In this tutorial l'm going to show you one way of creating an effect known as the "life beam". This effect can be done a lot of different ways, and there are several tutorials out there on creating this awesome effect.
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Step 7.)
Next hold start dragging in and out on the large dot with the smudge tool still, until you get a similar effect:
Step 8.)
Now get out the eraser tool with these settings:
And just start clicking around the parameter of the dot until you get something you're happy with:
Step 9.)
Create a new layer, get the brush tool back out, set the foreground color to white (#FFFFFF) and make a few more dots on the beam like so:
Step 10.)
Whip out the smudge tool again, and merge it into the beam. This is done just like we did above, by clicking and dragging in, and clicking and dragging out.
Work with it until you're satisfied:
Step 11.)
Next get the brush tool out again, and set the size to 3 pixels.
and set the brush up like this:
Now start at the dot, and make two passes up the stem of the beam until you get a similar look:
Step 12.)
Next duplicate this layer, and apply a slight Gaussian blur to it (filter->blur->Gaussian blur). I used 1.5
You can continue to draw lines onto the piece, do whatever you think looks good. Here's how mine ended up:
and here's one with a 3d render added, and some other little techie effects
Thanks for reading, have fun, and explore there are tons of things you can do with this effect. If you enjoyed this tutorial please be sure to check out the rest of our great tutorials!
