The Aurora Effect

Step 1: Create Canvas

• Make a new document with these settings.
  

• Hold down CTRL + SHIFT + I together to invert the white to black.

• Hold CTRL + SHIFT + N to create a new layer.

• Select the maraquee tool or hit M for the hot key.

• Click on the foreground pallet on the lower left hand corner to bring up the color selector.
• Input 00ccff in the highlighted area below to produce a very teal color.

Step 2: Creating the Basic Aurora

• Draw out an oval that covers up nearly the whole document.
• Hold down ALT + BACKSPACE to fill the oval with the teal color.
• CTRL + D to deselect the oval.

• Navigate to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur

• Set the radial blur to 100px.

• Next create a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + N)
• Create another oval ontop of the original oval
• Change the color to a very light blueish color.

• CTRL + D to deselect the oval.
• CTRL + F to produce the gaussian blur again.

• Repeat as many times as you wish.

Step 3: Creating the Aurora Effect

• CTRL + SHIFT + N to create a new layer.
• Press hotkey D to revert the color of the pallet back to normal black and white.
• Navigate to Filter -> Render -> Clouds
  

• Navigate to Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur

• Set the Angle to 50 degrees.
• Maximize the Distance to 999 pixels.

• Now to create the masking layer.
• Hold CTRL + SHIFT and click the individual layers to the aurora you've created earlier.

• Now that you have the aurora selected, navigate your cursor to the bottom and click Add Layer Mask.

• Navigate to the Layers panel and select the blending mode option and selete Hard Light.

Step 4: Creating the Creative Wool Effect

• Start by selecting the maraquee tool and draw out a small oval in the center of the screen.
• Press D to revert the color pallet to normal black and white.
• Hold ALT + BACKSPACE together to fill the oval with black.

• Navigate to Filter -> Render -> Difference Cloud

• Continuously press CTRL + F until you get an equal distribution of gray and black similar to the image below.
• CTRL + D to deselect.

• Next grab the smudge tool.
• Set the brush size to 34 px and make sure the mode is set to Normal.
• Lower the strength to 65%.

• Starting from the left start pulling the shape out.

• Continue all the way around.

• Until you get to a result similar to this.

• Continue playing around with the smudge tool until you get something similar to this.

• Navigate to your tool bar and grab the dodge tool which is located under the smudge tool.

• Set the brush size to 119px, Range to Highlights and Exposure to 100%.

• Begin brushing over the light areas.

• Next select the Burn tool.

• Set the brush to 34px, Mode to Normal, Strength to 65%.

• Next navigate to the Layers panel and set the blend mode to Screen.

Step 5: The Final Touch

• Next select the Brush tool.

• Select the brush panel from the sidebar.

• Click on Brush Tip Shape
• Set the spacing to roughly 100% - 130%

• Next click on Shape Dynamics
• Set the Size Jitter to maximum

• Next click on Scattering.
• Set the Scatter to 1000% and the Count to 1

• Next click on Other Dynamics and set the Opacity Jitter to 100%.

• Set the brush to roughly 58px and Hardness to 100%.

• CTRL + SHIFT + N for a new layer.

• Now brush away.

• Set the Blend Mode to Soft Light.

• Now for the smaller dots.
• CTRL + SHIFT + N for a new layer.
• Set the brush to roughly 20px or so.

• Brush away!
• Now set the Blend Mode to Overlay.

• Now Hold CTRL + J to duplicate the layer.

Voila!

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