Windows Vista Aurora Effect Using Photoshop (Tutorial)
| Posted by watashii | Filed under Photoshop
Here is a very simple tutorial for remaking the beautiful Windows Vista Aurora wallpaper effect, using Photoshop. Full credit goes to tutorial9 for the steps which I followed.
My PSD source files are available below, if interested. Or click-on to follow my tutorial.
[aurora_watashii.zip] 1.6M
[aurora.png] 411kb (1900×1200)
Step 1
Start with a random image as our background.
Step 2
Apply a Gaussian blur with radius > 100 on the background
Step 3
Goto Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. Then using the RGB sliders to adjust the color of the background of your choice. You can also change the brightness/contrast settings on the background layer. The background changes are complete after this step.
Step 4
To create the light bands, first create a new layer. Then select the elliptical marquee tool and draw a large rounded outline a shown below. Press spacebar+drag to maximise the ellipse size outside the photoshop canvas.
Step 5
Select the brush tool with any brush size (say 100px), and 0% hardness and fill the edge of the selection marquee.
Step 6
Next, deselect the marquee, and position / free transform the light band. In the layers panel, change the blending layer to Overlay. This will give the light bands a glowing effect.
Step 7
Now repeat Step 4 to create several light bands with different bush sizes, positioning and free transform. You can also reuse existing light bands by duplicating the existing layers.
Step 8
Lastly you can create additional adjustment layers on each light band, like what we have done in Step 3. Press Ctrl+Shift then click (once or twice) on the thumbnail of a light band layer. This will automatically create a selection around your light band. You can then proceed to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance and modify the color of the light bands. Experiment!
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Tags: aero, aurora, Photoshop, tutorial, vista
