Abstract Sci-fi Style Energy Laser Beam Creation in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps to create Abstract Sci-fi Style Energy Laser Beam in Photoshop. We will go through some interesting techniques to create these beams, on top of a space background, such as lighting effect, colour overlay and image adjustment.

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

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

Asteroids

Space Brush 1

Space Brush 2

Video Tutorial

If you have any trouble with rendering the laser beam effect, check out this video tutorial I have on PSDVault.com Youtube Channel:

Step 1

Create a document sized 800px * 800px with black background, use a space brushset you just download, paint some subtle space pattern over the background:

Use the Asteroids stock you downloaded, add some flying rocks over the star background: (re-size this layer as you see fit)

Use a soft eraser, fade the some parts of this new Asteroids layer as shown below:

Add a new layer and paint some more space pattern as shown below:

Step 2

We will start working on working on the laser beam. Firstly create a new layer and add soft grey dot with a soft round brush:

Use a smaller brush and a brighter color, add another smaller dot to the position shown below:

Then use the free transform tool, distort this layer as shown below:

Then re-size the dot as shown below:

Continue stretching until it forms a thin shape as shown below:

and here is the effect you would achieve:

Step 3

Duplicate this bean layer a few times, scatter the lines around (re-size them as you go) and try to form a group effect as shown below:

Merge all these beam layers together, and apply the following motion blur setting:

Reduce the layer opacity of this motion blur layer to around 40%, and here is the effect you will have:

and here is the overall effect so far:

Step 4

We will apply to some colours to the image. To do so we add a new layer and use the same method as described in step 2, but in a cyan/blue colour, drawing a beam light as shown below:

Change the blending mode to “overlay” for this new colour layer, duplicate it several times, and you will have the following effect:

Continue to add more colour to the image as shown below, notice I added some red colour into the mix as well:

Step 5

We’re almost done! To fine-tune the final effect, we can add some image adjustment layer on top:

Selective Color

Curves

Apply the following layer mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

And here is the effect you will have: (click to enlarge)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!