surprised to see it in the site! but good

Again, like the last tutorial, this is a neat effect. But where is the “wow” factor?

I agree with Ryft. It’s a cool design, but I’m not sure if I’d consider this a usable treatment for anything in the real world … well, that isn’t exactly what you’ve already created.

could use some macaroni art on this one

:: test for gravatar ::

yea i’m behind! so what

Pretty good tutorial, somewhat short however, but I guess I shouldn’t complain… Considering they are FREE!

Very simple tutorial. It is true that the effect and the end result is not that amazing but I think it is something that some guys around here will find this one helpful.

Cool tips, thanks for sharing!

Good tutorials. One question. How do you get your PS GUI dark like that?

nice tut…!! keep at it..!!

I agree with the “That PSDTuts look” but still a nice effect. Thank you!

I like it diffrent http://imagehost.rophotoshop.com/pics/a19293b66afe720e390026f93f0d2fb8.jpg

Thanks for the tutorial.

I think it’s important that there are tutorials on the site that cater for a wide variety of experience levels and capabilities. Remember that we are getting this lot for free, and that the tutorials are well written.

Keep up the good work.

its a nice tutorial, like every tut on PSDTUTS! thanks for sharing
oh btw i just realised that theres something wrong with my PS if I try to use the motion blur filter with the setting You used its just crashes I solved this problem by rotating the canvas and use 0 degrees for the angle hope it will help someone who has the same problem

Nice effect, thank you!

The only thing I can’t get is at Step 9:
Now while still selecting the area, select the first layer (The clouds + mezzotint + motion blur layer), copy it (CTRL + C) and paste it (CTRL +V) in a layer above it

What’s the difference between this and duplicating the layer (like, for instance, in step 10)?
I really can’t get it!

coool

nice effect……suit with my college project
thank you.

i was making almost the same tutorial.. too slow.. eh eh

Every day there’s a new tutorial on PSDTUTS. It’ just impossible that every one of them have that WOW factor you mentioned. In a few months there won’t be anything missing from here for your actual project. Go on PSDTUTS, it’s great to visit this site!

Just a tip:
Perhaps it would be nice to search/filter the tuts by the technique/graphic style used to achieve the result! For ex.: i’d like to see tuts based on Render Clouds or Motion Blur.

best regards, fcuk from Hungary

had to try it immediatly really nice thanks.

Nice effect simple and sleek.

woaah nice technique
thanks for sharing do keep it coming

Nice Technique but not so impressive like the others tutorials.

Hey, a note about all articles, not just this one. I read the blog in my RSS feed reader. Unfortunately, your RSS feed does not provide a sample of the finished product at the top of the article, and I always have to scroll down to the end to see what is being accomplished

Looks good, but doesn’t work on anything above about 600 pixels high or else the blur doesn’t reach far enough. Can get around it by resizing the height and then mirroring but it looks like crap. Oh well.

The last white box doesnt work for me.

Nevertheless great effect _

Awesome!

Anyone who’s looking at it, scroll up and down while looking at it. It like slightly changes colors.

I consider myself being one of the guys who find every single tutorial very useful. I’m so thankful for such great tutorials!

keep up the good work!

Very pretty ,
It’s nice for a header of webdesign.
But then with some other effect

For a nooby in photoshop like me it’s wonderful ..!

ty

Neat!
Thank you for posting this tut! Yeah it’s easy and short but it’s perfect for people who are just starting to learn photoshop. This site is wonderful and there are so many tuts that i want to do but unable to achieve the same effects due to lack of my knowledge in photoshop. So please keep on posting tuts like these and is there a way u can post an easy glow/lightning tut also . Thank you

Simple but amazing!

Very interesting effect, can be used in many different design applications!! )

works fine in every level, just needs to think a little yourself
Great and simple tutorial for every use. Thanks for the post.

simple and nice

Great work man really great technique simple yet genius . . . really like the result

simple and still really useful! thank you!

Just a small comment here. I must say that I am somewhat disappointed with the way the “plus section” I being developed. If you want to charge as much as over $100 / year you have to give us more. I have no problem with paying to keep psdtuts alive. . And a part of my 9 bucks is more for PSDtuts staying alive than PSD-files etc.

But when we talk about $9, I was expecting more than a PSD-file and so far 3 not very interesting extras.

I hope that there is a bigger plan for the plus members. Because paying $9 for something like this tutorial doesn’t interest me very much sorry.

And I’m sorry if I’m sounding a bit negative. I love PSDtuts for the most part. But I’d rather pay for fewer, but better quality tutorials, then paying to get something basic like this.

Really good effect for many things.

Wow..!

does anybody know if there is an equivalent of mezzotint in GIMP? this has been used a couple of times now and i haven’t found a direct swap. otherwise this is an easy transfer into GIMP.

Thanks.

I like what you did there at the end with the white bar and the blur behind it. thanks!

hey thanks for this tut.. even though this isn’t the most complicated tur, I find that this effect can be useful for many things…just depends on what you use it for and how creative you get after the initial steps.

Thanks again.

Thanks for this great tutorial. I like these kinds of tutorials – they may not have some sort of ‘amazing’ or ‘wow’ factor at the end, but they provide great tips and tricks I can take and use in other designs. Sometimes with the ‘wow’ pieces all you can do is create exactly what the instructor created.

Thanks!

Quick question-

Maybe off topic but in your tutorial, you have a black theme for photoshop… How did you get that/do that?

(sorry if that is a n00b question)

p.s.

I do have photoshop cs3 extended, so that would be cool if you could do it in there!

Or…

1)New Document
2)Filter > Render > Clouds (black/white as foreground/background)
3)Filter > Distort > Wave (Type: Square, Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels)
4)Apply Gradient Adjustment Layer

Play with various wave settings to get the amount of lines you want (something you cant do with above tut).
Apply as smart filter to get more flexibility.

Yeah I like my technique for the above much better. You’re welcome comment readers.

Wheres my $$?

You can also replace step 2 above with a gradient and works as well or better than clouds.

often the simplest and easiest tutorials are also my favorites. i like it a lot, useful techniques too.

Freaking awesome. So simple, yet absolutely brilliant.

cool… you should always have a few simple ones like these. everyone at some point has to throw something together.

Great! Thanks!

Cool effect! Maybe all the complainers should start their own tuts sites and show us how it’s done?

Looks like a television crash =)

We are going to see a HUGE difference between paid and free tutorials… Not cool…

Im new to photoshop, can you tell my why you used the Clouds at the begining?

Simple but it looks cool!

Nice, I’ve been wondering how to do something similar to this.
Check out these headers:
http://31three.com/
http://www.clearfirestudios.com/
for a bit more subtle approach using the effect.
thanks for the scoop Jonathan.

Ali: I am not the writer of this tutorial but I can tell you that the clouds have been use for the purpose of forming the shapes.

Giackop: It seems he was faster than you )

One thing I noticed while trying it is that the size of the canvas really affects the result. On a larger canvas, the motion blur in particular didn’t have very satisfactory results, with the top and bottom having nice crisp edges between the lines, while the middle was just muddy blurriness (it is a blur, after all). Have fun experimenting!

why are a lot of people complaining, i mean come on……its free, be grateful next time!

Cool effect, thanks for the tutorial!

I like the frosted glass effect used on the horizontal banding….very cool. It’s a fine tut, and to reiterate the masses….this is not only FREE, but this site also addresses users on a levels…noob to expert.

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciate it. I know this is a simple tutorial and I don’t deny it, but hey it’s the result that matters right? I mean personally I would love to skip hours of work trying to create a slick background when I can use something as simple as this. But hey, It’s your choice, and I’m not going to stop you. And plus it’s great for the noobies. After all the site doesn’t say “Pros only”.
@Alberto, you’re right it is the same thing. Sorry if I confused you
@Ali, Constantin is right, it is used to create the shape. Thanks for helping Constantin

thx

Thanks!……..o(∩_∩)o….

Well, I don’t know what everyone is talking about, but I thought this was a great tutorial. I have been using photoshop for several years but am largely still a beginner. This was my first time working with curves, and now that I have my feet off the ground I hope to use curves more. So in that regard for teaching me something new, thank you very much!

I am having a problem- my document is 11×17″ @ 200 and there seems to be a large clouded area over most of the vertical bars whenever the document is more than 5″ or so. How do I get it to not cloud up?

Not this has potential to it.. love it.. And the thing i see around here at psdtuts is that most of the people actually is more after eye-candy than function in Design.. sad but true :/ bu love it =) Neat for motion Graphics use! =)

Nice! I really like it and it’s quite impressive in comparison to the low effort.

Hi!
I am really curious about your black-themed GUI in Photoshop!
How did you get it?

Very Good… thx

Nice…Simple..And Fast Really Like It~

@mgkwho hmm, that’s odd. I don’t know why that happens, but I can over a semi-solution for it. After applying motion blur, you can select the part that looks good and stretch it over the entire canvas. I’m sorry I can’t help much more. Good luck!

i find this VERY useful thankyou

Muy bueno!!!!

heyyyyyy that was cool, sometimes, it is great to give simple tutorials … because often, we forget about basics
Thanks !!!!! hahahahaha

@Alex Moyler

“Looks good, but doesn’t work on anything above about 600 pixels high or else the blur doesn’t reach far enough. Can get around it by resizing the height and then mirroring but it looks like crap. Oh well.
”

I fixed that by applying the Motion Blur several times (keep pressing Ctrl+F like 5 times or less/more) and then just add some contrast back using the levels.

I like the base, the basics like Farishta mentioned, but instead of marquees and the such, try overlaying some images, pump the threshhold, make them abstract, what I find works best is a electrical effect with light, and long exposures, like the following:

Nice Tutorial. Very Nice. You guys are the Best

I think this is similar to the one they use at MSNBC dot com website. It’s slightly altered and being used both the header and footer of the website and it sure looks nice.

Really simple but amazing tutorial. Nice work.

Stripes are one of my favorites to use. Thanks for a new way to incorporate them into a piece!

mate, this is a great tutorial. it has a lot brilliant applications. so stop listening to unsatisfied voices. but i;m still wondering how did you pimp your ps like that? were can we get the patch from? or how can we do it… please respond… anticipated thanks!

Lots of nice comments…. but this doesnt work like your final result… i have tried it a number of times, with different size page, 100×100 up to 600×600 and it never works…

the clouds work fine, the pixelate works, then i add the motion blur, 90degrees and then 999 etc.. but there is always to much white space and so when i apply the overlay it never looks like yours?

any ideas?

I have been wanting to get photoshop for so long now, and i finally found a site where i could download and use photoshop for a free trial-30 days. Well i only have 26 days left, and i am so lost! All i really want to do is change backgrounds on some of my pictures or me a cartoon character out of one of my pisctures, and i have no idea how to do it. Someone please help me, and help me fast! lol. seriously tho, i am really interested in this, and i have no idea how to do it. I’ve been looking at these websites but nothing works for me the way that it is explained to work. so please help. Thanks alot! -Jena

This is an excellent tutorial, and more of these types of tutorials should definitely be added to this site. I think a lot of people are only interested in the tutorials that create a dazzling and complex effect, but this is another kind of tutorial- one that shows how to create a good effect with very little time and effort, and that should definitely be worth something to a lot of artists, including me.

Step 7 doesn’t make any sense.

You can’t apply level settings to a new layer that does not contain any pixals.

It appears that this step bumps the chroma up in the center of the composition. Other than that, it’s pretty simple to follow and useful.

If you want to have a uniform pattern from top to bottom, use the single pixal row marque tool. Click, then Apple+T to transfrom the selection, pull the top center node of the transform box to the top of the artboard and the bottom not to the bottom. That stretches the single row of pixals accross the entire canvas.

Thanks guys, I’m glad to hear your opinions. I like basic stuff from time to time as well, and that’s why I made this tutorial.
@fire It’s not a photoshop hack, it’s a general windows visual style change. Google uxtheme.dll, you should get a bunch of info on it. (I recommend you look at deviant art for some great skin)
@godonholiday Make sure to use mezzotint, not pixelate, and set the setting to long stroke. The degree of the blur should be perpendicular to the strokes. Good luck!

simply very nice

very nice and simple enough for my first ever psdtut… thanks!

Thanks for the tut!!…

This is just a general site comment (and slightly off topic!)

I’ve just noticed that the amazing “Most Talkative Users” section in the footer jumps down to below the “Archives” section when you are running at 1024×768. Could you just reduce the width of all three columns by about 5px each? Or just reduce the width of the MTU section as most names aren’t as wide as the section allows without wrapping.

Ahh, I see, they are all div.footer_column. Maybe just reduce the width by 5px a piece then? It would be really nice for pedantic people like me who have a 15″ monitor. I would move it to my 17″, but I usually have PSDTuts on the right and PS on the left so I can read and do!

Isaac

PS. Sorry! I really am a perfectionist!

Thanks you very much

This looks quite simple when you guys @ PSDTuts do it. You present it in a very professional and simple form. You guys rock man.

Nice! @Ryft as far as “wow factor” I don’t think you necessarily need wow factor when your teaching a technique. Nice post!

Sorry, this still does not work…

When you get to the mezzotint (Which is inside Pixelate) and set the setting to long stroke, you will find large balck areas or white areas.

once you do the colour overlay, these areas stay black or white… this does not look nice.

any ideas on how to fix this?

In fact, if you look at step 3 and step 4, you can see that the bars do not match up? maybe a step is missing?

Really cool, really simple! I got a great result – thanks a lot

Cool tutorial))))

nice tutarial!! i got same brilliant result!!

this could be done using abuzeedo’s MSNBC effect tutorial, with a few changes in steps?

the effects are great

I just used this on a print design for a client. I combined it with other photoshop effects. My client loved it. This is perfect for certain applications. Nice effect!

This is amazing and very useful. Thank you for making this effect tutorial!
Good tasty.

this is my favourite background tutorial. it’s wicked colourful.

thanks for sharing

cheers

david
http://www.davidsmeaton.com

excellent

As an alternative to using a premade gradient, try using the gradient editor. for the best results, you can stretch the editor window out to the size of the project, and make colors change in areas of high contrast. The effect is it looks like the bars, or the gradient, changes with a purpose.

really quick technique!!! appreciate that!

Thanks for Posting.
Excellent Tut.

It may not be overly striking on its own, but as a background, it’s pretty aweseome, go have a look see XD
Great work!

Really a very simple tutorials and nice coloring…

thanx psd tuts.

Hi,
Thanks for this wonderful tut post i live the way you tech PS thanks a lot

checkout the tutorial on this site its awesome and quite different…….

http://dudestyle.blogspot.com/

Thanks for this great tutorial.
It can be of much use to anyone!
And how simple

Here’s my version

I made it a wallpaper

http://i35.tinypic.com/lw4l1.jpg

This is one of my favourites! I used it many times.

However, I tried today to create this effect in a 2,000 x 1,500 pixels canvas and got a kind of cloud blur part in the middle area (width spread). I never got this in other cases with smaller canvas I think. Do you believe this happens due to canvas size?

Thnx in advance,

Cloud No9

hello,
i’ve tried this walk through but i stuck at step 3. with large canvas (2880×1800) i simple cannot produce an acceptable result. the middle 1/3 of the image becomes cloudy blurred and not sharp-striped as the top and bottom. i it doesn’t help if i select smaller sizes and apply the motion blur effect on them.
for me it seems the only way to go (as the author noted in a comment earlier) is to cut the top or bottom correct part and stretch it to the whole image. but this is not a real solution. it’s said i cannot reproduce the end result in HD
with small canvas sizes (like 500×500 for example) it’s perfect
anyway thanks for the tut, it is always fun to explore the Photoshop through these tuts

ok, i take it back… with large canvases(and cloudy middle part problems) you can truly go with “select top part and stretch it to the whole canvas”. the result will be the right one and the HD version is achievable. lots of thanks!

Nice and easy tutorial, not everything has to be insanely off the wall ‘impressive’ – well done.

thanks for that motion blur trick

I have a spanish version of photoshop.. so… in spanish which would be the overlay style of the layer in spanish?? Im not shure

I like this one. And it said: Quickly build an abstract background of colored bars.

And that’s what it’s all about.

Easy, fast … and to ad a wow factor, you’d have to tweek it.

Very nice tut.
But I can’t apply the Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint.
Pixelate is grayed out

Step seven doesn’t seem to work, seeing as the new layer is empty. Any ideas on what to do to fix this?

whata simple way to create great image. god job

i like the tutorial and the look. You can get the same effect using just the gradient tool and a light filter also though.

Created a wallpaper based on this tutorial. It’s ok I guess.
Thanks for the tutorial.

http://digitalchet.deviantart.com/art/Spectral-Tableau-WP-111413259

This is so cool. I will try it

I just make one header using this tutorial
Thanks again

I cannot get the same color result as you, I did the pasted the rainbow grandient and overlayed and that is not what I get!

I´m sry but it did not work in CS4 …

It won’t let me put the gradient over it…I’ve never had this problem before. I try to and it just fills it with a single color. I had all the stripes in gray, white, and black. I made a new layer and tried to add the gradient and it wouldn’t work. I filled the layer with white and it still wouldn’t let me do it. What’s going on with this thing? I have CS3…

Wow

this did not work….i followed steps exactly.

This site is very great and useful.
I familiar with this site very, very happy
I am an Iranian. I wish I speak Latin as well as all contents of text I could use.
But why limit it to learn the material.
But never forget that this site will not help me how to design.
Producer of all people from this site thanks

Excellent, Its Very nice and easy your explanation. thankyou, regards from Colombia

thankx. very good tutorials..
here is my result http://i30.tinypic.com/34s0y7c.jpg

This is great, thanks

Hmm, I don’t understand Step 7 because when I press “control” + M, I get a message from PS saying that it cannot be done because the layer is empty…

That is cool effect and so easy. g8 dude

simple and nice, I think it would be the background for a more complex composition.
Thanks for sharing

and iam also don’t understand Step 7 because when I press “control” + M, I get a message from PS saying that it cannot be done because the layer is empty

If you get a blurry centre of the image apply the motion blur 4-6 more times. Then increase the contrast to 100% and you should get a decent result.