In this tutorial, you will learn an effective method to create a magical floating rock effect in Photoshop. If you need to design a surreal artwork or gaming concept, this floating rock effect will be a great addition to your work.
The PSD file of this tutorial is available via the PSD Vault VIP members area.
NOTE: THE PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL IS DONE IN PHOTOSHOP CC 2017 – SOME SCREENSHOT MAY HAVE SLIGHTING DIFFERENT LAYOUT AS IN THE EARLIER VERSION. SOME BRUSHES ARE EXCLUSIVE TO PHOTOSHOP CS6 OR ABOVE.
Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)
Video Tutorial
Check out the creation of this magical floating rock effect on PSD Vault Youtube Channel:
Stock Images
Step 1
Create a new document (any size you like) with black background. Firstly, we need to prepare the ground to place our floating rock on.
Let’s load the rock (ground) stock image into Photoshop, select the following portion:
Copy and paste the selection to our document, use the “Perspective” option in the Free Transform tool to add some perspective to this layer:
Use a soft eraser to remove parts of the layer:
Add the following Levels adjustment layer to this rock ground layer:
Paint some cloud around the ground layer, and this is the effect so far:
Step 2
Select a portion from the rock (floating) stock image, copy & paste it onto our document:
Use free transform tool to adjust its shape & size:
Tidy up its edge and remove unnecessary bits:
Apply the following levels adjustment to this floating rock:
Step 3
We will work on the lightning effect in this step. Create a new layer and set its blend mode to “Darker Color”:
Use the lightning brush we downloaded (pick any one from the set), paint some lightning effect over this new layer:
Create a new layer on top and set its blend mode to “overlay”:
Again we paint some lightning over this layer:
Create one more layer on top and keep its blend mode to “normal”, paint more lightning as shown below:
Paint some cloud on top for extra drama effect:
I further applied some colours to the image, and this is my final result: (click to enlarge)
That’s it for this tutorial! Leave me a comment below if you have any questions. Till next time, have a great day!
