One of the coolest digital artists around is Chuck Anderson, a.k.a. NoPattern. After seeing a recent PSDTUTS reader request, I decided to show you how to create a light effect similar to NoPattern's Jumper Poster. At the end, I'll show you how a technique like this can be used in a variety of different ways to make stunning images...
Step 1
Create a new document sized to 600px x 800px. Unlock the background layer and fill it with a dark blue color (#091417).
Step 2
Create a new layer, fill it with black, and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Then go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Use 16 for Variance and 4 for Strength.
After that, duplicate that layer and move it to the left, so you will have two layers, one next to the other. Select both layers, make sure that the layers are aligned from the top, and go to Layer > Merge Layers.
Step 3
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, use 10 pixels for the Radius. After that go to Filter > Artistic > Plastic. For the Highlight Strength use 5, and for the Detail and Smoothness use 15.
Step 4
Now rotate the layer, say 45º, and go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Use the image below for reference.
Step 5
Now let's add more blur. Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Use 72 for the Amount. The Blur Method will be Zoom and the Best Quality.
Step 6
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast. Place the adjustment layer above the light's layer. You can use 80% for Brightness and 100% for Contrast.
Step 7
Select the Color Dodge Tool (O). Pick a large brush, 175px Master Diameter, and Hardness 0%. Choose Highlights for the Range, and use 10% for exposure.
Now, just start painting over some areas to highlight them, mainly the brighter area, because the idea here is to intensify the rays of light.
You can select the Burn Tool (O) to burn some areas too. That means if you want to make some areas darker use this tool, it's exactly the opposite of the Color Dodge Tool.
Step 8
Now select the Polygonal Lasso Tool(L) and create a selection like the image below. Then select the Burn Tool and as the brush is really big, it's not necessary to paint directly over the selection, so paint far from the edges just to create a little shadow in the area. Tip: Click once and holding shift, click again where you want the end to be. Then it will create a line for you.
Step 9
Repeat Step 7 and 8 a couple of times until you think it's OK, but change the Color Dodge Tool Exposure when you don't want too much light. Use 5%, for example.
Step 10
Now let's create a folder, place it above all other layers, and call it "lights". Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Then create a new layer inside the lights folder.
With the Brush Tool (B), select white and a brush with 30px and 0% Hardness. Create a line like the image below. After that, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Use -29 for the angle and Distance of 107%.
Duplicate the layer, resize it, and place it above the other ray. One of the lights is a bit strong, so select the Burn Tool (O) and with a few clicks you can make it a little weaker.
Step 11
Now select the Color Dodge Tool (O) again. This time use a small brush—10px and let's use 30% for exposure. We will create that shining effect on the edge of some rays of light.
To do that, just create lines on the edges of the rays, repeat the click, and holding the Shift key, process to create straight lines using brushes.
Step 12
Here you can create more rays of light, just repeating Steps 8, 10, and 11. You don't need to create new folders, though. Just create new layers inside the “Lights†folder.
Step 13
Create a new layer above all of them. Fill it with black, and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Use for the Amount 10%, for the Distribution use Gaussian, and select Monochromatic.
Step 14
Create a new layer inside the "lights" layer. Select the Brush Tool (B), and go to View > Brushes to change some of the brush settings. After that, just paint some sparks over the image.
Step 15
Here we will place a photo in our design. Get a photo and delete all the background. We need just a person. The photo I used can be found at www.sxc.hu.
Step 16
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. For my image, I used 12 for Hue, -68 for Saturation, and -5 for Lightness. But these values depend on the image you will use.
Step 17
Now go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Increase the Contrast to 38 and add a bit of Brightness.
Step 18
Here we will add a bit of blue and green to the image. Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves and follow the image below.
Step 19
Create a marquee selection of the person by holding the Ctrl and clicking on the layer’s thumbnail. Then create a new layer inside the "lights" folder.
Now select the Brush Tool (B), use a big brush, 125px diameter, and Hardness 0%. Use 50% for the Opacity. After that, start painting some parts of the person to highlight them.
Step 20
Place the person’s layer beneath the "lights" layer and change the layer’s Opacity to 80%. After that, you can add the text and make some final adjustments like painting or hiding some parts of the image.
Conclusion
There are many different ways to create this effect. This time I wanted to use the Color Dodge and Burn Tools because they give you a lot of freedom to draw and create the lighting effects. You can even add some gradient overlays for a different effect. What’s important here, I think, is the technique and all the effects we can create with it.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Craig Schlewitz March 23rd
Cool effect!
( )I’ll try it out sometime.
:]
Andrei Constantin March 23rd
Fabio, you pulled it out again! Congrats for the tut and ideas (too bad the movie was quite average)
Keep them coming
( )Aloke Pillai March 23rd
Amazing stuff, Fabio!
Keep Rocking!
Aloke Pillai
( )nutral March 23rd
I like the effect. Altough there are some steps involved.
( )I would like to see some design work.
Greg March 23rd
DAMNNN
( )Collis March 23rd
Beautiful tutorial, and totally agree with Andrei, that movie was awful
The main guy was so unlikeable, he never helped anyone except himself, oh well!
( )Matthew March 23rd
Wow I love your tutorials and this one is just great, I like how its granny
( )Lamin Barrow March 23rd
I have been thinking about creating an effect like this but i didn’t know how to start. Thanks for the Tutorial.
( )dor March 23rd
What are you talking about? Jumper was a really great movie – loved it, although they should have concentrated more on the idea of jumpers vs. the other guys (forgot their name).
Anyways – nice result
( )John March 23rd
Great tutorial. I’ll definitely be using some of these techniques.
( )As'lan March 23rd
This Tutorial got some awesome ideas… Great!
( )Arnaud March 23rd
Good techniques !
( )Joshua Michie March 23rd
this
is
awsome!
( )Tom March 23rd
Fabio F***** rocks
( )Easter Bunny March 23rd
Ban Tom!!
haha, just kidding…
Cool effect
( )Erika March 23rd
Enjoyed the effect… hated the movie! LOL
Thanks again, Fabio! Are you going to be doing most of your tutorial writing over here as opposed to your site?
( )giackop March 23rd
fabio is great.. no surprise.. coool tut
( )Brad Hall March 23rd
Excellent my friend, just excellent. I think it could get even better with the photo though, seems a little grainy for my tastes.
( )gimper March 23rd
very nice , ill certinly try this on both photoshop and gimp
( )San March 23rd
“Unlock the background layer”!!! – meaning?
( )Andrew D March 23rd
I really like this tutorial, and I like how you utilized the effect in the conclusion. Very nice work.
( )Jonathan Solichin March 23rd
That’s a pretty awesome tut. The alternative results look like a good book cover.
( )lupe March 23rd
Ahh – see lupefiasco.com
( )Shane March 23rd
Wow – what an amazing effect. Thanks for sharing with the PSDTuts community
( )Marco March 23rd
Personally, the one with the person on it isn’t that great. The last to variations are awesome!
( )Constantin Potorac March 23rd
Hmmm… I liked the movie.
Yes it is true it was not that great but it was nice. At least the effects used were new.
Great work Fabio.
( )Xavier March 23rd
Awesome work… As usual!
( )Inphoar March 23rd
Both the movie and this tutorial are great. Too bad the image was grainy, but it still looks awesome without it. Great work.
( )Markus March 23rd
You are awesome!!
Your light effects looks so “Lighty” 
Awesome, awesome, awesome!! AWESOME!!!!!!!
( )BroOf March 23rd
i love this site so much! And this nive effect i love, too! THX!
( )Cain March 23rd
Nice effect. The lighting is truly amazing, especially seeing as you brushed it. One thing I think would look better is a zoomed out final picture.
( )Luke March 23rd
Awesome stuff Fabio!
( )kailoon March 24th
not the best but still good
( )SimoBenso March 24th
Awsome tutorial
( )Mark Abucayon March 24th
wow that was cool great job you know thanks.
( )goldenthunder March 24th
wow – sweet tutorial Fabio! I especially love the finished images with gradients at the end!
( )Ben Griffiths March 24th
Fantastic effect, thanks
( )Jozelo March 24th
damn good!
( )Shakle March 24th
A great tutorial – my only issue with it is, the guy should have blended in a bit better. He kinda stands out because of the way he was photographed (lighting/exposure etc) and therefore doesn’t seem to fit into the picture, so probably another picture would have been a better choice.
sxc.hu is great for royalty free stocks – but there are quite a lot of stock accounts on DeviantArt, so I am sure a little bit of looking around could get a better image that fits in with this lighting technique.
( )ZaFaR March 24th
I love that you would share – not so many people are willing to do that. Beautiful work. I’d like to think that it’s just magic!
( )Beautiful work…!
Naveed March 24th
nice work man…great STUFF
( )jerry March 24th
I really do love the used techniques.
I am little ashamed I didn’t find out on my own. Damn what a loser I am.
Damn you psdtuts dot com slash admin ! Now you released my dark passenger who rested within me.. until now.
what the hell.. by the way, really cool effect.
( )Dyâ„¢ March 24th
nice one!
( )i like this n_n
god056 March 24th
this is nice
( )though i’ll still have to figure out how to do the fibers (since i only have lower versions of ps)
Johan March 24th
Very cool. Thanks for that!
( )rybaxs March 24th
whos that guy in the picture? hehehe.. nice 0ne.. JUMPER!
( )terry March 24th
IS ANYONE TRULY SUPRISED THAT THE GUY WHO TURNED DARTH VADER INTO A WHINY LITTLE GIRL WAS ALSO A LAME ANTI-HERO?
thanks heavens for yoda and obi wan…
nice effect. it’s nice to see some design apps for this effect too.
sa-weet.
( )PainiaX March 25th
Did anyone who made a comment tried the tutorial? cause i don’t get the meaning of step 2… i duplicate the layer and put them next to the other? why??? same like i just have one layer and let it stay. and when i merge the two layers the blend mode is normal again… so this two steps don’t make sense for me…
( )Dragolux March 25th
Nice effect! Thanks!
( )Daniel March 25th
Woah. Fabio! You’ve made something looked easy again! Great job man.
( )moh March 25th
Very thorough Tut thank you!
( )Johan March 25th
The girl in Jumper was an hottie. At least worth watching.
( )liam March 25th
Suggestion: I think the quality of the image you used lets it down. It seems very grainy and the color on the original is very saturated.
I’d love to see it again but with a better quality image (maybe one of the following)
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/950732
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/912842
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/894779
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/911965
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/911957
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/756512
Thats my thoughts
Nice look overall.
( )bweb March 26th
Thanks
( )web design cheltenham March 26th
nice tutorial agree with the comments on adding a high res pic to show the final result
( )Alberto March 26th
@ San:
Quote:
“Unlock the background layerâ€!!! – meaning?
Right click the background layer and select “Layer from background”
( )or
Duplicate the background layer and delete the locked one.
internet & web design blog March 27th
I’m with Alberto once i group the first layers together the colour disappears help !!!
( )f0ox March 27th
http://alltutorials.ru/ – уроки фотошоп, уроки photoshop cs3, уроки по фотошопу
( )lisa March 28th
step 13 makes the whole page black (with noise)…there’s no mention on how to blend it in to the other layers…i’m confused!
( )mojitopl September 5th
noise is used here to “smooth” gradients. In my opinion: better fill the layer with white, than add noise and nlend to Multiply – play with opacity to get the best effect (I ended up with 22%)
( )Kakumei March 28th
I love your tutorials, Fabio. But, I have a little problem…
This might sound kind of dumb but, I have been having some trouble on a part in Step 2 on this tutorial. I have duplicated the layer but I have no clue what the “and move it to the left” means.
I went ahead and skipped it and just re-merged the layers and went on. Then in Step 3 I couldn’t do the “Filter > Artistic > Plastic” part. The option for it was shaded out and I couldn’t use that effect. I have tried going on to Step 3 without duplicating the layer also, and that doesn’t work either.
( )s March 28th
I think you left out instructions for the effect to the white layer in the beginning so the blue color will show through…yes?
( )Kakumei March 28th
Sorry for the double post but, I found out why I could not make the effects. I forgot that I had it at 16bit, and most of the Filters only work at 8bit.
( )Constantin Potorac March 29th
Fabio… you never seize to amaze us :p
( )Daniel March 29th
very nice lightning effects, always a pleasure to see and experiment on these nice tutorials.
( )Andres March 30th
dont the tutorial is too good, what is unlock the background layer???, in step 2 , when you duplicate the layers and then merge, the blends of the layers are change, do we need to put them again in Color Dodge Mode… i think this tut is not clear enough your resut is great. Not the explanation how to do it.
( )Delano March 30th
I was trying to follow along in your tutorial, but there are pieces missing.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast. Place the adjustment layer above the light’s layer. You can use 80% for Brightness and 100% for Contrast.
What light’s layer ?
And it is not clear how you created your background color. Your overlay has no eye and the gradient you don’t mention.
Please help, I am lost with this tutorial.
Thank You.
( )Bendikt Myklebust March 30th
not bad. But still to blurry, to noisy.. The jumper dude is TO noisy on quality..and the effect, sorry to say this but it lacks quality. It kinda looks like something i could pull-off in about 10min or so..
I dont meen to be disrespectfull or anything…=)
But still great Tut for those new to photoshop..
( )Mati March 31st
excellent tutorial !
( )Sachin April 2nd
It’s a Flamboyant Effect. but will it be use full for News paper printing? Can you give me tips on image handling for newspaper ads?
( )Ewan April 10th
I’m slowly getting better and better at photoshop thanks to this site. Everybody who writes tutorials on this site is a GOD
( )N.M April 12th
Excellent,thanks for ur teaching in ur site,espesially wiyh photos. can u teach making (design) beautiful photos of marriege celebrations? Thanks
( )tim April 16th
kool tutorial but umm step 3 to 4 how did you manage to get from blur/plastic wrap to original fibers again? doesnt make sense lol
( )did you create a duplicate layer after you merged the original two fiber layers down so that one would be blurred or not?
anyways thanks
Fynn April 17th
Hmm, I just can’t seem to get through the first few steps. As mentioned above, Unlock the backgroundlayer(?) and what’s with the gradient? And why do I have to merge those 2 layers in step 2?
Anyway, I just can’t come further than step 4. I hope you can still explain some stuff
Would be great.
( )A D April 18th
Can someone please explain what happened between steps three and four? All of a sudden we are looking at a completely different layer image than the plastic filter we just used!! You really can’t finish the tutorial properly from that point on.
( )Qbrushes April 24th
yea i found this tutorial abit hard to follow.. great outcome though
( )Samir April 24th
Awesome ………….
( )riri May 7th
OMG I love almost all your tutorial, it’s very usefull, nice effect + cool imagination ^^q
( )Nightfirecat May 8th
VERY nice! I liked the gradient overlay one… Especially since that really reflects NoPattern’s image style, more than with the guy in there.
I certainly learned quite a bit from this, thanks.
( )Blaxus May 11th
omg i get stuck halfway.. I really loved the movie and i really want to practice this effect!!!!
PLease fabio help me.
Maybe can you do a video tutorial on this?
( )Danny May 13th
Really like this effect. Fabio makes great tutorials, always
( )Martin May 14th
Although i liked the end result i think this piece suffered from too many “DIY” steps.
First off all, as mentioned above, you have effects on the white background in step 2 that you have not clarified. Besides that, there clearly are some effect attacthed to the plastic wrap layer when you rotate and wrap it, that i didn’t have when i followed the tutorial (the blue color as an example). Although this might be a screendump you took later on, it’s still confusing and annoying.
Thirdly the warp part of the tutorial is horibly explained. If i press CTRL + T and rotate my layer 45 degrees and then right click and choose warp then i’ll get one type of warp selection. If i rotate, press enter, and then press ctrl + t again, right click and select warp, then i’ll get a second kind of warp selection. It’s impossible for me, as the reader, to know which one you used, and it seems to me that you threw in some perspective as well. I’m no master with the warp tool, but then again no total newbie and i could’nt produce anything close to what you did, with the warp tool alone. So if you did that only with the warp tool, hats off to you man.
anyway, ill give it another go sometime soon. Your stuff is usually a good learning experience.
( )Martin May 14th
wrap = warp :/
( )santhosh June 2nd
excellent tut!
( )Jay June 4th
Great idea, it didn’t really work though. Yes I followed all the directions, but it just got screwed up. What version of photoshop are you using? I’m using CS2, that might be the problem.
( )Mellink June 23rd
Liked the film…
( )Luv the tut!
pwnage!
Mujahid July 21st
I liked it very much. Great piece of work.
( )Mansoor July 24th
Thanks for Posting.
( )Great Tut.
Thomas August 21st
rectangular marquee tool is way more easy
( )but nice technique though^^
bub October 7th
i’m trying to create this image myself, but i dont get number/stage 4, can you give me/put more detail on number/stage 4. thankz
( )T.L.Kumar October 19th
i honestly feel tat if anyone follows tis tut exactly as in the steps mentioned above then we will end up in totally diferrent design wen compared to wat u have shown in the final pic there. lots of steps or points may be missin. ur designing part is great but tut part is bad. sorry..
( )Marc November 18th
I agree with TL Kumar. The design is excellent but somewhere in steps 3 & 4, you will see that you will not get the right result as show in the reference images.
( )anna December 30th
Sorry…didnt work out for me and i am really annoyed with tutorials that left out some steps and caused me scratching my head all the time…I do hope that you would try to be more lenient with us esp the amateurs. You started from scratch as well so i do believe that you know how it felt to be left out by someone.
( )one million euro blog January 4th
Thanks alot for sharing this great tutorial.
( )elearning January 6th
Thanks alot for this great tutorial. You inspired me so much.
( )Uday Jadhav February 5th
this is the one of the Good technics, wounderful steps, nice….keep it up
( )brian February 9th
you skipped a step between plastic wrap and warp…
( )Funny SMS February 21st
AWESOME
( )volc March 26th
OMG! thanks man
( )exido March 28th
this tutorial should be taken off or modified,becouse its unfinished the steps are frustrating not clear enough and how could psd tuts aproove this? sure is preeeeeeeeeetty but whats the point if 80% of the readers doesnt understand this?
( )Adam April 9th
Step 3 through 4 is missing something. Sooooo frustrating! Please modify it.
( )Tim May 18th
Excellent tutorial!
( )Salman Arif May 28th
Wonderful tutorial! I am using the first few steps for an abstract wallpaper!
( )Daniel June 26th
Hello Fabio
Your tuturials are great but it’s very difficult for someone who is not professional, can you be more specific with your explainations?
for example in the first step, i see the screenshot and there are effects on the background, but what values?
Keep going with your great job
you inspire me to improve my skills
( )Daniel June 26th
oh,and what do you mean by ‘creating folder? Oo is it a ‘group?
( )leon efimov July 29th
hey tried to folow the tutoial but between step 3 and 4, from plastic to the clear stricks, i dont get it how you got. can you please modify or clear it up. Thanks
( )jmarreros September 17th
great tutorial, Thanks
( )juan pablo September 24th
excelente campeon!!! muy bien explicado!!!
( )Danny October 20th
Hmm.. I like the effect you got to with this tut, but.. I feel like it doesn’t come close enough to NoPattern’s Jumper. I definitely can see the idea, but with some simple lines actually matching the direction of the body it would come a lot closer.
The reason Chuck Andersons Jumper looks so spectacular is because all the light elements actually match the guy’s body position. Also the shading on the person’s body is quite intense, giving the lines more of a blasting effect.
If you look at the original Jumper, you will see the lines give a sense of speed near his face. His face has a lot of shadow and the lines feel like it is light from the front of the face, having a tail.
Also under his upper leg, and of course at his left foot, it shows quite some light intensity. On top of all that, the light source is the guy itself. His motion, his force, is suppose to be translated to the light.
No offence
A nice effect created in this tutorial. But I feel like this tutorial lacks the blow it should give to come near the Jumper effect. I suppose this might be a good foundation tho’. 
( )Danny October 20th
To be honest, it is a nice go at the last image of the series. It’s just that here there’s chosen a picture that actually shows motion, but the light doesn’t show any of that motion at all. At the promo image it’s a face, and therefor that’s a different case.
By mixing a directional light source with a picture containing motion it kinda feels a bit off.
( )abduzee-ted November 10th
OMG, Abduzeedo, I’ll follow you for the rest of my life…
this is freaking awesome, novice knowledge, expert result and easy to follow.
( )Club Penguin Cheats December 23rd
The lighting is truly amazing, especially seeing as you brushed it. One thing I think would look better is a zoomed out final picture.
( )