Making glow look more blended?

[NoName]

Hi all,

I'm trying to make an energy orb look more "blended", as opposed to looking like it has well defined edges. Does anyone have any suggestions on how this can be achieved? I'm using blending options, outer glow, and gaussian blur to try and achieve the intended effects, but it looks too clean. I have attached the PSD file if it helps. Below are samples:

What I have right now:



What it should look like:



Thanks!

 

[Rich54]

Possibly this method might work for you:

• Start with a black background.
• Select a soft brush and set the brush blend mode (not the layer blend mode) to Dissolve.
• On a new layer, click once with your brush in your desired color. (When you're done, don't forget to change the brush setting back to Normal.)
• Like this:

• Convert this layer to a Smart Object.
• Apply an amount of Gaussian Blur that looks right to you. I used 2 pixels here. The Smart Object allows you to go back later and change the amount of Gaussian Blur, if you desire.

• Add a new layer on top of this.
• Using a hard brush, create a white circle of the appropriate size.
• Apply Gaussian Blur to get the look you want.
• Here's my final result:

 

[IamSam]

EDIT: Rich and I posted at the same time with similar techniques!

Are you wanting this type of effect?

This was done fairly fast for demo.




This is just a big soft round brush on two separate layers. You have to experiment with the brush settings and size.

One blue


Convert to a smart object and add a noise smart filter if you want to match the grainy effect.
Using a smart noise filter gives you the added option of editing the amount of the noise at anytime.
You can also add a smart Gaussian blur filter to soften the noise.


And then a white layer...


Both layers active....


The glint is an addition you can make at anytime.

 

[NoName]

This is great! Thank you both!