40 Dark and Futuristic Photoshop Effects

Aug 27th in Articles, Effects by Danny Outlaw

A question: what do exploding planets, energy spheres, ethereal lights, ruined cities, telepathic warriors, gloomy nebulas and light-rays all have in common? Answer: they look freaky awesome when you build them in Photoshop.

Here's how to do all of the above and more, for a total of 40 excellent cyberpunk and Sci-fi style effects.

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Author: Danny Outlaw

Danny Outlaw is best known for his work at Outlaw Design Blog. Aside from blogging, he also works full time as a Wordpress designer. Danny has freelanced from all over the world and is working on a book and website in which he will share his experience about Freelancing Abroad. Danny also has an unhealthy obsession with toys, LOST, and Sharpie markers.

1. Aurora eclipse effect

Top quality tutorial that teaches you how to create a flashy eclipse.

2. Create a ‘Bionic Diver’ using photo manipulation

Create a half-man half-robot diving machine. This effect could easily be applied to any human form.

3. Design a space scene in Photoshop

Learn how to create a realistic space scene.

4. Design a futuristic laptop advert

Create a laptop ad with a modern and futuristic look.

5. Transformers text effect

Learn how to make the cool futuristic text from the Transformer text.

6. Scan-line text

Add a Matrix-style feel to your text with this tutorial.

7. Create a fiery space explosion

Probably your only chance to blow up a planet outside a video game/nuclear warfare.

8. Seamless compositing in Photoshop

Get some top notch advice on blending photos into a realistic surreal image.

9. The making of Mystic

Another high quality tutorial on creating a sci-fi style facial effect.

10. Wicked alien-entity text effect

Add a simple alien type effect to your text.

11. Glowing orb with dial

Create a detailed glowing orb that has a wide variety of uses.

12. Space lighting effects

High quality tutorial that teaches some basic lighting techniques.

13. The Dark Knight grunge wallpaper

Create a dark poster that mimics the design of the new Batman movie.

14. Create a futuristic building interior

Create a futuristic looking interior for a hi-rise building.

15. Make a realistic star field

Neat tutorial that helps you create a realistic star field in outer space.

16. Create a futuristic smoke-like effect

A hyper-modern smoke effect to compliment a dark background.

17. Add speed-strails to a vehicle

The perfect effect to add to a super-fast futuristic vehicle.

18. The magic night

Create the sunset of the future. Learn how to create a surreal landscape.

19. Good and evil photo effect

Another good tutorial on turning people into something else.

20. Create meteoric text

Turn your words into a fiery space meteor bearing down on the viewer.

21. Robotic frog

Create a robot frog of the future with this tutorial.

22. Creating an awesome space effect

This is another cool tutorial for creating a neat space effect.

23. Create a futuristic daytime cityscape

This could easily appear on the cover of a Sci-fi novel.

24. Making of an abstract art piece: “Lonium”

This tutorial will teach you how to create a futuristic abstract image.

25. Creating energy spheres

Turn anyone into a someone with super powers with this cool tutorial.

26. Supernatural text effect

Create a dark and eerie Sci-fi text effect.

27. Transform a person into an alien

yet another good tutorial to turn people into aliens.

28. Reflective bubble

Create some neat bubble with reflections of your alien person from the tutorial above.

29. Windows Vista aurora effect

Learn how to create the spacey windows vista effect.

30. Chroma wallpapers

Create a cool futuristic type wallpaper and learn some neat techniques from a pro.

31. Deep space nebula

Make a slick nebula to add to your space tutorials from above.

32. Space tutorial

Here is another cool space tutorial on creating a realistic space scene.

33. Abstract light rays

These abstract light rays can add a futuristic feel to any advert.

34. Planet with rings

A nice tutorial that helps you create a realistic planet.

35. Create a powerful mental wave explosion effect

Another neat tutorial to turn everyday people into super heroes.

36. Our future

Create a image that depicts an end of the world scene.

37. Create an abstract space image

A sweet abstract image that has an awesome outer-space look to it.

38. Star Wars text effect

What's more futuristic than the Star Wars text? A great text tutorial.

39. War movie poster

A top quality tutorial that teaches how to do dark well by creating a war movie poster.

40. Create a mysterious nebula

Another good nebula tutorial that will help add spice to a space scene image.

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User Comments

( ADD YOURS )
  1. PG

    curtis allen August 27th

    Nice list of photoshop tutorial.

    ( Reply )
  2. PG

    Dullface August 27th

    Sweet!

    ( Reply )
  3. PG

    AliasArt August 27th

    nice collection

    ( Reply )
  4. PG

    Craigsnedeker August 27th

    Cool, thanks!

    ( Reply )
  5. PG

    Ross August 27th

    Nice list! One of my tutorials even made it on; no. 6 – Thanks:)

    ( Reply )
  6. PG

    Raj August 27th

    nice compilation :) Thanx!

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    Nate August 27th

    Great list of tutorials.

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    andré August 27th

    love it! great resources guys

    ( Reply )
  9. PG

    Tom Ross August 27th

    Wow my tutorials made numbers 2 and 4. Thanks so much for featuring me and I’ll be sure to check out the other tutorials in this fantastic list :) .

    ( Reply )
  10. PG

    Snorri3D August 27th

    NICE 1

    ( Reply )
  11. PG

    Marco August 27th

    Hi Danny,

    Thanks for featuring my tutorial (Alienize)! Once again another great article on PSDTuts, keep it up.

    Greetings,,,

    ( Reply )
  12. PG

    NaldzGraphics August 27th

    another great list as always.thanks for this collection

    Ronald

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    insic August 27th

    pretty long list of coolest tutorial. very nice!

    ( Reply )
  14. PG

    MONSTER August 27th

    Great collection. That frog rocks!

    ( Reply )
  15. PG

    barry r August 27th

    you know its good when the people who write these great tutorials all agree!

    ( Reply )
  16. PG

    Geoff August 27th

    Nothing really new here

    ( Reply )
  17. PG

    Shane August 27th

    I don’t get off on holding a telescope to my eye and looking up to the night sky, but those space-related tutorials are fantastic.

    Thanks for all of ‘em.

    ( Reply )
  18. PG

    Darrin August 27th

    Bookmarked

    ( Reply )
  19. PG

    Roland August 27th

    O wow! This is soooo good! Great article.

    ( Reply )
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      roxan January 13th

      no not really pig

      ( Reply )
  20. PG

    Calvin August 27th

    Great list of collections! Thanks a lot!

    ( Reply )
  21. PG

    Dustin August 27th

    Nice collection!
    It was a good choise to place robotic frog on splash page.

    ( Reply )
  22. PG

    bobmartien August 27th

    AMAZING !

    Tks u :)

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    Hiperkarma August 27th

    Really awesome list :) ! I love the energy spheres thingie, I’ll make myself Iron Man :D

    ( Reply )
  24. PG

    Johan August 27th

    Nice collection. Inspire me for new ideas :)

    ( Reply )
  25. PG

    Harry August 27th

    Some sweet and some scary tuts :P

    ( Reply )
  26. PG

    Jayden August 27th

    That robotic frog looks familiar….

    http://a.viary.com/images_orig/blog/tutorials/frog.htm

    hmmmm

    ( Reply )
  27. PG

    Joefrey Mahusay August 27th

    Great list in here. Thanks!

    ( Reply )
  28. PG

    evertt de sousa August 27th

    muito bacana vou estudar todos já

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    insic August 27th

    @evertt de sousa i dont understand.

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    Mukarram August 27th

    Bookmarked.

    ( Reply )
  31. PG

    Amir August 27th

    Seriously cool stuff, check out http://amir97522.blogspot.com

    ( Reply )
  32. PG

    Flora Topasa August 27th

    Exellent work.
    The picture with the kid and the lights is my favorite here.

    ( Reply )
  33. PG

    Jason August 27th

    Great list! I’d been looking for some tutorials (aurora/smoke) and this makes my day!

    ( Reply )
  34. PG

    NGP August 27th

    The war poster link is broken :*(

    But great list of tuts! Thanks guys

    ( Reply )
  35. PG

    Joe August 27th

    Nice, I now have some stuff to play with over the coming weekend.

    ( Reply )
  36. PG

    sohaib August 27th

    sick list ….. thank you

    ( Reply )
  37. PG

    fg August 27th

    Nr. 3 Reminds me of the Citadels reactor-core in Half Life 2 Episode 1.

    ( Reply )
  38. PG

    Brian August 27th

    Some of these look kind of amateurish but I’m still going to marathon all of them today.

    ( Reply )
  39. PG

    Alex August 28th

    For the make a person an alien tutorial, is it a coincidence that they used Tom Cruise? :P

    ( Reply )
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    ViniMan August 28th

    Well that’s a better name for my latest tutorial indeed. :)

    ( Reply )
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    div August 28th

    I know most of this from another site with 50 must tutorials :P

    ( Reply )
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    Mr. Heli August 28th

    i have never seen such useful post like this. All of those tutorials are very useful, thanks for them

    ( Reply )
  43. PG

    BoredQuiz August 28th

    these are some awesome tutorials no matter where they came from

    ( Reply )
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    adelaide web design August 28th

    This is great for web design, thanks

    ( Reply )
  45. PG

    Adrian August 28th

    Great list! Thanks alot!

    ( Reply )
  46. PG

    Mark Abucayon August 28th

    cool, best list ever of dark photoshop effects. thanks for sharing this one, like it very much

    ( Reply )
  47. PG

    Qbrushes August 28th

    Most of these tutorials have been around for a while now :)

    ( Reply )
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    Herzeleyd August 29th

    Brilliant!!!

    ( Reply )
  49. PG

    Andy August 29th

    Stunning!

    ( Reply )
  50. PG

    Me August 29th

    WOW!! These are the best tuts i ever seen…Thanks:D

    ( Reply )
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    tits August 30th

    wow! its wonderful!

    ( Reply )
  52. PG

    Sebastian August 30th

    Congratulation this is a really great list. thanks

    ( Reply )
  53. PG

    Lamin Barrow August 30th

    I like the effects. Thanks for the tut.

    ( Reply )
  54. PG

    Dansoy frm the philippines August 30th

    Coooool… thx 4 sharing. awesOme! :D

    ( Reply )
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    Designer August 30th

    Nice collections, i like no 23.

    ( Reply )
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    leonbey August 31st

    I like the effects. Thanks for the tut.

    ( Reply )
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    qizu August 31st

    this is totally amazing!

    ( Reply )
  58. PG

    Ryan G August 31st

    Thanks for sharing this. I’ve created some cool desktop backgrounds using No.33.

    ( Reply )
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    Ariful Alam Khan September 1st

    Fantastic collection. Thank you for all the great links……

    ( Reply )
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    mts September 4th

    congratulations! vary good job! Iwonna just ask to you if you can guive me some tutorials in my email… very nice!

    thanks

    ( Reply )
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    one September 6th

    cool…………………………

    ( Reply )
  62. PG

    YD September 10th

    Great, now the same list for the GIMP…

    please…

    ( Reply )
  63. PG

    Designer September 21st

    Good work.Thanks to all who had posted all these

    ( Reply )
  64. PG

    JMMY September 27th

    Great guides. We work with alot of restaurant menu design and we use these eddects much of the time. Thanks!

    ( Reply )
  65. PG

    med September 29th

    thinq you insic

    ( Reply )
  66. PG

    med September 29th

    Thank you for business and insic Almndhar beautiful and thank you

    ( Reply )
  67. PG

    PureDezigner October 2nd

    OMG this is just what I was looking for! Thank you so much for compiling a very useful list, I plan on using these to help inspire me when I redesign my website – http://www.puredezigner.com, any ideas on how to make this site something you’d want to visit on a reg bases. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

    ( Reply )
  68. PG

    cash2life October 7th

    Good work, cool effects. thanks

    ( Reply )
  69. PG

    r4ge October 7th

    love all of these they’re awesome. thanks again for the great list! keep it up!

    ( Reply )
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    Miko Dizon October 12th

    I’m really gaining a lot is this collection >_< thxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    ( Reply )
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    Cafe Philosopher October 17th

    I sometimes need a few ideas for different page layouts, would you recommend anything?

    ( Reply )
  72. PG

    Oba October 26th

    Awesome compilation, love the text effects in particular.

    ( Reply )
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    Mark October 31st

    this is seriously the coolest site I have ever been to. period.

    ( Reply )
  74. PG

    Sajid Iqbal November 12th

    Very cool collection. Every tutorial is significant as other.

    ( Reply )
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    Subash Aryal December 4th

    Great tuts…. am trying to quench my design thirst…..

    ( Reply )
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    Achmad Syarif December 5th

    Just WOW…some of the best tuts are here. Thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    monxx February 3rd

    this gonna be helpful for beginners… great tuts,

    ( Reply )
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    aweke February 10th

    nice…

    ( Reply )
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    rons February 19th

    Great!!!! nice tuts!!!!

    ( Reply )
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    ghaghah March 23rd

    wow awesome

    i’m from Indonesian

    ( Reply )
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    h4Roldo June 21st

    muy bueno………. espectacular.

    ( Reply )
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    Joe June 28th

    Wow.. I love all of em, ill definately be reffering to this page agian

    ( Reply )
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    Aurix July 12th

    This is very nice compiled and end-result is fantastic. Thanks a lot!

    ( Reply )
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    tomexx July 21st

    Nice compilation!

    ( Reply )
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    web design singapore October 23rd

    Something to hone my skills over this weekend! haha

    ( Reply )
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    Tibia Download November 12th

    Thanks a lot for the tut. I did learn some useful thins.. :)

    ( Reply )
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    Download Tibia November 19th

    Thanks man, these effects are all beautiful!

    ( Reply )
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    martin November 25th

    thanx very much bro i was need need these tutorial

    ( Reply )
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    surendra January 4th

    Nice n Cool Collection Dude

    ( Reply )
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    ruyu January 14th

    VERY NICE! HELPED ME WIN A COMPETITION IN THE SCHOOL!TY TY TY

    ( Reply )
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    Derek Kimball January 25th

    Thanks for the tutorials. The “Robotic Frog” Tutorial “does not exist” according to the page you link to. Just thought I would let you know.

    ( Reply )

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