Psdtuts+ » Photo Effects

Use Photo Manipulation and 3D Layers to Design a Surreal Cover Art Illustration

Alvaro Guzman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:19:29 +0000

My clients often ask me to create impossible scenarios, weird landscapes and surreal images for their projects; images that wouldn’t be possible in real life. It’s situations like these where photo manipulation becomes a powerful design tool. In today’s tutorial I will show you how to design a CD cover using several photo manipulation techniques, how to keep critical text layers editable for any future change and how to render a quick mockup using the Vanishing Point filter. Let’s get it started!

Tutorial Assets

In order to save time, you can download all of the following images before you get started.

Step 1 – Setting up the document

This time we will create a photo manipulation inspired from the classic poem of Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven". This should not be interpreted as a graphical representation of the poem, just a twisted adaptation depicting the loneliness of the man who lost his beloved Lenore. Imagine this as an audio book project, or a rock band album cover.

Start creating the document; a standard CD cover is 4.75 x 4.75 inches. So create a document in these dimensions. If you want to actually print this you should work on a resolution of 300+ pixels per inch, but this time I’m setting the document to 200 dpi because of the photo sizes.

Once you have your image resolution set, show your rulers (Command + R) and add some guides to the document’s borders. Since this will be a print design you should add a margin for security, so go to Image > Canvas size and change the dimension to 4.85 x 4.85 inches Anchor: Center.

Step 2 – The Room

The entire poem takes place in the narrator’s room, open the "Empty Room" image in Photoshop and save it with a descriptive name like "Room.psd". This image is wide and our design should be a perfect square. We will need to stretch it without distorting it. Is pretty simple actually, first draw a Guide trying to delimit a square on the left side, then using the Rectangular Marquee Selection Tool (M) select the right side of the image, copy it and paste it matching the right side of the segment with the guide. Then using the Free Transform Control (V) and hold the Command (Ctrl) key to distort the pasted area and match the room’s horizontal wall lines.

Step 3 – Join

In order to make the reduction as polished as possible, adjust the levels of "Layer 2" as shown in the image below. I did it in 2 rounds but you can try to get it done in only one. Then, add a Layer Mask > Hide All and fill the mask with a Horizontal Gradient (White – Black). This step will make the reduction work almost perfectly.

Step 4 – Add the room into the main document

In the "Room.psd" file using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) select the right side of the image and hit Command (Ctrl) + Shift + C to copy all the layers of the selection (this is to avoid the step of flattening the image and helps you to keep this part of the job editable for further changes just in case). Then paste it into the main document in a new layer named "Room."

Step 5 – Add the guy

Now it is time to add one of the main characters, the guy. For this, grab the sitting guy image and open it in Photoshop, then using any technique select the guy’s shape (I’m using the Polygonal Lasso Tool). Copy the selection and paste it into the main document. Then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to make it match the lighting of the scene. This is really important because all too often you’ll not have enough money to actually take your own shots and you’ll need to use stock and choosing just the right picture isn’t easy. Use the Free Transform Tool to reduce the guy’s size. Name the layer "Guy".

Step 6 – Overall shadow

Since I don’t want a 100% photo realistic scene, but a dramatic one; we will add several levels of shadows, the first one is the room’s shadow. Create a new layer named "Room Shadow"; using a big soft Brush (Color: #151610, Size: 300px Opacity and Flow 50%) paint all the right side of the scene, then change the Blending Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 75%.

Step 7 – Adding more objects: a stool

Open the stool image, select its shape and paste it into the main document; name that layer "Chair". Once again you must flip it horizontally in order to match the lights.

Step 8 – Burn and desaturate

Grab the Burn tool, select "Guy" and burn all its right side to increase the shadows’ intensity. Then grab the default Sponge tool and desaturate the brighter areas. Do the same with "Chair" layer.

Step 9 – Here comes the raven

Open the " Crow1" image from the assets and select its shape using any technique (I did it with the Polygonal Lasso Tool), copy it and paste it into a layer named "Raven". Flip it Horizontally and resize it a little bit, make the crow bigger than the guy. Place it next to the room’s door.

Next add a Layer mask to the "Raven" layer using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Do this by drawing a rectangle over the door’s shape and by filling the area with black. This way we will create the illusion of a raven entering the door without actually being destructive to the image.

Step 10 – Some books

Open the "Pile of Books" file, select the shape and paste it into a new layer named "Books", resize it and place it just over the "Chair" layer, then burn its right side as well.

Step 11 – Combine crows

Our crow is pretty nice, but it is not quite right. To fix this, we will need to manipulate it a bit by giving it a new head. Open the "Crow 2" image from the assets and select only its head. Paste it, flip it, and resize it into a new layer named "Head" above the "Crow layer" then using the same technique showed in step 3 of this tutorial, merge the head with the body; but instead of using a gradient, use a black Brush. If necessary, delete some areas of the "Crow" layer’s head.

Step 12 – More books

Since the bird wings makes the air blow we’ll add a book opened because of the breeze. Open the "Open Book" image from the assets, extract only the top open book and paste it into a new layer in the main document named "Open Book". Finally add as many more books as you want. Always remember to Burn the right side of them.

Step 13 – Shadows

Duplicate the "Raven" layer using the Free Transform tool to distort it; making it wider. Then in the Hue / Saturation (Command (Ctrl) + U) bring down the Lightness value to -100. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, radius 8px to blur the shadow and bring down the layer’s Opacity to 50%.

Step 14 – More shadows

We will apply this technique on almost every object in the scene, is pretty easy. Create a layer behind the related object, in this case "Raven" Layer and name it "Raven Shadow" (we did it in the previous step) then using a big soft dark Brush (#110C06) paint a shadow there. Next create a new layer named "Front Shadow" and paint shadows over the related object, in this case the raven. Then using a big and soft Eraser (E) Opacity and Flow 50% delete some areas of the front shadow where you think there should be more light. Try grouping the shadow layers and the main object into a folder in order to keep the layers organized.

Step 15 – Shadows and more shadows

Repeat the previous shadow technique but this time with the "Open Book" layer. If you want you can use the Smudge Tool on the shadow layer to merge it better with the background.

Step 16 – Guy’s shadow

Just like with the "Raven" layer on Step 14, duplicate the "Guy" layer, bring down its Lightness and Opacity and then paint both the front and back shadows as well just be sure to take special care of the shadow below his sneakers.

Step 17 – Chair and books’ shadows

Using the same technique paint the shadows of the "Chair" layer and the extra books on the floor, once again, don’t try to create a photo realistic outcome but a dramatic one, so feel free to add as many shadows as you desire but always try not to make the image too dark.

Step 18 – Room’s shadows

Using a larger dark Brush (#110C06) paint all around the room’s borders into a new layer named "Front shadows" somewhere above the "Room" layer. Finally bring down its opacity to 50%.

Step 19 – Words on the wall

This guy is really obsessed with his lost love Lenore, how can you depict a feeling like that into a mute image? That’s pretty hard isn’t it? That’s why I decided to add the word "Lenore" painted several times on the wall. For this, create a new document (any size is ok) with a neutral gray background (#A0A0A0) and using some hand drawn fonts (you can find several free fonts in dafont.com) write the word "Lenore" everywhere. Then hit Command (Ctrl) + A to select all and Command (Ctrl) + Shift + C to copy a flatten version of the image.

Step 20 – Use the vanishing point filter to paste the words on the walls and ceiling.

Create a new layer named "Wall words" above "Room" layers or "Room" folder. Then go to Filter > Vanishing Point. On the vanishing point window draw the necessary planes to put the words on the wall. If you’re not familiar with the vanishing point filter maybe you should read the following tuts first: Using the Vanishing Point Filter to Mock up a Business Card or Create an Impressive Mock-up of a Grunge Box.

Once you’ve created the planes, paste the clipboard there, drag it and resize it until looks good. This isn’t an easy process so feel free to try as many times as you need before moving forward.

Once you’ve placed the text appropriately, change the "Wall words" layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

Tip: Windows 7 and the Vanishing Point filter don’t work well together, for some reason Windows’ Aero has a conflict with the Vanishing Point engine, so if you’re working with W7 and your system suddenly crash while using this filter try changing the desktop appearance to "Windows 7 Basic".

Step 21 – Delete the extra words

Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool select the areas without walls (door and window) with the "Wall words" layer selected, then delete the selection. Then change its Opacity to 50%.

Step 22 – Raven’s motion blur

Since our crow is flying, we will need to add a motion effect, that’s pretty easy. Duplicate the "Raven" layer and place it above the original. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, set Angle: 0º and Distance 20px and hit OK, then with the Eraser Tool or using a layer mask delete some portions of the blur layer as shown the images below.

Step 23 – Some pieces of flying paper

Grab the piece of paper from the assets, extract it from the white background and paste it into a new layer above all the others in our main document. Using the Warp Tool (Edit > Transform > Warp) distort the piece of paper as shown in the image below. Repeat this step as many times as you want with different pieces of flying paper. Put all them into a folder.

Step 24 – Add shadows to the flying papers

Merge the Flying paper folder and desaturate the resulting layer. Using the Burn tool to darken some shadows over the paper itself. Then using our same old technique of shadowing, add two shadow Layers, one on the front and other on the back, paint some shadows using a dark brush. Finally you can repeat Step 22nd’s process in order to add a Motion Blur effect.

Put all the layers into a folder named "Art".

Step 25 – Add the title

Using the "Trajan" typeface, add the cover art’s title, put all the title Layers into a folder and name it "Title", then Option (Right) click on the layer miniature and select Convert to Smart Object. Then click on the Smart Object and go to 3D > New 3D Postcard From Layer, then the "Title" smart object will turn into a 3D layer with all the text still editable. This way no matter how many changes you do on the perspective, rotation and depth, you can still change the text at any time.

Add a Bevel and Emboss and a Gradient Overlay effect to the 3D layer just as shown in the bottom of the image below. Don’t worry too much about the light position and the shadow right now; we will work it on the next step.

Step 26 – Transform the 3D postcard

Using the 3D transform tool Rotate, Move and Drag the layer to make it match the wall’s perspective. Once you’ve placed the layer appropriately, add the Drop Shadow Style setting the Light angle to 30% and a big distance between shadow and text (32px in this example).

Step 27 – Edit the text

Often, clients change their minds in the middle of the project, that is why it is really important to keep your layers editable all the time. In this example we will be going to add some missing words to the title: the author name. For this you’ll need to dig trough the nested documents into the objects, first double click over the Diffuse Texture on the 3D layer ("Title" texture), a new file named "Title.psd", in this new document you will find the Smart Object layer, double click on it and finally you will see the text layers in a document named "Title2.psd", there you can expand the canvas’ size and add the third line of text. To commit the changes you should Save each document backwards, first "Text2.psd" and then "Text.psd" then you’ll see your 3D layer updated on the main document.

Step 28 – Add some grunge noise

As a grungy detail, we will add some noise to the composite. Hit D on your keyboard to load the default colors, create a new layer named "Noise" above the "Text" object and go to Filter > Render Clouds. Next go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise (set the values shown below). Finally change layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 35%.

Step 29 – Adjusting the Levels

At this point you will know if the design is too dark or too light, that is why we will need to add a Levels adjustment layer to lighten the image. Now Select All (Command (Ctrl) + A) and Command (Ctrl) + Shift + C to flatten and copy the design.

The Mock-Up

Step 30 – CD Case

Sometimes clients want to see a real life example of their product. It is really hard to send a printed version of a cover art file especially if your clients are far away from you but you can send them a picture. This time we will mock up our cover art in a CD case. Open the "CD case" image in a new document named "mockup.psd" and crate a new layer above the flattened layer. Select the new layer and go to Filter > Vanishing Point, there, paint a plane matching the case shape and paste the clipboard there.

Step 31 – polish the mockup

Since the Cover art is behind the CD’s plastic case, we will need to delete some areas of the cover art layer. For this add a Layer mask to it and using the Polygonal lasso tool, select the tiny notches of the plastic cover, then fill the selection with black on the Layer Mask. You can bring down the covert art’s opacity to actually see the notches.

Then, using the Polygonal Lasso tool, once again, select a semi-circle of the notch, where the paper will be clearly visible, and fill it with black or gray.

Step 32 – The plastic

We will use a Gradient Overlay on the artwork layer to create the ’shiny plastic’ effect, this is pretty simple, just add several black-white transitions on the effect, and change its Blend Mode to Screen and its Opacity to below 20%. In addition, I’m adding an Inner Shadow to improve the depth perception.

Step 33 – Final touches

As some final touches I’m adding the "Paper Texture" layer from the assets into a new layer behind "CD" layer. Changing "CD" layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply works perfect in this case. Then just play with the texture layer, I added a dark (#36312D) Solid Color layer behind the texture; plus I increased the texture’s dark levels by adding a Layer Mask filled with a White – Black Radial Gradient; creating a dark vignette this way.

Final Image

Please take a look at the final version of our cover art.

How to Create a Serene Panorama from Multiple Photographs

Jarka H. — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:02:00 +0000

In this tutorial, we’re going to teach you how to combine multiple stock photos into a single, coherent scenery in Photoshop. We’ll start off with a single panoramic photo, and integrate two others along the way. Also, we’ll look at ways to make the final result look more dynamic and appealing with a few adjustments layers. If you’re looking to improve your photo manipulation skills, this tutorial should prove very useful!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

Program: Photoshop
Version: CS3
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 3 hours

We will change this photo:

Into something like this:

Let´s download the main picture first of all, which belongs to pelleron-stock’s deviant art account. Also, you’ll need some mountains (here and here) in the background. These belong to Momotte2stocks.

Step 1 – Replacing The River

When I was creating this photo manipulation I wanted to do a really wide format. In the next few steps, I will show you how to replace some elements to make your picture wide as well. But if you don´t like this format, feel free to skip these few steps.

Open the main photo. Press L ( Lasso Tool) and select the river and some trees around it. You don´t need to be too careful because we’ll retouch all parts later.

Press Command + C to copy the selection and Command + V to paste it as a new layer. Name the layer RIVER and move it higher than it was before.
Crop the picture. You should get something like this:

Now add layer mask (the Add Layer Mask button can be found on the bottom part of the Layers palette) to the RIVER and start blending layers together. To do that, press B ( Brush Tool), select a soft round brush, pick black as foreground color and paint over the areas of the RIVER, that you want to be hidden. To be precise, use a smaller brush and use lower opacity to get a more realistic result.

You should end up with something like this:

Step 2 – Replacing the Monastery

Click on the layer with main background. Press L (Lasso Tool) and select the monastery. Press Command + C and Command + V to paste the monastery as a new layer. Name it MONASTERY. Now press Command + T and make the building a little smaller.

Then add layer mask to the MONASTERY and blend it as you did it in the previous step. You can also crop the picture as I did it. After that, you should have an image similar to this one:

Step 3 – Retouching

In this step we will retouch all the unwanted houses and the wall. To do that use the Stamp Tool. Be as careful as possible because the more attention yuo pay here, the more realistic the picture will look.

I will not explain how to use the Stamp Tool since this is not a tutorial for beginners but those of you who aren´t familiar with this useful tool you can look at this tutorial. Below you can see gif animation showing how I removed all the houses:

Step 4 – Retouching The Foreground

As you can see there are still some houses in the foreground. To remove them we will use one little trick. Open the photo of the main background and while using the Lasso Tool, select the red bordered part of the photo and drag it into your photo manipulation.

Place the stone as you can see bellow:

Name the layer FOREGROUND and add a layer mask to it. While using a soft, round brush with black color, blend in the layer with the rest of the picture.

Step 5 – Adding Mountains

In this step we will add mountains to the background. At first the white sky has to be removed. To do it press W (Magic Wand), set Tolerance on 30 and click on the sky. To make a more accurate selection, go to Select > Refine Edge, and set the menu as you can see bellow:

Then delete the selection – simply press Delete.

Open pictures with mountains and drag them into the photo manipulation. Put them under the layer with the main picture and place them as can be seen on the final picture. Name layers LEFT MOUNTAIN and RIGHT MOUNTAIN and blend them together while using layer masks, just as we did it in previous steps. Below you can see the final result of this step:

Step 6 – Fixing Brightness

Nature objects which are closer to us, seem to be darker than the ones in the distance. As you can see in the picture above, our image is lighter in the front and darker in the distance which is wrong and doesn´t look realistic. We will fix it now.

At first, make the mountains lighter. Add a new adjustment layer (Levels) to both mountain layers – LEFT MOUNTAIN and RIGHT MOUNTAIN. Set the Input Levels on 0; 1,56; 255 and press OK. Don´t forget to create clipping masks from the adjustment layers to affect only one layer bellow. You should get something like this:

Now it´s time to make the middle and front darker. Add adjustment layer Levels to layer with the main picture, RIVER, MONASTERY and FOREGROUND. Set the Input Levels on 54; 0,68; 235. Create a clipping mask for them. Your picture will look like this one:

Step 7 – Adding Mist

To create the right magical atmosphere, we will add mist around the river and mountains. Download a fog brush (I used this one) and install it into Photoshop. If you don´t know how, look at this tutorial.

Now add new layer above LEFT MOUNTAIN and RIGHT MOUNTAIN but bellow the layer with main picture and name it MIST ARROUND MOUNTAINS. Press B (=Brush Tool), select your mist brushes, pick white color and start painting the mist. You can change opacity or try to change Blending Mode to get more realistic result.

Once you´re done with mist around the mountains add new layer above all the layers and name it MIST ARROUND RIVER. Paint some fog again.

It´s amazing how one simple brush can totally change the atmosphere of picture.

Step 8 – Reddish Tones

Because we are creating a landscape during sunset, the picture should have warmer tones. To fix it, add a Selective Color adjustment layer on the top of your layers and set it as you can see below:

Your picture should look like the one bellow:

Step 9 – More Retouching

Press S ( Stamp Tool) and analyze your manipulation once more to see if everything is retouched properly. For a different take, flip the canvas horizontally. Mistakes will show up easily. In my case I forgot to retouch part of the wall below the monastery. I also covered some small details. You should zoom on 100% to see mistakes better.

Step 10 – Adding Sunset

In this step we will add sunset. To do that, add a new layer above all the layers and name it SUNSET. Press B ( Brush Tool), pick some yellow/orange color and paint something similar to what can see on the picture bellow:

Notice that parts which are closer to the sun are more saturated. To paint it realistically, you can look at some photo references on the internet.

Now add new layer again and name it for example COLORS OF SUNSET. Press B to activate BRUSH TOOL, select some soft round brush, pick some red or pinkish color, lower the opacity to about 20% and paint a red circle around the sunset. Then pick an orange color, make the diameter of the brush smaller and paint an even smaller circle. And finally make the brush smaller once again and paint one small yellow circle. Change the Blending Mode of the layer on Color. In the pictures bellow you can see exactly what I mean.

Add new adjustment layer Hue/Saturation above all the layers and set the value Saturation on -35. Press OK.

Now we will add some more colors from the sunset. Add new adjustment layer Color Balance on the top of all layers and set the values as you can see bellow:

Press G (Gradient Tool), pick a black color and fill the layer mask of the adjustment layer with it.

Now press B to activate Brush Tool, pick a white color, choose a small diameter and paint over the areas which should be reddish because of the sun. Below you can see where I painted:

Step 11 – Adding Light

It´s time to add light from the sun. Create new layer above all the layers and name it LIGHT FROM SUN. Press B (Brush Tool), pick some yellow color, choose a small diameter for the brush and lower the opacity. Now start painting over the areas which should be lighter because of the sun.

Below you can see result of this step and also exactly what I painted to know what to do.

The trees that are closer to the horizon should be more yellow.

Now add new adjustment layer Color Balance on the top of all layers and set it as you can see below:

Your result should be similar to this one:

Step 12 – More Lights And Shadows

Add a new layer on the top of all layers and name it LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. Press G (= Gradient Tool) and fill the layer with solid grey (#808080). Change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Press B (Brush Tool), pick black or dark grey and start painting over the areas where there should be shadows. Then pick a white color and paint where lights should be.

As you can see this layer adds much more plasticity to the picture.

Now add one more layer on the top. Name it GLOBAL LIGHT, fill it with solid #808080 grey and change the Blending Mode on Overlay again. Press B (Brush Tool), choose some big soft brush and pick white color. Lower the opacity to about 20% and paint some white around sun. Then pick black color and paint over areas which are away from the sun.

Your result from this step should be similar to this one:

Step 13 – Finishing Touches

We are almost done. There is only one thing left – it would be better to increase the overall contrast of the manipulation. Add a new Levels adjustment layer on top of all layers and change the Input Levels to 16; 0,79; 245.

And that’s it! You can view the large version here.

Create a Vivid Themed Illustration Using Simple Hand-Drawn Elements – Part II

Wojciech Pijecki — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:29:04 +0000

Drawn elements are certainly something that can enhance an illustration. Even if you’re not very good at drawing, you can still create a quality piece. All you need is a good idea and some Photoshop skills. And if you don’t believe me, you will definitely change your mind after reading this Part II of his two part tutorial series. So let’s take a look inside!

Final Image Preview

Part II Tutorial Details

Program: Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Advanced
Estimated Completion Time: 4-5 hours

Introduction and Preparation

It’s a themed illustration about "No Beauty," this hides an idea that no beauty lasts forever. Suddenly all that’s great and beautiful falls apart. All the happiness is gone with the colorful pieces. The final outcome has its own mood, even thou it’s colorful, it’s still kinda frightening.

And as I said this is kinda simple but you may be wondering why this tutorial is labeled as advanced level. Well everything is fine as long as you have some base to work on. Here we have absolutely nothing, we will create this piece from scratch. So what’s hard, is all the illustration depth, shading and colorization. Beside that, there are some things you just need to feel.

Ok, now let’s take a look what we’re going to use here:

Splatter, from 123rf.com
Broken Blush, from sxc.hu
Scratchy texture, from sxc.hu
Splashes 1,2,3, from istockphoto.com
Handmade Brushes 1,2, from brushesdownload.com
Ink Brushes (optionaly), brushesdownload.com
Paint Strokes 1,2, brushesdownload.com
Self-Drawn Elements on Paper

Step 1

Just to remind you of what we created in the Tutorial Part I, the first image below shows our final outcome. Remember that you need to work now below all adjustment layers (which affect the whole illustration) and also below the overall room shading that we added.

OK, so pay attention to the second image below. I drew something like that in the first tutorial part, this is the sketch of how I pictured the splashes. And I decided not to cover the whole face with splashes.

Step 2

I found three nice splashes (1,2,3) from istockphoto, which you can view in the first image below.

There are few ways to do the extraction, and because the background is white it’s quite an easy task. You can do this using Color Range, however we don’t need the full splashes here, and a more accurate job need the Pen Tool. Look at the third splash below and the green rectangle. It’s a good part to fit our face.

Let’s zoom into this part and use the Pen Tool to cut it out. Using this technique is reasonably fast (and the color range technique sometimes leaves a little bit of the background color, which we don’t want). So check the last image below (the black one) and you can see it’s very precise. I compared the background with a black color and yes, it’s full red, no white edges.

Step 3

Now as I said we just need a little bit of this splash, so make it fit into the face and use a soft eraser or a layer mask to get rid of the square edge of the splash (first image below). Then apply Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and brighten all the tones in this dark red splash. To do this we need to use Reds, Yellows, Neutrals, and Blacks (second image below). Now this looks over saturated, so let’s take the saturation down (third image below). Then it’s good to give a little more brightness (forth image).

Step 4

I’ll show you now what to do in points:

This is the result we reached so far.
Create a new layer above the splash, with Blending Mode set to Color. Grab a soft brush and paint with a brownish color to make the shade more suitable to skin shadows.
Compare image 1 to 3, and see how the shade changed its color. It’s starting to look like it’s really a skin splash!
Merge all the layers connected with the splash into one. And use the Burn Tool (range: Midtones) to make the splash darker, like the bottom face color.

Step 5

Now duplicate the face layer and place it above the splash. Flip it horizontally to make the dark skin cover our splash (first image below). Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All (second image below). Then use a soft, white brush and paint on the layer mask while having the “splash” selection activated (third image below).

This may look a little confusing. Let’s review what this does? Well, basically we’re revealing the skin from the copied face. And we’re doing this on the splash to make it look more skin textured. It’s a tiny difference, but believe me, if you zoom in, you will see the difference. The splash will look like real skin.

Step 6

OK, let’s bring up another splash. Again use the Pen Tool to make a precise cut out. Now turn it in the right direction (first image below). Then use a hard eraser (or layer mask with a hard, black brush) to make a perfect match to the skin (second image below). Then soft-erase the squared top part of the splash.

Step 7

As when we were applying the previous splash, use Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and adjust the same colors. Play around with the values starting from Reds, Yellow, Neutrals, and Blacks. Try to make the splash color brighter (first image below). Then turn down the saturation (third image below) and finally give a touch of brightness (forth image below).

Step 8

Use the Burn Tool to match the colors of the bottom face skin and our splash.
As previously, duplicate the “face” layer and place it to cover the splash with skin.
Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All (this fully masks the duplicated “face” layer).
Add the skinny touch painting on the layer mask with a soft, white brush.
Make some final touch-ups. I used the Patch Tool to get rid of unwanted light and burned some parts more with the Burn Tool.

Step 9

OK, when it comes to adding lighter splashes, the job is much easier.

Make a good match with the skin shape.
Use Selective Color the same way as previously to get the over saturated look (and it’s great with selective color, as it also makes the shade softer).
Next use Hue/Saturation and turn the Saturation halfway down (don’t overdo) to match the splash color with skin color.
If it still isn’t enough, go (as previously) to Brightness/Contrast and enhance the Brightness, while lowering the Contrast just a touch, and we should be fine.

Note: The lights may sometimes come a bit sharp and bright, so you can always get rid of them using the Patch Tool or just by erasing some parts of the splash.

Step 10

As you see now, the shadow below the face will be a little bit different because we changed the shape. Find the same color as you used previously, while painting the shadow. Grab a very soft brush and add more shadow where objects are getting closer to the ground (as you see in the fist and second images below).

Step 11

Now to add more skin-splash touches, we need to use another image of paint. It’s a good to have it in the same color, then the adjustment values will not change much. So bring up this Splatter image to Photoshop and start extracting using the Pen Tool.

As you see in the first image below, you do not have to cut out the whole piece, just the bottom part. And also the extraction needs to give you a nice rounded stain without dark shadows.

Everything is shown in the images below. You just need to repeat what you did previously with the splashes, but yeh, with each new splash you must search new adjustment values (as they are not the same). So the values will be quite similar, but not exactly the same.

Step 12

Grab the Brush Tool with soft settings (Flow at 2% and Hardness set to 0%). Create a new layer below these skin parts, and use a dark color (that fits to the surface) to add a tiny shadow. I used the color: #2f1d0e.

Then look at second image below and create two new layers above the skin parts. We will make a small touch up to one of them. As shown in the image – change these layer Blending Options: one to Overlay and the second to Multiply. Then using the same soft brush, change your color as shown in the second image below and paint in the indicated spots to make this skin look more realistic.

Step 13

It’s the right time to add some hand-drawn pieces. My drawing skills are pretty lame and I’m aware of that, but since I have some basics I was able to create several very simple elements that look good enough for this purpose. And with good Photoshop skills you can turn your simple drawings into something really cool.

So take a piece of paper, a pencil and use your imagination to create some nice shapes (or you can use mine as well). Now shoot a photo of each one (it’s good to have natural daylight while taking a picture). Then open each one and if they are too dark, use Layer > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and then Layer > Adjustments > Levels to get a nice contrast between the edges and the background. Next use the Pen Tool to extract. While extracting, work on a big canvas (don’t resize the photos).

Step 14

As you see my drawn element is quite big and that’s a good thing. Now you can use Command + T and click Warp in the top menu bar. Work on bending this shape to get various results. Obviously the warping will get our element a little blurry, but after we resize it down it will not be noticeable (second image below).

Next I wanted to add some depth to this piece by making it less plane. To do this you need the Burn Tool and Dodge Tool. In the third image below, the green arrows indicate the lower spots (that need to get painted using the Burn Tool set to Midtones) and the red arrows indicate the upper spots (that need to get painted with the Dodge Tool set to Highlights).

And after adding depth, you may color this element using Hue/Saturation.

Step 15

In the first image below I used the same element as previously and I bent it using the Warp Tool to get many different shapes. I also made them in different colors and turned each shape to different sizes (for depth). They were placed before and after the face.

Now comes the time to add some shading to make these elements fit. You need to remember a few things:

When you’re manually adding shadows, use the softest brush (set to 0% Hardness with even 1-2% Flow! Only Opacity stays always at 100%).
Shadows in reality always look a little bit different than in an illustration, but we should simulate the shadow to make it unnoticeable.
When I add shadows I always sample colors from the surface (and turn them a bit darker than the sampled color, and that makes the shadow fit nicely even if it isn’t quite real). The reason to do this is because every object’s shadow has a touch of color from the ground that it occupies (for some good pointers on making shadows you can read the Super Malleable Lines tutorial, see step 5).

Step 16

OK, we can start adding some more drawn elements. So in the first image below, the orange arrows indicate spots that I actually wanted to burn with the Burn Tool (set to Midtones), and the green ones indicate spots that needed some more light (use the Dodge Tool set to Highlights). As you can see, the proper use of simple tools can make your elements really shape up.

So in the images below you basically need to cut out the top part of this element and replace it with the same copied one (but with a different angle). Meanwhile add a Hue/Saturation adjustment to this element and colorize it to taste. If you just slowly study the images below you’ll notice that I made several rotations with the same elements, I duplicated them and did some cutouts (to make them fit better).

Step 17

OK, now again repeat the previous step by adding another element. Then using the same tools (Burn/Dodge) make the element shape up (second image below). Next in the third image below (when colorizing) you can use a few layer adjustments to make it look better. In this case I went for Hue/Saturation and Curves to give a nice yellowish green tone.

Step 18

Continue adding various shaped elements. Treat them the same way as previously. Add various tones, rotate them and place them in different spots. Don’t forget to use Command + T then check the Warp Tool in the top menu bar, this really helps make the same shapes look way different.

Note: Remember, when you Warp a raster element, like our hand-drawn shapes you need to do it on a big size piece and then resize the element down. It will help you achieve the high quality all the way to the end. Otherwise it will just get blurry and not quite suitable.

Step 19

Now to make sure everything has its own place in this illustration you need to take care for shadows. Each element placed in this room space needs some shading attention (unless it’s very tiny or too small). So if you have no light specified light source, add shadows somewhere below the object.

To do the shading part you need a very soft brush with a dark color, as mentioned before. The best way is to sample the color from the floor and make it way darker. Then start adding soft shadows under the elements. Remember if objects are closer to the ground – the shadows begins to get harder and more visible. Also don’t paint with the brush (holding left-click), make just single separated clicks. This will help you get a soft and barely visible shadow.

Step 20

I believe here is a nice relaxing moment of the tutorial. Now using the paint strokes brushes (1 and 2) create some cool shaped pieces. Do this with colors sampled from the illustration. It’s always a good way to help yourself with an Eyedropper, this helps you fluently move in the right color tones. And yeh, if you have a good eye – you can pick some colors by your own taste, it’s good to experiment!

Note: Remember that not every paint stroke needs to look the same when it was saved as a brush. You can help yourself with a soft eraser to make the shape look good to you.

Step 21

You should find a window shape in the stroke brushes. Use a dark brown color and place the brush. If you want to place it on the wall, then you’ll need to contort it into perspective using Command + T > Distort (first image below). Then, with Pen Tool, create a Shape Layer below this brush and fill it with white (the reason why it’s not fully white is because in Tutorial Part I we added some overall shading to the whole illustration, and it seems like the brushing is covering some part of the window) – second image below.

Now look at the third image below, turn the “shape” layer into a selection and paint on a new layer using a dull blue color (#689aac). Then, using the Pen Tool, create two parallel lines. Stroke both paths with simulate pressure, and give them blue and white colors (forth image below). Merge them and make around 20 duplicates, then spread them inside the window to give it a nice texture.

And finally you can cover the window with some more brushes as previously (fifth image below).

Step 22

Again using paint stroke brushes, paint the ceiling to fill the illustration even more. I need to use these brushes with barely visible gray/white tones to fit the surface. OK, so grab the Brush Tool, choose the desired paint stroke brush shape, set your flow to around 10%, and add some various brushes on anew layer.

Step 23

When I was creating this piece I found nice handmade brushes that will be really useful here (1 and 2). Append them to Photoshop brushes and using different colors and sizes, spread them all over the illustration. This should look like a chaotic throw.

Step 24

When you’re done with the handmade brushes go back again to our paint stroke brushes, use white for the color and apply one big brush on a new layer (first image below). Then call the selection of this brush by Command-clicking on the layer thumbnail, and go to Select > Modify > Contract, use the value of 2 (second image below). Next, bend it with Command + T and select Warp in the top menu (third image below). Now resize it down (use Command + T) and place it in the space.

You can repeat this step many times with different colors. It’s good to add these effects as they give an impression of drawn elements.

Step 25

As this illustration is named "No Beauty" you can think of some elements connected with the beauty. I found two free pictures of blush, that are a little bit out of focus. But anyway, we will resize this blush down, so the blur won’t be seen.

OK, grab the Pen Tool and cut out several crushed parts of this blush, paste it on some white documents and touch them up a little. Use the Burn Tool (Midtones) and burn them as show in the second image below. Then simply make them fit our illustration.

Note: if you decided to put some parts of the blush near the ground, then you need to treat the floor with some shadow!

Step 26

To make this illustration even more wrecked, I’ll show you how to create a leaking hole in the wall. There are six screenshots below, so I will describe them in order:

Grab the Pen Tool (set it in the options to Shape Layer) and draw a nice curvy hole shape on the wall, and make it black. Name this layer "Hole."
Turn off the "Hole" layer, go to the Layers Palette, Command-click on this layer’s thumbnail (the selection should appear). Now hit Command + Shift + C (Copy Merged) and then Command + V (Paste). Now name this layer "Wall Part." Move the copied "Wall Part" in front of the hole (you can also bend it using the Warp Tool). And make the "Hole" layer visible.
Duplicate the "Wall Part" layer three to four times, move those duplicates below the original layer and use the keyboard arrows to change their spots to top left (one after another) to create a fake 3d effect. Merge these duplicates and use the Burn Tool (set to Midtones) to give it more depth.
Now do same thing to the "Hole" layer. But this time make only one duplicate (colorize it to brown for example to see the difference) and move this copy to top left using the keyboard arrows. This should look now exactly like the forth image below.
Then bring up the selection of the "Hole" layer (Command-click on the layer’s thumbnail), next hold Command + Alt and click on the "Hole copy" layer (to remove the selection of this copied layer). You should get a tiny selection in the bottom edge. Create a new layer above the "Hole" layer and fill it with a dark brown color. Use the Burn Tool (set to Midtones) and Dodge Tool (set to Midtones) to make this edge stand out more.
Copy the skin splashes that we made in the beginning (you can also resize down after copying) and place them dripping from our hole. Use the Burn Tool (set to Midtones) to make it fit the splash top parts to the black hole’s background. Then add some shadow under these drips (same way as you’ve created shadow in the previous steps).

Step 27

Take a look at:

First Image Below: As a final touch-up, add a Layer Adjustment of Black and White in the Layers Palette (on the top of all layers), change it’s Opacity the way you like (around 30-50%) and set the Blending Mode to Soft Light.
Second Image Below: Hit Command + Shift + A (to select the whole canvas), Command + Shift + C (to Copy the whole canvas), Command + V (Paste on the top of all layers), and then apply Command + Shift + U (to Desaturate).
Third Image Below: Change the Opacity of this layer to 40%, set the Blending Mode to Soft Light, then go to Layer > Adjustment > Shadows/Highlights and enhance the Amount of Highlights. This brings an HDR touch.
Forth Image Below: Finally again hit Command + Shift + A (to Select the whole canvas), Command + Shift + C (to Copy the whole canvas), Command + V (Paste on the top of all layers), change the Blending Mode to Overlay and go to Filter > Other > Highpass, and set the value to 1.

Conclusion

So here we are folks. I hope you can successfully apply these effects to your own pieces now. May the detail be with you!

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Create a Vivid Themed Illustration Using Simple Hand-Drawn Elements – Part I

Wojciech Pijecki — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:39:48 +0000

Final Image Preview

Part I – Tutorial Details

Program: Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced
Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours

Introduction and Preparation

Ok, now let’s take a look what we’re going to use:

Step 1

I always try to work on a big canvas, but for the tutorial purposes I will go use a document that is 815 px by 1050 px. Just to save you some money from buying large pictures. Anyway, drag the paper texture to our document, duplicate it twice and to each copy hit Command + T (Free Transform) and then select Distort. Refer to the second image below and look how to transform these two paper copies, they need to create a perspective as shown.

Now in the same image – two green frames show you where to cut the main paper to get a good connection. Finally, grab the Patch Tool and get rid of the bad looking textures (third image below).

Step 2

Next use Command + U and lower the Saturation of this background paper texture a bit. If the texture still needs some work (first image below), then use the Patch Tool or Clone Stamp Tool to cover some imperfections.

Then, let’s say that the paper background is some kind of a room, so I thought these walls need some more contrast. To make the texture look better, use the Burn Tool (Range – Midtones), and burn in the connection lines to make it look more like a room.

Step 3

Now, while you still have the Burn Tool selected, make the diameter very small and paint in the top and bottom edges (first image below – where the arrows indicate). This should help to keep the walls, floor and ceiling separated.

OK, look at the second image below. From my experience I knew I’d give this image more contrast in the final product so for now I kinda lowered the overall contrast giving the feeling that all these walls are very light. To do this use levels as shown in the second image below.

Step 4

I assume you have merged all your wall layers together for easier work. If you didn’t, let’s do it now. Then duplicate (Command + J) the “walls” layer and change its Opacity to Overlay. Now go to Filter > Other > High Pass and add the value of 1 or 2. You should immediately get the result shown in the first picture below.

Now hit Command + Shift + A to select the whole canvas, then Command + Shift + C (Copy merged), and Command + V (Paste). Turn the previous “walls” layer off. Leave only the white background layer visible and the new merged layer.

Create a new layer above all, change its Opacity to Multiply, grab the Eyedropper Tool and sample some dark brown color. Then use the Brush Tool with 0% Hardness and around 3% Flow, and then paint as shown in the second picture below to create some irregular shading. Notice how the floor and ceiling is being created by doing this.

Step 5

Select the merged layer (the one with the whole canvas) and use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the top part of the image, then hold Command and drag this part down. This will help us repair the perspective, because in the beginning we made it pretty much random (if you can imagine this, the diagonal wall lines should cross in the center of the image). Next, look at the second image below and use the Patch Tool to get rid of the straight line indicated by the arrows (which is a result of repairing perspective).

Step 6

Let’s open the scratchy texture (link in introduction) and hit Command + Shift + U to Desaturate it. Then you can add Levels (Command + L) and enhance the whites, just to make these tiny scratch lines more visible. Take a look at the second image below, what we need to do is place this texture in the floor spot.

There is also alternative way to do this step by stretching the texture (as you see in the third image below) to get the right perspective (using Command + T > Distort), but well, as not everyone has the correct eye to make this right, we can stick to the position in the second image below.

Step 7

As you have positioned this texture, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. This will make the texture totally invisible. So then grab the Brush Tool, make your brush setting very soft (Flow at around 4% and Hardness at 0%). Then use white for the color and paint on the layer mask of the texture.

The first image below shows the full mask view, and it’s shown where I painted to reveal the texture. Now look at the second image below, and notice how nicely this texture blends with the white background.

Step 8

Use the same technique from the previous step to create the ceiling surface. Now open the face picture. Now grab the Eraser Tool set to 100% Hardness and 100% Flow, and get rid of the surrounding skin flowers. An accurate cut out is not necessary, as we will work the face shape in the following steps. For now we also need to resize down this face to make it more suitable to the illustration (third image below). Everything needs its own place in a quality piece, let your own eye be the judge of proportions.

Step 9

Now let’s shape up this face. Grab the Pen Tool and draw a curvy path around the whole face. Pay attention to make lots of cavity shapes (absolutely no squares). After you’re done, turn the path into a selection and hit Command + Shift + I to inverse the selection (first image below), then hit Delete. Now you should get something similar to the second image below.

When you work on an illustration like this you need to do a lot of work and planning. In the third image below I wanted to show you how I pictured in my head – what the next steps might look like. I sketched the face falling apart, and basically I wanted to do this by smudging the skin, but ultimately this turned out as splashes.

Step 10

I made some further corrections to the face, as I didn’t like the face center (first image below). So if you want you can use the Pen Tool to cut more of the face. Pay attention to her nose, the holes are looking kinda weird (like the right one is barely noticeable). To correct this use the Burn Tool (with Range set to Midtones) and a small diameter. Burn the right nose hole (second image below). Be careful, the Burn Tool can affect the nose skin also, so that’s why we need a small diameter to make it with precision.

If you still have the Burn Tool selected, make your diameter bigger and paint where the green arrows indicate (third image below). I wanted to enhance some shadows and also the bottom of the face. Soon we will drop some shadow below this face, and to make everything work properly it’s good to add shade to the bottom part of this skin.

Step 11

The face seems kinda pale so let’s warm it up a little. Select the “face” layer, hold Alt and go to the Layers Palette, and pick Gradient Map (check option Use Previous Layer To Create Clipping Mask). Look at the first image below and use similar colors as mine. Select the Gradient Map layer, change its Blending Mode to Soft Light and lower its Opacity to around 20-30% (not to overload the face with color). Then using Alt again, add another Adjustment Layer, which is Curves and adjust it just a little bit to get the similar look as in the third image below.

Step 12

OK, now make sure you no longer need to change anything in the color of the face and then select these two adjustment layers (Curves and Gradient Map) and also our “face” layer. Then hit Command + E to merge them. Next use Command + J to duplicate the “face” layer, drag the copy below original one and move it a little to the top left (first image below).

You can achieve even more variety and less plane results if you rotate this face (second image below). Then grab the Lasso Tool and make a selection around the indicated part above the nose, hit Command + Shift + I to inverse the selection (third image below) and use delete to get rid of all the unwanted parts.

Step 13

And what is this all about? This face looked very flat to me. To avoid that look it’s good to add some depth. As you can see, the first image below is the view that we get after deleting all the unwanted parts from the previous step, and the face cut is barely visible.

We’re going to use the Burn Tool (with Range set to Midtones) to add the skin depth by giving some shade to the duplicated “face” layer lying below the original one (second image below).

Step 14

I hope I clear up to this step, because if you didn’t understand the previous one, this will be kinda confusing. You may want to review if needed. Now we need to repeat Step 13 to personally chosen parts of the skin. So use the Burn Tool (Midtones) to paint in cavity spots as in the previous step. Then use the Dodge Tool (Midtones) in convex spots (first image below, spots indicated by green arrows).

You can do this to each skin edge, but remember, this may not look good applied everywhere. Also notice that I did those cuts with different angles (on purpose) to get some irregular depth.

Step 15

This may be difficult to understand as well, but don’t get terrified, the explanation is straight-forward. Look at the first image below. The selection that you see is nothing else than all these cuts merged together in one layer (the ones we did in previous step). And it looks so weird because there are some skin remains under our original face.

So I hold down Command and left-clicked on the merged “skin” layer’s thumbnail to get this selection. So now that you have this selection, create a new layer just below the “face” layer, but above the merged “skin” layer. Now change its Blending Mode to Multiply and pick a dark pink or dark brown color color (like #653737). Grab the Brush Tool, with the settings as usual (Flow at 3% and Hardness at 0%). Then do the same thing as previously, darken the cavity spots again.

Use the same process for convex spots, create a new layer above the previous one, change its Blending Mode to Overlay. Now use the same brush settings (but with a very light, brownish color, almost white) to paint in the convex spots.

This step may not be necessary for you, but I always pay extra attention to details and well, it’s important to make this look quality. And I did this because the burn tool and dodge tool don’t always do the best job and sometimes you just need to correct it manually.

Step 16

OK, if you’re done with the face cuts, I believe you can merge all the “face” layers including: “skin,” “shading,” “lights,” and “face.” Then make a new layer below the “face” layer.

Go to the Layers Palette, recall the selection of face (Command-click on the layer’s thumbnail). Grab the Paint Bucket Tool, pick a dark color with a little red or brown tone (something like #5b5555). Fill this selection with it (on the new layer) – see the first image below.

Then deselect, and use Command + T to make face shadow (second image below). Lower the Opacity of the “shadow” layer to around 20-40%.

Next you can use the same color and a very soft brush to paint on a new layer in the shadow spot. Do this to correct shadow imperfections (third image below).

Step 17

Now, I took a fresh look at the image and decided to remove a small part of the face because it bothered me. So you can do the same using the Pen Tool (first image below). And you see, it’s good to have the “face” layer merged, now you can work easily. It’s even better when you have a backup of each part.

In the second image below I used the Dodge Tool on her eyes and eye shadows (first with Midtones, then a little bit of Highlights). When you take a fresh look, many new things can be noticed. Remember to work dynamically!

Step 18

In these final steps we will do some overall adjustments. Go to the top of the Layers Palette and create a new Adjustment Layer there of Black and White. Change its Blending Mode to Soft Light and adjust the Opacity to make it work for you fine.

The adjustment layer should automatically have its own layer mask. So now click on the layer mask and use a soft black brush to paint on the parts that you don’t want to get affected the Black and White adjustment layer (I picked mostly the darkest illustration spots).

Step 19

Now, add some more adjustment layers in the top of the Layers Palette. First go for Curves and make the tones of the whole illustration look similar (like everything came from one picture). Then make some more adjustments using Color Balance, and basically it’s the same idea. Fill it with your personal settings.

Step 20

Next we’re going to add some room shading (first image below), create a new layer above all to do this, and use the Brush Tool with very soft settings (as usual). Pick a dark purple color (like #1a0a18) depending on how your illustration is colored – mine looks kinda cold purple to me.

Now create another new layer above all, hit D on the keyboard to set the colors to default. Grab the Gradient Tool, set it to Radial (from white to black) and fill the whole canvas (second image below).

Finally set this layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay and turn the Opacity down to 15%. You can look at the third image below, the spot indicated with green circles shows where we added a little bit of focus by doing this.

Step 21

OK, now this is not necessary (as we will do this in the final product) but to successfully end this part, I hit Command + A (select whole canvas), then Command+ Shift + C (copy merged), then Command + V (paste), and added Filter > High Pass of value 1. Then I turned the Blending Mode of this merged layer to Overlay. This way we get a nice sharpened outcome.

Conclusion

It’s great what you can achieve from scratch, having just two textures and a woman’s face. The outcome is complete for now. To get the piece done, first we needed the place and main motive – character. So here it is. Now that you have the overall look, we can start planning what kind of effects we want to fill this illustration with, to make it fully complete. And for this we will take care in Part 2. Check it out soon!

Thanks for reading the tutorial. You can view the final image below.

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How to Make a Melting Camera Scene

Peter Kalous — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:46:23 +0000

In this tutorial, we’ll use the Layer Mask Tool and Liquify filter to "melt" the camera. I recommend you work with a tablet for this one (it makes your work easier), but if you don’t have one it is also possible to go through this tutorial. Let’s start!

Final Image Preview

Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: 2 – 2.5h

Step 1

Open the camera file by bennorz, double-click on the layer to unlock it and create a new one beneath. Fill the new layer with a red (#ff0000) color. Now you have a red background beneath the camera layer and it makes it easy to see borders of the object when masking. It is not necessary to use red, but it is better to use a color which is not in the object.

Apply a layer mask to the camera layer. Be sure to have it selected when masking.

Step 2

Masking is the non-destructive way of removing parts of the image especially the background. That’s because erasing is done on the mask not on the image so you can create a mask and then delete it and the image stays untouched. Other great things of masks are that you can use a variety of tools to create it such as the Pen Tool or brush.

This time we will use the brush technique. Select the Brush Tool and set its Hardness to 93% – a mostly hard brush creates better borders on objects. Now we are ready to start masking.

Step 3

You can start whenever you want in the image, just bear in mind that if you use a "Black color" the brush will start erasing the image and if you use a "White color" or eraser (E) the image will start appearing back.

So mask everything except the camera – just paint around the camera, zoom in and out and resize the brush to get the adequate effect. Pay more attention to corners – the most critical ones are shown in white circles below. Here you should be most precise. It may take you some time practicing before you are used to it.

Step 4

Create a new document that is 1600 px wide and 1200 px high at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch and fill the "Background" layer with a gray (#dfdfdf) color. Put the masked camera image into this document. If you have the document with the camera still open, then you can just drag it with the Move Tool (V). It will create a new layer with the camera in the workspace. There is still the mask which we won’t need to edit so right-click on it and choose Rasterize Layer.

Step 5

Now we have the camera ready. So duplicate the layer, then resize it as shown below.

Step 6

Now it’s time for the Liquify filter. You can find it in Filter > Liquify filter (Shift+ Command + X). Then just drag parts of the camera image the way the arrows show. Bear in mind that the camera is laying on the plane and the effect should have a little perspective so you have to play with the technique a little bit to get adequate results.

Step 7

Grab the Eraser Tool (E) and set the Hardness to 0%, then select the “camera” layer, not the melted one. Now erase it to almost fit the melted copy. Then select both layers, the not melted and the melted ones, then merge them. You can merge layers by selecting them and press Command + E.

Step 8

Now open the Liquify filter and polish the melting effect on the merged image. Then duplicate the layer and move it to the bottom, just above the background layer. Then go to Edit Menu > Transform > Flip Vertical, and adjust the position of the result.

Step 9

Now we are going to create the ice plane. Just open the tiles photo and put it into the scene. Scale it by going to Edit > Transform > Scale (Command + T). Now drag the corner with the while holding Shift to fit the document width, and then duplicate the layer. These two layer should be arranged at the bottom of the scene just above the “Background” layer. Arrange the duplicated layer to the top-left corner as shown below.

Step 10

Merge the two plane layers. Decide where is the horizon line and delete the remaining part of the image above it. Then grab the 300px Brush Tool with Hardness set to 0 and delete the border of the image to create a blurred effect. Then set the Opacity of the layer to 25%.

Step 11

Now select the layers of the camera and its reflection and merge them. Then create one more duplicate of the result layer. Drag these two copies of the camera to the exact positions and resize them to create the illusion of space.

The layers of the cameras should be behind each other in size and ordered from larger to smaller. Create a new layer just beneath the layer with the largest camera. Then grab the Brush Tool and set the Hardness to 0. Select 100% white and play around with Brush sizes to draw fog around the cameras. The simple rule is to avoid the tendency to cover the whole space with white.

Step 12

To create more illusion of space the cameras should be disappearing a bit, so set the Opacity of the smallest one to 25% and 55% for the middle one.

Step 13

Now we bring some light into the image. Select the largest camera layer. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare, and choose the 105mm Prime with 76% Brightness. Then adjust the position of the reflection to the top of the lens.

Step 14

Now we are almost finished. We can also add some scratches to the ice plane. Grab a 1px size Brush and set a white color for it.

If you think the scene needs more realism, then you can add some shadow beneath the largest camera layer. Create a new layer and draw the shadow with a black color. Now adjust the Opacity or set the layer style to Overlay.

Conclusion

Now we have finished the illustration of a melting camera. You can add some typography to it and get to create a really nice camera ad or use it as is.

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How to Create Cityscape Concept Art

Miguel Santana da Silva — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:33:51 +0000

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to easily create a successful piece of cityscape concept art. We’ll be using a very basic 3D scene as a foundation for the piece, then taking it into Photoshop for some creative photo manipulation of reference photos, basic painting and adjustments. Let’s create this urban scene!

Final Image Preview

Tutorial Details and Requirements

3D Program: Any application capable of rendering a daylight system will do. I used Maya in this tutorial.
Lots of reference photos: This will be covered in the steps below.
Photoshop, and an Intermediate understanding of its tools and terms.
Graphics Tablet: Not essential, but very useful.
Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced
Estimated Completion Time: 8-10 hours

The Brief

The brief, in my case, was to create a historical street scene from anywhere in the world before 1914. It wasn’t to be a particular street, but the concept had to serve the purpose of seeming as though it could be a real street in the time and place I chose, to have a sense of architecture and light, and overall atmosphere.

Obviously you can do anything you want for your projects, but for the sake of the tutorial let’s roll with my choice, which was Glasgow (Scotland) in 1900.

Step 1

The first thing to do is to gather lots of visual reference. Just because you’re doing Glasgow in 1900 doesn’t mean you should only be searching for photos or paintings of Glasgow in 1900.

You should be looking at the work of traditional painting masters, contemporary painters and concept artists, photographers, sculptors, arch-vis studios, etc. This will get you thinking about color, composition, lighting, and so on. All of this can be found online, in books, television, newspapers & magazines, and generally just about anywhere. If something inspires you, retain it somehow! I could sit here boring you with lists of incredible work you should look at, but that would take up a whole article in itself…

I can’t emphasize enough how important reference material is, because without it, you’re working blindly. And more often than not, the work you make up in your head will be ten times weaker than work produced with well used reference. Just about any successful concept artist will tell you this.

Another great way to gather visual reference, is of course to capture it yourself! Below for example, are a couple of photographs from a batch I took in London.

Step 2

Beyond the general inspirational type of reference, it’s a good idea to gather the more practical and useful type of reference material. By this, I mean actually photos of Glasgow in 1900 we can use to help build our scene in the later stages.

In my case, I found an incredible resource through the AMICA Library, which is a free service for searching all sorts of arts from all sorts of periods, but you have to pay a premium to access the full resolution images.

Here, you’ll see that I came across images from a fantastic book by photographer Thomas Annan called "The Old Streets and Closes of Glasgow," from 1900. It is these images precisely that we’ll eventually cut up and manipulate in order to add texture to our scene. You can find the images here.

Step 3

Once you have all your reference images and are roughly sure what sort of image you’d like to create, it’s a good idea to do lots of thumbnail sketches. You can use a pencil or paint directly into Photoshop. These thumbnails were painted using some of Photoshop’s default brushes set to pen opacity, but I’ll go into brushes a little later on.

For this you should work quite small, and spend the smallest amount of time on each one. Speed is key! If I can remember correctly, these were drawn in between 30 seconds and two minutes. This way you really have to figure out the composition and main idea of the image rather than getting caught up in the details.

Don’t be scared to do this step. I’m not a great painter, but you can see in some of the thumbnails below that they are simple yet complex enough to convey the idea for a scene.

Step 4

Now we’ll actually start working on our final piece. Open up Maya (or the program of your choice), then create a polygon Plane. Make it quite large, so it can act as our floor.

Step 5

Next, create a cube on top of your plane, this will be the template for our other buildings.

Once it’s created, press the Insert key. This will turn your manipulator into a slightly different icon, and will allow you to move just the pivot point of your object. In a side view, move the pivot point to the bottom of your cube (you can change viewports by pressing the spacebar whilst hovering the mouse over a viewport to maximize it or zoom out to 4-panel view). This will mean when you scale it, that it won’t really scale below the floor, but instead it will grow outwards from the bottom.

Once that’s done, press the Insert key again to get out of pivot point edit mode.

Step 6

Once you have your basic cube setup, you’ll need to start placing duplicates around the scene to create the street.

To do this, select the cube and press Command + D to duplicate it, the W key to move it, and the R key to scale it. Do this enough times until you have something like the image below.

Don’t try and align things perfectly, the charm of these kinds of streets is the chaotic asymmetry and variation.

Step 7

Now that we have a basic street setup, we’ll create a simple daylight system. Open up the render settings and under the Render Using drop-down, choose Mental Ray. Then, under the Quality tab, choose the Quality Preset called "Preview: Final Gather."

Step 8

Still in the Render Settings window, go to the Indirect Lighting tab, and next to Physical Sun and Sky, press the Create button.

Step 9

The daylight system actually created a Directional light to act as the sun. This light may be hard to find by eye, so go to Window > Outliner. In there, you can see a list of all the elements in your scene. Scroll down until you see something called “sunDirection,” then use the move and scale tools to place it somewhere a little easier to see and manipulate.

Note that these types of lights don’t change according to their size or position, only the rotation will affect the appearance of light.

So, to manipulate the light, press the number 7 on your keyboard, which activates the light preview mode in your viewport, and rotate the sun light until you are happy with it. Don’t be scared to experiment with this and produce a few test renders. I wanted my sky to be coming almost against the camera, so I positioned it similar to what you can see below.

Step 10

We’re going to make our camera slightly more interesting by giving it a wide-angle view. In your viewport, click on View > Select Camera.

If your Attribute Editor isn’t already up, press Command + A. Then, under Camera Attributes, type 18 in the Focal Length parameter.

Step 11

When you’re happy with your angle, go to the Render Settings once again, and under the Common tab you can change the size of your render output. In my case, I was working with A4 size, so I put those dimensions in, but feel free to choose your own.

Then under the Render menu, press Render Current Frame. You should end up with something similar to the image below!

In the Render View, press File > Save Image. Save it as a nice, high-quality Targa file.

Then, create a new Photoshop document (again, A4 size in my case) and paste your rendered image in it.

Step 12

This is where it gets fun!

Start by opening up your reference photos, and thinking about which pieces of the photos can go where. You can then start by using the Polygonal Lasso tool to make selections around rectangular patches of your reference images that vaguely resemble the angle at which you want to paste them over your render. Once a selection is made, Command + C to copy and Command + V to paste on your document with the rendered image.

At this point, don’t worry too much about scaling up small reference images, it will hardly be noticeable in your final result. Once you have a patch of buildings pasted in to your scene, press Command + T to Free Transform, and use Command+click & drag on the corners of your sample images to manipulate their perspective roughly into place. Set the blending mode to Overlay, Multiply or whatever else works best. You can also play around with opacity.

Again, don’t feel the need to be very precise. It doesn’t matter all that much if some of the perspective appears to be wrong, it’s a very loose concept, and the images are only there to establish an idea of architecture and surface texture. These mistakes will be covered up in the later stages anyhow.

One thing you should be very cautious about is scale! Try and picture a human standing in the street (paste one in, if it helps!) and work out if there is anything too unrealistic compared to the person in scale.

This is a very organic process, I can’t tell you exactly where to paste each image, but I hope you get the idea of the process!

Step 13

The next step is where a graphics tablet really comes in handy. That’s because we’ll be doing some actual painting! The custom brushes I use 99% of the time are the "MyBroosh" and "Oil Pastel Large 3," which are included in the free brush pack kindly provided by artist Daarken on his website. You can find the brushes in his fantastic Tutorials section.

Step 14

Don’t be put off if you haven’t had any previous digital painting experience. We’re not painting a whole scene, but rather just adding bits of detail and tone to blend the photo elements together.

Make sure you work in new layers when doing things like painting, so that you can always delete all your brush strokes without damaging the material underneath.

As you can see below, you just need to add random tone and detail all over your scene, without being too precise. Just remember to consider the light source, so that you add highlights and shadows in the right places. On the second image below, you can see just the painting layer pasted over red, so that you can see the black and white strokes. I hope you can see just how messy you can be with this!

Step 15

A good, cheap way to add color information without painting it, is to use existing photographs or paintings. For example, I really liked the color and light in this photograph by Leo Rubinfien, so I just pasted it over my document, stretched it to fill my whole canvas vertically and set it to Overlay, at about 67% opacity. Then, I just erased the top part of the image so that it didn’t go into the sky.

Feel free to experiment! A lot of times these experiments will go wrong, but the mistakes are worth it just for the few times when they work.

Step 16

You should then start to establish the light and shadow areas a bit further, to tighten up the scene. Once again you can see just the new painted layer pasted over red. I set the opacity of this layer to around 84%.

Step 17

If you feel the need to, go ahead and keep adding more bits of texture and architecture to your scene. In this case, I’ve placed a few more windows and some chimneys around the scene, since it was looking a bit too box-like.

Then, start to add more tone by creating a Gradient Map adjustment layer, setting it to Soft Light and about 11-15% opacity. I used the gradient "Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue." I also added a yellow/orange grunge texture found at designshard.com and set it to Soft Light, at about 22%.

These steps are by all means not absolute. Again, they aren’t exact values and resources that will work with every image, so by all means experiment until something works for you. I’m just hoping to share the method of creating this particular image, and that will hopefully give you ideas when creating your own.

Step 18

Create a new layer and start painting a few brush strokes in orange-ish and red tones, with the layer set to color, and about 40% opacity. Since the image was leaning mostly to cooler tones, I thought this could add some of color balance and variation.

Then, I add a new Curves adjustment layer, and create a slight S curve on it, to darken the shadows and brighten the highlights.

Step 19

To accentuate the shadow and sun-lit tones further, create a new layer and fill it with a gradient going from an orange to a blue tone, as you can see in the image below. Then, set this layer to Overlay at around 10% opacity.

You can then add another yellow/orange grunge texture, much like the one previously mentioned, and set it to Soft Light at around 34% opacity.

I also thought I should mention that even at this stage, I kept adding architecture reference photos in where I thought they were needed to add more detail.

Step 20

We’re nearly there! Just add any last minute subtle Gradient Maps or any other adjustment layers. Then, create a new layer and fill it with Mid-Gray, and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Depending on your image size, adjust the percentage so that it’s just a very subtle effect, and tick the Monochromatic box. Set this layer to Overlay at around 60-70% opacity, or until it looks right to you.

Then, flatten your image and apply an Unsharp Mask filter to taste!

Conclusion

You can now do whatever you want to it, I just added a white border over a black background, and a bit of text, but the presentation is up to you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I hope this tutorial has been insightful and inspirational.

As you can see, you don’t have to be a great painter with years of experience to create successful pieces of concept art. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. Good luck in your future creations!

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How to Create Glass Transparency in a Cute Photo Manipulation

Alexandro P. Hernandez — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:29:29 +0000

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to incorporate glass into your work. We’ll learn a good technique for incorporating glass transparency into photo manipulations, while placing a cute, pirate hamster on the high seas. Let’s start!

Tutorial Details

Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Program: Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Beginner
Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating.

Organizing the Stock Images

The final photo manipulation in the tutorial was created using the following stock-images:

Ocean Sunset, by flordelys-stock
Sky by causticstock
Hamster in Bowl by linepotter-stock
Shark by krayker
Flag by dollieflesh-stock
Pirate Hat by Mizzd-Stock

Step 1

I won’t insist on the easy parts because this is pretty obvious. First, open the two pictures that are going to form our next background and flip them horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontally) and just place them like I did in the image. It’s not necessary to mask anything because the pictures fit just perfect one to the other.

Step 2

Now let’s give this background a dynamic sensation with the Warp Tool (Edit > Transform > Warp).

Step 3

Since the warp tool gives the image a flat look, we need to do some waves so go to Liquify (Filter > Liquify). Use the picture below as a reference for how the waves should look after manipulation with Liquify.

Step 4

Cut out the funny hamster with the Pen Tool and place them in the middle of the ocean.

Step 5

Go to Edit/Color Range and click on the lightest color in the image (the highlight on the glass). Arrange the fuzziness value like in the image below.

Step 6

Click OK on the Color Range dialog box and you will see the selection active. Then make sure you are on the glass layer and click Command + J to create a copy of the highlights from the glass. If you hide the glass layer your selection should look something as in the image below.

Step 7

Hit Command + D to make sure there is nothing selected, and then go on the glass layer and make a duplicate (Command + J) and lower the opacity of the copy layer to around 60% like in the image below. You will see the highlights are now sharp and white like on real glass not transparent and gray.

Step 8

Now we must bring the mouse back. You could use the Pen Tool and cut him out, but there is a faster way and the result is just as good. Bring the original glass layer in front of the highlights layer and glass copy layer. Make a mask and paint with black, leaving the mouse with white. Make sure you don’t go near the mouse with a soft edge brush.

Step 9

Select the three layers (“original glass,” “glass copy,” and “glass highlights”) and hit Command + E to merge the three layers. Then create a mask and mask the lower part of the glass so it looks like it’s underwater. If you are not very satisfied with the result, you can use a low opacity brush and mask some areas on the glass that you think should be more transparent.

Step 10

Add the flag. You will have to change the highlights on the flag pole. Select them like in the image below, hit Command + J and move the highlights to the left of the pole and then paint with a brown color (use the eyedropper on the pole) on the original highlights.

Step 11

Using the brush with a black color, make a shadow like in the image below and lower the opacity to 45%.

Step 12

Cut the pirate hat and arrange the size to fit on the head of the hamster (1). Then on a new layer just under the hat layer, paint some shadow on the head of the hamster using a soft edge and low opacity black brush (2). Then on a new layer in front of the hat layer paint some shadow on the hat, again using a low opacity and soft edge brush (3).

Step 13

In this step we will add the shark to make this image more funny. Cut out the shark’s fin and place it under the “hamster” layer. Cover it on the mask and paint a shadow with black on another layer. Set its opacity to 30-40%.

Step 14

Next cut out the sea behind the ball and place it like I did in the image. This is how the water is seen through a round glass like the ball

Step 15

Now let’s give this image a cool look with some filters and adjustment layers. First go to Adjustment Layers > Curves (Input 91 Output 41), then Erase the middle of the mask.

Apply an Adjustment Layers > Photo filter (orange at 30%).

Apply an Adjustment Layers > Gradient Map (Opacity at 60%).

Apply an Adjustment Layers > Hue/Saturation (Saturation at +57).

Apply an Adjustment Layers > Color Balance (Levels at -19, -16, and -34).

Step 16

Grab the Smudge Tool (strength at 90% and brush size 2-4 px), and start smudging the hamster’s fur like I did below.

Step 17

Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur (6 px) and change the blending mode to Soft Light. Use the image below as a reference for how the layer mask should look for this step.

Step 18

Go to Filters > Blur > Radial Blur and use the settings in the image below. Click OK, lower the Opacity of the zoom layer to 50 and mask it in the center. This will give the image some light dynamics.

Conclusion

The final image is below.

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Blend a Planet Transparently into a Photo Manipulation

Jarka H. — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:33:02 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how to use different blending modes to blend flying hairs easily and to make semi-transparent planet. I’ll also show you different techniques of adjustment to get the most realistic results in your photo manipulations!

Editor’s Note: This tutorial is inspired by this Earth Day – Green Planet artwork, by AlexandraF, which you can learn how it was created in this Photoshop tutorial. Further information about this inspiration is found in this blog entry.

Final Image Preview

Tutorial Details

Program: Photoshop CS and Higher
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours

Preparation

Before we start download all the necessary pictures (girl, background, earth, tree, apples and moon) and brushes (glitters and clouds).

Step 1 – Background Preparation

Open the photo with the girl. Right-click on the “background” layer and select Layer From The Background, which unlocks the layer. Name the layer “GIRL.”

Now open the picture of the background and drag it into the picture with the girl and name it “BACKGROUND.” As you can see the background is smaller than the photo of the girl. To make it bigger click on the layer “BACKGROUND,” preset Command + T, and while holding Shift make it bigger. If you hold Shift, proportions of the picture stay the same.

Place the “BACKGROUND” under the “GIRL” and make the “GIRL” layer invisible. Before blending these two images together we will work on the background a little bit.

If you look at the “BACKGROUND,” you can see that the quality of the image is quite bad because of resizing. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to about 1px. It will be a little blurry, but it really doesn’t matter. Press OK.

Now make the background darker – add Adjustment Layer Levels. The button Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer can be found on the bottom part of the Layers palette. If you don’t see the Layers palette, then press F7 and it appears. In the dialogue window Levels set the Input Levels on 34; 0,82; 255 and press OK.

As you can see in the preview image the background isn’t reddish but blue. To change your background add a new layer above the “BACKGROUND” layer and adjustment layer Levels and name it “BLUE TONES.” Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick this color #1f79a3 and fill the layer with it. Now change the Blending Mode of the layer to Color and set the Opacity to 80%.

Step 2 – Blending he Hair

Blending flying hair is always difficult because there is no easy or quick way to do it. But in case that you have a stock photo with a light background and want to blend it with a dark background, there is one trick you can do really quickly only by changing blending modes.

Duplicate the “GIRL” layer, name it “FLYING HAIR” and place it under the “GIRL” (which should still stay invisible). Now change the Blending Mode to Multiply (you can also use Blending Mode Darken if Multiply looks too dark). Add a vector mask to this layer and with a black brush paint over all the parts of the layer except the hair to make them invisible.

Step 3 – Cut Out the Background of The Girl

Make the “GIRL” layer visible. You need to cut out the background of the layer. There is many ways how you can do it. Use the technique that you’re most comfortable with. But remember to cut everything very carefully. I know it can be boring to do it, but if you make it sloppily the result will never look realistic. You don’t have to care about the hair much because we’ve prepared that in the previous step.

After cutting out your picture it should look like the image below.

Step 4 – Retouching The Girl

The girl has ugly shadows under her eyes, cheeks and nose, from the lighting cast during the shooting of this photo. In this step we’ll remove these shadows. Add a new layer above the “GIRL” and name it “RETOUCH.” Right-click on the layer and select Create Clipping Mask.

Now grab the Stamp Tool (S), select a soft, round brush and set the Opacity on 20%. Press Alt and click on a lighter area of her face to set the place from where the skin will be duplicated. Then paint over the areas with shadows (areas which are circled in the picture below). Change the source of the cloning from time to time to get a more natural result.

In the picture below you can see how the face looks before and after using the Stamp Tool.

http://psdtuts.s3.cdn.plus.org/351_Transform_Planet/09.jpg

Step 5 – Color Adjustment of The Girl

It’s obvious that the girl doesn’t fit the background. We’ll fix that during this step by using several adjustment layers.

At first we will remove the yellow light from the light bulb. Add a new Adjustment Layer Hue/Saturation and make a clipping mask from it. Set Edit on Yellows and lower the Saturation to -54.

Now we’ll make the girl bluer. Add a Color Balance Adjustment Layer, make a clipping mask from it and set it as you see in the pictures below.

To make it even bluer add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. Don’t forget to create a clipping mask from it. For dark tones select a dark blue color (I used #072519) and for light tones use white. Press OK and lower the Opacity to 30%.

And one last thing for now – we will increase contrast. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer, create a clipping mask from it and set the Input Levels to: 33, 0,73, and 238. Press OK.

After this step your picture should look like this:

Step 6 – Brighten Eyes

This is just a quick step, let’s brighten the eyes. Add a new layer above the “GIRL” and all clipping masks and name it “BRIGHTEN EYES”. Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick #808080 as the color and fill the layer. Then change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Select a soft, round brush at a size that is similar to the size of the irises, pick a white color and paint over the irises. It makes them brighter.

Step 7 – Adding The Planet

Open the picture of earth and drag it into the manipulation. Name the layer “PLANET.” As you can see the planet is too big. To make it smaller press Command + T and resize it. Hold Shift to constrain proportions while resizing. Cut out the background of the planet.

Let’s add two layer styles: Inner Shadow and Outer Glow. The Add Layer Style button is located at the bottom part of the Layers palette.

Set the layers styles as you can see below:

Add an Adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation above the layer “PLANET” and set the value of the Hue to +90 and Saturation to -20. Press OK and make a Clipping Mask from this layer.

Change the Blending Mode of the “PLANET” to Hard Light. It makes it semi-transparent.

Step 8 – Adding The Tree

In this step we will add the tree. Open the picture of it. Go to Select > Color Range. Then click on the white background which will select it.

Press Command + Shift + I. It makes inverse selection. Drag this selection into the photo manipulation above the “PLANET.” Name the layer “TREE.” Press Command + T and resize the tree on the proper size. Don’t forget to hold Shift during the process so proportions stay the same.

As you probably see the selection should be better. It’s again not hard to fix it. Command click on the thumbnail of the tree. It activates the mask of the layer. Now go to Select > Modify > Contract and set it to 2 px. Press OK. Now press Command + Shift + I (inverts the mask) and then Delete which will remove the unwanted parts.

Add a Levels adjustment layer above the “TREE” layer and set the Input Levels on 21; 1,12; 232. Press OK and create a clipping mask from this layer. Then add a Color Balance adjustment layer and set it as you can see below.

After this step your photo manipulation should be similar to this one:

Step 9 – Changing the Global Light

In this step we will make the place around the planet brighter to catch the viewer’s attention on this place. Add a new layer under the “PLANET” and name it “GLOBAL LIGHT.” Grab the Gradient Tool (G) pick #808080 color and fill the layer. Now go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and set the dialogue window as shown.

Notice that I place the brightest spot from the center to the place where the planet is. Now change the Blending Mode to Overlay. It changes the light of the manipulation.

I also used this layer to make the eyes even brighter. Grab the Brush Tool (B), select a soft, round brush with a Diameter similar to the size of the pupils, pick white for the color and paint on this layer over the girl’s pupils. It makes them brighter as shown.

Step 10 – Adding Clouds

In this step we will add clouds. Install the clouds brush you downloaded. If you don’t know how to do that look at this tutorial. Add a new layer on the top of the layers and name it “CLOUDS.” Pick white for the color and paint some clouds around the planets. You can paint them around the tree and girl’s hand as well. It’s completely up to you and your taste.

Once you’re finished duplicate “CLOUDS” and change the Blending mode of this layer to Screen. This step makes the clouds nicely white, not grey.

One more thing which must be done is adding shadows. It’s really easy. Duplicate the “CLOUDS” once again and place this layer under the “CLOUDS.” Command-click on the thumbnail of this new layer. It activates the mask of the layer. Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick a black color and fill the selection. Now move the layer a little bit to the right and lower the Opacity to 25%, which gives it a more realistic result.

Step 11 – Adding the Moon

Open the picture of the moon, cut out the background, and drag it into your manipulation. Place the layer on the top of your other layers and name it “MOON.” Change the Blending Mode to Screen.

Now we’ll add an aura around the moon. Add a new layer under the “MOON” and name it “AURA AROUND THE MOON.” Grab the Brush Tool (B), select a soft, round brush and pick a bright blue color. Lower the Opacity of the brush to about 15% and paint around the moon to make a nice aura.

Step 12 – Adding Apples

Open the picture of the apples. Select the apple in the front and drag it into the photo manipulation. Press Command + T, and while holding Shift make it smaller. Duplicate the apple several times and place it in different places of the tree. You can flip them and rotate them to get more variety.

Once you’re finished merge all layers with the apples into one and name it “APPLES.” Now we have to blend them and add the shadow underneath. To blend them add a vector mask (the button Add Vector Mask is located at the bottom of the Layers palette in the same place as the Add Layer Style button, which we used a few steps back) to the layer. Now with a black brush, paint over some areas to make them disappear.

Now add a Drop Shadow Layer style. Set it as shown below.

After this step your picture should by similar to this:

Step 13 – Changing Lights And Shadows

Now we will change the lights and shadows so they fit better to the scene.

Add a new layer on top of all the layer and name it “LIGHTS & SHADOWS.” Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick #808080 color and fill the layer with it. Change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Now grab the Brush Tool (B), pick white for the color and paint over the areas you think should be lighter. Use a lower opacity to make the light not so strong and a higher opacity to make it stronger. Lighten the pupils of the girl once again.

Now pick a black color and paint over the area where shadows should be. Play with the opacity again to get more realistic results.

Step 14 – Adding Glitter

Install the glitter brush you’ve downloaded before. Add a new layer on top of your layers. Name it “GLITTERS” and paint with the brush around the girl’s hand a little.

Step 15 – Adding Aura Around The Girl

To separate the girl from the background a little we will add aura around her. Add a new layer under the “GIRL” and name it “AURA AROUND THE GIRL.” Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick #808080 color and fill the background. Change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Now grab the Brush Tool (B), select a soft, round brush, pick white for the color and paint around the girl. You can see what I mean below.

Step 16 – Global Adjustment

We’ve already placed all elements so now we have to adjust the picture. At first add a new Gradient Map Adjustment Layer on the top of your layers and set it as you see below.

Now add a Levels Adjustment Layer and set it like this:

Decrease the saturation of the picture. You can use an Adjustment Layer of Hue/Saturation or (like me) use the Gradient Tool. Set the Opacity of this layer to 60%.

After this step your picture should look like this one:

Step 17 – Increasing The Saturation of the Eyes

As you can see in the preview picture, the eyes are more saturated than the rest of the picture. We’ll make it in this step.

At first click on the vector mask of the adjustment layer with gradient and lower the opacity. Grab the Brush Tool (B), pick a black color and choose the same size of brush as the pupils are. Now paint over them. This step will remove the desaturation effect on the eyes.

Now add a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and set the value of Saturation to +100. Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick a black color and fill the vector mask of this adjustment layer. Then grab the Brush Tool (B), pick white for the color and paint over the pupils. It makes them even more saturated.

Step 18 – Sharpening

Grab the Marquee Tool (M) and select the whole manipulation. Now go to Edit > Copy Merged and then press Command + V to paste the merged image. Place the layer on the top of all the layers.

Go to Filter > Other > High Pass… and set the value Radius on about 5 px. Change the Blending mode of the layer to Overlay.

The whole picture is sharper. But according to me the sharp background doesn’t look nice and it should be without the High Pass effect. Grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase this layer on the places where the background is, as shown below.

Step 19 – Changing Lights And Shadows Once More

This is the last time we change the lights and shadows. Paste the merged picture once again on top of all layers. Now press Shift + Command + U to desaturate the image and Command + I to invert colors. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the value radius on about 15 px. Press OK. Change the Blending Mode of this layer to Overlay and lower the Opacity to 30%.

Step 20 – Final Touch

You are almost done. There are two easy things to fix. At first I think that the image should be little bit darker. To fix that add a new Levels Adjustment Layer and set the Input Values on 0; 1,1;255. Press OK.

Now add a Color Balance Adjustment Layer and set the Color Levels on -6; 0; +4 and press OK. That’s all.

Conclusion

Congratulation! You’ve just finished this photo manipulation. Hope that you’ve learned something new in this tutorial or found inspiration for your next photo manipulation. Have a great day and thanks for reading!

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How To Create a Photo Manipulation with Your Own Photos and Textures

Jarka H. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:45:31 +0000

In this tutorial I will give you some tips on how to take your own photos for the photo manipulation. You will learn, how to blend pictures, apply textures, create your own brushes etc. So let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Tutorial Details

Program : Photoshop CS and Higher
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: Around 3 hours

Step 1 – Preparation for Taking the Photos

Usually tutorials start with a list of stock photos you should download. But today we’ll make it differently. The only one thing you have to do is to take your camera outside and shoot your own images! Don’t worry, it doesn’t take much of your time and you don’t have to be an awesome photographer.

If you want to take stock photos it’s good to do it when it is cloudy outside because in this case you will have no strong directional light from the sun but nice diffuse light, which will be easy to change in your graphic program to fit with the global light of your photo manipulation.

When you’re taking stock photos it’s always a good to take it from different angles and directions because you never know what you will find useful for your photo. And it would be bad if you would have a perfect photo, but you would need it just rotated a little different.

Step 2 – Taking Photos for the Background

As I said before, take your camera outside and take the picture which will suit for the background. For this manipulation we need an easy background with not so much details on it. This absence of details helps the mood which we’ll try be creating of a hopeless situation or feeling of loneliness or emptiness.

As you can see in the picture below, I used a simple photo of the concrete behind my house. A photo of some empty parking place,field or road would be great too. You can see the angle from which I took the photo.

Step 3 – Taking Photos of The Sky

This is very easy. Just wait for some cloudy weather (there will be a lot of cloudy days during autumn), open a window and shoot a few pictures of sky. Shaped clouds are the best because the sky will not be boring. It should be dramatical and this type of clouds is best for it.

On the picture below you can see what kind of sky I mean.

And below is an example of the sky which doesn’t look as good.

Step 4 – Taking the Photo Texture for the Monument

It’s very easy again. For the monument we’ll use texture of some beaten wall – so just stand in front of some wall and shoot it It’s good to stand directly in front of the wall because this way there will be no perspective distortion in the photo.

If you want to use exactly this texture (shown above) you can download the texture pack from my deviantArt page, but I recommend you shoot your own.

Step 5 – Taking Photos of People

This is the last step before we start to do the photo manipulation. Take your camera to a train station or another similar place where there is a big concentration of people. Be a little like a paparazzi, and shoot some of them. Don’t worry if you’re shy, you can shoot them from a distance (depends on the zoom of your camera).

It would be enough to have five or six types of people for what we’ll be creating.

Step 6 – Preparing the Background

After you downloaded all necessary photos from your camera to the computer open Photoshop and drag the picture of the ground and of the sky into one document. Name the layer’s appropriately as: “GROUND” and “SKY.” Make sure that “SKY” is above the “GROUND.” It’s always good to name all the layers. This way you can orientate everything better in your PSD file.

Add a vector mask to the “SKY.” You can find the button Add Vector Mask at the bottom part of the Layers palette. If you don’t see the Layers just press F7 and it will appear.

It is better to use a vector mask instead of the Eraser Tool because this way all the steps you do are non destructive, and you can change them anytime. If you paint with a black color over the vector mask, then the picture disappears. If you want to have it visible again, the only thing you have to do is paint white over it.

After you have vector mask added to the “SKY,” grab the Brush Tool (B), select a soft round brush, pick black for the color, and paint over the areas which should be hidden. Change to a smaller size of brush for more precise blending. You can also change the opacity of the brush to get a better result.

After this step, my manipulation looks like the image below. Yours should be similar, but it depends on your stock pictures used.

If your background doesn’t look realistic you can try one of two tricks. At first you can use the Spherize Filter, which will help you to add more space into the manipulation. To use it go to Filter > Distort > Spherize… and set the Amount to a negative value.

The next thing you can do is transform the perspective. To do it go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and transform your “GROUND” layer as you need.

What I did in my manipulation is that I added texture to the ground to add more details. If you want to try it too, you can use the texture you took for the monument. Open the picture with texture, drag it into the manipulation, place it above the “GROUND” (you can also create a Clipping Mask from it), and name it “TEXTURE FOR GROUND.” Now change the Opacity of the layer and also the Blending Mode. I just changed Blending Mode to Overlay.

As you can see the ground should have more cyan tones than it has now. To fix that add a new adjustment layer of Color Balance above the “GROUND” layer. If you don’t know how to add an adjustment layer, then look at the image below.

Click on the button which is circled and select Color Balance. The button is on the same palette (Layers) as the Add Vector Mask button which we used a few steps back.

Set the Color Levels to: -6, 0, and +12 in Midtones and press OK.

I think it would be better if the whole background would be a little darker. To do that add an adjustment layer of Levels above the “GROUND” and “SKY.” Set Input Levels to: 31; 0,85; 255 and press OK.

Step 7 – Creating the Monument

In this step we will create the monument. Open the picture of texture you took and drag it into your photo manipulation. Name the layer “MONUMENT.” Resize it to proper proportions. To do that press Command + T, and hold Shift to make the picture smaller. If you hold Shift, then the width and height will have the same proportion as they had before.

Press Command + T again and make the picture a little slimmer. Then go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and change the perspective so the monument will be slimmer on the top and wider on the bottom.

Add a Vector Mask to the monument. Now use a soft, round brush to make the bottom part of the monument softer.

At this point, my photo manipulation looks like the one below. You should have something similar, but again – it depends on your stock photos used.

Step 8 – Color Adjustment of the Monument

Now change the colors and contrast of the monument so it fits in with the rest of the picture. This step depends on what stock photos you took. For inspiration I will show you what I did.

The monument should be a bit darker and have more contrast for this look. Add a new adjustment layer of Levels above the “MONUMENT” and set Input Levels on 31; 0,79;255. Just for your information, the first value makes dark tones (shadows, etc.) darker. The second changes midtones. If you increase this value, then the midtones are darker. If you decrease it, then the midtones are lighter. The third value changes highlights.

Step 9 – Creating the Light Ray

In this step we will create a light ray on the top of the monument. Create a new layer above the “MONUMENT” and name it “LIGHT RAY.” Now grab the Brush Tool (B), select a soft, round brush and choose a proper size (depends on size of your photo manipulation). Pick a very light color. It can be pure white or something a little more yellowish.

Paint one dot on the top of the monument and then one dot on the place where you want the ray to end. During the painting of the second dot hold Shift. It will paint you a nice line. Instead of this method you can also use the Line Tool.

Once you have the line you can press the button Add a Layer Style, which can be found in the bottom part of the Layers palette, and add an Outer Glow to the ray to make it look more realistic. In my case, it wasn’t necessary.

Add a Vector Mask to the “LIGHT RAY.” Now with a black, soft, round brush and low opacity, paint over the top of the light ray. It will look more realistic, as if the light is less intensive and it is far from the monument.

In the picture below you can see the manipulation with the light ray.

There should be some diffuse light around the top of the monument. To add it go ahead and create a new layer above the “MONUMENT” and name it “DIFUSE LIGHT.” Grab the Brush Tool (B), select the same color as for the light ray, lower the opacity of the brush and make it bigger. Now paint a little over the top of the monument. In the picture below you can see what I mean.

Step 10 – Adding People

In this step we will add the people you shot with your camera. But before we do that let me say a few words about perspective. To add depth to the manipulation it’s important to keep the rules of the perspective in mind. It’s very simple – objects which are closer are bigger than those which are farther away.

The next important thing you should know when you’re creating a photo manipulation is that objects which are closer are darker and more saturated. If you want to make this rule even stronger you can make closer object also sharper and with more details.

Open your stock photos of people, cut them out and drag them into the manipulation. Change the size of them, duplicate them a few times and start arranging them. You can flip (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal) them to have more variation. Arrange them as you below.

As you can see I added no people in the distance. It’s because we will use a special brush which we’ll create in the next step.

Step 11 – Creating the Brush

Creating your own brushes is very simple and can also be very useful. Open a new document and drag one layer with a man into it. Command-click on the thumbnail of this layer. It activates the mask of the layer.

Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick a solid black color and fill the mask with black. Now use the Crop Tool (C) to crop the picture. You should have something like that shown below.

Now go to Edit > Define Brush Preset… Press OK in the window which will open and you’re done. You have your own brush!

Go to your photo manipulation, Grab the Brush Tool (B) and select the brush you’ve just created. Pick a dark gray and paint people in the distance. Don’t forget to make people smaller and lighter when they are further away.

You can create more types of brushes to have more variation.

Step 12 – Adding Shadows

There should be shadows under the monument and from people. To fix that add a new layer above all the layers and name it “SHADOWS.” Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick the color #808080, and fill the layer with it. Now change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay.

You have two options on how to make shadows. At first you can paint them with a black brush or use the Burn Tool. In the picture below you can see how the “SHADOWS” layer should look.

Step 13 – Adding Mist

Download some mist brushes (I used these) and install them into Photoshop. If you don’t know how to install brushes, then look at this tutorial. Add a new layer under the “MONUMENT,” name it “MIST,” and paint a nice fog with a white color.

Step 14 – Applying Texture

If you want your manipulation to have a grungy look you can add some grunge texture, which you will download or (like me) you can use the same texture which you used for creating the monument.

Open the document with the texture and drag it into the photo manipulation on the top of your layers. Name it “TEXTURE.” Then change the Blending Mode of the layer and also the opacity. I used an Overlay blending mode and Opacity of 30%, but you can experiment with different modes and opacities to get some interesting results.

Step 15 – Final Adjustment

This step depends on the photos you used again. For inspiration I will show you what I did.

I want the picture to be a little darker. To fix it, add a new adjustment layer of Levels on the top of the layers and set the Input Levels on: 0; 0,84; 255.

You can also add a vignette. Add one more Levels adjustment layer and now set the Input Levels on: 0; 0,55; 255. Grab the Gradient Tool (G), pick a solid black color, and fill the Layer Mask with it.

Now pick a white color, Grab the Brush Tool (B), and paint over the edges of the layer mask. It makes them darker.

Conclusion

Congrats! You’re finished. I hope that you’ve learned something new in this tutorial. Experiment with taking your own stock photos, which you can use in your photo manipulations!

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Create a Funky Perspective of a Model Riding Digital Volume

Marcel Pirosca — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:11:59 +0000

This is a tutorial illustrating perspective techniques and how you can achieve the feeling of depth and motion. We will be doing this in a few steps, such as placing the main character, creating the volume fading away and adding foreground and background images. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Tutorial details:

Programs: Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Modo
Difficulty: Advanced
Estimated Completion Time: 5-7 h

Step 1 – Preparing the canvas

Before we begin there are a few things worth mentioning. All the photos in this tutorial belong to the author, Pirosca Marcel. They were not gathered from stock sites around the net. The main character was shot in my photo studio.

First off I opened the original image resulted from the shooting with the main purpose being isolating the character and the shadows on the floor. First thing I noticed was that his face was not expressive enough for what I had in mind.

Before we begin cutting out the character I needed to replace his head with one from another picture where he looked more optimistic. I always shoot a lot of pictures every session, so when situations like this arise I have plenty of other images to choose from. The most important thing is that the light sources must be in the same place so it integrates seamlessly and believably. The light needs to come from the same directions. I have found the image below to be a good match for what I needed.

Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool create a selection around his head. The background contains only a flat color, so the selection should be very easy to make. I selected his head just as in the image below, then copy/pasted it into the original image, on a new layer.

I scaled and rotated it so that it matched the old head.

As you can see some integration is needed to be done for the head to blend perfectly. First off, cut out the background head so we can work on our new one. Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select and delete it. We should now have something similar to what we see below.

Notice that the most important region to work on is his neck. In order to obtain a nice transition from one to the other we need a transparency mask on the new head, then with a relatively soft (50%) Eraser Brush start deleting some of the harsh edges on the neck until you reach a good result. This part is open to a lot of trial and error, so using a mask will help us recover some of the parts we may have accidentally deleted. Finally, you should obtain something similar to the next image.

As we can see we need to work on some of the details. We need to fix the shirt and neck lighting in order for him to be believable. For the neck I used a combination of Dodge/Sponge tool as illustrated below.

In order to fix the shirt I copy/pasted a part of his shirt and then I blended it (using curves and transparency mask).

We are now ready to isolate our guy and the shadows on the floor. As he is a hard edged surface against a flat background it should be fairly easy to select him using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I personally prefer this tool over the paths approach to selection because I don’t have to adjust any control points and tangents, even though it means a lot more clicks. Copy/paste him into a new layer.

Next thing we want is having the shadow on a different layer. As you can see the background of the photo studio was kind of dirty, so in order to remove the stains I applied some Surface Blur. I found that this type of blur is best for this operation as it removes noise while preserving some detail.

Once we got to this stage we can select the shadow using Color Range and the following settings.

Of course there will be some unwanted regions in the selection. Hit OK, and after the selection was made enter Quick Mask mode. Proceed to erase the unnecessary parts, as depicted in the image below.

Now in order to have the exact shadow we need to subtract the contour of our guy from the remaining selection. While in Quick Mask mode Control-click the thumbnail of the main character layer in the layers palette. This will load the selection for that layer. Press Delete to erase the quick mask inside the selection.

Exit Quick Mask mode and we have the selection of the shadow. Just copy/paste it onto a new layer.

We now have the character and his shadow isolated and on separate layers. We are ready to begin the final image.

Step 2 – Composition

This was a HUGE piece of work, size related. In order to achieve the final image we need to create an image 3613 by 5000 pixels. To get an idea of what I actually wanted, first I took the main character and moved it around the canvas; finally deciding to place him on the lower half of the image following the flow of his body. Being on a separate layer meant I could add all sorts of details behind him. The first thing that needed to be done was to further differentiate him from the gray background.

Use a white, soft brush with 20% Opacity to create a glow behind the guy.

Next it’s time to determine how the lines in the image would flow. For this I used my tablet with the size controlled by the pen pressure and Opacity set to about 30%. I proceeded in drawing the lines on which our man was surfing by holding Shift (so that the brush draws a straight line) and pressing harder on the tablet (for the line to be thicker) at his feet and then pressing less as the lines faded away.

This gave the lines the feeling of perspective and also helped me to give a sense of depth. I have to add that this is a process prone to a lot of trial and error, so it might take a while until you are satisfied with the results.

Now it gets interesting. In order to be able to replicate all of the planes fading away and also maintain proper perspective I used the Vanishing Point Filter to eyeball the plane our man is surfing on. There is an entire discussion here, because you can’t define that plane exactly how it is in reality since you have no reference. After several attempts I settled for the one below, thinking it works. To do this go to Filter > Vanishing Point.

The deal with Vanishing Point is that these planes can be extended at 90 degrees or arbitrarily. Using this method I further constructed additional planes to help me keep track of perspective, while trying to match my sketch lines as close as I could.

With this setup in position I was now able to add elements that will be flowing along these planes. But first I had a point to settle.

Somewhere along the line I experimented with color variations since the gray seemed a little dull. I love color and decided to use its power to give it a little punch.

Step 3 – Color Scheme

In order to obtain the proper colors for this piece I used three adjustment layers and placed them on top of the image. Two of them affecting only the skin (using masks), and a third one to set the general mood. For the skin, a Levels and a Color Balance to add subtle color enhancement.

And then a Color Balance affecting the whole image to give an overall greenish mood. The settings are shown below.

We are now ready to add in the details.

Step 4 – Digital Volume

Open Illustrator and by copy/pasting and then scaling vertical rectangles you can obtain something similar to the first digital volume in the image below. Make a copy and move it below.

By adding horizontal rectangles and subtracting them, it’s easy to obtain the second one. Just create one rectangle, move it vertically (by holding down the Alt key to create a copy) and press Command + D repeatedly to multiply it.

Copy the second volume graphic and go to Photoshop.

Now paste it into the Vanishing Point filter. For some reason Photoshop doesn’t allow directly pasting paths from Illustrator there. So we must paste it on a new layer as pixels first. Rotate it and scale it vertically just as in the image below in order to have as much resolution as we can.

Then Command-click the layer thumbnail in the layers palette. This will bring up the selection of that layer. Press Command + C to copy it into the cache, then delete the layer. We can now move to the Vanishing Point filter.

Go to Filter > Vanishing Point and paste. You should have something like that shown below.

Now if you drag that selection onto the floor plane, Photoshop will automatically calculate the right perspective for you.

Do it again to extend the volume further back.

Go to blending options and add the styles shown below.

You should now have something looking like this.

In order to to have some of the squares transparent, like in the final image, create a Transparency Mask for this layer, and then use a 50% gray (#7a7a7a) to paint over the squares that you want transparent. This can be a tedious process and it is up to you to decide which ones you leave opaque and which not. I will illustrate.

Now to give it a little punch, duplicate that layer, set its Opacity to 68%, and apply the following Curves (Command + M) to its transparency mask and you get this. The gray in the mask should have turned to black so this layer affects only the opaque squares.

It should look something like this.

We have reached a delicate part which takes a lot of tweaking to get right, but the main idea is to use a copy of the volume, move it into place and then use the Warp Tool to simulate the curvature. The tricky part is that some of the lines may get curved the wrong way and I had to personally correct them. Fairly time consuming I must say, but no other idea to create that corner came to mind.

Using the same technique as before, create a transparency mask and block out some transparent squares using a 50% gray.

Again, use the Vanishing Point Filter, Warp and a Transparency Mask to create the next section. It will take some work, but I already illustrated the necessary techniques.

We proceed to add the rest of the sections until they vanish.

Back to Illustrator. Using the Pen Tool to create a path along the sketch lines. Then round the corners. The easiest way for rounding vertices is to use a script called Round Any Corner found in this archive. Read more here.

Fill the final path with white, remove the stroke, and copy/paste it into Photoshop underneath the “volume” layer.

In order to enhance the look I decided to add another volume, this time white, underneath the one we created. Use the Vanishing Point filter once again, copy the first volume created in Illustrator, and extend it into perspective, as shown below.

As we can see, the trail is overlapping the white volume, so we need a mask to hide part of it. Leave only the top-left section visible.

We just need to add the shadow underneath our guy and we’re done with this section. We isolated it earlier in another document so just copy/paste in a new layer and align it. Set it to Color Burn with 50% Opacity. Now he looks like he’s actually there.

Step 5 – Background and Foreground Images

There are multiple ways to create the flying images, but I found that the quickest and easiest was the 3D approach. Basically, I took the planes generated by Vanishing Point and tried to recreate them in 3D. Considering that they were flying on a vertical plane on the surfer’s sides meant I had to create only one plane. I could extend everything else from there. Hang on, you’ll see what I mean.

The application of choice was Modo, but this can be done just as easily in others too. Again, I did this in 3D because it was much faster, I could move the planes into perspective much easier, which means more experimenting hence better results. Arguably I could have done this with Vanishing Point too, but it would have been time consuming.

Besides on my computer, Photoshop kept crashing if I worked more than 30 seconds with Vanishing Point, which happened about 100 times when doing work on the music volume. After that, I knew 3D was the only choice. Besides you’ll learn a new technique.

First and foremost we need to prepare a backplate for the 3D environment with the plane we need to match. I used the following image. Save it as a separate JPG.

In Modo create a new scene.

Go to Item > Create Backdrop. This creates a plane which we can add the image above as reference.

On the right you will see the following menu. From the Items list choose the backdrop item you just created, then in Properties, go to Image > Load Image.

Choose the “backplate” we saved earlier.

As you can see, the backdrop rotates as we rotate the view. We don’t want that, we want it to remain still and only move the geometry. In order to do that go to Projection Type > Camera. This will make the “backdrop” invisible for the current perspective view, but it will act as a background for the camera.

Press Command + Space. This will bring up a pop-up menu where you can choose what your viewport will display. Select Camera of course.

Now if we rotate the viewport the background image will remain still. To make sure the rendering will have the same dimensions as our piece, on the right side go to Shader Tree > Render and set the width/height of the scene to 3613/5000.

We are ready now to match some geometry.

Make sure that Trackball Rotation is active in your camera Advanced OpenGL menu. This will ensure that the camera will be able to rotate on all axis not only on XZ.

Now the tricky part. By rotating the camera slowly try to match our 3D plane with the one in the reference. Also scale the plane and make it longer.

One thing is obvious, the camera perspective is not dramatic enough to match the two planes. When I say dramatic I mean that the parallel lines do not converge fast enough. So we need to increase it.

The perspective of a camera depends on how wide the entering cone of light is. The wider the cone, the greater the perspective. The narrower the cone, the lower. That’s why wide camera lenses tend to distort images and emphasize perspective. That cone angle is directly controlled by the focal length. Fortunately Modo’s camera model is very similar to the real world one, so we can edit that parameter.

I have found by trial and error that 10mm focal length is close to what we need.

Of course the objects are now smaller, because the wide angle covers more space. No worries there. We just have to close in with the camera, and rotate it. Suddenly, the plane fits much better.

Not the perfect match but with a little bit of tweaking the camera we are there.

This can be a tedious process because the first time you create the plane, you have to rotate the camera and change the focal length at the same time to get a good match. Which can be tricky and time consuming. But once you have the focal length determined, everything else is a piece of cake. Below are the camera settings to get the exact match.

Once we have that plane into place, we can duplicate, scale and move it to create different copies. You can move them parallel to each other to give the feeling of depth.

Observe the wide angle of the camera and the final geometry.

Press F9 to render the Camera view. It shouldn’t take long because it is a simple scene. This is what you get. Switch to Alpha Output and save a JPEG.

Back to Photoshop. Let’s see what we got so far.

Open the Alpha Image we saved from Modo in Photoshop. Copy it, then switch to our surfer, in the Channels tab create a new one and paste the alpha inside.

Now if you Command-click the channel thumbnail you get a selection.

Create a new layer and fill it with orange (#ff8f00).

Cut and paste the images that are supposed to be behind him on a new layer and move it underneath the “digital surfer” layer in the Layers Palette. This way they will seem to be behind him in space.

There are too many of them flying right now, they overcrowd the scene so proceed to erase some of them in order to maintain balance. Most are from the lower-left corner.

Now we will round off the corners of the images, so they look a little less pointy. To do that load the layer selection by Command-clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers Palette. We will first round off the small rectangles, as they need a smaller radius, and then progressively do the others. Subtract parts of the selection to obtain the one below.

Go to Select > Modify > Smooth and set the radius to 10 pixels. Then press Command + Shift + I to inverse the selection and delete. There you go. You now have rounded corners.

We need to apply the same technique to the larger images. This time with a radius of 20 pixels since they are closer to the camera. Do this for the next selection.

You will get this result.

And now the final step of this process is to round the corners of the foreground images. Repeat the above steps with using the radius in the image.

Proceed to apply the following style to the image layers. We need to give it a little depth.

The difference is very subtle around the edges but its still there.

Now we will assign different opacities to various images depending on how far they are from the camera. I need you to copy and paste the following onto a new layer and assign it 25% Opacity.

Copy and paste into a new layer the following selection and assign it a 65% Opacity.

Copy and paste the following selection into a new layer and assign it a 44% Opacity.

Copy and paste the following selection into a new layer and assign it a 75% Opacity.

After all these steps you should be looking at something like this.

The next thing to add are some highlights over the flying rectangles. Select all of them, then with a 20% Opacity, soft brush, paint some highlights on them. Take a look at the second picture below to get an idea.

The only thing left to do now is add some textures on top of them. I will demonstrate the technique used for one of the images, then by repeating it a lot all the other rectangles can be filled too. We’ll use one of my photos to do this. You can find the rest of the images used images here: xn3ctz.deviantart.com/gallery/. This is my portfolio of stock photography. Feel free to use them.

Anyway, copy and paste this image into a new layer in Photoshop.

Using the Transform tool Command-drag the corners to fit one of the rectangles we want to texture.

Then set the layer to Overlay blending mode and use a mask to round off the corners. The opacity can depend on the distance to the camera, meaning that the images in the background can be a little transparent to give the feeling of depth.

After you do this with all the other images you should end up with something pretty nice. Anyway, it is time consuming so I’ll jump straight to the end result.

Step 6 – Translucent Interface

I started by creating these fairly simple shapes in Illustrator. They will act as textures for the interface pieces.

Copy the bottom left shape into Photoshop and place it into position.

Set it to Multiply with 35% Opacity and apply the following layer styles.

Use the same settings and the Illustrator paths we first created to add the next shapes.

Add some texture using the other shapes. They should be white set to Soft Light blending mode at 100% Opacity. Place them using the Transform Tool (Command + T) and fit them to the interface pieces.

And now FINALLY the last step. Create a new layer, load the interface selection, and with a 20% Opacity, soft, white brush paint some highlights just as we did with the rectangles.

THAT’S IT! Just zoom-out turn on the visibility of all layers and enjoy!

Conclusion

With this tutorial we have explored various ways to create the feeling of depth and space while maintaining perspective. All starting from a simple photo, adding layers and layers of details all working together in a seamless piece.

I hope you liked it and learned some new techniques from this tutorial. See you online. Cheers!

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