Tutorials in Photoshop

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Energy Beams and Lines in Photoshop

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Energy Blast! Ever wondered how Graphic designers created light streaks on their images? Or how similar cool effects were made in cartoons and movies? If the answer to this question is no, then shame on you! Anyways, here I show you how to achieve exactly that. If you don't know how, read on - it's simple.

What we want is a an image which looks like its got energy oozing out from its parts to make it look more vibrant. To start off, lets make a soft glow. Open a new file with a black background. Choose the Brush tool (B) and with a soft brush of radius of 200 to 300, make a white spot in a new layer as shown below.

Duplicate the layer (Ctrl + J) several times- until you're happy with the result, and set the Blend mode of all the duplicate layers to Overly (Shift + Alt + O)

Create a new layer on top of this and fill it with yellow using the Paint Bucket tool (G). Change the Blend Mode to Color.

Merge all your layers (Shift + Ctlr + E). Now, open up you're base image. This was the image I started with.

Get out the Pen Tool (P). Now, make a path around the player and the hoop and select it. If you don't know how to use the pen tool, you can read our tutorial.

Move the selected region onto the first file. Feel free to position the player and the hoop in any way you think appropriate. If you're in doubt, you can do something along these lines.

To give it a muscular look, duplicate the player layer. With the duplicate layer selected, go to Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap. Use these parameters.

Set the Blend mode of the layer to Overlay. You will get something like this.

Now, to add a little agility to the image, duplicate the base player layer and go to Filter > Blur > Motion blur. Enter these parameters.

Move the layer a little to the left.

Temporarily hide the visibility of the blurred layer by pressing the little eye next to it in the layers panel (F7). Now that we have the base image ready, lets see how to make those cool energy lights and beams in the next page.

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Energy Beams and Lines in Photoshop II

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Now, we will make energy beams at his hands. Choose the Pen Tool (P) and create a path near the hand. What we want to do is make a beam that is in line with the direction of movement of the hand.

Now, convert the path to a selection (Ctrl + Enter). Feather the selection (Alt + Ctrl + D) with a radius of 10 px. Create a new layer under the player layer and fill the selection with white using the Paint Bucket tool (G).

With the selection still active, create a new layer above this white layer and fill it with blue.Set its blend mode to Overlay. Deselect by pressing (Ctrl + D). Now, duplicate (Ctr + J) both the white and blue layers and set their blend modes to Overlay. You will get something like this.

Make a similar path and selection for the other hand.

Now that all our energy beams are in place, we can begin with the energy lines. We will make them at each of the hands and legs. Lets begin with the right hand. First, we make our basic path as shown with the Pen tool (P)

Next, create a new layer above the player layer. Go to the brush tool and choose a brush of radius 5 -7 px. Set you're foreground colour to white. Now select the pen tool and right click on the path. Choose 'Stroke Path' and select Simulate Pressure

You will get something like this.

To remove the parts that are to be behind the arm, simply erase the unwanted portion using the eraser.

Next, right click this layer in the layers palette (F7) and choose 'Blending Options'. Select Outer Glow. Enter the following parameters. I've chosen a red tinge for the glow.

You will end up with something like this.

Duplicate the layer (Ctrl +J) and slightly offset it. Reduce its opacity to 60 %. The create a new layer. Choose a soft brush of radius 200 px and opacity 70% and paint over the arm.