Tutorial: Circular Fading in Photoshop.

[Posted 09/08/2009 at 12:01 AM | No Comments]

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to make a really cool fading background using circles. You can do the same thing with triangles, squares, rectangles, or any other shape you desire. The idea is simple, create a brush, scatter it, and add a single layer (or more if you need) for your fading techniques. After you do this tutorial, make sure you check out my Aurora Effect.

Step One

Open up Photoshop and create a new document. Make it 500 x 500 and make sure the background is transparent.
new

Step Two

Once you do that, create a circle by pressing the elliptical marquee tool , pressing the Shift key, and moving your mouse cursor outwards.
circle2

Step Three

Fill the circle with Black. Click your rectangular marquee tool, select the hole circle, press control c (copy), go to file > new, hit enter, and then hit paste in the new document.

(Then paste your circle).

Step Four

Change the fill opacity to 60%.
fill

You will not have this:
now

Step Five

You now need to add a stroke to the inside of the circle.
stroke

Do the following settings:
stroked

Step Six

Define this as a brush. Go to Edit > define brush preset. Name it whatever you would like!
brush

Step Seven

Create your new document at your desired size. For my example, I used 800 x 400.

Step Eight

Select the brush tool . Then select the brush preset your just made.
selectb

Step Nine

You now need to add the scatter settings. To do this, click f5. Do the following setting:
(Click image for full view)

Step Ten

Now with your Brush made, paid your document in sections. Creating a new layer for each section:
(Click image for full view)

layer

Step Eleven

Now for the layers on the bottom, add light Gaussian Blurs. It all depends on how many layers you actually use. Since I used six, my first layer will have a Gaussian Blur of 6.6. My second layer got 5.1. My third layer got 3.5. My fourth layer got 5.9. My fifth layer got 2.1. And finally my last layer got .5. Also, if you need to, change around the Opacity on each layer.
(Click image for full view)

Step Twelve

Now add the color. Create a new layer, select your Gradient Tool, , select a colorful preset, and put the gradient from one end of the document to the other.