Computer Tips and Tricks

Designing RPG Mini-Games (and Getting Them Right)

3:42 PM 0 comments

The world is on the brink of being uprooted by a megalomaniac hell-bent on destruction. You and your band of merry followers are the only group able to stop him. What better time to head on down to the stables and breed exotic birds? Or not...
At their best, mini-games offer players a meaningful way to test their skills in an alternative game setting. At worst, they're either incomplete or make little sense within the game's context. Before peppering your next RPG with mini-games, it is imperative that you consider their purpose, immersion factor and development time. Oh, and don't forget: they should also be fun.

What Is a Mini-Game?

What better way to start off a piece on mini-games than by defining exactly what a mini-game is? Unfortunately, that's not as simple as it might initially sound. Mini-games vary widely in scope, in relevance, and in how much they deviate from a game's core mechanics.
Compounding matters further, the line between a mini-game and an essential feature can sometimes be blurred. For instance, if I asked two World of Warcraft players, one who only raids and one who PvPs (that is, takes part in player vs player combat) exclusively, whether the PvP arena is a mini-game or an integral feature, I'd probably receive two completely different answers.
With that in mind, it may be best to group mini-game types—or perceived types—into categories first. Without further ado:

A Game Within a Game

Protagonists have hobbies too. Mini-games of this nature, for lack of a better term, give our hero something to do. The carnival games in Chrono Trigger and the simultaneously revered and loathed Blitzball from Final Fantasy X come to mind.

Chrono Trigger defied tradition by introducing mini-games first, and combat later.

These types of mini-games have several things in common:

They have minimal implications on the story as a whole.
Mastering the mini-game will have little to no bearing on your ability to beat the game.
Players are typically only required to play this type of mini-game once, if at all.
By winning or playing well, players are rewarded with inventory items, gold or other incremental upgrades.
They're designed to be a fun diversion.

Mini-games of this nature were exceedingly popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but have since fallen slightly out of favor. That said, there have been a slew of non-RPG releases that consist solely of mini-games—think Mario Party.

Test Your Mettle

You've defeated hundreds of fledgling pigs and forest imps, traversed the Volcano of Doom and crafted your first legendary quiver. Your feats have gone noticed by the powers-that-be and they have invited you to participate in arena combat.
Some mini-games will test the skills you've learned thus far. Whether it be in battle or otherwise, RPGs, particularly more modern ones, will often provide players with the option to utilize their newly honed skills in alternative formats.
Commonalities include:

They generally have little impact on progression. However, in some cases they may be required to advance the story.
Winning requires the same proficiency as game progression does.
The rewards for winning are usually material or status-worthy in nature, while losing can result in loss of status, injury, or death.

Examples include the Jar of Souls event in Diablo III, and World of Warcraft's PvP arena. A solid non-combat example would be a quiz that relies on your knowledge of the game world.

Jar of Souls: Not as foreboding as it initially looks.

Win or Stay Put

And then there are mini-games that require successful completion. Failure to do so usually results in, well... absolutely nothing at all.
Remember the Phantom Train from FFVI? In order to progress, players must flip the appropriate switches. Other examples include deciphering riddles and solving logic or spatial puzzles.
Common characteristics include:

Generally speaking, the only penalty for failure is stunted progression. However, there are exceptions. For instance, you may be tasked with solving a puzzle before gaining entry to an underground treasure cove. In this case, you can still progress without "beating" the mini-game, although you'd be missing out on that new broadsword.
Likewise, the reward for winning is usually continued progression.
Mini-games of this nature rely more on trial-and-error, creative thinking, and other secondary skills than they do fighting ability.
"Win or stay put" mini-games are typically integrated into the main plot.

I know its hard to believe (not really), but some game developers are sadistic. Instead of merely denying you passage for flipping the wrong switch, they'll kill you off! I'd only advocate going this route if the mini-game itself isn't exceedingly complicated and the player is either provided with or can find clues regarding its answer.

Win or Suffer the Consequences

"Win or suffer the consequences" mini-games are very similar to "win or stay put" mini-games, with the only exceptions being increased complexity and that failure can result in game-ending ramifications.
Often, mini-games of the "win or suffer the consequences" variety eat up elongated sections of the game. It is here where the proverbial line in the sand between what is a mini-game and what is an essential gameplay feature begins to blur. But for our purposes, we'll dive right in, and treat these sequences as "not-so-mini" mini-games. Our logic being that because these sequences deviate from the RPG staples of grinding and exploration, they are in some ways a different game. Modern Western RPGs incorporate multiple sequences of this type.
I'll leave the discussion of whether or not extended gameplay deviations are core attributes or mini-games up to you. But, either way, incorporating them requires a disciplined, well-thought out design schema. Which segues nicely into our next topic:

Mini-Game Design Tips

The good news is that each aforementioned type of mini-game can add extra layers of depth to an otherwise by-the-numbers RPG. But before you commit yourself to building a sprawling arena or judiciary establishment, it's imperative to first consider the impact mini-games will have on your development cycle.
With that in mind, let's kick things off with a few general guidelines before diving into mini-game type specific tips:

Mini-Games Are Games Too!

First and foremost, mini-games are just that: games. Painfully obvious, I know, but you'd be surprised at how many developers view them as mere novelties.
Alright, so why is this important? Remember the massage mini-game from Final Fantasy X-2—that's why. But, more specifically, mini-games that aren't given the attention they deserve inevitably detract from the overall gaming experience. And that's just bad news.

Oh please, no!

To counter this, treat each mini-game as an individual game, subjecting to the same pre-production, production and post-production standards that you would your main game. Going further, it's vital that your game at least makes sense within the game's context; more on that later.

Cost Considerations

As an independent developer, you're probably on a rather modest budget. RPGs, regardless of whether they're a 16-bit homage or an open world sandbox, are massive undertakings. Just the balancing process alone has set teams back months, if not years. That said, you must carefully consider the risk-reward ratio of introducing any new feature into your RPG: side-quests and mini-games especially. This will require making some difficult managerial decisions.
To make your task easier, start off by asking yourself: "Can I really afford to design, allocate resources to, code, and polish my idea for a mini-game?" If the answer is "no" or "maybe," either reevaluate the mini-game's scope, replace it with a mini-game that your team can handle, or ditch it entirely.
And if, at any point, you find yourself over-budget or late and forced to make cuts, mini-games should be one of the first features to go. It's for this reason that I suggest waiting until near the end of your development cycle to implement them. That's not to say they shouldn't be planned for in advance, but your core functionality should always take precedence.

A Game Within a Game: Tacked on Mini-Games Are Tacky

Mini-games don't have to be meaningful or intimately tied to the gaming world, but they should at least make sense in the game's context. I recall reviewing a pay-to-win MMORPG that took place in a high-fantasy setting, reminiscent of the Harry Potter movies. Players gained access to a myriad of summoning spells and direct casts, growing more powerful with every level. Standard fare, really.
But there was one peculiarity. In order to quickly restore your magical energy, you would head down to the Fairgrounds and play an unpolished, feature-light version of either Tetris Attacks, Dig Dug or Concentration. The experience was laborious and disjointing. Even worse, early in the game it was really the only viable way to replenish your valuable resources. By scoring an inordinate amount of points you could win other prizes, but the time investment was hardly worth the reward.
This MMORPG broke nearly every rule on how to make "a game within a game." But you won't do the same.
Always keep your game world and protagonist in mind before designing a single mini-games. For instance, if your Hero is a burly ex-Marine with a sword for his left arm, would he really be interested in playing beach volleyball? Would the residents of a game like Fallout 3 pass the time playing video games, despite the lack of electricity? Would a Wizard replenish his magical energy playing Dig Dug? Clearly not.

Yes, because this makes sense in a game about wizardry.

However, an underground casino would make total sense in a post-apocalyptic setting, as would a holographic card game in a science fiction game. The point is, mini-games don't have to necessarily utilize the same mechanics as the game itself, as long as they make sense within its context.
Other general rules to follow when designing a "game within a game" include:

Requirements: Players should never be forced to master a mini-game of this variety. At most, force them to try it out exactly once. If they enjoy it, great; let them play it to their hearts' content.
Rewards: Give players a reason to master a mini-game by gifting them with rewards. Limit the rewards chart to incremental upgrades and items that can be won via other means. If the rewards prove too powerful or are otherwise inaccessible, players who don't enjoy mini-games will be placed at a severe disadvantage. In a worst case scenario, this will unbalance your entire game.
Originality: Use other mini-games for inspiration, but don't rip them off. If gamers wanted to play Tetris, they can play the original version or one of its many variants. Instead, give players a specific reason to play your mini-games.
Polish: If your mini-game is broken, buggy, or otherwise lacking compared to the rest of your game, players will notice. As I mentioned before: If you can't do it right, it's better not to do it at all.

Do note that more ambitious mini-games of this assortment will add serious time and costs to your development cycle, and should be avoided if you're on a strict budget.

A Note on When Requiring Players to Play "A Game Within a Game" Is Acceptable

There's only one set of circumstances where I would advocate players being forced to play a "game within a game":

The mini-game doubles as a skill. For instance, if picking locks increases your in-game ability to pick more difficult locks, the art of lock picking is just as much a skill than it is a mini-game. Skyrim's implementation of lock picking is an excellent example of this.
The user is given more than one means of completing the task. For example, a player approaches a locked door. He should be given the option to either pick the lock, use his knowledge of explosives to blow up the door, or use sheer brute force to knock it down, depending on his preferred playing style and unique skill set. Thus, instead of requiring players to play a mini-game, you're only asking them to play one of many mini-games.
Players cannot proceed unless the mini-game is successfully complete.

Test Your Mettle: To Arms!

Ah, the mini-game that tests just how good you really are. The main advantage of this type of mini-game is that you won't have to introduce any new gameplay mechanics, as they already rely on existing ones. However, because they generally take place in alternative formats, they may require additional art and music assets and game logic tweaks. Still, that's better than reinventing the wheel.
The other beauty of "test your mettle" mini-games is that they can be essential or nonessential, have severe penalties or none at all; the choice is really up to you. However, I would suggest that any imposed penalty match the context. Case in point: if you've become the top arena fighter in the entire galaxy and are challenged by the former undisputed champion, you should probably fight to the death. Barbaric I know, but it makes sense.
Not all "test your mettle" mini-games need to be combat-based. You may implement a sequence where you must travel from one end of the world to another in an allotted amount of time, using your prior knowledge of the world to help you succeed. Or you may be tasked with relying on your skills of persuasion to talk yourself out of a sticky situation.
Whatever the task, try to adhere to the following:

Difficulty scaling: Arena battles should become more difficult, and losing should eventually bear dire consequences—even death.
Rewards: Without rewards, there is little reason to participate in a challenge. Sometimes the reward will be that you survive, but if the mini-game is optional, players must be given some sort of incentive for winning.
Same but different: Force players to employ slightly different tactics than they would otherwise. PvP in WoW relies on evasion and defense more than it does on pure DPS. By challenging players to experiment with new builds and techniques, your game gains enormous value, all at little cost to the development team.

Win or Stay Put: When Mini-Games Stop Being Fun, and Start Becoming Chores

"Win or stay put" mini-games offer a slew of advantages. They're relatively simple to implement, and thus cost effective. They also do a nice job of breaking up the combat/exploration cycle typically associated with most RPGs. Alright, so they might be a little gimmicky, but that's OK, as long as they're well-designed and challenge players to use a secondary skill set. It also helps if they're not painfully boring.
If you were a fan of Final Fantasy VI, you may recall the Zozo clock puzzle. Simultaneously exhilarating and brilliant, players would receive clues from various NPCs regarding the time on a clock—only, the town was comprised of a bunch of liars. Thus the only way to figure out the right time was by eliminating all the wrong times. Compounding matters, the NPCs made no reference to the minute hand. In order to solve that piece of the puzzle, players were tasked with examining another clock. Thankfully, you're given just enough clues to deduce how to solve the puzzle.

And that's the difference between a frustrating "win or stay put" mini-game and a well-designed one: clues. Without them, more difficult puzzles will require an extraordinary amount of trial and error, ultimately becoming a bore. Now, that's not to say the clues need to be blatantly obvious, but they should exist.
If you're on a budget, consider relying on the same "win or stay put" mini-game more than once. If you choose to do so, keep these other handy tips in mind:

Learning curve: Mini-games need a learning curve too. Let the first instance of a mini-game act as a sort of integrated tutorial, and ramp up the difficulty accordingly.
Required or optional: Most mini-games of this variety must be successfully completed in order to progress the plot. However, there's no reason not to weave in a couple of optional variants. Make the optional ones the hardest in the game, and reward players who conquer them with access to a treasure room or other special treat.
Fun factor: Pressing switches can be a chore, especially if you're fighting enemies in between. Counter this by thinking outside of the box. For example, a riddle, combat puzzle or timed maze might prove more interesting to players than lighting torches in a particular order. And if you do decide to go a more traditional route, make sure the payoff is worthwhile.

Win or Suffer the Consequences: Awesomely Ambitious

Undoubtedly the most time consuming and costly mini-games to implement, the major benefit of "win or suffer the consequences" mini-games are that they are truly awesome. Take the murder mystery investigation scene from Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, for example. For upwards of two hours of game time, players are asked to put away their lightsaber and do some old-school detective work. Requiring an entirely different set of skills, force persuasion withstanding, this sequence acts as a refreshing change from the norm of fighting enemies, exploring new lands, and acquiring skills. I'd argue that the game as a whole benefits from it.

The infamous KOTOR murder mystery investigation. Whodunit?

Better yet, there are long-standing consequences to your actions. Without giving too much away, you'll be given the option to go against the evidence. Doing so results in a whole slew of Dark Side points.
Not for the faint of heart (and light of wallet), "win or suffer the consequences" mini-games require a delicate juxtaposition of novelty, fun and context. Whereas side quests are optional and typically incorporate core game mechanics, "win or suffer the consequences" sequences are complete deviations from everything you've experienced thus far. Design them with care, and playtest the heck out of them.
Most importantly, gauge the risk involved. The last thing you want is to increase your budget and development time by 20% just to incorporate an alternative plot device that players abhor.
On a personal note, one of the games I'm working on—Hiro Fodder: A Blue Hope—incorporates one of these sequences. Our little blue slime undertakes a heroic journey to infiltrate the human city. Doing so requires him to find expose secret passageways, uncover clues and spy on guards without appearing in their field of vision. It's terrific fun, but, admittedly a gigantic risk.

Conclusion

Let's look at an overview of the cost-to-value ratios of the different mini-game types:

Game within a game: High expense and production time; value to gamer varies.
- As a skill, a game within a game's value increases.
Test your mettle: Low expense and production time; moderate value.
Win or stay put: Lower cost and production time; low to moderate value.
Win or suffer the consequences: Mid to very high cost and production times; high value.

By providing context to your larger mini-games, and fun to your purposely divergent ones, you can add depth, replay value and additional layers to your RPG. Just be aware of what you're getting into before entering production, and always keep your time and budgetary restraints in mind.

Professional Photograph Restoration Workflow

3:38 PM 0 comments

In this tutorial, we'll take an in-depth look at restoring an old torn photograph. Restoring old family photos is something that you can do for your relatives and bring tears to their eyes, and yes this is a service you can offer to clients as well. Let's take a look at a professional workflow for restoring old photographs to their former glory.

1. Introduction

When deciding on which picture to use for this tutorial, I encountered the lack of material I could use in public. The picture provided is a family photo sent to me in a terrible scan resolution. But the picture was just the kind of picture I found right for this kind of tutorial. And the end result also shows that you actually can work on poor scanned pictures and get reasonably good results.
The print size is of course limited due to this. That said. The importance with this tutorial is guiding you through the workflow process. There are some important steps, however, you must keep in mind, but never hesitate to be creative and explore different approaches. The steps to follow are:

Make a copy of the original to work from

Adjust the dimension you need and crop the image so you don't work on areas you don't need.

Retouch/restore areas in the image as needed.

Remove noise or unwanted patterns

Adjust highlights shadows and neutrals (in color photos you would also adjust skin color)

Adjust the brightness and contrast

Sharpen

Step 1

And now for the workflow and tutorial. In Step 1 I have already specified dimensions and cropped the image. You would then go about the restoration. I always start out in photos like this with the patch tool and get larger areas roughly patched. Then I get more specific and change between the Patch Tool, the Healing Tool, and the Clone Tool as suited. I'll explain in more detail in the next steps.

Step 2

The Patch Tool works just as the Marquee Tool in regards to behavior. You drag a selection around the area you want to fix, then you click in the middle of your selection, and whilst holding the mouse button down, you drag the selection to another location in the picture with similarities and let go. Be sure to align your selection before you let it go. See next step and watch the alignment.

Step 3

Watch alignment in the shades of the curtain in the background. Do all larger areas in the picture. This tool not only works great, but it's also a timesaver and a good way to start your restoration.

Step 4

After getting all the larger areas done change to the Healing Brush Tool (see corresponding red color in the picture below) and Clone Stamp Tool. As you work on your picture always feel free to experiment with these tools. If you are concerned with an efficient workflow, it's good to get the grasp of these three tools.
Note that the Spot Healing Tool is also a tool you would use where, as its name suggests, there are spots. It works by just clicking on the spots you want to remove and I find myself using this often in some pictures where there are spots scattered around in the image. The workflow would then be to start out with the Spot Healing Brush, then changing between this and the Healing Brush Tool. In this picture, I had no need for it though.
As the picture below suggest, I use the Clone Stamp Tool at the edges of the picture. The Healing Brush Tool and the Patch Tool will usually create some effects you don't want when you work towards the edges of a picture. Just try it out and you'll see what I mean. Again, just change between the tools and feel free to experiment between them until you get your desired result.

Step 5

Here we have done the first part of the restoration.

Step 6

And now for the serious defections in our picture. Here we’ll use the man’s right eye to substitute his missing left eye. Just draw a rough marquee selection around his right eye, and then hit Command + J to jump the layer (copy the selection to a new layer).

Step 7

Then hit Command + T to enter the Free Transform Tool.

Step 8

Right-click inside the selection and hit Flip Horizontal.

Step 9

At this point, when you drag the selection over to where the left eye should be, you would want to lower the Opacity and align the eye with what's left of his torn away eye behind your new layer. When you have it aligned, hit enter or hit the mark I've placed the green circle around (shown below) to commit the changes. Then raise the Opacity to 100% again.

Step 10

Now, with the layer selected hit the mask-button (as indicated by the green circle below) too apply a mask.

Step 11

Now we want to paint with black in the mask to hide the areas we don't need or don't want to see. When using masks the rule is: white reveals and black conceals. If you need soft transitions, use gray. A good way to paint away areas in your selection is to lower the opacity of your brush, then sweep across the areas you want to get rid of until you have the transition result between the two layers you would want.
Bonus Tip: Keep your finger at the X button to flip between black and white. It's always good to go back and forth like this in smaller areas until you get what you want. The D key will make your foreground and background colors black and white if the colors are set to something different than black and white. If you want to see only the mask on your screen to smoothen out the areas, hold down the Alt key and click the mask.

Step 12

Now you want to do the same process with the ear. Depending on the picture you would try out different free transform modes you also could use. For the ear I did use warp. I also did a minor part from the hairline at the man's right side, rotated , and scaled it slightly just to get a better start for the missing hairline. Then I cloned where needed.

If you look at my layers here, don't be confused. The "retouch" layer is the next step, but when doing the picture I didn't decide on the hairline right away. The layer called "Layer 1" is the hairline layer.

Step 13

After getting all the larger parts into place, I went back to the Clone Tool and touched up all the edges I needed to fix. This is what I put on its own layer; the "retouch" layer. Usually you want the Opacity on the Clone Tool set down so you get better control over the cloning and can do them in more than one sweep. Just drag over the area until you get the result you desire. Command + Z is of course something you want to keep your fingers at during the whole of this process.

Step 14

Often when you go about doing the last retouching, you would use different layers for different parts. If you don't want a lot of layers, just merge them down when you are satisfied. I usually do small parts on different layers and merge them back to one "retouch" layer, but never merge these basic layers.
You don't want to merge everything together if you later see something you didn't spot right away. It's always good to be able to go back and delete only the "retouch" layer, and fix that, or the eye-layer, if you found something out of place in it, and so on.

Step 15

So now the restoration part is done.

Step 16

The next thing I do is to select all the layers and group them. Command + G. Then I make a new layer from this group. Command + Shift + Alt + E and rename it "noise." This layer is for our noise reduction. One thing I want to point out, which I probably haven't mentioned.
As you can see from my layers below I've kept the original file in the PSD as the background layer, and then turned it off. I like to keep the original file together with my PSD file, so I always start by jumping this (Command + J). This way I get an exact copy to work from, then turn of the background.
Bonus Tip: If you hold the Alt key down while clicking on the eye in front of the background image, you turn this layer on and all the other layers off. Click again to turn this layer off, and all the others on. Good for quick comparisons.

Step 17

Now we remove noise in the image. Noise reduction is done in various ways, but here I use the Reduce Noise filter found under Noise. I exaggerated the noise reduction a little for this tutorial, and believe my original numbers were 8 for the strength and about 20 for detail.
Another tip here is to go into the Advanced Dialogue and crank the strength up to full in the blue channel with 0 on details. In the red channel you crank also the strength up high with some detail, and leave the red channel with no alterations. This lets the red channel keep some of the details in the picture without blurring it too much. This technique I got from Taz Tally, and is what you also would want to do to remove patterns or scan lines.

Step 18

After noise reductions we would go on to sharpening. Sharpening is another big topic, but a common use, and a good one, is the High Pass Sharpening. When you apply the High Pass filter, you would want to use low settings.
For this tutorial, I have raised the values a bit too much, and you would want to see less in the gray picture than here. The edges are what you want to sharpen. There are also some technical issues you want to keep in mind.
When you sharpen for print, you always want to over-sharpen a little on screen. Printers have a natural way to blur out pictures a little. When you have applied the High Pass filter you would set the Blending Mode to Overlay or Soft Light. I usually make use of a little over sharpen anyhow, and then lower the value by using the opacity control.

Bonus Tip: Often you would want to sharpen only areas of the picture. In the example picture below, I've made a mask and painted away everything but the face, so this is the only part that gets sharpened. Often this technique is used for only the eyes.
The technique works also well using curves to lighten or darken areas of the picture. If you only want the eyes lighter, you would make a curves layer, hit Command + I to invert the mask, making the mask go black, and paint back with white where the eyes are, and so on. It's quicker to invert the mask than starting to paint away everything you don't want.

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Step 19

In this final step, I did adjust the contrast with an s-curve. This step I didn't make use of in my original file, and you would probably want to do it before the sharpening, but I added it here just to get a more complete workflow overview, since that is the nature of this tutorial. I often make use of Command + Shift + Alt + E to make a new layer from the layers below, and that's what I would have done here.
I would have put the "curves" layer over the "noise" layer, then merging all the layers below to a new layer on top. Next sharpen this with the High Pass filter, keeping the curves layer intact, just in case I wanted to go back and adjust the last two steps.

2. Conclusion

So this was a the whole process of restoring an old, torn photograph. But keep in mind that a lot of these steps can be explored in greater depth. Always experiment and look for things you could add to your workflow to get an even better result.

Photoshop : TRON Grid Photoshop Tutorial

8:32 AM 0 comments

Preview of Final Results

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Stock Photos

Here is the stock photo used for this tutorial. You can download the image through Dreamstime by clicking on the image below. We used the highest resolution (unscaled) images available to write this tutorial. If you would like to follow this tutorial using the same settings we used, download the highest resolution (unscaled) images available.

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.

Step 1 – Create a new Document

Create a new document. 1920px in width and 1200px in height. This is a standard large wallpaper size.

Step 2 – Invert it to black

Press (control/command + I) to invert the white to black.

Step 3 – Open the image of the Mountain

Load the image of the mountain into Photoshop. To do this, choose File > Open, browse for the file, then click OK. Before you do any selecting, scale down the image (Image > Image Size…) to a 1920px width, and let the height auto adjust to match. For this tutorial, I didn’t want to use the whole image, but instead, about only half of it (600px in height). So, in the picture below, you can see that I selected a portion of the mountain that I wanted using the marquee tool.

Step 4 – Put the mountains in the new document

Alright, so with that portion of the mountains selected, copy it (control/command + C) and paste it into your new document. You’re going to want it in the upper half of the document, so this is super easy if you turn on your photoshop grid, and you can let Photoshop snap the mountains above the 600px mark for height.

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Step 5 – Turn off Grid / Name Layer

Turn off the grid. Name this layer “mountain”.

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Step 6 – Darken Mountains

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and put the brightness to the lowest setting, and the contrast to the highest setting.

Step 7 – Duplicate Layer

The quickest way to do this is to type (control/command + J). The new layer will be called mountain copy.

Step 8 – Flip the Mountains upside down

Press (control/command + T). This will allow you to left click (with your mouse) and select “Flip Vertical”. The following images are a before and after.

Step 9 – Move the Mountains to the bottom

If you are still in the control/command + T view, then you will be able to click and drag the flipped mountains to the bottom of the document, and they should snap when you get it to the right spot. Click enter to exit this mode when you’re done moving it.

Step 10 – Create a Mask

In your layers menu, select the 3rd button to the right (the white circle inside a gray rectangle icon) to create a mask, and using your gradient tool, create a black to transparent gradient from the bottom of the document to about 600px (the midline where the two mountain halves mirror each other.)

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Step 12 – Checkpoint

If you’ve done your mask correctly, you will have arrived at something like this.

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Step 13 – Add some Blue

Create a new Layer (Layer > New > Layer). Select the bottom of the document. A good way to do this is quickly and accurately is to select the “mountain copy” layer because you know that it is half of the screen. To do this, go into your layers palette, select the layer “mountain copy” (control/command + click on the icon for the layer “mountain copy”).
Note: If you cannot seem to select the layer by clicking on it, you are probably clicking the wrong thing. To the left of the layer name, there is a small icon of the layer. You should control/command + click on that image, not the text itself.
Select a blue for your foreground (I choose #216a82) and black for your background, and create a gradient. Set the opacity for this layer to 50%.

Step 14 – Lens Flare

Create another new layer (Layer > New > Layer), and call it “lens flare”. Fill this layer with black using the fill tool (G), and then head up to Filters > Render > Lens Flare. Select 105mm Prime, and leave the brightness at 100%. Then center the lens flare as best you can (if you miss the center you can always undo and try again, or just move it using the move (V) tool)0.

Using these settings you should get this:

Step 15 – Up the Contrast

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and move the contrast to the highest level possible.

Step 16 – Colorize

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and move the mimic the settings below.

Step 17 – Checkpoint

Just look at your layers palette and make sure that your layers are like this (order and number of layers should be the same as this). Then, set the blending mode for the layer “lens flare” to linear dodge (add).

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Step 18 – Another Lens Flare

Duplicate the Layer (control/command + J) and press (control/command + T). Shrink the height and expand the width of this flare to either side (try to copy the picture below).

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Step 19 – Blur It

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply a blur of about 7px.

Step 20 – Center It

Move the flattened and elongated lens flare up to the center line.

Step 21 – Center Gradient

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer), and select your gradient tool. Choose the reflected gradient option, and using a blue foreground (I used #216a82), create a foreground to transparent gradient from the center. To do this correctly, you will want to start in the center and click and drag to either the top or the bottom. When you’re done, se this layer to 50% opacity.

Step 22 – Creating the Grid! — A

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer), and set the background to black (this is so you can see what you’re doing… DO NOT put anything on this layer in later steps besides the black color that is already there!). Press (U) and select the rounded rectangle tool. Set the radius to 50 px. Also make sure that you’re on paths, not shapes.

Step 23 – Creating the Grid! — B

Holding shift to ensure that your drawing perfect squares, create a rounded rectangle like the one below.

Step 24 – Creating the Grid! — C

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer), name it “grid”, and make white your foreground color. Right click in the box and select fill path.

Step 25 – Creating the Grid! — D

You should see this. Then click (shift + H) to hide the path.

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Step 26 – Creating the Grid! — E

Select the layer contents (instructions on how to do this are on step 13)

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Step 27 – Creating the Grid! — F

Go to Select > Modify > Contract, and choose 25px. If your squares are a little smaller or larger than mine, and this doesn’t look good with these settings, than adjust as necessary.

Step 28 – Creating the Grid! — G

Click OK. Man, that was an easy step!

Step 29 – Creating the Grid! — H

Click backspace/delete to get the middle out of there. If necessary, deselect after this. Haha, that was easy too!

Step 30 – Creating the Grid! — I

Duplicate this layer, and move the new layer to the right. Hit (control/command + E) to merge the layers, and then repeat. Do the same in a vertical direction, until you have 3 columns and 4 rows like below. Make sure all your squares are on one layer when your done (but not on that black layer that we’ve already talked about in Letter A).

Step 31 – Move the Grid

Hit (V) and move the grid to the bottom half and center it.

Step 32 – Make a Copy

Duplicate this grid layer and turn off the visibility for now.

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Step 33 – Perspective

Hit (control/command + T) and right click to perspective.

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Step 34 – Perspective

Move the top corners inward slightly, and move the bottom out to either side. You only have to do this on one half of the grid, because perspective will mimic whatever you do on the other side.

Step 35 – Turn off Visibility

Hide the visibility for the black layer that we made at the start of all of this grid madness. Now that you can see again, you might want to move your grid down a bit so that it looks nice.

Step 36 – Turn on Visibility

Go to the layer “grid copy” that we turned off earlier, and turn it back on. Click (control/command + T) and shrink it (holding shift so that it doesn’t get distorted) like you see below.

Step 37 – Copy It

Just like we did earlier, copy the layer “grid copy” and move it over and down (hitting control/command + E along the way to speed things up), and you will eventually get a big grid like the one below (make sure that it is all on the same layer “grid copy” at the end). Move the grid to the bottom half and center it just like before.

Step 38 – Perspective

Same as step 33 and 34, just make sure that the perspective looks the same as it does with the larger grid. You will probably have to go out wider on the bottom for this one.

Step 39 – Color

Double click on the layer “grid copy” apply the color overlay effect as seen below. When you’ve done this, do the same to layer “grid”.

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Step 40 – Opacity

Then set the opacity of both layers “grid” and “grid copy” (both blue now) to 25% opacity.

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Step 41 – Text

Using a font of your choice, although I strongly recommend an outline font like I used, type either TRON, or AEVION, or whatever you want inside there, and center it.

Step 42 – Text

Go to Filter > Pixelate > Fragment.

Step 43 – Text Glow

Double click on the text layer, and set the blending options to what you see below.

Step 44 – Checkpoint

You should see something like this now.

Step 45 – Lens Flare

If you don’t have one of these like I did looking back at my old layers palette, make a duplicate of the flattened lens flare (“lens flare copy”). Move it to the bottom of the text like you see below.

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Step 46 – Text Reflection — A

Duplicate the text layer. Hit (control/command + T), and right click to flip the text upside down (vertical).

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Step 47 – Text Reflection — B

Move it down like you see below, so that it looks like a reflection.

Step 48 – Text Reflection — C

Move the reflection layer below “layer 1″, or whatever layer name you have that has a blue gradient on it. Set the reflection layer’s opacity to 50%.

Step 49 – Finishing Touches — A

Go back and find your original and upright text layer. Turn on the visibility of that black layer (if you deleted it, just make another, and put it right underneath the text layer) and put it underneath the text layer. Click on the text layer in your palette, and then hit (control/command + E) to merge the layers. You should see this below:

Step 50 – Finishing Touches — B

Set the blending mode for this layer to “linear dodge (add)”. Then your text should really glow. And then you’re done.

Step 51 – Conclusion

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the tutorial! I hope you understood what was going on, and enjoyed learning about this effect as much as I did teaching it. I encourage you to keep playing around with this effect, practice the techniques, and try to improve on areas here and there that you think could use improvement. It is all up to you as the artist — good luck!
Below are two versions of this finished effect that I’ve done.

Download the PSD (25 MB)

Read more at http://www.photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/tron-grid/#Ff5juMKIV6PeEyxG.99