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Last month while I was selecting some images for blog post, I found an amazing design created by Nik Ainley, one of my favorite Photoshop masters. He had created some incredible clouds using Photoshop. I thought to myself, "Damn that's really cool. I have to know how to do something like that!"
So in this tutorial, I will show you how to create cartoon-style clouds using Photoshop and a bit of Illustrator.
Create a new document. Double-click on the background layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. Select Gradient Overlay. For the colors, use three colors: pink, blue, and black. Select Radial for the Style.
Create a new layer and rename it to"ps clouds." Make sure that the foreground is white and the background is black. Go to Filters>Render>Clouds. Tip: Hold the "Alt" key to create a stronger effect.
To create the clouds we will use the Brush Engine. Create a new Folder and name it "cloud." Select the Brush Tool and set the brush properties as shown below. The secret is the spacing and the Size Jitter. After that, you can save the brush.
We have the brush—now lets create the cloud style. Create three new layers inside the "cloud" folder, and name them "front," "middle," and "last." Double-click on the "front" layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box and select Gradient Overlay, Bevel and Emboss, and Inner Glow. Copy the Layer Style and apply to the other two layers.
Using the brush we created, start painting the clouds. Tip: The volume will be created using the layer order, like in the image below.
After you've painted your cloud, select the folder and convert it to a Smart Object. Duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to Multiply. Group the two layers and rename it to "Cloud 1."
Repeat Steps 4, 5, and 6. It's not necessary to repeat the Layer Style steps though, just Copy and Paste the Layer Style. Create four clouds and place them like in the image below.
Select any cloud folder and convert it to a Smart Object. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay. After that duplicate the layer and group the two layers. Rename the group to "clouds back."
In Illustrator select Ellipse Tool (L) and create a circle. Set the Stroke weight to 40px with a purple color.
Start adding more strokes to the ellipse, increasing the weight by 40px so there will be a 40px purple, 80px cyan, 120px green, 160px yellow, and 200px red. After that copy the vector and go back to Photoshop.
Back in Photoshop, paste the vector and choose Paste as Pixels. After that, using the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the white part of the rainbow and delete it. Then convert it to a Smart Object and group it. Rename the group "rainbow 1."
Place the rainbow between two clouds and using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), select the part of the rainbow you want to hide. Then select the group (not the layer), and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection and hide that area.
After that you can duplicate the "rainbow 1" group in order to create another rainbow.
Create four new layers and paste on them the same Layer Style we used for the clouds. Select the Brush Tool and create another brush like the images below. Then create small clouds where the rainbows touch the clouds at the beginning and end of the rainbows.
Create a new layer beneath the clouds and rainbows. Fill it with black and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Again select the Brush Tool and create another Brush in order to create the stars.
Repeat step 14; however, this time select a circle shape instead of the star. Reduce the size of the brush, and create the rounded stars.
In this tutorial, we used mostly the Brush Engine and Layer Styles. It's amazing what you can do using only those two features! Here we created clouds but by changing some settings, we can create a completely different effect.
Keep reading with more great tutorials and articles!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Brooke January 23rd
Wow! How fun, thank you can’t wait to try it.
( )Romeo - Peter.D January 23rd
omg i just love the tutorials that are posted here
( )LOVELY!!!
Dustin Brewer January 23rd
Very cool and yet strangely creepy tutorial.
( )gdiaz January 23rd
Awesome tut! Great end product using relatively simple techniques.
( )Oscar January 23rd
Pretty nice tut, great concept.
( )Homie January 23rd
Nice Homie
( )Adrian January 23rd
Yes! I love that design by Nik Ainley as well! Great tutorial.
( )hhihih March 23rd
lolz
( )Sambo January 23rd
the best tutorials around
( )T9 David January 23rd
Beautiful Effect Fabio!
( )I believe I saw this on flickr awhile ago. I still find it to be a very nice style!
Jeii January 23rd
lovely!!
( )Homer Simpson January 23rd
Re@lly @ great tutorial. Well done…
( )Ian January 23rd
For completeness, you might want to mention that you set the rendered clouds layer in step 2 to Multiply.
( )Candy August 24th
Thank you for mentioning that! I just started this tutorial and was stalled at that step.
( )andreic January 23rd
that’s very interesting outcome, and now i have to find out a project to stick it in
( )www.cg-links.com January 23rd
Thx for tut.
( )Manuel Merz January 23rd
Superb tutorial, many thanks for taking the time and write down such unique tutorials
( )photoshop cs3 tutorials January 23rd
just wow..!!
( )great outcome from this great tutorial.
Mohammed January 23rd
just fabulous!
( )giackop January 23rd
i was waiting for this!! very very nice!!
( )Shadowfax January 23rd
Inspiring
( )Shiva January 23rd
Really good job!
( )Shane January 23rd
Great stuff – can’t wait to get home and try it tonight!
( )moosa January 23rd
Wow! How fun, thank you can’t wait to try it.
( )Lyns January 23rd
Cheers Ian that was really bugging me!
( )Timothy Diokno January 23rd
It really is fantasy! I mean, who would have thought of rainbows at night? Only in PSDTuts people – only in PSDTuts. Keep ‘em coming!
( )Alex January 24th
nice but i stuck at step 1 when after create render efect… so how to merge the 2 layers ????
( )ben jones January 24th
The tutorials on this website are quite simply giving me a, diamond encrusted, carbon-tipped, white hot boner that is burning a hole right through my desk.
Keep up the good work.
( )chris frelin January 24th
Hi there – nice tutorial. FYI, you don’t need Illustrator to make your rainbows. Just make a horizontal band of colors (I made mine on a square white canvas) and apply the “Polar Coordinates” filter – voila – a rainbow!
( )Jason January 24th
mmm…I realize it says “fantastic fantasy”…but rainbows in a night sky?! Basic science…
( )Kortnee January 24th
I’ll try it at soon as I get back from school in an hour and a half. I’m sure I will not be disappointed.
( )XIII January 24th
It looks very nice, too bad about the Illustrator bit in a Photoshop tutorial.
( )Graeme Benstead January 24th
That’s Genius! I love those clouds especially, this is one of my favourite PS tutorials of all time
( )Pablo January 24th
As Ian mentioned above– It would help if you would clarify in step 2 that you need to set the layer mode to “Multiply”.
Great tutorial and great site.
( )Pieter V January 24th
Thanks again for the great tutorial !
( )Craig January 24th
What, no unicorns?!
( )Constantin Potorac January 24th
Yey! It’s finally here! I was waiting for this tutorial so much.
Thank you very much for sharing Fabio.
Keep up the good work.
( )Missy January 24th
…like the stars at the end. nice touch.
( )it all makes me want to get out my little pony toys and play like a little girl.
Juanjo Vargas January 24th
Don’t like it.
( )Markus January 24th
Awesome! :b I already made it it!
( )Sean Hodge January 24th
Very cool tutorial. I love the process, effects, and outcome.
( )DEM January 24th
c’mon. you’re becoming my master
( )Tama January 24th
I don’t like those clouds….
( )Zenor January 24th
Cool
( )Colin January 24th
bad ass! i remember the guy saying he was going to make a tutorial for this! i’m so glad he actually did! cause those clouds rock!
( )Bootstrapping Blog January 24th
Great tutorial. I’ll be using this for a project coming up. Nice work!
( )Anselmo January 24th
wonderfull!! One of the best tutorials, so far…
( )web fanatic January 24th
u guyz rock. Keep up the good work
( )Jose January 24th
good job!!!~~~~~
thx
( )Foliosus January 24th
The cloud technique rocks. Thanks!
( )Mikkel January 24th
Hi
Nice tut… But I would love to see how to do some of the other designs on Nik Ainleys site – Like the ones called “Current Account” or “Jenson Button”, they look AWESOME!!
Does anybody know how to do artwork like those? Then PLEASE post a tut on them
( )martijn January 24th
great tut!
( )Anand January 24th
Amazing tutorial! You guys have fantastic creative minds, thanks.
( )Hidekibcn January 24th
Awesome, as all the tutorials of this web. Than you ^
( )Ewan January 25th
Excellent Tutorial
( )I love the tutorials on this website. Don’t stop making them.
Conrad January 25th
Call me lazy before, but this tut got me straight into Photoshop to get my own My Little Pony clouds. Sweet!
( )dario January 25th
nice!!!
dariobologna.com
( )mercutiom January 25th
Great tut as usual, just one question. Where is Mario, and is Princess Peach in trouble again? (I kid, I kid.) Great job.
( )Mark Abucayon January 25th
that was cool, I like what you did with the tiny little stars very nice. thanks
( )Jonathan Solichin January 25th
Very nice! Haven’t seen this before. Fabio, you are a tutorial master
( )Felix January 25th
Brilliant! I love the out-of-focus clouds
( )lokesh kumar January 25th
Incredible job you be come my boss:-]
( )esa January 25th
thanks!
( )lokesh kumar January 25th
its good, i like it
( )Kanye West January 26th
Awesome tut! Great end product using relatively simple techniques.
( )Timofey Lychik January 26th
This instantly reminded me of supemario 64 with the clouds and the rainbows. So here’s mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50515724@N00/2219135835/
( )stephen January 26th
oh, i cant find the brush presets in my photoshop：（
( )Glen Allsopp January 26th
Am I free to cut part of this and use it in a blog post header?
( )jayhan January 26th
very cute and amazing tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
( )yichi January 27th
Great tut! I’ve bookmark all of them and I’m gonna use it on my work
( )Justin January 27th
I don’t really like it, but good technique.
( )fedmich January 28th
wow, lovely cute
( )sauravh January 28th
good work i like it
( )Ines January 29th
This is awesome! Thank u so much for sharing!
( )Ben Gribbin January 31st
that is very very cool
( )brandy February 2nd
The effect you created is cool, I guess, but the tutorial seemed to exclude steps (I don’t think I need to repeat what everyone else has said) and lacks explanation. I’d like to know, for example, why you felt the need to convert so many things into smart objects.. I can understand the rainbow, because you wanted to keep the vector shape, but the clouds? Really? :/
( )steph February 4th
oh, thank you for your post. i love the wallpaper – it’s beautiful!
( )at this moment i am doing a photoshop-workshop on my own and
i think this can be an instuktive exercise for me. i am trying today;)
shingudoo February 5th
very beautiful, nice work.
( )jdc February 10th
Amazing Dude!!!
( )R.sriram February 12th
very nice works.this works are used in world wide photoshop lovers.
( )iam very imoressed these works.
Jonathan February 13th
Hello, i have a noobish question. How do I add the strokes in AI?
( )WesTwood February 14th
great work…i think i got it..
http://octavisanderson.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/rainbow.jpg
( )Vlad Gerasimov February 16th
Hi – this tutorial (as well as several more things) inspired me to create Rainbows wallpaper, and I also wrote my own tutorial about that: please check it out at
( )http://www.vladstudio.com/photoshoptutorials/?36
Competition is always good thing, eh?
Speaking of this tutorial compared to my own, in PSDTuts version I did not like how stars are shaped, clouds are blurred, and layer effects on clouds did not look perfect to me too. So I did what I thought to be better looking. Thanks!
Katalog Stron February 18th
Good job! Looks great.
( )apO February 27th
http://www.shinybinary.com/images/art/adobe_bg_2.jpg
well i guess you’ve been inspired…..
DONT COPY !!! CREATE !!!!
( )markd February 27th
step 2 makes no sense. ha!
did you overlay the clouds atop the previous layer or did you apply the filter effects to the cloud layer.. what happened there?
( )Pepekun March 7th
Is very fantastic the Tutorial.
( )sumika March 14th
It’s really great
( )Lueng March 20th
oh yhe~~~
( )yevan April 6th
hmm i’m having troble with step two i don’t know how the blend of the clouds and the first layer works =/ for me it dosen’t seem to work can anyone help me
thanyou
( )raven April 8th
very good tutorial i liked it alot
( )was very useful( i used it for my myspace page
didnt have illustrator so i created the
rainbows in photoshop as well as
the other stuff….turns out u really
dont need illustrator to get the
rainbow effect
Qbrushes April 24th
yea you don’t really need AI for the rainbows but its much easier in ai..
( )Stalin Rex April 28th
Hello Master….
Its Really feel very good. Because peoples know the tools and everything. But this to boost how can use the tools differently….I will Expect more tutorials…. Thankas…
( )mole6 April 30th
Thx for the lesson)
( )mightee_mouse May 4th
One of the best tutorials I’ve seen in a long time. It got me acquainted with areas of Photoshop I hadn’t really done much with. Thanks, I hope you create more tutorials, you’re good at it!
( )Anonymous May 4th
Wow nice effect but little toy looking…;)
( )Daniel May 11th
Funny
Daniel
( )R.R May 20th
Great tutorial.
It helped me become a bit more familiar with my Photoshop CS.
However, like the others, I did have difficulty with Step 2…also..I had a hard time figuring out how to do Step 6.
At any rate..I appreciate the tutorial and it gives me a better working knowledge of how to use Photoshop a bit more efficiently.
By the way..what version of Photoshop were you using when you made this?
Thanks.
( )Lina May 20th
Very nice tutorial! As several ppl already made clear there are some steps missing or that could have been axplained better. But if you ppl can’t work those steps out by yourself maby you should start off with some easier tutorials and get to know photoshop alittle more first.
Well done Fabio!
( )sosty May 30th
awesome tut !
thanks so much .. I enjoyed it !
( )ZaFaR June 10th
very good tutorial i liked it alot
( )was very useful( i used it for my myspace page
didnt have illustrator so i created the
rainbows in photoshop as well as
the other stuff….turns out u really
dont need illustrator to get the
rainbow effect
Octav June 11th
Sorry, my fault, i didn’t read the first lines of your tutorial.
( )suffi June 14th
nice work bro….but in the 3rd step for [brush preset] shape dynamics…….we have to change size glitter’s CONTROL as PEN PESSURE BUT IN UR JPG PIC ITS NOT MENTIONED AND FOR SECOND STEP …..U DINT MENTIONED THE BLENDING MODE OF CLOUD LAYER
( )King June 14th
if it was a video it will be easyer
( )Amanda June 15th
In step 2 you never explained how to blend the cloud layer with the background. What do you do there to make it look like that?
( )Anthony June 19th
Picture Fine Very Java.
( )I Love You.
I Shall do like this. at top
Fahad June 25th
very nice
( )Dite June 30th
Cool Clouds.. Love it. ♥
( )dwekki July 8th
cute clouds! thanks for the tutorial!
( )bsingh July 9th
thats awesome… here check out my one
lol itz no were as good as that one but 
anywayz wa u think
http://www.filecram.com/files/rainbow.png
( )billy July 9th
he does absolutely not indicate how he applies the “ps clouds” to the colour layer in step 2. It’s a bit lame that you do a tutorial and skip steps like that. I have both layers but can’t mix them together. Incomplete tutorial, utter crap.
( )Kaminarai July 15th
Thatis soo amazing, looks like something from Super Mario Galaxy awesomenesss
( )MD July 23rd
nice tut…
( )Jaimé July 25th
Great tutorial! I’m so glad I stumbled upon this website, it’s a fountain of inspiration for me!
( )Mr Kuzio August 3rd
I love this tutorial.
( )Thanks!
John August 4th
yep another crappy tut …it would be nice if you guys just stay out of the way
)
& let others post real complete tuts
peace
( )John
Kedar August 18th
Excellent Tutorial
( )I love the tutorials on this website. Don’t stop making them.
James Qu September 6th
Fantastic tutorial! Keep up the good work
( )kin_8z September 13th
wow lovely! cute!
( )Lawrence77 September 20th
FABIO always rocking.
( )santosh September 21st
exllent and super works
( )mema September 27th
wooooow !!
i love it and i will try it !
plz if u have any tutorials i will be happy to look at it !
Regards < ^_^
( )r4ge October 7th
really good tut i really like the clouds!
( )Konrad-PL November 20th
It’s look like Vlad’s work. Mayby He was your inspiration:>??
( )Julian November 25th
hey, how does it works in step one to set the center of the gradient overlay next to the bottom? Thanks!
( )sang mantan November 27th
this is fun and ekciting work …
( )sliver December 5th
exciting tutorial thanks !
( )TutorialCompiler January 14th
Great Tutorial. I liked it a lot. Bookmarked
( )Rajendra January 18th
as beautiful as a dream could be……………..
( )Thanks for that amazing tut……..
could you please write a tutorial on making floating planets……
That would be great when combined with this image……..
Once again thanks
website design January 24th
I agree with a above statement, great tutorial. I book marked it as well. The clouds are the best part.
( )pure love February 19th
that is good
( )thank you
SprockBoy February 22nd
Love it! Amazing tutorial..!
( )marc February 25th
thanks for that tutorial, i learnt a lot, amazing.
( )greets from switzerland
Davidmoreen March 1st
Geezes, you are not telling me how to do anything dude. EXPLAIN! Please. You got me stuck at step 2. When making the tutorial pertend that you are explain to someone that has no idea, on what they are doing.
( )Mel March 7th
Thank you! Total noob to Photoshop (only 2nd time using it) but was able to pull it off with your help. Much appreciated!
( )Mie April 17th
Awesome tutorial, but got a little stuck on step 2. I just changed the layer blending mode to Multiply and reduced the Fill down to 85%, might not be how you did it tho. (:
( )surendar April 25th
fabio, super….
Realy nice tutorial……
(Fabio I am surendar. From India could you remember me?)
( )Anonymous June 1st
THANKS SO MUCH , very helpfull !
See you later
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bhanu June 26th
oh nice i cant believe this so nice
( )ÖMER July 8th
wooowww perfect
( )Weboldal készítés - Pécs July 20th
Wow! Good job! nice and very simple!
( )tutorialslounge July 31st
i really appreciate you Faabio.
( )Nits August 27th
Nice tutorial thanks for sharing with us.
( )Bakar August 27th
cool
( )Bakar August 27th
very cool tut thanks
( )Deepak Panchal November 7th
I love the tutorieals please send me some more effective tutorieals on my id Deeplv@yahoo.com
( )