Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Learn how to design your own brush patterns and layer together an abstract bursting effect. A great place to start your imagination motor running.
Exercise files
Download the Photoshop files used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Create Abstract Fireworks.psd31.2 MB Create Abstract Fireworks - Final.psd
52.7 MB
Quick reference
Topic
Create your own abstract fireworks.
When to use
Learn how to design your own brush patterns and layer together an abstract bursting effect. A great place to start your imagination motor running.
Instructions
Define your brush pattern
- Create a new document with the dimensions 100 by 500 pixels, with a transparent background.
- Grab the pen tool, make sure that Paths is selected and create an upside down angled L by clicking three times in your document.
- Drag out a curve from the second point (ALT key on a PC/Option key on a Mac)
- Right click on it and choose Stroke Path.
- Edit menu, Define Brush Preset and give it a name.
Customize the brush
- Grabbing a brush tool once again look for your new brush at the bottom of your brush picker
- Set size to 175 pixels and open Brush Panel
- Customize settings: Brush Tip Shape section: Spacing at 20%, Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter: 100% and Angle: Control to Direction, Scatter Value: 130%. Count: 2, Count Jitter: 100%
- Texture section: select the rusted metal texture, Scale: 100%, Mode: Subtract, Depth: 100%
- Transfer section: Set the opacity jitter and the flow jitter both at 100%.
Apply the new brush to the image
- Open up background image.
- Create new layer for the fireworks
- With ellipses tool from the toolbar create three paths for the brush. Your path should almost look like a dartboard.
- Right click on any of them and then choose Stroke Path.
Apply layer styles
- Gradient Overlay: Style: Radial, Gradient Color Left: red, Gradient Color Right: dark blue, Middle: lighter blue
- Inner Glow: Blend Mode: Linear Dodge, Size: 0, Color: Baby Blue, Source: Center, Quality: 100%,
- Outer Glow: Blend Mode: Linear Dodge, Size: 10, Color: Pure Blue, Range: 100%,
- Inner Shadow: Blend Mode: Linear Dodge, Opacity: 25%, Distance: 0,
Tips
Add an extra glow by adding an extra layer and a soft white spot.
Add smoke
- With ellipses tool from the toolbar create a large path.
- Set color to desaturated blue
- Filter menu, Render, then Clouds
- Add a Layer Mask. Paint around the edges of this layer to soften edges
- Blend Mode: Screen, Opacity 40%,
- Drag the layer behind the fireworks
Add sparkles
- Create a new custom brush:
- Open brush panel
- Customize settings: Brush Tip Shape section: Size 9, Spacing: 300%, Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter: 100%, Scatter Value: 1000%, Count: 1
- Set foreground to white and on a new layer, brush up and around your fireworks
- Click on the fireworks layer and choose Copy Layer Style: right click on your new layer containing the dots and paste the layer
- Set opacity to 50%
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- 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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