Best Free Photoshop Brushes for Painting: Top 13 Guide for 2019

Best Free Photoshop Brushes for Painting: Top 13 Guide for 2019

by | May 7, 2019 | Graphic Design, Photoshop

1. Wavenwater Brushes and Tool Presets

  • Designer: Michael Guimont
  • Usage: Free for personal use (contact artist for commercial licence)

Kicking our list off is this comprehensive set of Photoshop brushes from freelance concept artist and illustrator Michael Guimont. We haven’t counted exactly how many brushes are included in this set, but there are lots of options to add serious flair to your artwork. 

Latest version of Photoshop:

Buy or Try Photoshop at Adobe.com

2. Sakimichan – Photoshop Brushes

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
  • Designer: Sakimichan
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Deviant Art member sakimichan has made 56 of her favourite custom Photoshop brushes available to download for free in this big bundle. She recommends painting at 70-100% opacity with the pressure option on, and says that the brushes are already set up for this. Bear in mind these brushes were created in PS5 and although they work in CS4 and CS3, she isn’t sure about other versions. (Although the comments on the page suggest they work for CS6 and CC too.)

3. Brushes

  • Designer: Aaron Griffin
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Aaron Griffin is a self-taught illustrator and concept artist known especially for his figure paintings. He’s generously offering up the Photoshop brushes he uses to create his digital paintings free of charge.

4. Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes Vol. 2

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

The second instalment of a popular set of free Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds, Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes volume 2 lets you quickly add an authentic paint effect to your illustrations. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial work – but you’re not permitted to redistribute or modify them for resale.

5. Paint Lines

  • Designer: env1ro
  • Usage: Free for personal use; email him about commercial use

These 24 very hi-res brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, meaning there’s lots of options within the pack.

6. Dry Brush Strokes

  • Designer: Chris Spooner
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

A set of 12 excellent free Photoshop brushes from Chris Spooner. These high-resolution dry brushes are fantastically detailed, bristly and texture-rich. Featuring whispy lines and detailed edges, they’re perfect for roughing up your artwork or distressing your edges

7. Photoshop Dry Brushes

  • Artist: Kirk Wallace
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Artist Kirk Wallace created these Photoshop brushes at home using ink and paper, and offers them to you for free. Perfect for creating rough, harsh textures, they’re also dynamic – you can click and drag to span larger areas without getting an ugly repeat effect, or you can paint with them.

8. Dripping Liquid Brushes

  • Artist: LilithDemoness
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Add realistic dribbles of paint to your digital designs with these free Photoshop brushes. They’re the work of DeviantArt user LilithDemoness and there are 14 in the set to choose from. 

9. Spray Paint

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Creative Nerds is offering this spray paint effect Photoshop brush set completely free. The pack includes four high-res brushes (2500px each). Use them to add a distressed effect to your paintings.

10. Darek Zabrocki Brush Set

  • Artist: Darek Zabrocki
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Concept artist Darek Zabrocki has worked for some of the biggest projects and companies in the fantasy art world, including Assassin’s Creed, Magic: The Gathering and Halo Wars 2. He’s generously offering the set of Photoshop brushes he uses for his speedpaintings for free download.

11. Soft Furry Watercolor

  • Designer: Heygrey
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

If you’re looking to create a soft, hazy aesthetic in your work, try this free Photoshop brush from Heygrey. It is described as a ‘furry watercolor brush’, and the creator suggests using it to create hazy backgrounds. We’re especially impressed with the realistic watercolor effect that has been achieved here.

12. Watercolor Spray

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

This large-scale Photoshop brush is handy for creating a watercolor spray effect in your digital artwork. The creator has achieved an impressively authentic effect, which you can apply to your own artwork with ease.

13. Watercolor Splatters

  • Designer: pstutorialsws
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

These watercolor splatters were created with the help of professional-quality watercolor paint on cold press watercolor paper. There are 32 high-res Photoshop bushes in the pack – they work with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC – and you can download the lot for free.

Brush Information (basic):

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

The importance of defining the “brush” is that once defined, brushes can be customized. For example, you can change the shape or size of your brush. Think of a dull pencil point versus a sharp pencil point and imagine the different types of lines the pencils would draw. Similarly, think of the shape of a calligraphy pen versus the tip of a magic marker or even a highlighting pen. Though the default brush is plenty powerful, it is useful to get the hang of working with custom brushes because each type of brush will be better or worse in various situations.

Buy or Try Latest Version of Photoshop

If you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop, here’s the official Adobe.com link:

Buy or Try Latest Version of  Photoshop at Adobe.com

1. Wavenwater Brushes and Tool Presets

  • Designer: Michael Guimont
  • Usage: Free for personal use (contact artist for commercial licence)

Kicking our list off is this comprehensive set of Photoshop brushes from freelance concept artist and illustrator Michael Guimont. We haven’t counted exactly how many brushes are included in this set, but there are lots of options to add serious flair to your artwork. 

2. Sakimichan – Photoshop Brushes

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
  • Designer: Sakimichan
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Deviant Art member sakimichan has made 56 of her favourite custom Photoshop brushes available to download for free in this big bundle. She recommends painting at 70-100% opacity with the pressure option on, and says that the brushes are already set up for this. Bear in mind these brushes were created in PS5 and although they work in CS4 and CS3, she isn’t sure about other versions. (Although the comments on the page suggest they work for CS6 and CC too.)

3. Brushes

  • Designer: Aaron Griffin
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Aaron Griffin is a self-taught illustrator and concept artist known especially for his figure paintings. He’s generously offering up the Photoshop brushes he uses to create his digital paintings free of charge.

4. Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes Vol. 2

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

The second instalment of a popular set of free Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds, Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes volume 2 lets you quickly add an authentic paint effect to your illustrations. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial work – but you’re not permitted to redistribute or modify them for resale.

5. Paint Lines

  • Designer: env1ro
  • Usage: Free for personal use; email him about commercial use

These 24 very hi-res brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, meaning there’s lots of options within the pack.

6. Dry Brush Strokes

  • Designer: Chris Spooner
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

A set of 12 excellent free Photoshop brushes from Chris Spooner. These high-resolution dry brushes are fantastically detailed, bristly and texture-rich. Featuring whispy lines and detailed edges, they’re perfect for roughing up your artwork or distressing your edges

7. Photoshop Dry Brushes

  • Artist: Kirk Wallace
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Artist Kirk Wallace created these Photoshop brushes at home using ink and paper, and offers them to you for free. Perfect for creating rough, harsh textures, they’re also dynamic – you can click and drag to span larger areas without getting an ugly repeat effect, or you can paint with them.

8. Dripping Liquid Brushes

  • Artist: LilithDemoness
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Add realistic dribbles of paint to your digital designs with these free Photoshop brushes. They’re the work of DeviantArt user LilithDemoness and there are 14 in the set to choose from. 

9. Spray Paint

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Creative Nerds is offering this spray paint effect Photoshop brush set completely free. The pack includes four high-res brushes (2500px each). Use them to add a distressed effect to your paintings.

10. Darek Zabrocki Brush Set

  • Artist: Darek Zabrocki
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Concept artist Darek Zabrocki has worked for some of the biggest projects and companies in the fantasy art world, including Assassin’s Creed, Magic: The Gathering and Halo Wars 2. He’s generously offering the set of Photoshop brushes he uses for his speedpaintings for free download.

11. Soft Furry Watercolor

  • Designer: Heygrey
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

If you’re looking to create a soft, hazy aesthetic in your work, try this free Photoshop brush from Heygrey. It is described as a ‘furry watercolor brush’, and the creator suggests using it to create hazy backgrounds. We’re especially impressed with the realistic watercolor effect that has been achieved here.

12. Watercolor Spray

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

This large-scale Photoshop brush is handy for creating a watercolor spray effect in your digital artwork. The creator has achieved an impressively authentic effect, which you can apply to your own artwork with ease.

13. Watercolor Splatters

  • Designer: pstutorialsws
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

These watercolor splatters were created with the help of professional-quality watercolor paint on cold press watercolor paper. There are 32 high-res Photoshop bushes in the pack – they work with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC – and you can download the lot for free.

Brush Information (basic):

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

The importance of defining the “brush” is that once defined, brushes can be customized. For example, you can change the shape or size of your brush. Think of a dull pencil point versus a sharp pencil point and imagine the different types of lines the pencils would draw. Similarly, think of the shape of a calligraphy pen versus the tip of a magic marker or even a highlighting pen. Though the default brush is plenty powerful, it is useful to get the hang of working with custom brushes because each type of brush will be better or worse in various situations.

Latest version of Photoshop:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

If you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop, here’s the official Adobe.com link:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

1. Wavenwater Brushes and Tool Presets

  • Designer: Michael Guimont
  • Usage: Free for personal use (contact artist for commercial licence)

Kicking our list off is this comprehensive set of Photoshop brushes from freelance concept artist and illustrator Michael Guimont. We haven’t counted exactly how many brushes are included in this set, but there are lots of options to add serious flair to your artwork. 

2. Sakimichan – Photoshop Brushes

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting

 

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
  • Designer: Sakimichan
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Deviant Art member sakimichan has made 56 of her favourite custom Photoshop brushes available to download for free in this big bundle. She recommends painting at 70-100% opacity with the pressure option on, and says that the brushes are already set up for this. Bear in mind these brushes were created in PS5 and although they work in CS4 and CS3, she isn’t sure about other versions. (Although the comments on the page suggest they work for CS6 and CC too.)

3. Brushes

  • Designer: Aaron Griffin
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Aaron Griffin is a self-taught illustrator and concept artist known especially for his figure paintings. He’s generously offering up the Photoshop brushes he uses to create his digital paintings free of charge.

4. Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes Vol. 2

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

The second instalment of a popular set of free Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds, Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes volume 2 lets you quickly add an authentic paint effect to your illustrations. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial work – but you’re not permitted to redistribute or modify them for resale.

5. Paint Lines

  • Designer: env1ro
  • Usage: Free for personal use; email him about commercial use

These 24 very hi-res brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, meaning there’s lots of options within the pack.

6. Dry Brush Strokes

  • Designer: Chris Spooner
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

A set of 12 excellent free Photoshop brushes from Chris Spooner. These high-resolution dry brushes are fantastically detailed, bristly and texture-rich. Featuring whispy lines and detailed edges, they’re perfect for roughing up your artwork or distressing your edges

7. Photoshop Dry Brushes

  • Artist: Kirk Wallace
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Artist Kirk Wallace created these Photoshop brushes at home using ink and paper, and offers them to you for free. Perfect for creating rough, harsh textures, they’re also dynamic – you can click and drag to span larger areas without getting an ugly repeat effect, or you can paint with them.

8. Dripping Liquid Brushes

  • Artist: LilithDemoness
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Add realistic dribbles of paint to your digital designs with these free Photoshop brushes. They’re the work of DeviantArt user LilithDemoness and there are 14 in the set to choose from. 

9. Spray Paint

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Creative Nerds is offering this spray paint effect Photoshop brush set completely free. The pack includes four high-res brushes (2500px each). Use them to add a distressed effect to your paintings.

10. Darek Zabrocki Brush Set

  • Artist: Darek Zabrocki
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Concept artist Darek Zabrocki has worked for some of the biggest projects and companies in the fantasy art world, including Assassin’s Creed, Magic: The Gathering and Halo Wars 2. He’s generously offering the set of Photoshop brushes he uses for his speedpaintings for free download.

11. Soft Furry Watercolor

  • Designer: Heygrey
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

If you’re looking to create a soft, hazy aesthetic in your work, try this free Photoshop brush from Heygrey. It is described as a ‘furry watercolor brush’, and the creator suggests using it to create hazy backgrounds. We’re especially impressed with the realistic watercolor effect that has been achieved here.

12. Watercolor Spray

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

This large-scale Photoshop brush is handy for creating a watercolor spray effect in your digital artwork. The creator has achieved an impressively authentic effect, which you can apply to your own artwork with ease.

13. Watercolor Splatters

  • Designer: pstutorialsws
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

These watercolor splatters were created with the help of professional-quality watercolor paint on cold press watercolor paper. There are 32 high-res Photoshop bushes in the pack – they work with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC – and you can download the lot for free.

Brush Information (basic):

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

The importance of defining the “brush” is that once defined, brushes can be customized. For example, you can change the shape or size of your brush. Think of a dull pencil point versus a sharp pencil point and imagine the different types of lines the pencils would draw. Similarly, think of the shape of a calligraphy pen versus the tip of a magic marker or even a highlighting pen. Though the default brush is plenty powerful, it is useful to get the hang of working with custom brushes because each type of brush will be better or worse in various situations.

Latest version of Photoshop:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

If you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop, here’s the official Adobe.com link:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

1. Wavenwater Brushes and Tool Presets

  • Designer: Michael Guimont
  • Usage: Free for personal use (contact artist for commercial licence)

Kicking our list off is this comprehensive set of Photoshop brushes from freelance concept artist and illustrator Michael Guimont. We haven’t counted exactly how many brushes are included in this set, but there are lots of options to add serious flair to your artwork. 

2. Sakimichan – Photoshop Brushes

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting

 

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
  • Designer: Sakimichan
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Deviant Art member sakimichan has made 56 of her favourite custom Photoshop brushes available to download for free in this big bundle. She recommends painting at 70-100% opacity with the pressure option on, and says that the brushes are already set up for this. Bear in mind these brushes were created in PS5 and although they work in CS4 and CS3, she isn’t sure about other versions. (Although the comments on the page suggest they work for CS6 and CC too.)

3. Brushes

  • Designer: Aaron Griffin
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Aaron Griffin is a self-taught illustrator and concept artist known especially for his figure paintings. He’s generously offering up the Photoshop brushes he uses to create his digital paintings free of charge.

4. Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes Vol. 2

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

The second instalment of a popular set of free Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds, Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes volume 2 lets you quickly add an authentic paint effect to your illustrations. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial work – but you’re not permitted to redistribute or modify them for resale.

5. Paint Lines

  • Designer: env1ro
  • Usage: Free for personal use; email him about commercial use

These 24 very hi-res brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, meaning there’s lots of options within the pack.

6. Dry Brush Strokes

  • Designer: Chris Spooner
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

A set of 12 excellent free Photoshop brushes from Chris Spooner. These high-resolution dry brushes are fantastically detailed, bristly and texture-rich. Featuring whispy lines and detailed edges, they’re perfect for roughing up your artwork or distressing your edges

7. Photoshop Dry Brushes

  • Artist: Kirk Wallace
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Artist Kirk Wallace created these Photoshop brushes at home using ink and paper, and offers them to you for free. Perfect for creating rough, harsh textures, they’re also dynamic – you can click and drag to span larger areas without getting an ugly repeat effect, or you can paint with them.

8. Dripping Liquid Brushes

  • Artist: LilithDemoness
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Add realistic dribbles of paint to your digital designs with these free Photoshop brushes. They’re the work of DeviantArt user LilithDemoness and there are 14 in the set to choose from. 

9. Spray Paint

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Creative Nerds is offering this spray paint effect Photoshop brush set completely free. The pack includes four high-res brushes (2500px each). Use them to add a distressed effect to your paintings.

10. Darek Zabrocki Brush Set

  • Artist: Darek Zabrocki
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Concept artist Darek Zabrocki has worked for some of the biggest projects and companies in the fantasy art world, including Assassin’s Creed, Magic: The Gathering and Halo Wars 2. He’s generously offering the set of Photoshop brushes he uses for his speedpaintings for free download.

11. Soft Furry Watercolor

  • Designer: Heygrey
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

If you’re looking to create a soft, hazy aesthetic in your work, try this free Photoshop brush from Heygrey. It is described as a ‘furry watercolor brush’, and the creator suggests using it to create hazy backgrounds. We’re especially impressed with the realistic watercolor effect that has been achieved here.

12. Watercolor Spray

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

This large-scale Photoshop brush is handy for creating a watercolor spray effect in your digital artwork. The creator has achieved an impressively authentic effect, which you can apply to your own artwork with ease.

13. Watercolor Splatters

  • Designer: pstutorialsws
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

These watercolor splatters were created with the help of professional-quality watercolor paint on cold press watercolor paper. There are 32 high-res Photoshop bushes in the pack – they work with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC – and you can download the lot for free.

Brush Information (basic):

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

The importance of defining the “brush” is that once defined, brushes can be customized. For example, you can change the shape or size of your brush. Think of a dull pencil point versus a sharp pencil point and imagine the different types of lines the pencils would draw. Similarly, think of the shape of a calligraphy pen versus the tip of a magic marker or even a highlighting pen. Though the default brush is plenty powerful, it is useful to get the hang of working with custom brushes because each type of brush will be better or worse in various situations.

Latest version of Photoshop:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

If you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop, here’s the official Adobe.com link:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

1. Wavenwater Brushes and Tool Presets

  • Designer: Michael Guimont
  • Usage: Free for personal use (contact artist for commercial licence)

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Kicking our list off is this comprehensive set of Photoshop brushes from freelance concept artist and illustrator Michael Guimont. We haven’t counted exactly how many brushes are included in this set, but there are lots of options to add serious flair to your artwork. 

2. Sakimichan – Photoshop Brushes

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting

 

sakimichan photoshop brushes for painting
  • Designer: Sakimichan
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Deviant Art member sakimichan has made 56 of her favourite custom Photoshop brushes available to download for free in this big bundle. She recommends painting at 70-100% opacity with the pressure option on, and says that the brushes are already set up for this. Bear in mind these brushes were created in PS5 and although they work in CS4 and CS3, she isn’t sure about other versions. (Although the comments on the page suggest they work for CS6 and CC too.)

3. Brushes

  • Designer: Aaron Griffin
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Aaron Griffin is a self-taught illustrator and concept artist known especially for his figure paintings. He’s generously offering up the Photoshop brushes he uses to create his digital paintings free of charge.

4. Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes Vol. 2

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for commercial and personal use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

The second instalment of a popular set of free Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds, Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes volume 2 lets you quickly add an authentic paint effect to your illustrations. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial work – but you’re not permitted to redistribute or modify them for resale.

5. Paint Lines

  • Designer: env1ro
  • Usage: Free for personal use; email him about commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

These 24 very hi-res brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, meaning there’s lots of options within the pack.

6. Dry Brush Strokes

  • Designer: Chris Spooner
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

A set of 12 excellent free Photoshop brushes from Chris Spooner. These high-resolution dry brushes are fantastically detailed, bristly and texture-rich. Featuring whispy lines and detailed edges, they’re perfect for roughing up your artwork or distressing your edges

7. Photoshop Dry Brushes

  • Artist: Kirk Wallace
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Artist Kirk Wallace created these Photoshop brushes at home using ink and paper, and offers them to you for free. Perfect for creating rough, harsh textures, they’re also dynamic – you can click and drag to span larger areas without getting an ugly repeat effect, or you can paint with them.

8. Dripping Liquid Brushes

  • Artist: LilithDemoness
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Add realistic dribbles of paint to your digital designs with these free Photoshop brushes. They’re the work of DeviantArt user LilithDemoness and there are 14 in the set to choose from. 

9. Spray Paint

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Creative Nerds is offering this spray paint effect Photoshop brush set completely free. The pack includes four high-res brushes (2500px each). Use them to add a distressed effect to your paintings.

10. Darek Zabrocki Brush Set

  • Artist: Darek Zabrocki
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

Concept artist Darek Zabrocki has worked for some of the biggest projects and companies in the fantasy art world, including Assassin’s Creed, Magic: The Gathering and Halo Wars 2. He’s generously offering the set of Photoshop brushes he uses for his speedpaintings for free download.

11. Soft Furry Watercolor

  • Designer: Heygrey
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Buy Photoshop

If you’re looking to create a soft, hazy aesthetic in your work, try this free Photoshop brush from Heygrey. It is described as a ‘furry watercolor brush’, and the creator suggests using it to create hazy backgrounds. We’re especially impressed with the realistic watercolor effect that has been achieved here.

12. Watercolor Spray

  • Designer: Creative Nerds
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

This large-scale Photoshop brush is handy for creating a watercolor spray effect in your digital artwork. The creator has achieved an impressively authentic effect, which you can apply to your own artwork with ease.

13. Watercolor Splatters

  • Designer: pstutorialsws
  • Usage: Free for personal and commercial use

Best Free photoshop brushes for painting

These watercolor splatters were created with the help of professional-quality watercolor paint on cold press watercolor paper. There are 32 high-res Photoshop bushes in the pack – they work with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC – and you can download the lot for free.

Brush Information (basic):

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

Photoshop uses the generic term “brush” to represent any of the drawing tools. Thus, the “paint brush” tool will have a brush and the “pencil” tool will also have a brush. This is a little confusing at first but you will quickly get the hang of the terminology. Actually, it helps to think of a brush as the “drawing edge” of whatever drawing tool you are using. Thus, drawing from Photoshop’s art studio metaphor, a paint brush’s brush would be the bristles of the paint brush while a pencil tool’s brush would be the pencil’s tip.

The importance of defining the “brush” is that once defined, brushes can be customized. For example, you can change the shape or size of your brush. Think of a dull pencil point versus a sharp pencil point and imagine the different types of lines the pencils would draw. Similarly, think of the shape of a calligraphy pen versus the tip of a magic marker or even a highlighting pen. Though the default brush is plenty powerful, it is useful to get the hang of working with custom brushes because each type of brush will be better or worse in various situations.

Latest version of Photoshop:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

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Make an Animated GIF with Photoshop – How to Guide

Make an Animated GIF with Photoshop – How to Guide

by | May 1, 2019 | Animation, Graphic Design, Photoshop

10 Easy to Follow Steps:

  1. Upload your images to Photoshop.
  2. Open up the Timeline window.
  3. In the Timeline window, click “Create Frame Animation.”
  4. Create a new layer for each new frame.
  5. Open the same menu icon on the right, and choose “Make Frames From Layers.”
  6. Under each frame, select how long it should appear for before switching to the next frame.
  7. At the bottom of the toolbar, select how many times you’d like it to loop.
  8. Preview your GIF by pressing the play icon.
  9. Save and Export Your GIF.
  10. You’ve created a GIF!

What is a GIF?

If you’ve spent any time on the internet at all, you’ve probably come in contact with an animated GIF. It’s an image file that allows you to feature animated images, which makes it seem like the image is moving. Think of them as a hybrid between a still image and a video.

Why are GIFs great additions to virtually any website? They’re easy to consume, provide a new way to capture your viewers’ attention, and can potentially create an emotional impact. And since content that makes us feel something encourages us to share, these tiny animations are worth experimenting with.

The best part about GIFs is that they aren’t too hard to make. If you have access to Photoshop and a few minutes to spare, you can create an animated GIF in no time.

If you don’t already have a copy of Photoshop, here’s the official Adobe link to buy or obtain a free trial of Adobe Photoshop CC.

In the following guide on making animated GIFs, I’m using Photoshop CC.

How to Create an Animated GIF with Photoshop

Here’s a basic example of an animated GIF you could make using this guide:

marketing-trivia-GIF-example-1.gif

Alright, let’s get started.

Step 1: Upload your images to Photoshop.

If you already have images created …

Gather the images you want in a separate folder. To upload them into Photoshop, click File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack.

load-file-into-stack.png

Then, select Browse, and choose which files you’d like to use in your GIF. Then, click OK.

load-multiple-images.png

Photoshop will then create a separate layer for each image you’ve selected. Once you’ve done that, skip to step two.

If you don’t already have the series of images created …

Create each frame of the animated GIF as a different Photoshop layer. To add a new layer, chose Layer > New > Layer.

add-new-layer.png

Be sure to name your layers so you can keep track of them easily when you make your GIF. To name a layer, go to the Layer panel on the bottom right of your screen, double-click on the default layer name, and type in the name you want to change it to. Press Enter when you’re finished.

name-layers.png

Once you have your layers in there and you’ve named them all, you’re ready for step two.

Pro Tip: If you want to combine layers so they appear in a single frame in your GIF, turn visibility on for the layers you want to merge (by clicking on the “eye” to the left of each layer name so only the eyes for the layers you want to merge are open). Next, press Shift + Command + Option + E (Mac) or Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E (Windows). Photoshop will create a new layer containing the merged content, which you should also rename.

Step 2: Open up the Timeline window.

To open Timeline, go to the top navigation, choose Window > Timeline. The Timeline will let you turn different layers on and off for different periods of time, thereby turning your static image into a GIF.

open-timeline.png

The Timeline window will appear at the bottom of your screen. Here’s what it looks like:

timeline-in-photoshop.png

Step 3: In the Timeline window, click “Create Frame Animation.”

If it’s not automatically selected, choose it from the dropdown menu — but then be sure to actually click it, otherwise the frame animation options won’t show up.

create-frame-animation.png

Now, your Timeline should look something like this:

timeline-with-frame-animation.png

Step 4: Create a new layer for each new frame.

To do this, first select all your layers by going to the top navigation menu and choosing Select > All Layers.

Then, click the menu icon on the right of the Timeline screen.

timeline-icon.png

From the dropdown menu that appears, choose Create new layer for each new frame.

new-layer-for-new-frame.png

Step 5: Open the same menu icon on the right, and choose “Make Frames From Layers.”

This will make each layer a frame of your GIF.

make-frames-from-layers.png

Step 6: Under each frame, select how long it should appear for before switching to the next frame.

To do this, click the time below each frame and choose how long you’d like it to appear. In our case, we chose 0.5 seconds per frame.

choose-frame-time.png

Step 7: At the bottom of the toolbar, select how many times you’d like it to loop.

The default will say Once, but you can loop it as many times as you want, including Forever. Click Other if you’d like to specify a custom number of repetitions. 

choose-loop-number.png

Step 8: Preview your GIF by pressing the play icon.

play-icon.png

Step 9: Save and Export Your GIF

Satisfied with your GIF? Save it to use online by going to the top navigation bar and clicking File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

save-for-web.png

Next, choose the type of GIF file you’d like to save it as under the Presetdropdown. If you have a GIF with gradients, choose Dithered GIFs to prevent color banding. If your image employs a lot of solid colors, you may opt for no dither. 

The number next to the GIF file determines how large (and how precise) the GIF colors will be compared to the original JPEGs or PNGs. According to Adobe, a higher dithering percentage translates to the appearance of more colors and detail — but it increases the file size. 

save-for-web-preset-dropdown.png

Click Save at the bottom to save the file to your computer. Now you’re ready to upload this GIF to use in your marketing! 

Upload the GIF file into any place online that you’d put an image, and it should play seamlessly. Here’s what the final product might look like:

marketing-trivia-GIF-example.gif

How to Use GIFs in Your Marketing

1) On social media.

Pinterest was the first to enable animated GIFs, followed by Twitter. And by the summer of 2015, Facebook had also jumped on the GIF bandwagon. Then, Instagram changed the game with Boomerang, which lets users film and share their own GIFs. On any of these social feeds, animated GIFs can be a great way to stand out in a crowded feed.

2) In your emails.

Animated GIFs display in email the same way a regular image does. So why not spruce up your emails by replacing still images with animated ones?

Not only could this help capture recipients’ attention with novelty alone, but it could also have a direct impact on your bottom line. For some brands, including an animated GIF in emails correlated with as much as a 109% increase in revenue.

Make use of GIFs by showcasing products, making event announcements, or otherwise enticing readers. Check out the GIF below from women’s clothing shop Ann Taylor LOFT: They made a present look like it’s shaking to create intrigue and get recipients to click through to “unwrap” their gift.

loft-unwrap-animation-repeat.gif

Source: Litmus

3) In blog posts.

Your blog post doesn’t have to be about animated GIFs or structured like a BuzzFeed-style listicle to include GIFs — although, we do love a good dose of silly listicle GIFs every once in a while.

references: hubspot

Now you can share this info to anyone else asking “How do make an animated GIF with Photoshop?”

What is a Favicon, and How Do You Make a Favicon?

What is a Favicon, and How Do You Make a Favicon?

by | Apr 29, 2019 | Graphic Design, Photoshop, Web Design

Favicon

A favicon is a small 16×16 pixel icon that appears at the top of a web browser. It serves as branding for your website and a convenient way for visitors to locate your page when they have multiple tabs open. Because of their tiny size, favicons work best as simple images or one-to-three characters of text.

what is a favicon

Example of favicons on a desktop browser.

To get a favicon for your website, you could hire a freelance designer to create one based on your logo and brand colors, or (I would highly recommend) create the favicon yourself.

Favicon Sizes and Formats

16×16 pixels is the standard size used by desktop website browsers. However, many website builders will ask for larger sizes. For example, WordPress requires 512×512 pixels and Squarespace asks for 300×300 pixels.

This is because favicons are not only used in browser bars. They are also displayed when a user bookmarks a site or saves a shortcut to their desktop or mobile home screen. In these cases, the size of the icon grows much larger.

what is a favicon

Example of favicons on a smartphone home screen. These icons are significantly larger than the desktop favicons pictured further above.

To be safe, try to upload whatever image size is requested by your website builder. Again, for WordPress, this is 512×512 pixels. WordPress will automatically resize and display the proper image for each scenario, so you don’t have to worry about resizing them yourself.

The standard file format for favicons is .ico but most website platforms will also accept .png files.

How to Make a Favicon

The majority of websites I create is via WordPress (site icon), so I simply need to create a 512px x 512px (icon) png. I personally prefer using photoshop to create favicons, but other visual/photo editors should work even Microsoft Paint. Even if you have limited graphic design experience you should not be overwhelmed by any means by this “project”.

If you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop, here’s the official Adobe link:

Free Trial or Buy Photoshop at Adobe.com

1. Create a blank 512px x 512px canvas (working area).

2. Create a basic icon via combining basic geometric shapes with a shape tool or even simply large letters with a text tool.

What is a favicon and how do you make a favicon?
What is a favicon and how do you make a favicon?

Optional: I personally prefer a favicon w/o a background, so if using photoshop unlock the background layer and delete it which will create a transparent background.

3. Save the image as a 512px x 512px png file.

Congrats you’ve now created a favicon! It’s that easy!

Now you can share this knowledge/skill to anyone else asking “What is a Favicon?… How Do You Make a Favicon?”

Learn How to Create an Animated Sprite with Photoshop

Learn How to Create an Animated Sprite with Photoshop

by | Apr 1, 2019 | Animation, Creative Cloud, Graphic Design, Photoshop

What You’ll Be Creating

In this guide, I will show you how to create an animated sprite with Photoshop, using just a few simple tools. In the process, I will cover all of the basic rules that you can apply to your future pixel art illustrations.

If you do not have a copy of Adobe Photoshop, I would recommend signing up for Adobe Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud).

Here’s the official link:
Adobe Photoshop CC

1. Prepare Canvas and Tools

Step 1

Select the Pencil Tool from the Toolbar, it will be your primary instrument for this guide. Select a Hard Round brush in the Brush settings and apply the settings shown below. Your aim is to make the line absolutely sharp.

Brush Settings

Step 2

Set up Pencil Mode for the Eraser Tool and use the same brush settings as below.

Step 3

Turn on the Pixel Grid (View > Show > Pixel Grid). If you don’t see this item in the menu, go to Preferences > Performance and turn on the graphic acceleration.

Note: The grid will be seen only on a newly created canvas with zoom level 600%and above.

Show Pixel Grid
Use Graphic Acceleration

Step 4

Go to Preferences > General (Control-K) and set up Image Interpolation to Nearest Neighbor. This will ensure that the edges of the objects you work with always stay sharp.

Preferences - General

Go to Preferences > Units & Rulers and choose Pixels in the drop-down menu near Rulers to see all measurements in pixels.

Preferences - Units Rulers

2. Create the Sprite

Step 1

Now that everything is set up, we can start creating the sprite.

Make a sketch of a character with a distinct silhouette, and try not to overload it with many details. It’s not important to paint the colors, the outline should be enough, as long as you understand how your character should look. I prepared a sketch of a space trooper for this guide.

Sketch

Step 2

Press Control-T or use Edit > Free Transform to scale down your character to 60px in height.

The size of the object is shown in the Info panel. Notice the Interpolation setting, it should be the same as we set in Step 4. In this case, it’s not that important, as we are only turning a sketch into pixel art, but pay attention to that feature in future when you work with pixelated objects.

Scale Down Character

Step 3

Zoom in to the image by 300-400% to make it easier to render. Reduce the opacity of your sketch.

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and draw an outline of your character with the Pencil Tool.

If your character is symmetrical, like mine is, just create one half, duplicate it, and flip it horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal).

Outline Process

Rule of the Rhythm: Try to split complex shapes into simple elements. When pixels in the line form a “rhythm” like 1-2-3 and 1-1-2-2-3-3 the outline looks much better to the human eye than a randomly drawn line. However this rule can be broken if the shape requires it.

Rule of the Rhythm
Two rhythmic and one randomly drawn line.

Step 4

When the outline is ready, choose main colors and paint large shapes. Do it on a separate layer beneath the one with the outline.

Painting Large Shapes

Step 5

Smooth the inner side of the outline by adding shades of the color.

Adding Shades

Keep adding more shades. As you can see, I corrected some shapes and details along the way.

Adding Shades Process

Step 6

Create a new layer to add the highlight.

Choose Overlay from the drop down menu on the Layer panel. Paint with a light color over the areas you want to highlight. Smooth the shape of highlighted area by choosing Filter > Blur > Blur.

Adding Highlight

I flipped the painted half horizontally, added final color touches here and there, and merged the layers.

Final Touches

Step 7

The character now lacks contrast. Use Levels (Image > Adjustments > Levels) first and then change the tone or halftone with Color Balance (Image > Adjustments > Color Balance) to make warmer and cooler versions.

Tuning With Levels and Color Balance

I decided to go with the third version. Now let’s move on to the animation process.

Final Character
Final character with 400% zoom.

3. Animate Your Sprite

Step 1

Create a copy of the layer (Layer > New > Layer Via Copy) and move it 1 pixel up and 2 pixels right selecting Move Tool (V) and using your arrow keys. This is the key phase for animating the running character.

Change the original layer’s Opacity to 50% to see previous frame of animation. This is called “Onion Skinning.”

Creating Next Frame

Step 2

Now bend the character’s legs and arms as if it is running.

  • Select the left arm using Lasso Tool
  • Using Free Transform Tool (Edit > Free Transform) and holding Control move the container markers to lead the arm behind the back
  • Select the shank of the right leg and move it down as on the first frame – we need that leg stretched.
  • Select the left leg and move it up – this leg bends up
  • Using Pencil and Eraser Tools, redraw all the elbow parts of the right arm.
Creating Running Phase

Step 3

Now you will need to redraw the new position of the legs and arms as I explained inSection 2 of this guide. This is because transforming the legs and arms will distort the pixels, and the shape will no longer be clean.

Finalizing Running Phase

Step 4

Make the copy of the second layer and flip it horizontally. And now you have one idle position and two running phases. Select each layer and restore its Opacity to 100%.

Flipping Running Phase

Step 5

Go to Window > Timeline to show Timeline panel and press Create Frame Animation.

Create Frame Animation

In the Timeline panel, perform the following steps:

  1. Choose Frame Delay time 0.15 sec
  2. Click on Duplicates Selected Frames button to add 3 more copies
  3. Change looping options to Forever
Duplicate Frames

Step 6

To choose the proper layer for each animation frame, click on the Eye icon near the layer name in the Layer panel.

  • 1st frame: choose idle position
  • 2nd frame: choose the second layer
  • 3rd frame: choose idle position once again
  • 4th frame: choose the third layer
Choose Proper Layer For Each Frame

Press Space button to play the animation.

Final Animation Preview
Final animation with 100% zoom.

Step 7

Now save your result. Go to File > Save For Web and select GIF format. Scale image size to 300% for better presentation and press Save.

Save For Web Settings

Congratulations! You’re done.

In this guide, I showed you how to draw and animate a pixel art character in Photoshop. In the process, you learned how to set up your canvas and tools, how to draw your character using the Pencil Tool, as well as how to animate your character using Photoshop‘s Timeline feature. I hope that you learned something from this guide and can use these techniques to create some pixel art of your own.

Final Animation

references: tutsplus

I’ve listed some related items that may be of interest to you:

Learn How to Create Animations with Photoshop (Lesson 3)

Learn How to Create Animations with Photoshop (Lesson 3)

by | Aug 10, 2015 | Graphic Design, Photoshop

Putting Everything Together

Now that we’ve learned the concepts behind more complex animations, it’s time to put them into practice. In this next section, we’ll explore three advanced animations and how to create them.

CREATE A CLOCK WITH MOVING HANDS

In this tutorial, we will be using the template layer technique to animate the spinning hands of the clock. We will also use layer styles with the animated elements to add depth to the objects in our scene. This is what we’ll be creating:

Animation of the hands of a clock.

The scene starts with two new layers: One contains the shape of a minute hand (in red), and the other is our template object (in gray).

Two new layers: the minute hand and a template layer
Step 1: Two new layers: the minute hand and a template layer. (View large version)

Just as we learned earlier, we will convert these two layers into a smart object and animate the rotation.

Step 2: Layers combined as a smart object are animated as one.

To lock the animation, convert the layers into another smart object. This will allow us to transfrom (Control + T) the smart object so that it appears to be in perspective, as seen in the image below.

Step 3: Animation is transformed into perspective.

Next, we need to go back into the original smart object and hide the template layer. When we save and return to our working document, we should see our minute hand rotate without the template layer.

Step 4: Animation with template layer hidden.

Adding the Drop Shadow layer style with a “Spread” setting of 100% will simulate some depth.

Step 5: Drop Shadow simulates the edges of the clock hand.

Repeating these steps, we can create the hour hand. (I’ve readjusted the timing to fit in the animation of the hour hand.)

Step 6: Hour and minute hand animating.

Lastly, we can create the rest of the clock using traditional Photoshop techniques. The result is a clock that animates in perspective.

Animation of the hands of a clock.

In this tutorial, we’ve learned how to use template layers to create more complicated movements. We’ve also learned how to use transformations and layer styles to create the illusion of perspective in our animation.

CREATE A REVOLVING GLOBE

In this tutorial, we will apply filters to animated smart objects in order to create a new effect. This is what we’ll be creating:

Animation of a revolving globe.

Below is the base image we’ll be using. Notice that it repeats itself. This is important because it will help us to create a looping animation in the next step.

Image of the repeating graphic that will be animated.
Step 1: Image of the repeating graphic that will be animated. (View large version)

I’ve created a new square document and added the graphic of the world map as a new layer. I’ve gone ahead and animated the Position property so that the world map scrolls across the scene. It’s been timed to loop when it starts over.

Step 2: Simple looping animation.

Next, convert this layer into a smart object.

Convert simple animation into a smart object
Step 3: Convert simple animation into a smart object. (View large version)

Before we do anything else, I want to show you what’s going on with the layer. If I go to “View” → “Show” → “Layers Edges,” we can see the bounding box of the layer as it animates. This will be important when we add filters. Also, notice that our animation loop seamlessly.

Step 4: Layer boundaries visible during animation.

At this point, our scene is still not ready for us to add a filter. But let’s take a moment to explore why — we’ll add the Spherize filter to see what happens. When the filter is added, we can see that it’s not being applied within the confines of our canvas; rather, it’s being applied directly to the whole layer. The result is a distorted map that moves through the canvas. Also, notice how this disrupts the looping that we saw in the previous step. This is not the effect we are after.

Step 5: Filter applied to the layer boundaries.

We now know that we have a little more work to do in order for the filter to be applied correctly. To make sure that the filter applies only to the boundaries of the canvas, we need to create a layer mask. First, go to “Select” → “All” to select the entire canvas. Next, click the “Add Layer Mask” icon in the Layers panel. We should now have a layer mask applied to our layer.

New layer mask added
Step 6: New layer mask added. (View large version)

Convert this layer to a new smart object. Our resulting smart object layer will now animate within the boundaries of the canvas. If we add the Spherize filter again, we can see that it’s being applied correctly when we play the animation. Go ahead and add the Spherize filter a second time to increase its effect.

Step 7: Filter applied to the boundaries of the canvas.

Now that our effect is working properly, we can create another layer mask in the shape of a circle to hide unwanted pixels.

Step 8: Layer Mask hides everything outside of the globe shape.

To finish, you can now add layer styles directly to the smart object animation for embellishments.

Animation of a revolving globe.

In this tutorial, we’ve learned how to use smart objects to contain animated layers, to which we then add effects, such as filters, layer masks and layer styles. Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how easy it is to create complicated effects using animated layers in Photoshop.

CREATE A FLAME ANIMATION

In this tutorial, we’ll use multiple adjustment Layers and filters, with smart object animations, to create a truly unique flame effect. This is what our final animation will look like.

Flame animation using the organic technique.

To begin, we’ll need to create an extremely tall scene. In this case, I have a scene that’s approximately 500 × 10,000 pixels. On a new layer, I’ve drawn a very rough line using the Brush tool.

A tall white line with soft edges
Step 1: A tall white line with soft edges

Next, create a new scene sized to 500 × 500 pixels, with a black background. Bring the tall line that we just created into this new scene, and create a simple scrolling animation.

Step 2: Simple animation of scrolling line.

Add a new layer mask in the shape of an upside-down teardrop to the animated layer. Make sure that the mask has soft edges. The result will reveal a portion of the line as it animates through the mask.

Dotted line represents the shape of the layer mask
Step 3: Dotted line represents the shape of the layer mask. (View large version)

Play back the animation to see the flame take shape. Notice how the shape of our mask is causing the top of the animation to jump around while the base generally stays in the same spot.

Step 4: Simple animation with a layer mask.

Next, add the Levels Adjustment layer. In the Properties panel, move the two outside sliders inward until the edges of the flame are crisp. Playing back the animation will show us a smoother flame.

Step 5: Adjustment layer refines the shape.

At this point, we can further smooth out the flame. First, convert all layers to another smart object. Then, blur the layer, followed by a repeat of the Levels Adjustment layer.

Step 6: Blurring the smart object and then repeating the Levels Adjustment layer creates a more fluid looking movement.

There are several ways to introduce color. I want to show one way that has worked well for me. Create a new layer, and use the Brush tool to paint blue (on the base) and yellow (towards the top) highlights on the flame. Changing this layer’s blending mode to “Hard Mix” will give us some vibrant bands of color.

Step 7: Using blend modes to add color.

Because the transitions between colors are too harsh, we’ll need to soften them. To do this, select all layers again (Alt + Control + A) and convert to another smart object. We can now add the Motion Blur filter to blend the colors better.

Step 8: Adding Motion Blur blends the colors.

Almost done! Because this object is a smart object, we can treat it like a normal layer and use simple photo composition techniques to add it to another photo. The final image shows our flame dancing on a lighter.

Flame animation using the organic technique.

In this tutorial, we’ve learned how to make use of multiple adjustment layers and smart filters by layering smart objects within smart objects to create and refine an organic effect inside Photoshop.

Conclusion

By now, you should be familiar with all of the common layer types and how each of their properties can be animated. Also, we now know that Photoshop is well equipped to produce some amazing animations. We’ve explored how to use smart objects to extend the animation capabilities by acting as templates or enabling us to stack multiple animations. We’ve also seen how to enhance our animations with filters and layer styles. We’ve even learned how to create some new — and seemingly impossible effects (for Photoshop) — by leveraging the Levels Adjustment layer. Lastly, we’ve put everything together to create some polished animations.

The techniques presented in this article demonstrate how Photoshop can be a reliable tool for creating animations. There will always be applications out there that are dedicated to creating animation. However, owning — or even learning — other software isn’t always feasible. Instead, you can stay within a program you are comfortable with and still create effects that were once deemed impossible in Photoshop.

Reference: Smashing Magazine