Create Abstract Fireworks

Quick reference

• 00:04 We're going to be creating an abstract firework.
• 00:07 Like many of my designs, we’re going to be using a custom brush and layer styles.
• 00:11 Let's begin by creating the brush that we're going to use for the fireworks.
• 00:15 Go ahead and start by creating a new document, with the dimensions
• 00:18 100 by 500 pixels, with a transparent background.
• 00:22 When the document’s created, grab your brush tool
• 00:25 and select a standard hard brush, with it’s size set to 8.
• 00:29 We're going to use this brush in a few moments. We need to define the shape
• 00:33 of this brush. Grab your pen tool from the Tools bar on the left,
• 00:36 and then at the top, under Options bar, make sure that ‘paths’ is selected.
• 00:40 Now, create an upside down angled L, by clicking three times in your document.
• 00:46 Once you have that path created, hold on your ALT key on a PC, Option key on a Mac,
• 00:51 and drag out a curve from the second point. We're looking for a very slight curve at
• 00:56 the top of our path.
• 00:57 It'll give a little bit of depth to the sparks in the fireworks.
• 01:01 When your path is all set, right click on it and choose stroke path.
• 01:05 Make sure that brush is the tool that will be used, and ‘simulate pressure’ is off if
• 01:10 it isn't already.
• 01:11 Press OK to create the stroke: perfect, the brush is complete.
• 01:15 Very, very simple. Now, to save this brush, head up to the Edit menu,
• 01:19 down to ‘define brush preset’ and give it a name.
• 01:22 Let's go ahead and move back to our image of choice.
• 01:26 The first thing you're going to do is customize the brush that we just made.
• 01:30 Grabbing a brush tool once again, look for your new brush
• 01:33 at the bottom of your brush picker. When it is selected, set the size to 175 pixels.
• 01:39 We created that brush a little bit larger, just in case you want to create larger
• 01:43 fireworks in the future.
• 01:44 If your brush pen was not open, on the right hand side of your workspace,
• 01:47 head to the Window menu and then down to brush. Let's go through some of the settings
• 01:51 we’re going to be customizing: starting in the ‘brush tip shape section’.
• 01:55 As long as the size is set to 175 pixels,
• 01:59 the only other option we're going to change is the spacing: set that at 20%.
• 02:03 Next, let's hop into shape dynamics: there are two settings we’re going to be focusing on -
• 02:08 the size jitter should be set to 100%, to ensure that we have
• 02:12 variation in the sparks, and the angle control should be set to ‘direction,
• 02:17 towards the bottom’. This will allow the sparks to change direction
• 02:20 around the circular path, which will be created a moment. Good.
• 02:23 Next is scattering. Make sure that both axis are turned
• 02:27 off, and then set the scatter value at 130%.
• 02:31 Down below, set the count value at two,
• 02:34 and the count jitter at 100%. Venturing into the texture section, we want to find
• 02:39 and select the rusted metal texture from the drop-down. Adding a texture to our brush
• 02:44 will stray away from the solid looking brushstrokes,
• 02:47 which don't look very appealing. When the texture is set, set the scale at 100%,
• 02:52 set the mode to subtract and the depth to 100%.
• 02:56 Good, we're almost there. The last option we're going to enable will be transfer,
• 03:00 which in older versions of Photoshop
• 03:02 may be called ‘other dynamics’. This will mix up the opacity of each stroke.
• 03:07 Set the opacity jitter and the flow jitter both at 100%.
• 03:11 Our brush is now ready to go, but there are few things we need to do before we
• 03:15 can go ahead and use it.
• 03:16 If you want to save this brush for future use, click on the drop down at the top
• 03:20 right corner of this panel,
• 03:21 and choose new brush preset. Now, to avoid messing up your image,
• 03:26 make sure you create a new layer before you do anything else.
• 03:30 Now, grab your ellipse tool from the Tools bar. We need to create three paths for the brush
• 03:34 to fall on.
• 03:34 Again, make sure that path is selected at the top, and then draw out a nice size
• 03:39 path: make sure to hold down the Shift key to create a perfect circle.
• 03:43 It should be about the size of your 175 pixel brush.
• 03:46 You can press the B key on your keyboard to switch back your brush,
• 03:49 and then press the U key to go back to your ellipse tool. If you need to, you can also
• 03:53 use the Command or Control
• 03:55 T shortcut to scale your path and make it perfect. When you're first path is
• 03:59 created,
• 04:00 we're going to create two more. Using multiple paths will not only fill the
• 04:04 whole circle,
• 04:05 but will create depth as well. With the ellipse tool still active draw out two
• 04:09 more circles.
• 04:11 One should be slightly smaller than the first, and then the second one should be
• 04:15 quite a bit smaller
• 04:16 than the second. Your path should almost look like a dartboard.
• 04:19 When the three paths are ready to go, right click on either of them,
• 04:23 and then choose ‘stroke path’. Once again, make sure that brush
• 04:26 is selected and press OK. If all the previous steps were followed, you should
• 04:31 have a new explosion type effect.
• 04:33 It's time for layer styles. Let's go ahead and start with a gradient overlay.
• 04:37 Now, before hopping to the gradient editor, make sure to change the
• 04:41 style
• 04:41 to radial. As for the gradient itself, we're going to be using three colors.
• 04:46 The far left color will act as the initial explosion, which is typically a
• 04:50 redder
• 04:50 orange type color. The far right color will be set at a dark blue, to fade out
• 04:55 the edges of the explosion.
• 04:57 Then we need one more color in the middle. Clicking right below the gradient bar will
• 05:01 allow us to set the new color.
• 05:03 Pop it around the 50% mark. For this color, I'll use a brighter blue.
• 05:07 Of course, these colors can change to whatever color you want your fireworks
• 05:10 to be.
• 05:11 When you accept the new gradient, you may notice that it is not perfectly centered.
• 05:15 Moving your mouse over top of your fireworks, you can actually drag the
• 05:18 gradient around your document.
• 05:20 Place the orange area right in the middle of the explosion.
• 05:24 Good. The next layer style we're going to add will be an inner glow - this will give
• 05:27 some life to our fireworks.
• 05:29 Start by changing the blend mode to linear dodge, and the color
• 05:33 to a nice baby blue. If you chose different colors for your gradient,
• 05:37 use a light shade of that color here. Down below under elements, make sure to
• 05:42 change the source to center,
• 05:44 and then decrease the size to 0. Finally, under quality,
• 05:48 increase the range to 100%.
• 05:51 Now that the insides are glowing, we need to add an outer glow as well.
• 05:55 Just like the inner glow, change the blend mode to linear dodge,
• 05:58 but this time we're going to use more of a pure blue for the color.
• 06:02 Down below, increase the size to 10 and then the range
• 06:05 to 100% - perfect.
• 06:08 The final layer style we're going to add will be in inner shadow: this one is
• 06:11 optional,
• 06:12 but it will help with the edges a little bit more. Change the blend mode to linear
• 06:16 burn.
• 06:17 Decrease your opacity to 25% and the distance to 0.
• 06:21 Perfect, the layer styles are now complete. If you want to
• 06:25 add an extra glow to the middle of our explosion, grab a soft brush
• 06:29 and add a single spot in the middle. Good.
• 06:32 We're going to add two more elements to this design: smoke and sparkles.
• 06:36 For the smoke, start by creating a new layer
• 06:39 and then grab your elliptical marquee tool from the Tools bar.
• 06:42 Drag-out an ellipse slightly larger than your fireworks.
• 06:46 When that's done, set your foreground color to a slightly
• 06:49 de-saturated blue: we don't want the smoke to be too vibrant.
• 06:53 When that's done, head up to the filter menu, down to render,
• 06:57 and then over to ‘clouds’. At this point, it needs smoothing out.
• 07:01 In your layers panel, add a layer mask using the ‘add layer mask’ button at the bottom.
• 07:05 Now with your brush tool active, choose a nice, large, soft brush
• 07:10 and paint around the edges of this layer. This will hide and soften up the edges
• 07:14 of the smoke layer.
• 07:15 When you're happy with the shape, change the blend mode of this layer to screen,
• 07:20 decrease the opacity to around 40%, and drag it to the layer behind the
• 07:23 fireworks layer.
• 07:25 Good. One more layer to go. Let's add some sparkles.
• 07:28 Make sure to create another new layer, but this time
• 07:32 put it above your fireworks layer. Grab your brush tool one more time, and if your
• 07:36 brush panel is not visible anymore,
• 07:38 activate it under the Window menu. Under ‘brush tip shape’,
• 07:41 decrease the size to 9 and increase the spacing to 300.
• 07:45 Now in ‘shape dynamics’, make sure that size jitter is at 100%.
• 07:51 And finally, under scattering, turn on both axis and crank the scatter all the
• 07:55 way to 1000%,
• 07:57 and decrease the count to 1.
• 08:00 From here, go ahead and set your foreground color to white and brush
• 08:04 on top and around your fireworks this will scatter some white dots around your
• 08:08 design.
• 08:09 When you're happy with the amount of dots, we need to add some glow to them.
• 08:13 Instead of going through all of those layer styles all over again, we'll just use
• 08:16 the same styles that we used in our fireworks.
• 08:18 In your layers panel, right click on the fireworks layer and choose ‘copy layer
• 08:22 style’.
• 08:23 Now, right click on your new layer containing the dots and paste the layer
• 08:27 style.
• 08:28 If you're happy with the way it looks, you can leave it as. I'll decrease
• 08:31 the opacity to around 50%, to blend it in a little bit.
• 08:35 And that's that! Again, we weren't going for a 100%
• 08:38 realistic firework. More towards an abstract, artistic look for these
• 08:42 fireworks.
• 08:42 Hopefully this gives you a starting point to create your own designs.

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