Optik Tutorials |

I wasn’t able to find an active tutorial that teaches users how to create olympic rings, so I decided to make one. This is an intermediate tutorial, but I’ll try to explain everything the best I can.

Start off by creating a 450×225 document in Photoshop. Now create a new layer and call it “blue”. Then using the Elliptical Marquee Tool create a circle like below and make it a blueish color. I chose the color “#007cd2″.

While keeping the circle selected so the little border is moving aroung it, go to Select > Modify > Contract. A little box will pop up, enter 10 and click ok.

Now click the delete key, and you should be left with a blue ring.

Now that we have the first ring, now we have to move along and create the other four rings. First off right click on the blue layer and duplicate it. Name the new layer “Black”. After this is done, right click on the black layer and go to Blending Options. Next on the pop up, click on the check box next to Color Overlay. The color overlay menu will now appear, and for the overlay color change it to Black. Now move the black ring about 150px to the right, like below.

Now repeat Step 4, only call the new layer “Red”. For the Color Overlay I used the color “#b60005″.

Repeat Step 4 again, only call this layer “Yellow”, and for the Color Overlay use the color “#f1df20″. Instead of moving the ring to the right 150px, only move it to the right about 75px and then move it down about 65px, so you end up with a result similar to below.

Now copy the Yellow layer, and call the new layer “Green”. Right click on the layer and go to Blending Options. Click the check box next to color overlay and use the color “#61a71f”. Now move the Green layer to the right about 150px.

It may look like you’re done, but now we have to make it look like the rings are actually interhooked. First select the Blue layer and go to Select > Load Selection and click ok. That should get you something like below.

Now with the outline of the blue line selected, click on the Yellow layer. Now select the eraser tool from the left menu and delete the top overlap of the Blue and Yellow rings, like below. Then go to Select > Deselect to unselect the area.

Now that we have the first overlap fixed, repeat Step 9 for Yellow/Black, Black/Green, and Green/Red. In the end you should end up with something like below.