Design TRON Legacy Style

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Tron Legacy Photoshop Tutorial





In this tutorial we will create an image that looks sort of like the posters for the upcoming movie, TRON Legacy. You will learn how to fake a bokeh effect, and create all sorts of shiny glass type effects.

Preview of Final Results

tronlegacy[11]
IMPORTANT: When working with any image in Photoshop, always play things on the cautious side and make new layers for everything. This way, if you make a mistake, you won't have to start all over, but you might just have to re-do one layer, possibly saving you hours of work. Everything in this tutorial should be done on separate layers.

TRON Legacy Style Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1 - Create a new Document

Create a new document. 1280px in width and 960px in height.
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Step 2 - Invert it to black

Press (control/command + I) to invert the white to black.
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Step 3 - Brush Setup

Apply the following settings to your brush.
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Step 4 - New Layer



Create a new Layer (Layer > New > Layer). Fill it with black. Create a guide that runs down the center of the image at 460px. Name this layer "Big Bokeh".
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Step 5 - Bokeh Effect

Using your customized brush and the color white, draw a line that is slightly above your guide line. If some goes underneath it, do not worry, that's fine.
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Step 6 - Bokeh Effect



Go to Filters > Blur > Lens Blur apply the following settings. Then click OK. After, set the layer blend mode to Screen.
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Step 7 - Duplicate and Flip

The quickest way to do this is to type (control/command + J). Then, we're going to flip it. Press (control/command + T). This will allow you to left click (with your mouse) and select "Flip Vertical". Click enter when you are done. Name this flipped layer "Big Bokeh Reflection".
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Step 8 - Blur



Create a duplicate (control/command + J), of "Big Bokeh Reflection", and go to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur and apply these settings. Name this newest duplicate "Bokeh Blur".
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Step 9 - Some quick touchups

Duplicate "Bokeh Blur" so that you have two copies. Set the opacity of "Big Bokeh Reflection" to 50%. If everything is good, you should see something like this:
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Step 10 - Small Bokeh



Create a new Layer (Layer > New > Layer). Fill it with black. Using the same brush settings as before with the Big Bokeh, we are going to just make the brush size slightly smaller like 10px or so. Draw a line like before.
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Step 11 - Small Bokeh



Go to Filters > Blur > Lens Blur apply the following settings. Then click OK. After, set the layer blend mode to Screen.
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Step 12 - Checkpoint

Name this layer "Small Bokeh". You should see this now:
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Step 13 - Duplicate and Flip

The quickest way to do this is to type (control/command + J). Then, we're going to flip it. Press (control/command + T). This will allow you to left click (with your mouse) and select "Flip Vertical". Click enter when you are done. Name this flipped layer "Small Bokeh Reflection".
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You should see this when you're done:
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Step 15 - Bottom Coloring

Create a new layer and name it "Bottom Color". With the marque tool (m) highlight the bottom half of the image... it should snap to exactly half if you still have your guide line up.
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Step 16 - Colorize

First fill (g) the layer with black, and then, using some dark blues (#0a353e) and greens (#0a3e3b) and a big 300px soft brush, put some color blobs inside the selection.
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Step 17 - Blur it



Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply a 150px blur. Then deselect the bottom half by clicking outside of it.
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Step 18 - Colorize

Create a new layer, and using the same blue and green colors as we just did, paint some more big blobs on the upper half of the image.
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Step 19 - Blur it



Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply a blur of about 200px. We want these colors to be faint, so if they are very bright and stick out, then lower the opacity of the layer a bit.
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Step 20 - Center Light

Create a new layer and name it "Center Light". Using a brighter blue (#003b49), draw a big oval shapped blob of color in the center of the image, in the upper half.
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Step 21 - Pencil Settings

Select the pencil tool (b) and apply the following settings.
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Step 22 - Lines -- A

Create a new layer above "Center Light" and name it "Lines". Using the color white, so that you can see what you are doing, hold down shift (to keep your line straight, and draw a vertical line of dots to the side of your center light.
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Step 23 - Lines -- B

Click (control/command + T) and stretch the dots out so that they create horizontal lines. Click enter when your are done stretching.
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Step 24 - Lines -- C

Select the lines by clicking on the icon of the layer "Lines". Then turn of the visibility of the layer "Lines". Then select the layer "Center Light" and hit delete or backspace. Then deselect by clicking outside your selection with the marque tool (m).
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When your done you should see this:
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Step 25 - Text

Create a new textbox and place whatever text you want in there, and center it.
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Step 26 - Text Gradient

For my image, I have two lines of text, so my layer styles might be different then yours if you only have one line of text... keep that in mind here. Apply this layer style:
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Step 27 - Text Reflection

Click (control/command + J) to duplicate your text layer, and then click (control/command + T), right click on the box and slect flip vertical. Move this layer to the bottom half of the image but keep it centered.
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Step 28 - Text Reflection Gradient

Adjust the gradient by clicking reverse in the layer styles menu... it's upside down now, so this is why we're doing this.
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Step 29 - Checkpoint

You should see something like this now:
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Step 30 - Mask

Add a mask to this text reflection layer. What I did to make this mask, was take a big 300px soft black brush, and painted a line at the bottom of the layer. Then I applied a Gaussian blur of about 50px.
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Step 31 - Finish

Move this text reflection layer beneath the layer "Bottom Color", and reduce the opacity to about 50%. You should now be finished, and see this:
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Feel free to experiment a bit with layer opacities, and see if you can do anything on your own design to improve this image... that's where all the fun and learning is anyway!

Conclusion

Here is the finished project from these tutorial steps:
trontutfinal[6]
Here is the finished project from my original concept:
tronlegacy[12]
I hope that you have learned something new by reading this tutorial, and I also hope that you haven't run into any difficulties (if you have, leave a comment with your concern and I or someone else will be happy to help you). Thank you for reading, and I look forward to your feedback.

Download the PSD

Tron Legacy PSD





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