Infinite Alchemy - www.infinitealchemy.com

TORN EDGES

Before you do anything, download this brushset and upload it to your brushes collection in Photoshop.
1.) To start off with, open up a picture (for the sake of this tutorial, use one with a light background), a favorite background, or an unfinished graphic. Anything you think will be perfectly suited for this tutorial. For this tutorial, I used a background I've created using a collection of "grungy" brushes.

2.) With the layer selected (and unlocked, if you don't know how to unlock a layer, click and drag the locked layer to the button next to the trash button on your layers pallette. A duplicate unlocked layer will appear above the locked layer. Click and drag the locked layer into the trash button), put a stroke effect on the layer. Click on the first button on your layers pallette. A menu will appear with several effects on it. Choose "Stroke" to allow an options menu to appear.

3.) Using the same settings on the graphics below, change your settings and click Ok.

4.) Next, select the eraser tool and choose one of the brushes you previously downloaded and uploaded onto your brushes collection.

5.) If you can't remember what the brushes look like, look a the photo below. Each are designed so they can put the effect on all for sides of your graphic.

6.) Using the brush (either the vertical or horizontal one) and click and drag as if you're erasing parts of the edges of the graphic. Upon doing so, the edges will look torn and the stroke effect applied earlier will enhance this effect.

7.) Your end result should look like so...

8.) You can save this graphic in one of two ways, you can save it as a .gif so that you can keep the background transparent OR, you can add a background by creating a new layer underneath the graphic, filling it in with a matching color, and adding a drop shadow layer effect to the graphic (not the new layer). Regardless as to what you guys do, you're done. I'm just giving a few tips to further enhance this effect.

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