Creating a Mac-Type Background in Photoshop
Sep 14th in Effects by Collis
This tutorial is about making a "mac" style background. You can use these in all sorts of situations, including the obvious --your desktop-- as well as part of your designs or for corporate work (Powerpoint presentations, Flash work, etc). Naturally, you wouldn’t want to use this exact set of steps, but following them will give you a good idea of the technique. Good luck!
Step 1:
We begin with a blank canvas and then draw a subtle gradient across it. (I’m using a 1280x1024 canvas here.) Don’t be fooled by the black border, incidentally, that’s just Photoshop. So anyhow, I’ve chosen two orange colors that are similar to each other to make a very subtle gradient indeed.
Step 2:
Add a NEW LAYER Now take your Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and draw in a rough triangular selection as shown. Then take a really fat soft brush (size 300 or so) and draw some faded-in white with the edge of it, again as shown. Be careful not to make it too strong.
Step 3:
Set your white from step 2 to Overlay. NEW LAYER Now again, take your Polygonal Lasso Tool and do a similar triangle but back and against it (like shown). This time add some black. I actually used a gradient fill here using black and nothing. You can get this type of gradient by selecting your gradient tool then dropping down and choosing the second one along:
Step 4:
Set your black layer to Overlay at 34%. NEW LAYER Now use the Pen Tool and draw a nice-looking curve. The secret to nice curves with the Pen Tool is dragging the handle a long way. Join the path back up so it is one continuous blob, then right click and select Make Selection
Step 5:
You should now have a selection of a nice curve (as shown). Once again use the Gradient Tool, this time with white fading to nothing and add some white. Set this layer to Overlay and you should have something similar to what is shown.
Step 6:
NEW LAYER And again grab the Pen Tool and this time make a new even more interesting shape. You can see the shape I created on the left… Close the shape back in on itself so it is one continuous path and again right click and choose Make Selection.
Step 7:
Now with your selection, grab that fat soft brush again (size 300) and add some black just at the top on one side (as shown). Don’t let go of your selection as you'll need it for the next few steps.
Step 8:
NEW LAYER Now choose a selection tool (doesn’t matter which one) and hit the Down arrow key 10 times. You need to have a selection tool on to move your selection around or Photoshop will try to move some of your artwork (since you are on a new layer, it will give you an error). So make sure you’ve chosen a Polygonal Lasso Tool or one of the others. Now press Ctrl+Shift+I to inverse your selection. Then with your soft brush (size 300) paint some black down the bottom as shown. When you’re done set the layer to Overlay and fade it back to 60%.
Step 9:
NEW LAYER Now press Ctrl+Shift+I to inverse your selection again (back to the original) and this time paint some nice white as shown. Note that because we moved our selection down back in Step 8, this won’t quite align with the black.
Step 10:
NEW LAYER Now grab your Gradient Tool, choose white to nothing and set it to Radial Gradient. Then add a white light at the top left as shown. Set this layer to Overlay.
Step 11:
Now at the moment, the colors aren’t looking quite right. If I were really energetic, I’d go back to the beginning and start again with a different set of oranges. But instead we’re going to do a quick adjustment. NEW LAYER On the new layer, add a fill of a good orange similar to the one shown. Set the blending mode to Color and set the Opacity to 55%. This should adjust nicely.
Step 12:
Now that’s looking a bit better. NEW LAYER Now once again, use the usual method of using the pen tool to draw a nice curved selection (as shown) and then right click and choose Make Selection.
Step 13:
Use the White – Nothing gradient and add a smooth white transition from left to right as shown. And set the layer to Overlay.
Step 14:
NEW LAYER As you can see, we’re getting close. Now create one final curved selection down in the bottom left add a white gradient fading to nothing (our favorite tool as you can see) and switch to Overlay.
Step 15:
For the final touches, I added a tinge of black overlayed bottom right and a bit more white overlayed on the top left. But these are inconsequential changes. You might want to go through and polish yours up a little too at this point because other than that you’re done! You'll find the Photoshop PSD file for this tutorial available up above on the right. Enjoy!
Sample PSD
Download the PSD for this tutorial
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Julia September 15th
I can really use this, every step was well explained and well put together, thanks!
( )Collis September 15th
Thanks Julia! Glad you liked it, I wrote this tutorial almost 3 years ago now, good to see its still handy
( )Jon September 16th
Great tutorial. Thanks, you taught me a lot. (saw it first on digg).
( )Paul September 16th
Wow, this looks very slick.
What I’ve always done is something similar (gradient tool and pen tool for curves) but I’ve stroked the layers and fiddled with the stroke’s opacity, and finally balancing the colors and lighting effects. This looks much more curvy and warm, however.
Your tutorials are wonderfully written.
( )Wydblog September 17th
GUAU!
( )Waqas A.M. Siddiqui September 17th
Wow, This is damn cool…
I love your blog…
( )Daniel September 17th
Great stuff!
( )tulsi shah September 17th
hi!
u’ve done a gr8 job
the tutorial is really explainatory
i tried doing this effect but cud do as smooth as yours..
Keep it up
( )Jack September 18th
Wow, this is a great site. I just upgraded from CS1 to CS3 today and I am going to try this as soon as it updates.
( )tewoos September 18th
nice tutorial, thanks…
( )wotaewer September 19th
great tutorial. always amazed how you can create aesthetics from scratch
( )gimp September 21st
Hi Collis, Great tutorial using your tutorial as a guide i was able to re-create this tutorial using the free open source Gimp program, used different steps for some parts of the tutorial but pretty happy with the outcome thanks to you
my Gimp version can be found http://gimp-tutorials.net/node/106 i left you credit for the concept and great tutorial.
thanks
( )lynxee September 21st
This is the one that im looking for and also the glow effect. Your tutorial really handy. Thanks for showing this in your blog. Welldone!
( )zee7 September 21st
Nince one.
Thanks for sharing \ Huge Sharing ///
( )Kess September 24th
Awesome Job!
Love the colors
Thanx for sharing Collis!
TC
( )samer September 24th
nice
the file is worng??
can you help me
( )graphic hound September 26th
u r damn good thanx buddy thts impressive
love
( )Akash
Tina Frissora September 27th
That tutorial gave me some good ideas – thanks for the inspiration!
( )Mr_LeE September 27th
thanks alot mate great tutorial!
( )Dhruv Patel September 28th
Great tutorial…. not sure if you are the one who submitted this, but take a look http://gimp-tutorials.net/node/106
( )Mr_LeE September 28th
i just donated. thanks mate
( )hamada October 7th
good photo shop
( )dave October 9th
big thx to you for sharing your knowledge to us!
( )awesome tut, good explanation, easy to handle and very useful.
hope to see more of this in future … pls ^^
Psychotronic October 15th
This is awesome. I will use this tutorial to make a great wallpaper selection
( )Vimal October 17th
Thats Great. Today its very nice lesson for me. Thanks mate
( )Amlan October 17th
That tutorial is cool – thanks for the inspiration!
( )watever abt…. http://gimp-tutorials.net/node/106…this link…Indeed a good stuff…thanx bro…
Egypt Web Design October 18th
nice tutorial, thanks…
( )Justin Wong October 21st
I commend you for this tutorial, keep up the good work Collis. I can totally implement this technique in my designs. By the way, there’s a Fireworks version of this tutorial found here:
http://firetuts.com/index.php/2007/10/20/create-mac-like-wallpapers-with-fireworks/
You’re being credited for the technique. Thanks!
( )anon October 25th
i have never come across a well-explained tutorial ever.5 Stars for you!
( )mohd ishaq October 2nd
hai this is mohd ishaq,nice design
( )Vahid Farrokhzad October 25th
this tutorial is very useful for anyone who wanna to work professionally
( )Guido October 26th
Simple and self explanatory tutorial. There are so many ways to do this, but your way is much easier and quick.
Thanks.
( )Don October 28th
Pretty awesome. I love the tuts on this site.
( )reezluv November 24th
this is what I’m looking for..but I want something else like maybe like Adobe CS3 product box design?that shining and nice looking at the box?
but this tutorial is awesome man..thanks:)
( )sercan November 24th
10 numara
( )Atlantix November 26th
Great tutorial man
I love this abstract stuff…
( )Tnx
Sho November 28th
This is hilariously great! thx
( )Phil December 7th
Simple Great.
( )PhilFreelance-Web December 24th
very helpful tutorials…. it can also very useful for the website layouting… pretty useful
( )andy stewart January 15th
http://www.andystewart-design.com
( )emin January 15th
Can someone please me a video tutorial on this? i cant do the pen part in step 4
( )LITOS January 21st
SUPER!!!! ME GUSTO MUCHO!!!^_^
( )Steve January 27th
Very nice tut, i was looking for something like this for a long time. Finally i found and that makes me happy
Thank you
( )Lavesh February 20th
excellent tutorial…..but need more explanation for basic photoshop users
( )Joby February 26th
Thank u for sharing ur ideas.
( )yugandhar March 15th
this is very good
somebody very essy learning this type tutorial
thank to PSDTUTS
form
( )yugandhar , hyd, ICFAI University Press
lolo March 16th
jojo muchas gracias!
( )sanjay March 17th
this is too easy to learn thanks.
( )div March 18th
Great Tutorial ! Keep it up !
( )BenRulz March 24th
Great tutorial….. easy to understand and follow….. keep at it…Great work….
( )O_o
Cesar March 28th
Ehh, that was good. Always looking the mac wallpaper..and it’s easy to do this effect. Very nice!
( )Kakumei March 28th
This tutorial is great!
I just now tried it and I got a really good result. I changed up the colors a little bit also!
It is in 1280×1024 resolution and I am very proud of my work, because I am still not that great with Photoshop.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i99/hitomikanzaki88/30082360.jpg
( )Chris March 30th
Awesome, this was exactly what i was looking for thank you very much!
( )hasson March 31st
very Good work it is very interisted
( )serpentemx April 22nd
Well, the results look great on my screen thanks guys nice tut, keep it up I’m learning a bunch.
( )Ashish Lohorung Rai April 22nd
Really cool..I am trying to do it …it is not that much complex though i have to get my head on to do it..thanks for the stuff..btw
( )edg322 April 26th
Thanks. Hey how do I get the brush in step 2 to actually brush? I have it selected, with 300 pix. opacity 100%. I click and drag on the layer, and it doesnt show anything! Foreground color white. I’m stuck – on step 2 lol
( )Vita May 4th
WOW! That was really useful. Thanks a lot.
( )Cala May 7th
Great Job. Excellent steps on How To. Lots of variation on this. Thanks for sharing.
( )Daniel May 11th
Good technique
Daniel
( )mxsf May 12th
very usefull. great man!
( )Steve May 19th
Nice job. Thanks
( )C4 May 24th
Thanks a lot, it really helped me since I was looking for cool designs..
( )Raj June 1st
nice tutorial m8. Thanx!
( )Michael June 4th
Very great stuff!!!
( )Storm? June 8th
That is very nice tutorial! Thanks
( )ZaFaR June 10th
Really cool..I am trying to do it …it is not that much complex though i have to get my head on to do it..thanks for the stuff..btwThanks. Hey how do I get the brush in step 2 to actually brush? I have it selected, with 300 pix. opacity 100%. I click and drag on the layer, and it doesnt show anything! Foreground color white. I’m stuck – on step 2 lo
( )Different June 23rd
This is great, thanks!
( )Christine June 27th
Love it. Very useful for all those corporate, colourful-yet-bland backgrounds that always seem to be so necessary.
( )MD July 23rd
nicec result!
( )bim July 27th
Another great tutorial… thanks. Love the website. Keep up the good work
( )wudsew August 11th
it’s cool to be continued
( )Seraphim Collective August 24th
I finally put this one to use, thanks for explaining it so well.
( )Aaron Irizarry August 26th
Thanks put this to use today… it was a big help
( )Ilyon August 28th
Wow! This is Great and so easy to make! Thank you very much! You`re doing a good job!!! Thanks!
( )lALA September 23rd
Wow. Amazing Tutorial. Seriously.
( )kanna October 1st
very nice design
( )Abhinav Rastogi October 6th
nice one…
( )check out my tutorial for another type of popular mac effect at http://thephotoshopper.blogspot.com/2008/10/mac-tiger-wallpaper.html…
gils October 16th
I tried but my results werent quite similar to yours
( )wangzhongjie October 16th
nice & perfect & simplest tutoris, greeting from beijing
( )irshaid tayeb October 29th
great tutorial , thanks pal.
( )Raymond November 7th
Really wonderful tutorial Collis! Now I know how to create those kind of effects! Thank you for sharing!
( )George November 8th
Hey… Great final effect. I’m new with Photoshop and I’m having problems in step 4, could somebody help? Just after I click on Make Selection and I try to apply the gradient, a message says that I cannot do that! I’d appreciate some help
( )First steps Designer November 13th
wow really good tutorial! thanks!
( )Aletheia December 1st
Collis, is there any chance that you know of a way to create this customized “desktop”?
this is the link
( )http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=198423.8040
89dfa December 31st
I did not think this was explained that well actually. But good idea none the less.
( )MikeM January 14th
The real benefit of tuts like these are not so people can just replicate the tutorial but to modify it and use it for other things. For instance my chicago website design studio has used effects like these in many of there web designs and some print materials. Thanks for providing a great online resource.
( )MiM January 16th
Thank you very much! Simple and efective! Just great!
( )pokles January 29th
great tutorial please give us some more
( )michael February 2nd
You lost me here: “Join the path back up so it is one continuous blob, then right click and select Make Selection” Right click where?
( )himanshu February 5th
damn good…keep it up
How can i change its colours?
( )Laura February 16th
hi…
i was looking for ideas how to create an ice cream background…
as i was searching the web i saved your web page cause it seems very helpful….i saw you are using tools that i didnt know before!
thanks
Laura
( )p.s. KEEP SEARCHING…KEEP LEARNING!!!!
sivas March 19th
very good, thanks
( )haripal March 25th
i have seen this web sites it is nice web sites
( )Zach March 25th
Excellent tutorial, this will definitely come in handy, thanks!
( )jiangping April 1st
every good ！
( )but i don’t know english
gialong April 5th
wow
( )ate April 18th
thanks
( )very good
Chris May 3rd
thanks that was great!!..
( )hangrafa May 13th
Good
( )sunny May 18th
i have seen this web sites it is nice web pages and also very useful site for all…….
Very good thank you for all your team…
( )Nisar Ahamd June 3rd
Thanks to All,
( )First i would like to tell you that i am new comer in for Adobe Photo shop i really like these kind of designs.
I really appreaciat this
xxxx July 28th
First i would like to tell you that u r new comer in Adobe Photo shop so u become old comer then say the i really like these kind of designs and
( )I really appreaciat this u stupid
Jameel June 3rd
hay, this what was search for, thank you man your great.
( )Raphal June 28th
hauu
( )what’s pen tool in portuguese?
klaartje July 2nd
This is a very generous tutorial. Thanks a lot.
( )vamshichowdhary.I July 20th
Awesome tutorial! Thanks alot mate.
( )PipeDelic July 29th
thank you very mucho !!!!
( )chandu patil August 8th
Thank you very much! Simple and efective! Just great!
( )Sandeep raj August 8th
That was cool
( )i made it same way but at last i used hue and nice result
thanks………………………….!
Bony Yousuf August 8th
wow!!! awesome man…
( )thanks…
ben August 31st
very cool mac effect there although i use a pc
( )Momoc September 6th
i dont like Mac..sorry
( )CMYK September 14th
Nice tuto!! Thankss!
( )Hailey September 14th
This Comment only confused me on PSD even more!
( )You need to HELP with your own tutorials
Seth September 15th
dude this sux
( )Aaron Haynes September 18th
Thanks a bunch, I’m doing a bunch of these for fun now
( )Xtence October 25th
Thanks for the tutorial, i made a new wallpaper for myself now, great !
( )