Create a cool wallpaper

This is my first tutorial for you here at red-team-design.com. For my first tutorial I decided to show you how to create a cool neon-effect wallpaper  in just couple steps using Adobe Photoshop and a little patience.

But let’s start with the first things first. The first thing you must do before being able to create your wallpaper is to create a new Photoshop  file (you can use CTRL+N shortcut) and name it as you wish (I chosen “Wallpaper” ):

After you will do that , by using right-click on the background layer from the layers palette , choose “Layer From Background” to unlock it.

Now we’ve done this step just fill the layer with radial gradient using these colors:

Please note that you are free to use any colors you like, but using these ones you will achieve the same result as mine.So now you should have something like this:

For the next step create a new layer from the layers palette and fill it with #00b6eb, then(with this layer selected) go to Filter->Render and select  Lighting Effects. Here you can leave the defaults settings like I did or you can play with setting until you achieve something interesting. Set the layer blending to “Overlay” and reduce its opacity to 40%.

Now it’s the part where we add our layers that define the wallpaper. Using the pen tool from the left toolbox start creating a shape like the one bellow:

If you are encountering any problems with creating this shape you can always check sometutorials with the Pen Tool.

Now that we have this layer we can edit its Blending Options by adding a linear gradient from left to right (-180 degrees angle) and an outer glow:

At this point, using the Pen Tool we’ll make a neon-glossy effect  by adding one one more layers filled with white(#ffffff) color and 75% opacity:

If you’ve done all steps your Layers Palette should look like this now:

Duplicate the blue shape layer, and now that we have 2 of a kind select the one under and right-click on it to “Clear Layer Style”. Now that we have no blending style applied select Filer->Blur->Gaussian Blur and we will have something like this:

Next step is adding a nice glowing effect using Pen Tool again and Stroke Path this time. First,  the default setting for Pen Tool is to create shapes, this time we will use it to create a path, so you have to select “Paths “  as shown:

Create a new layer,  click on the spot where you want to start the path and to create “round” path click and drag for the next anchor point:

Continue doing this until your path will look like this:

Select the Brush Tool from the left toolbox and then open the Brush Panel to modify some settings for our brush:

Now you’ve done all this choose #3aceff color as foreground color and assure you have made the right settings in the Brush Panel: Shape Dynamics and Scattering-these are very important for this step.

If all settings are as in the previous image, select Pen Tool,  right-click on the path you made ,  Stroke Path and check Simulate Pressure box. The result should look like this:

You can now repeat the steps and add extra layers and effects. For this tutorial I continued  to add a green one and a white one:

For the final touch you can add some stars using custom shape tool. Use a soft rounded 1500px brush to add some green neon  color to background.

Download wallpaper

This is the final result of our work. I hope you like it and please feel free to add any comments you may have.