Photoshop: Digital Darkness

Posted at photoshopforce.com in Photoshop
Create a very digitalized graphic effects background to add to your signatures and web page headers.



This tutorial will explain how to create an effect that l like to call "Digital Darkness" It's a very nice graphic effect that can be applied to all sorts of things, such as signatures, desktop wallpapers, banner and header designs. The end result resembles a digital circuit board that truly looks fantastic.






Create a new document of any size, for this example l will create a document that is 1024x778 - for a standard desktop background. Fill the background with black (#000000).

---

Create a new layer. Get out the rectangular marquee tool, and make a selection like so near the bottom left corner (region) of the canvas:



Fill this selection with the paint bucket using the color #4a4a4a.

---

Press CTRL + D on your keyboard to deselect the selection. And go to Filter->Distort->Wave and apply the following settings:


Tip:
Click the 'randomize' button until you get an "random" result, avoid a pattern look.

Result:

---

Now Press 'V' on your keyboard to get out the move tool, and position the scattered blocks near the center of the canvas.

Press CTRL + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.

Go to Edit->Transform->Flip Horizontally

Press CTRL + E on your keyboard to merge these two layers together.

Press CTRL + J on your keyboard again to duplicate this layer.

Go to Edit->Transform->Rotate 90 Degrees CW

Press CTRL + E on your keyboard to merge these two layers.

Result:

---

Double click this layer, and apply the following blending options:
Inner Glow:


Stroke:


Result:





Next get out the Dodge tool () and apply the following settings:


Using these settings scribble over top of our shape a few times to create some contrast in the color as l've done here:

---

Next get out the Burn tool () and apply the following settings:


Once again, using these settings scribble over top of our shape a few times to create some contrast in the color.

---

Now create a new layer below this layer (above the background), here is what your layers pallet should look like:


Now click on the topmost layer (the one with the scattered blocks) and press CTRL + E on your keyboard to merge it with the new layer we'd just created. Doing so will rasterize the layer effects we had added to the layer.



Now go to Filter->Stylize->Extrude and apply the following settings:


Result:

---

Press CTRL + U on your keyboard to bring up the color balance tool, and apply the following settings:


Result:

---

Press CTRL + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.
Change the new duplicate layers blending option to "overlay", and drop the opacity of this layer down to 45 percent:


Merge these two layers by pressing CTRL + E.

This should bring out the colors a little bit more.

---

Press CTRL + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer. Click on the middle layer (the one we just duplicated) to select it:


Now go to Filter->Blur-Motion Blur, and apply the following settings:


You can drop the opacity of this layer down to around 60 percent to give it a little more of a blended effect.

Result:

---

Click the topmost layer, and press CTRL + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer once again. Now select the

Click on the layer directly below our duplicate layer to select it:


Go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur, and apply the following settings:


Drop the opacity of this layer down to around 75 percent.

Result:

---

Now select the topmost layer (the one that hasn't been blurred at all) and go to: Filter->Sharpen->Sharpen.

Press CTRL + F on your keyboard to repeat this process.

Result:

---

Press CTRL + E on your keyboard twice to merge the top three layers together.

Now press CTRL + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.

Change the blending mode to "screen" and drop the opacity of this layer down to 90 percent:



Now press 'V' on your keyboard to get out the move tool, and position this duplication near the top right corner of the canvas:




You can repeat step 15 a few times if you wish, however at this point l simply used the crop tool, found a section of the design that l think looked nice, and cropped it out for a banner background. Here is my final result after adding a simple panel border:


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please be sure to check out the tutorials we have to offer, and thanks for reading!

Author: http://www.photoshopforce.com
Discuss this tutorial on the PhotoshopForce.com Forums

Related Posts by Categories