Have you ever seen those outstanding fractal images with a lot of swirls and colors? Some of those were build simulating fractals or repeating shapes, where each shape is a reduced part of the whole, others were build mathematically. In this tutorial, we'll create a stylized fractal design using only Photoshop.
Final Image Preview
Let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.
Video Tutorial
Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this series of video tutorials to compliment this text + image tutorial.
Step 1
Wikipedia define fractals as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole." There are many ways to create fractals, most involve complex mathematical formulas, or fractal software programs, like Apohpysis for example, but with our good old Photoshop we can simulate the fractals behavior using repeating shapes and some useful keyboard shortcuts.
So, let's get it started. First we'll start with a 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels document, it's huge because I'm planning to use it as a desktop background. Then, show the ruler (Command + R) and change the unit to Percent. Now, draw two guides, one horizontal and the other vertical, and place them in the middle of the document. Next, using the Gradient Fill Tool, draw a radial gradient (#095261 - #000000), which should look similar to the image below.
Step 2
Now here's the only shape you'll draw: a circle, yes I'm not kidding, everything starts from a single circle. Draw it using the Ellipse Tool, hold the Shift key to create a perfect circle, and if you want hold the Alt key to draw it from the center. The circle size is 83 pixels by 83 pixels and it's located in the middle of the document. Now, create a new folder named "Fractal" and place the circle shape inside of it.
Step 3
Let's add some depth and volume to our shape. First, apply a Gradient Overlay that goes from dark blue to light blue, with a Drop Shadow, 50% Opacity, and a 0px distance, some Bevel and Emboss, including a texture. Just follow the images below.
Step 4
Now duplicate the circle layer by dragging the shape while pressing the Alt key, then merge the circle copy with a new blank layer to keep the style proportional. Resize the copy a little bit and place it 120 degrees from the middle of the document, you can use a triangle as a guide (I drew the triangle using the Polygon Tool).
Place the copy just over one of it's corners. Repeat this twice to get three small circles around the big circle. Delete the triangle and finally merge the four circles into a new layer called "Fractal 1" (If you want leave a copy of the original vector shape just in case).
Step 5
Here comes the fun part, we're going to repeat two steps several times. This is the first one, we'll Duplicate and then Free Transform. To get the right effect we need to use the shortcut Command + Alt + T. This command duplicates the existing image and allows to free transform the copy. Do not click anywhere and go to next step.
Step 6
While holding the Shift key, resize the "Fractal 1 copy" just a little bit, then rotate the copy a few degrees Clockwise. The trick to simulate the fractals is move the Transform center to the left, right, top, or bottom, depending on your needs. This time we'll move it a lot left. Finally, hit Enter.
Step 7
Now we're going to use another useful keyboard shortcut. Press Command + Shift + Alt + T to apply Free Transform again once and see the result. What happened? Photoshop takes the previous values of the Free Transform and apply them to the new object. If you repeat this command several times you'll get a nice fractal swirl. Photoshop creates a new layer each time you apply this command.
Step 8
Now, duplicate the entire "Fractal 1" folder, then select the "Fractal 1 copy" folder and hit Command E to merge the group. Now name the resulting layer "Fractal 2", then hide the original folder. Also, move the "Fractal 2" layer some pixels down and to the right from the middle of the document.
Step 9
Select the "Fractal 2" layer, then apply the Duplicate and Free Transform keyboard shortcut from Step 5 (Command + Alt + T), though change the transformation center to the middle of the document and rotate the image -120 degrees CCW.
Step 10
Now hit the Free Transform again keyboard shortcut from Step 7 (Command + Shift + Alt + T), doing this you'll duplicate the 120 degrees rotate transformation exactly. Finally, put the three layers into a new folder named "Fractal 2," Now, duplicate the folder and merge the copy, hide the original folder, and name the merged copy "Fractal 2."
Step 11
Duplicate and Free Transform (Command + Alt + T) the "Fractal 2" layer, keep the transformation center where it is, then while holding Shift + Alt keys, resize and rotate the copy just a little bit. Try to get something like the image below.
Step 12
Change the "Fractal 2 copy" layer Hue/Saturation, use the values shown below. We'll make this one a little bit green.
Step 13
Free Transform again the layer and adjust Hue / Saturation using these values.
Step 14
Repeat the Free Transform again command (Command + Shift + Alt + T) as many times as you want, but always change the Hue and Saturation to get one green layer above a blue one. When you have finished, group all the layers into a new folder called "Fractal 3." Next, duplicate the folder and merge the copy, just like in the previous steps. Name the copy "Fractal 3."
Step 15
Add a dark Drop Shadow to the "Fractal 3" layer.
Step 16
Duplicate and Free Transform (Command + Alt + T) the "Fractal 3" layer, rotate the copy a few degrees CW, resize it a little bit making the copy smaller, and change the transformation center to the top-left, then hit Enter.
Step 17
Free Transform again (Command + Shift + Alt + T) a lot of times to get something like this. You can repeat these steps as many times as you want, but I'll stop the design right here.
Conclusion
As you can see, you can apply this technique to create a lot of abstract designs, or mixing the fractal shapes with real images to improve your outcome. It's up to you from here. Good luck! You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Gert-Jan October 11th
Oh this is a realy cool effect!
Sanid October 11th
really nice idea , thx for the tut ^^
BroOf October 11th
WOW GREAT!!!!
Ryan October 11th
Saw this on http://www.phong.com a loooooong time ago. Pretty good result though.
Zeross October 11th
cool
filipe soares October 11th
Really cool tutorial, i will try.
d3mb5ky October 11th
nice
Snook October 11th
Good ! =)
andi October 11th
That’s pretty neat
Radu October 11th
It’s got a nice Japanese feel to it. It would be interesting to do a dragon starting from this.
Slight observation: while on a 1600×1200px 72dpi canvas everything is peachy fine, don’t attempt to use this technique for print. After the 24th duplicate my computer started to go reeaaaaally s…..l…..o…..w
Anyway, great tut!
RUGRLN October 11th
Daammmm…that;s cool!
Ariful Alam Khan October 11th
That’s nice. Thanks for sharing
Eduardo October 11th
That’s really cool! very few people knows the ‘transform again’ exists in photoshop. I’ve seen this for the first time on the lynda.com photoshop cs3 training series with Deke McClelland.
Kim Dolleris October 11th
Nice tecniques!! Didnt know - thanks!
mr goatee October 12th
OMG..this is reeeeally AMAZING!!!
congratulations!! (:
Alex Beltechi October 12th
Yeah, a dragon would be nice! Nice technique, Alvaro.
Htoo Tay Zar October 12th
Amazing!! It’s been a long time i want ot create those design in photoshop. thanks for hard work.
Nate October 12th
Thats awesome! Love it love it love it.
chirag rana October 12th
Wow wow wow………..!
I’m wowed!
Arik October 12th
I am currently writing a paper on fractals and their mathematical foundations. This tutorial should give me a good base for a cover
I think I’ll translate the paper to English later on and share with the internet so that designers can get a better understanding of how these shapes actually work. The tutorial is awesome although I still recommend artists to learn a program such as ultrafractal because it is better suited for this kind of effect.
Thank you though, this is truly great.
NaldzGraphics October 12th
wow.nice effect. thanks for the tuts
Charlie October 12th
That is really hot, but it looks like it takes forrrrrreverrrrr
hiperkarma October 12th
LOL
Really nice one, interesting and I just couldn’t think how it comes
treetippitak October 12th
yeah that amazingly kool idea good use of just a circle object.
Qbrushes October 12th
Nice! using different shapes could come up with unique results every time.
Drew Douglass October 12th
This is certainly a different and cool technique, thanks for the great tut, the outcome is very appealing
Howard Pinsky October 12th
Nice technique. The ‘array’ effect is quite handy.
Roshan October 12th
Awesome effect. Thanks man. Just bookmarked it for try list.
Thank you.
Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com
reyhan October 12th
cool fractal. i think i can create this fractal with different style…
Alvaro October 12th
@Charlie: this don’t take forever, as much 20 or 30 minutes if you’re an intermediate user…
@Radu: yes, a dragon would be great!
Rijalul Fikri October 12th
Nice tutorial. I’ll have to try this and make an action to speed up the process.
mtilhan October 12th
this is a wonderfull…
Hennessy October 12th
So cooool !
hanson October 12th
I read about this technique years ago but totally forgot about it. Thanks for bringing the memory back to me. Here’s the tutorial I was talking about… translucent feather…. from 2005 but same concept. You can take the “Transform Again” technique from the tutorial on this page and use it on the tutorial below instead of creating actions.
http://www.webdesign.org/web/photoshop/special-effects/translucent-feather.4153.html
Matt October 13th
Is it just me or do you guys notice that this website doesn’t really offer new techniques anymore? Seems like they’re just recycled techniques from computer arts magazine or other websites. Sometimes the tutorial shows something new for some originality but this one doesn’t.
This technique is really old…. a good example is from n-sane art http://www.n-sane.net/effects/3d-spiral-abstract/index.php
Marko October 13th
Interesting effect, will try this with squares instead of circles and see how it goes.
r4ge October 13th
yea not my fav tut.
Stefan Matei October 13th
Waw, I freekin’ love this!
Moksha October 13th
wow really cool
scaoen October 13th
cool
Love October 13th
this is a realy cool effect!
insic October 13th
Brilliant! i like it
René October 13th
Great tut and here is my fractal
http://www.renetuin.web-tech.nl/img/creaties/fractals.jpg
Fº October 13th
very nice piece indeed to bad it is only available for plus members on psdtuts, bc it was release as full tutorial at another website.
EdpeppeRs October 14th
it’s totally cool, man! damn! fantastic job!
congrats!
and thx for share it with us.. ^^
BogDinamita October 14th
wow gotta try this kinda stuff
J October 14th
I didnt get the ctrl+alt+T part
Manuel Minino October 14th
cool technique!! can be applied in thousands of ways for details, movement, backgrounds, etc… let’s see what i can get out of this
aravind October 14th
what exactly I was looking for…
thank you very much..
awesome job…
Muffenz October 14th
I need help with something.
(ex)
i have three layers
how do i one other the layers color without creating a new layer?
http://psdtuts.s3.amazonaws.com/203_Simulating_Fractals/13.jpg
Grafiko October 15th
This is a very cool effect. nice trick
lol October 16th
This was SIKK, i really enjoyed doing it!!!!!
jason October 18th
i’ve been doing this since i first read about it in computer arts magazine about 6 or 7 years ago (tutorial about making a tree with baby photos as leaves). anyway, it’s a lot easier when you make an action that has 100+ actions in it. just hit the button and you’re done.
cLaK October 19th
awesome!! thx for the tut
unobtruse October 20th
What an awesome tutorial! You stimulated my creativity… Here is the fractal I created.
Ralph October 20th
Damn its sooooo easy i will try it. Thanks dude!!!
NV October 21st
shit! U R Genius!!!!!!
DIV October 22nd
Gret just tell me where to enter the degrees in step 9
Brajesh October 22nd
Its so easy and looking damm good….nice
gray arrington October 30th
u need to explain in detail, certain steps.second semester student.
Daniel November 4th
Very cool!
Umar November 4th
Wow, that’s really neat!
anto November 6th
this is totally stupid to fake fractals in photoshop rotating layers and layers
f you want fractals, just compute them with a fractal formula, or find a real plugin that can do it real.
Tahir November 9th
Good on ya buddy .u r legend.
sacke November 13th
nice work
Marj November 14th
Amazing work! Thanks for passin’ on the knowledge:)
Simon November 17th
Really awesome design. Nice one
rabidbeav November 17th
when i use the ctrl-shift-alt-t shortsut, it doesnt give the correct result. it doesnt create a new “piece” it just changes the one i just made. help plz
Alessandra November 21st
Ive already tried it, its great!
J December 2nd
this is too hard
AEMP December 2nd
the directions are not clear!! especially for those of us who are new to photoshop
Heidi December 3rd
thanks for tutorial good job!
Andrey December 4th
My work
http://www.picamatic.com/show/2008/12/04/11/53/1481905_600×375.jpg
Asim December 15th
Excellent work…Really like that, Keep it up!
tika December 15th
unbelieveable!!
i love it!!
sang mantan December 24th
it would take my whole day
lauren December 24th
nice effect but the tut was confusing. didn’t succeed
texzi December 30th
That’s inzanly
just love the ctrl+alt+shift+t shortcut
Anju January 2nd
Great learning experience for me. I loved the short cuts and so much I learned. WOW!
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