Today we're going to be making a very interesting light texture...thing. Something that looks like this:



It's a really simple set of layers you can put together, and slip white brushes in between to get the stand-out effect.



Step 1: Fill your canvas with black (#000000).

Step 2: Make a difference gradient in a new layer. I called this D.Grad 1. You want this one to have be long strips of black and white.



To do this, make sure your palette is black and white, and go up here to select your mode as Difference.

Make one gradient, then make another short gradient line more or less parallel to the first one, like so. That will give you something like this. Keep doing that until you have a gradient that looks how you want--just remember to keep the lines mostly long and going the same direction.

Set this layer to Hard Mix. (It will look like your layer has disappeared. Don't worry about it.)

Step 3: Copy D.Grad 1 (CTRL-J) and name it D.Grad 2. Rotate this layer 90 degree counter clockwise and set blend mode to Exclusion.

Your image should look as if D.Grad 2 is just set to Normal:



Step 4: Create another layer, and name it D.Grad 3. You want this gradient to be full of sharp angles, as such:



You can do this by altering the angle of your difference gradients. Instead of parallel, go for a more random, perpendicular line. You should be able to go from something like this to this. Repeat as needed until you get something angular you like.

Set this layer to Color Burn. Your image should look like this:



Step 5: Set your three gradient layers to invisible. Go back between your black base layer and D.Grad 1, and insert a layer (I called this White Brush because I am extremely creative). You can insert any white brush here--it works better if it is solid white and has solid borders, without any fading. (Although that is an interesting look you can play with, as well. The Hard Mix setting dissolves and pixelates any shading, so be prepared.)

I took a warning strip brush I made and liquefied it using a mix of the Twirl Clockwise Tool and the Forward Warp Tool to get something I liked:



You can stop here if you want, but I created another layer (White Brush 2) and used a softer brush to liquefy another swirl.



Leave these brush layers set to normal.

Step 6: Go back and turn your gradient layers solid and you should have something that looks like this:



Other fun versions so you can see the difference between faded and solid brushes:







I think this is a really interesting technique that could be used in some really awesome retro graphics. I would make some as an example, but I do not have the time. I mostly made this so I wouldn't forget how I did it.