Fission glow effect in Photoshop

Jul 25 | ( 1 ) Comment

This tutorial will teach you an awesome glow effect using some layer styles, the pen tool, and few blending options that most people overlook.

Step 1

First lets start out with my standard 480×640 with a white background. Now lets select our gradient tool and set it to radial. Now your colors need to be a semi-bright color going to black I’m using #c30202 & #000000. Now place your mouse in the center of the canvas and drag until your mouse it just off campus. If you see that your dark color is in the middle then check your “reverse” settings.

Step 2

Now we’re going to bring our image to a super bright level. Duplicate the layer (Layer >> Duplicate Layer) then double click in the layers menu next to the name of the new layer. This will open the Layer Styles options. Set the Blending Mode to “Color Dodge”.

Step 3

Next we’re going add some texture to the glow by rendering some clouds and making it an overlay. First reset your colors back to Black and White, then make a new layer and go to Filter >> Render >> Clouds.

Now double click on the Layer Platlette to open the Layer style options and set the blending mode to “Overlay” and adjust the opacity to your liking.

Step 4

Now we need to add something to glow, this is where we breakout the pen tool. If you’ve never used the Pen Tool I suggest you play around with it and get comfortable with the way it works and makes pathes. For our purposes we do’t need anything extensive or complicated just some nice curving lines. So select the Pen tool and set it to Pathes (NOT SHAPES) and on a new layer make a nice line going somewhere near the middle.

Next we’re going to stroke the line. Select the brush tool and select a solid circle brush and set the size to 3-4 px. Now click back over to the Line Tool and right click (alt click for Mac users) select “Stroke Line”. In the new dialog box set it to brush and check the “Simulate Pressure” option.

Now we’re going to apply the layer style that will ultimatly cause our great glow effect. First open the Layer Style options by double clicking next to the layer name. First add a normal “Outer Glow” then add a “Color Overlay” of white and for a really nice glow effect, set a “Drop Shadow” to Color Dodge and give it a mustard yellow color and set the opacity to 100% and the distance and Spread to 0 and increase the size to 5-6.

Now you should have something like the below.

Step 5

Now we’re going to add some more lines. Create some more layers and on each one follow the same steps (Draw -> Stroke -> Layer Style) but instead of manually re-doing the layer style over-and-over-and-over again simply right click on the first glow layer and select “Copy Layer Style” then simply right click on the other line layers and select “Paste Layer Style”. I do suggest that when stoking your subsequent lines that you uses brushes of varying width (to give a distance effect), but do not go above 5px in size.

After creating al the lines you should have something like the following (if you see thin black lines running through your lines simply select all the line layers and with the pen tool right click and choose “Make Selection” then press CTRL+D {deselect}).

Step 6

Now we need to add your text. Simply use the “Type Tool” and write your text while playing around with the size and letter spacing (window >> Paragraph). Aftward, apply the same layer sytle as the glowing lines.

Step 7

Next let’s add some glowing particles. Select the brush tool and in the Brush Control Platlette use similar settings.

Now in a new layer try and brush along the same pathes as your lines and around your text, but you can branch off. Afterwads, apply the same style as the glow lines.

Step 8

For our final effect we’ll add some more color. Choose the Gradient tool and set it to radial and then use a Color -> Transparent gradient. Choose any color you like. Then click toward a side or corner and drag toward the center. Then go in and set the “Blending Mode” to color and alter the Opacity to your liking.

Repeat as Desired.

Finish

Here’s your final result. This effect is really nice but is more generated toward space and bright light scenes. I hope you enjoyed and learned from this tutorial and to think that to get this effect it only took you 20 minutes.

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