Tutorial Details
- Program: Photoshop
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Completion Time: 1-2 hours
Download Source Files
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
This tutorial will demonstrate how to take an image, in this case a woman’s face, and give the appearance that it is entirely composed of vector shapes. Along the way, we’ll use some fairly basic techniques, including clipping masks and displacement maps, to achieve a unique effect!
Step 1
To begin, create a new document of pretty much whatever size you’d like. I personally prefer a wider look for this effect, but any size should work. You should, however, probably stick to a landscape aspect ratio, at least for following this tutorial.
I chose an image size of 720 x 480 pixels at a resolution of 300 pixels per inch.
Once you’ve created your new image, fill the background layer with solid black.
Step 2
Next, we have to find an image to work with. I chose a picture of a woman’s face that I found on the stock photography Web site stock.xchng, however, the owner of the photo requested that I credit the Web site iofoto.com, so I’ve just put both here.
You can use an image of almost anything for this effect, but to follow this tutorial, your best bet is to choose an image similar to mine, i.e. a human face.
Once you have your image, place it into your document as a new layer. Remove everything else in the picture, just leaving the face. I’ve also adjusted the brightness and saturation on my image. You can preserve the entire person’s head, but I personally think the effect looks better with the back of the head being cut off, leaving just the face.
Step 3
Duplicate the face layer and make sure it’s positioned exactly on top of the original face. Press Shift + Control + U to desaturate the layer and then go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Make sure the setting for Source is selected as Transparency, and use settings of 10, 0 and 0 for Radius, Blade Curvature, and Rotation, respectively. We’ll see later on why blurring this layer is necessary.
Step 4
Before we go any further, we need to save our document again, under a different name. So make sure the top, blurred layer is visible and save your document as “dispmap,” or whatever you want to call it. This file will be used as our displacement map later on.
Now we need our vector shapes, which will ultimately combine to actually form the woman’s face, or whatever image you chose. I used quite a few different shapes from GoMedia’s Arsenal Vector Sets 2 [Hooladanders] and 3 [Hooladanders 2]. You have to pay for them, but if you’d just like to try out the effect, a couple of shapes in the free Vector Pack Sample should work.
Once you have your shapes, start dragging a few into your Photoshop document. If it asks you how to paste them, choose Smart Object. How you place your objects here will greatly affect the end result. You may be tempted to just throw the shapes on any which way over your image, but you should take care to make sure they flow with the the contours of the image. This doesn’t have to be perfect as some adjustments will be made later, but just randomly placed objects will not produce as good an effect. Notice how in my image, all of the vector shapes not only flow with the contour of the woman’s face, but also flow in the same general direction relative to each other. Their weight is also distributed toward the front of the face, with the tails of the shapes trailing toward the back of the head. Remember, we want it to look as though these vector shapes are all gathering together and combining to form the image.
Also important to take into consideration is the number of shapes you lay over your image. While it may seem like adding more shapes will produce a more complex and intricate look, it will actually take away from the desired effect because almost the entire original image will be visible. We want to be able to see the black background through different areas between the shapes.
Step 5
Now, select your first vector shape layer, and go to Filter > Distort > Displace. Leave the Horizontal and Vertical Scale values at 10, and select the Stretch to Fit and Repeat Edge Pixels options and click OK. When the file dialog appears, select the file you saved earlier as “dispmap” (or whatever you called it) and click Open.
For anyone unfamiliar with this feature, displacement mapping takes an object or layer, in our case a vector shape, and using another image file (a displacement map), transforms the image so that it would fit over the map. It determines this by the color of each pixel in the displacement map, with lighter pixels corresponding to what would be a higher area on a 3D model of the image. The reason we copied the original image of the woman’s face and desaturated it was to allow for an easier mapping by eliminating colors. We also blurred the image because displacement mapping in Photoshop is very accurate. If we had tried it on the original image, our vector shapes would appear choppy because in reality they were mapped to the smallest bumps and textures on the woman’s skin. Blurring the image slightly leaves only the smooth contours of the woman’s face, allowing for our vector shapes to maintain their smoothness but still conform to the face.
Step 6
Once you have used the displacement mapping on all of your vector shapes, you need to then duplicate your original image layer as many times as the number of shapes you have. What we need is a copy of the original image for every vector shape we have, with the copy on top of its shape in the layers palette. When you’re finished arranging everything, you will have alternating image and vector shape layers, starting at the top with an image layer.
Step 7
We now need to create the clipping masks that will transfer our original image into the vector shapes. So for each copy of the image layer in the layers palatte, right-click it and select Create Clipping Mask. Don’t worry if no visible changes occur; you won’t see them until you make the very last clipping mask. You can tell if you’ve made the mask successfully if there is a small arrow pointing down in the image layer and the vector shape layer below it is underlined.
Step 8
Once you have made all of the clipping masks, you should begin to see the final image take shape. However, we’re not done just yet. Now select the topmost vector shape layer and add a Drop Shadow to it. I used an angle of 140 degrees, and settings of 10, 10 and 20 for Distance, Spread and Size, respectively.
Once you’ve got a shadow effect that looks good, right-click on that vector shape layer and select Copy Layer Style. Then, right-click all of the other vector shape layers and select Paste Layer Style.
Step 9
At this point, we’ve finished the final effect on the image. I added a Radial Gradient to the background to give the impression that light is coming from the left to match the general shading of the image.
Final Image
Finally, I have added some text and darkened the neck area so it sits further in the shadows. Additionally, I upped the contrast to make the image a little more eerie.
This technique can be applied to any image using any vector shapes. The key to making it look convincing is matching the vector objects to the shape, contours, and flow of the object image they’re to be wrapped around. It’s an odd effect, but I hope you were able to gain something from this tutorial, and good luck with your own work!
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Thank you for this tutorial.
Excellent
great tutorial thanks for sharing
my first try
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36567461@N04/3439798255/
That was quick but very good tut!!!… I’ll try this one time! Thanks!
Thx mate was able to do it:))))) it’s really amazing:)
Love it, gonna try it out soon!
(:
didnt work for me ended up with grey lines all over the original image dont know what to do?
This might sound silly, but do you still have the desaturated layer still showing? If you do it will make the lines appear grey instead of black. Just uncheck the visibility for that layer and it should look fine.
Just so you know, the original image of the girl has been deleted from the site :(
Very nice effect, I’ve come up with this one
http://nevermind41.deviantart.com/art/The-Forest-Guardian-130699648
Thanks for the tut!
I was really looking out for this.. excellent work.. thanks for sharing…
This is amazing!
I would very much like to do this one as well, but I just can’t get the vectors to work….
When I open the vector file in Photoshop I get an image with all the vectors in one layer and I can’t select them individually.
What am I doing wrong? Can anyone help please..?
(Do I have to use illustrator with the vector files?)
THANK!! NICE TUTORIAL, I DID IT AND WAS FANTASTIC!!
This Looks Reall good im gonna look at usin this ths
Excelent, I’m learning a lot for us guys, thanks for sharing
Thanks to you,I can now use the displacement effect…thanx men
I HATE to break it to EVERYONE, THIS IS NOT THE CORRECT METHOD!
I examined the results carefully and experimented and finally figured out how this can be done as Alberto Seveso does it.
The correct method does not involve placement of each vector shape and also it does not involve original image’s displaement map. This method crumples up the vectors and give a nasty finish.
Proper method is entirely a unique process which I will try to write a tutorial of as soon as I get some time.
Thanks
Imran
Hi pls let me know when you have the correct tutorial, many many thanks
dip.chandarana@gmail.com
I would love to know of the proper method too.
splunge@mchsi.com
hi imran, do you have the correct tutorial yet mate, im really looking forward to producing something with color
i would like to know your tecnique, thanks
Did you ever create the tut? Would love to know the correct method.
this is wicked…… thanx for the amazing tut…. :D
freakin’ amazing
how did you find this way?
Nice tutorial.
I found an awesome project that actually pushes this sort of thing to the next level using programming and 3D.
Check it!
http://cinemaflash.cias.rit.edu/
Excelent post dude!!! thanks for share!
I managed to figure out how its done :
here is my version
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2756378&id=60712339109
hi and thx for this tutorial, i am beginner and that really helps me!
thats my result, hope it’s good xD:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nguyenminhducdd/4122856116/
http://1993duc.deviantart.com/art/Sharing-Vision-144425251
nic nic
this is thank you..
my version :)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2880845&id=60712339109&ref=mf
Great tutorial..
but I think it would look better if you have let the eyes and lips look normal.. to provide the detail of the face.. as its not really clear here..
good stuff though !
amazingly simple
I nuted!
the vector used in the tutorial is not available in the free pack.
where in hell can i get the vector now?
First i saw the pic, I thought it would be for advance user. But hey, I can do it as a beginner!
Hi!! I love this one!! I want to make one but what photoshop should I use? Is it only Adobe? What are other photoshops that I could use?
You can also use the Fisher Price Photoshop.
wow…i like this one…i’ll make one also.
can this only be done with vectors? is it possible to make it with brushes?
Yeah, I tried to download vectors, and figured out how they worked, and it all got fucked up. So then, I tried to convert what I’d created into brushes, and then, instead of ‘Vector Smart Objects’, I made them ‘Smart Objects’ which works the exact same. So, for anyone paying hundreds of dollars, or whatever currency, for all those fancy vectors, you can get the exact same without them :)
i did this with a pair o sexy legs lol ill post the link when im back ome lol
Can someone please help me? I don’t get step 7… I made all the clipping masks but i still just see the original image.
Cheers
Thanks for this, Alberto! Wonderful tute, I’ve been looking for this for a long time, ever since I’ve seen your work! You’re brilliant!!
thank you so much!!! this is going to help me with my homework so much!!!
I doesn’t work for me! When i do this step for step and then when i copied every layer en apply clipping mask it still shows my vectors in black and not skin ! Strange. any solutions or maybe a re writting tut for this? thanks in advance
hey man there is some toturial about of this effect on video or on spanish?
have problems to do that effect I need it spanish
tanks.
This is sucks. In furture use free resources and use ur brain. People dont want to pay for workmanship tuts.
Think about it, and change yr mind.
p.s sorry for gramma mistakes
Hi, very very basic question I’m sure, but I got some free vectors and can’t figure out how to open them/place them in photoshop? I tried looking online but it simply says to use Illustrator….but this is a Photoshop tutorial so I figure I’m missing something!
very amazing….top tutorials
Fantastic effect!
please help….
when i apply the displacement on each vector layer with the same settings using my dispmap save, it distorts the image horribly… making the vectors look like swirls and smushed… i have to disable the displacement to bring them back…. why is it doing this!?!?!
thanks…
Nice tutorials. Strange. any solutions or maybe a re writting tut for this? thank you for share.
Just in case anyone wanted to know, you can do the same effect without vectors. Use brushes, create the layers the same way, but I did that before using them, clipping masks, then draw wherever you want it to go. It helps to have the plain layer at the bottom, so you can just see the brush and what it covers up/creates. Then, create clipping mask, with the brush below the image, and you’re done. I also left the de saturated layer at the top at 10% opacity, and then left more of the face blank, so you can see more and less at the same time, it’s preference.
What I would like to know though, would be is there a way to only have one image of the face, and then have ten different clipping masks? I tried for a minute, and couldn’t. I’ve only been using photoshop occasionally, this is my first tutorial, so someone probably knows how :) thanks
I still don’t get it :(
Nice tutorial folks!
thanks for sharing such a fantastic idea
Thanks! what a great way to use clipping masks! I didn’t use the displacement mapping you suggested here. it worked just fine without.
here’s my finished image!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83058896@N00/5300311397/