Complex 3d Abstract Wallpaper

Let’s face it: making great abstract 3d wallpapers is time consuming, tedious, and difficult. It literally takes years to build the skills to create some of the more impressive artwork found around the internet. But you’re in luck. Here are a few methods in one tutorial which help to create a good looking abstract wallpaper.
There are three major aspects to designing abstract art:

• 3d (the main objects in the peice)
• Lighting (light flares, explosions, etc)
• Color

I am going to try to simplify each one of these three aspects for you so you can get a fast start into creating something like this:

Part 1: The 3d

Learning to create great 3d renders is difficult, not possible in Photoshop, and there are many tutorials on the subject. However, if you want a quick start, run over to Deviant Art and grab some free-for-all renders. Here are a few packages (the one I used is out of the first) which can help you out.

• http://trijn.deviantart.com/art/Render-pack-2-50150363
• http://angelus-hellion.deviantart.com/art/render-pack-04-33023575
• http://www.deviantart.com/#catpath=resources/3dmodels&order=9

If you can find them, renders in .tga format are the best because they come with an alpha layer. The alpha layer is an exact outline of the render and it will help you to very easily isolate the object and remove the background (making it transparent and easier to implement). If you have .tga, just click on the Channels tab (in Photoshop), control + click on the alpha layer, and then copy and paste the render out of its background. This is the 3d that I used. Credit to trijn.

Part 2:  The Lighting
This particular peice will have the render in the foreground and the lighting coming from behind it – that’s why I chose such a dark 3d render. I started off with a black background and a large green light source in the center of the page.

Now I put some difference clouds (Filter >> Render >> Difference Clouds) onto a new layer (always put new elements onto a new layer). For difference clouds you want your selected background color to be black and your selected foreground color to be the color youd like your clouds to be. I also brought down the opacity of my clouds.

Now for the interesting part. “Brushing” or “air brushing” is the term generally used to refer to the detailed cloud, smoke, and light that artists will use in their peices. There is a fine art to doing it with an airbrush but again, for beginners, I’ll show you an easier method to use. Go to Stock Xchng (you will need to register for a free account) and get a stock image of clouds. Isolate the clouds and with your eraser (soft edges, 120px wide) erase the edges so your clouds have no corners.

Now that you have an edge-less cloud, duplicate the layer many times and use the Transform menu to make lots of different looking clouds. Layer >> Transform >> Distort, Perspective, Skew, etc.

I put mine in the middle and set them all to Color Dodge. Experiment with the different blending modes to get something that works with your particular wallpaper.

Here is where I am so far.

Now, this is a cool and extremely simple effect I figured out a few years ago. Grab a 1 pixel pencil and (on a new layer of course) scribble all over the canvas. For a good effect, try to make the scribbles be emenating somewhat from the center.

All you have to do now is a radial blur (Filter >> Blur >> Radial Blur) at highest quality, zoom, and around 50%. Duplicate the layer one or two times and set them to overlay. This will create a great zooming lighting effect with some good highlights.

I decided to throw in some light beams. They’re somewhat cheesy but if you like them, go for it. All you do is grab a soft airbrush (i used one around 9px thick) and draw a long, vertical line.

Shear your line layer (Filter >> Distort >> Shear) usign whatever line guideline you’d like. Add an outer glow, distort it, and duplicate it how you see fit.

Here is where I am at this point:
Part 3: Color
I like to do the color at the end and adding color isn’t nescesary in all cases; some might argue that the image above looks better than the image below. All I’m going to recommend for this tutorial is to grab a very large and soft brush (300px), create a new layer on top, and make large blobs of related colors. Important: new layer for each different color.

Now, set all the layers to the Color blending property and modify all of their opacities until you get something you like.

Note that this is an extremely simplified process of creating 3d abstract art. This one took around 30 minutes; a quality peice of artwork takes days. But this is a good start for someone with some Adobe Photoshop experience.