Advertise

Write for Us

About

Usage

Home

Tutorials

Articles

Tips

Sessions

Basix

Videos

Premium

Search...

RSS Subscribers

Twitter Followers

Facebook Fans

166,068

49,129

73,028

Tutorials \ Effects \ Rating:

dacd o E t l es AvneGwfc
Collis on Sep 15th 2007 with 1,072 comments

A dvertise Here

Tutorial Details Program: Photoshop Difficulty: Intermediate CompletionTime: 1 hour

Download Source Files Source files for this tutorial are available to Premium members. Get a Premium Membership

Tweet

Like

1k

In this tutorial, were going to create some really sharp-looking glow effects using a combination of layer styles, the Pen Tool and Color Blending. The end effect is quite stunning and hopefully youll pick up some tips you didnt know before.

e t1 Sp:
As with pretty much every tutorial Ive ever written, we begin with a radial gradient. This one is pretty harsh and goes from a reddish brown color to black. Here are the exact color codes: Foreground color #922f00 Background color #000000

e t2 Sp:
In this tutorial, we actually need a pretty intense center, so what well do is duplicate the layer we just made and set the one above to a blending mode of Color Dodge. There are a few types of blending modes, darkening ones, lightening ones, colorizing ones and inverting ones. Color Dodge is probably the strongest of the lightening ones. As you can see in the screenshot, it produces a pretty full-on center.

Find out more

Already a member? Sign In

Photoshop to HTML
Take your Photoshop skills to the next level by learning how to slice up a PSD into a working standards driven HTML website. Find Out More

e t3 Sp:
Now in our glow effect, it helps to have a nice textured background. So we are going to create a sort of smoky haze. To do this, create a new layer, then make sure you have white, #ffffff, and black, #000000, selected as your background and foreground colors. Then go to Filter > Render > Clouds. This will give you the same random cloud pattern as above. Find us on Facebook

Psdtuts+
Like 73,039 people like Psdtuts+.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

F loe

Uday

Mido

A sif

Saif

Sp: e t4
Now set the opacity of your layer to Overlay and 30% transparency. In some instances this would be enough, but for our needs we want it even smokier looking! So go to Filter > Sketch > Chrome and use default settings of 4 and 7 for detail and smoothness respectively. Actually you can probably mess around with those if you want, but the defaults seem to be fine. When youre done, the result should look a lot smokier (once its overlayed at 30% transparency that is). You can see the result in the background of the next screenshot.

F acebook social plugin

Join our newsletter!

Get weekly updates and an exclusive un-released tutorial when you sign up to our free newsletter. Name Email

e t5 Sp:
Now before we can start making glows, we need to have something to glow. Heres where we break out the pen tool. If you have used the pen tool much I suggest playing around with it a little. There are some tricky things you can do with shortcuts, but for this tutorial you dont need those. In fact all we want to achieve are some nice curves. Fortunately this isnt too hard. I find the trick is not to use too many points. Instead rely on the Pen Tools natural curving and drag the mouse out for each point so you get a big angle. In this S-curve shown above, Ive only used three points, the starting point, the end point and one in between to give it the bend.

Sign Up

Top Selling on Themeforest

U-Design WordPress Theme only $35.00 by internq7 SmartStart WP Responsive H ... only $35.00 by Smuliii

e t6 Sp:
Once you have a nice curve, create a new layer. Then click on the Paintbrush Tool (B) and choose a very thin, hard brush. As you know, soft brushes are the blurry ones and hard brushes are more solid. In this case I suggest using a thickness of 3. Note that you can have any color selected as your brush color because well go over it with a layer style shortly.

Redesign our game company website!

Newport Beach, CA, USA

All Elements of a New Brand Strategy for ...

USA

Awesome designer for a hot eCommerce sta ...

Prefer Chicago but can be anywhere kiev

wordpress developer to duplicate a 2 pag ...

Freelance Website Designer Job

United States

e t7 Sp:
Now switch back to the Pen Tool. You must switch tools in order to do this next bit. Then right-click and select Stroke Path. A little dialog box will appear as in the screenshot. Choose Brush and make sure there is a tick next to Simulate Pressure. This is important as it will give your curve tapered ends which will make it rock! Next right click again and select Delete Path.

More Freelance Jobs...

Photoshop Basix
Just getting started? Start with our basix tutorials on the fundamentals. View All Basix Tutorials

Create a Tutorial, Get Paid!

Have something to teach the world? Want to earn money doing it? Tutorials, screencasts, and articles published here on Psdtuts+ are largely contributed by readers just like you! We'll pay you great money for good content. Find Out More

e t8 Sp:
You should now have something like the above. Just a thin, cool swishy thing.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

e t9 Sp:
Now we add some glows. The easiest way to make our glows is to use layer styles. And the best way to tell you what layer styles to use is to tell you to download the sample Photoshop PSD from the bottom of this page and then open it up and look through them there.

In a nutshell, Ive added two sets of glows. To do this I first use Outer Glow and then because I want a second glow, I change the Drop Shadow settings so that it becomes a glow (you can do this by reducing the Distance and changing the blend mode to something like Color Dodge) Oh and also Ive used a Color Overlay to make the item white so that its like the center of an intense glow.

e t 1: Sp0
So now you have the same line but with a cool glow coming off it. The beauty of using a layer style is that you can copy and paste it to other layers. To do this you just right-click the layer and select Copy Layer Style then create a new layer and right-click and choose Paste Layer Style.

e1 t1 Sp:
So now repeat the same process a couple of times to make more squiggly lines. In this instance, I made one a little thicker by changing the paint brush size before I did the Stroke Path bit of the process. I also made a third line and erased part of it and sorta made it join the other two to look like a cool triangular shape.

e t 1: Sp2
Here Ive added some text in and applied the same layer style to the text layers. Its important to pay lots of care and attention to your text. When youre first starting out, use simple fonts and play with spacing between letters, words and sizes. You can achieve a lot with just some small tricks. Here Ive contrasted the three words by making Glow a lot larger and in regular casing, then made Advanced and FX much smaller, with greater space between the letters and all caps. You can control spacing with text using the Character window. If it isnt already open go to Window > Character and it should appear. Mess about with the different settings until you learn what each controls.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

e t 1: Sp3
Now we add some particles. To do this, create a new layer then select a tiny paint brush size 3 and just paint some dots on. It helps if they are clustered towards the center of the glow so that it looks like they are emanating from there. You can make some of the central ones larger by doubling over on them with a second paint brush dab. Then paste our Glow layer style on to that layer too!

e t 1: Sp4
Now thats looking pretty cool, but it will look even cooler if we give it some subtle coloring instead of this super gaudy red. So create a new layer, and using a radial gradient, draw a blue to white gradient as shown.

e t 1: Sp5
Then set that layer to a blending mode of Color and change the opacity to 50%. Youll see that it turns the image kind of bluish. I think thats looking much cooler already, but just to go that extra step I also created a couple of extra layers, one with some faint yellow and one with faint purple. You can see them in the screenshot above. I set each layer to blending mode of Color and thin opacities so that they all fade together.

e t 1: Sp6
And there you have it: advanced glow effects with a cool color blend and subtle smoky background combined make for a pretty great effect. Just remember to experiment with settings and try applying the glow to different things to see how it turns out. And try different color combinations, some surprising combinations turn out really beautiful. Good luck!

ap D lP SmeS
Download the PSD for this tutorial

Like

1114 likes. Sign Up to see what your friends like.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
Tweet Like 1k

By Collis Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Premium Members
Source Files, Bonus Tutorials & More for all relevant Tuts+ sites in one subscription. Join Now
Sign In

susn i i Dcso
1 ... 19 20 21

0Cmet , n 7 12oms

Add Comment

Comment Page 21 of 21

Brandon Bishop December 22, 2011 at 4:06 am

Thanks for this tutorial it was kick ass! I learned a ton about photoshop from this that I didnt learn in class. haha.
REPLY

marko January 10, 2012 at 7:25 am

Im using Cs 5.5 and the simulate pressure does not work for me ! please help out

REPLY

InternationalTCK March 24, 2012 at 9:11 pm

Same here any help???

REPLY

Chris March 30, 2012 at 9:07 pm

@ InternationalTCK i had the same problem. What you do is change your brush type to the first brush (not the circles) option available under the brushes window. Basically, choose the brush that looks like the stroke makes the same effect as in the tutorial.

raintrap April 4, 2012 at 5:16 am

press b for brush and go to your top option menu. then press the tablet pressure controls opacity button.
REPLY

sonofara January 10, 2012 at 5:13 pm

Thats what i was looking for! thanks for the tutorial

REPLY

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

niru January 13, 2012 at 2:43 am

very fantastic i like it

REPLY

Vincent January 13, 2012 at 7:26 am

Love it so much, very interesting and nice guide! keep up the good work!

REPLY

JK Black January 13, 2012 at 5:38 pm

Awesome!!! Thanks a lot

REPLY

Melissa January 20, 2012 at 5:37 am

Amazing Tutorial! However, like marko, the simulate pressure is not working for me either. I am using CS5 .
REPLY

Irek January 26, 2012 at 1:38 pm

@Melissa pressure effect http://i.imgur.com/9Sg0d.jpg
REPLY

Oscar March 5, 2012 at 1:13 pm

Thanks for adding the link. That help me get the effect on CS5

pretut February 22, 2012 at 7:49 pm

thx nice tutorial

REPLY

Yomi O March 1, 2012 at 5:50 pm

Thanks alot for this tutorial, didnt get the exact thing buh mehhn . i did wonders from the gathered knowledge
REPLY

Hendrik March 6, 2012 at 5:30 am

Hey i dont get the tapered edges when I tick the simulate pressure box any ideas?

REPLY

Rubayiat Azad March 7, 2012 at 3:28 pm

Extremely thanx man.

REPLY

Abdulla March 22, 2012 at 8:44 pm

thanks !!! helpful =)

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

REPLY

aa March 23, 2012 at 2:16 pm

i cant get the smoke layer to go blend with the other layers.. ? wtf!

REPLY

asia April 4, 2012 at 5:46 pm

Thanx a loooooooot. I learnt new techniques and it was really simply explained !! Thank you
REPLY

John April 17, 2012 at 9:39 am

Terrific tutorial thanks very much, regarding the first curving light effect i duplicated the image to have it appear a little stronger (as instructed in your tutorial). When i merge both layers, i find the light effect changes colour, is there a way of retaining the existing colour schemes?
REPLY

1 ... 19

20

21

Comment Page 21 of 21

dao mn AdCm et
Name Email Address URL

Your Comments

Add Comment

Copyright 2012 Envato

Advertise

Suggestions

About Us

Icons by WeFunction

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com