hide the right side of the object.

Step 11

Let’s add some more volume to our composition. Duplicate the third shape by Alt-dragging it above itself, name it "Shape 5," and nudge it 20px to the right. Shift-click on the layer mask thumbnail to temporarily deactivate it and double-click on the FX icon of the layer to modify the Outer Glow (see the image below for the settings). Use Color Overlay with the following settings: Multiply, #fee581, and 70%.

Now click on the layer mask to reactivate it, fill it with white, and hide the right side of the object.

Step 12

Let’s explore a little more with the strokes applied to blends in Illustrator: double-click on the thumbnail of the first shape layer to open it in Illustrator. Select the blend and set its stroke color to black. Go to Window > Brush Libraries > Artistic > Artistic_Ink and apply the 8th biggest brush called “Galaxy.”

Double-click on the Blend Tool (W) icon from the Toolbox and set 10 as the value for the Specified Steps option. Use 10pt for the stroke weight of the upmost path, 1pt for the other one, and 10% for the size of the brush. Turn the stroke color of the blend to white, then copy and paste the object into Photoshop at 190% size and above all the other layers. Nudge it, and give it the same layer styles and blending mode as the first shape, then mask it.

Step 13

Re-open the very first vector smart object from its thumbnail in the layers palette and turn it black. Next, release the blend using the shortcut Command + Alt + Shift + B, double-click on the brush thumbnail in the Brushes palette and activate the Flip Along checkbox in the Flip section of the Art Brush Options box. Turn the stroke color of the blend to white, then copy and paste the object into Photoshop at 190% size and above all the other layers. Nudge it, give it the same layer styles as shown below with Screen as the blending mode for the layer. Use Color Overlay with the following settings: Overlay, #fff600, and 100%. Finally, mask it.

Step 14

We are not completely done with the vector shapes but let’s take a pause to look at what we’ve done and add some contrast to our light streaks by creating an Adjustement Layer. Click on the black & white circle at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Curves from the list. Take a look at the images below to make the adjustements and delete the layer mask.

Step 15

Let’s jump back to Illustrator and create a new document in which we draw an Ellipse (L), measuring approximately 440px width and 480px height. Next, apply the first brush from the ScrollPen library (Scroll Pen 1) to it and reduce the size of the brush, still by double-clicking its thumbnail in the Brushes palette. In the example below, I used a size of 40% and Flipped it Along. Delete the fill of the object, turn its stroke color to white, then copy and paste it into Photoshop.

Step 16

Apply the layer styles of the first shape to it and modify them a little according to the image below. Scale, rotate, nudge and duplicate the object twice to give more strength to the swashes. Select those last 3 objects in the Layers palette and hit Command + G to gather them in a group, name it "Swashes." Add a layer mask and use it so that only the right side remains.

Step 17

Last but not least, let’s take care of those big red trails in the background. In Illustrator, create a new document and draw a wave. Next, duplicate it, scale it down a little, nudge some anchor points, and create the blend with 10 steps. Select the whole blend and Dash it with 11pt and 23pt in the first two boxes, leaving the other ones blank. Also, activate the Round Cap option in the same palette. Use 3pt for the stroke weight of the upmost path, and 1pt for the other one. Turn the stroke color of the blend to white, then copy and paste the object into Photoshop just above the “background” layer.

Step 18

Scale it at 210% and duplicate the layer styles of the "Shape 3" layer. Now modify them according to the image below. Duplicate it, nudge it a few pixels leftwards and enter 50% as Opacity for this last layer. Gather those last two shapes in a group (Command + G) and name it "Red trails." Let’s now fade those out, not using a layer mask on the group itself, but individually for each trail. In fact, the uppermost one is only used to emphasise some areas of the other one.

Step 19

Here we are, the final step. We are going to slightly sharpen some areas of the composition: hit Command + Alt + Shift + E on your keyboard to merge all visible layers into a new one. Now name it "Sharpening."

Go to Layer > Smart Objects > Convert To Smart Object. Next go to Filter > Other > High Pass and enter a 2px value. Change the blending mode of the layer to Vivid Light and add a layer mask to it. As we mainly want to sharpen the red trails, Command + Shift-click the thumbnail of those two smart objects and — with the "Sharpening" layer still selected — click the Add Layer Mask button we already used before. Now the sharpening appears only on the area of the red trails. Paint a little more in the mask to enhance some other areas like the edges of the big green and yellow swashes.

One last tip before leaving: the whole image is scalable at any size without any loss of quality (assuming your computer can handle it) simply by activating the Scale Styles option in the Image Size dialog box (Command + Alt + I.) Enjoy!

Final Image

You can view the final image below.

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