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1

a. Start with a 400 x 400 px file, 72 dpi, rgb color.

b. Hit D to reset your colors to black and white, then hit Alt + Backspace to fill your background layer with black.

c. Go to Edit>Preferences>Grid, Guides and Slices...

and use these settings:

Gridline every: 100 pixels

Subdivisions: 4

d. Hit Alt + ' to toggle the grid

e. Make a circle like this using the Circular Marquee tool, make sure its centered using the grid.

f. After you make your circle you can deactivate the grid.

 

2

a. Make these colors your Primary and Secondary Colors on the color Pallete The colors hex codes are, FFA626 and 7A0000

b. Make a new layer, double click on the layer name and call the layer Clouds.

c.Then making sure you still have your circular selection, go to Filter>Render>Clouds

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3

a. Click on the Channels Tab in the layers pallete to switch over to the Channels Palette.

b. Click on the New Channel Button:

c. Click on the Alpha 1 layer, then go to Filter>Render>Clouds. You want the clouds to be mostly light, keep repeating the filter (Ctrl + F) until you get clouds that are 60-75% light.

d. Then go to Filter>Render>Difference Clouds.

e. Hold Ctrl and click on the Alpha 1 layer to load its selection. If you get an error like the one to the left, use Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast... to brighten the image a little bit, make sure you only brighten it a little bit, too much will ruin the effect.

f. Now Switch Back to the Layers Palette and click on the layer you have the clouds on.

 

 

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4

a. Your selection should look something like this. Making sure you are on the clouds layer take the Magic Wand Tool (W) and click somewhere in the black space while holding the Alt key, to subtract the selection. This will make it so all the work you do will only be inside the circle.

b. Now select the Brush Tool (B) and click on the Brushes tab in the top right corner of the screen. Adjust the brush with these settings:

c. Make sure you adjust the Opacity to 30% and the Flow to 50%. As shown below.

 

 

Click for fullsize image

Click for fullsize image

 

5

a. Hit D to reset your colors to black and white, then use the brush until your clouds layer looks something like this. Be careful to not make any one area too dark.

b. After you finish with the Brush Tool, hit Ctrl + D to deselect, then hold Ctrl and click on the clouds layer in the layers palette to load its selection.

c. Go to Filter>Distort>Spherize...

use these settings:

Amount: 100%

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6

a. Now hit Ctrl + J to make a copy of the Clouds layer.

b. Go to Filter>Texture>Grain and use these settings:

Intensity: 27

Contrast: 0

Grain Type: Speckle

c. When we do the Grain filter it makes a black outline on the circle layer, we are going to get rid of this using a Layer Mask.

d. Hold Ctrl and click on the Clouds Copy layer to load its selection. Then hit the Add Layer Mask button on the Layers Palette.

e. Hit Ctrl + Shift + D to reselect after you add the layer mask. Then go to Select>Modify>Contract...

and contract 5 pixels

f. Then go to Select>Feather... or hit Ctrl + Alt + D

and feather the selection 10 pixels

g. Finally go to Select>Inverse to invert the selection, then hit Alt + Backspace to fill the selection with black. How a layer mask works is that it creates a map of black and white on the layer, the visible parts are white and the invisible parts are black. What we just did is we made the outer edge of the top circle invisible.

h. Make sure you are on the Clouds Copy layer and hit Ctrl + E to merge the two layers.

 

 

 

 

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