How to Create a Shatter Photoshop Effect Action

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create an amazing shattering effect in Photoshop. I'll explain everything in so much detail that everyone can create it, even those who have just opened this software for the first time.

The effect shown below is the one I'll show you how to create in this tutorial. If you'd like to create even more advanced shatter effects using just a single click and in only a few minutes, then check out this ShatterPoly Photoshop Action from Envato Elements.

And if you prefer video tutorials, you can watch this new video from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel to learn how to create and apply cool shattered effects to images in Photoshop:

What You'll Learn in This Shattering Effect Photoshop Tutorial

How to get started
How to create the shatter brush
How to create the shatter parts
How to adjust the color and tone of the shatter parts
How to make the final adjustments

What You'll Need

To recreate the image with a shatter effect, you'll need the following resources:

Stock Image

1. Let's Get Started

Let's start this shatter effect Photoshop tutorial. 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/Channel. To check this, go to Image > Mode.
For best results, your photo size should be 2000–4000 px wide/high. To check this, go to Image > Image Size.
Your photo should be the Background layer. If it is not, go to Layer > New > Background from Layer.

2. How to Create the Shatter Brush

Step 1

In this section, we are going to create the brush that we will need for this shatter effect in Photoshop. Go to File > New to create a new file, name it Shatter Brush, and use the settings below:

Step 2

Now go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer and name it SP_1.

Step 3

Choose the Pen Tool (P), set the Tool Mode to Path and draw one shatter part. Then, Right-click anywhere inside the canvas and choose Make Selection.

Step 4

Now press D on your keyboard to reset the swatches, go to Edit > Fill, and set Contents to Foreground Color, Blending to Normal, and Opacity to 100% as shown below:

Step 5

Press Control-D on your keyboard to deselect. Then, Right-click on this layer, choose Blending Options, check Inner Shadow and enter the settings below:

Step 6

Now change the Fill of this layer to 90%.

Step 7

Repeat this method to create as many shatter parts as you want. Here are a few tips:

Draw the shatter parts in various shapes and sizes.
To quickly create more shatter parts, select any of the shatter parts layer that you have and press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.
To move any of the shatter parts, select that shatter part layer, choose the Move Tool (V), and click and drag anywhere inside the canvas to position them as you like.
To transform any of the shatter parts, select the shatter part layer, press Control-T on your keyboard, and adjust the transform settings to transform them as you like.
To blur any of the shatter parts, select the shatter parts layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and adjust the Radius as you like.
Use different Inner Shadow layer style settings.
Use a different layer Fill.

Then, press Control-Shift-E on your keyboard to merge all visible layers.

Step 8

Now go to Edit > Define Brush Preset to define these shatter parts as a new brush and name it Temp.

Step 9

Press B on your keyboard, Right-click anywhere inside the canvas, select the Temp brush, and hit Enter. Then go to Window > Brush and in the Brush window use the settings below:

Step 10

Now to define this brush with new settings as a new brush, click on the top right icon in the bottom right corner of the Brush panel, and name it Shatter. After that, you can close the Shatter Brush file window.