Step 1.
Create a new document in photoshop of any size, I will be working with a 500x150 for this tutorial.
Step 2.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N on your keyboard to create a new layer.
Press "D" on your keyboard to reset your foreground and background colors to Black/White respectively.
Go to Filter->Render->Clouds
Go to Filter->Render->Difference Clouds
Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard 8 times to repeat the Difference Clouds Filter 8 times.
Result:
Step 3.
Go to Filter->Noise->Add Noise and apply the following settings:
Result:
Step 4.
Go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur and apply the following settings:
Result:
Step 5.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N on your keyboard to create a new layer.
Here we're going to do nearly the same thing, with a slight adjustment to the Blur filter.
Go to Filter->Render->Clouds
Go to Filter->Render->Difference Clouds
Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard 8 times to repeat the Difference Clouds Filter 8 times.
Go To Filter->Noise->Add Noise, and apply the following settings:
Go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur and apply the following settings:
Note: These have changed since step # 4)
Result:
Change the "Blending Mode" of this layer to "Overlay":
Result:
Step 6.
Next we're going to add a few brushing effects to the background. Here I'm going to be using a brush set called "Grunge Redux" which can be downloaded freely by clicking here. Note: Free registration required.
Go ahead and get out the Brush Tool (
) and load up your grunge brush set, and apply the following settings:
Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N on your keyboard to create a new layer, and click a few times around the canvas with your brush. You should end up with something similar to this:
Drop the opacity of this layer to 35% as shown here:
Result:
Step 7.
Next we're going to paste a render onto our background. You can find renders all over the internet for free, or even create them yourself. Here I'll be using a game render of Browser, from the Super Mario Brother video games. The render was downloaded from ClanTemplates.com which has a huge selection of renders, that I suggest you bookmark and save.
If you'd like to use the Browser Render that I'm using here, please click here to download it.
Go ahead and open the render in photoshop.
Press Ctrl + A to highlight everything.
Press Ctrl + C to copy it.
Go back over to our original photoshop document (you can close the render file now, we're done with it.) Once back in the original photoshop document. Make sure the topmost layer of the photoshop document is selected/active, and press Ctrl + V to paste the render.
Result:
Step 8.
Now as you can see we're going to need to resize the render, so it fits into our document.
Press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to open up the Freeform Transform tool.
You'll notice that a square will appear around the Browser image as shown here:
Now place your cursor (mouse) near the small box (called nodes) in the bottom right hand corner as shown here:
Hold the Shift key down on your board, click your mouse and drag up-wards towards the top right box (node) as shown here:
Holding Shift will ensure that the proportions stay exactly the same, and avoids badly distorting your render.
Now your render should fit a lot better into the canvas:
Step 9.
Press Ctrl + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.
Now go back to the original layer with the game render on it (the one directly below the topmost layer), as shown here:
Go out the Single Column Marquee Tool
Click anywhere on the canvas with this tool to make a 1 pixel wide, vertical selection.
Press Ctrl + T on your keyboard, to get out the Freeform Transform tool.
Place your Cursor/Mouse near the center Box/Node, click and drag outward as I have done here:
Go ahead and Click the center box/node on the other side, and drag it outward toward the left as well, as shown here:
Press ENTER on your keyboard to finalize the transformation.
Step 10.
Change the Blending Mode of this layer to "Soft Light":
Result:
And that completes the creation of the pixel stretch effect. Here's how mine turned out:
And here it is after adding some text and a few other small effects:
