This lesson is part of a series of lessons on creating effects taken from music videos. Just one of these great effects is the kaleidoscope effect. The best example of this effect can be seen in the video clip Pillow Talk by Zayn.
The main task in this lesson is to find a way to easily recreate the effect of a kaleidoscope, but not to do it manually, simply by placing a huge number of copies of the image, but using a certain algorithm.
Fortunately, the program Photoshop has a couple of useful features that will greatly simplify the implementation of this task.
First of all, an option such as scripting (under the script) fill is often overlooked, which makes the work on creating a kaleidoscope pattern fast enough and has enough settings to take you experimenting with them for several hours! Also associated with it is a function Apply again (Transform Again / Shift + Ctrl + T), allows us to create repeating objects in an interesting way. This method is similar to the work of Spirograph.
Note: The source of the lesson is missing some images. In the archive you will find an alternative version of the materials for the lesson.
1. Create a pattern
Filling according to the script is especially useful when creating exactly this kind of effect, but it requires a previously prepared pattern to work. We will begin our work by separating the musician (this image will become our pattern) from the background and create a pattern from it, which we will use in our project.
Step 1
This method will work with almost any image, but specifically for this project, let’s work with the image of a musician in order to best simulate the original effect from the video.
Step 2
Choose a tool Fast selection 
(Quick Selection Tool (W)) and walk on the image of the girl musician to completely select it. If an undesirable part of the background is accidentally captured, then you can hold down the Alt key, and go through these areas to remove the selection.
Step 3
Press the button Refine edge (Refine Edge). Set the value Radius (Radius) 2 pixels and enable the option Smart radius (Smart Radius). Then use the tool Refine radius (Refine Radius Tool) to walk along the edges of our model’s hair, thereby creating a more accurate selection. Then click OK to return to the main interface of the program.
Step 4
Use the created selection as a layer mask: Layers – Mask Layer – Show Selected Area (Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal Selection).
Step 5
Click on the layer thumbnail to make sure that you work with the layer, and not its mask. Then, run the command Editing – Define a pattern (Edit> Define Pattern). Name this pattern “Guitar player” (Guitarist).
2. Filling based on the script
Now, with the finished pattern in place, it’s time to use the screen casting method to create a kaleidoscope pattern. There are several options that you can experiment with. The options listed here are just an example so you can get started. In the future, you can experiment and create your own effects using patterns.
Step 1
Create a new document. File – Create (File> New). Install Width (Width) and Height (Height) by 2500 pixels. Install Background content (Background Contents) Other (Other) and set the color to black (# 000000).
Step 2
Create a new layer using Shift-Control-N and give it a name. Scenario fill (Scripted Fill).
Step 3
Next, execute the command Editing – Run Fill (Edit> Fill) / Shift + F5. In the Contents section, select the option Regular (Pattern). And in the menu Customized pattern (Custom Pattern) choose our prepared pattern “Guitar player” (Guitarist). Put a tick in the checkbox Scenario (Script) and in the activated window select the option Fill with Symmetry (Symmetry Fill).
In the dialog box Fill with Symmetry (Symmetry Fill) set the following settings:
- Symmetry type (Symmetry type): 32Symmetry of wallpaper P6 (32 wallpaperP6 symmetry)
- Pattern Scale: 0.75
- Moving the pattern in width (Pattern translation along width): 25% from width (of width)
- Moving the pattern in height (Pattern translation along height): -40% from the height (of height)
- Color arbitrariness (Color randomness): 0
- Brightness arbitrariness (Brightness randomness): 0
Step 4
Now add an adjustment layer: Layers – New Adjustment Layer – Hue / Saturation (Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Hue / Saturation).
- Color tone (Hue): 0
- Saturation (Saturation): -57
- Brightness (Lightness): -62
Step 5
Next, take the tool Ellipse
(Ellipse Tool (U)), put it into drawing mode Contour (Path) and draw a circle in the center of the document. To draw a circle, hold down the Shift key while drawing.
Step 6
Add a new layer (Shift-Control-N) and name it. Guitar Circle (Guitar Circle). Then run the command again. Editing – Run Fill (Edit> Fill) / Shift + F5. This time in the window next to the checkbox Scenario (Script) select the option Place along the contour (Place Along Path). In the dialog box that appears we set the following settings:
- Pattern scale (Pattern Scale): 0.45
- Intervals (Spacing): -500 pixels
- Put a tick in Adjust intervals by size (Adjust spacing to fit)
- Distance from contour (Distance from path): 295 pixels
- Scaling progression (Scale progression): 100%
- Color arbitrariness (Color randomness): 0
- Brightness arbitrariness (Brightness randomness): 0
At this stage, we should have something like this:
3. Let’s transform
To create a “flower” effect, we will use an interesting Photoshop option called Transform again (Transform Again). There is a feeling that this option of the program is a happy coincidence of circumstances than the developed function. Anyway, it is in the program, and it is very useful for quickly creating patterns based on mathematical models.
Step 1
Hold Alt and execute the command Editing – Transform (Edit> Transform (Control-T)). In the top toolbar, set the values for widths (width) and heights (height) by 90% and angle of rotation (rotation) at 20 degrees. Click Input (Enter) to apply the transformation. This will create a copy of the layer. Guitar Circle (Guitar Circle).
Step 2
Hold Alt-Shift-Control and press T. This is the command Transform again (Transform Again). This command creates another copy of the layer and applies the previous transformation to it (Ie, a reduction of the size of 90% is applied to the size of this copy, and this copy is rotated another 20 degrees, etc.). Keep pressing this key combination (Alt-Shift-Control + T) until you have 5 copies of the layer. Guitar Circle (Guitar Circle).
Step 3
Add an adjustment layer: Layers – New Adjustment Layer – Hue / Saturation (Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Hue / Saturation).
- Color tone (Hue): 0
- Saturation (Saturation): -22
- Brightness (Lightness): -56
Step 4
Add another adjustment layer. Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation), but place it over the second copy of the layer Guitar Circle (Guitar Circle). Put this adjustment layer in clipping mask mode so that it only affects this copy, and not all underlying layers. Team: Layers – Create Clipping Mask (Layer – Create Clipping Mask), or just press Alt-Control-G. The settings for this adjustment layer are as follows:
- Color tone (Hue): 0
- Saturation (Saturation): -22
- Brightness (Lightness): +7
Step 5
Create a new layer on top of all layers and name it. Gradient 
(Gradient). Make sure that main color (foreground color) you have black, and activate the tool Gradient (Gradient Tool (G)). Use gradient From Primary to Transparent (Foreground to Transparent), gradient shape radial (Radial). Draw a gradient with the origin in the center of your document.
4. We are completing our project.
In the final stage of our project, the same methods will be used as before, but now it will work with simpler lines and shapes, in the end to turn the whole effect into something special.
Step 1
Take the tool Polygon 
(Polygon Tool (U)), set Parties (Sides): 5, Fill (Fill): no color (null), Color Strokes (Stroke Color): white (white) and thickness strokes (stroke): 4 pixels, then draw a 5-sided polygon in the center of your document.
Step 2
Now go to Layers – Shredded – Figure (Layer – Rasterize – Shape) to turn a vector image into a bitmap. Then we hold down the Alt key and click on the eye opposite the thumbnail of this layer. This will make only this layer visible, the rest will be disabled. Then, run the command Editing – Define a pattern (Edit> Define Pattern) and name it Polygon (Polygon).
Step 3
Again, click with the Alt key on the eye opposite the thumbnail of this layer – this will return the visibility of all other layers. Add a new layer above the Hue / Saturation 1 adjustment layer and name it Background Lines.
Step 4
Use the command Editing – Run Fill (Edit> Fill), select as custom pattern (Custom Pattern), our Polygon pattern just defined in the 2nd step. As a script (Script), select Fill with symmetry (Symmetry Fill).
In the dialog box Fill with Symmetry (Symmetry Fill) set the following settings:
- Symmetry type (Symmetry type): 33 Symmetry wallpaper R6m (33 wallpaperP6M symmetry)
- Pattern scale (Pattern Scale): 0.4
- Moving the pattern in width (Pattern translation along width): 50% from width (of width)
- Moving the pattern in height (Pattern translation along height): 50% from the height (of height)
- Color arbitrariness (Color randomness): 0
- Brightness arbitrariness (Brightness randomness): 0
Lower opacity (Opacity) layer up to 25%
Step 5
Hide layer Polygon (Polygon), take the tool Polygon (Polygon Tool (U)). Install Parties (Sides): 3, and thickness strokes (stroke): 5 pixels and then draw a triangle in the center of your document. Name layer Triangle (Triangle).
Step 6
With the Alt key pressed, execute the command Editing – Transform (Edit> Transform (Control-T)). In the top toolbar, set the angle turning (rotation) at 20 degrees. Click Input (Enter) to apply the transformation. This will create a copy of the layer. Triangle (Triangle), rotated 20 degrees.
Step 7
Use the command Transform again (Transform Again) by pressing the keyboard shortcut (Alt-Shift-Control-T) about 15 times to create a Spirograph effect in the center of our image.
Step 8
Select all the layers with triangles in the layers panel. This can be done by holding down the Shift key and clicking first on the first layer with a triangle, and then on the last, so all the necessary layers are selected. Next, press the key combination (Control-G), this will merge the layers into one group, and name this group Triangles (Triangles).
Step 9
Run the command Layer – Mask Layer – Hide All (Layer> Layer Mask> Hide All) to add a layer mask to the group. Then install foreground color (foreground color) white and activate tool Gradient (Gradient Tool (G)). Use a gradient from Primary color to Transparent (Foreground to Transparent) and gradient shape Radial (Radial). Draw a gradient in the center of your document, working on the group mask, to get the effect of damping our composition from triangles, as it transitions into the inflorescence formed by the images of the girl guitarist.
Step 10
Use the tool Frame 
(Crop Tool (C)) to crop the image slightly below the center, which will give perfection to our effect.
That’s all! Kaleidoscope effect is ready!
