Welcome to the In second volume of Photoshop Mini tutorial series, which is a series I started specifically for Photoshop beginner – to help them understand various aspect of Photoshop by designing something simple but cool.

In the tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this glowing  Floral Pattern in Photoshop. This effect looks cool but the steps are in fact very simple, great for beginners :)

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

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You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Floral Brushset (Pick one from the list)

Cloud Brushset

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 600px * 600px, fill the background with black colour. Create a new layer called “Cloud” with around 40% opacity, use the cloud brush you downloaded, and paint some cloud onto it:

Create a new layer called “background light”,  grab a big soft brush with white colour, and paint as shown below:

As you can see, by doing so you immediately created a nice background to work on.

Step 2

Create a new layer called “floral pattern”, use the brush you downloaded, paint a floral pattern onto it:

Apply the following layer blending options to this layer:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

and you can see now we created some light and shadow effect for the floral pattern:

Step 3

Now we can add a glowing effect to the floral pattern. To do this, simply duplicate the orginal floral layer once, apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to it:

and you will see a glowing edge appear around the floral pattern:

Step 4

Now let’s add some colour to the image. The Color Balance image adjustment layer will do the job. Personally I think it’s a quick and easy way to add colour to an image, without having to use brush and the colour picker.

I chose a golden colour mix: (Settings as shown below)

and you will have the following effect:

Please note that there is no need to use the exact same colour as I used, you’re free the experiment any colour scheme you prefer.

Step 5

Now let’s flatten the image (save a layered copy before you do so). Duplicate the background layer, and apply the following Smart Sharpen filter to it:

As you can, we now have a darkened edge around the floral pattern, also the overall image becomes more crispy and detailed:

Now let’s get on with the bokeh creation. We can do this with brush dynamics (F5).

Create a new layer called “bokeh” on top of all previous layers, grab a around brush with 90% hardness, apply the following brush settings to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Transfer (Other Dynamics)

Tick the Airbrush and Smoothing option:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Duplicate the bokeh layer once, and apply the following Smart Sharpen Filter Settings to the duplicated layer:

Drop the opacity of the duplicated layer to around 80%, you will see now we have a highlighted edge appear around the bokeh:

Note: I personally prefer using Smart Sharpen filter to add the edge, other than using the “Stroke” layer blending option. The former produces a clearer, more detailed result in my opinion.

Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “highlight”, set the layer blending mode to “soft light”, and grab a soft white brush, do a few single-clicks around the floral pattern as shown below:

Finally, add a levels adjustment layer on top, with the following settings: (this will alter the contrast and give the image more depth)

Mask on the levels adjustment layer:

and you will have the following final effect:

That’s it for this beginner-level mini Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Zebra Patterned Crimson Text Effect in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial and some steps can be tricky, but why not have a go :) ?

What I would like to show you in this tutorial in how you can combine the pattern clone stamp with work path to render special effects for your text, and how you can create realistic light and shadow for your environment.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative Version (with more red colour + a bit of Motion Blur in it)

PSD File Download

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Step 1

Creata a new document sized 1300px * 650px. Create a new layer called “floor” and select the lower portion of the canvas as shown below:

Right-click inside the selection and choose “Fill”:

Select the following tile pattern from the “Pattern” category:

Drop the layer opacity to around 40%:

Then perspective the layer as shown below:

add the following layer mask to this floor layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Use the font we donwloaded, type some text onto the canvas as shown below:

Apply the following Drop Shadow blending option to this text layer:

Now in order to make a smooth transition from the text layer to the floor layer, as the following layer mask to the text layer: (with Gradient Fill tool)

Now let’s create the shadow for the text. Firstly load the selection of the text layer by Ctrl + Left-click the thumbnail image on the layer palette, then create a new layer called “shadow” under the text layer, maintain the selection and fill it with black colour, flip it vertically and use the free-transform tool to perspective as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this shadow layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Create a new layer on top of the text layer called “zebra texture”. Load the text layer selection and right-click on it, choose “make work path” option:

Grab the Pattern Stamp Tool from the toolbox:

Choose the Zebra texture from the dropdown window:

Set tolerance to 2.0 pixels:

Choose the Pen Tool, then right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path”:

Stroke the path with Pattern Stamp we just chose:

and you will have the following effect:

Change the layer blending mode to be “overlay” for this zebra texture layer, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now create a new layer under the “shadow” layer called “back light”. Grab the Lasso Tool with a 50px feather setting to draw a selection, then render some cloud inside it:

Hit Ctrl + L to bring up the Levels adjustment tool and apply the following settings:

Use the free transform tool to reduce the size of the cloud, position it behind the text:

Duplicate this light layer a few more times, put them around the text as shown below: (reduce their layer opacity to around 20-30%)

Add the following two adjustment layers to the top of all previous layers:

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect:

Go back to the text layer, change the text colour to be black, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we’re almost done. Flatten the image and duplicate the background layer once, apply the following Reduce Noise filter settings to the duplicated layer: (we don’t want this text effect to be sharp)

I decided to add a line a smaller text in the far distant to make a transition effect for the main text. So I duplicate the background layer again, and apply the following Motion blur filter to the duplicated layer:

Then resize this layer to a smaller scale, then move it up to the position as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this layer:  (use Gradient Tool)

Then reduce the layer opacity to around 30%, you will have the following effect:  (a barely visible, samll text in the far distance)

I added the following two image adjustment layers for final touchups:

Curves

Color Balance

Mask on Colour Balance layer: (for adding image depth)

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial:

Alternative Version (with more red colour + a bit of Motion Blur in it)

That’s for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. If you have any question, just drop me a comment below. Have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Awesome Freestyle Artwork via Mixing Shapes and Dirt Texture in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial and some steps can be tricky, but why not have a go :) ?

Alogn the way, I will show some retouch techniques, the use custom brush and the make of some nice abstract lines and shapes, plus lighting effect skills.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Model

Dirt Brush

Step 1

Create a new doucment sized 880px * 1200px, leave the background color as White. Create a new layer called “texture”, load the dirt brush into Photoshop and use it to paint some texture on it: (set the brush opacity to around 40%)

One thing you need to remember is when you paint this texture layer, try to use a combination of different brushes in the set, and experiement with different brush sizes as you go:

Once you finish the painting, duplicate this texture layer once and use the free transform tool to perspective it as shown below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this layer to around 50%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Load the model image into Photoshop, cut out the girl and paste it onto our canvas, name this new layer as “Model”:

Add the following two adjustment layer to the model layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

Levels:

Layer mask on levels adjustment layer:

Curves:

Layer mask on Curves adjustment layer:

Add a new clipping mask layer for the model layer, grab a soft white brush and paint to the areas as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this new clipping mask layer to “Soft Light”, and you will have the following effect:

I feel the hair of the model need to brighten up a bit, so I created aonther clipping mask layer and used a small white brush with 60% – 70% hardness to paint some white lines on the hair:

Change the blending mode to “Overlay” for this hair painting layer, reduce the layer opacity to around 80%, you will have the following effect:

and here is the overall effect so far:

Step 3

Create a new layer called “Curvy Line” and use the Pen Tool to draw a path as shown below:

Choose a 13px, 100% hardness brush:

Stroke the Path with this brush:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” setting:

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the curvy line layer a few times, resize and rotate those layers, and position them as shown below:

Step 4

Now let’s get on with the curvy line creation. For tutorial purpose, I made a new document in Photoshop.

Create a new layer and use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a seletion as shown below:

Fill the selection with a colour of your choice:

hit Ctrl + T and right-click on the rectangle, choose “Distort”:

Then Hold the Alt key and Drag the bottm right corner of the rectangle to distort it as shown below:

Then duplicate this layer a few times, rotate and resize each layer as shown below: (use colour balance and hue adjustment tool for colour variation)

Then merge the duplicated layer together:

Hit Ctrl + T and right-click on the shapes, choose “Warp” option:

Warp the shapes as shown below:

That’s it, you can use those warped shapes in your image. You can choose you own colour and size, no need to following the exact colour in my image:

Apply the shapes in different location will add depths and variety for your image:

Step 5

This step is optional. I personally feel like adding a bit more depth and variety to the image by have a “shadow” copy of the girl on the canvas somewhere.

Create a new layer called “Girl Shadow” just below the model layer, then load the selection of the model layer and fill the selection with Gray colour:

Resize this layer to a very small scale, flip it horizontally and position it as shown below: (erase the top right part of the girl so it blends into the background)

I added a new layer called “shadow” with “Soft light” blending mode, and use a soft black brush to paint some shadow on the foot area:

Optional: add some more abstract lines around the canvas with Pen Tool Strokes for more variety:

Now we can add some overall shadows and highlights on the image by create a new layer on top of all previous layers, use a soft brush with black or white colour, painting on the new layer as shown below:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Now we can apply some final touches to the image. Flatten the image (save a layered copy before you do so), then duplicate the background layer once, apply the following Smart Sharpen filter to the duplicated layer:

We can also add some lighting effect to the image by duplicate the background layer once more, and apply the Angled Strokes filter to it, with the settings below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this angled strokes layer to around 40%, you will see now we have some really nice lighting effect as shown below:

On left leg:

Around the chest area:

I also add a color balance adjustment layer to image with the following settings:

and you will have the following final effect:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make planet, star and meteor impact in Photoshop in a quick and effective manner. This is intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a little tricky, but why not have a try :)

Here is a preview of  the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

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OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Soil Texture

Step 1

Create a new document sized 740px * 700px, fill the background with black colour. Create a new layer called “planet”, and use the Elliptical Marquee Tool with 1px feature, hold down Shift Key and draw a circle as shown below:

Press Shift + F5 and fill the circle with white colour:

Move this circle to the bottom right corner of the canvas:

On this planet layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

New I would like to add some irregularly lighting around the planet. To do this, add a layer mask on the planet layer as shown below:

and here is the effect after applying the layer mask:

Load the “Soil Texture” into Photoshop, load the selection of the planet layer and move the selection onto the soil texture, then copy and paste a piece of soil onto our canvas as shown below: (make sure you fit the selection to the planet circle we drew before)

Change the blending mode of this soil layer to “Overlay”, drop the layer opacity to 65%, you will have the following effect:

Add the following adjustment layer to the soil texture layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Levels

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now let’s add a bit of cloudy effect around the planet to make it look more mysterious. Create a new layer called “cloud” and use the Lasso tool with 50px feather to draw a selection as shown below:

Render some cloud inside the selection as shown below:

Press Ctrl + L to bring up the Level adjustment tool, apply the following settings to add some contrast in the cloud:

Warp the cloud as shown below:

Then resize and rotate the cloud if necessary, and make a few duplicates of the cloud layer, scatter them around the planet to areas shown below:

Keep adding more cloud effect around the planet by duplicate the cloud layer a few times, adjust the layer opacity along the way to fine-tune the effect:

Step 4

Now let’s add a simple meteor effect to the planet. Create a new layer and use a big soft brush with white colour, do a single click to the area shown below, adjust the brush size accordingly:

Duplicate this light layer twice, change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “soft light”:

Then create a new layer, this time use a smaller soft white brush, do a single click to the spot shown below:

Duplicate this smaller light layer twice, and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “overlay”, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, use a soft white brush and do a single click to the position shown below:

Distort this dot as show below:

Hit Enter, then apply the distort option again as shown below:

Add a Curves adjustment layer on top to tweak the image contrast a bit:

and here is the effect I have so far:

Step 5

Now let’s add a new layer called “Star” on top of all previous layers, fill the layer with black colour, and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the following settings:

Change the blending mode of the star layer to “Screen”, you will have the following effect:

Of course we don’t want the entire canvas to be covered with noise, so use a soft eraser to remove the areas where you don’t want the noise to appear:

For add some depth to the star field, we can use the dodge tool to highlight centain part of the image where you want the star to become brighter than others:

For tutorial purpose, here is a before and after view of the dodge tool so you can the effect: (the setting for Dodge Tool is Midtone, and Exposure 70%)

Before:

After:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Ok we’re nearly done. For the final tune-ups, I flattened the image, (good idea to save an extra copy before you do so), duplicate the background layer once and applied the Smart Sharpen filter on the duplicated layer:

I also added a colour layer on top and added some color to the areas indicated below with a soft brush:

The area where meteor effect is:

and the bottom left portion of the planet:

For adding some painting effect to the image, you can again duplicate the background layer, then use the “Accented Edges” filter under the Brush Strokes option on the duplicated layer with the following settings:

As you can see, certain part of the image will have some brush stroke effect:

and the image become a bit more painting-like:

You can also add a layer mask to hide certain parts which you don’t want the painting effect to show:

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Hi there, welcome to the 2nd volume of the “Inspirational and Creative Web Links From PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page” series! In this post, I hand-picked 15 Inspirational and Creative Web Links From PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page, out of hundreds of links I collected in the past few months.

Meanwhile, If you wish to get more, simply join the PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page. Fresh Photoshop and design links are added everyday.

For your convenience, I have put those links into 3 categories: Photoshop tutorials, Design inspirations and other Photoshop resources.

Here goes the list, hope you enjoy them and find them useful!

Photoshop Tutorials

Creating Retro Folded Typography Using Photoshop

Create Blood and Milk Typography Poster in Photoshop

100% Non-destructive manipulation: Create a glamour scene in Photoshop

How to Break an Egg in Photoshop

Making a Book of Magical Playground Scene

Design Inspirations

40 Creative Advertisements With Unexpected Ideas

33 Amazing Examples of Monochromatic Photography

40 most breathtaking landscape wallpapers to adorn your desktop

Triangle Poster Design Inspiration: 35 Mind-Blowing Examples

25 Beautiful 3D Abstract Artwork

50 Informative and Well-Designed Infographics

Other Photoshop Resources

The Top 30 Text Effect Tutorials for Awesome Results

40 Handy Photoshop Custom Shape Sets: Save Time

35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop

15 Awesome and Creative Fonts to Download

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy this collection and find those links useful. If you wish to get more, simply join the PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page. Fresh Photoshop and design links are added everyday.

Cheers and have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create Awesome Splashing Water Text Effect in Photoshop. Along the way, you will learn how you can incorporate water splash brushsets into your text and create great effect from that. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Water Splashing Brush

Lake

Font

Step 1

Create a new document sized 940px * 700px, fill the background layer with black. Load the Lake stock image into Photoshop, use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather setting, draw a selection of the lake portion:

Copy and paste the selection on to our canvas, use a big soft brush to erase its edges, and reduce its layer opacity to around 60%. The effect is as shown below:

Duplicate the water layer twice, move the duplicated layer to the left and right of the original water layer, as shown below: (set the layer opacity to slightly lower than the original water layer to create depth)

Duplicate the original water layer once more, resize it to a smaller piece and position it to the center, then increase the layer opacity to 100%:

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of all layers created so far:

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect so far: (centre portion highlighted, and that will be the text will be placed)

Step 2

Now use any font you like, type a single letter on the canvas as shown below:

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay:

Stroke

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now let’s add some noise to the text and get ready for the water splashing effect later on. Create a new layer on top of the text called “noise”, load the selection of the text layer and fill the selection with black colour, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the following setting:

The effect after you apply the noise filter:

Change the blending mode of thie noise layer to “screen”, drop the layer opacity to around 35%, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer on top of the noise layer, name it “light and shadow”, use a combination of black and white brush, paint it as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this light and shadow layer to “Overlay” – as you can see, this add some lighting contrast to the text:

Step 4

Now we can paint some water splashing effect around text. Create a new layer called “water splash” and load the water splash brushes into Photoshop, choose some brushes from the set and paint around the text, as shown below:

Make sure when you paint the water splashing effect, use a combination of big and small sized brushsets, also adjust the flow and opacity of the brush, DO NOT just use one setting for the whole thing:

Keep adding more water splashing around the text – to be more creative, paint some water streams dropping from the edges of the text:

For the water streams, I used a 6px, soft white brush to paint in addition to the water splashing brush, as shown below:

Use the same technique to paint the water stream on the left:

You can use a small, soft white brush to draw around the edge of the text to create some waterflow/highlight effect:

Highlight effect for the text edges:

here is the effect you will be aiming to achieve so far:

Step 5

Now we will make the water splash around the text sharpen a bit. To do this, duplicate the water splash layer you’re painting on once (if you have searval layers for the water splash, group them first, then right-click on the group and choose “merge group” option).

Apply the following Smart Sharpen filter setting to the duplicated layer:

and you can see the water splash sharpened and become more visible:

Now create a new layer called “shadow” under the original text layer, grab a black soft brush and paint some shadow on the water and under the text, as shown below:

Optionally, you can add more water splashing effect around the text:

To make the text effect more dramatic, you can add some misty effect by create a new layer named “mist” just above the background layer, use a Lasso Tool with 50px feather, draw a selection around the text as shown below:

Render some cloud inside the selection, drop the layer opacity of this mist layer to around 50%, and you will have the following misty effect:

Step 6

Now we’re into the final stage of this tutorial. I feel like adding some highlights around the text, so as to make the certain parts stand out. To do this, create a new light on top of all previus layers, use a small white soft brush to paint (single-click) to the points shown below:

Now you can also use the Distrot option (available when you press Ctrl + T, then right-click) to adjust the shape of the light, to fit the angel of the latter:

I added one Color Balance image adjustment layer just to add a bit more light blue colour into the image:

Layer Mask on the Color Balance adjustment layer:

and you will have the following final effect:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool Abstract Artwork via Custom Brushsets and Particle Effect in Photoshop. I will demonstrate how you can create your own brushset and use them to add particle effect to the image to spice it up. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative Light Version:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Girl

Some Grunge Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px, fill the background with a light grey colour, and some random lighting and grungy texture on it as shown below:

Load the “girl” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the girl from the rest of the image, place her to the lower left side of the canvas:

To bring out some light on the girl image, add the folloing two adjustment layers onto it (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Now create new layer, and random paint some abstract textures around the girl:

Now apply a layer mask on this abstract painting layer. On the layer mask, use a mixture of grungy, halftone, and hard circle brush, as shown below:

Now let’s add some light strips. Create a new layer and grab a soft round brush, do a single click on the top edge of the canvas:

Compress it down as shown below:

Rotate this light strip as shown below:

Duplicate this light strip layer a few times, scatter them around the girl for more effect:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

I decided to turn this image into a darker version (just my personal taste), so I went ahead and add the following two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Levels

Add the following layer mask on the Levels adjustment layer: (as you can see, I apply some light grungy texture, plus some hard circle brush on where the girl is)

Curves

Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now we can practice some Pen Tool techniques. Create a new layer and draw a work path as shown below:

Right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path” with a 9px hard circle brush:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” setting:

Now you will have a curvy line, you can use free transform to distort, rotate it for more variety:

In the mean time, you can try a softer and bigger brush for stroking the path, also scatter the duplicated curvy lines around for more effect:

Step 5

Now let’s make a custom brush for adding some little particle effect. Create a new file called “brush” (size 200px * 200px) and use a the Pen Tool to draw a shape like this:

Right-click on the shape and choose “Fill Path …”:

Fill it with black colour:

Now make the background layer transparent: (after you fill the shape with black colour)

Now go to “Edit > Define Brush Preset…”:

Save this brushset, then bring up the brush presets (F5) and apply the following settings:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the Airbrush, Smoothing, Protect Texture options. Then try and do some random painting on the canvas (create a new layer first) and test out the effect:

Combine the Free Transform tool, distort, rotate and warp the particles for extra effects:

Apply the particles random on the canvas as shown below: (you can also adjust the brush size, flow and opacity as you go)

Step 6

OK let’s do some final tune-ups. I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer, apply the following Smart Sharpen filter on the duplicated layer:

Color Balance

Layer Mask on the Color Balance Adjustment Layer:

Levels

and here is the effect you’ll have:

The main part of the tutorial concludes here, however you can still experiment different colour balance settings, filter effect and so on:

a light version:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool-looking, awsome glowing edge text effect in Photoshop. Have a try!

Along the way, we will practice the use of Pen tool, layer blending options, texture painting and some image adjustments in Photoshop.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

alternative version with cloud and more lighting effect:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1300px * 780px, fill the background with black and create a new layer called “texture”, grab some grungy brushsets from the sites such as qbrushes.net or brusheezy.com, paint some texture on it:

After you’ve done the painting, hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click on the texture, choose “perspective” and narrow the top border the texture:

After you perspective the texture, scale the texture down as shown below:

Use a big soft brush to erase the edges of the texture so it blends into the background:

Duplicate this texture layer, resize it to a smaller piece, rotate and position the duplicated layer as shown below:

Duplicate the grungy texture layer once more, this time position it to the right:

Step 2

Now type some texts on the canvas. You can use any text you like, the one I used for this tut can be downloaded here.

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Stroke

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Now we’re onto creating the level effect for the text. We can do this by simple duplicated the original text layer twice, adjust the layer opacity of each text layer according to the settings below:

Move each layer a bit away from each other:

and this is the overall effect so far:

Now we will add the glowing edge effect for the text layer. To do this, load the selection of the text layer (any one of the three):

Click on the Rectangular Marquee tool (or press “M” key):

then right-click inside the selection, choose “make work path”:

set tolerance to “2.0″ pixels:

and you will have the following work path created around the text:

click the Pen tool symbol from the toolbox, right-click on the work path and choose “stroke path”:

Use the following 5px hard round brush:

and with “Simulate Pressure” setting enabled:

Stroke the work path. You will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some lights on the bottom of the text so it blends better with the texture. To do this, create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “light” and grab a big soft brush, do a single-click as shown below:

Compress this light layer and move it the bottom of the text:

Use Warp tool to adjust the light, in order to fit the curve of the texture:

Step 5

Now let’s add some shadow for the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “shadow”, load the selection of the one of the text layer, fill the selection with black colour:

Hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click, choose “Flip Vertical”:

Perspective this shadow layer as shown below:

Apply the following Gaussion Blur settings to it:

Move the shadow layer down and change its blending mode to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now create a new layer on top of all previous layer, name it “Abstract line” and grab the Pen Tool, draw a random path as shown below:

If you feel like some adjustments, you can hold “Ctrl” key and drag the anchor points to change the path:

Stroke the path using the same settings as previous step: (5px hard round brush, simulate pressure)

Now add a layer mask on this abstract line layer to hide some portion of the lines behind the text:

(Hint: to quickly add this mask, load the selection of the top-most text layer, then click on the layer mask, and go to Edit > Clear to clear out the text portion)

You can see by adding this layer mask we can hide the parts of the abstract line:

You can also duplicate this abstract line layer a few times for more effect (disable the layer mask for the duplicated layers, and resize those layers for depth)

Step 7

OK we’re nearly done. To finish up this effect, we can add a few adjustment layer to fine-tune the color and lighting contrast.

I added the following adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Color Balance

Curves

and here is the final effect for this tutorial:

I also made an alternative version with cloud and extra lights added to it: (click to enlarge)

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

After some thoughts about future articles/tutorials on PSD Vault, I decided to start a new series: Mini PS tutorial. In this series, I will include some very simple Photoshop tutorials designed for Photoshop beginners. The aim of those mini-tutorials are simple: to familiarise you with a variety of Photoshop tools and show you how to combine them to produce great effect for your design.

The effect are mostly abstract, and you can apply them to a wide range of design works you might have, to spice things up :)

In this first volume of Photoshop Mini tutorial series, I will show you the steps I took to create this Simple Abstract Shining Wave Line in Photoshop in just 5 steps. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect we will be creating:

Alternative version:

PSD File Download

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No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 470px * 330px, fill the background with black color. Create a new layer called “baseline” and grab a big white brush with 0% hardness, do a single-click on this new layer:

Hit Ctrl + T and enable the free tranform tool:

Compress this dot with the free transform tool, make sure you hold the “Alt” key while drag the top edge:

Reduce the layer opacity of this baseline layer to around 60%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Duplicate this baseline layer once. On the duplicated layer, again we use the free-tranform tool to scale it to a smaller size, and position it to the place as shown below:

Grab a smaller soft white brush, and do a few single-clicks along the baseline for some variety:

Step 3

Ok let’s make a new brushset. Hit “F5″ and bring up the brush window, apply the following brush presets:

Shape Dynamics

Other dynamics:

Make sure to tick the “airbrush”, “smoothing” and “protect texture” settings. Save the brushset if you wish.

Then use the Pen Tool, draw a work path as shown below:

Hit “Ctrl + Shift + N” and create a new layer called “abstract lines”, right-click and choose “Stroke Path”:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” on the new window:

and here is the effect you will have:

Step 4

On this abstract line layer, apply the following “Motion Blur” settings:

Hit “Ctrl + F” and re-apply this blur effect a few more times, and you will have following effect:

Use the free transform tool to scale it as shown below:

For variety, we can duplicate this abstract line layer a few more times, and scatter them around the baseline:

We can also add some highlights to the abstract line by duplicate the baseline layer a few times, and drag the duplicated layers to the top, resize each of them to smaller sizes and rotate them 90 degree clockwise: (increase the opacity to around 90% for the duplicated layers)

Step 5

To fine-tune the image, we can add the following adjustment layers to the image:

Curves

Color Balance

Levels

To add some particle effect around the lines, we can use the smart sharpen filter: (settings shown below, make sure you flatten the layers first)

and this is the final effect I have for this tutorial:

You can also experiment different colour scheme, here is an alternative version for this tutorial:

That’s it for this beginner-level mini Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

We all know Photoshop is a tool that can produce practically any effect you want with images. However in order to produce the effect you want, you will need lots of practices and the right guidance. Luckily in this information age, there are lots of free Photoshop tutorial around to teach you how to achieve some amazing effect via Photoshop.

In this post, I will showcase you 15 Fantastic (fresh) Photoshop Tutorials from the Design Community. Hopefully they will be of use to you and inspire you in whatever you’re trying to make.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

Create A Dynamic Shattering Text Effect

Floral 3D Text Effect

Colorful Plexi Text Effect using Photoshop

Create Stylish Pinky Portrait in Photoshop

Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorial: Add vector flair to model shots

Create an Explosive Abstract in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

Create an Awesome Funky Text Effect

How to create retro sunflower poster in Photoshop

Creation of “Get Digitised” – Photoshop CS tutorial

Photoshop Tutorial: Create gorgeous photomontages

How to create Fantacy Woman in Amazing Photo Manipulation

Create a Falling Fantasy Photomanipulation using Painting Techniques

Making of ‘City Of Angels’

Photoshop Tutorial: Create fashion-inspired photo illustrations

Create Jungle Text  in Photoshop

That’s it for this post! Hope you find it useful and inspirational. Remember if you like those tutorial, drop a comment to the authors and let them know :)

Until next time, have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show the steps I took to create this awesome grungy style artwork with Vexel Hair in Photoshop.  Have a try!

Along the way, I will show you some paint techniques I used to make the hair and the surrounding grungy textures. We also will be using Pen Tool a lot in this tutorial, so if you’re not family with it, check out this post.

Here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

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Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Grungy Brushsets (Pick some from the list)

Model

Step 1

Create a new document sized 700px * 950px, use the grungy brushsets from the list and paint some texture around the edges of the canvas, as shown below: (when you paint the texture, make sure you adjust the flow and opacity, and don’t just use one brush for the entire canvas)

Create a new layer and grab another grungy brush, this time with a bigger brush size but a lower opacity, fill the centre portion of the canvas:

Step 2

Load the “model” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the model using whatever method you prefer (I found the quick selection tool here is probably the quickest).

As you can see this model has short hair, which is nice but personally I think it would be better with long hair in this occasion. So i decide to extend her hair (which I will show you in step 3) and also add some textures around her to blend her body with the surroundings.

I erase the outer portion of her hair with a soft brush:

I also added some grungy texture on the bottom of the model for support:

and some white texture around the model:

plus some dark texture around the violin and her arms:

The important thing to remeber here is when you paint the textures, make use of the size, opacity and flow settings for the brush – this way you can create more depth to the image and add variety.

I added some hair on the shoulder with a 3px, 75% hardness brush with a dark grey color:

Also I paint some more hair on top to form a head shape:

Step 3

Now we can get to the fun part of the tutorial – the hair creation :)

Grab the Pen tool and create a path like this:

Stroke the Path with the brush settings as shown below: (make sure you tick “simulate pressure” setting when you stroke)

you will have the following hair-like effect:

duplicate it and make them into a bunch (around 10-12 of them), then group all those hair into one folder, name this folder as “hair group”:

Put the bunch onto the model’s shoulder part:

Keep adding more hair by duplicate the “hair group” a few more times:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now let’s add some abstract lines around the model. I created a brush with the following brush dynamics:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Also tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” options.

Create a new layer below the model layer called “abstract lines”, and use the brush to paint some dots as shown below:

Apply the following motion blur settingss to it:

then Warp it as shown below:

Once you finish the warping, duplicate it a few times and put them to the positions as shown below: (you can flip, resize them as you see fit)

Step 5

Now we can add another layer of hair to the model for some variation and depth. Use the same method as the previous described, but choose a lighter colour (grey) this time, make some hair as shown below: (don’t forget to group them once you make around 10 of them)

Duplicate the hair group a few more times to add more lighter colour layer:

To blend the two hair layers together I added a new layer on top of all layers and use a soft round white brush to paint a layer of light to the position as shown below: (set blending mode to “Screen” and drop the layer opacity to 60%)

I added the following two adjustment layers to fine-tune the image a bit:

Curves

Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

Color Balance (set blending mode to “soft light”)

I also Smart Sharpen the image a bit and add some lighting around model, and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learnt something new :) of course you can further enhance the final effect by adding more objects and textures, but that’s totally up to you.

Also if you have any question about this tut, drop me a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Until next time, have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Ultra-Shining Text Effect with Bokeh and Abstract Texture in Photoshop. Have a try!

Along the way, you will learn the method used to create lighting effect, bokeh, image adjustments, plus an rather interesting way of creating those little flying/falling light particles :)

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

A Bold Font (You can choose any one from the list)

Abstract Brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 550px *600px, grab the Gradient Tool from the toolbox and fill the background as shown below:

As you can see this gradient color is different from the final effect color – this is because initially I thought it would be better to use a dark gradient fill in the beginning, just for experimental purpose. I can always change the colour later on with image adjustments.

Grab the type tool and type a big text (using a font you downloaded from the list) on the centre of the canvas, name this text layer as “mother text”, reduce its opacity to 40%:

Apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Type another smaller size letter on the canvas, name this type layer as “child text”, drop its opacity to around 30%, use the free transform tool to rotate it a bit so it looks like falling from the top:

Apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop shadow

Gradient Overlay

Then duplicate this child text layer a few times, rotate each duplicated layer and scatter them around the mother text:

Step 3

Now let’s add some fancy lighting effect for the text. Create a new layer named “light strip bottom” below the mother text layer, use a soft white brush to do a single click on the top of the canvas:

Compress this layer to a very thin strip with the free trasform tool (scale):

Move this strip to this bottom of the text, and change the blending mode to “soft light”:

Now let’s add some highlights for the text. To do this, create a new layer on top of the “light strip bottom” layer, name it “highlight” and use a soft round white brush to do a single click as shown below:

Compress it to a thin size:

Move it over the bottom light strip and change the blending mode to “overlay”:

You will have the following effect: (you can duplicate this highlight layer a few more times for deeper effect)

Use the same method as the highlight layer creation (apart from the compression), add a few more lighting source around the text:

Step 4

Now let’s add some bokeh to the text. Thanks to the dynamic brush function in Photoshop, it’s really simple to make the bokeh effect.

So grab a round white brush with 80% hardness, apply the following dynamic brush settings to it:

Shape dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

and tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” option.

Use this brush we just made to paint some bokeh around the text, make sure you adjust the brush size along the way:

As you can see, I used smaller bokeh on the top for more depth:

Step 5

Now let’s add some flying/falling light particles to the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, name it as “particles”, grab a small round white brush, do a single click anywhere on the canvas:

Use the Warp Tool to warp this dot as shown below:

You may have to warp it twice for a more curvy shape:

Once you finish the warping, simply duplicate this particle layer and scatter them around the text: (experiment with blending mode as you duplicate them, try “soft light”, “overlay”, and “normal” mixing together. Also adjust the layer opacity for each layer so that they look different and as a result the image can have more depth)

Optional: for add some elegance to the text, you can duplicate the “light strip bottom” layer and resize and rotate it, and place the smaller strip on the bottom of the text:

Step 6

Now we can add some abstract texture onto the texture. Create a new layer called “texture” above the background layer, use the abstract brushset we downloaded and paint to the positions as shown below:

OK, we’re pretty much done. For some fine-tuning, I added two adjustment layers on top of all previous layer:

Color Balance

Curves

Optionally, you can also flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and add the following “accented edge” (Filter > Brush strokes > Accented edge) filter effect to it:

This will create some blurry and melting effec to the text:

Add the following layer mask to the duplicated layer so it doesn’t look blurry for the whole canvas:

Smart sharpen the flattened background layer a bit, and here the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learn something new :)

Until next time, have a great day!

Photoshop is an amazing tool that can do almost everything you can think of with an image – but it is also very tricky to learn from scratch if you’re beginner. Therefore, it’s vitally important to form a few good habits right from the start and as a result, you will find yourself better positioned for any future Photoshop work you may encounter.

In this post, I will show you 5 Good Photoshop Habits You Must Form Right from the Start. Personally I think it will be quite beneficial for you to try and adopt those good practices, especially if you consider using Photoshop as a working tool and be professional with it.

The version of Photoshop I use here is CS4, but the points mentioned here should apply well for older version, too.

Habit 1: Get Your Workspace Setup Right, and Memorise Keyboard Shortcuts

Have a comfortable workspace setup for your Photoshop can make your life much easier in terms of the various task you’re trying to achieve in Photoshop. Have the right arrangement window position, layer palette layer, brush panel setup can get you a long way.

In the case of CS4, you will find a list of pre-defined workspace in window > workspace:

You can also drag and drop windows to your desired position:

and save them as your own favourite workspace setup for future use:

Give your workspace a name:

Another feature is Keyboard shortcuts – you can define them here:

this will bring up a list of shortcuts and you can make changes there:

You can also summarise them by pressing the “Summarize” button:

This will ouput a .htm file – I suggest you print this out and hang them somewhere easy to see:

I don’t have to mention the benefit of using shortcuts – after all, they are “shortcuts” to the art of Photoshop.

Habit 2: Don’t be lazy, Name Your Layers

OK, everybody is lazy in some way. But no matter how lazy you’re, name those layers you created in Photoshop! It has two major benefits:

• You will remeber what you did to your design, 15 days ago. Because the layers are named and structured.
• It will help others to understand your design better, and avoid abusive comments (especially if you work in a collaborative environment)

For instance, the screenshot below doesn’t make any sense:

We can give the layer some meanful names:

The named layer will help you remember what you did in the past, and help others understand your layer structure better.

Habit 3: Use Layer Blending Options Wisely

Layer Blending Option are used quite frequently by designers. It is quite a powerful feature where you can apply lots of effects to one layer:

Obviously, as a beginner, you tend to add on as many blending options as possible to make your design “POP”:

Sometimes, it is better keep things simple:

and the result may be better:

So use those blending options wisely :)

Habit 4: Learn Pen Tool, and Master it

Yes, Pen Tool is probably one of the trickiest tool in Photoshop to learn. I’m sure some people may choose to ignore it and use other tools instead.

I’m not sure how many people here have used Pen Tool (the icon with a little pen) in Photoshop before, but personally I think it is quite a useful tool when it comes to outlining and creating custom shapes.

In the beginning the Pen Tool can be a bit awkward to use, but once you practice and get used to it it will become a very handy tool for you, especially when you are trying to outline objects with complex lighting and backgrounds.

Here are some tutorials I found on the web covering the use of Pen Tool in Photoshop:

How to Use the Pen Tool in Photoshop: A Tutorial on Outlining Objects

Pen Tool Tutorial – Creating Selections With Photoshop’s Pen Tool

Photoshop Pen Tool (Video Tutorial)

You may find once you master the Pen Tool, you can use it to create a lot of elegant effects and make precise selection for your objects. Definitely worth the trouble.

Habit 5: Use Layer Mask More Often

That’s begin this part with a scenario:

You have an image (a flying bird in this case), and you decide to erase some parts of the bird so it looks like something else. But after a few hundred steps later, you found you probably overdid the image a bit:

Naturally, you seek help from the history window, try to reverse a few actions:

But often you find the list isn’t long enough to record your messiness, even if you go to the very top:

And you may have to start over again from the original image:

Worse still, you have a bunch of unnamed layers and objects mixing together, and you don’t even know where to begin:

So, to avoid the above frustrations, add a layer mask to the layer you want to modify – in case, you’re erasing some parts off the bird:

And you realise you made a mistake and erased the wrong part, or change your mind, you can simply right-click the mask and delete it:

And you can have your bird back just like that:

Put it simply: layer mask gives you extra protection against accidental mess-ups and save your time by not having to go back to the very beginning.

That’s it for this post! I hope this would help beginner learn something useful and try and form those habits before it’s too late. After all, you will be the one who benefits from it, eventually.

Till next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, i will show you the steps I took to create this epic Fantasy Style artwork “Lost in Memory” in Photoshop. I combined the meteor effect, some matte-painting tricks plus lighting effect in this tutorial. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Version 1

Version 2 (this is an alternative version with a darker contrast)

PSD File Download

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Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Cloud brush

Rust

Mountain 1

Moutain 2

Palace

Bridge

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1400px * 800px, fill the background with black colour. Load the “Rust” image into Photoshop, select a portion of the rust texture as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our canvas, resize it to fit the height and width of the canvas, then apply the following motion blur settings to it:

Add the following adjustment layers to this texture layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and white

Curves

Levels

Apply the following layer mask to the texture layer:

The reason I added the mask is when I start this artwork, I’ve already made a plan of how each object will be placed, and here is an indication of it:

Obviously by adding the layer mask, we can hide those areas that we don’t want the texture to be shown.

Step 2

Load the “cloud brush” into the Photoshop, create a new layer called “cloud” above all previous layer, and paint some cloud on it: (adjust the flow and opacity of the cloud brush to a low level, and don’t just use one brush, use the lot!)

Load the “Mountain 1″ image into Photoshop and cut out the mountain portion of the image, paste it onto our canvas, resize and position it to the left side of the canvas, and name this layer as “mountain left”:

Add the following layer mask to this “mountain left” layer: (this hide the edges and make a smooth transition, use a combination of a soft round brush and chalk brush to achieve this, make sure you adjust the flow and opacity along the way)

Add the following adjustment layers to this mountain left layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Levels

Curves

Here is the effect so far:

Step 3

As you can we have a river flowing on the bottom of the moutnain – somehow I feel it’s a just too short and I decide to extend it a bit.

To do this, go back to the “mountain 1″ image, select the river portion of the image, copy and paste the selection on our canvas. Name this layer as”river”, resize it to smaller size as shown below:

Erase the edges with a soft brush:

Add the following adjustment layers to this river layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Curves

For more variety, duplicate this river layer one more time and move it to the right side, apply the same black and white, curves adjustment settings as before:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Load the “Mountain 2″ image into Photoshop, cut out the following portion of the mountain and paste it onto our canvas, as shown below:

Name this layer as “mountain right”, add the following layer mask to this layer:

Add the following adjustment layers to this texture layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and white

Now we move on to the palace bit of the image. Load the “palace” image into Photoshop, cut out the palace portion (i found the quick select tool is probably the best tool here) and paste it onto our canvas. Position it on top of the right mountain, resize it to fit the size of the mountain:

Erase the edges of the castle with a soft round brush (you can use chalk brush with a really low opacity and flow to erase some parts of the palace, to create a old and rusty effect)

Add the following adjustment layers to this palace layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Curves

Here is the effect so far:

Step 5

Now we can spice up the fantasy effect a bit by doing some cloud warping. If you are not familiar with this technique, check out this post here on PSD Vault.

The point I would like to mention is once you finish the cloud warp, experiment the layer blending mode with it, don’t just leave it to “normal”. For instance, I used the “screen” blending mode for the following cloud:

Also duplicate the cloud layer, move them around to the positions shown below for more lighting and depth:

Once you’re happy with the cloud, load the “bridge” stock image into Photoshop, cut out and portion of the bridge and paste it onto our canvas. Name this layer as “bridge” and put it under the “mountain left” layer and “cloud” layer we created in the beginner of the tutorial, erase the edges of the bridge with a soft eraser:

Add the following adjustment layers to this bridge layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and white

Curves

We can fine-tuning the contrast of the image a bit. Add the following adjustment layers on top of all previous layer:

Curves

Here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Now let’s create a simple meteor effect for this artwork. To do this, create a new layer called “meteor head” and grab a round white brush with 60% hardness, do a single click on the new layer, then hit Ctrl + Shift + X to bring up the liquify fitler, apply the following settings:

Left-click and hold, then drag the liquify brush to the direction as shown below for this effect:

Create a new layer called “meteor tail” and grab a round white brush with 40% hardness, do a single-click on this layer, then distort and warp it as shown below:

Warp

To add some more effect around the tail, use the cloud brushset we downloaded and reduce their brush size to a very small level, then simply paint around the tail (use a soft eraser tool to erase the edges for better result):

Then group those layers, duplicate this group and scatter the meteor around the canvas:

Step 7

OK we’re petty much done. To fine-tune the final effect, I added the following adjustment layers above all previous layers:

Colour Balance

Layer Mask on Colour Balance layer:

Vibrance

Levels

Here is the effect so far:

For final touchups, I reduce the noise of the image a bit, and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

Version 1

Version 2 (this is an alternative version with a darker contrast)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hopefully you learnt something new :)

Until next time, have a great day!

Hi there, welcome to the 1st volume of the “Inspirational and Creative Web Links From PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page” series! In this post, I hand-picked 15 Inspirational and Creative Web Links From PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page, out of hundreds of links I collected in the past few months.

Due to time limitation I can only select 15 best, and most popular links from the fanpage. So if you wish to get more, simply join the PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page now. Fresh Photoshop and design links are added every day.

For your convenience, I have put those links into three categories: Photoshop tutorials, Design inspirations and other Photoshop resources.

Here goes the list, hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

Photoshop Tutorials

Create a Realistic Landscape from Scratch with a Graphic Tablet

Combine 3D Shapes and Vectors for a Dynamic Composition

Sci-fi Environment Concept

Create a Dark Steampunk Digital Painting

How To Create A Grungy And “Sticky” Icon With Photoshop

Design Inspirations

Spectacular Photos of Crepuscular Rays

90 Creative Advertisements You Will Listen To

High Speed Photography : Frozen in Time

Examples of Amazing Animal PhotoManipulation

50 Beautiful Print Advertisements for Inspiration

Other Photoshop Resources

100+ Photography Enhancing Photoshop Actions

45 breathtakingly realistic CG Portraits of women + Tutorials

40 Best Photoshop Tutorials for Creating Fantasy Scenes

40 Outstanding Photo Manipulation Tutorials

30+ Free High Quality Gadget PSD Files

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy this collection and find those links useful. Cheers and have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Surreal Artwork via Simple Break Apart Effect in Photoshop. I will also introduce the use of dynamic brushsets to generate a “magic dust” effect. Have a try!

Techniques included in this tut are layer mask, image adjustments, cloud rendering and various tools.

Here is a preview of my final image for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative version with colours added:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Stone Background (the first image on the page)

Girl

Smoke Brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 1500px,

Levels

Curves

Black and White

You will have the following effect so far:

Step 2

Now let’s get on to the break apart effect creation. One quick way is to use a 0px feather Lasso Tool, select some random pieces on the outer part of the girl model:

Then choose the select tool, move your mouse over the selection, you mouse will change into a pair of scissors:

Click and drag to move the pieces away from the girl:

You can also distort the selection for some zooming effect:

Repeat the above method to different body portions for more effect:

That’s it! Isn’t that simple? :)

Step 3

Now load the “stone texture” into Photoshop. Copy and paste the entire image onto our canvas and put the new layer  just above the background layer. Apply the following Smart Sharpen filter a few times to this texture:

You will have the following effect:

Drop the opacity of this stone texture layer to around 10%. This will create a noisy overlay for our background.

Now we’re onto creating some light strips. Create a new layer called “light” and grab a soft round brush, do a single click anywhere on the canvas:

Resize it as shown below:

Then rotate it as shown below

Now simply duplicate the light layer, scatter those light around the girl and adjust the opacity as you see fit:

By moving those light around, you can easily add depth and grab people’s attention to the areas you hightlighted.

I also added a ray of light on the right arm, for extra effect:

Levels

Mask on the levels adjustment layer:

Curves

Here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now that’s add some grass texture on the bottom of the canvas.  To do this, use the Lasso Tool with 50px feather to cut out a piece of grass texture from the girl stock image, then use the free transform tool to resize and distort it until the shape is similar to the one shown below:

Add the following adjustment layers on top of the grass texture layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Levels:

Curves:

Create a new layer called “smoke overlay”, use the smoke brushset we downloaded and paint away, make sure you change the size, opacity and flow of the brush as you go for more effect:

For some extra effect, I added some smoke texture on the right arm:

Of course you can experiment different smoke shapes then the ones I used and see what result it brings you.

Step 5

Now let’s make a brushset for painting some dusts around the girl and over the grass texture. To do this, grab a 1px, 100% hardness brush, apply the following brush dynamics:

Shapes Dynamics

Scattering

Transfer (other dynamics)

Make sure you tick Noise, Airbrush and Smoothing options too.

Once you done this settings above (you can save this brushset if you want to use it again in the future). Starting Painting on the area above the grass and around the girl:

As you can see, this brush creates a thin layer of dust-like effect:

At last, we can add some image adjustment layers on top of all previous layers to fine-tune the image:

Curves

Color Balance

That’s it! Here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative version with colours added:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful! Cheers and have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this surreal “Departing” Jump Scene with Cloud Warping in Photoshop. This is an intermediate tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try!

Along the way, you will learn how to bring out extra details from your photo via a few simple tweaks, plus how to warp the cloud generated by Photoshop filter so to best suit your image.

Here is a preview of the final result I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Jumping Man

Mountain

Sky

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 1400px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer on top of the background layer callled “background light”. On this layer, grab the Gradient Fill Tool and fill it with the following colour and direction:

Load the Jumping Man stock into Photoshop, cut out the man using whatever selection method you prefer, and paste it on to our doucment (Resize and position it to the centre of the canvas), name this layer as “Model”:

Use the Erase Tool with 80% hardness (adjust the brush size accordingly) to get rid of any rough edge around the body:

On this model layer, apply the following Reduce Noise filter settings:

As you can see by applying this reduce noise filter, we can bring out some extra details for this model layer:

Add the following adjustment layers on the model layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option:

Black and White

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Create a new layer named “highlights” under the model layer but above the backgroud light layer, use a soft round brush with white colour, do a few single clicks in the position as shown below:

Ideally you should seperate those three light dots in 3 seperate layers – the reason is that you can alter the size, opacity and the position of the light dots more freely. For instance, if you place the bottom light dot in a seperate light, you can resize it to fit the legs:

Create a new layer called “cloud overlay” on top of the model layer, grab a Lasso Tool with a 50px feather, draw a selection around the model and render some cloud in it:

Use the Warp Tool to warp the cloud as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this cloud overlay layer to “Screen” and reduce the opacity to 30%, you will have the following effect:

Erase the upper portion of the cloud with a big soft brushset eraser:

Step 3

Create a new layer called “cloud color dodge” on top of all previous layers and use the lasso tool with 50% feather to draw a big selection first (anywhere on the canvas) and render some cloud inside it, then resize it to a much smaller piece and position it above of the right shoe of the man.

Use the Warp Tool to warp and extend the cloud as shown below:

Change the blending mode of the this layer to “Color Dodge”, and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the original “cloud overlay” layer twice and drag them to the left and right side of the canvas, change the blending mode of those two layer to “soft light”, with 70% opacity:

Duplicate the “cloud color dodge” layer a few times and scatter them around the model and adjust the opacity of each layer accordingly. You can also experiment different blending mode such as “overlay”, “hard light” and “screen” and what result that gives you:

I also duplicated the original “cloud overlay” layer once again. and drag it below the model, change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “soft light” and a 80% opacity:

I created another layer on top of all previous layer, and use a white white brush to paint some extra lights under the model, then resize it as shown below:

This helps me set the overall mood for the image and making easier for me to apply textures later on.

Step 4

Load the mountain texture into Photoshop, cut out the mountain portion and paste it onto our canvas. Name this layer as “Mountain” and put the layer below the “Model” layer:

Use the eraser tool with a soft brush setting to erase the edge of the mountain so it blends into the canvas naturally:

Add the following adjustment layers on the model layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option:

black and white

Curves

Levels

Colour Balance (change blending mode to “Soft light”, opacity 70%)

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 5

Load the sky texture into Photoshop, select a portion of the cloud and copy and paste it onto our canvas. Name this layer as “cloud” and put it above all previous layers: (resize the layer if necessary)

Add the following adjustment layers on the model layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option:

Black and White

Curves

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 6

I decided to give the image some natural elements. So I used one of my own flower photo (you don’t have the use the same one as this is for tutorial purpose only. However you really like this stock, you can get one from the VIP Members Area)

Regardless what stock photo you use, cut out of the flower portion and paste it onto our document. Name this layer as “flower” and make sure you put this layer below the “model” layer, resize if necessary:

Add the following adjustment layers on the model layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option:

Vibrance

Curves

Put the flower layer along with its adjustment layer into a folder, duplicate the folder twice and position them in the location as shown below:

Step 7

Now let’s get into a bit fine-tuning of the image. Firstly, we can take the overall image and see what we could do to improve it:

• adding some abstract patterns would spice things up
• the top of mountain needs some lights so it blends more seamlessly with the jumping man, plus adding depth to the image
• lack of colour, probably good idea to add some adjustment layers

For the first point, we can add a new “mountain lighting” layer on top of all previous layer, grab a soft round white brush and do a single click on the mountain tip as shown below:

Warp this layer so the light follow the shape of the mountain:

Change the blending mode to “overlay”, and duplicate this layer a few times to increase its contrast:

For the second point, we can easily create a new layer just above the background light layer named “abstract pattern”, download some abstract brushsets from sites such as qbrushes.net or brushesszy, and paint away!

I won’t tell you which brushsets I used here because I’d like you to use your own creativity, and not limited by this tutorial.

For the third point, we can add the following adjustment layers on the model layer:

Curves

Colour Balance

and you will have the following effect so far:

Ok that’s pretty much it! I further adjust the colour balance a bit and added some motion blur effect to it. Here is the final result: (click to enlarge)

Of course you can add more texture to it and enhance its details further, totally up to you :)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learn something new!

Till next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show the processes I took to create this Abstract Colourful, Artistic Feeling Text Effect in Photoshop. The steps are really simple but I think the end result looks good :)  Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final image effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:

Font

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px, fill the background layer with black, use the font we downloaded and type some texts on the canvas:

On the text layer, apply the follow layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now we’re into the interesting part of this tutorial. Create a new layer on top of the text layer and name it as “lines outside”, grab a 1px solid brush as shown below:

Use this brush to paint on the edge of every letter on the canvas:

Make sure you paint around the edges:

and this is the overall effect:

Step 3

Now we can add a bit lighting variations to the text. One quick way to do this is to load the selection of the “lines” layer with created in previous step, apply the following Refine Edge options:

Maintain the selection, create a new layer called “refined edge” on top of the “lines” layer, fill the selection with Black color on this new layer:

As you can, we added some dark color to the text. However because of the refined edge option used, the dark colour is not covering the whole text.

Optionally, you can change the blending mode of this refined edge layer to be “Color Burn” – this will reveal the edge lines better than the “Normal” blending mode.

We can also add some blurring effect to the text. To do this, duplicte the “lines” layer once and name the duplicated layer as “motion blur”, put this layer above the original text layer.

Apply the following Motion Blur filter settings to it:

Resize the motion blur layer to roughly the same size of the text layer, and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “cloud overlay”, and on this new layer,  use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather to draw a selection around the text:

Render some cloud inside the selection (with white foreground colour and black background colour):

change the blending mode of this cloud layer to “Hard Light”, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now let’s add some colours to the text. Create a new layer called “Colours”, load the selection of the text layer, and grab a soft brush with colours of your choice, paint some colours inside the selection:

Duplicate this colours layer twice, change the layer blending mode according to the below:

and you will have the following effect:

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of the colours layer:

Color Balance

Vibrance

and you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer called “abstract texture” just above the background layer, grab any abstract brushsets you like (you can find lots of them on qbrushes.net or brusheezy) and paint on it. You can adjust the colour of the brush as you paint for some colour variations:

Step 6

We’re almost done! There is one more trick I would like to show you – the Wave Filter. I personally like it very much and sometimes it generates some very unique style for your design.

So flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and go to Filter > Distort > Wave:

Apply the following settings:

and you will have the following effect:

Now we want to reveal the text part of the image, so add the following layer mask on the wave layer to hide it:

and you will have the following effect:

Lastly, you can add some further colour adjustments, or sharpen the image a bit to get more details out.

and here is my final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you find it useful and learn something new!

Till next time, have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this black and white, dreamy style sureal artwork in Photoshop. Have a try!

If you have been following my tutorials for a while, you will notice that I very rarely publish anything that is black and white – I love colours, but I think sometimes black and white style can produce effect that colour can’t – for example, a sense of dark and gloom.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Female model

Cliff

Tree

Cloud

Planet

Step 1

Create a new document size 1300px *700px. fill the background layer with black colour. Now let’s start laying the foundation.

Load the “Cliff” image into Photoshop and use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select a portion of the cliff:

copy and paste your selection onto our canvas, resize it and position it as shown below:

Name this layer as “Rock 1″, add a layer mask to it and on the mask, use a soft round brush (20% hardness) to erase the edges of the rock:

As you can see, I erased a large portion of the texture and left only a fraction of it – the reason I did it is because initially it was hard to judge what portion of the texture would be suitable, and I could only experiment with it until I get the right piece.

Add a black and white adjustment layer onto this rock 1 layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now duplicate this Rock 1 layer twice (along with the black and white adjustment layer), name the duplicated layers as “rock 2″ and “rock 3″ respectively. Drag the duplicated layer around and position them to the left and right of the Rock 1 layer, as shown below:

Adjust the mask on those duplicated layer by using a soft eraser to remove the edges, especially the parts where each rock joins together:

Step 3

Now we pretty much finished with the rock texture. Let’s add the tree image onto our canvas. Load the “Tree” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the tree and the grass texture using the following channel mask technique:

(you can use other method if you prefer, but I think channel mask here is the most effective one.)

On the background layer, click on the “Channel” tab on the layer palette, then click on the “Blur” channel (the reason is this channel provides the biggest contrast)

Duplicate this Blue channel once, apply the following Levels adjustment to the duplicated channel:

Use a black brush to fill the area:

Load the selection of this blue copy channel by going into Select > Load selection, then apply the following options then click on “OK”:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, name the layer as “Tree Right”, resize it and position it as shown below:

Erase the bottom part of the grass with a soft brush:

And the following two adjustment layers to this tree right layer: (make sure you tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and white

Curves

Curves Mask

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the Tree right layer once along with its adjustment layers (leave all adjustment layers as they are, apart from canceling the layer mask on the Curves adjustment layer). Name the duplicated layer as “tree left”, drag and resize this layer smaller, and position it as shown below:

Step 4

Load the “Female Model” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the model and paste it into the centre of our canvas:

Don’t worry if your selection is not perfect, it doesn’t really matter in this tutorial.

Name this layer as “Model Original”, duplicate it once and go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen Edge and apply this filter a few times on the duplicated layer:

As you can see this sharpens all edges of the model – an effect may look horrible right now, but will add extra details as we go deeper into the tutorial.

Duplicate the original model layer once more and drag it above the previous sharpen edge layer, make this layer a clipping mask  to the sharpen edge layer (right-click the layer, then choose “create clipping mask”), reduce the layer opacity to 80%, you will have the following effect:

Add the following image adjustment layers to it: (make sure you tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Curves

Mask:

Levels

Black and White

On the Black and white adjustment layer, use a soft brush eraser to do a single click on the spot where the flower is: (this reveals the flowers, adding a bit of colour to the image)

Duplicate the original model layer once more and drag it above all the adjustment layer, change the blending mode to “hard light” and opacity to 30%, you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Load the “Planet” image into Photoshop, cut out the planet and paste it onto our document. Name this layer as “planet”, resize and position it as shown below:

add the following image adjustment layer to the planet:

Black and White

Curves

We can also add some aura around the planet for more effect. To do this, load the selection of the planet layer (ctrl+left-click the thumbnail of the planet layer on the layer palette), apply the following refine edge option to it:

Create a new layer called “aura” under the plaent layer, render some cloud in it:

Duplicate this aura layer once, then use the Warp Tool (Ctrl + T then right-click choose warp) to manipulate it so it looks like dropping down from the planet:

Step 6

Load th “Sky” image into Photoshop, copy a portion of it and paste it onto our document, above all previous layers. Resize the layer and position it as shown below: (Erase the Edge with a soft eraser, if necessary)

Add the following two adjustment layers to it:

Black and White

Curves

Optional: it would be good to add variety onto the image by applying more cloud texture. Make sure you black and white them as you add them in:

Step 7

Now we’re getting into an interest part of the tutorial. As you can see the image so far looks ok, but it lacks that surreal, dreamy sort of effect. So to enhance those effect, we can use cloud warping, especially on the area just above the ground, below the model.

To do this, create a new layer above the last duplicated Model layer, use the Lasso Tool with 50% feather to draw a selection on this layer, render some cloud in it:

Then use the warp tool, manipulate the cloud as shown below:

You can them duplicate and re-size this cloud layer for more effect:

I also added some abstract brush effect on the background, mixing it with the Warp Tool for more effect: (There are tons of brushsets on qbrushes.net, or brusheezy that will do the job)

This is the overall effect so far:

Step 8

We’re almost done! In the last fine-tuning step, I add the following Reduce Noise Filter to make the image smoother:

with the following layer mask:

and this is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you find it useful and learn something new!

Till next time, have a nice day!

In this tutorial, Iwill show you the steps I took to create this (delicious?!) “Contact Me” button in Photoshop. This is really simple tutorial, great for beginner to learn a few tricks. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

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Ok let ’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:

Font

Step 1

Create a document sized 200px * 20opx with white background and 72 dpi (web graphic) – please note that this is the actual size of the button we will be making.

Here I will show you a little trick: hit Ctrl + R to make the rule visible on the top and left edge, click on the ruler and drag a guide to the edges of our canvas, as shown below:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + C and bring up the Resize Canvas window, then apply the following settings:

You will have the following effect (I set the background colour to grey for demonstration purpose):

You can see by doing so, we have the perfect guides setup for a 200px * 200px button, without the need to add and remove guides afterwards:

Step 2

Now let’s perpare a simple background to work on. I perferred  a nice light grey gradient fill. So grab a the Gradient Tool and fill the background layer as shown below:

Create a new layer called “backlight” and grab a big and a small soft round brush, do two single clicks to the position as shown below: (top and centre)

Resize and position this layer as shown below:

Now we have a nice background to work on our button :)

Step 3

Now grab the Rounded Rectangular Tool from the toolbox (press the U key) and apply a 10px feather to it, draw the following according to the guides:

Name this layer as “button bg”, and apply the following blending effect to this layer:

Drop shadow

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

Here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s add some highlights and shadows to the button background. Create a new layer under the button bg layer, use the rectangular marquee tool to create a shape like this:

Name this layer as “shadow” and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to it. Make sure you deselect the layer first:

Resize it from the top (Ctrl + T) and reduce the opacity to around 30%, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer called “Highlight” on top of the button bg layer, set its blending mode to “Overlay”, grab a white soft brush, do a single click as shown below:

Duplicate this layer once and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “Normal”, resize it to a very thin level, position it just above the top edge of the button bg layer, as shown below:

You will have the following effect so far:

Step 5

Now let’s draw a simple envelope onto this button. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer, grab the Rectanglar tool and draw a rectangule as shown below:

Call this layer “envelope” and apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now let’s add a few more stuff onto the envelope to make it look more realistic. Create a new layer called “envelope top” and grab the Polygon Tool from the toolbox:

Apply the following settings: (3 sides)

and draw a triangle as shown below, use the Free Transform tool to fit it onto the envelope:

apply the following layer blending option to it:

Drop shadow

Inner Shadow

Gradient overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this layer once and rename the new duplicated layer to “envelope bottom”, flip it vertically by Ctrl + T and right-click:

Retain all the layer blending option except the stroke option, position this layer as shown below:

Create a layer in between the top and bottom envelope layers, grab a soft round black brush and do a single click in the centre:

here is the effect so far:

Step 7

Now we’re almost done. Finally we can type some texts onto the button – “Contact Me” with font we downloaded, as shown below:

You can here I used a dark red color – the reason I did it is that I’d like to use a bit embossing/sink-in effect here. The trick is to use a slightly darker colour for the font than the background color, so that when we apply the blending effect later on, we will achieve better looking result.

So let’s add the following layer blending options to it:

Inner Shadow

Gradient overlay

Stroke

Also here is a trick – when adding stroke effect to the text, make sure to select a color slightly lighter then the background colour, for the embossing effect.

Here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hopefully you learnt something new and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!