Creating Soap Bubblesby Andy Halls



In this tutorial we will create soap bubbles which generate from the soap water and can be used in the dreamy images, artistic stage performance images or in the bathroom. But before starting let’s understand how soap bubbles create and their behavior.

A soap bubble is a very thin film of soap water that forms a sphere with an iridescent surface. A bubble can exist because the surface layer of a liquid (usually water) has a certain surface tension, which causes the layer to behave somewhat like an elastic sheet. However, a bubble made with a pure liquid alone is not stable and a dissolved surfactant such as soap is needed to stabilize a bubble. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few moments and then burst either on their own or on contact with another object. They are often used as a children’s plaything, but their usage in artistic performances shows that they can be fascinating for adults too.

So, now the theory class is over and let’s moves to the interesting practical Class.

Step 1: Create a 300 dpi canvas and fills the background with Black color because in white background it is difficult to see a bubble.

Step 2: Create new layer, select Elliptical marquee tool, press shift and create a big circle on the black background.

Step 3: Go into Edit > Stroke, Enter width as approx 10px, color must be “Gray” and Location - “Center”. Press Ok

Step 4: Before move further save the scene and also save the circle selection for future use in the tutorial. Go into Window > Channels and press “Save selection as channel” button in the bottom of the tab. Now “Alpha” layer will be automatically created in the Channel tab.

Step 5: Press Ctrl + D and blur the circle stroke. Go into Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter the value between 12 to 15, so all the edges can be blurred out properly but you can still figure out that as a blurred circle.


Step 6: Go into Window > Channels again and press Ctrl and click on the Alpha layer which you created in the step 4.


Step 7: Create new layer and go into Edit > Stroke, Enter width as approx 1px, color must be “White” and Location - “Center”. Press Ok. Reduce the opacity of the layer to around 10%.



Step 8: Go into the previous blurred circle layer and resize it down little bit so almost 90% blurriness will come under last created stroke.