Kousou Games

Photoshop Tutorial 1

Home News About Staff Games Sprites Examples Backgrounds Articles Sounds Music Links Archive Search Forum
Photoshop Abstract Art tutorial

I had a few questions about the virtual paint splatters on the 'backgrounds' page, and so here's a mini-tutorial to help those who'd like their own digital mess.

Here's what we'll be creating (or close to).

We'll be using Photoshop 7.0, as that's what I've got, but I have no idea how similar/different it is to other versions.

To start off, go to File > New, and select the preset size to 1024x768 (the size of most monitors).


Now, press 'D' to reset the color pallet, select the gradient tool, and set the mode to 'Difference'.


Yay, the fun bit. Draw lines with the tool over the canvas repeatedly and wildly until you end up with a completely unexpected pile of... modern art...


Click Filter > Blur > Radial Blur, then select Zoom, amount 100 and Best quality, giving us one mega-zoomy-thingy. The edges of the image are basically done now.



Now we wanna keep that image for later on. So, let's store it in another layer. Right click the name, and select Duplicate Layer. Call it whatever you want.


Select the top layer, and click Filter > Distort > Twirl. Put it at about 150 to 160.


Then we want to work on the other layer, so un-check the little eye mark to make the top one invisible. Then select the bottom layer.


Now do Filter > Distort > Twirl again, but this time, select the exact opposite number than last time, about minus 150. Now you can make the top layer visible again.
Here's the clever bit. On the top layer, drag the opacity to roughly half way, and hey presto, we have our background!



You can now select Layer > Merge Down, or press Ctrl+E. But isn't this image a bit dry and unsaturated? Let's add some color!
Go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance, or press Ctrl+B. From here, it's fairly self explanatory.


Hoped that helped some people, and possibly inspired you all to mess around with many more combinations of Photoshop filters!

© Kousou Games 2007 hifi version