Need a background similar to this

Mike_Eile · 03-12-2010 2:17pm #1

Hi there,

I'm looking for a background similar to the attached image. Are there websites out there which allow you to download wallpaper backgrounds similar to this? Or alternatively I could start up photoshop and get designing, if someone could point me in the right direction on how to create something like this.

Thank you

looksee · 03-12-2010 4:54pm

OK here is one cheap and cheerful way of creating that effect (not the only way).

Open a document, fill with the darkest background colour. To make the background smudgy light effect, make another layer (layer 2), fill with a mid colour - in this case a yellow-green. Take the opacity of the top layer down to about 40%. Work on layer 1, use a very large brush (300+ or so) on 0% hardness and make two or three huge, soft 'dots' in a group on the background in a very light version of the colour and also a bit with white. Adjust the opacity of the top layer to get the colour effect you want.

Make new layers and use a very small brush on about 40 to 50% softness and dot in the spotty effect in the different shades and opacities. You could work under and over layer 2 to get the subtle effects. Work on new layers so you can keep fiddling with it till you get what you want.

Sentineil · 03-12-2010 11:19pm

Alternatively you could just fill with your background colour and then blob in the mid-highlight colours and apply a gaussian blur to blend it all together.

You could also try using a spot light to add the lighter shade. This can be found in Filter-Render-Lighting.

To get the dots you could use a default dot brush and modify it using the brush panel. Playing around with the shape dynamics and scattering could give you a similar effect.
Start with the largest dots at the bottom and move up through the sizes creating a new layer for each. You can then fiddle with the opacity slider on each layer to get the effect you want.

What looksee has told you should work fine, I'm just offering you an alternative in case you run into trouble. The joy of Photoshop is that there's a dozen ways to do everything, and by trying new methods and toying around with the options you'll learn a lot without realising.