LIGHTNING BRUSHES

 
 
Here. we'll Create a Lightning Bolt, Make it a Brush, Test it, then Add some Color for the finished Effect.
 
 
1.) Create a New file. Go to File > New. Make it 500 X 500 pixels at 72 dpi in RGB Mode on a White Background.
 
2.) Press D, then X on the keyboard to set the Foreground Color to White. Now, select the Gradient tool . Go to the Options bar and click the Downward triangle (next to display window) to Open the Gradient Library. Select the gradient named Foreground to Background. Set perimeters as shown.
(If the Library is different than the one shown, click the blue arrow (Top Right corner) and a pop-out menu will appear. Select Reset Gradients. A dialog box will appear, just click OK and the correct library will load.)
 
 
Click on the Top edge of the work area and Drag to the Bottom edge then release to Create a gradient as shown on the Left. (You can also Drag corner to corner as shown on the Right.) Either method will work. For purposes of this Tutorial, we will use the one on the Left.
 
 
3.) Next, go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. (This Filter produces a random Effect, so your image may be different as well as the finished brush.)
 
 
4.) Press I on the keyboard to Invert image.
 
 
5.) Press L on the keyboard now to Open the Levels palette. Grab the Gray triangle and Move All the way to the Right as shown, then Move the Black triangle to a input level somewhere between 100 to 130. (The higher the number, the less middle tones will be produced.)
 
 
Image will Darken nicely and produce Bolts of Lightning.
 
 
6.) Press I on the keyboard to Invert the image once again.
 
 
7.) Select the Brush tool . Go to the Options bar and click the downward triangle (next to display window) to Open the Brush Library. Select the Soft Round 35 pixels brush.
(If the Library is different, click the blue arrow (Top Right corner) and a pop-out menu will appear. Select Reset Brushes. A dialog box will appear, just click OK and the correct library will load.)
 
 
Go to the work area and paint any area's NOT to be included as the brush.
 
 
Here is my clean up work. (Notice I also Created an end point to the Bolt on the Left side.)
 
 
8.) Brush is now ready to be Created. Go to Edit > Define Brush preset. Name it as you wish, then click OK to Create.
 
 
The Brush will be placed in the current Library as it's last entry. Now, that we have our New brush, let's test it out on a New Document. Go to File > New. Make it 500 X 500 pixels at 72 dpi in RGB Mode on Background Color. (The New brush will already be Selected. Now, position over work area and click once to produce image, then press V on the keyboard to Deselect brush.
 
 
Adding Color now is a simple endeavor. Go to the Layers palette and click the Adjustment layer button . A pop-up menu will appear, select Hue/Saturation. A new layer will be Created and the Hue/Saturation palette will Open. Now, check the Colorize option, then adjust Hue and Saturation sliders to your liking.
 
 
That's all there is to it!
 
 
There is also a third party software package that can be run Inside Photoshop to simulate Electricity. It is available from Alienskin Software. It is called Xenofex 2 and contains among other things, a palette to Design Electricity. You can obtain a Fully functional 30 day version for Free by clicking here, then go to Demos to obtain.
 
 
After you have custom Created your own set of Lightning brushes, or Downloaded a few from the web, you'll be able to begin to add this great Effect into your work.
 
Using a clip from my image "Goodbye" these are the Steps I used to Create the Lightning in the finished image.
 
1.) I begin by Creating a New blank layer at the Top in the Layers palette. With the Foreground changed to White, I then Select the Brush tool and change the library to a set of Lightning brushes to work with. Select a brush you would like to use... (This set is available located on my CD titled "Killer Styles and Techniques for Photoshop CS™".)
 
 
Go to the work area now and click once to stamp an image. Placement is not all that important as you will see in a moment.
 
 
2.) The direction of the lightning in this case needed to be corrected. Pressing Ctrl+T brings up the Free Transform bounding box and allows the user to rotate the image by placing the curser to the Outside of the box and Dragging. Click+Drag Inside the box to reposition like shown. Click the Commit button (located Top Right of program) to apply.
 
 
3.) Here I Selected a new brush, Created a New blank layer, then stamped another image. This time, I Selected the Move tool and Dragged image into position.
 
 
4.) By pressing B to Reselect the Brush tool and Repeating this process I added the third bolt. Switching to the Erasure, I erased using a Soft Round brush unwanted details to the third image...
 
 
Which finished the image with this result.
 
 
By placing each Lightning bolt on it's own layer, it allows the user the freedom to Rotate each individually if needed in addition to adjusting the Opacity easily via the Top of the Layers palette. The Cover image to this CD package was Created in this way.
 
Two Lightning brush sets are available from this CD set.. Once downloaded, you will find them listed as SD-Lightning-Large and SD-Lightning-Medium. There are 90 brushes total.
Sample or Preset files are available at the main index Mastering Brushes for Photoshop.
 
Add Outer Glow via the Layer Style palette to the brush layers to Create stunning effects!
 
 
Copyright © 2006-2007 Glenn Schemenauer - Spacific Designs™ - All rights reserved.