Here is the ad poster design we will create.

Resources

Step 1: Preparing the Product

For this tutorial, I've chosen a classic Nike shoe. You can use any kind of product image and create the same effects. If you want to work with this particular shoe open it from the zip file you just downloaded. If you want to pick your own product make sure you extract it so that it is isolated on its own layer without a background.

Once you've decided on the poster design's subject (i.e. what article of clothing, electronics or product you'll be featuring), Use the Pen Tool (P) in Paths mode to select around the edges of the shoe.

Press Ctrl(or Cmd on a Mac) + Enter to make a selection (or, in your canvas, right-click inside the path and then choose 'Make Selection' in the menu that appears), invert the selection (Select > Inverse) and hit Delete to remove its background. This process should isolate our subject for our product ad and prepare us for the next part.

Step 2: Create a New Photoshop Document and Place the Subject

Create a new document (Ctrl/Cmd + N) in Photoshop. Mine is 1000x800px with a white background.

Once your new PSD is created, paste in the shoe.

Step 3: Add the Background Texture

The focus of our work is the product (the shoe); this is why we will create a soft, unobtrusive background with the goal of making the piece focus into the subject.

Extract & Open the texture files from the zip file you downloaded, I picked the second one here, select it, and copy/paste it into your document with ypur product (Ctrl+A Ctrl+C go to your work file Ctrl+V).

Press Ctrl+T to activate the Free Transform command and reduce grunge texture's image size to fit our canvas.

Place the texture's layer between the shoe layer and the default white Photoshop Background layer.

Step 4: Enhance the Background Texture

Desaturate the texture by selecting its layer in the Layers Panel and pressing Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + U (or choosing Image > Adjustments > Desaturate).

After desaturating the texture, switch its layer's Blend Mode to Overlay. The background will now become completely white because it's overlaid into the white Background layer, but don't worry: we will fix this using blending options.

Right-click on the Background layer in the Layers Panel and select Blending Options. The Layer Styles dialog window will pop up. Here, add a grey (#b5b5b5) Color Overlay.

After you have added the Color Overlay layer style, reduce texture layer's Opacity to around 30%.

Tip: When you resize a texture, lots of small details will be lost. To enhance details on your texture, you can use the Sharpen filter (Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen) if you want.

Step 5: Create the Floor

Now that we have a nice grungy background, let's create the floor for our subject. Duplicate the texture layer by right-clicking on its layer in the Layers Panel and choosingDuplicate Layer in the menu that appears.

Since the Blend Mode of the original texture layer is set to Overlay, we need to set the Blend Mode of the duplicated layer back to Normal.

Afterwards, Press Ctrl/Cmd + T to activate Free Transform and then drag down the top-center transform control to reduce the texture's height as if we are squashing it down - in this way, we are creating the idea of perspective.

Next, grab the Burn Tool (O) from the Tools Panel to darken parts of the floor; in particular, we want to darken the bottom corners.

The floor is still too prominent - we want it to be more blended with the textured background. In this way, we give depth to the image and the floor looks less distracting. Use the Eraser Tool (E) to remove the top horizon (the top edge of the floor). Choose a large, soft brush with Hardness at 0% for your Eraser Tool.

Tip: If you prefer, use a layer mask and a black brush on the floor layer to achieve the same result.

To complete the floor, create a new layer on top of it, select a black, large, soft brush and paint over the corners to darken them. Afterwards, reduce the Opacity of this layer to 10%.

The aim of this step is to drive the viewer's attention to the center of our canvas where we've placed the product.

Step 6: Create a Light Effect Behind the Shoe

The background is almost complete. The last touch is a light effect behind the shoe. It's my habit to enhance subjects with light effects - it's a way to embellish the product and draw even more attention to it. Don't forget that the aim of an ad poster is to sell, so we have to do our best to increase the customer's desire to buy it. Even just a few details can make the difference between them looking longer or looking away quickly.

For the light effect, start by creating a new layer that is immediately above the background layers.

Then use a big, white soft brush and click once on the canvas with the Brush Tool (B) to create the light effect.

Step 7: Create a "Toxic Paint" Effect

We will now integrate paint effects into our composition. We will place them on the back portion of the shoe, making it look like as if paint is melting the shoe (hence, "toxic paint").

In order to achieve this result, we need to determine what colors to use by sampling parts of the shoe with the Eye Dropper Tool (I) and we also have to play with their colors to match shoe colors.

For this effect, you will need to extract the Paint Tossing Pack from the zip file downloaded earlier.

Let's start from the bottom of the shoe (the yellow area). The best option would be to find a paint effect with a simple horizontal-oriented shape. This one (which is part of the Paint Tossing Pack) is perfect for our needs:

Prepare the Yellow Paint Shape

Open this texture in Photoshop and double-click on the default white Background layer to unlock it.

Grab the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the white area by clicking on a white area in the canvas (which should automatically select all white areas), and hit Delete to remove the background. Drag the prepared shape into the main canvas.

Activate the Free Transform command (Ctrl/Cmd + T) to rotate and resize the paint shape. Position it on the yellow sole of the shoe.

Now we have to make the paint shape yellow; we will use two adjustment layers for this.

With the paint shape layer as the active layer in the Layers Panel, choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. In order to affect only the paint (and not all the layers that are below the Gradient Map adjustment layer), create a clipping mask (Layer > Create Clipping Mask) on the adjustment layer.

Set a color gradient going from a dark yellow (#e9c603) to a lighter one (#f3df71).

The paint's color is still too light, so use a Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) to darken it a little bit so that it matches the yellow color of the sole of the shoe.

Finally, create a layer mask on the paint shape, grab a soft, black brush and then use the Brush Tool (B) to erase a small area on the right side of the paint shape so that it looks as if it belongs to the shoe.

Bottom White Paint

Other "toxic paint" effects are created using the same method, but applying different adjustment layers.

For the white paint shape, I've applied a Black & White adjustment layer to desaturate the shape and a Gradient Map adjustment layer going from a light grey (#d7d7d7) to white (#ffffff) to color it.

Red Paint

For the red paint, I've chosen a red paint shape from the Paint Tossing pack that's rotated horizontally with Free Transform. To darken its color, I've applied a Curves adjustment layer.

Grey Paint

For the grey paint, I've increased its brightness to 70 using a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast). Secondly, I've added a Gradient Map adjustment layer going from a dark grey (#525252) to a lighter grey (#e6e6e6).

Top White Paint

Finally, for the last paint effect, I've applied the same adjustment layer used for the Bottom White Paint.

Step 8: Refine and Enhance the Shoe with a Layer Mask

Select the shoe layer and create a layer mask on it by clicking on the Add layer mask button at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Once the mask is created, you can use a black, soft brush for the Brush Tool (B) to erase parts of the shoe without losing any pixels (which is great if you want to modify your work, go back to its original state, or if you make a mistake - just delete the layer mask). This will create the illusion of the paints being continuously connected to the shoe.

Step 9: Add Shadows on the Shoe

Create a new layer below the shoe layer; we will add a soft shadow effect for the shoe on this layer. The best way is to grab a soft, black brush and paint at the bottom of the shoe.

Once you have painted the areas where the shadows are, decrease the layer's Opacity to reduce the shadow's prominence.

Create more shadows, but don't just use a single layer to create shadows. I suggest creating different spots on different layers. In this way, you have more control, you can create depth, and you can tweak individual shadow layers to produce interesting outcomes. For example, you can reduce the Opacity of each layer at different values so that the shadow looks more realistic.

Step 10: Perform Final Refinements

The ad poster is almost complete. Colors interact in a way that I like. It's simple but vivid at the same time. It's also directed and focused, as a product ad design needs to be. Observing the current composition, I think there's nothing left to change.

What we can do better, though, is increasing the poster's color contrasts. To do this, create a new Gradient Map adjustment layer on top of all the other layers. Set the gradient to go from black to white and then switch the adjustment layer's Blend Mode to Overlay.

Finally, reduce the layer Opacity until you're satisfied with color contrasts in your composition, an Opacity value of 30%, seems to work well here.

To style it up a bit, just add the Nike logo (or ANY logo you wish), in this case I downloaded the blick logo on a white background, placed it in the document, set the layer to Multiply, and we're done.

Resources

• Candles against black wall & The Raven
• Textures and Smoke

Step 1: Create the Photoshop document

Okay, here we go! Open a new file (Ctrl + N) in Photoshop. Name it as you wish, Here's we'll name it "Raven's Night".  Set the width and height to 3500px.  As Background Contents- choose Background Color if you have black as your background color (press D to reset your foreground and background color to white and black). If you haven't, you can color it to black (#000000) later with the Paint Bucket Tool (G).

Step 2: Put the candles in the canvas

Open Candles against black wall in Photoshop.

In this image, press Ctrl + A or go to Select > All to select the whole canvas.

Then press Ctrl + C (or Edit > Copy). Go back to your main canvas (the one we named "Raven's Night") and press Ctrl + V to paste the candles image into it. Name this layer "candles".

Move this layer towards the bottom of the canvas using our Move Tool (V).

Step 3: Masking the "candles" layer

In the Layers Panel, press on the Add layer mask icon to add a layer mask to the candles layer. On this mask, we will erase some parts of the background with the Brush Tool (B) to fade it better with the black background.

With the layer mask selected in the Layers Panel, use a soft brush tip with black (#000000) as your foreground to mask unnecessary parts. By this, I mean the edges of this image to make it more faded into our black background.

Here are brush settings that I have used:

Tip: Later, you should reduce the brush Opacity and Master Diameter to make masking more precise. If you accidentally delete some parts accidentally, you can easily restore them using a white brush on the layer mask.

After masking, your image should look something like this:

The advantage of working with layer masks is that you can always tweak and improve the masking until you are satisfied with it, so you don't need to be perfectly precise.

Step 4: Add the raven into the composition

Open The Raven stock photo in Photoshop. Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to cut it out from its background by tracing around it. Simply point and click with the Polygonal lasso tool.



This can be a little tricky. Make sure you zoom in close. Click and drag and make lots of point-and-click to trace along the edges. When you double click it will make the selection by joining up with the very first point you made. Ctrl+Z to undo any mistake. Hold down SHIFT to ADD to the selection. Use the Space bar to click-and-drag to move around without having to use the scroll bars.

After you're done with cutting out the raven, you need to place it in the "Raven's Night" canvas. We will use the same technique as we did for placing the candles photo. Press Ctrl + C (Edit > Copy), switch to our main canvas, and then press Ctrl + V to paste the raven into your working composition. Name this layer "raven".

No matter how precise you cut out the object from the stock photo, there will always be some tiny flaws. In the "raven" layer, you will probably see a white edge in some places around the raven. You can remove it by choosing Layer > Matting >Defringe. Set the Width to 3px.

Here you go, the raven's edges look a bit better.

Now it is time to put the raven where it is supposed to be in the composition. Choose Edit > Free Transform or press Ctrl + T which should create a transform box around the subject (if not, make sure that Show Transform Controls in the Options bar is checked).

We will place our raven on the leftmost candle. Right-click inside the transform box and choose Flip Horizontal from the list of transform commands to make the subject flip to the left.

Now scale the raven by holding Shift and selecting one of the corner transform controls of the transform box. Move this handle towards the center while holding Shift to scale the raven proportionally.

Then when you are done, move it to the place where it is supposed to be- on top of the left candle.

When you are satisfied by the size and position, press Enter to apply the transformation.

Step 5: Improving the raven with clipping mask layers

Your raven probably still has some light parts that shouldn't be there - we can paint over them with black or a dark gray color to make them more obvious.

We will make this on a new layer. While holding Alt, press on the Create a new layer icon in the Layers Panel. Name this layer "improving raven" and check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option.

Select the Brush Tool (B). Use a soft brush as you did before, but this time, lower the Opacity option in the Options bar to approximately 50%.

Use black color and paint all places that have rough edges or that don't look blended into the scene. This depends on how precise you cut the raven out from its background earlier. Here is how my raven looks with and without the "improving raven" clipping mask so that you can see how well this technique does in blending in a superimposed item such as our raven.

With the "improving raven" layer

Without the "improving raven" layer

I suppose difference is more than obvious, don't you think?

Step 6: Connecting the raven with the candle

Now we can connect the raven with the candle so that it looks like she is stuck in the wax.  While holding Alt, press on Create a new layer icon in the Layers Panel. Name this layer "wax", making sure that you select the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option. This layer should be above the "improving raven" layer.

Select the Brush Tool (B) and use a soft brush tip with the Master Diameter set approximately at 15px and Opacity to about 40%. Note that you can (and should) always change these values during the process depending on where you are painting-these options affect the accuracy and harshness of your brush, so change it based on the area you are painting, as needed.

With the Brush Tool still as your active tool, press Alt to temporarily switch to the Eyedropper Tool (very nice and handy trick for when you are painting). Pick some color from the candle near the raven's claws. Paint with this color on the "wax" layer.

You should pick up a few different colors during this process to achieve better results.

Step 7: Desaturating the raven

You can probably notice that the raven has some kind of blue cast. It would be better if it is black since ravens are usually black. We can do this by desaturating the raven. To start, select the "raven" layer. Afterwards, choose Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or just use the keyboard shortcut for this action (Ctrl + Shift + U).

Here is our scene so far.

Step 8: Make the flame on the candle

We are done with the raven for now. Let's bring some life to our scene by adding light to the candle. We will do that only with the center candle.

Make a new layer above the "raven" layer and its clipping mask layers. Name this layer "Flame".

Set a green color as your Foreground color.

Select the Brush Tool (B). Set your Opacity to 60% and Master Diameter to something big like 1400px.

Click just once in the center of your scene, above the center candle.

We are going to do this several times, reducing the brush size incrementally and changing the green color to a lighter shade.

Reduce the Master Diameter of the brush to 1,200px while keeping the opacity the same. Also, change your green foreground to a slightly lighter green.

Again, click just once in the center of the color spot you previously made.

Next, reduce the brush size to 1000px and another slightly lighter green color.

Again, click on the spot you previously made.

Reduce the brush size to 800px and choose this color:

Click once in the center of color spot you previously made.

Reduce the brush size to 600px and choose a lighter green (you probably get the picture of what we're doing now).

Press once in the center of color spot you previously made.

Reduce the brush size to 400px, choose a lighter green, and click on the center of our glow.

Reduce the brush size to 250px, choose a lighter green, and click on the center of our glow.

Reduce the brush size to 200px, and this time, also reduce Opacity to 30%. Choose another green color and click on the center to apply the paint stroke.

Reduce brush size to 150px and select a very faint green color and click on the center.

Change brush size to 1000px and press once in the center of color spot you previously made with same color to lighten up the whole flame.

Step 9: Smudge the green flame

We can make the flame look a bit less like a circle with the Smudge Tool, which is one of the best tools that can do what we want. Select the Smudge Tool from the Tools Panel and set its Strength to 36%, Master Diameter to 250px, and Hardness at 0%.

First, we can smudge the bright center a bit towards the top with an upwards motion. Set your brush size to 250px and drag it from the center of flame upwards.

Now set the brush size to 600px and smudge upwards from an area above the flame highlight.

Now it is obvious that this flame is not so super smooth, so we should blur it using Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

As you can notice, our flame is now much smoother after applying the filter.

Step 10: Work on the lighting on the raven

The green flame from the candle should cast its light to other objects around it. We will start with adding some lights on the raven. First, get on the "wax" layer. While holding Alt, press on the Create a new layer icon in Layers Panel. Name this layer "lighting" and check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option. Afterwards, set this new clipping mask layer's blending mode to Color.

Pick the Brush Tool (B) and use a soft brush with approximately 20% Opacity. Select a green color as your foreground color.

Paint with this color on the raven on places that the candle's green flame should cast a light onto it.

Now it would be nice to add some highlights to raven. While holding Alt, click on the Create a new layer icon in the Layers Panel. Name this layer "raven highlights" and select the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option. Set this layer's blend mode to Overlay.

Select white as your foreground color and afterwards use a soft brush with Opacity set to 22% and Master Diameter to 15px.

Paint the lightened area, mostly on the right side of the raven. Also, paint with a white color on the raven's eye to lighten it up a bit and make it a bit more prominent.

After you are done with that, duplicate the layer to achieve even more lighting. You can also paint some areas on the left side with a black color to darken them a bit.

Step 11: Work on the overall shading of the scene

Now we should shade our image a bit to achieve a more dramatic effect. Make a new layer above the "flame" layer and name it "shading".

Select the Brush Tool (B) and set black (#000000) as your foreground color.

Use a big value for the brush diameter; I used approximately 1000px, but you should change this a few times during the process depending on the area you are painting on. Also, set the Opacity option to something low-around 20% is a good value.

Paint around the flame area to fade it better to our dark background.

Below, you can see the areas where I painted with black (marked in red).

Step 12: Fix the light on the candles

Light from the middle candle should also be cast on the other two candles. The biggest problem here is that the light is coming from the left on our original candles stock photo.

It should be that way on the right candle, but the left candle should be lightened on its right side. So let's fix that!

In the previous step, we already darkened the candle on the left side, but now we should lighten it on the right side. To start, make a new layer under the "flame" layer and name it "candle lighting". Use the Brush Tool with a soft brush and with the Opacity set to approximately 20%.

Pick some light color from the candle with the Eyedropper Tool to set your foreground color and paint with it on the right side of the candle.

Tip: I suggest turning off the visibility of the "flame" and "shading" layers while doing this step so that you can pick good colors. I started with this off-white/light gray color, but I changed it a few times while painting.

Try to keep the right edge as sharp as possible. I suggest using small brush sizes. If it will look too blurry, you can erase it a bit with the Eraser Tool (E), setting the hardness to approximately 50% or even more.

Using a light color, paint on the right side of the middle candle a bit to remove the hard shadow it has.

Step 13: Create more green flame reflections on the candles

Now it is time to add green light reflections to the candles. First, try to think of where that light from the candle should fall on the other objects. Make a new layer above the "candle light" layer and name it "reflected light". Switch its blending mode to Color. Select the Brush Tool and use the same green color as we used in Step 10.

We will also be using the same brush settings: set Hardness to 0% and approximately 20% Opacity. Use some smaller brush sizes: I used between 20px to 150px depending on the size of the area I needed to paint.

Step 14: Lightening the subject

Now it is time to bring more attention to the focus of our image. We will do that by lightening it up a bit to achieve more contrast.

Make a new layer above the "shading" layer and name it "focus". Select the Brush Tool with 30% opacity and size of 600px.

Use a white color and paint one spot in the highlighted area of the flame. Now change the brush size to 2500px and set the opacity to 10%.

Paint one spot and try to have its center between the raven and candle flame. Duplicate this layer and set its blending mode to Overlay. Now you should have something like this:

Step 15: Lightening the candle borders

Now we should lighten the edges of the left and right candles a bit as we did with our raven.

Make a new layer above the "flame" layer and name it "light edges". Set the mode to Overlay.

Use a soft brush with a size of 4px and Opacity to 20%. Paint lines on the right edge of the left candle and on the left edge of right candle.

Tip: If you do not use a graphics tablet, it would be useful to hold Shift and click with the brush once on top of the candle and once again on bottom of the candle to make a straight line. You can also paint the middle candle a bit to give it more definition.

Step 16: Creating light streaks on the candle

Let's spice up our cool photo manipulation scene. Light effects would give a new dimension to your work. To start making more light effects, make a new layer above the "focus" layer and name it "lines".

Set the foreground color to white (#ffffff) and pick the Line Tool (U) from the Tools Panel. I have used these settings:

Draw few vertical lines of different lengths while holding Shift to ensure that they are straight.

Choose Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use these settings:

Now you need to transform your lines a bit. Press Ctrl + T to activate the Free Transform command and start transforming the lines to make them varied.

Right-click on a line, and then pick Perspective from the list of transform commands.

While holding Shift, move the upper left transform control towards the left, and then move the lower left control towards the right. We are changing their angle so that it looks like they are radiating from the center of the green flame.

Move the lines upward so they start from the candle's flame. If needed, you can use the Eraser Tool (E) to erase some unnecessary lines that go under the candle flame.

Now duplicate the layer with lines and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with the Radius set to about 15.8px.

We should now blur the lines in some parts that are close to the candle flame to make the transition a bit softer and smoother. Select the Blur Tool from the Tools Panel and set its Hardness to 0% and Strength to 50%.

On the "lines" layer, blur parts closest to the candle with the Blur Tool.

Let's preview our work:

Step 17: Add sparkles on the candle

We can add some sparkles to the flame to give it another interesting component. Make a new layer above the "lines copy" layer and name it something intuitive like "sparkles".

Select the Brush Tool and in the Brushes Panel (Windows > Brushes or hit F5), set your options to:

Paint with the brush a few times from the lightest area towards the top of the scene. Set this layer's blending mode to Soft Light. Now you should have something like this on the light area:

By now your second zip file has finished downloading, go ahead and extract then open the stock photos of smoke from the raven2.zip file, there's many to choose from so go through them all and pick about of your favorite ones.

Select the entire canvas (Ctrl + A) and then copy and paste each one it into our working file. Name these layers "smoke1", "smoke 2",and so on, and put them above the "sparkles" layer.

Desaturate the smoke layers by pressing Ctrl + Shift + U on each one.  Set its mode to Screen.  Press Ctrl + L or choose Image > Adjustments > Levels.

Use these settings to make the smoke a bit more contrasted:

Select the Eraser Tool (E) and erase hard edges on the bottom of the "smoke" layer.

Press Ctrl + T to activate the Free Transform command. Drag one of the corner handles while holding Shift to downsize the smoke a bit so it fits better into the light flame.

Erase some parts of the smoke to make it more interesting and to fade it better into the background.

You can also copy this smoke layer and transform it a bit, or add some other smoke imagery to make the scene more smoky.

I added a few more smoke images, set their mode to Screen, desaturated them, fixed contrast with Levels adjustments (Image > Adjustments > Levels or Ctrl + L), transformed them and erased some parts. I encourage you to experiment and make your own smoke effects. Mine looks like this:

Step 18: Add a texture

Now that we have spiced up our candle a bit with lighting effects, let's try to add a textured and aged look to our scene. Textures works nicely with dark images, they add an extra flavor to them.

We will start by adding textures on the edges of our work. Open <1>mediterranean paint texture (the deep golden yellow texture); in Photoshop and copy and paste it into your working file.

Place this texture above all layers and name it "texture" and then press Ctrl + Shift + U to desaturate it.

Change its mode to Screen and Opacity to approximately 25%.

Press Ctrl + T and drag one of the corner transform controls to scale up this layer. Upsizing an image will cause it to lose quality, but since this is a texture that does not need to be extra sharp, it is fine, and in fact, desired.

Add a layer mask to this layer. With the layer mask selected, choose the Gradient Tool (G) from the Tools Panel and use these settings:

Make sure black is your foreground color and then drag on the canvas a few times to erase the texture from the middle of the scene. You can also use the Eraser Tool (E) to improve your texture masking. Try to keep the texture only on the dark background and erase it from everything else.

Now we will add another texture. Open brown paper texture in Photoshop. Copy and paste it to working file. Name it "texture2" and set the blending mode to Overlay.

Put this layer above the "texture" layer.

Use the Move Tool (V) to place this texture right at the middle of canvas. Further transformations aren't necessary.

Add a layer mask, and with the layer mask active in the Layers Panel, press Ctrl + Shift + I to invert mask to black to mask the whole texture.

Afterwards, select the Gradient Tool (G), use white (#ffffff) as your foreground color and drag once from the center to make it visible in areas around the candle flame.

Isn't that cool? You can see how textures can bring life and an added interesting element to your work. Feel free to experiment with different textures and blending modes to achieve different results.

Step 19: Adding some colors to the scene

It seems like we are almost done (and we are). The only thing that is left to do is making some good colors for our dark scene. I don't want to make the scene too colorful of a piece since it is supposed to be dark and mysterious, but I will add a bit of color to it to give it another appealing element.

In the Layers Panel, press on the Create new fill or layer adjustment icon. Be sure to make this adjustment layer above all of our existing layers.

From the list of adjustment layers, select Color Balance and use the following settings:

Now create a new layer above the Color Balance adjustment layer and name it "purple edges". Select a purple color like this one:

Paint with this color using a large, soft brush tip around the edges of your canvas to achieve something like this:

Set the blending mode of this layer to Hue. Duplicate this layer and set the blending mode to Overlay. Reduce the opacity to approximately 25%.

Now we should make the focus of our scene (the green flames) a bit more eye-catching. Make a new layer and name it "center glow". Set the mode to Overlay and its Opacity to 36%.

Then select a green color like this one:

Select the Brush Tool (B) with Opacity at 100%, Hardness 0% and brush size to something large like 2500px.

Click once in the middle of the canvas (above the flame) to apply the brush stroke.

Now change the foreground color to a yellow.

Use a brush size of about 1200px and click once above the flame to make it more yellow.

Voila! You are done!

Resources

• Download Stock Photos

Step 1: Create a new file

Create a new file with a width of 3000 px and a height of 3000 px at 300 dpi (Dots per Inch). Background Contents should be Transparent.

Step 2: Create the sky

First off, let's open the Premade background in Photoshop. We will be using the clouds on this stock image so we will need to transfer it to our main canvas.

Click on this "premade_11" background and press V to activate the Move Tool. Click the image and drag it to the main canvas, or just hit Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C to select and copy it, then paste it into your working file.

Once you have it there, press Ctrl + T to activate the Free Transform command and scale the image so that it's the same size as our canvas.

Now we're going to duplicate that layer to make it look more like a stormy sky where the light comes from only one direction. Press Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer.

Then we are going to flip this layer horizontally to erase the overcast part of the sky. Making sure the duplicated layer is the layer you're currently on in the Layers Panel, choose Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.

After transforming, click on the duplicate layer and erase the overcast sky.

Step 3: Retouch the sky to make it look more tempestuous

In this step, we will be creating a sky scene that's dark and gloomy-"tempestuous" is the best way I can describe it. But first, we should fix the viewer's focus on the center of the image because that will be our source of light and where our subject will be placed. Additionally, the cloud formations here greatly resemble that of a stormy sky.

Let's create a new layer by pressing the shortcut combination, Ctrl + Shift + N, or by clicking on the Create a new layer button in the Layers Panel.

Be sure that the newly created layer is above all the existing layers. Name that layer "black1" for organization purposes.

To paint the sky, press B to activate the Brush Tool (B).

Set its Brush options to the following:

• Master Diameter: 1200 px
• Opacity: 15%
• Flow: 100%
• Hardness: 0%

Note that the brush's hardness can be found on the Option bar, in a drop-down menu.

Paint the regions that are outside of our main source of light. The effect is like a vignette, but only applied to the top portion of the scene where the sky is.

If you're into photography, you're probably familiar with the Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter that is used to darken the sky, while leaving the brightness of the foreground unchanged. We will mimic that effect here. Create a new layer for our GND effect and name it "GND".

We shall brush the top region of the sky once again. Set your brush options to the following:

• Master Diameter: 1200 px
• Opacity: 25%
• Flow: 100%

Tip: If the darkness isn't to your liking, change it by adding another brushing layer. Create a new layer (name it "black2" to keep our work organized), then apply another stroke or two on the top part of the sky.

Step 4: Create the foreground

For our foreground, we will be using the Clevedon Pier image. Open the file from the batch you downloaded and copy/paste it to our main canvas.

We need to remove the lampposts and the image's sky. To do that, we will be using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L).

To accurately separate the sky and the lampposts from the pier, we can zoom in to the image by pressing Ctrl + + (to zoom out, press Ctrl + -) and use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to precisely select the section that we need. I would recommend setting the zoom level to 100%; the higher the zoom level, the more accurate it is to cut out the area that we need.

After creating the lasso selection, use the Move Tool (V) to drag the pier without its sky and lampposts to the main canvas.

Press Ctrl + T to activate the Free Transform command and then scale the object to make it fit our canvas.

Step 5: Fix the viewer's focus

Earlier we talked about altering the image to fix our viewer's focus, we'll continue to work on that in this step.

Start by creating a new layer and name it "black on floor".

We will be creating a half-vignette for our floor. Activate your Brush Tool (B) and set its values to:

• Master Diameter: 700 px
• Opacity: 23%
• Flow: 30%

After the shadows have been applied, let's add some dramatic light; create a new layer, name it "Light" and put it under the Clevedon Pier layer to make the light come from under the bridge. We will be treating the light on Clevedon Pier light in another layer.

Use your Brush Tool (B) and use these values to amplify the light in the center of the image:

• Master Diameter: 1000 px
• Opacity: 70%
• Flow: 30%

Make sure that you are using a white foreground color (#ffffff).

Now for the Clevedon Pier layer, let us create a new layer and name it "Light2". Put it on top of the pier's layer and set its values to:

• Master Diameter: 900 px
• Opacity: 30%
• Flow: 100%

Brush it on the same spot as we did in the "Light" layer.

To further enhance that light, we will be using the Dodge Tool (O) to brighten up parts of the pier that will be hit by the light.

Set the Dodge Tool's options to:

• Master Diameter: 400 px
• Range: Midtones
• Opacity: 18%

Use the Dodge Tool to paint light on the part of the bridge where our light is.

Step 6: Place the model

Now we will be incorporating our subject. Extract and open the New Boots/Side pose stock photo in Photoshop.

Isolate the subject from its background using the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select around the subject, once you're done selecting the woman, Select > Reverse, then hit delete to remove the background.

After you've separated the subject from its background, deselect everything and use the Move Tool (V) to move the selected subject to our main canvas, just like with the other stock photos.

Use the Free Transform command (Ctrl + T) to the size the subject as shown in the image below.

Step 7: Putting the TV on the subject's head

Now that the model is all set in our scene, it's time that we put the TV on her head. Extract and open the Old Tv stock photo and drag it to our main canvas.

Position the TV on top of the subject's head, making sure that the Old Tv layer is above our subject's layer.

Notice that in the stock image, the background is a solid white. You may use the Polygonal Lasso Tool, but I would recommend saving time and effort by using the Magic Wand Tool (W) to quickly select the white parts of the stock photo with a click of a button-you can activate the tool by pressing W.

With the Magic Wand Tool (W) chosen, left-click on the white area surrounding the TV. This will automatically select the white area. Just hit the Delete key to remove the white area around the TV.

Let us transform the TV to fit the girl's head. But before we do that, we need to erase the subject's head using the Eraser Tool (E).

Step 8: Give the TV some white noise

A TV that is turned on is much better than a TV that is turned off. Therefore, we will put some white noise on it. Extract and open the <1>White Noise 2 stock image in Photoshop. Move it to our main canvas, just like we've done with the other stock images. Scale and rotate the stock image using the Free Transform command (Ctrl + T). The result should be similar to this:

To enhance the effect, you may want to brighten up the white noise by creating a new layer on top of it and use a white brush (#ffffff) on the center of the White Noise 2 image.

Step 9: Add shadows to the subject

Now it's time to add shadows to our subject. Note that the subject is positioned against the light, so we would have to darken the image a bit and create stronger shadows.

Let's create a new layer and name it "Shadow". Then let's put that layer underneath the subject's layer so the paint won't smother the girl's outfit.

Now, activate the Brush Tool (B). I used a variety of round brushes on this for two reasons. The first reason is that a single brush throughout the whole process would make it more difficult because we'd have to erase the excess paint. The second is that it would be hard to spread paint accurately over a specific area with just one brush. So keep switching master diameters as you paint the shadows.

You can use any brush size as long as it makes a good shadow, although I would recommend using a brush size of 200 px, with the opacity around 18% and with the hardness set to 0%.

Paint the shadows as displayed below.

Note: we will not "burn" or darken the girl's outfit yet because we will be using adjustment layers and filters to come up with that effect later down the process.

Step 10: Add a little glare

When a subject stands against the light, some details of that subject will be lost due to the intensity of that light-this is referred to as glare. We will be adding a glare effect to our subject to make the lighting realistic in our photo manipulation.

We'll use the Eraser Tool (E) to add glare. Activate the Eraser Tool by pressing E, then erase the parts that are intensely hit by the light.

The result of using the Eraser Tool should be similar to this:

Step 11: Give the image a dark feel with fill layers

To give the image a dark and eerie tone, we'll use fill layers to add some gloomy colors. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer>  Solid Color or click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Solid Color in the contextual menu that appears.

Use a very dark blue color (#000119) for the solid color fill. The new fill layer will appear in our Layers Panel, showing the color of the fill layer that we've chosen.

Notice that our scene has gotten a slightly yellow hue. We don't want it that way, so let's decrease the opacity of the fill layer to 30% and set its blending mode to Exclusion.

Create a new solid color fill layer again, but now use a brownish-orange color (#5c4011).

Set the blending mode of the new fill layer to Soft Light, and reduce the opacity to 70%.

Now we need to create a new adjustment layer to increase the image's luminosity.  Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map or click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Gradient Map in the contextual menu.

Use the Black, White gradient preset for the gradient map.

Then set the blending mode of the adjustment layer to Luminosity and bring the opacity down to 30%.

Step 12: Add a cool, atmospheric color using Curves

Now let's give the image a cool atmospheric color using a Curves adjustment layer. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves or click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Curves.

When the curves adjustment layer dialog window appears, click on the gray eyedropper, which will allow you to sample a part of the image to set the gray point of the curves. When you click on a specific part of the image using the gray point eyedropper, the image's white balance will change. Take a sample somewhere on boardwalk right beside the subject.

Step 13: Give the composition a more somber feel

To give our scene a more somber feel, we need to use a cool color over the image. Let's create another adjustment layer: Photo Filter. Click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Photo Filter.

Once the Photo Filter dialog window opens, choose Deep Emerald in the pull-down menu for Filter.

Make sure that the filter's density is set at 25% and that the Preserve Luminosity option is checked.

Now adjust the color balance of the photo to come up with our intended atmosphere. We'll do this with yet another adjustment layer: Color Balance. Like before, click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Color Balance.

Use the settings shown below for the Color Balance adjustment layer:

Guess what? We'll be adding another Curves adjustment layer to give the image a cooler white balance. Just like before, choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves or click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Curves. Use the gray point sampler and click on the leg of our subject to get a sample.

Step 14: Adjust the saturation

We will be adjusting the saturation to make the image look gray and less greenish. Create a new adjustment layer and pick the Hue/Saturation from the menu. Set the option values of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to:

• Edit: Master
• Hue: 0
• Saturation: -17
• Lightness: 0

Step 15: Adjust the contrast

We're getting close to the finish line! Let's increase the contrast of our scene. Choose Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast or click on the Create new fill or layer adjustment button in the Layers Panel (as shown below) and choose Brightness/Contrast.

Once in the Brightness/Contrast dialog window, set Contrast to +10.

Step 16: Sharpen the composition

You can sharpen and bring out more details in your composition by going to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Set the values of the Smart Sharpen filter to:

• Amount: 125%
• Radius: 1.0
• Remove: Gaussian Blur

And also, check the More Accurate box.

Images Used

The following images were used in the making of this tutorial, right click and save the link for each one:

Step 1

Open all the images. Create a new document (600X700px).

Copy & Paste in a rough looking texture into your new document. Stretch your texture to fit your canvas perfectly, and then call this layer 'background texture'.

Step 2

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Reduce this layer's saturation to -80.

Step 3

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and apply the settings shown below. Reduce the layer's opacity to around 20%.

Step 4

Now paste in a photo of the clouds, and place them at the top of your canvas. Remove the original sky background using the magic wand tool > click on the sky, hit Delete, and repeat the process. This leaves only the cloud. Then duplicate this layer, and go to edit>rotate>rotate 180 degrees. Move this rotated cloud to the bottom of your canvas. Then merge these two layers together, and call the merged layer 'clouds'.

Step 5

Now change your 'clouds' layer's blend mode to 'hard light'. Then duplicate this hard light layer and merge the two layers together. Reduce the opacity of this merged layer to 85%. Then go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate to grayscale the layer.

Step 6

Now select one texture from the ones you downloaded and paste it onto a new top layer. Save these texture files for yourself for later, you might need them.

Then change this layer's blend mode to 'multiply' and reduce it's opacity to 20%. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and reduce your saturation to -85. If you feel that it's necessary, go to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen, just to really bring out the details of the texture.

Step 7

Now create a new layer called 'color gradient overlay'. Drag a linear gradient down vertically across your canvas. You can see the gradient that I used below. Then change this layer's blend mode to 'soft light'.

Step 8

Now create a new layer called 'gradient fade'. Use your rectangular marquee selection tool to create a thin, rectangular selection. Make sure the "Transparency" setting is activated. Choose these settings:



It can be tricky to just click and drag the gradient tool inside of the selection box.
Then fill this selection with a white to transparent linear gradient (going across the narrow width of the selection).



Then change this layer's blend mode to 'overlay'. Go to Edit>Transform>Rotate and rotate the gradient to fit nicely across the top clouds in your canvas.

Step 9

Now duplicate this layer twice, moving each duplicate to a different part of your canvas, and rotating it, to make the gradients positioning appear random. Finally, merge all of your 'gradient fade' layers together, and use a large, soft eraser brush at a low opacity to erase their harsh edges (letting the end of each shape fade naturally into the main background).

Step 10

Now paste in an image of a girl jumping. This image will be quite time-consuming to cut out, but it's worth spending the extra time to get a good cut out. You can use either the lasso tool or pen tool to cut out your woman. Once you paste it into your main project file, you may notice that it does not appear, make sure it is on the top layer, and if it's still not visiible, it simply means it's pasted outside the canvas. Zoom out, take the Move Tool and click in the empty grey area from the bottom right side of the screen and drag towards the top left side of the screen to bring the image into view. The re-size it (Ctrl+T).

Step 11

Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and apply the settings shown below:

Step 12

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance and apply the settings shown below. This should help your woman blend better with your background.

Step 13

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and reduce your woman's saturation to -25.

Step 14

Now cut out a photo of a bird wing, and paste this over your woman, joining the wing to her back. I also rotated the wing to make the angle more realistic, and went to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen to bring out the detail of the wing, as the original photo was a little blurred.

Step 15

Now use your eraser brush, and smudge brush, to gently blend the wing into the woman's back. Then reduce your wing layer's opacity to 0%, and use your lasso tool to cut away parts of the wing that are overlapping the woman's hair. Then, with your hair selection in place, bring the wing layer's opacity back up to 100%, and hit delete. This will give the impression that the woman's hair is in front of the wing.

Step 16

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and apply the settings shown below. This will make the wings more intense.

Step 17

Go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance and apply the settings shown below:

Step 18

Now duplicate your wing layer, and move the duplicate below your 'woman' layer. Go to edit>transform>rotate and rotate it so that it appears to be behind/beneath your original wing. Then go to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast and reduce your brightness to -60, and your contrast to -40.

Step 19

Now select your original wing layer and go to blending options. Apply a subtle drop shadow (settings below), in order to help give your piece depth.

Step 20

Now paste in a photo of a feather. In this example, the feather has a plain black background. There is far too much detail in the feather to cut it out using the magic wand, or pen tools, so we must use the color range tool.

First hide all layers apart from your feather layer. Then go to select>color range. And choose 'reds' and your color range. This will select only the red parts of your layer (i.e.: your feather).

Now hit 'OK' and then copy/paste your selection onto a new layer called 'feather'. I wanted to make my feather slightly more bold, so I duplicated this layer, and merged it down with the original.

Step 21

The feather is obviously the wrong color to match the rest of our piece, so I go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and apply the settings below:

Step 22

Then I go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and apply the settings below:

Step 23

To finish up, duplicate your feather layer MANY times, and resize/rotate each feather (with Ctrl+T), to give the impression that feathers are falling from the wings. To create a cool perspective, make the feathers that are nearer to you much larger, and apply a gaussian blur effect. Apply a lesser blur to those feathers in the 'mid range' of perspective, and no blur to the smaller feathers that are nearest to the angel's wings.

Business Card Content

Some nice, visual ideas you can learn from:

by: Davier Interactive



Take your time, create whatever personal business card you would like.

If you ever want to print your business cards and have them mailed to you (50 cards for about $30), you can go here: moo.com

This is where I get my cards printed, you can get full size or mini cards. It's probably the best price you can get for high-quality cards.

Assignment #45A - Comic Book Coloring

Observe the sample comic book covers shown below. Pick any ONE of them and download it from the link further below (I apologize for the excessive amount of zombies).



Download the one of your choice, right click and save the target link:
Artwork #1      Artwork #2      Artwork #3      Artwork #4      Artwork #5
Artwork #6      Artwork #7      Artwork #8      Artwork #9      Artwork #10
Artwork #11      Artwork #12      Artwork #13      Artwork #14
Artwork #15      Artwork #16      Artwork #17      Artwork #18
Artwork #19      Artwork #20      Artwork #21      Artwork #22
Artwork #23      Artwork #24      Artwork #25      Artwork #26
Artwork #27      Artwork #28      Artwork #29      Artwork #30

Using multiple layers, textured brushes, masks, lighting effects, and add in some shadows and highlights - paint your chosen illustration to achieve a polished and professional look. The more detail, accuracy, and color depth the better.

Send the final JPG image file to the instructor. The basics for cel shading:













The basics for glows and the 'back lit effect':













Watch Steve Hamaker's tutorials on how to paint comic book pages here.



If you are using a Wacom tablet, and you want to build up some nice there are many choices of "Pen Pressure Control" in the Shape Dynamics option and "Opacity Jitter" with "Flow Jitter" in the Other Dynamics option (press F5 - or go to Window > Brushes to reveal your Brush options). Basically, with those settings you can easily achieve a nice color blending. Using only "Pen Pressure Control" for "Opacity Jitter" it's much harder to achieve nice transitions between colors. Here are some examples of the effects that you can achieve.



Using "Pen Pressure Control" for "Opacity Jitter" and "Flow Jitter" transitions can create a smoother effect with less brush strokes:



Choose a brush size, move the slider bars for these settings and find the effect you like best, experiment by building up the paint on the canvas, if it's not quite right, go back and make some tweaks to the settings. All the following links below are a collection of tips and tricks from various artists, with illustrative guides from novice to advanced techniques.

Methods behind painting with Adjustment Layers

A Guide to Creating & Applying Textures
It's a great way to keep certain things in mind when creating and manipulating artwork or photos.

Here's one final detailled look at the full potential of creating your own custom brush settings: Guide to Photoshop Brushes. With some practice, this can open up a lot of new creative possibilities.

You may DOWNLOAD and install these custom texture brushes for your Photoshop, it's a random assortment that you could find uselful in the future.

Need a reminder on how to install Photoshop Brushes? Scroll to the very bottom of this page for the info.

*** Read through the following site. It is a combination of tutorials from Sci-fi Art Magazines for concept design in Photoshop and online articles of guides for applying traditional art values to painting in Photoshop - along with theories on color palettes, lighting and composition:
"Designing & Painting in Photoshop"

This isn't relevant to this specific assignment, but it might interest you:
Tutorial on creating an illustration in Photoshop from thumbnails to final color composite.

Having trouble choosing nice color combinations?
Go here:
Color Scheme Designer
Kuler Color Themes
Aviary Color Editor

For inspirational Comicbook coloring look here and here and here.

A list of the best download sites for Photoshop Brushes:

PS Brushes - Your Number one source for Photoshop Brushes


Deviant Art - A large assortment of Photoshop Brushes


QBrushes - Free Quality Photoshop Brushes


NaldzGraphics - Photoshop Resources & Tutorials


GetBrushes - 150+ High Quality Free Photoshop Brushes


Miss M - Photoshop Brushes & Graphic Resources


In Obscuro - Free Adobe Photoshop Brushes


BittBox - Photoshop Brushes


Design Reviver - 350+ Brushes, Textures, and Fonts


Brusheezy - Free Photoshop Brushes


My Photoshop Brushes - Free Photoshop Brushes




Samples of finished art by instructor and students:















Other Samples:

Tips on Color

Color Combinations

Color combinations are used to create a pleasing arrangement to the reader's eye, and to attempt to elicit a certain mood. Most of the time, this is done at a subconscious level, and when done correctly, will advance the story in a proper manner. There are a number of rules when using color that can be explained in full detail in the Color Theory post.

In comics, complementary colors are used to produce tension and also to produce harmony, depending on the response you are attempting to create. I have included this colour wheel by Don Jusko - his Real Color Wheel theory teaches the idea that darkened, shadowed colors achieve a neutral dark tone rather than a flat black devoid of any hue. This wheel was created for print/paint in order to take advantage of realistic color created under certain light conditions found in nature, and eliminates the use of black to create shadows (which makes your colors muddy and dull.)

For the greatest vibrancy of colour, use its direct complement (the pure colour directly across from it on the wheel). Note: Jusko's wheel is quite different from the traditional color wheels you have seen. His complements are direct optical inverses of one another. If you are uncomfortable with this method, use the traditional wheel which relies on black to create shades.

Another method of effective color combination comes from the use of analogous colors. These colours are found beside one another on the colour wheel, and when used together, help to amplify moods. For example - using a combination of BLUE/BLUE GREEN/GREEN could create a feeling of doubt, mystery or an eerie, creepy effect - this is why it is commonly used in horror films and images.

There are also discordant color combinations, monochromatic (single-color), triadic (triangular equidistant on wheel) and more which you can use to add emphasis to your panels.

Temperature

We've all heard of cool and warm colors - but how do they work within comics? Well, similar to painting and color composition in drawing and photography, a cool colour palette within a comic panel will evoke a feeling of despair, sadness, melancholy, etc. At the same time, these tones will also slow down the pace of the story in that particular scene.

In these panels, Peter Parker reflects on some memories of Gwen Stacy while he's cleaning out some stuff in his attic and coming across her picture.

To the untrained eye, you may have sensed a feeling of regret and reflection, coldness and emptiness - and it wasn't merely the dialogue that evoked that feeling. The shades of blue and dramatic shadows helped intensify that feeling. Color is used to play upon the subconscious of readers. We associate colors with feelings - and feelings are also associated with temperature. Anger, excitement, intensity, love, and happiness are associated with warmth and heat. Sadness, anguish, lonliness, despair, regret and misery are associated with cooler temperatures.

This temperature effect helps the colorist control the mood of the reader - if it is a tense action moment, perhaps the scene will have more reds and oranges to heighten the urgency. But a dramatic, sad scene like the one illustrated above will make use of subdued, cooler hues like blues and purples.

Determine the mood within the panel, and choose the right color to amplify it. Being subtle in pencils, inks and dialogue works some of the time - but effective color can really drive home the point.

Focal Points

Now I'll show you how color can enhance this direction. Look at this panel from Skaar: Son of Hulk, and see where the focal points of each panel are.

The huge yellow blast behind Skaar in the first panel draws emphasis to that particular area on the panel. It is an intense scene with a number of active elements on the page - a chasm opening up, rocks being smashed and flying about, all from Skaar pounding the ground. You could easily emphasize one of the wrong elements and have the scene be interpreted differently. In this example, the emphasis is on the power of Skaar's impact. By using a fiery yellow blast, it also elevates the feeling of action and strength.

If you look at the last panel, you see the emphasis is on the red figures in the background. Their anger and rage is intensified with the red and yellow fiery tones. If you couldn't tell they were pissed from the line drawings, you can sure figure it out now.

Another effect used on this page is saturated colors - in the second panel, the figures in the background are of lesser importance, so their colors are muted and desaturated. Meanwhile, in the foreground, Skaar's leg appears much more prominent, partially because of the stronger line weight, but also because of the deeper, saturated color. The same effect is seen in the third panel - except this time, the background figures are prominent, and the foreground figures are subdued.

Subconscious Themes

As I mentioned earlier, color can be used to evoke feelings at a subconscious level through temperature and experiences from past associations. Another method of playing upon subconscious thought is through the use of polarization and dominance. Visually, the boldest color scheme is the primary color triad of RED-YELLOW-BLUE. Secondary to that is GREEN-ORANGE-VIOLET, and beyond that is the tertiary scheme of the in-between colors (YELLOW-GREEN, BLUE-VIOLET, RED-ORANGE etc)

Here's an interesting observation you may not have noticed. Check every major superhero you know, and look at their color palette.

Captain America - Red and Blue
Spiderman - Red and Blue
Iron Man - Red and Yellow
Superman - Red, Yellow and Blue
Shazam - Red and Yellow

Now compare that to typical villains:
Doctor Octopus - Green
Dr. Doom - Green
The Hobgoblin - Green and Orange
The Green Goblin - Purple and Green
Parallax - Orange and Green

Notice a pattern? The heroes are often outfitted in the dominant primaries, while their evil counterparts are in secondary colors. This subconscious color scheme forces you to believe that the hero is the most dominant. I'll bet some of you didn't notice that. Now, this isn't a cemented rule, but you can try that effect out in order to accentuate the main character in your next story.

Overall Effects

Smaller details such as warm glows, refracted light, mists and hazes, and environmental effects can also increase the dramatic effects in your panels. For example,

this image of Batman standing amongst the shadows shows the city of Gotham in a brooding, mysterious blue-grey haze. There is additional contrast to the focal point (Batman) where a cool bluish-white glow surrounds the hero. This intensifies the dark background and makes the city look even more sinister.

In this image, the warm glow of the sun casts a number of warm colors this sullen warrior. The front of the character has been washed with cooler tones, perhaps to bring out an evil side, but the colored highlights from the light source in the rear create contrast through some subdued complementary juxtaposition (red-oranges-yellows / blue-green-purples). In addition to the glow of the scorching sun, there are some wisps of mist in the chasm behind the main character, creating depth and separation of the foreground and background elements.

---

Assignment #45B - Cosmic Space Scene

This is all about recalling previous assignments and combining them into a larger, more detailed deep space nebula/planet scenery.

Using the techniques found in previous tutorials here and here, find new textures, produce a new star field, new planet(s) and go nuts creating a new highly-detailled nebula-solar-system.
Send the final JPG image file to the instructor.

The techniques in the three separate tutorials below will show you (in a new and slightly different method than before) how to get started to create an image similar to the final results for each lesson, although the images took several hours each to create with alot of additional fine detail work, you will still get the general idea as to how to approach it. Be creative, research for some inspiration, the goal is to develop a cool sci-fi interstellar space scene.

As part of your arsenal of weapons, you can download and install this set of custom brushes with stars and particles built in: Star Brushes

Go here to see a collection of 30 different tutorials for Creating Nebulas, Galaxies and Planets

Below are a few different methods of creating planets and space scenes, they are very genralized, you need to be expreimental and add your own flare to each step, these are only meant to be rough guidelines.

-Various techniques for creating a space scene-

When you have your idea in place. Create a new document in Photoshop and fill it with black. Use a small soft brush to draw a few stars in the background. Change the brush size between 1 and 4 pixels.

Find a stock photo of some thin and whispy clouds using the keywords cirrus or cirrostratus. Desaturate the image in Photoshop, then set the black point using the Levels window to render the whole sky black. Change the blending mode to Screen at 12%.

Find another stock photograph, this time you'll need some kind of texture. A rock texture will make a great looking life-supporting planet with the moss representing the land mass, search for some on Google-Images. Draw a circular marquee over the whole area and copy into a new document.

Go to Filter > Distort > Spherize and set the Amount to 100%. The distortion of the shape creates a three dimensional appearance to give the basic form of a planet.

Paste the planet into the main document, then begin adding some layer styles. Start with an Outer Glow using a light blue, adjust the blending mode to Linear Light then change the glow amount and opacity to form a soft and thin atmospheric glow around the planet.

Next, add an Inner Glow. Use a slightly darker blue and give the glow a larger size so it softly spreads inwards.

Hold CTRL (CTRL for Windows) and click the thumbnail of the planet layer in the Layers window to load the selection. Fill this selection with black on a new layer, then move it to reveal a portion of the planet.

Add a large Gaussian Blur to transform the black circle into shading on one side of the planet. Scale up the shadow to alter the amount of light and shadow.

Dab a few spots of white over the lighter side of the planet using a soft brush. Change the layer's blending mode to Overlay.

Use the same steps to form a nearby moon. Instead of a rock texture, this time search for a rusty surface texture image.

When creating the shadows and highlights, remember to keep the position of the light source in mind and position the shading appropriately.

Load a selection of the moon from the Layers palette and erase the highlights and shadows that extend beyond the edges of the moon.

Continue adding moons and planets to lay out the scene. I've added another small moon orbiting the planet.

Let's begin brightening up the scene with some awesome nebulas! Dab some pastel shades of pink and green across the document on a layer above the clouds, but below the planet and moons.

Change this layer's blending mode to Color Dodge to allow the colours to interact with the cloud layer, creating a beautiful galactic atmosphere.

You can't get any more realistic than a photograph, so find a stock image of a real nebula taken through a telescope. Find an image that features cool blues and has a field of bright stars already present in the scene. Paste it into the document and change the blending mode to screen to allow this shot to also interact with our digital nebula.

Find a stock photograph of some more cirrus clouds. Give them the same treatment by desaturating the image and darkening the levels.

Change the blending mode of the clouds layer to Color Dodge and tone down the opacity to 80%. We now have a series of meteoroids.

Hunt down another stock image, this time featuring a bright lens flare. Cut out the flare and paste it into the main document.

Darken the sky behind the flare to black, then change the blending mode to Screen to render the black area transparent.

Move the flare into position so it's just creeping over the edge of the planet. Duplicate the layer to double the intensity of the light source.

Dab one spot of white using a soft brush. Press CTRL+T and stretch the shape vertically.

Position this long brush stroke over the light source to generate yet another subtle lens flare. Adjust the opacity to around 80%.

Add a new black layer over the whole design, then erase out the centre. Scale up the layer slightly to form a vignette. Change the blending mode to Overlay.

There you have it. Use this (and the other tutorials below) as a guide, create your own original scene.

Here's another approach for a similar space scene creation, in this tutorial you can have two variations, check out both versions below. Remember to click on the image to see the full-scale versions of them. The planets' reflections will be fully adjustable depending on how you want to set up your scene. At the end, we will look at a few quick ways to give the image a completely different look.

Version 1

Version 2

- Here's another technique -

Let's get started!

What you will need:

• Rust texture from Zen Textures
• Grunge Paper texture from Zen Textures

1. To start, let's go and grab that downlaoded rust texture and open it up in Photoshop.

Creating the large planet

2. We are going to start off by creating our large planet. So, choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool in the Tools Panel and create a circle (holding down Shift to keep a perfect circle) that fills up as much of the area as possible without going off the edges of the document.

3. We want to put that area beneath the circular marquee selection onto a new layer. Press Ctrl + J to duplicate the selection; this should automatically put the selected area onto a new layer.

4. We can go ahead and hide the original texture layer (click on the layer visibility icon on the left of the layer - it looks like an eye). Now, duplicate the circle layer we just made by pressing Ctrl + J. Go to Filters > Sketch > Bas Relief and use the settings that I have below - this will give us more of a planet texture.

5. Ctrl + click on the circle texture layer to select it. Go to Filter > Distort > Spherize and change the amount to 100%.

6. Add the Spherize filter to the layer we just added the Bas Relief filter to as well.

7. Move the texture layer above the Bas Relief layer and change the texture layer's Blend Mode to Overlay.

8. Now, we want our planet to have a little more contrast to it and we want it to be darker. Go into the Image > Adjustments > Levels (Ctrl + L) and adjust the Levels as I have it below.

9. Change our Background layer to black (#000000) before we go any further.

10. We are now going to merge the two layers of our planet. To do this, Ctrl + click to select both layers, then click on the Link layers icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel to link both layers. Then, select the top layer and choose Layer > Merge Down or simply press Ctrl + E to merge them together into one layer.

11. Now, we want to create a new group to put our planet in. Click on the Create new group icon (it looks like a folder) at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Once you create the group, drag your planet layer into it.

Adding an Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer style

12. Now that we have our planet in our group, we are going to add some layer styles to the to it.

13. Start by clicking the Add a layer style icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel and choosing on Outer Glow. Change your settings as I have them below (the color used is #3EB9F9).

14. Now, add an Inner Glow layer style with the settings I have below using the same color as the Outer Glow layer style above (#3EB9F9).

Adding a layer mask

15. Click on the planet group to make it the active layer, and then click on the Add layer mask icon (bottom of the Layers Panel). Inside the planet group, Ctrl + click on the planet layer to get a marquee selection around it and then fill the mask layer we just created with black (#000000) using Edit > Fill (Shift + F5). You should have ended up with just the Outer Glow layer style showing through.

Giving the planet a glowing edge

16. To give our planet a glowing edge on one side, we want to move the mask. To do this we are going to click on the mask, then click on the Link layer icon in between the layer and the mask to unlink them. We can now move the mask layer using the Move Tool (V) without moving everything else.

17. Lets go and give our mask a blur so there isn't such a defined line. Click on the mask layer, and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Change the blur's Radius option to 50px.

18. The planet looks pretty good but we want to get rid of the rust color and give it more of a "blue-ish" look to blend it in with the glow. To do this we are going to click on the planet layer and open up the Hue/Saturation Image Adjustment dialog box by pressing Ctrl + U; alternatively, you can get to the Hue/Saturation Image Adjustment dialog box by choosing Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.

Here is what our planet should look like now.

Setting up the space scene

19. Now that we have finished our first planet, we can create a new document (Ctrl + N) in Photoshop to set up our scene. I'll create my new document with the canvas dimensions set at 1680px by 1050px.

20. Fill the background of the new Photoshop document with black (#000000) and bring in the planet. First, link the planet group and the mask together by Ctrl + clicking on them in the layers and clicking on the Link layers icon (or right-click and choose Link layers). Then, drag the layers into the new Photoshop document; this will duplicate the layers into the new document. I reduced the size of the planet to about 95% for a better fit which you can do using Edit > Transform > Scale (but do what you think looks best).

Adding some stars

21. We are going to add some stars in our background. So first, create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and place it below the planet group.

22. Go to Filter > Noise> Add Noise. Make sure that the Monochromatic option is checked and the Amount option is at about 30%.

23. To get less white noise and more of a star look, we are going to adjust the Levels by going to Image > Adjustment > Levels (Ctrl + L) and changing the levels so they are something like what I have below. This will give us a higher contrast and make a lot of the noise go away.

24. We don't want the stars to go in front of the black part of our planet, so add a layer mask to the stars layer. Ctrl + click on the planet layer to create a marquee selection around it, switch to the newly added layer mask, and then fill the selection with black (#000000) on the mask using Edit > Fill (Shift + F5).

Giving the scene some realistic textures

25. To get more of a spacey feel, we are going to go and grab the grunge paper texture from Zen Textures. Open the texture in Photoshop and bring it into our canvas.

26. Use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl + T) to rotate and resize the texture so that it fits the canvas. Remember to hold down Shift when you are resizing the texture to maintain the proportions of the texture image.

27. Once we have the texture sized, we want to invert the texture image's color using Image > Adjustments > Invert (Ctrl + i). Then we are going to open up our Levels dialog box (Ctrl + L) to lower the amount of white in the texture. Drop the Opacity of this layer to somewhere around 45% for now.

28. Repeat Step 24 (adding a layer mask) to get rid of the star texture that is in front of the planet.

Adding a light source

29. We'll leave the texture as it is for now and we'll add a light source coming from just behind the planet. To start, create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N), and bring it up the Layers Panel so it is at the top of all the layers. Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, create a rough star-like shape, something like I have below.

30. Go into Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and change the Amount option to 100 and press OK to apply the filter. This isn't quite going to do what we want it to, so we want to apply the filter again. We can do this easily by pressing Ctrl + F, which reapplies the most recent filter you've used, in this case the Radial Blur filter.

31. Now we want to go to Filter >Blur > Gaussian Blur with the Radius option set to 20px.

32. We want to duplicate the white area layer (Ctrl + J) and rotate the duplicated layer using the Free Transform option (Ctrl + T) until you get something like what I have below.

33. Select one of the white light source layers-the one that is lowest in the Layer Panel-and add a Color Overlay to it by clicking on the Add a layer style icon at the bottom of the Layer Panel and choosing Color Overlay. Use a light blue color (#3EB9F9). You can use the Free Transform Tool to adjust the size and angle of this layer. Also, consider adjusting the Opacity option of the Color Overlay to one that suits your tastes. I brought the sides of mine in and moved it behind the planet a little more. After you're satisfied with the light source, move these two layers under the planet.

Using a Lens Flare filter

34. We are going to add a Lens Flare. To do this, we need to create a new layer, fill it with black (#000000) using Edit > Fill (Shift + F5), and then bring it to the top of all the layers.

35. Hide that newly created black layer temporarily (click on the Eye icon beside it, which toggles the layer's visibility) so that we can set up some Guides for determining where the Lens Flare will be placed.

36. Bring a Guide from the top ruler and the left ruler (press Ctrl + R to show and hide the rulers) so it makes sort of a crosshair at the middle of our glare. You can toggle your Guide's visibility by pressing Ctrl + ;. Setting up guides allows us to precisely place the Lens Flare.

37. Toggle the visibility of the black layer back on, and go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare. Try to line up the lens flare so that it is right at the intersecting point of the Guides we set up.

38. So that our lens flare matches the rest of our image, let's adjust the Hue/Saturation. Press Ctrl+ U to open the Hue/Saturation dialog box and adjust the color of the Lens Flare using the settings below.

Create a smaller planet

39. Now, we are going to create a smaller planet. Repeat Step 2 - 18 with a smaller circle. Since you're already familiar with the process of creating a planet by now, why don't you play around with the settings and options to experiment with different effects and textures? Also, don't forget to add the planet to the star and star texture masks that we did in Step 15 so that the stars aren't coming through.

40. When you're done creating the smaller planet, place it into our space scene Photoshop canvas.

Adding some "space dust"

41. Now that we have both our planets, we are going to add some "space dust". To start, choose your Lasso Tool from the Tools Panel and change the Feather option (in the Options Bar) to 100px.

42. Draw an organic, cloud-like shape in the middle of the two planets. It doesn't have to be perfect and if you have any sharp corners, the 100px feather will smoothen them out.

43. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) behind everything except the stars and background texture. Set your foreground color to black (#000000) and background color to white (#FFFFFF) then go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

44. Add a Gradient Overlay layer style by double-clicking on the newly created layer to open up the Layer Style dialog box and then checking the Gradient Overlay box. Create a cool blue color gradient with various hues and adjust your settings like I have below.

45. We are going to add a layer mask (click on the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel) to the cloud layer because if you have some of the clouds showing in front of either one of the planets, we want to get rid of it.

46. Choose the Brush Tool (B) from the Tools Panel, and then using a black (#000000) foreground color, start painting away the parts of the clouds that we don't want.

Adding a light reflection

47. Now we are going to add some reflection from the light onto our planets; let's start with the smaller one. Ctrl + click on the small planet layer to create a marquee selection around it.

48. Create a new layer at the top of the small planet group and fill it with a light blue color using Edit > Fill (Shift + F5); use a color that's something like #88D6FC. Since our group already has the mask, the blue fill will be applied to it as well. Drop the opacity of this new layer down to 40%.

49. To get a bright highlight, we're going to recreate the marquee selection on the small planet by Ctrl + clicking on the layer. Then create another layer (Ctrl + Shift + N).

50. Choose the Brush Tool (B) again with the Diameter option set to about 100px, Opacity option 20%, and Hardness option to 0%. Start painting in the front part of the planet that is facing the light source with a white color (#FFFFFF). You should get something like what I have below, something pretty subtle, but still noticeable.

51. We are going to start giving our big planet a reflection as well. So first, like in the preceeding steps, we are going to create a new layer in the big planet group and fill with a blue color (#88D6FC) or something similar. Drop the opacity down of this layer to 70%.

52. Lets get rid of some of the blue reflection because the light reflection is going to be right around the light source. To do this, we are going to add a layer mask.

53. After adding the layer mask, set your foreground color to white (#FFFFFF) and background color to black (#000000). Now choose on the Gradient Tool (G) and set the gradient type option to Reflected Gradient (second to last gradient option). Click and drag the gradient from the middle of the light source down to the bottom of the canvas. This should get rid of the blue tint that is on the top and bottom of the big planet.

54. Just as with the other planet, we are going to make a white area where the largest amount of highlight will be. Ctrl + click on the planet and create a new layer. Start painting with our same sized brush as in Step 50. Your reflections should look something like what I have below where it doesn't go too far around the planet and is brighter at the light source than the smaller planet.

Some final adjustments and details

55. I didn't really like the lens flare as I continued to work on the scene, so I adjusted it to get something a little better and more visible. The brightness of the new Lens Flare is set at 80% and at 105mm Prime instead of the 50-300mm Zoom that it was at before.

56. I'm going to go back to the background texture for the stars. Now that we have it in with everything else, Drop the opacity down to 30%. Using the mask that has already been applied to our background star texture, start painting away with our 20% opacity brush the "white-ish" areas at the bottom left because they look a little out of place. I'm not going to get rid of the areas completely, just dropping the opacity of them down some.

57. Now, we are going to put in some brighter stars to make the background pop a little bit. Create a new layer above the star texture layer and choose the Brush Tool (B) in the Tools Panel. Change the settings of the brush so that the Opacity option is at 100%, the brush's Diameter is at about 5px, and the Hardness is at 0%.

58. Place a few dots/stars around the document in between the planets using white (#FFFFFF) as your foreground color.

59. Now, we are going to add some layer styles to the stars. First, add an Outer Glow layer style. Adjust the settings something as I have them below, using the color #3EB9F9. This will give our stars a nice subtle glow.

60. Nest, we'll add an Inner Glow layer style. This will give our stars a blue tint, while still maintaining the white center to give them a bright glowing look.

61. Drop the opacity of the layer down to 70% to blend them into the background a little. We don't want them to look unnaturally bright or stand out too much.

62. Now, let's add a Photo Filter adjustment layer to make everything the same tone/color so it all blends well. Click on the Create a new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel (it's usually the fourth icon from the left) and choose Photo Filter. You can play around with the different filters until you get something you like. I used a Cooling Filter with the Density option set at 21%.

Alternate final result (Version 2)

63. You may want the scene to have an aged, retro look. To do this, we need to hide the Photo Filter adjustment layer temporarily (click on the eye icon to toggle the layer's visibility off). Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer using the same method as adding a Photo Filter adjustment layer. Drop the Saturation option down to -50. Now go into our Photo Filter adjustment layer and change the Filter option to Sepia.

We're done!

So there we have it, a planet made from just textures and Photoshop with two possible outcomes.

Version 1

Version 2

Here's another tutorial, another style and method of acheiving a starfield nebula, it's very generalized to just give you an idea, the whole purpose of this is to give you some techniques and ideas on how to use the Photoshop filters and tools in a creative way.

Photoshop Stars

Create a new Photoshop document. Minimum size of Height: 2000 pixels, Width: 1000 pixels, at 72 dpi, RGB color format.
Follow the tutorial steps below to create the faint background stars. Again, depending on the size you choose the numbers may not work exactly as shown in the image samples, play around with all the settings at every step to get the effect you want, this whole tutorial is very general, it's up to you to create the space scene the way you want.

Create monochromatic noise

Image >> Adjust >> Brightness/Contrast. Play with settings until you get a result similar to above.

Repeat the first step

Repeat the brightness/contrast adjustment again, repeat these two steps repeatedly, 6-8 times tends to provide a nice dense yet realistic star field.

Nebulas

Create a new layer with a black background and add the difference cloud filter. Filters >> Render >> Difference clouds. Make sure to have your foreground and background colors to black/white which will give you the constrasty 'vain-like' effect. Press CTRL-F to repeat the filter multiple times until it looks detailed.

Set the new cloud layer to the blending mode of Screen and set the Fill or Opacity to around 33.

Merge the two layers together so you are left with only one. Then using the dodge and burn tools I simply used a round soft brush to paint values higher and lower to make things more dynamic.

Add a colorized hue layer and select a color you would like to work with this will adjust the gray tones to new monochromatic tones. You may also choose to create multiple hue layers and mask them in order to vary the colors. Once finished merge all these layers to the bottom one.

Using the color dodge tool with a small soft brush start very small ( around 2 or 3 pixels ) and click repeatedly until the are is white, make the brush slightly bigger, and press a few less times, make the brush bigger and repeat until it appears glowing.

Now to put some of these techniques together.

Nebula Lighting FX

Step 1

Create a new document, I'm using my computer screen's resolution (1440x900 pixels). Add a new Layer and fill it with any color then go to Layer>Layer Styles> Gradient Overlay. You can add a gradient layer as well, I simply prefer the Layer Styles.

Step 2 - Retro Colors

Create a new layer and fill it with white, then go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Change the style to RGB lights. Use Negative 60 for the Intensity, Narrow 96 for the focus, and for the other options keep the same.

Step 3

Lets add some blur, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 80 pixels for the Radius. The last thing here will be change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Doing that the RGB color will be hardly visible but later on with the other layers it will work ;)

Step 4 - Creating Stars

Creating Stars in Photoshop is something really easy. Create a new layer, fill it with black, and change the Blend Mode to Screen. After that go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use 10% for the Amount, Gaussian for the Distribution and select Monochromatic. You will have a layer full of noise, then to create the start just change the levels of the layer, go to Image>Adjustment>Levels. For the Input Levels use 65, 1.00, 99. Doing that you will increase the black so just the bigger dots will appear, also you will increase the white, making the dots that appear brighter.

Step 5 - Nebula

Now that we have the stars and the colors and some colors lets create the Nebula. To do that create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Make sure that your color were black and white for the background and foreground. Then just add some Layer Styles to do that go to Layer>Layer Style. First over the Blending Options, change the Blend Mode to Overlay. After that select Gradient Overlay. use Overlay for the Blend Mode and for the colors use a Cyan, Green, Yellow, and Red. Also change the Angle to 130º and the Scale to 49%.

Step 6 - Lens flare

First, lets create a new layer and fill it with black, however, this time, add this layer in front of the background and beneath the other layers: (Stars and Nebula). Now go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare. This effect might be the most overused ever, like some people even say that using it you wil turn your design in an amateur piece. For me it's a nice filter and, if you use it right, it will give a nice touch to your image. For the settings use 100% Brightness and use 105mm Prime for the Lens Type.

More Photoshop Planets

On two new layers, create two black circles which will become planets.

With a planet selected take a round soft brush and press and drag along the outside of the selection which will fill in the lit side. Continue to play around with this, it takes careful lighting to get the desired effect.

Select each planet and save it as a new selection for use later when merged with our bottom layer. Now merge the planets with the bottom layer.

Now with the layers merged its easier to use the color dodge tool to brush the edge of the planets making them 'glow'.

Use the lens flare filter and set the flare point to the lit point of the planet which adds nice depth to the image. More textures, more layers, more star clusters, more details, more lighting effects, comets, rings around the planet, go crazy. These techniques will get you heading in the right direction, the rest is up to you.

With a couple more hours of work with layers, masks and filters, you could end up with something like this:



Have fun with it, the more you work at it, the sweeter it will look.
Combining all thse technique, create your own original space scene!

More Samples:

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Assignment #45C - Movie Poster Art

Create a new Photoshop document - Dimensions: 27 x 40 inches (200 dpi resolution) for a standard poster layout size, now design YOUR OWN MOVIE POSTER. It can be of anything, in any style, in any technique. If you need to, go back and refresh you memory to the old tutorials to get familiar with Adjustment Layers, Masks, Filters, Blending Options.

Also, you will most likely be searching for and editing photographs to add content and layers to your project, here's a quick guide on how to extract and isolate areas of your images to cut out and use for your purposes: Extraction Methods.

Now plan out what your poster will be, you should do some rough sketches to visualize the layout on paper first to figure out the composition. Then begin to search for all the resources you will need. Find all the fonts, photo or illustration elements you'll require to put this poster together, it can be for an already existing movie, or for a completely made-up one. Have fun with it!

Below are four links to 6 different tutorials, each one explores different facets, either creating a poster with lots of photo manipulations/collages or developing a classic retro B-movie poster design, or through a series of adjustment layers, lighting effects and high-contrast techniques creating a moody, horror based movie poster. The choice is yours.

Do NOT use the tutorials below as the actual assignments, these are only guides to show you different styles and techniques. Once complete; send the final JPG image file to the instructor.

Creating Your Own Crazy Movie Poster

Creating an Intense Movie Poster

Creating a High Impact Gig Poster Suitable for Screen-Printing

Creating a Cool Poster Graphic, Creating a Typography Art Poster, and Creating a Funky Retro Poster

Have fun with it! Get inspired by researching the layouts of other classic movie posters:

http://lava360.com/showcases/100-most-astonishing-movie-posters/

http://www.moviepostershop.com

http://www.allposters.com

Study these more modern and traditional-style posters:

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Assignment #45D - Post-Apocalyptic City

Using the tutorials shown below as reference, create your very own original Post-Apocalyptic City Scene. Utilize all the photo manipulation and editing techniques you have learned produce this city in ruins.

Preparation

All the photos I've used in the tutorial below are here. You may (and should) use your own photograph of a city, find one online, the more hi-res the better. Either way once the zip file downloads, extract all the files out of the ZIP file, you can browse through the images and install the Brushes into your Photoshop.

Step 1

Find and open the city image (in the zip file you just downloaded or which ever one intend to use), and save it under a different name (your name & assignment #). The first thing to do in order to achieve the appearance of the deserted, empty city, is to remove all signs of life, like people and lights. Use the Clone Stamp Tool and Brush Tool, which we'll be useful for finishing the details. Both tools should be soft-edged and have a size of 5 to 10 pixels.

Step 2

Now, in order to create the appearance of destruction, several actions need to be taken. First, change the appearance of the dark, blue banner (center-left of the image). Use the Brush Tool to erase most of the gold letters, and use the Clone Stamp Tool to remove the lower part of the banner.

Step 3

Open the flag image, and separate the flag from the background. Go to Select > Color Range to select all the blue pixels and press Delete. Use the parameters as in the image below.

Select the Eraser Tool (large size and hardness set at 0%) and remove the side part of the flag.

Finally, make the image monochromatic (Image > Adjustments > Black & White).

Step 4

Place the flag onto the surface of the main image. Use the Move Tool to move the layer into the appropriate position and the Eraser Tool to remove the unnecessary pixels.

Then go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and set up as shown below.

Step 5

Use the following tools to finish the work here: Clone Stamp Tool, Eraser Tool, Brush Tool, Burn Tool, and Dodge Tool.

Also select the Brush Tool and treat all other banners and flags in a similar way.

Step 6

Transform the windows now. Use the Brush Tool to remove some of the glass and alter the details. Apply some transformations with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and Move Tool if you want to.

Step 7

Review the whole main image looking for areas where changes need to be made. When transforming the details, first mark them using the Polygonal Lasso tool, and subsequently cut out, paste in as new layers and transform them with the Move Tool. Use the Brush Tool during the process, if necessary.

Step 8

The last stage of creating an impression of destruction is removing flowers from the street. Paint all the flowers over with black, using the Brush Tool. Make up the missing parts of the flower pots with the Clone Stamp Tool, and add the shadows using the Burn Tool.

Step 9

Now we need to work on the textures. Create a new layer and go to Filter > Vanishing Point to apply the texture 1 onto the surface of asphalt. If you don't know how to use this filter, I recommend you read Alvaro's tutorial Getting to Grips with the Vanishing Point Filter before starting this step.

Step 10

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Multiply. Select the Eraser Tool and remove the unnecessary parts of the texture.

Finally place texture 2 onto the sidewalks in the same way.

Step 11

Overlay texture 3 over the buildings, in the way similar to the sidewalks and street, but do not use the Vanishing Point filter.

Step 12

The last texture to be overlaid on the street surface is the grass texture. Contrary to the previous ones, in this case set the Blending Mode to Overlay.

Step 13

Now we will use a large number of stock photos. They will help make our image more detailed and interesting. Place the images of the can, the can 2, the banana skin, the old newspaper, the grass, the bushes, the bushes 2 and the plants in the document, resize them and erase the backgrounds.

Select the Burn Tool and apply some shadows.

Next select the Brush Tool, change its Blending Mode to Color. Alter and adjust the new elements so that they coexist better with the texture and color of the main image.

Step 14

With a Brush Tool already selected, change its Blending Mode back to Normal and add the settings in the Brushes Panel as shown below.

Paint some blades of grass, trying to make this as realistic as possible.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation using the settings below.

Step 15

At the end, use the Brush Tool, Burn Tool and Blur Tool in order to add more flora, and make the image more appealing and consistent.

Step 16

Select the Burn Tool and add some hard shadows on all the walls.

Use the Brush Tool with the Blending Mode set to Color to add some
green smudges.

Step 17

Change the Blending Mode of the Brush Tool back to Normal once again, and add the settings in the Brushes Panel, as shown below.

Using a green color for the brush, add some flora on all the buildings.

Use the Burn Tool and Dodge Tools to make highlights and shadows. This will enhance the effect of three-dimensionality.

Step 18

Add some green and flora on cars, boards and flower pots using the same methods. Look at the third image to see all the successive small steps of working on the white road sign.

Step 19

Import the photo of the clouds into the document and place it in the bottom part of the image.

Next add a Mask to the Layer. Use the Pen Tool or the Magic Wand Tool to make a selection on the sky, next go Select > Inverse and Fill the selected area (of a mask, not an image) with black (using the Paint Bucket Tool).

Step 20

Go to Image > Adjustments > Black & White and use the default settings.

Use the Burn Tool and the Dodge Tool to change the contrast of the clouds, if you want to. Finally, select Brush Tool to paint the clouds with a new hue. First set the brush to a big size (about 150 pixels), hardness set to 35%, and Blending Mode set to Color, and use some pastel shades.

Step 21

Without changing any of the brush settings, add some warm colors to the buildings and streets. At this point, your image should look like the one below.

Step 22

Download the Birds Brushes set and open them in Photoshop. Add a few birds in the sky using a proper size.

Step 23

Now it's time to add final effects to your image. At this moment you must have only one layer. Simply save your work as a JPG or go to Layer > Flatten Image to do that. Next go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and add the settings represented in the image below.

Step 24

Last but not least go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and set up as shown.

Conclusion

Well done! You've now seen the whole process of turning an image of a lively city into a state of decaying ruins.

For a slightly different approach to creating modern ruins, this tutorial will show you the steps and tricks I used in turning Hong Kong harbor into a wasted reflection of itself.

Basically, we're going to turn this:



Into this:



Let's begin!

Any photoshopped image must start with a great source. Ruins are no exception. For my H2H with Norrit, we were limited to Non-American, Non-European cities. I chose Hong Kong. Ideally, you want a city with a recognizable landmark or building. This can get tricky, as your contest may have 18 New York entries and 20 from Paris. So, be aware that whatever city you choose may be duplicated. Impirnt your own style on whatever city you choose.

After selecting a city, find a picture that displays a good view of the features you want to destroy. I would suggest using only images greater than 1024x768 in size. Using a tiny source image for this contest will make things very difficult when it comes time to put in detail.

Here is our source image, a small crop for tutorial purposes:



Let's talk for a moment about the source pictures for our destruction. I can almost guarantee you that typing "ruins" into Google will get you nothing better than the Parthenon or the Pyramids. While these are certainly ruins, they don't offer much help to those of us who have to ruin modern buildings. Modern materials require modern ruins. So, here is a quick list of words that will bring us modern destruction:

• bombed


• bombed out


• destroyed


• gutted


• rubble

It also helps to know your geopolitics. These words brought me the most useful images:

• Belgrade


• Grozny


• Kosovo


• Lebanon


• Sarejevo


• WTC

I used 24 different images of rubble and destruction in my Hong Kong image. You don't need nearly that many, but you'll be happier with a greater variety to work from.

We're almost ready to start butchering our buildings. First though, I find it helpful to have some organization. My final Photoshop file was over 50 layers deep, and I would have been lost had I not given the buildings names, like this:



You can see that I only know the real name for one building. It doesn't matter, just as long as you can remember it. You just need to find tons of references from Google Images, grab lots of photos and start mashing them together.

Let's start destroying!

The first thing is to identify areas where you will be taking large chunks out of the building:



Create a new layer. Set the Clone tool to "Use all Layers" and clone the sky and ground to create what we would see if a piece of the building wasn't there. Notice that the sky behind the Bank of China building isn't perfect. For this building, I was aware that I would be putting some rubble over that, so I didn't spend a ton of time getting it just right. You only need a nice backdrop to work from.

Creating the destruction and rubble is perhaps the most time consuming bit of work.

The first thing I'll show you is creating false structure. This is not always necessary, but it can add a sense of realism. Let's create some struts for the Bank of China building. I came across a picture on the net of this building under construction, so I have a good idea of what the insides looked like.

Grab a rubble pick to make our struts. This'll do:



Then, cloning from the rubble, create strips. These are the floors of the building. Copy these until you have a good amount, then rotate and place over the Bank like so:



Pay close attention to the angles when creating false structure. You want it to match as closely as possible to the angle of the building.

Next, eliminate a portion of the struts. This is where you get to be creative. Try to think as you are doing it what consequences your actions have. If you erase a floor here, the mass from the floor must have fallen somewhere, right? Maybe it took out a floor below. Maybe it just landed on the floor below, depositing rubble. Be creative, but don't be completely random. It's an interesting balancing act between chaos and structure.

Now that you've created any false structure necessary, lets get to the real chaos.

Open your rubble images, say, these three:




Now this next part will be much easier if you have a tablet. A tablet's best feature is the ability to sense pressure. If you have a tablet, set your clone brush to "Shape Dynamics" with the Size jitter controled by the pen pressure. This will let you make very thin, light strokes. If you don't have a tablet, that's ok. Simply control the size of your brush by tapping quickly on the bracket keys. [ = decrease brush size, ] = increase brush size.

Ok, create a new layer and clone some chaos from your rubble pile, like this:



Use varying widths of stroke to create areas of light and darkness. Pay close attention to your shadows. You need to be aware of where the light in your scene is coming from, and where it will cast the shadows. In my scene, as in most, the light comes from above. Notice that in areas where surviving structure overhangs destroyed buildings, I have added shadows. I prefer to use cloned shadow area instead of simply painting black or using the burn tool. Using cloned shadow from a rubble pile will give you a more realistic effect.

Continue cloning until you have something like this:



Create new layers for each building, or set of buildings. This will help you control what you see, and will avoid destroying detail you have worked hard on.

Try to pick a different source rubble pic for each building. Even before you start cloning, it can be helpful to adjust the hue and saturation on the rubble pic to more closely match the building you're destroying.

Note also that I took some liberties with the actual look of the brick building as well as the short and busted. If you need to make adjustments to allow for more destruction, do so. This is your image. Who knows what kind of upgrades the buildings have had!

Now that we have destroyed some facades and collapsed floors, lets add an element of age. The first thing to remember is that destruction is dirty. Clouds of dust in the air, acid rain and soot can make a place look absolutely filthy. Let's throw some on!

I like to apply dirt and grime on a new layer, set to 'multiply' or 'darken' blend mode. Eyedrop a shadow color from your building. It's best to use this method instead of straight black, since the eyedrop will pick up on any hue present. Create a new layer and paint thin strips of color on and around ledges. Next, use the smudge tool to grab that color and smear it down, simulating the effect of rain carrying particles downward. You should come up with something like this:



After you've done that, I like to apply some nice color to get a rust and soot effect. For my Hong Kong pic, I used a sheet of paper with coffee and tea stains. A texture like this will have lots of great detail that will further grime up the image. Select a few buildings and paste it over like this:



Selectively erase in areas and get rid of anything that is jarring. Then, set the new texture layer to 'color burn', and drag the opacity down just a bit until it looks good, like so:

Next, we want to simulate some oxidization and salt deposits from rain and sea. Grab a new texture pic. For mine, I used an image of white paint cracking on a wooden fence. Again, create a new layer and paste in the texture, like so:



Erase any detail you don't want and set the layer's blend mode to 'soft light'. Decrease the opacity until you're happy with it. This should leave your building looking like this:



Next, we're going to work on the water. First off, realize that any boats in the water may be sunk, or sitting lower. Raise the water level so that the boat appears to be taking on water. Additionally, remove any white water that exists. Your boat is not moving, and should not be creating a wake. Next, select a brownish color and paint some detail onto the water itself. Set the layer to darken mode to achieve this:



Next, you're going to want to add some rust and age to the boat. Grab a new texture map. I used the paper with the coffee stains. Paste that over the boat and erase any unwanted detail. Set the layer at 'color burn' and decrease the opacity to arrive at this:

You're almost done. We've got a good image, but we want to bring it all together with some post-effects.

Use ctrl+shift+c to copy the entire image merged, or go to 'Edit >> Copy Merged'. Paste this at the top of your layers list.

The first thing we want to adjust is saturation. Crank down the saturation about 25% to simulate a somewhat overcast day:



Next, we want to make the image a bit more contrasty. I prefer to use 'Image >> Adjustments >> Selective color'. Using 'Brightness and Contrast' can affect saturation, and we don't want that. Selectively darken the blacks first, adding 5%. Next, edit the Neutrals, taking out 10% black. Additionally, for my image, I corrected a slight blue cast by taking out 3% cyan and adding 3% yellow. You should arrive at something like this:



Finally, to give the entire image a sense of cohesiveness, and further add to the grimy feel, use 'Filters >> Sharpen' and 'Filters >> Noise' to sharpen the image and add a little noise. Don't go overboard, use sparingly to add some dirt. Do a final once over, selectively desaturating anything that pops too much.

You've now got a finished product:

Here's one last download for photo manipulation you can use for reference: Modern Ruins

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Conclusion

Hope you had fun learning about Digital Painting and Photoshop Effects.

If ever you need to be reminded of how to do certain
techniques and operations, you can always come back,
this site will always be here.

Here's some essential links to save:

For Graphic Designers:

- Tips for Charging Clients for Services
- Setting Your Rates for Freelance Work

For Photographers:

How to Set the Price for Your Photo Work

3D/2D Animation & Design:

Setting Your Rates for Freelance Projects

For All Digital Artists:

A Guide to Creating & Applying Textures

A Basic Guide to Creating Custom Brushes

A Guide to Creating Adjustment Layers

A Guide to all Blend Modes

A Complete Guide to the Use and Manipulation of Brushes

Download Custom Brushes

Another List of the Best Sites for Downloading Brushes

Everything you wanted to know about creating your own color palettes

Having trouble choosing nice color combinations?
Color Scheme Designer
Kuler Color Themes
Aviary Color Editor

Need to find some free textures?

DeviantArt: This is usually a good first stop when looking for some texture inspiration. It's nice because a lot of the textures on the site can't be found anywhere else.

Flickr: There are so many different textures on here it can be overwhelming at times, but a very good source of ideas and inspiration.

CGTextures: This site hosts all kinds of textures in an easy to browse format.

Zen Textures: A large assortment of high resolution textures.

QTextures: An ever growing stock pile of amazing textures.

Lost & Taken: A nice variety of detailed and colorful surface textures.

Mega-Tex: Over 7000 great quality textures.

Seamless Textures: A one stop resource for all of your seamless texture needs.

Texturebits: Royalty free photo textures, for personal or commercial use.

BittBox: A small but high-quality site for texture images.

PatternWall: A collection of a few hundred patterns.

Texture Warehouse and Texture Library are two simple sites with a few hundred textures of various types.

Traditional art values applied to digital painting:
Concept Art, Design, and Color Theory in Photoshop

Actions

Actions are a great way to save time. In short, actions are common processes done to a picture to achieve a certain look that have been compressed to one button. Yeah you heard right. ONE button. Pretty rockin.

To access them, go to Window > Actions.

There are tons of actions out there. It's a slippery slope, though. If you install too many you will be bogged down and spend all of your time playing with actions. My recommendation is to install these sets of actions. These have some nice and easy-to-use automated steps to enhance photos or add some cool effects. Here's a good how-to for installing them in these actions, and get familiar with them. After that, if you feel you need more, go for it. There's tons online, jut search for 'Photoshop Actions'

Here's what this set offers:

• Fresh and Colorful
• Lovely and Ethereal
• Soft & Faded
• Old West
• Vintage
• B&W Beauty
• PW's B & W Beauty
• Boost
• Quick Edge Burn
• Define and Sharpen
• Slight Lighten
• Slight Sharpen
• Flatten
• Start all over!
• Seventies
• Colorized
• Sunshine
• Heartland
• Sepia Tone
• Warmer
• Cooler
• Dim the Lights
• Sharpen THIS!
• Bring on the eyes

I'll be working with this picture of a dog.

This picture is SOOC (straight out of the camera). I'll be applying a few actions to it just so you get the general feel.

To execute an action, make sure the Actions palette is visible. If it isn't go to Window > Actions. Click once on the action you want to use in the actions palette, then click play at the bottom of the actions palette. Let it do it's thing and BOOM... it's like a whole new picture. Notice the new layer that was created in the layers palette. If you don't like the action, simply trash that layer by dragging it to the trash bin.

Quick tip: if the action is "too much" you can take the opacity down in the layers palette. Just make sure you have the correct action layer selected in the layers palette.

You can also mix actions to get the look you want. For example, on the next picture I used Boost (40% opacity), Colorized (61% opacity), and Warmer (100% opacity).

In short, actions are the bomb diggity. Like, totally.

How to install Custom Photoshop Brushes:

STEP 1 - Put the .abr file you've downloaded onto the DESKTOP. If they are in a ZIP file, open the zip file and drag the .abr files on to your DESKTOP.

STEP 2 - Open your Adobe Photoshop, select the Brush tool, go to option palette at the top of the screen and click on the icon next to "Brush:" to open the brush preset picker.

Then click on little triangle in the right upper corner. Next on the list you choose 'Load Brushes'

In the dialog box, click on DESKTOP, and choose the .abr file you want to load and your new brushes appear in the Brush palette and are just ready to go. If there's mulitple Brush files to choose from, you may have to repeat the process to load them all one at a time.

To store all your Brushes in the one default folder:
[On a Mac] Put the .abr file you've downloaded into this folder: Users/{username}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes
[on Windows] C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Brushes.



Ever wish there was a decent pencil brush in Photoshop? You can make one.

1. Press F5 and start with this brush. It's one of the standard Photoshop brushes.



2. In the Shape Dynamics section of the Brushes palette, set the Size Control to Pen Pressure and set the Angle jitter to 100%.



3. Next, in the Brush Tip Shapes section, set the Spacing to something like 20%. Spacing will control what looks like paper-grain. (Note: as with all brushes, if the spacing is set too low, you run the risk of bogging down the speed performance of the brush...especially with large brushes.)



This is the basic brush, but you can always add other dynamics. I'll often add an opacity control to the brush (found in "Other Dynamics"), so I can get the effect of a light touch.



Remember, these dynamics can be adjusted depending upon your needs. For instance, if you don't want your pencil to come to a sharp point at low pressure, turn down the Size Control (from step 1). Or turn it off entirely.

Here's a few pencil / marker and texture brushes I use for storyboarding.


For further tutorials and step-by-step instructions on Digital Painting go here.

That's pretty much it! Fire up that Wacom tablet, and go paint!



The following is just a sample of how easily you can use Photoshop to create an illustration from scratch.

1. The rough sketch, with a simple photoshop texture brush, I do a loose drawing to figure out the pose.




2. I flop the drawing and make a cleaner, more refined pass.




3. I rebuild the tricky parts to be sure of the construction and perspective.




4. I produce the final drawing with a clean line and I improve on some parts (like the face).




5. I start the base colors with the line above.




6. Every part (face, jacket, hair, etc) on a separate level.




7. Details - The face.




8. Cheeks and nose.




9. I add more colored-lines on surfaces to show overlap, drapery, and other details.




10. With the gradient tool, I make a subtle color effect. and mask it to the shape of the character.




11. I set the layer in screen mode and lower the opacity.




12. I start the background with the basic color.




13. I add the snow with a brush that looks like snow flakes.




14. A white gradiant to suggest the snow on the floor.




15. A quick shadow on the ground to set the character in the environment.




16. A quick skyline of Paris.




17. I add a new blank layer and add a noise filter.




18. I lower the opacity and set it to color burn.




19. I place a paper texture layer on top, and tinted blue.




20. I set it to screen and lower the opacity.




21. And voila!





Good luck in your future of digital painting!