Oh well, hello all I'm new on this board and hopefully I can contribute with some nice tutorials.. Actually this will be my first ever, so I hope this goes smooth. Anyways, this tutorial will show you how to get a pretty cool space wallpaper or sign etc. I named the topic alittle bit strange I suppose, but I couldn't find words for the thing that will be shown in this tut hehe. Let's begin ! <!> I can recommend reading the tutorial before doing it in photoshop step for step, I've been editing this post alot and some of that text that has been added is useful to know ( it can be pretty hard to get a grip of this tutorial to just be reading it once and doing it once, you may have to do it again to get good results )
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To start with.. we will need a starfield.
I'll make a new (don't use transparent) 1024 x 768 pix big working area since I'm going to do a wallpaper for myself
( It's up to you how big you want to, but I recommend big areas ).
Oh.. and you have to make it black. Make sure you have pressed D before doing anything.

Now we need to add those stars ! Filter >> Noise >> Add Noise.
About 10% should do the trick. It has to be gaussian and monochromatic has to be selected aswell. OK.

Now we have stars, but the light variation is bad and the amount of stars is to big ! so, press ctrl +l which also can be found at Image >> Adjustments >> Levels.
You can pretty much play around with the values, but I like 0 0,25 98 (boxes left to right) that get's a pretty nice variaton. After you've decided the values and pressed OK that's pretty much about it when talking about the starfield.

Now we need a kinda gas,planet,star exploding effect. Make a New Layer and go to Filter >> Render >> Clouds. Repeat the step (not a new layer) but take Difference Clouds instead after that, you press CTRL +F about 8-12 times until you've get the shape you like Don't do it too much tho, it can get pretty messed up after a while, if you happend to do it too much just go backwards and re-add difference clouds and try to get that right shape After that we have to get an intense light in the middle or somewhere else where you think it fits, you might want to use levels here aswell because you need it kinda dark except in the "source" of the "exploding" but that's up to you. Go Filter >> Render >> Lightning Effects. Light type should be omni and Intensity about 45-49.
Gloss : 100 , Material : 100 , Exposure : 0 , Ambience : Around 10-20, best is it at 16-17. But of course you choose, you can absolutely play around with the values and experiment make the omni range pretty big so it covers the whole area(DON'T make it to bright tho, If you do the stars will be useless cuz you wont see them in the end, I suppose this doesn't make that much effect on the end result if you use levels before this step and make it darker in some places)

Time to color it, click CTRL +U. Select Colorize and start mess with the values, since this is a exploding planet,gas or whatever we need a firey color. I'll use.. (boxes up to down) 40 70 0 That color fits my shape of the "explosion".

Create a new layer, make sure the new layer is selected in the layer box and go Filter >> Render >> Clouds make the blending mode "color burn" and make sure it's over the shape layer and set the opacity to about 50% or lower/higher, make something that fits, in this way we delete some lines and stuff in the darker areas of the picture which is good in the end.

Merge the cloud layer with the "shape-explosion"layer afterwards, so now we got two layers waiting to be used Just put the blending mode "Screen" on the new-merged layer which hopefully contains a fully colorized explosion

voila ! stars and explosion I Hope you liked it !


Now to make a little extra challenge for you guys who aren't satisfied with the result can do this..

Make the background layer which is the starfield a normal layer (do this by dubbelclicking on it in the layerbox then just name the layer and ok) Put it OVER the explosion layer, make sure the starfield layer is still selected and go Filter >> Render >> Lens Flare and put it where you have a little bit darker area or something, 105mm prime works best. Set the blending mode on the starfield layer to like.. "Lighten" if you got a packed explosion layer, so it opens up a darker area alittle bit (It's good anyways).. otherwise just "screen", oh.. It's easier to put the starfield layer to "screen" before doing the lens flare, cuz then you see on the pic where you have the darker areas, in the exploding areas you wont be able to see so much of the flare..

This next step can be pretty hard to follow, but hey.. trying hasn't hurt anyone. Make a new layer on top of that starfield, draw a white "how-fat-you-want" line straight over the lens flare(the lens flare will be smaller depending on the lines lenght, you'll see what I'm talking about when done the outer glow settings) the line should be the same lenght at both ends. Now, right click on the white-line layer in the layerbox and click blending options. Outer Glow.. Blend Mode : Vivid Light , Opacity : 100% , Noise : 0
use this color #F2F2EE , Technique : Softer , Spread : 4% , Size : 38px as of the quality box you need to change to contour to gaussian...

Now to Inner Glow, Blend Mode : Overlay , Opacity : 75% (default) , color should be #F2F2F0 , Technique : Softer , Source : Egde , Choke : 0% , Size : 5px leave the quality box unchecked.

Oyeah, we got a nice looking lens flare, tho ! there is one thing to do left, we've got some edges of the white line sticking out.. go Filter >> Blur >> Motion Blur
Angle : 0 , Distance : 36 pixles


Here's my final picture >> http://w1.611.telia.com/~u61108354/eld@pla...t_exploding.jpg

Here's a new link for those with slower connection (should take 20secs with 56kbps, which I'll hope be worth the waiting) : http://w1.611.telia.com/~u61108354/exploding.jpg

you can do that too, just some patience and fantasy and your on your way, play with it. I know you can do better than my result if you give it some time
try using other blend modes in the layerbox also, it can get pretty cool


Now you should have a big fat explosion with nice coloring and a starfield making the picture deep and on top of that a small "sun" glaring at you If not check the settings and try again hehe. I may have to update this tutorial as I've could have give you the wrong values or something. Post your thoughts about this tutorial and your results of it please

This post has been edited by Josh: Jun 6 2004, 04:38 PM

Hi Eldarion, welcome to weborum


Very nice tut

I know i will be having a crack at it.

Do you mind a suggestion? your final image is really big , in filesize, it will use up alot of your bandwidth. I would recommend you reduce the filesize with photoshop's save for the web feature. Another aspect of it is, the image is over 800kb and dialup users download at an average of 4kb/s so they would have to wait a long time to see the image.

Let me know if you would like me to reduce the image size for you

Good to have you here!!

Now, lets see what my attempt looks like


Leo

Hi Leo and thanks

I really hope it's a good tut
Oh, didn't even think of it.. I will reduce it, thank you for noticing

EDIT: I have been reducing the image now, I don't mind if telia, my host get alots of problem now I don't like them anyways. Here's the new link for those with slower connection http://w1.611.telia.com/~u61108354/exploding.jpg

This post has been edited by Eldarion: Jun 5 2004, 09:01 PM

You're welcome

cool, if you reduce the dimensions slightly (just for this tut) you can put it directly on this page using the IMG tag.

I'll go pin it for you now

Awesome tutorial! I'll submit it to good-tutorials later today.

Welcome to the forums

thanks josh, and thanks again hehe

I'm going to rename it to exploding planet, is that alright with you?

sure sure, no problem at all.. I can't find words for it myself

erm...i seemt o be having a problem quite early on...i select the paint bucket tool...but all i get is the white background i started with

:edit:

never mind

This post has been edited by fauzman: Jun 10 2004, 03:08 PM

Nice tut
Heres my final






Systems

Very cool!

Welcome to the forums

Thx


I wonder how people can be amazed by my pic when im a newb

Heh



Systems

Heh, I'm still amazed on how good of a tutorial this is. It looks like it was made with a 3-d program. Nice work. I have just made my own tutorial, hopefully they accept it and put it on the effects page. If you want me to, I'll post it here.


Systems

Yup, feel free to add as many tutorials as you have.

Welcome to the forum, BTW

All right, but should I make a new topic or just post it on this?



Systems