Tutorial: How to turn Rachel McAdams into a really cool abstract wallpaper in 30 seconds

I know most of you have been sitting around thinking about how gorgeous Rachel McAdams is, so your first thought when you see a picture of her probably isn’t how cool it would look as an abstract desktop wallpaper. But after taking a look at this quick and easy design tutorial you may start looking at a lot of photos a little differently. If you’re like me, you probably change your wallpaper frequently and your preferences can change just as often. I’m about to show you how to take any photo, such as this one of Rachel McAdams, and turn it into a really awesome looking abstract desktop wallpaper.

The photo of Rachel McAdams we are going to be working with

This is a really nice photograph, let’s take a minute to admire it’s quality. We good? Great, let’s move on. This image has a lot of really great colors in it, nice soft colors that really make a great looking color palette to work with.

Rachel McAdams

Original Photo of Rachel McAdams (1280×1024)

Making Rachel McAdams an abstract desktop wallpaper

Motion BlurThis first thing we need to do is load this image into Photoshop, now simply go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use the settings you see to the right. You can tweak these settings as much as you would like for the desired effect. Really, all this is doing is distorting the existing image. Due to this image already being complex and a nice palette of colors it is prime to use a motion blur on that will create a really nice abstract effect.

The abstract desktop wallpaper result

Once you have finished tweaking your desired settings, you should have a really amazing looking abstract desktop wallpaper that you can share with your friends on myspace.

Rachel McAdams Abstractified
Abstract Wallpaper of Rachel McAdams (1280×1024)

That’s it, done. Abstract Wallpaper.

Whats Next?

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13 Responses to “Tutorial: How to turn Rachel McAdams into a really cool abstract wallpaper in 30 seconds”

  1. Dad says:

    wait is this a joke?

  2. Knavers says:

    …really, thats just awful. Take a lap.

  3. Jason says:

    I’m not sure what the other commenters negativity is about, but I think it is an interesting way to use the motion blur effect. I don’t think it is meant to be an indepth tutorial.

  4. Paula says:

    Thanks for sharing!

  5. bobbie says:

    wow how simple it is..thanks for the tip

  6. RaulMartinez says:

    Easy to follow and create some cool designs. Thanks for sharing this.

  7. Robin says:

    Hahahahahahahha

  8. Adam says:

    its is very interesting.

  9. Adam says:

    making an abstract image its interesting quite futuristic i really like that idea

  10. Simon Tsui says:

    The motion blur could have some practical use, for comics-style photos. Thanks for the tutorial.

  11. [...] a competitive field, everyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of how to open Dreamweaver, or use Photoshop’s motion blur tool think they can hack it as a web designer. Not to mention a number of third-world countries’ [...]

  12. [...] a competitive field, everyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of how to open Dreamweaver, or use Photoshop’s motion blur tool think they can hack it as a web designer. Not to mention a number of third-world countries’ easy [...]

  13. Xbox 360 says:

    Оч интересно. спс.

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About Dustin Brewer

Dustin Brewer

Dustin Brewer is a freelance web designer based out of Oklahoma City, OK passionate about web standards, and beautiful web design. Dustin Brewer has been in the web design industry for over 8 years through freelance and professional experience. If you are interested in hiring Dustin Brewer please visit the web design services page to find out more information. You can also checkout the web design portfolio.

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