Today we'll create a wallpaper in Vista style. A black background will be filled with stylish gradients decorated with blue and green abstract curved shapes. The techniques used in this tutorial are scalable. It's easy to turn the final design into different sizes to fit various monitors. Let's learn how to do it.
Editor's Note: This tutorial was originally published in the Czech language at Grafika Online. Grafika have kindly given permission for Vaclav to republish here on PSDTUTS for those of us who haven't quite mastered Czech...
Final Image Preview
Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Click the screenshot below to view the full-size image. As always, the layered Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership.
Step 1
Start a new screen sized document in Photoshop. In this case, I chose 1024px by 768px resolution so I can see the whole thing without scrolling. Fill the background with black color. Then pick the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and choose a part of the document. Then use the Gradient Tool to draw a gradient from white to transparent into new layer. Repeat this several times (always into new layer).
Step 2
To make the background less expressive, turn the Opacity down.
Step 3
Merge the layers together (Ctrl + E). Then blur them with the Gaussian Blur filter. A small preview of whole document follows.
Step 4
To make it more expressive in some places continue drawing radial gradients from white to transparent.
Step 5
Turn its opacity to a hardly remarkable level.
Step 6
Well, there is never enough white to transparent gradients, right?
Step 7
Just don't forget to turn the opacity down wisely.
Step 8
You can make the background more interesting by copying all the layers and flipping them (Ctrl + T), or move them a little.
Step 9
256 shades of grey aren't enough for this gentle manipulation.
Step 10
That is why we should merge the layers together, and blur them again a little. That is what solves the rough gradients, but another problem arises - the picture darkens on the sides, and the dark parts make strange "waves."
Step 11
This can be fixed with a larger document than the screen resolution, or add a frame that is wide enough. And remember that for next time. That is how we solved random gradients on a background.
Step 12
Now we can start doing the foreground with blue and green curves. Start with drawing a huge ellipse with the Ellipse Tool. Pick the Path Selection Tool (A). Then select the ellipse, copy it (Ctrl+C), then insert it (Ctrl+V), and then transform it (Ctrl + T) to make it smaller. Set the drawing style for this path to subtract, so we see only what is between these two ellipses.
Step 13
Fill the layer with a blue color (#62AAF4). Then copy, move, enlarge, make it smaller, and turn the Opacity down or up. Do this a few times.
Step 14
Then repeat these actions with the green (#20EDC4) shapes.
Step 15
Next I decided to darken the gradients in the background a little, as they get too much attention. This should be better.
Step 16
Continue with creating larger curved shapes. Then blur those shapes, which will give that extra glow effect. Notice the big blue curves being created in the image below.
Step 17
Next we'll make big curve shapes for the greens as well. Those big shapes are the previous ellipses copied. Then with Path Selection Tool, we select one smaller ellipse that gets smaller again. See the image below.
Step 18
The colors of those shapes are still the same, just the Opacity is turned down. Sometimes, the opacity is turned down to a hardly noticeable level of (5-10%), as shown below.
Step 19
Place all the blue and green layers into a new folder. Then copy that folder, move it sideways, and turn it a little.
Step 20
Let's get started with the lighting part. The first step is to change the layer's interaction to Linear Dodge .
Step 21
The second step is to add the layer effect of Drop Shadow. Set it to a large size with the color the same as the shape in the layer (blue, green). Also, set the interaction to Linear Dodge again.
Step 22
I don't have enough green layers in the document, so I copy some more.
Step 23
Copy the layer styles to every blue layer (just change the effect color to blue). Part of the design is shown in the following image, which is the result we want so far.
Step 24
To achieve the bright glowing light look, we need to repeat the same things over and over again. You can use the previous big layers, merge them together, and set their interaction to Linear Dodge. Then you can add a mask layer. Then go to Filter > Render > Clouds in this mask. That makes the layer visible in only some places.
Step 25
If you make all layers visible, the result becomes more expressive.
Step 26
We can do the effect manually as well. For example, create a new Adjustment layer with the Brightness & Contrast turned up. Fill the layer mask with a black color, which makes the effect visible nowhere. Then start drawing in the mask with a white soft brush. The brush revels the effect. It increases the brightness only where you want it to. This technique may be used for the final brightening of both the blue and green curved shapes.
Step 27
Here is the preview at 100% size. Using the adjustment layer generates good looking overburns.
Final result
Your image is complete. Again, do not hesitate to experiment. You are only limited by your computer performance. Click the following picture to see the result at 100% in 1024px by 768px resolution.
Conclusion
It is not difficult to change the final resolution because every single layer was larger than the document window. Either you can enlarge the document size (shapes are in vectors, so there are no quality defects), or you can enlarge the canvas size (the layers stay the same, but you make visible the parts that were hidden before).
Canvas size manipulation was used when preparing the following picture at 1280px by 1024px resolution. This one deserves some adjustment, but it's up to you now. Good luck with your work!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )callegg June 13th
Awesome
( )jaunzim June 13th
Nice effect!
( )thank you!!!
jaunzim June 13th
1st x)
( )and 2nd
LOL
Decem June 13th
3rd place! Nice man…wanted to dl it but no file there yet
)
( )macias June 13th
very nice glowing !
( )Toro June 13th
Isn’t that something that we’ve seen in 200 places?
( ):S I don’t think it meets the hight quality Standard of psd tuts… sorry.
Rjton June 13th
5th place
( )cameron June 13th
amazing!
( )first to comment =]
josef June 13th
nice, simple and clean
( )chris rock June 13th
Can we go back to the quality and USEFUL tutorials please! Thank you.
( )Lamin Barrow June 13th
I have been waiting for something like this for a long time. Thanks.
( )icetrix June 13th
Best Vista wallpaper tut. Good explenation and has a real vista outcome.
I hate vista… but the interface is great!
( )Ben Griffiths June 13th
nice tut, thanks
( )D. Carreira June 13th
Nice!
That’s not too dificult, but a great effect anyway!
Thanks,
David Carreira
( )Laura June 13th
Cool effect! Very nice and simple!
( )joe June 13th
no one is goin to even click on this because of the great tutorial of nik ainely below this post! hahah
nik has officially kicked evey tut’s artist writer in not only this site, in every site!!!
( )Chris June 13th
I Love PSDTUTs!
( )jerry June 13th
dear joe, I dont think so. You should see tuts from Vaclav he is working on right now. He will kick ass in quantity !
( )David Leggett June 13th
Wonderful effect! The Blue and Green on Black makes for an excellent color combination
Good work on the translation Václav!
( )Constantin Potorac June 13th
I love it. It looks much better than the Vista wallpapers.
)
Good Work.
( )Alex Beltechi June 13th
Love it, thanks
( )Snorri3D June 13th
Cool effect
( )MONSTER June 13th
Cool Vista wallpaper for my Mac!
( )Andrew Pryde June 13th
Looking lovely!
Andrew
( )Alvaro Guzmán June 13th
@joe you did it! lol
( )tommy June 13th
wow, this is amazing, my new desktop background!
( )Corey June 13th
My first post at PSDTUTS. I just had to comment. I missed the memo that said you can render filter effects onto a layer mask. How long has that been going on?? I had no idea! What else have I missed?
( )Eric.P June 13th
Nice pink arrow!! paint=ftw!!
killer tut.
( )chris rock June 13th
Why aren’t my comments beeing aproved i’m not swearing or doing anything bad.
… Censorship i don’t like it. 
I’m like the first time on this site. And bam … i get censored. Or do new people on this site need to be approved at least 1 time?
( )Chris June 13th
Does it really friggin’ matter what order you commented in? Grow up.
As for the tutorial: Doesn’t look exactly like Vista, but in my opinion, it looks better and its that difference that makes it stand out.
( )Danny June 13th
Very clever effects! I like it
( )Jay June 13th
Nice!
( )w1sh June 13th
First!
( )w1sh June 13th
Ah damnit…
( )div June 13th
Wow,
( )This is an awesome tutorial. I´ll give it a shot for sure !
Thanks!
Zeb June 13th
Humm very nice !! Thank you too
( )styxz designs June 13th
Love this tutorial a lot! thanks
( )Terry June 13th
i like the idea of taking advantage of resing the canvas or going past the canvas’ proportions.
( )IRAQ June 13th
Coooooooooooooooool ! Thank U
( )Salva June 13th
I have been waiting for something like this for a long time.
( )Rodrigo June 13th
Sweet, I did not how many things we can do using gradients. Thanks for the good job.
( )AngryToast June 13th
I find this tutorial frustrating. Perhaps I am not following the directions correctly, but it seems like there are parts where some steps are missing and it makes you wonder… “wait, how did we go from there to there?”.
Great tutorial, once you figure it out.
( )Joefrey Mahusay June 13th
Nice tuts. Thanks
( )andre June 13th
cool tut. is there any way to eliminate the color banding though? without doing something like switching to 16bit
( )Xphunt3r June 13th
Cool let see i can do it or not
( )goldenthunder June 13th
Very cool! Thanks!
( )Marian M June 13th
will try this out today!! THANK YOU!
( )crazyhunk June 13th
I do agree that there are many more vista wallpaper tuts…
but must agree this is the best…..Awesome effect…
Thanx..
( )ZaFaR June 13th
Wonderful effect! The Blue and Green on Black makes for an excellent color combination! Very thanks for sharing.
( )Shane June 13th
very nice tutorial with a great end result – thanks for posting.
( )Runo Web Design June 13th
süper
( )Qbrushes June 13th
not exactly the same but the best attempt at trying to create the effect so far.
( )aGS June 13th
Weeeehhh… Very, very nice… I like the hippopotamus “in love”
Liebe Grüße.
( )Greg June 13th
I really enjoyed doing this. I’m still playing around with the wallpaper I made with these techniques.
( )Jeff June 13th
Cool Tutorial.
For the people who feel the need to be the first to comment, Please piss off.
( )Miguel Pereira June 13th
yeah!
MIGUELPEREIRA
( )dlv June 13th
great one
( )thanks !!
Andrew June 13th
Nice effect, thanks.
( )Ruth Lopez June 13th
cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
( )b00m June 13th
The best vista style wallpaper what I’ve ever seen. And signature is nice too
( )Alfredo June 13th
FIRST!
( )Miguel Sanchez June 13th
no dude, i am first
( )Ben June 13th
Men there is a point in a tutorial where (me) a new comer , gets lost , please get more precise with step 12 ! the substrac thing wont work for me (cs 3)
( )sorry for my poor english.
Daniel June 14th
very nice work ! great vista look ! thanks for sharing.
( )Fredro June 14th
Love the colors, one of the best abstract tuts I’ve seen!
( )Ruben June 14th
Killer tutorial!
( )glsmaster June 14th
@ Ben:
Now that you’ve created the two elliptical paths, you will need to select them with the ‘Path Selection Tool’ (cursor pointer black) and some tools options will be activated in the top, select ‘Exclude Overlapping Shape Areas’ (last button of the right), and then you have now the exclusion from both paths, the result isn’t visible until you fill the path, you can do this by going to the ‘paths’ tab and selecting the first icon from the bottom -> ‘fill path with foreground color’.
Have fun
( )FrankCrank June 16th
Kool!!
very simple yet pleasing effect.
( )BogDinamita June 16th
@everyone: your comments crack me up =)) lol
( )Pablo June 16th
Last Comment!!
( )Todd June 17th
“Now that you’ve created the two elliptical paths, you will need to select them with the ‘Path Selection Tool’ (cursor pointer black) and some tools options will be activated in the top, select ‘Exclude Overlapping Shape Areas’ (last button of the right), and then you have now the exclusion from both paths, the result isn’t visible until you fill the path, you can do this by going to the ‘paths’ tab and selecting the first icon from the bottom -> ‘fill path with foreground color’.”
Thanks, this part is very important and a huge road block if you didn’t know it…..
( )Ben June 17th
thanks !! – glsmaster .
( )Magla June 17th
Dont understand how you did the part with the Elipical tool where you subtract paths i tried searching and cant work it out
nice outcome
( )john smith June 17th
i really do feel like there are steps missing
( ).:|K-0de|:. June 17th
Very cool looking tutorial. If only i was smart enough to follow it =P
( )Ariful Alam Khan June 17th
Nice
( )Leo June 18th
Got lost at step 10 :s
( )Mark June 18th
A lot of information was missing. The tutorial tells you what to do, but not how to do it. Not for Photoshop newbs.
( )Brian June 19th
there are a lot of confusing and misleading parts in this tutorial. I think a little editing is needed. I hit a road block right at the begininnig where you say “Choose the lasso tool” but you don’t say what to do with it besides “choose a part of the document”. That line would be appropriate if you’d have been using the magic wand tool.
( )Brian June 19th
Can the issue be addressed as to why comments need to be moderated?
( )Brian June 19th
Ok – this is probably one of the most confusing things I’ve ever read. So many steps need to be explained and clarified. How the heck did this make it up here. This should be on a template site or something
( )godonholiday June 19th
Read glsmaster’s post… he explains how you get over the path problem. To select the two paths you need to hold down shift.
cheers glsmaster.
( )godonholiday June 19th
however there are still some issues with the steps provided..
( )irishangeleyes June 20th
Nice tutorial.
( )Thanks to glsmaster for his explanations!
I needed it!
jameslh June 20th
52nd!!
( )bandpang June 25th
i can’t follow it
i think you miss a lot of steps
( )Jacob June 25th
Vista wishes it could look this good
Nice basic effects good to layer. I like it!
( )pHeR-d June 27th
cool technic thanks
( )kean June 27th
Great outcome, BUT I think the tutorial was poorly put together.
( )Why ask all the questions about the gradients for the first 13 steps? Just explain how to do it.
You lost me after steps 12 and 13 with color filling in layers. I thought these were paths?
I got it on my own, but I just thought this tutorial was more complicated to follow than the others
I’ve read for similar wall paper styles.
Leo Lavalle May 15th
got lost there too, please help me if you can??? I think it’s funny the tutorial explain how to do copy and paste with ctrl c and ctrl v but then it doesn’t explain clearly other steps like the ones with got lost in…
( )Ben June 28th
Very Cool Tutorial thanks
( )zsdg07 July 16th
awesome tutorial!
ty
( )stOrM! July 16th
Nice Tut, I’ll just have a question because of this tut I saw it comes originally from here http://www.grafika.cz/art/photoshop/pspvelikonocepoz1.html as you mentioned it…
I saw a nice other tut on grafika and would love to be translated to:
First Part of the tut:
http://www.grafika.cz/art/photoshop/pspparallels1.html
Second Part:
http://www.grafika.cz/art/photoshop/pspparallels2.html
kindest regards
( )s!
borromini July 17th
I love this tutorial! I think this is the best light effect posted.
( )Jayjay402 July 17th
Great tut! Thank-you very much! =D
( )Nick Adams July 22nd
This graphic is perfect for backgrounds I need for my security surveillance distribution. I am in desperate need of a face lift for this and this looks just like the one!
( )Mansoor July 24th
Excellent Tut.
( )Tom August 7th
sweet tutorial, going to give it a go in after effects, see if i can get some interesting results, will post links if i do.
( )Noorahimi August 22nd
Great work man and i am glad to learn this tutorial……
( )Brenno September 17th
Confusing! You should explain where are the tools you’re using. Not just experts read these tutorials!
( )Paul September 20th
WORST TUTORIAL EVER, you don’t even explain half of the things you do. I like the outcome tho..
( )Ben September 26th
The outcome is great, and the first few steps are decent. However, there’s lots missing from what would have otherwise been a very helpful post. For instance, step 6: “Well, there is never enough white to transparent gradients, right?” From the context, I imagine we’re supposed to understand you mean that we should add more gradients, but it’s just not clear.
I understand the value of “concept” tutorials that try and teach a general technique, but these are almost always best illustrated by a very detailed, hand-holding practical example.
( )lolled September 30th
good tut, but confusing. There are easier ways to get the same effect. Not bad overall.
( )Abhinav Rastogi October 6th
seems to be a bit difficult.. i think you didnt explain some steps in a detail that they deserved… but nice outcome… i was thinking that maybe we could use the pen-tool to make the curves and then stroke-path to make the lines.. instead of these huge ellipses.. but hey, thats just me!!
check out my tutorials about vista and mac wallpapers
( )Fred October 31st
Yop all i concidere myself as a photoshop noob and i can’t do the STEP 12, precisely : Set the drawing style for this path to subtract.
How can i do that? : /
( )madPotato November 3rd
@Fred: Step12: You’ll have to select the “Path Selection Tool” (that’s the black arrow, not the white one!), select the second shape (the one you copied, pasted and made a bit smaller) and change the tool’s setting to “Subtract From Shape Area (-)” (look for the four icons below Photoshop’s main-menu, next to the “Combine”-button)…
( )cem November 4th
Fantastic !
( )Fred November 4th
thanks !!1
( )Abdullah Alhourani November 5th
Great. and thanks
( )Jillian November 13th
Okay, so the furthest I got was step 12. I can make the stroke path but I don’t understand how you actually ‘fill’ the shape. I got the whole ‘change it to subtract’ thing, but what do I do after that so instead of just the lines, I get the shape? (if that makes ANY sense)
( )Anna Frajtova November 15th
Good result, but really confusing, the explanations should be more detailed.
( )Se November 17th
what font did you use?
( )WoW-Sky November 17th
so coooool
( )R3Design November 25th
Seriously cool tutorial….but the worst explanation I’ve ever seen in a tutorial. If you don’t want anyone to do this tutorial, you might as well just put a picture on the site without any explanation…
( )sorry for this negativism!! But I’d say, do it right or don’t…
First steps Designer December 5th
come on! “add a gaussian blur filter” BUT WHAT ELSE???!!! HOW MUCH BLUR???!!!! TRY TO CPLAIN THIS TUTORIAL IN A BETTER WAY DUDE!! PSD TUTS IS A VERY RELIABLE SURCE OF TUTORIALS… DONT SCREW UP THAT FACT!!
( )Behzad Saeedi December 12th
Great tutorial! gives me so many inspirations!
( )like what i’ve done for my own website…
Retter December 15th
Great tutorial!!!
Though a little more explanation would help?!?!?
( )Ido January 6th
Can anyone offer some help on step 21?? I cannot get the lines to “glow” for the life of me…
I’ve applied the interaction as “linear dodge” as directed. Albeit it’s showing up as “linear dodge (add)” on a mac running CS4 I wonder if it makes a difference??
either way it looks just the same before and after I apply this effect..
any help is greatly appreciated!
( )Nathan January 13th
Okay, so the furthest I got was step 12. I can make the stroke path but I don’t understand how you actually ‘fill’ the shape. I got the whole ‘change it to subtract’ thing, but what do I do after that so instead of just the lines, I get the shape? (if that makes ANY sense)
Same here
( )Brad May 2nd
Same here. I can do every step but step 12. It wont let me fill the area between the copied ellipse selections. Anyone have any pointers?
( )Photoshop Designs January 15th
Nice Work !!
( )Linda January 17th
I just can’t move on from step 12! Is it because I’m on a mac? can’t see those options for the path… would love to complete this tut!
( )Timo February 1st
Where can i download this brush, starting at step 16?
Nice work dude
( )Tanya March 5th
i am also stuck on step 12… i got the whole subtract thing… but how do i fill it?? i am soooo frustrated now
( )sprog March 7th
Another tut full of holes that confuse non-professionals….. okay, I really want this to work, so in step 12, how do you set the drawing style for the path to subtract? How about going through all of the commands in a step-by-step manner? Frustrating.
( )Ortix March 17th
People.. for step 12 what you could do is either stroke every path by right clicking on the canvas and pressing stroke path. Before that make sure your brush is all set up. Depending on your canvas size adjust your brush size. I recommend somewhere around 2-3 px. Use a hard brush btw.
But i think i figured out what you have to do. Before all that fill thing you have to select the one of the elipses (CTRL click or the black pointer) and on the top left you have to hover over the squares and make sure your clicking for the first elipse the “add to shape area”, then select the second elipse and select the exclude overlapping blabla.
I then right click anyway but instead of stroking i do the selection thing. That way it selects the path i just made but only the area in between the paths. Now press CTRL 5 and fill it. Make sure your selection is very thin.
Also for the pop up box that follows after, make sure you select either 0 px feather or .1 px. Also enable Anti Alliasing or whatever that is called.
Hope this helps.
( )volc March 26th
really nice ~
( )me April 10th
somae parts are not shown
( )jennyleou April 29th
good job !
( )webmasterpro May 7th
I have a question?
( )how make the selection of the line in Photoshop CS4
in steps 13, 14, 15
helpme
Mann Dholakia May 30th
I think u r amazing .. nice creative mind ..hats off
( )rendra June 23rd
very nice
( )Kahl_Igel July 24th
amazing and very usefull!
( )thanks
Alexis Brille August 28th
Didn’t like it at all, you wrote the instructions very unclearly for those new to Photoshop.
You gave the instructions as if they already know how to get there.
As a writer myself, you should always write with noobs in mind.
( )Hawckins September 8th
Great Work
( )CMYK September 10th
Nice work, thanks
( )aravind September 11th
Relay Nice effect……
( )panco September 17th
Stuck in Step13 “fill the layer”…help, plz?
( )GoF**kYourself October 2nd
Can you say completely USELESS… For beginners that was a waste of time even trying. Dunno who’s dumb idea it was but it barely explained anything useful at all. Even up to step 3 was damn near impossible to do.
( )Louis November 10th
Step 1 is a road block.
( )gray November 16th
so hard…~I’m failed
( )Jamie Hudson November 17th
THIS is a horrible tutorial for people who NEED tutorials as they dosnt know these things, your tutorial is full of gaps. Why even bother writing this…
( )swapnali November 20th
Amazing……. Cooooooool tutorial……..i liked it..
( )