Create a Futuristic City Photoshop Tutorial

No-one Knows What Huge Suns Will Illuminate The Life Of The Future. It May Be That Artists Will Transform The Grey Dust Of The Cities Into Hundred-coloured Rainbows; That The Never-ending Thunderous Music Of Volcanoes Will Be Turned Into The Sound Of Flutes Resounding From Mountain Ranges; That Ocean Waves Will Be Forced To Play On Nets Of Chords ... In this Photoshop tutorial we will learn how to create a futuristic city scene. First, we added city background, then place another city, and next started adding night city effects. Also added some textures and finally added Camera Raw Filter.

Preview of Final Image

Tutorial Resources

Step 1

Now, let’s start by creating a new image file, go to the Menu bar and click File > New, and then input the following values on their respective fields

Preset: Custom
Width: 3000px
Height: 3000px
Resolution: 300px
Color Mode: RGB Color 8 bit
Background Contents: Transparent

Step 2

Now, place Background Go to File > Place and select City 1. Then place it to our work canvas and position the image with the transform tool (Ctrl / Cmd + T). Hold Alt + Shift and rasterize like the image below. In Photoshop CC only hold Alt to rasterize all sides together.

Step 3

Add Adjustment Layer "Color Balance"

Step 4

Add Adjustment Layer "Brightness/Contrast"

Step 5

Add Adjustment Layer "Curves" and press Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert. Then use Brush Tool(B) Soft Round with foreground color white and paint on Highlight parts.

Step 6

Add Adjustment Layer "Curves" and press Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert. Then use Brush Tool(B) Soft Round with foreground color white and paint on dark parts.

Step 7

Create a new layer and use the Soft Round brush tool with the foreground color Orange and paint on the bottom image. Opacity set to 75%.

Step 8

Next, place City 2 Go to File > Place and select City 2. Then place it to our work canvas and position the image with the transform tool (Ctrl / Cmd + T). Hold Alt + Shift and rasterize like the image below. In Photoshop CC only hold Alt to rasterize all sides together.

Now select the layer and use a Pen Tool(P) and start selecting buildings. When we finish the selection press right-click on mouse and “Make Selection” then create a layer mask. The simplest path you can draw with the standard Pen tool is a straight line, made by clicking the Pen tool to create two anchor points. By continuing to click, you create a path made of straight line segments connected by corner points.

Select the Pen tool.
Position the Pen tool where you want the straight segment to begin, and click to define the first anchor point (do not drag).
Click again where you want the segment to end
Continue clicking to set anchor points for additional straight segments.
The last anchor point you add always appears as a solid square, indicating that it is selected. Previously defined anchor points become hollow, and deselected, as you add more anchor points
Complete the path by doing one of the following:
To close the path, position the Pen tool over the first (hollow) anchor point. A small circle appears next to the Pen tool pointer when it is positioned correctly. Click or drag to close the path.
To leave the path open, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) anywhere away from all objects. To leave the path open, you can also select a different tool.

Step 9

In this step create a new layer and use a soft round brush tool with foreground color orange and paint on city 2. The flow of brush set to 10%. Then select City 2 and this layer and put to group (Ctrl/Cmd + G).