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DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION > MUSIC VIDEO

How to Create a Kaleidoscope Effect in

Adobe Photoshop
by Kirk Nelson 4 Jul 2016
Difficulty: Beginner Length: Medium Languages: English

Music Video Adobe Photoshop Photo Effects



This post is part of a series called Learn Adobe Photoshop.

 How to Create a 3D Black and Gold Text and Logo Mockup

 How to Create a 'Stranger Things' Inspired Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

This post is part of a series called Music Video Inspired Effects.

 How to Create a Doodle Video Inspired by "Where Are Ü Now"

 How to Create a Time-Displaced Video Effect Like Adele's Send My Love

 What You'll Be Creating

As we continue with our series on effects inspired by music videos, one of the
effects I've always been fascinated with was the kaleidoscope effect. The best
examples of this effect can be seen in the visually rich Pillow Talk video by Zayn.
Check it out at 1:20, 1:55, 2:26, and 3:12.

ZAYN - PILLOWTALK

3:27
The challenge is to find a way to create the effect easily and not by manually placing
dozens of copies.

Fortunately, Photoshop has a couple of useful features to make this task

significantly easier. First is the frequently overlooked Scripted Fill, which makes
short work of creating kaleidoscope patterns and has enough options to keep you
busy experimenting for hours! Paired with that is the Transform Again feature, which
is a fun way to create repetitive objects similar to the way the old Spirograph used to
work.

1. Create the Pattern

The scripted fill is extremely useful for this type of effect, but it has to use a
predefined pattern to work. Patterns that are not square tend to work best, so we will
start out by extracting a musical artist from the background and creating a pattern
to use.

Step 1
This technique will work with almost any image, but for this project let's work with a
musician image to best imitate the source effect from the video. Specifically, we'll
use this image of a beautiful girl playing guitar from Envato Market.
 Credit: Envato Market

Step 2
Grab the Quick Selection Tool (W) and paint along the model to create a selection
that completely surrounds her. If the tool grabs a background area, hold down the
Alt key and paint along that background to deselect it.
Step 3
Press the Re㑚杅ne Edge button to launch the dialogue box. Adjust the Radius to 2 px
and check the Smart Radius option. Then use the Re㑚杅ne Radius Tool to brush along
the edges of the model's hair to create a better selection for those long locks. Then
press the OK button to return to the main Photoshop interface.
Step 4
Use the selection as a layer mask by going to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal
Selection.
Step 5
Click on the layer thumbnail to make sure the focus is on the layer and not the layer
mask. Then go to Edit > De㑚杅ne Pattern. Give the pattern a name of Guitarist.
2. Scripted Fill Fun
With our custom pattern defined and ready to go, it's time to use the Scripted Fill to
create the kaleidoscope pattern. There are several options to experiment with; the
ones listed here are just a suggestion to get you started. Feel free to craft your own
patterned effect.

Step 1
Create a new document with File > New. Set the Width and Height both to 2500 px.
Set the Background Contents to Other and specify the color to be black ( #000000 ).

Step 2
Create a new layer with Layer > New > Layer (Shift-Control-N) and name the new
layer Scripted Fill.
Step 3
Go to Edit > Fill and change the Contents to Pattern and set the Custom Pattern to
the Guitarist pattern you created earlier. Then check the Script option box and select
Symmetry Fill.
In the Symmetry Fill dialogue box, choose the following settings:

Symmetry type: 32 wallpaperP6 symmetry

Pattern Scale: 0.75
Pattern translation along width: 25% of width
Pattern translation along height: -40% of height

Step 4
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and choose the following settings:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -57
Lightness: -62
Step 5
Use the Ellipse Tool (U) set to Path and draw out a circle centered in the middle of
the canvas. Holding down the Shift key while drawing the circle keeps the shape as
a perfect circle.
Step 6
Add a new layer named Guitar Circle and go to Edit > Fill again. Change the scripted
fill to Place Along Path. Then, in the Place Along Path dialogue box, apply the
following settings:

Pattern Scale to 0.45

Spacing to -500 pixels
Check the Adjust spacing to 㑚杅t option
Distance from path to 295 pixels
Scale progression to 100%
 Color and Brightness randomness both to 0

At this point, the image should look similar to this:

3. Transform Shortcuts
To create the "blossom" effect, we will use a fun feature called Transform Again. This
feature feels more like a happy accident than an intended feature. Regardless of why
it's in the program, it is certainly useful for quickly creating math-based patterns!

Step 1
Hold down the Alt key and go to Edit > Transform (Control-T). This will generate a
copy of the Guitar circle layer. In the Options Bar, set the height and width scale to
be 90% and the rotation to be 20 degrees.

Step 2
Hold down the Alt-Shift-Control keys and press the T key. This is the Transform
Again command that can be found in the Edit > Transform menu. It makes another
copy of the layer and applies the previous transformation. Continue pressing the
same key combination until there are five copies of the Guitar Circle layer.
Step 3
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer over the Guitar Circle copy 2 layer. Clip it to
that layer with Layer > Create Clipping Mask (Alt-Control-G) . Then apply the
following settings to the adjustment layer:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -22
Lightness: -56
Step 4
Add another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer over the Guitar Circle copy 2 layer.
Clip it to that layer with Layer > Create Clipping Mask (Alt-Control-G) . Then apply
the following settings to the adjustment layer:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -22
Lightness: +7
Step 5
Add a new layer named Gradient at the top of the layer stack. Make sure the
foreground color is set to black and grab the Gradient Tool (G). Use the Foreground
to Transparent preset and Radial gradient shape. Then draw out a gradient starting
at the center of the canvas.
4. Finish With Some Line Art
The final stage is using the same techniques from before but on some simple lines
and shapes to bring the entire effect together into something special.

Step 1
Use the Polygon Tool (U) and set the Sides to 5, Fill to null, Stroke Color to white,
and stroke to 4 px. Then draw out a five-sided polygon at the center of the canvas.
Step 2
Go to Layer > Rasterize Shape to turn the vector shape into pixels. Then hold down
the Alt key while clicking on the visibility toggle icon (that's the eyeball) for the
Polygon layer. That will make this the only visible layer. Go to Edit > De㑚杅ne Pattern
and name this pattern Polygon.
Step 3
Alt-click on the visibility toggle icon for the Polygon layer again to reveal all the
other layers again. Add a new layer over the Hue/Saturation 1 layer and call it
Background Lines.
Step 4
Use Edit > Fill again and set the Custom Pattern to the Polygon pattern you just
created. Also set the Script to Symmetry Fill.
In the Symmetry Fill dialogue box, make the following settings:

Symmetry Type: 33 wallpaperP6M symmetry

Pattern Scale: 0.4
Pattern translation along width: 50% of width
Pattern translation along height: 50% of height
Color randomness: 0
Brightness randomness: 0

Then reduce the layer's Opacity to 25%.

Step 5
Hide the Polygon layer and grab the Polygon Tool (U) again. Set the Sides to 3 and
the Stroke to 5 px. Then draw out a triangle in the center of the canvas.
Step 6
Hold the Alt key while going to Edit > Free Transform. This will create a new copy of
the triangle layer to transform. Rotate the copy by around 20 degrees.
Step 7
Use the Transform Again key combination (Alt-Shift-Control-T) about 15 times to
create a Spirograph type of effect at the center of the image.
Step 8
Select all of the triangle layers in the Layers panel by Shift-clicking the first one and
the last one. Then group them all together with Layer > Group Layers (Control-G)
and name the group Triangles.
Step 9
Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All to add a layer mask to the group. Then set the
foreground color to white and grab the Gradient Tool (G). Use the Foreground to
Transparent preset and the Radial gradient shape. Draw out the gradient at the
center of the canvas on the group's mask to fade the triangle artwork into the
blossom of guitar players.
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Step 10
Use the Crop Tool (C) to crop the image just below the center to complete the effect.

You Are Done!

How did your fun kaleidoscope effect turn out? Share it with us in the comments
below. Want to try your hand at some other effects inspired by music videos? Then
check out some of the other entries in our Music Video Inspired Effects series.
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Kirk Nelson
I have been working as an all around graphics geek or “Visual Information
Specialist” for the past 17 years around the Washington DC Metro area. With
 my career spanning across almost every aspect of the design industry, I have
worked from web design, to 3d animation, to logo design, to photo retouching.

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