1. Introduction

Creating an electrical effect is all about lighting and dodges. You're probably familiar with the white to bluish purple quality associated with electrical discharges. Electricity looks best when presented against a dark backdrop, looking white hot against the more subdued colors.

Click on the image to the right to see a larger version of the electricity effect forming in a hand.

Xenofex's Electrify filter is a useful filter to have in your arsenal. It's a third party filter by Alien Skin Software that can be found on Photoshop's filter menu, on the Xenofex submenu once installed. The filter allows you to create awe-inspiring electrical effects with ease, great for images where your characters are showing off their special powers.

2. The Xenofex Electrify Filter

In Photoshop, open an image that requires an electrical effect. Create a new layer. Decide where you want the electricity to radiate from, and draw a selection around that area.

The Xenofex Electrify filter will render electrical bolts in all directions along the outer edge of a selection.

Electricity generally looks more natural with a circular selection, which is the type of selection used for the electricity-in-hand example above.

There's an option within the filter menu that controls the amount of spill over from the edge of the selection into the unselected area. In the case of the image on the right, the option, called Inside Masking, was set at around 50%. This halves the amount of glow radiating from outside the selected area. The previous examples above were set to 0% Inside Masking.

Below are some examples of how the Inside Mask slider modifies the amount of color seepage into the selected area.

Since it's important to know how each of the sliders will affect the image, the following is a quick run down on the sliders and their properties.

Arc Length specifies the distance the bolts travel, measured in pixels.

Arc Spacing determines the distance between the starting points of each separate bolt. A lower number allows more bolts to fit around the parameter of the selection.

Segment Length controls the length of each individual segment on a bolt. A lower number makes the bolts twisty and jagged, while a higher number makes the bolts straight.

Glow Width is the size of the outer color edge.

Inside Masking changes the visibility percentage of the filter within the selection mask.

Jaggedness controls the jaggedness of the bolts.

Meander aimlessly moves the bolts around the selection.

Branching controls the likelihood of branching divisions within bolts.

Branch Spread intensifies the splitting branches.

Random Seed randomizes the image within the other allotted constraints.

You'll probably want to keep your Inner Color set to white and your Outer Color set to a color that suits your image; blue, red, and yellow look especially vibrant.

Adjust the sliders to optimize the lightening bolts so that they suit your needs. Clicking on the blue check mark button will apply the Electrify filter onto your actual image.

3. Fine-Tuning the Bolts

Increasing the Voltage

Duplicate the electricity layer.

The degree of glow emitted by the electrical bolts can be greatly intensified by running the Gaussian Blur filter (2.0 to 5.0 pixels) on the duplicated layer. Once blurred, set the layer composition to Hard Light or Color Dodge -- whichever one produces a favorable amount of intensity. If the effect is too overwhelming, you can lower the opacity of the duplicated layer.

Step 1

On its own, the lightening looks weak. It needs to be radiating from a source, and this source, if onscreen, should be much more intense than the individual arcs.

Making the core is a multi-step process. First, create a new layer above the layer that contains the electrical arcs. Create a circular selection about twice the size of the empty center, like the example on the right shows. Select a suitable color for the core. The same color used for the glowing electrical arcs works best, but other colors like red, purple, or blue could be used as well.

Choose the Radial Gradient tool and go over to the options menu. Make sure that a checkmark is placed next to both dither and transparency. Set the gradient fill on Foreground To Transparent.

With the Gradient Tool as your cursor, click and hold the mouse button (or stylus) in the center of the selected circle area. Keep the button depressed and drag the gradient tool a short distance past the outer edge of the selection. Release the mouse button and a circular Gradient will be created.

On a new layer, create a selection that's twice as large as the hole in the center.

These are the Gradient menu settings for the radial gradient fill in Photoshop 6.0.
Earlier versions of Photoshop have a different layout, but similar menu options.

Starting from the center, click and drag the gradient tool just slightly outside the selection circle.

A radiating blue circle is created.

You'll now want to save your circular selection for later use.

Once the Gradient Fill is complete, choose Save Selection on the Select menu. This action brings up the Save Selection window. Enter a name for your selection, and choose OK.

Although the radiating circle is complete, the center is still weak. To intensify the effect, the center needs a strong dose of bright white. This will make the lightening look better, and also give the electrical arcs a more cohesive starting point.

This step is similar to Step 1. Again, start by creating a new layer atop the last. Make a circular selection that is large enough to fill the central gap between bolts, no larger. Choose white as your foreground color and use the Radial Gradient tool to fill the selected area. As with the blue circle, the white circle should gradually become transparent as it leaves the center.

These two overlapping layers serve as the basis for the glow.

Turn off all layers except for the white circle and the blue circle. Click on one of these visible layers so that it's highlighted on the layers menu. Then, choose Load Selection on the Selection menu. When the Load Selection window appears onscreen, click on the Channel drop-down menu and select the previously saved channel (mine was called "Blue Circle Selection"). This action reselects the area surrounding the two circles.

Choose Copy Merged on the Edit menu. This will copy both visible layers. Then choose Paste on the Edit menu to paste the combined data onto a new layer. Make sure that this new layer is above the Blue and White circle layers.

Give the new layer an appropriate name, such as "Combined". This new circle layer needs to be repositioned so that it's perfectly aligned with the previous two circle layers.

Set the "Combined" layer's color composition method to Color Dodge. Drop the layer opacity to 75%, and look at how the circle almost seems to emit light. Turn back on the other layers, such as the electricity layer and examine how the layers blend together. The electricity should combine with the glow almost seamlessly. If the glow is too small, you can enlarge each of the three glow layers by choosing Free Transform or Numeric Transform on the Edit menu.

The image to the right of Step 4 shows minor gaps between the glow and electric bolts. Creating a dodge layer above the previous layers helps build a bit more seamless interconnectivity between the glow and the bolts.

To build the dodge layer, make a new layer above the previous layers and fill it with black. Change the composition method on this layer to Color Dodge. From here, use the airbrush tool to intensify the bolts where they meet up with the glowing circle to help connect them. The intensity can be increased or decreased by varying the luminance of the airbrushed color. White creates the most striking dodge.

The effects of the Color Dodge layer.

Final image with an additional circular gradient underneath the circular Color Dodge layer.

Final Notes

The great thing about lighting and special effects in images is that there are so many different ways to produce results. This was one example of how to do an electrical effect. Try substituting your own techniques and altering the method as required. For example, try substituting the overlying Color Dodge layer with some simple airbrushed white set to Color Dodge. Add speckles of discharged energy around the light source by dabbing little circles with the airbrush tool on the electricity layer and then intensifying them by repeating the process on the top Color Dodge layer.

If your character artwork is done in a cel style, you may want to reconsider using filtered electricity effects. The realistically rendered appearance of the electricity can look unusual and inconsistent when compared to the color separated cel work. Weigh the pros against the cons and decide if your work would best be suited with cel style electrical bolts or the rendered looking variety.

Click on the image to the right to see the completed, full sized version.