How to Make a Special Effects Photoshop Action

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make Photoshop portrait actions to create your own Matrix effects.

I will try to explain everything in so much detail that everyone can create it, even those who have just opened Photoshop for the first time.

If you want to create this Photoshop effects in a single click, giving your portraits a colorful photo effect, you may be interested in this Pixels Photoshop Action from my portfolio on GraphicRiver. With it, you can add an awesome Pixels special effect for pictures in just a few seconds.

Or for more options, try these awesome roundups of the best photo effects and Photoshop actions out there.

What You'll Need

To recreate the design above, you will need the following portrait photo:

Stock Image

1. How to Add a Pattern and Brush to Photoshop

Step 1

Go to Edit > Presets > Preset Manager... In the Preset Manager window, select Preset Type: Patterns and click Load...

Browse and select the Matrix.pat file that came with the downloadable attachment. Then, click Done.

Step 2

Go to Edit > Presets > Preset Manager... In the Preset Manager window, select Preset Type: Brushes and click Load...

Browse and select the Matrix.abr file that came with the downloadable attachment. Then, click Done.

2. How to Set Up Your Document

Step 1

First, open the photo that you want to work with. To open your photo, go to File > Open, choose your photo, and click Open. Now, before we get started, just check a couple of things:

Your photo should be in RGB Color mode, 8 Bits color. To check these settings, go to Image > Mode.
Make sure your first layer is the Background layer. If not, go to Layer > New > Background from Layer.
For best results, your photo size should be 2000–5000 px wide/high. To check this, go to Image > Image Size.

Step 2

Add a New Layer above the Background layer. Name the new layer brush.

Now choose the Brush Tool (B), pick a soft brush, adjust the size of the brush, and brush over your main subject. You can use any color; it doesn't matter.

3. How to Create the Action

Once our images are placed, we are ready to start recording our action. We'll put it in a separate set for easier management.

Step 1

Go to Window > Actions or press F9 on the keyboard to open up the Actions panel. Then, click the Create new set icon, name the set Matrix Action, and click OK. We'll place the action inside this set.

Step 2

Click the Create new action icon and name it Matrix. Click Record to start recording all the subsequent steps in Photoshop.

From this point onwards, everything you do will be recorded, so please be careful and keep an eye on the Actions panel. If you make a mistake, click the Stop playing/recording icon, and Delete the unnecessary step from the Matrix action. Then click the Begin recording icon again to continue.

4. How to Create a Displacement Map

Step 1

Hide the brush layer by toggling the eyeball icon off. Then, press D on the keyboard to reset the swatches.

Step 2

Select the Background layer, go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy (Control-J), and then go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Control-Shift-U) to desaturate this layer.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set it to 4 px. After that, go to File > Save As… (Shift-Control-S) and save our texture as a PSD file. We will need this file in the next steps.

Now you can remove this layer, so go to Layer > Delete > Layer.

5. How to Create Horizontal Blurred Lines

Step 1

With the brush layer selected, right-click on the layer thumbnail, and hit Select Pixels. Then select the Background layer and go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern and select the Matrix pattern, set the scale to 50%, and click OK.

Step 2

Click on this layer mask thumbnail and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur..., set the Radius to 25 px, and click OK.

Step 3

Click on this layer thumbnail, and then go to Select > Color Range…, select Shadows, and click OK.

Click on the layer mask and go to Edit > Fill… > Black and click OK. Now go to Select > Deselect (Control-D).

Step 4

Go to Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.

Step 5

With the Pattern Fill 1 layer selected, right-click on the layer thumbnail, and hit Select Pixels. Then select the Background layer and press Control-J to Copy the selection into a New Layer.

Go to Layer > Rename Layer... to rename the new layer Matrix Pattern. Now you can remove the Pattern Fill 1 layer, so select the layer and go to Layer > Delete > Layer.

Step 6

Now make two copies of the Matrix Pattern layer. Select the layer and go to Layer > New > Layer Via Copy, repeat the process, and name the new layers Blurred Lines 1 and Blurred Lines 2.

Drag the Matrix Pattern layer to the top of the layers in the Layers panel.

Step 7

With the Blurred Lines 1 layer selected, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur… and enter the settings below:

Step 8

Select the Blurred Lines 2 layer, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur…, and enter the settings below:

6. How to Apply the Displace Filter

Select the Matrix Pattern layer and go to Filter > Distort > Displace… and use the following settings: Horizontal Scale: 10; Vertical Scale: 10; Stretch To Fit, then select our PSD file.

7. How to Create a Pixels Stroke

Step 1

Now we are going to add a nice floating pixels effect. Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer and name it Dots. Then select the brush layer, right-click on the layer thumbnail, and hit Select Pixels.

Step 2

Select the Dots layer, Right-click the layer, and choose Create Work Path. Set the Tolerance value to 1 px and click OK.

Step 3

Choose the Brush Tool (B) and select the Matrix brush. Then choose the Pen Tool (P), Right-click the layer, and select Stroke Path using the Brush Tool. Repeat this step once again to add more dots.

Step 4

Now we can delete the path. Right-click the layer and choose Delete Path. Change the Blending Mode to Soft Light.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert to invert the dots' color.

8. How to Create the Background

Select the Background layer and go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color to create a new solid color fill layer, name it Background Color, and set the color to #000000 as shown below:

9. How to Make the Final Adjustments

Step 1

With the Background layer selected, go to Layer > New > Layer Via Copy to duplicate the Background layer and then drag that new layer to the top of the layers in the Layers panel.

Change the Blending Mode to Hard Light and drop the Opacity to about 50%.

Step 2

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast and set the Brightness to 30 and the Contrast to 35.

Step 3

Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color to create a new solid color fill layer, name it Background Color, and set the color to #3ab02e as shown below: