Retro Splash Display

Step 1.

Start a new document in photoshop that is 700x700 pixels in size.

Press "D" on your keyboard to reset your foreground and background colors to black (#000000) and white (#FFFFFF) respectively.

Get out the Gradient Fill Tool ( ) and set it up with a foreground to background gradient like so:

Now fill the background layer of this document, with a gradient similar to what I have done here:

Step 2.

Press Ctrl + Shift + N on your keyboard to create a new layer.

Get out the Rectangular Marquee Tool ( ), and make a selection in the center of your canvas similar to what I've done here:

Set your foreground color to #828282, and fill this selection with the Paint Bucket Fill Tool ( ):

Next we'll ensure that this is aligned with the center of the canvas perfectly.

Press "V" on your keyboard to get out the Move Tool ( ).

Press Ctrl+ A on your keyboard to select everything.

Now on the tool bar, click the "Align Horizontal Centers" button:

Step 3.

Now press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to get out the Free Transform Tool.

Hold down the Shift + Ctrl+ Alt keys on your keyboard.

While holding these buttons, place your mouse cursor near the bottom left node (box), click and drag this corner inward to where the right corner node (box) current is:

Press Enter on your keyboard to finalize the transformation.

Step 4.

Press Ctrl + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.

Press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to open up the free transform tool again.

In the your Tool Bar, type 38 in the Rotation Dialog Box:

Press Enter on your keyboard to finalize the transformation.

Result:

Press and hold down the Shift + Ctrl + Alt keys on your keyboard and press T a couple times to repeat the free transform rotation, until your canvas looks like mine here:

Now we want to merge each of these wedges together. Do so by pressing Ctrl + E on your keyboard until your layers pallet looks like mine here:

Note: You should only have 2 layers, one for the background, and one for our pin wheel/wedges.

Step 5.

Press Ctrl + J on your keyboard to duplicate our Pin Wheel / Wedges layer.

Drop the opacity of this duplicate layer to around 40 percent:

Press Ctrl+ T on your keyboard to get out the Free Transform Tool again.

Place your mouse near the top Right Node (box) and slightly rotate this duplicate pin wheel layer, as I've done here:

Press Enter on your keyboard to finalize the transformation.

Step 6.

Press Shift + Ctrl + N on your keyboard to create a new layer.

Set your foreground color to white (#FFFFFF), and your background color to Black (#000000).

Get out the Gradient Fill Tool ( ) and select the Radial Gradient setting, with the foreground to background gradient fill type:

Fill the entire layer with a Radial Gradient, as I have done here:

Change the blending mode of this layer to "Screen" and drop the opacity down to 75 percent:

Result:

Step 7.

Press "D" on your keyboard to reset your foreground, and background colors to Black, White respectively.

Go to Filter->Sketch->Halftone Pattern, and apply the following settings:

Result:

Step 8.

Okay, now to finally add some color to the background.

Go to Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Color Balance, and press Okay:

Apply the following settings:

Highlights:

Midtones:

Shadows:

Result:

Click to enlarge

Step 9.

Now we'll create some great looking retro text to add to our background, here's what we'll be creating:

To start off, you'll need to download the two (yes there is two of them) fonts that I used for this. They are both available for free here:

• Alba Super
• Alba

You'll need to close photoshop, and reopen it after installing these fonts, to make them available to you for use.

Step 10.

Press Ctrl+ Shift + N to create new layer. And once again press Ctrl+ Shift + N to create yet another new layer (you should now have 2 new layers that are blank).

Set your foreground color to black (#000000), get out the text tool, and choose the 'Alba Super' font first, with these settings:

Go ahead and type out your text:

Press Ctrl + E on your keyboard to merge this layer with the previous.

Step 11.

Press 'V' on your keyboard to get out the Move Tool ( ).

Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and press the up arrow on your keyboard 8 times.

This will create 8 duplicates of your text, here's how your canvas should look:

Merge all of these duplicate layers, with the layer we created in step #10, by pressing Ctrl + E repeatedly until each of these layers are merged into one.

Step 12.

Set your foreground color to #359FE3, get out the text tool, and set it up like so:

Note: The font is now Alba, and the size is approximately 4 points larger than it was in the previous settings

Go ahead and type your text out onto the canvas as I have done here.

Press 'V' on your keyboard to get out the Move Tool ( ) and position it over top of the shadow of the text as close as you can as I have done here:

Double click this layer, and apply the following blending options:

Stroke:

Press Ctrl + E on your keyboard to merge this layer in with the previous.

Result:

Click to enlarge

Step 13.

Now we'll add the small "echo" effect that you see in my final version. To do this Press Ctrl + J on your keyboard to duplicate our text layer.

Press "V" on your keyboard to get out the Move Tool ( ).

Hold the Shift key on your keyboard and press the down arrow on your keyboard 7 times to nudge our duplicate text down 70 pixels.

Change the blending mode of this layer to "Hard Light" and drop the opacity of this layer down to 40 percent:

Result:

Click to enlarge

Step 14.

Go to Filter->Pixelate->Fragment.

Result:

Click to enlarge

Step 15.

Press Ctrl + J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.

Press 'V' on your keyboard to get out the Move Tool ( ), and drag this duplicate layer down slightly while holding down the Shift key on your keyboard as I have done here:

Now press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to get out the free transform tool.

Place your mouse cursor near the top left node (box) hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and drag this node inward towards the center of the text, this will resize the text, while keeping perfect proportions.

Repeat this step #15 one more time to create yet another text echo.

This completes the create of a very nice retro splash display, here is how my final rendition ended up after adding a little tag line, and an image of the retro icon ... pac-man. :)

Click to enlarge

Thank you so much for reading this tutorial, I hope you've learned some new techniques, and tricks that you will be able to apply to your future creations.