Emmett Lollis+Tutorial - How to Create an Abstract 3D Background!
About the Tutorial
This is one of those tutorials that looks a lot harder than it really is. The only knowledge needed is how to use Photoshop filters, layers and blending modes, you don't even need a Wacom Stylus. Now don't get me wrong a stylus is an excellent tool to use and I in fact use my Wacom Graphire 2 all the time but I know a majority of people still use a mouse. What you end up with is a decent work of abstract art created with minimal effort.
Creating an Abstract 3D Background
First create a new image and set the dimensions to 800 x 800 pixels. Now set your background color to purple and foreground color to blue. It's time to render some clouds, go to Filter -> Render -> Clouds, you may need to run it a few times to get the desired effect. Next we create a new layer, change the background color to red, foreground color to green and render some more clouds. Now set the blending mode to "Pin Light". You should have an image that resembles the one below.
Setting up the 3D Texture
Now we've got the colors looking all cool but it just doesn't stand out very well. Lets add some motion to the top layer of clouds. We'll go with the twirl filter here, select Filter -> Distort -> Twirl with a setting of -365. Finally it's time to make the image come alive! Merge the two layers you have, then duplicate them. On the top layer select Filter -> Sketch -> Bass Relief with these settings: Detail - 15, Smoothness 2 and Light Source - Bottom Left. Finally change the blend mode on the top layer to overlay and you're left with this image. As you can see by the crop at the bottom, the detail from the bass relief really makes this image pop out. Hope you enjoyed this short Photoshop lesson. See you next time!
Article by Emmett Lollis Jr. February 17th 2005
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