Electric Snowstorm

Step 1

Start a new document of any size, I"m using a 500x500. Press the 'D' button on your keyboard to reset your foreground and background colors to black/white respectively.

Step 2

Go to "Filter->Render->Clouds".

Next go to "filter->Render->Difference clouds". Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard 2 times to duplicate/repeat the Difference clouds 2 times.

Result:

Step 3

Next go to "Filter->Noise->Add Noise" and apply these settings:

Result:

Step 4

Go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur and apply these settings:

Result:

Step 5

Now we're going to distort what we have so far. Press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to get out the "distortion tool".

You'll notice that after doing this your canvas will have 8 small squares around canvas. These are called "nodes".

Now press and hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift on your keyboard.

Click the top Right node and drag it outward to the right as pictured here:

Press Enter on your keyboard once you have something similar to what I have here:

(make sure the entire canvas is covered!)

Step 6

Create a new layer. Go to "Filter->Render->Clouds".

Then go to "Filter->Render->Difference Clouds".

Change the blending option of this layer to "overlay" and drop the opacity down to around 30 percent.

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

Result:

Step 7

Create a new layer. Set your foreground color to white (#FFFFFF).

Get out the brush tool and apply these settings:

(size: 200 - soft)

Make two dots by clicking on your image quickly. It is very important that you do not move the mouse while you are clicking.

Next set your brush tool up like so:

(size: 100 - soft)

Make two more dots just like we did before similar to this:

Finally set your brush tool up like so:

(size: 65 - soft)

Click around your image a few times as I've done here with this brush:

Just don't go overboard.

Step 8

Create a new layer. Set your brush tool up like so:

(size: 9 - soft)

Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and draw a line straight up and down the canvas a little off cEnter as I've done here:

Go to Filter->Distort->Shear and apply similar settings:

Result:

Next go to "Filter->Distort->Wave" and apply these settings:

Press randomize a few times until you get a good looking distortion.

Result:

Create a new layer, get out the brush, and repeat this once again to create another streak.

Draw a straight line up the canvas off cEnter while holding the Shift key

Go to "filter->Distort->Shear" and apply these settings:

Go to "Filter->Distort->Wave" and apply these settings:

Press Ctrl + E on your keyboard to merge this layer with the previous. Drop the opacity of this layer down to 70 percent, result:

Step 9

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

Go to "Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur" and apply these settings:

Next get out the "smudge tool" ( ) and apply these settings:

(size: 100 rough - strength 40 percent)

Now start at the bottom of the image, and make a few strokes upward towards the top of the image, following the contour of the squiggly lines we made in the previous step.

Result:

Step 10

Now we'll add some color to the graphic.

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

Click okay.

Tick the "highlight" box and apply these settings:

Tick the "Midtones" box and apply these settings:

Tick the "Shadows" box and apply these settings:

Click on "okay"

Result:

Step 11

Create a new layer. Go to Filter->Render->Clouds

Go to Filter->Render->Difference Clouds. Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard two or three times to repeat this filter.

Result:

Change the blending mode of this layer to "overlay" and drop the opacity of this layer down to 60 percent:

Result:

Here I've added a game render to the design. If you would like to use this render it is included in the download pack for this tutorial. Please feel free to download it and create your own signatures, and headers using this technique! It's a lot of fun once you being to experiment with the various photoshop tools available.

Download Electric Snowstorm Source Package here.