How to Make a Nebula in Photoshop

Gas and dust combine in the sky for a brilliant display of light called a nebula.

Without some highly specific scientific equipment, ideal sky conditions and serious training, most humans won't get to peer at a nebula in their lifetimes. Remedy this fact and let your computer serve as a skyscape by drawing your own nebula in Photoshop. The large, colorful, bright gassy cloud offers an ideal drawing project for the graphics software program, as Photoshop's tools offer complete control over the nebula's shape, color and reach. Shoot for the stars and let Adobe Photoshop take you up and away.

Instructions

1. Open Adobe Photoshop and click "File." Click "Open" and enter "MyNebula" into the Name box. Type the dimensions for the nebula canvas into the Width and Height boxes, such as "8" and "5" respectively. Select "inches" from the drop-down menu and click the "OK" button.

2. Double-click the Color Picker at the bottom of the Tools pane on the left side of the screen. Choose a bright color for the nebula's center and click the "OK" button.

3. Click the Brush Tool, which is the paintbrush icon in the middle of the Tools pane. Pull down the brush head menu, second from the left on the toolbar at the top of the screen. Click the solid round brush head and set the Size bar to "30."

4. Hover your cursor over the middle of the MyNebula canvas and click one time, putting a dot in the center of the canvas.

5. Select another bright color from the Color Picker. Pull down the brush head menu and click the fuzzy round brush head. Enlarge the Size slider to "40."

6. Trace over the outline of the nebula center, forming a ring and working your way outward toward the sides of the MyNebula canvas. Don't worry if you get some of the ring paint color onto the center paint color -- nebulae are by nature imprecise and not perfectly round.

7. Choose a new paint color in the Color Picker. Increase the Size slider to "50" and draw a ring around the second layer of the nebula, lightly tracing over the edges so the paints blur together.

8. Work your way outward with different paint colors and sizes for the brush heads until you reach the edges of the Photoshop canvas.

9. Click the "File" menu. Select "Save As," choose a destination to save the nebula file on the computer and click the "Save" button.

References

• California Institute of Technology: Ask an Astronomer for Kids!
• University of Washington: Photoshop Painting