Make an image from the Matrix tutorial
NOTE: I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements to make this image. If you’re using a proper version of Photoshop, things will be slightly different.
In this tutorial I will teach you to make an image look as if it came from the matrix, with green code everywhere. I will cover such techniques as displacement mapping, layers and the free tranform tool.
Start off with the image you want to edit. I used this one of me.
Also, get an image of some matrix code. I did a Google search and found this (big file, 380 kB):
Open your starting image. It should be the background layer. It is a good idea to keep this layer untouched so that you can refer back to it or copy bits from it etc.
Create a new layer. Paste the matrix code image so it fills the screen. Duplicate the background layer and put it on top of the other two layers – call it ‘Lines’ or something similar. Your layer palette should look like this:
On the top layer – Lines – look for adjacent areas that have similar colours. An example would be my shoulder and the window behind it.
I selected the black region of my jacket/window using the magic wand tool. I used the Polygon Lasso Tool to subtract from that selection my jacket. I filled the remaining selection with a lighter colour.
Having done that, I copied the top layer and pasted it into a new .psd file. I found that in order to get the next step to work, I had to save this file into ‘My pictures’. This may well be a bug in Elements. Save the file as ‘Matrix image displace’ or something similar.
Back to your original image. On the layer ‘Code’, go Filter>Distort>Displace. Use these settings:
You may want to use a smaller value than 30 for the scale. 20 or even 10 often works well.
Click OK and select the image ‘Matrix image displace’, or whatever image you saved in the last step. Click OK. The image of the code should distort slightly.
Go to the layer ‘Lines’. Go FIlter>Stylize>Glowing edges. Play around with the settings until you’re happy and click OK. Then, go Enhance>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. I think this is different in a proper version of Photoshop, so have a look around. Check the box ‘Colorize’ and make it green and about the same saturation as the code. Like so:
Set the layer blend mode to ‘Screen’ and admire the effect!
To make it look a bit more real, select (on the code layer) the bits of code corresponding to each wall and go Image>Transform>Perspective. Grab a corner handle and drag, then use the free transform tool to get this:
I did the same with the other wall.
Now you’re basically done! I played around a bit to get a bit more detail on the jacket. This is my final product:
Feel free to comment.
That was awsome, but can you make the code itself?
| Posted 3 years, 7 months agoPlease send me an aswer if u can:->
Thats Friggin Sweet I made my own version in Fireworks because I don’t have photoshop it was alot harder but it was still somewhat similar and it looks pretty cool thanks! here if you want to see it
| Posted 3 years, 6 months agoUndead: Nice! I don’t have much experience with Fireworks, but your’s turned out okay. One thing I would say – the perspective on the left wall looks a little out.
Glad to hear you liked it.
| Posted 3 years, 6 months agoYea thanks I know its not nearly as good as yours and the reason the walls are probably a little out of whack is because there weren’t really any walls there
| Posted 3 years, 6 months agoVery nice effect. I’m new photoshop user, I have Adobe Photoshop CS2, I try to make same effect, but I can’t do that. Can you tell me how I can do that with CS2 version?
Thank you
| Posted 3 years, 5 months agojmejicano: The process will be almost exactly the same in CS2. Elements is just a stripped-down version. Some of the filters etc. might be in different places on the menus, but apart from that there’s very little difference.
| Posted 3 years, 5 months agoHi,
im a new photoshop user too. My problem is to fuse the layers. I have the thre layers:
background, with the normal image.
code, its still distort slightly
and lines.
every layer is edited.
but the three layer dont work together.
i hope you’ll understand my problem.
greetz mauri
PS: sorry for my bad english!
| Posted 3 years, 4 months agoMauri, you have to merge the layers. You can do that by right clicking in the top layer and then choose the option “merge down” or “merge visible”.
| Posted 3 years, 2 months agohowever do that only after you’re done with the effects and stuff because you cannot separate them again afterwards.
Dude, that was a freakin sweet tutorial. You’re clearly a badass. I never use photoshop — I downloaded the TRIAL version just to draw a Matrix picture — and had no trouble at all coming up with a seriously K-A result! Thanks.
| Posted 3 years, 2 months agoAwesome tutorial…worked just like u said u little Genius. me and a friend are web designers and my last name is smith and his anderson…no lie. I will use this to make our logo. Good job man. Keep up the good work.
| Posted 3 years, 1 month agohi, i’m not sure how to get the lines of the code to follow the edges of the walls n stuff?? can u help? thanks
| Posted 2 years, 11 months agoHi Lewis. I’m not sure whether you mean you’re talking about the bit with the displacement map or the bit with the perspective transform, so I can’t really help. I thought I said it all in the tutorial, so maybe you just skimread past it. Have another read, and if you still don’t get it, I’ll try and help.
| Posted 2 years, 11 months agoBrilliant mate. Thanks for the tut!
| Posted 2 years, 5 months agogreat job! really good tutorial
| Posted 2 years, 5 months agoits so nice….i really like it….hope you’ll send me lot of photoshop tutorial to my email
| Posted 2 years, 4 months agoworks great in pshop 6/7, very good explanation of steps.
def need to choose the right starter image to work (eg good contrast)
thanks
| Posted 2 years, 4 months agothank you very muchhhh
i love you man lol im not gay i just appreciate ur work 
lol
make new things and holla back
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoVery easy to make and come out pretty awesome. Plz send me some more tutorial as well if you got something as cool as this one plz? ^^ Thanks a lot, you’re the man.
| Posted 2 years, 2 months agoZX
hi i’m pretty new to this photoshop thing…i’m kind of having a couple of problems. you know when u create a new layer? well how do you make that layer an image? Because mine turns out grey and white checks.
| Posted 2 years, 1 month agoThanx
This is pretty awesome though ^_^
Hex: Grey and whie checks indicate transparent parts of the picture. You’ll notice you can’t zoom in on the checks, or copy and paste them, or anything like that, because they aren’t actually there.
| Posted 2 years, 1 month agoTo create a new layer which is an image, simply copy an image (usually by opening it seperately in photoshop, then pressing ctrl+A (to select all) then ctrl+C (to copy it)), then go to the file you want to add the image to and paste (ctrl+V). The image will be pasted as a new layer.
Thanks man,
| Posted 2 years, 1 month agoThats really whack. Got any more tutorials?
-Hex
thanks for your inspiration, I was really mentally lock on a project, this opened my eyes for an after effect, I’ll post it if it works, thanks!
| Posted 2 years, 1 month agowow…awesome tutorial!
| Posted 2 years agoI make this too! It’s very interesting!
thx from Italy!
thankyou so much its my id if u wan somthing mail me
| Posted 1 year, 11 months agoi’ve been searching for this kind of tutorial for a while… never… ever tought i will find it… and finally
thanks, man 
you really helped me out 
| Posted 1 year, 5 months agocan u make a vid tut?
| Posted 1 year, 4 months agoThank you for your website
| Posted 1 year, 3 months agoI made with photoshop backgrounds for youtube, myspace and whatever
my backgrounds:http://tinyurl.com/6kw9wq
take care and thank you again!