Grunge Background

Step 1.

Create a new document of any size, the document I"m using here is 550 x 200 and fill the background with black. Press 'D' on your keyboard to reset your colors to black (#000000) and white (#FFFFFF):

Go to Filter->Render->Difference Clouds.

Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard three times to repeat this process three times, Result:

Step 2.

Create a new layer, fill the background with black and go to:

Go to Filter->Render->Difference Clouds.

Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard three times to repeat this process three times.

Press Ctrl + I on your keyboard to invert the colors.

Change the blending option of this layer to 'Overlay':

Result:

Step 3.

Create a new layer, fill the background with black and go to:

Go to Filter->Render->Difference Clouds.

Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard three times to repeat this process three times.

Change the blending option of this layer to 'Screen':

Result:

Step 4.

Now we'll add some color to the effect:

Click on the bottom most/first layer to select it.

Go to: Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Color Balance.

Press Okay, check the 'Highlights' box and enter the following settings:

Press Okay.

Click on the middle layer to select it.

Go to: Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Color Balance.

Press Okay, check the 'Highlights' box and enter the following settings:

Press Okay.

Click on the top layer to select it.

Go to: Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Color Balance.

Press Okay, check the 'Midtones' box and enter the following settings:

Press Okay.

Result:

Step 5.

With the top most layer still active press Ctrl + A to highlight all, then press Ctrl + Shift + C to copy all.

Now press Ctrl + V to paste all. This will make a copy of all three layers for us to create some further effects.

Go to Filter->Stylize->Extrude and enter these settings:

Go to Filter->Sharpen->Sharpen.

Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard three times to repeat the sharpen three more times.

Change the blending mode of this layer to 'Overlay' and drop the opacity down to 57 percent:

Result:

Click to enlarge

Continue on to part 2 Grunge Borders.

Here is my my final result after adding a grunge border, some text, and a game render:

Click to enlarge

That completes the grunge background tutorial. If you would also like to learn how to create a grunge border please view our Grunge Border tutorial that compliments this tutorial.