Reader Request: MSNBC Style Effect
In Effects by FabioIn this tutorial, I will create an effect like the one in the header of the MSNBC.com website. This effect is a reader's-request tutorial.
If you have an effect you want to know how to achieve, just let us know in the comments and we will try to write a tutorial about it.
Step 1
Create a new document. Double-click on the background layer to open the Layer Styles. Select the Gradient Overlay and use black and a dark blue for the colors. Select Radial for the Gradient Style.
Step 2
Create a new layer and fill it with black.
Step 3
First select black for the foreground color and a medium grey for the background color. Go to Filters>Render>Fibers. Set 36 for the Variance and 1 for the Strength.
Step 4
Go to Filters>Blur>Motion Blur. I set the distance to 999, the maximum value, but feel free to test another value. For the angle use 90º.
Step 5
Double-click on the blurry layer in order to open the Layer Styles dialog box. Select Gradient Overlay and Overlay for the Blend Mode. For the colors, use the rainbow colors: start with violet, blue, green, yellow, and red. I think those are the colors :)
Step 6
Using the Lasso Tool (L), set the Feather option to 30px and create a random selection like I did. After that go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.
Conclusion
This is a very simple but cool effect. You can use it for website headers, CD covers, and wherever you want. I've just created a beautiful wallpaper for my blog. Again, there are lots of ways to achieve the same result, maybe using other filters and settings. It's all about playing with the tool. Additionally, if you are using the CS3 version of Photoshop, you can use the Smart Filters to test different values and see the effects without worrying about losing the previous version.
If you enjoyed this post, your vote is always highly appreciated!!
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chandan
February 20th, 2008
awesome again.
JBL
February 20th, 2008
Nice and siple..Keep up.
Adis
February 20th, 2008
Very nice effects!
andrej
February 20th, 2008
Great one, I wonder just whether I should just use it as a simple header and lose originality, or try to fine tune it a bit and find it another use.
And Fabio, you think another category “requests” should be added?
Deny Sri Supriyono
February 20th, 2008
just great!
your tut come to my reader in a perfect time.
thanks a lot, fabio.
kuldeep
February 20th, 2008
I think not quite same quality of finish, but good job!
giackop
February 20th, 2008
Good indeed..
Lamin Barrow
February 20th, 2008
Very good tutorial. Thank you.
yokoto
February 20th, 2008
no words
Alexander
February 20th, 2008
Very simpele but very cool…
Katalog Stron
February 20th, 2008
Simple but nice
TommyP
February 20th, 2008
Thats the bee’s knees man!
Ben Jacob
February 20th, 2008
Wow.. Thats just Great !!.
How about adding some Gaussian Blur to it ? It will look more like MSNBC Header .. Just a suggestion
Vlaszlo
February 20th, 2008
Nice tutorial!
Request for another: I’d like to see a tutorial of how to create an image that looks like if it was in some kind of way hand made. It’s difficult to explain, but see the following examples:
http://www.cristiancontini.it/images/tempo_170255_cover_pp.jpg
http://www.fanboy.com/images/tv-guide-magazine-covers.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/16/22804037_49bc260015.jpg?v=0
http://www.calendars.com/images/069/6975/200700004227_hs.jpg
nico
February 20th, 2008
soo simple, and soo cool
akari.it
February 20th, 2008
Hello!
I like your tuts very much, tanks!
I’d like to know something about this effect:
http://flickr.com/photos/andreaskoller/2163086771/
…if it is possible
thanks
Alberto
February 20th, 2008
Nice one.
Btw, I posted something very similar to this in the “A cool lighting effect” tutorial (http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects/a-cool-lighting-effect-in-photoshop/). It was a comment to Mahalie’s question about the “rainbow vertical lighting effect” seen at MSNBC.
MikBeck
February 21st, 2008
Very Nice!
Not that difficult like other tutorials on this site, but sure one off the best looking!
Keep up the good work!
Psdfreak
February 21st, 2008
How do you do that. its a simple instruction and a great result. keep on doing this lovely site
S.
February 21st, 2008
Fabio very nice made tutorial.If your offer still stands…
Can you explain this kind of effect ? Can it be done in Photoshop ?
http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=9054912007ins_31.jpg
Markus
February 21st, 2008
I like it, many colors, but still nice!
goldenthunder
February 21st, 2008
very nice! thanks again!
Fredro
February 21st, 2008
Love how this site is actually listening to its readers. Gonna try this out today!
Constantin Potorac
February 21st, 2008
Real nice.
Chris Laskey
February 21st, 2008
Nice Tut Fabio.
Just to throw in my two cents. An alternative to a gradient overlay is to use a number of radial gradients in separate layers. Just set them to overlay, and voila, almost identical effect.
Its the same result, just a slightly different way to get there. Each have their positive and negative aspects.
Cheers,
vp
February 21st, 2008
much simpler than my way. thanks.
request: the windows vista login background effect
cheers.
Marc
February 21st, 2008
This effect may be easy to do, so excuse me if it is I am new to this. Look at the 3D effect here - http://dragoninteractive.com/ - it looks like you could rest the content area on top of it. Any tips, directions, etc on how to do this. Great site btw.
Marc
Ryan
February 21st, 2008
Very nice tutorial!
Shane
February 21st, 2008
Nice tutorial - great that you’re taking requests too! I’ll have to think of something
Just tried this one out - quite simple to achieve, but the effect’s great.
Thanks!
Ryan
February 21st, 2008
Very cool. Very animate-able (in photohshop even! :D)
R
Josh
February 21st, 2008
Great tutorial. This site has become a daily stop for me while I’m at work, as well as the first site I tell others to go to when they’re learning Photoshop. I’ve been using PS for about 10 years now, and I’ve never come across so many useful tutorials.
Thanks again!
Anatere
February 21st, 2008
Simply WOW!!!! =D
Colin Stein
February 21st, 2008
i request help on the HTML for submitting a tutorial…that’s all i’d like
…for now
Dudeguy
February 21st, 2008
If you are running in CS3, you can click the refine edge button after making a selection and mess around with the sliders. I found that if you increase the radius slider, then you get a smoother design like Fabio got in his final result. Simple, yet effective tutorial!
Fabio Sasso
February 21st, 2008
Thanks a lot for the comments and for the requests, they will help us a lot.
@alberto: I saw your tutorial I think a couple of days after I sent the tutorial to psdtuts, very cool. It’s the same technique even though there are other ways to do the same thing.
@S: I wrote a tutorial last year showing how to create an effect like that, take a look at http://www.abduzeedo.com/displace-filter-vector-effects. It’s not exactly like that but Im sure it can be done using the same technique and filters.
Joefrey Mahusay
February 21st, 2008
Really nice tutorial. Great job Fabio.!
Renasos
February 21st, 2008
Nice tutorial u r gr8
*If you have an effect you want to know how to achieve, just let us know in the comments and we will try to write a tutorial about it.*
could u find out how they did this
http://images.apple.com/finalcutserver/images/header_finalcutserver20070414.jpg
thanks alot =)
RyderXXL
February 21st, 2008
Niceeee
it’s easy-to-do and very coool 
great job
bemoo
February 21st, 2008
Very very Nice …
so easy too ; )
Shmook
February 21st, 2008
Hi, could you tell me what the font is on the image plz?
(btw I think what you’re doing with this website is great!!)
craZed
February 21st, 2008
easy nice awesome !
Majid
February 21st, 2008
Request!!!!
How can i make an effect like this? Check out the links to see the examples.
http://df.img.v4.skyrock.com/df3/black-music/pics/570721224.jpg
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00022UOI4.08.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://fc.img.v4.skyrock.com/fcd/rainb-fever/pics/69994972_small.jpg
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
Sheryl
February 22nd, 2008
Fabulous! Thank you!
marc
February 22nd, 2008
fabio,
http://www.abduzeedo.com/displace-filter-vector-effects.
doesn’t work for me (maybe only happens to me)……..
btw, awasome tutorials……….
http://www.abduzeedo.com/displ
S: I think that effect its done with displacement map photoshop’s technique
(something like that http://wirestyle.deviantart.com/art/Drift-Solo-Remix-26471659)
in computer arts webpage you can find that tutorial (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/displacement_effects). and in http://wirestyle.deviantart.com/gallery/ you can find, (and maybe asking few questions) to wirestyle (the guy who make that displacement tutorial)
S.
February 22nd, 2008
thanks for the link Fabio !
Hailu
February 22nd, 2008
I’m curious as to how do you produce the explosion effect as seen in Nick Ainley’s work “keep it together”, “black dog” and “icarus”. http://www.shinybinary.com/
This is the effect when an item is blown apart and the image captures that particular moment. I’ve searched hi and low all over the internet and couldn’t find any info on it. Does this effect require some 3D program or can it be done entirely in Photoshop? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Fabio Sasso
February 22nd, 2008
The link is http://www.abduzeedo.com/displace-filter-vector-effects without the “.”
Sorry, my mistake.
marc
February 22nd, 2008
thanks :)………………….
Tomas
February 22nd, 2008
nice work!
Mody
February 25th, 2008
BEAUTIFUL! Thanks a lot.
San
February 25th, 2008
You worte: “Double click on the background layer to open the Layer Styles”. Sorry, but double clicking on the Background layer doesn’t open the Layer Styles. As it is locked by default. I noticed that you always write this. I hope I am mistaken in this. But when you double click on the Background Layer, it will open New Layer dialog box. Please, correct me if I am wrong. I know what you mean, but it is not done as you described in here as this could be confusing for newbies.
Nevertheless, This is one of the nicest tutorials I’ve ever seen, thanks a lot.
Malik Smith
February 25th, 2008
Very cool effect and easy to understand tutorial!
mahalie
February 28th, 2008
As mentioned earlier, I was collecting input on just this technique. I just used this tutorial and modified it slightly by duplicating the gradient overlay layer and applying screen to the bottom and linear dodge to the top to achieve that higher contrast glow-ey effect. Many folks offered tutorials and ideas, I’ll be playing with this quite a bit myself as I just like the look but want to come up with something significantly different than the MSNBC header. THANKS AGAIN! This site is the bayste! (That’s Nacho Libre for ‘best’).
Andrew D
February 28th, 2008
Very useful! I used this tutorial in class today as an example for my fellow fullsail students
paula
March 3rd, 2008
very nice tutorial!
but i’d like to know if you can make a tutorial about doing this kind of light line effect…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kamilos/2301832529/in/pool-psdtuts
thank you and good job!
Jose
March 4th, 2008
Excellent tutorial! Keep up the good work.
wickido
March 5th, 2008
I usually dont comment tutorial sites, but when I do so, it means its pretty solid.
Nice use of creativity and photoshop skills.
Lately the best tutorials Ive seen are to be found at psdtuts, from abduzeedo especially.
Great going, hope to see more of this quality stuff.
escanive
March 8th, 2008
Great tutorial, thanks
Raido
March 8th, 2008
great! - thanks alot, i’ll try it right now
Toucouleur
March 10th, 2008
That’s the first time ever I Must admit those kind of tutorials are well done ! I’ve juste browsed the whole content of your site, and it’s amazing how it’s well explained. You really made things different with so nice tutorials ! Thanks again Fabio
Cédric from France
h@wk
March 13th, 2008
nice tutorial
keep on
SniperFox
March 13th, 2008
@San: Double click on the background layer to bring up the “New Layer” dialog. Click “OK”. This will unlock the background layer, and you can apply layer styles and such to it.
John
March 14th, 2008
Hi, this tutotial is excellent. I like it. But please tell me what is the name of the font.
paul james
March 26th, 2008
thanks for the tut…. a already used it as my desktop! hehe… ^^,
Joomla Designer
March 27th, 2008
Great tutorial folks! - i recently redesigned my website - and used this tutorial for the basis of the header (and footer) of the new website - have a look http://www.mozami.net
Suv
April 1st, 2008
great
and yes a request is coming 4 smoke
there is a lot of fire ones out there but not many smoke ones
cheers
Rob
April 2nd, 2008
Excellent tutorial. Thanks very much.
Sewerraccoon
April 23rd, 2008
Another thing that looks cool, instead of the Fibers, I tried some monochrome noise, came out with some smaller lines that look nice
Cobus Bester
May 21st, 2008
Awesome technique, thanks for sharing!
Kumran
July 21st, 2008
very nice
Mansoor
July 24th, 2008
Thanks for Posting.
Great Tut.