Cloud Effect [Step 1: Creating the brushes]

[Beatrix]

I understand that there's already a tutorial on how to get a cloudy effect, though some people seem to have trouble with it. So I'm going to post how I do the effect in which I create my own brushes.

This tutorial is compatible with any version of Photoshop that supports the cloud render function. I'm sorry but I have yet to find a way of doing the effect in Paint Shop Pro, but I will be sure to post the tutorial when I discover a way of doing it.

1. Open up a new canvas at any size you want (I made mine 500x500)

2. Make sure your foreground/background colors are set to DEFAULT (black/white). Press D on your keyboard to set them.

3. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. You will see that you get a nice cloudy effect. If you don't like the result, press ctrl + F until you get a result that you're happy with.

4. Make a new layer (ctrl + shift + N)

5. Repeat step 3.

6. Set the top layer to overlay

7. Repeat steps 4-6

8. Add a new layer again and add the cloud render. Then, go to Filter > Render > Difference clouds. Press ctrl + F until you get a result you like and set the layer to overlay.

By now, you should have 4 layers. For the next step, all you need to do is keep adding new layers, adding a cloud render, adding difference clouds and then setting the layer to overlay.

If you find that after a while, you have too many dark areas on your image, add a difference cloud layer and set it to screen. You need to do this so that your clouds aren't too white and not too dark at the same time.

TIP: After setting your cloud layers to screen/overlay, you can move them around with the move tool to get them into a nice position. Afterwards, just erase any edges that show with a large, soft brush.

After about 8-10 layers (or more), you should have a result like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/Beatrix101/cloudtut_1.jpg

All is left to do now is to take the lasso tool and set the feather settings to 30px. Then, draw around the areas you want to make into brushes and hit ctrl + X to cut them out.

Then, open a new canvas and paste the cut area onto it. Add anything on it to touch it up and go to Edit > Define Brush.

By the end of this tutorial, you should have a nice set of brushes suitable for making a cloudy effect with. Stay tuned for the next tutorial in which I will teach an efficient way of using the brushes and getting the most out of them. Thanks for reading, and don't hesitate to ask here if you have any comments/concerns. Thanks

If you would like to download the brushes I made and see my result, press click here. They are in stamp form to anybody can use them providing they can convert the stamps into brushes. Please give credit if you use them for anything. Cheers.

[shinigami]

Nice tutorial, can't wair for the second part *_*

[shinigami]

WIll you continue the tutorial?