Seriously Cool Photoshop Explosion Effect
Mar 4th in Effects by Fabio
Explosions are cool. Seriously cool. So when I received some e-mails asking about how to create a break-apart, explosion effect, I knew it'd be worth making a tutorial on. Read on to find out how to break apart a body, then add some awesome lighting and glow, and nopattern style, to finish the image off.
What We're Making
You can download the original image I used on this project at www.sxc.hu.
Step 1
Create a new document, any size. I used 800x600px. Fill the background layer with black. After that, place your photo in the center of the document.
Step 2
Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and select the girl. When you complete the selection process, go to Select > Refine Edge. A dialog box will open with some settings. Select to preview the image on black, and make some adjustments until you find a nice result. Add a bit of feather, radius, and expand the selection. Then press OK.
Step 3
Invert the selection, Select > Inverse and delete the background of the photo. After that, go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and the Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set 2% for the noise amount.
Step 4 - Breaking Apart
With the Lasso Tool (L), select the girl's leg like I did, then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. After that, select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill the selection with black. Make sure that you paint the selection.
Step 5
Here we will need some brushes. You can find good brushes at brusheezy.com. I used a set of brushes called Blood-grunge.
Select the Brush Tool (B) and white for the color. Pick one of the brushes. I used the first one of the set and reduce its size to 300 or less. After that, start painting the hidden leg. You will need just a few clicks with the brush tool to get a good result.
Step 6
The previous step broke apart the leg, but the shatters didn't spread like a real explosion. So in order to do that, we will use the Clone Stamp Tool (S).
Create a new layer above the girl's layer and select the Clone Stamp Tool. Choose Current & Below in the Sample settings. If you have never used the Clone Tool before, the first thing to do is define a source point. To do that hold the Alt key and select the source point. After that, start cloning some parts of the exploded leg to spread the shatters. The last thing here is go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen.
Step 7
Repeat the Steps 4, 5, and 6, but select the arm this time to break apart.
Step 8 — Clouds
Add a new layer on top of the others. Select white for the foreground color and black for the background. Then go to Filters > Render > Clouds. Now select the Lasso Tool. Set the feather to 20px, and select an area around the girl. You will have a selection like the image below. After that, just go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.
Step 9
Double-click on the clouds layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. The first thing to do here is use Screen for the Blend Mode and use 28% for the Fill Opacity. Then select Gradient Overlay. The Blend Mode will be Color Dodge this time with 55% Opacity. Use the same colors as the image below.
Step 10 — Lighting Effects
I used some brushes to create the light effects. You can find them here: http://r0man.de/kostenlose_brushes_photoshop.htm.
Create a new folder above all the other layers, rename it to "lights" and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Then select white for the color and the Brush Tool. Test some brushes to see the result. Create a layer for each effect.
Step 11
Create a new layer inside the "lights" folder. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), making sure the Feather is 0px. Create a rectangular selection. Then select the Gradient Tool (G). For the colors, use white for both start and end, but change the end's opacity to 0. Then just fill the rectangle with the gradient like in the image below.
Step 12
Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (L) and use 10px for the Feather. Create an elliptical selection like the image below. The just go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.
Step 13
Duplicate the layer and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Then go to Edit > Transform > Scale and reduce the height only. After that, just group these two layers. You can create more lights just by duplicating the group, rotating, and scaling it.
Step 14 — Illustrator
In Illustrator select the Pen Tool (P) and create two curved lines To do that, hold the button every time you click to create a curved point. Use 0.5pt for the stroke weight. After that, select the Blend Tool (W) and click over one line and then on the other. To change the blend properties, just double-click on the Blend Icon. Choose Specific Steps for the Spacing and use like 50 steps. Copy the blend.
Step 15
Back to Photoshop, paste the blend over the girl. After that, select the girl's body. To do that, just click over the girl's icon on the layer palette holding Cmd (mac) or Ctrl (PC), which will select only the girl's body. Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection. That will hide the parts of the blend that are in front of the girl.
Open the Layer Style dialog box, change the Fill Opacity to 0 and select Gradient Overlay. Use 20% for the Opacity and use the rainbow colors, like in the image below.
Conclusion
There are lots of different ways to do the break-apart effect. I chose the one that was, in my opinion the fastest and easiest one. You can see that I spent more time creating the lighting effects than doing the break apart effect.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Collis March 4th
Fabio, I bow to your photoshop mastery … *bow* … wicked effect!
( )Arik March 4th
Ok…now THAT is DOPE. Doper than the Pope…even if the pope had soap on a rope.
Kudos to you my friend, I believe I will have to open up some major effects if I want to keep up with you.
( )Sean Hodge March 4th
Great job on this tut. I have to try this now. Thx.
( )honso March 4th
omg this is awesome! great tut, thank you!
( )Hyperninja March 4th
Seriously amazing tutorial. That is top notch! I’m definatley liking the break apart effect.
Thanks for sharing
( )Cain March 4th
Awesome, but I think I liked it better without the star bursts. It looked cooler when it was just fading away.
( )Mystic March 4th
Really good ! good job and thx
( )Arnaud March 4th
Fabio, I love you.
THank you very much ! Amazing work.
( )Brent Nelson March 4th
Great tools to be used. Thank you for the free tutorials. I’ll try to use these in my works too (But not reproducing the same effect. Tweaking and playing with it)
( )Aloke Pillai March 4th
Its freaking awesome!
keep Rocking!
Aloke Pillai
( )giackop March 4th
i was waiting for this fabio.. thanks!!
( )Julio Fragoso March 4th
Great tuto buddy !!
( )Ryan March 4th
Wow, very good tutorial, keep up the great work!
( )Chris March 4th
It’s legen …. wait for it… dary! Truly awesome!
( )Fredro March 4th
AMAZING AND GORGEOUS. Can’t wait to try this one.
( )Duluoz March 4th
Does not give the effect of “exploding” at all. The detail is flat and lacking any kind of dimension. I don’t “get” how this is exploding. It just looks like slopping masking. I don’t get it. Why would you choose a happy woman jumping as a subject for exploding something. Are you happy when you explode too while wearing attire popular in the mid-90s? I don’t think so.
( )Gerald Larson III July 17th
You’re a jerk, Duluoz.
Stunning work, Fabio!
I’ll try this now!
Regards,
( )Gerald Larson III
canute March 4th
freaking amazing
( )Hero March 4th
Seriously? … This image is a disaster. Could you possibly have more random things happening to this poor girl?
I know you do better work than this Fabio. Not only is this piece lacking your usual style and the graphical focus, but the end result is altogether ghastly. And while ranting, let me say (on behalf of real life designers everywhere), I think we’ve seen quite enough of these swirly glowing light tutorials. How about a tutorial that has graphical relevance in the real world?
( )niksy March 4th
This is one great tutorial. Achieved very nice effects and also learned some new (at least for me) methods for my future works. Thanks!
( )Jason Brown March 4th
AWSOME!!!!!!!!!
Please could you link to the original image as I realy want to give it a try. I’ve looked all over http://www.sxc.hu. but can seam to find the original.
( )Ben March 4th
This is a great tutorial – with an effect I might actually use for once! Nice and keep it up
( )Chris March 4th
Does anyone know what the type face is that Abduzeedo uses for his logo??
Cool tute, really like it.
( )Andrew D March 4th
Great work! Loved the tutorial
( )Livingston Samuel March 4th
Wonderful tutorial and spectacular effects.
( )gimper March 4th
hey nice work!!. persoanly i wouldn’t add those extra flares beside the leg it made it look over done and cheesy, with that said i couldn’t have come with a better outcome then yours
( )Zair Abbas March 4th
Very nice work!
( )thanks!
diver dan March 4th
Amazing. Simply amazing. Great effect on the breaking away. Whys the picture called “Teste” though…lol
( )Rajender Kumar March 4th
Gr8t Work really fantastic
( )firewalker March 4th
Hail, Fabio! For the awesome tutorials!
( )Matt March 4th
Don´t ever stop making tutorials! This is easily the best site on the entire web for tutorials. Keep up the great work.
( )Andrei Constantin March 4th
Was about time to be published on psdtuts. I was wondering how you managed it since i’ve seen the results last week on your blog
Congrats
( )Wax March 4th
Great work and thank for showing us how to use this tools and effects for our own compositions… sorry about my english…
( )Adios a todos.
Daniel March 4th
Wonderful Fabio, oustanding effect !. Love that one ! Thanks for sharing
( )Arnaud March 4th
I have test, it’s very simply and beautiful.
( )Xavier March 4th
How great is that effect!
( )Abduzeedo for president! ;.)
Alberto March 4th
The effect is really nice, and the tutorial is clear and simple.
Fabio’s workis stunning!
Apart from that, I have to say I agree with Hero:
quote:
we’ve seen quite enough of these swirly glowing light tutorials. How about a tutorial that has graphical relevance in the real world?
I wrote my own but unfortunately it was rejected. That’s ok, probably it wasn’t good enough, but Collis, please, publish something useful for us working with photoshop and not only playing around to create a nice new desktop wallpaper effect.
Look at the interface section: it is soooo poor!!
( )AC March 4th
Nice tutorial, but you can achieve a nice break apart (explosion) effect with Filter > Distort > Displace.
It’s all about to get a good displacement map. In cinema 4d just create a polly and explode it, then export and use it as displacement map.
Good work guys.
( )Mark Bowen March 4th
Hiya,
Nice tutorial. For anyone trying to find the original image then you can just type in jump at http://www.sxc.hu and you should see it appear as one of the first images.
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/950733
Hope that helps.
Best wishes,
Mark
( )Shane March 4th
A very impressive end result. Thanks for the tutorial.
( )parttimer March 4th
Amazing tutorial! cant wait to try it, I love these type of effect but I do agree with Alberto when he says…
quote: “Look at the interface section: it is soooo poor!!”
I would really love to see more interface tutorials!
( )Peter Jensen March 4th
Very nice and simple Tut. You can find the Org. Pic here:
( )http://www.sxc.hu/photo/950733
MarGera March 4th
Thanks for another great tutorial. Also really helpfully that you stated what size document you started with
( )Steve March 4th
Jason,
Check out http://www.soemone.com. That is where this effect is from.
( )lupe March 4th
From Lupe Fiasco’s album cover.
( )b00m March 4th
wow :p
( )Jamesr March 4th
Great tut, learned some great stuff.
( )The Daniel Richard March 4th
Woah. Now that’s what I call awesome! O.O
( )sct March 5th
Awesome tutorial as always.
( )Markus March 5th
Awesome! I just love your light effects! xD
( )mathface March 5th
wow,
( )now we can all make work that looks the same. totaly radical. I’ve been trying to get my designs to have that played out 2002 urban outfitter catalog design look. next time use some futura and throw in some floral patterns, william morris is so hot right now.
Stockvault March 5th
Excellent tutorial! The light effect may be a bit overdone, but the tutorial it self is very good and educational.
( )David March 5th
Impressive. I found the title a tad misleading but found the tutorial to be quite useful. Thx
( )Fredro March 5th
@ Hero: Don’t think that’s really fair, first off this is a free tutorial (and an amazing one at that). You may not like the result, but I know many people who come here not to turn in these exact tutorials into their own work, but rather to learn new skills in the applications that are utilized in these tutorials. Keep in mind that what doesn’t work for you in your “real world” may work wonders for others. The illustrator effects alone in this tutorial will help me on two projects I’m currently working on.
( )Josh March 5th
Just astounding… as always.
( )walter March 5th
nice work you are great a real photoshop master
( )Lukas March 5th
Awesome effect! You got my bookmark on del.icio.us.
( )Dan Lund March 5th
Absolutely amazing!
Makes me wanna work in photoshop yet again – with other stuff that just correcting photos.
Keep up the good work
( )ryan March 5th
that’s really cool, thanks for sharing the links to the brushes you used.
( )r0man.de March 5th
Hey thanks for using my brushes
( )David March 5th
@Fredro – If you LEARNED anything – you have no business designing. There is nothing shown in this ‘tutorital’ but very basic, beginner things you should already know.
@Hero – You are 100% correct. This is very played out design and holds no relevance in todays market.
This site looked promising at first. I was sure someone would come up with a tutorial site that didn’t pander to the non-designer beginner. I keep watching for new posts and keep finding the same poor tutorials. Now they want $9 for additional tutorials. If they’re like the free ones – there is no way I would pay $9 or $0.09.
I get tired of these tutorial sites pandering to the lowest common denominator because its easier to sell to the vast majority of non-designers than it is to write quality tutorials that have merit and usefulness for intermediate to advanced students and professionals.
I would give the pay for site a try just to see what $9 gets me – but I am very sure I would not be able to get a refund if I found it to be more useless garbage as shown above.
Try and change my mind with future content. But I don’t know how much more of this I can waste time looking at.
Cheers.
( )Blueice April 4th
do you have your own site with your own tutorials? as you sound like a real professional.. i can agree that someone with your lvl of talent wouldn’t have need for any of these kind of tutorials. i can only assume, that your tutorials are on another lvl to these, how did you put it, ‘poor tutorials’. i would love to see some of your work (i’m new to this site too, so i don’t know if you’ve posted anything or not) but i’m sure it would be worth a look!
Many thanks
( )ashwin November 19th
do you have your own site with your own tutorials?
( )bweb March 5th
amazing stuff
( )dzovan March 5th
Woooooooow, extraordinary!
( )CMoore March 5th
@David/Hero:
Are you serious? Come on, man, be realistic here. Not everyone in the world has the Photoshop or designing skills you apparently claim to have. Not having seen your work, I can’t make a claim either and I’m not saying mine is mastercraft either.
But on that same token we have the fact that most sites that ‘cater to the lower denomination’ don’t have the same quality of stuff that PSDTuts has. You take a look at any site with PSD tutorials, then look here, I guarantee this one will have the majority of the better tutorials.
Before you and Hero go saying nobody likes these shiny, flashy light tutorials anymore stuff a sock in it. I happen to like them, call me a noob or novice or whatever you like. The stuff I learn from here helps in basically everything I work on after that. And before you flame me like you did Fredro, I’m not a designer. I just like Photoshopping for the fun of it. Ever consider that those two projects Fredro’s doing might just be for personal use? Drop the flaming, it’s not helping out the site at all.
@Fabio:
I love your stuff, everyone else may hate the shiny light effects but I personally love them and yours are amazing. Keep it up and don’t let the flamers shut you down.
( )Terry March 5th
holy crap.. i love this… wow… wait til i do some craziness to my kid’s pics!!!
( )Terry March 5th
@david: lowest common denominator? who are you to judge what is or is not a quality tutorial? everyone starts somewhere, and this incldued you. if you don’t like it, please, PLEASE, submit a tutorial that the rest of us can use. you must be a highly paid master of your craft, so bestow your wisdom upon us plebes!!! please, link us to all the huge accounts you’ve worked on, and please, show us your massive portfolio of never before done photoshop projects!!!
it’s self-centered and hypocritical to put beginners on the fringe, and this is no place for people to down the folks who want to find the basics for this, but can’t afford school.
maybe you should go to another site instead.
@ the rest: keep them coming. i really like fabio’s work flow, and i think that in itself is a help.
peace
( )Brad Frost March 5th
Congrats on all the Diggs. This was an exceptional tutorial.
( )Beelzeboss March 5th
NICE. I have done similar things in the past. But this is alot cleaner. Really nice.
( )Jin March 6th
@david,
i cordially challenge you to link me a tutorial that you find worthy of your time, but i have a feeling you can’t.
as someone who’s been using photoshop since v2, i still browse ps tutorial sites. why? for me, it’s never really about how pretty/practical the end results look. it’s about the process. that’s where you may find something you don’t know. people never cease to amaze me.
( )Terry March 6th
Yeah Jin, you’re right.
i also think that anyone who thinks a decent tut has to have dozens of steps should post one. hell, i’ll pay for their own tutorial site.. not really…
good job team!!!
( )Tom Ross March 6th
That my friend, is amazing. Well done!
( )Brian March 6th
Yeah that David guy has no clue as to what he’s talking about. I’ve been using Photoshop since v3, and trolling around looking for sites with photoshop tutorials off and on for the last 10 years. This site has a lot to offer. Unlike most PS tutorial sites PSDtuts offers tutorials with the end result of a polished professional looking technique/design. PSDtuts is like the Bob Ross of Tutorial sites.
The thing about PS tutorials is that they are meant to show you the endless possibilities in Photoshop. A simple tutorial and a complex tutorial can easily manifest into something much more special if a reader decides to attack the technique taught in a tutorial at a different angle. Much like… I don’t know…. ART SCHOOL. To go off on a rant about how these tutorials are for novices must mean that Dave isn’t trying to hard as an artist to make these tutorials work for him. That or he’s looking for tutorials on how to write Adobe Scripts. If that’s the case then yes Dave… these tutorials are not very advanced from a technical standpoint.
( )WesTwood March 6th
i think i did a pretty good job
http://octavisanderson.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/breakapart.jpg
( )The Daniel Richard March 6th
@WesTwood: Nice one there for yours too! Haha. Very soon we’ll see lots of individuals’ photos with themselves exploding or vaporized.
( )T-Bone March 6th
to the flamers posting in here — there are some good IDEAS in these tutorials (this one included)… that’s what I get from this site. The results of the tuts are pretty cheesy and over the top, but some aspects can be translated to suit the occasional project I’ve worked on.
Use your (supposedly) creative brain to apply some techniques where appropriate, or to give you some starting points to expand on. Or you could stop visiting and leaving non-constructive comments.
keep up the good work psd tuts!
( )Kishore Blog March 6th
Wow!!. Amaging work. Hope u keep more good stuffs here.
http://www.kishoreblog.com
( )Andrique Sondropogolos March 6th
@Morons
Fabio is good. It’s a tutorial for a reason; to show those who don’t know how to do this “simple” thing how to do it. If you’re true designers you shouldn’t be looking for tuts, anyway, you should spend more time writing them
-A real designer.
( )Perre March 6th
Well, if you really work in the graphics sector or study for designer…you see David is right about some things. Expecially this part.
“I get tired of these tutorial sites pandering to the lowest common denominator because its easier to sell to the vast majority of non-designers than it is to write quality tutorials that have merit and usefulness for intermediate to advanced students and professionals.”
The vast majority of non-designers. Its crystal clear what he tries to say here.
( )MyHieu March 6th
Nice tut
( )manicd March 6th
Its not just the finished result that is important its the techniques used to get there. I found the tut very useful thank you.
PS – Which set of BLOOD-grunge brushes did you download from here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes
)
(I can’t see it
Could anyone help please
( )Chaos March 7th
Excellent work congratulations has already implemented some
( )Work and is a pretty good effect Thanks see my work http://design-digitaldream.blogspot.com/
lou March 7th
@manicd
I spent a few minutes looking else where for the brushes and they’re found here I believe: http://krisnreine.com/?page_id=28
( )Myo Kyaw Htun March 7th
You want us to do the same ? But anyway, I got the ideas and the ways you’ve done.
( )Vitthal Roonwal March 7th
I was always looking for such good tutorials, though am a webdesigner and designed over 300 sites but i wanted to know abt the advanced photoshop which now have helped me a great thanks to you all buddy’s
Thanks once again
Brb
( )escanive March 8th
Very neat effect indeed!
( )hawkes March 8th
kostenlose_brushes_photoshop url – error 404
( )SID_seba March 8th
Great work!
)
( )Creativity, is not a mather of tools (only
congratulations
Maicon March 8th
really professional tips!
( )manicd March 8th
@ lou thanks mate I appreciate it.
( )Vishal March 8th
Ultimate. i’m gonna check every tutorial on this site now.
( )tutorial pirate i am. thank you sooooo much for this dude!
alana March 8th
wow, you rock.
( )this is amazing.
this is AWESOME!!
thhhhhaannnnnkkk yyyyyooouuu
Digital Revolutions March 9th
Absolutely fab!
( )Dan Crum March 9th
I have to say, I agree with Hero and David. A tutorial that teaches you to rely on brushes and reuses the same glow effect that is all too common on this site? Wow. Thanks. How about something useful. Not more of the same “look swirling glows!” space fillers. The original text effect tuts, by Collis, on this site were great. They were simple techniques that could be used in a variety of ways to achieve great effects. How about following the trends at least. How about a tutorial on the homemade look or a better explanation on giving things a vintage look than “do exactly what I’m doing or risk ruining the effect.” I mean, why not try and keep people caught up with design trends rather than teaching us how to use the clone tool or makes things glow, etc.
( )ibrahim.x March 9th
simple and cool
i like the way you put your tutorial
keep up the good work
( )Terry March 10th
so, if there are professional people here, aggro’d at the idea of beginners actually learning something, why are they not submitting tutorials? and why is it assumed that photoshop is used only by pros? what about the illustrator, the DIY home enthusiast, or the person who simply does not have the time to go to school or meet other people in this field of work? are amateurs some kind of “dirt”? maybe you should read up on Gestault and take some design classes at the CC if you need help. if you need a tutorial based web site to step up your level of skill so much that everything that is posted is critical, maybe school is a better answer. they serve lessons with lots and lots of steps.
it’s the process people. the end result of an “example” is just that; and EXAMPLE.
good job fabio.
( )red alkolik March 11th
WOW!i dont know what can i say else^^
( )Fernando werner March 11th
Super bro!!!
( )Koolie March 11th
Awesome! I feel inspired and humbled that you would take the time to do a tutorial for all of us.
( )Clear Ice March 11th
Great work! The amount of effort put into this must have been huge! I’m a fan of really cool graphics, and this tops it all. Love it! Pls share more soon!
-clearice
( )metallica March 12th
that’s nice pal .
( )look i wish to have like this work on my mail .
if you can help me by seb\nding them to mine plz .
anyway nice work.
egypt web design March 13th
wow nice
( )Spike March 19th
Nice tut, but it’s ugly as ass.
( )BenRulz March 21st
Hey …awesome tutorial….. u give out such amazing tuts…. really appreciate it for sharing some of ur tips and techniques ….. very clear, understandable and easy to follow ….. detailed tutorials u give out….Keep At It….!!
( )Nix March 21st
Wow! So amazing!!! Great job!
( )BMAn March 22nd
this is awesome tutorial hot simple niceeee
( )Alex March 23rd
Where did you get teh font at the end what is its name???
( )Alex March 23rd
Also, how did you do the lighting/glowing effect ont eh writing?
( )Hendo March 23rd
AMAZING!!!
( )egypt web design March 26th
Great Coll Effects
( )sergio April 10th
excelente tutorial, muy inspirador
gracias!
very nice tutorial!
( )thanks!
creatived April 11th
WOW!!…amazing tut, there is so much to learn here!!
( )3sulblog April 17th
STUNNING effects and final image result… very very nice!!!
( )Good job… I love that!
zetakaene April 23rd
fantastic tutorial, but can you link the images in sxc.hu please
congratz!
( )tokkra May 4th
You are amazing..Wonderful tutorials !!! Keep up the good work !!!;)
( )Olsn May 7th
When i press (W) on my keyboard, the magic WAND tool is shown? I want the blend options up so i can create the lines
, Could some one help me?
( )BT May 9th
Uh, I like the explosions, but I think they’re poorly executed here… It just looks like you’re blowing off her arm and leg… but it’s fun and colorful, so it’s cool? I feel like this idea could be done in a different, more effective way… but I’m not photoshop master, so I guess I can’t complain. I just wish there were something I could use beyond this stock photo.
( )anita mann May 15th
I agree with Hugh Jass. These stupid tutorials really suck big donkey balls actually. I can easily do better while im taking a crap. YOU SUCK!!!!!
( )mightee_mouse May 18th
Nice tut! And thanks for the links to great brushes as well -
( )shadow May 19th
Great tut!
My only problem is that I don’t have any illustrator..
but great nonetheless!
( )Egypt Web Design Company May 31st
wow thanks for the excelente tutorial
( )Rookie artist June 2nd
Couldn’t find the brush. Pls Tell me!
( )Isn’t you mean “Photoshop grunge brush”?
christen harper June 2nd
uhh i love itt.
( )ry July 1st
PLEASE HELP ME. I AM STUCK AT STEP 4!!!
With the Lasso Tool (L), select the girl’s leg like I did, then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. After that, select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill the selection with black. Make sure that you paint the selection.
I can’t even select the LAYER MASK!! What should i do? I can only do that after i duplicate the layer but after i make a selection and paint bucket tool into it, it won’t go black! It won’t cover it. PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!
( )Nilson saavedra July 6th
one of the best and simple tutorial i ever read, its easy and has an amazing effect, really love it
( )Mansoor July 24th
Thanks for Posting.
( )Great Tut.
chris August 4th
nice artwork again…. keep up!!! ^_^
( )anis August 8th
Never imagined before. I’ve tried to make one, but I still can’t achieve like yours
Wonderfull photoshop tutorial!
( )confused August 19th
really good tut but could you replace the links with ones that take you directly to the image/brushes – i spent half my time looking for the damn things
( )WOW...Jzz WOW August 23rd
tht is stunnig….u r my master
( )Jason August 26th
@Fabio – Thanks as always for the tutorial, good tips and ideas
@Those flamming about the glows — There was all of a paragraph describing how to actually make the glowing effect, the following steps were to show that gradients can be used to create the effect in a different way. The glows were not a huge portion of the tut, and I probably spent less time reading over “the same old crap” than I am spending now complaining about your whining. If you are such a great designer and you know all these things… a. stop reading tutorials, b. write some amazing tutorials, I want to see these, and so far I’ve seen none of the complainers respond to any of the other requests for “quality” work…. not even a set of works, let alone a descriptive tutorial, c. try just skipping over these steps…. look at what you may not know(although apparently some of you have all knowledge in the universe, except the ability to realize that without all that knowledge you shouldn’t need sites such as this), and use those portions to your benefit.
I’m not saying that this piece will win awards, and yes, in my opinion, it’s a bit over played with the lights, but there were some good ideas in there, and honestly I have learned as many if not more concepts and techniques at this site as I have reading through Photoshop magazines which I had to pay for.
People just need to quit whining
( )Google Yahoo Merger September 17th
nice! thanks for posting this, very helpful!
( )adobe beginner September 22nd
i just wanna ask how to blend those 2 lines… i cant get it.. thanks.. hoping some of u will help me.. thanks..
( )TC September 28th
Hi, I’m using Photoshop CS3 and I can’t find the Blend Tool anywhere
Does PSCS3 have this tool? I press W and it’s the Wand selection tool for me….
please help
I want to know how to blend those two lines like that!
( )Liath September 30th
Really nice effect !
I still can’t have a decent result, but I’ll do it again and again until I get something good looking.
Thanks again
Liath from France.
( )an4rm fr33dom October 7th
nice tutorial.. i like the effect that you create.. goodjob! thumbs up!
( )sann October 28th
i want some futuristic touch, can u do that?
( )sheepinatorz October 29th
u did amazing on this…………..but ur not very good about giving directions……, some of the stuff u did, where u told us it where to find certain options, they r not where u say they are, im using CS2 on a mac, which maybe ur using cs1 or 3 or elements or something, which may account for it…….but on some of the things, i do exactly as u say, and it turns out completely different, i have tried this tut multiple times with the same results………..i know someone is gonna call me stoopid or something because i supposidley cant follow directions…..but oh well…………ur doin pretty well
( )Daniel November 12th
It’s about the different techniques, not about the outcome. I like the outcome but I’m more interested in the techniques he used. Now, I’m NOT gonna make a copy of this tutorial but I’m gonna copy his techniques and integrate it in my own creations.
That’s what the tuts are for.
( )cjjjj December 1st
cant find the brushes where are they!!!!!
( )Sketchee January 3rd
I like the effect and want to use it for something unlike what you’ve done. To make step 4 work, you have to make a layer from the background. The main image can’t be the background image.
When I got to the step that involved testing the lighting, it didn’t work as shown in the tutorial. I think something must be missing. Your version has it in interesting colors immediately, which shouldn’t work if the colors are only on the clouds. And the dodging does something weird. Anyway, I still love your site as always
( )Flokke January 20th
I don´t understand how this light effects work:
If I place a white brush it is … White!
How is this glowing light effect done?
( )Eric Shafer February 10th
Featured here: http://www.presidiacreative.com/10-amazing-effects-from-abduzeedo/
( )Allie Kelley February 28th
Does this work with Photoshop Elements 6? Cause I cant select anything but all the layers.
( )CAAATT March 12th
I am getting stuck on the 14th step: Illustrator.
( )Is the tool supposed to come up as a circle with a + sign in the middle of it?
who March 13th
Do you know that freiedigitale.at use your artwork on their site?
( )arcyk March 18th
where I find blen options?! please help me
( )Trevor / Maulth April 2nd
Looking on a website solely dedicated to tutorials, as a design “expert” then criticizing it for teaching people new skills is…? Redundant? Ignorant? I don’t know. Good tutorial, I’m definitely not a graphic designer (C++ for me) but I like to dabble, and this is a great tutorial.
( )Ulysses April 18th
I got lost on step ten after making the folder”lights” on top of the other layers. Can someone help me please?. I’m a newbie
( )Sarah April 19th
Looks cool
I’m gonna try it. Does anyone know the name of the font he used?
And to the people flaming:
( )Just leave. If you haven’t noticed, only about 3 people agree with you, leaving the rest of us NOT agreeing with you. If you dislike this site so much then just leave. We don’t want to hear your ranting.
Arjan April 29th
Love it!
Can you please recover the link of the brushes thanks!
( )Muhammad Ahmad May 14th
Nice Tutorial, I’ve applied here
( )http://sheikhnaveed.blogspot.com/
frenchi June 12th
this was too complicated to do… i think you should give more details on the differents steps…. thank you
( )saman July 7th
hai iam irani veri veri goooood
( )Tobia July 11th
I clicked on this tutorial hoping to learn how to make the light effect, rather than be told to go use the brush. So I am a little bit disappointed, but I’m sure I can figure it out on my own given enough time. It is, however, a very good tutorial for beginners. I remember looking at all the shiny glowy wallpapers and hoping I could do that someday. Sure, it’s a bit passé by now, but there’s no need to be offensive about it and vent your frustration on some guy who’s been nice enough to share his knowledge.
( )andy July 13th
hey this is amazing man..but the link for the brush is not working. is there an alternate link? tried the hrisnreine.com one but which is it? thanks. your work is helping me learn psd alot!
( )Vanhardisk July 13th
Seriously, that’s a cool photoshop explosion effect… I mean… seriously..
( )danny July 27th
O_O… This… Is… AMAZING
!
( )Hameed Mohammed August 3rd
I love this! and about the brushes to anyone looking for them, there’s one on deviant art here:
http://kirbymonster.deviantart.com/art/blood-grunge-splatter-brushes-77475931
( )Iura August 29th
u ar my hero !:D
( )andre August 31st
The lightning brushes dont work, sooo disappointed now, because after all that work and making my own style of this tutorial i cant finish it
:(
( )pleaaase fix the link!
赵胜燕 September 6th
It’s very good
( )clippingimages October 20th
I had gone through your tutorials. It was fantastic a have no words to describe it.Thanks very much for the this tutorials page
.I think people who cannot afford to to join classes can do so in this tutorial.
( )alisha October 28th
this confuses me help me comment me at my site
( )Caroline Paul October 28th
I tried it and got an bad mark, so crap job……. don tlose you day job and if this is your day job, hahaha your screwed…. i dont know why anyone would pay for that.
( )egyptian web designer November 6th
thanks it’s so nice tutorial
( )genie997 November 16th
EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
( )ashwin November 19th
fuck u david
( )Alexander June 21st
i mean can you make a picture like that to me? i don’t have pohotoshop
( )