Design a Retro Futurism Space Scene

Images Used

Desert Photo
Moon Photo
Concrete Texture
Sega Free Font

Step 1

Open up a new document (600X500px) and create a new layer called 'stars'. Then fill your whole canvas with black.

Step 2

Then go to filter>noise>add noise. Set amount to 10%, distribution to 'gaussian', and tick 'monochromatic'.

Step 3

Now to make the noise effect left intense, and the 'stars' more pronounced go to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast. Reduce your brightness to -30 and increase your contrast to +50.

Step 4

Paste in a desert landscape into the bottom of your canvas.

Step 5

Use a medium sized soft eraser brush to erase away the sky part of your landscape, just leaving your rocky landscape. Then go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation. Reduce your saturation to -90 and your lightness to -20.

Step 6

Paste in a photo of the moon into the bottom of your canvas. I cut out the photo from its original background using my circular marquee selection tool. Duplicate your moon layer and set the duplicate to 'hard light', then merge down (option+e), so that you have a single moon layer.

Step 7

Now go to blending options for your moon layer and apply a pink color overlay (blend mode: overlay).

Step 8

Now apply a white outer glow blending option to your moon layer.

Step 9

Now go to your layers palette and option+click on your moon layer. This should select your moon shape. Then create a new layer called 'moon gradient' and drag a white to transparent gradient downwards. This should give the impression of light coming from behind the moon.

Step 10

Now apply a gradient overlay (white to black), and a bevel effect. Settings for both of these effects are below.

Step 11

Now go to filter>render>lens flare and apply a lens flare to your stars layer. This should appear beneath your moon layer.

Step 12

Now draw out a triangle on a new top layer using your lasso tool. Fill it with a medium to light gray.

Step 13

Now duplicate your layer and go to edit>transform>distort. Distort your duplicate so that your two triangles form a pyramid shape. Then go to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast and increase your brightness to +30. Then merge the two layers together.

Step 14

Now duplicate your pyramid shape multiple times, altering the size and rotation of each duplicate to create a random effect.

Step 15

Now reduce the opacity of some of the pyramid layers. Try to give an impression of depth by giving the small pyramid layers a lower opacity, implying that they are further away.

Step 16

Now use your line tool to draw white lines between each of your pyramids. Then rasterize each line layer (layer>rasterize>layer) and merge all of your line layers together.

Step 17

Reduce your merged lines layer's opacity to 40% and then use a soft eraser brush at 30% opacity to erase away random parts of your lines.

Step 18

Now grab your original moon photo and paste it into your image on a new top layer called 'small moon'. Go to image>adjustments>desaturate to grayscale your moon, and then resize the moon to be very small (smaller than your pyramids). Duplicate this layer and dot tiny moons around your image. Then reduce the opacity of each of these small moon layers just as you did with your pyramid layers. Finally merge all of your small moon layers together.

Step 19

I decide that I want to see darker shadows on my large moon, just to give more intensity to the overall piece. To do this I option+click on my moon layer in my layers palette and then create a new layer called 'moon shadows'. I create a radial gradient inside my selection, ranging from transparent to black. Then I reduce this layer's opacity to 75%.

Step 20

Paste in a concrete texture as a new top layer. Then make sure that all of your pyramid layers are merged into one. Option click on this merged layer in your layers palette to select all of your pyramid shapes. Then select your concrete layer and go to layer>add layer mask>reveal selection. This will mean that you concrete texture is only visible where it overlaps your pyramids. Set your concrete texture layers blend mode to 'linear burn' and reduce it's opacity to 50%. This should have given your pyramids a subtle concrete texture.

Step 21

Now create a new layer called 'light spots'. Use your radial gradient tool to create spots of light (ranging from white to transparent), that fit to your white lines. I reduced my layer's opacity to 60% to make the lighting effect more subtle.

Step 22

Now create a new layer called 'color overlay'. Use a large, soft paintbrush and paint over your image with greens and pinks. Then change your layer's blend mode to 'soft light'. This should give your image a subtle coloring effect.

Step 23

Now type out some retro text in the center of your canvas. Apply a bevel effect (settings shown below), and make your letters various shades of gray/white. Finally, reduce your text layer's opacity to 70%.

Step 24

To finish up, duplicate your text layer. Remove your bevel effect on the bottom layer of your two text layers, and instead apply a gradient overlay effect, ranging from pink to green.

Step 25

Create a new top layer called 'blurred lines' and use your line tool to draw multiple lines over your text. To draw the lines at a perfect 45 degree angle simply hold shift as you draw them. Make sure that all of your lines are on a single layer, and then rasterize this layer and apply a gradient overlay ranging from green to pink.

Step 26

Now apply a motion blur to your lines layer (angle 45 degrees, strength: 35). Then to make the effect more obvious duplicate this layer twice and merge all of these layers into one.

And We're Done!

I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial, and as always would really appreciate your comments.