Luminescent Object Tutorial

[Extasey]

This is a very easy effect that can be applied to just about anything to give it a certain, tripped out, glow effect. This tutorial is designed for Photoshop.

Firstly, we're going to make a document, for our first run we'll do something big. Hows 1024x768px?
The background is un-important in this tutorial, all you have to do is fill it with black, using the bucket tool (G). Once thats done, you can leave it.

Now, make a new layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N) and call it "Design"
In this layer, create your design. This can be done using the Pen Tool (P) or brushes. I prefer brushes as I have some really interesting sets. Try to make your design as "lacy" as possible. By this I mean lots of lines and little "Hard objects" that have full areas of colour.
For now, Make your design White.
Heres Mine:


Sweet! We've got a cool, lacy design. Now to give it a bit of colour.
Right click on the "Design" layer and select "Blending Options"

When the menu opes, select "Drop Shadow" and use the following settings:


The colour I used was #e6106b or 230,16,107.
For those who can't see or tell what I have done open this

Spoiler (Click to View)

Set Opacity to 76, angle to 120 (default), select use global light, and everything below either set to 0 or un-ticked.

Now we want to create an outer glow. Click that from the left panel and configure it to the following settings:


For those who can't see or tell what I have done open this [spoiler] Blend mode: Normal, opacity: 20, noise 0, select the rainbow with transparent edges, technique: softer, spread: 0, size: 21, leave the rest default.

See how your image is shaping up? Looking pretty trippy isn't it! But it isn't what my final product looks like is it?
Right click on the layer with the design and select "Duplicate Layer"


On this layer, all we are going to change is this:


The outer glow is no longer the rainbow with transparent edges, it is the one with solid edges! Also, the opacity of this layer is set to 3.

Now, on a new layer, we are going to finish the effect by selecting a softer brush (B), and drawing random shapes in bright colours over the top. I just used the soft 100px brush from the "Basic Brushes" set.
Your design should now look as ugly as this:


Right click on your new layer and the apply a the "Glassian Blur" Filter by selecting Filter>Blur>Glassian Blur from the top menu. Blur the layer by 100px. You will also need to set the blend mode to Colour. Our final set will be to set the opacity, I used 50%.

Hopefully it looks a little like this:


REMEBER: The settings I provided aren't the only ones! Try fiddling with the drop shadow and outer glow. Whenever I use this technique I always surprise myself just by changing a few values!

[Extasey]

I just fixed the image up a bit, set the size of the outer glow for the design copy to 0, then the design layer's size to 128. Fixes up the random colours on the outside.

[Jordan L.]

Nice tut Extasey, I'll try it out when I get home to my other PC and show you my result.

[Extasey]

Updated Final Picture, see how you can make it seem like the light is origination from a single point?

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(The center of the blue bit)

[Gone]

Thank you for teh tut, and background image

[Extasey]

Haha, no worries!