Reference

Photoshop
 Photoshop

Table of Content

S# Session Page
1. Advanced collage tricks 3
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/photoshop/advanced-colage-tricks/?pn=1
2. Undress a Giraffe in Photoshop 13
Link: http://claire-hummel-interview.blogspot.in/

3. Avatar Photoshop Tutorial 49

http://csscreme.com/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/avatarphotoshop_tutorial

4. Flaming Car in Photoshop by Lincoln Soares 61

http://abduzeedo.com/reader-tutorial-flaming-car-lincoln-soares

5. Create a Surreal Apocalypse Photomanipulation Photoshop Tutorial 68

http://design.creativefan.com/create-a-surreal-apocalypse-photomanipulation-photoshop-tu-
torial/
6. Matte Painting: Create A Distressed Surreal Cityscape 89
http://www.myinkblog.com/matte-painting-create-a-distressed-surreal-cityscape/

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 Photoshop

Session 1: Advanced collage tricks

Making Collage Using Defferent Pictures of Animals,Sky and Man with Flag.

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/photoshop/ad-
Source vanced-collage-tricks/?pn=1
Date of Retrival 22/04/2014

Still as popular as ever, photomontage is initially one of the easiest techniques to learn. But achieving
photorealistic results can be a challenge. In this tutorial, Mike Harrison shows you how, by blending
a number of photos together. This kind of work always has a surreal edge, but with the images you’ll
use, the environment and composition, you’ll endeavour to be quite subtle, too, which should add an
extra intriguing quality to the piece.

The specific techniques you’ll learn will be how to specify a light source and apply realistic lighting and
shadows to the objects, and how to use subtle effects like colour treatment, texture and adjustment
layers to give a certain mood to the final image.

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Step 1
The first step when starting an image-heavy piece like this is to collate a variety of stock imagery that you
want to use. Don’t worry about being exact in your choice of shots as there’s nothing stopping you, sub-
sequently, adding or leaving out images. A website such as fotolia.com has plenty of images of animals,
while for free images of birds, specifically, try sxc.hu.

Photoshop tutorial: Advanced collage tricks

Step 2
Create a new A4 document at 300dpi, then crop a portion off the top, so you end up with a ‘wide-
screen’ canvas. Place the file, landscape.jpg, then go to Image > Adjustments and increase the
brightness and contrast.

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Step 3
The sky needs to be more dramatic, so, using a large soft brush with the Flow at 40%, create a new layer,
set the blending mode to Color Burn, and brush some blue into it. Next, find some images of clouds, bring
them into the document, set the blending mode to Overlay and, using a layer mask, erase parts to blend
them in with the existing clouds.

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Step 4
We have our backdrop. Now it’s time to start populating the scene. Find an image of someone
walking and holding a flag. Trace their outline using the Pen tool (P). Right click using the Path
Selection tool (A), then select Make Selection and copy and paste him into the main document.
Move and resize to suit.

Step 5
Let’s have our light source coming from the left of the canvas and add lighting effects accordingly. Go to
the layer containing the man and Cmd/Ctrl + click on the layer thumbnail. Create a new layer and select
Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection. Change the blending mode to Overlay, then with a small soft
brush, brush onto the left edges of the layer to simulate the light hitting him. Do the same to the right of
him, but with the blending mode set to Normal and using a black brush.

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Step 6
With light comes shadow, and getting the shadows right is what will blend the man in properly with
the landscape. Cmd/Ctrl + click on the man layer, create a new layer underneath and fill it with black.
Flip it vertically, then Cmd/Ctrl + click on the lower middle transform point and drag up and right. Now
go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter a value of 1px.

Step 7
Next, change the blending mode of the shadow layer to Overlay, duplicate the layer and set the
blending mode to Normal. Play with each layer’s opacity for a realistic look. Create another layer
and, using a small soft brush, add some shadow around the man’s feet. Add a layer mask if you
need to tweak it.

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Step 8
Time for the flag. Open flag.jpg and, using the technique previously outlined, cut it out and place
it into the main document. Scale it, rotate it into position and use the earlier steps to add the ap-
propriate lighting. Add a layer mask to the flag layer and then, using a small hard brush, erase
parts away to achieve a ‘torn’ look to the bottom.

Step 9
Now we’ll add some distress to the flag. Using a brush such as the ones at bit.ly/REMI1, brush
onto the flag with a layer mask to create this effect. Then with a logo of your choice, bring it into the
document, set the blending mode to Multiply, and select Filter > Liquify and distort it
a little, so it blends well onto the flag.

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Step 10
Start adding animals. Find a lion image I used the one at bit.ly/eZasaw, cut it out as you did with
the earlier elements, and bring it into the document. Increase the brightness and contrast to make
it stand out, then apply the same lighting and shadow techniques as you used for the man.

Step 11
When adding shadow to the animals, you will get a better result if you create a new layer with a
layer mask, then use a soft, medium-sized brush to add shadow to the feet.

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Step 12
Using the techniques we employed for the man and the lion, grab flamingo.jpg and add it to the
composition. Don’t worry too much about positioning for now as we can play around with that, as
we go along. I’ve added other creatures, as well.

Step 13
Adding some birds in the air will add more of a dynamic feel, so bring them into the composition as you
did the other creatures. To blend them with the sky, apply a gradient overlay using the settings in the
screenshot.

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Step 14
Detail is one of the finishing touches, and for that we’ll be adding some insects and lizards. Grab snake.
jpg and add it to the stick bearing the flag. Using a layer mask, erase parts of it, so it appears wrapped
around the stick. Also add a spider on the flag and apply a basic drop shadow in the blending options.

Step 15
The man in the image is looking at us, but he ought to be looking in the direction in which he’s
heading. To fix this, I’ve sourced a head facing the correct way and wrapped in a scarf. Apply a
layer mask to the man layer and erase his head. Using the techniques we applied for the animals,
do the same for the new head, and position and scale to fit.

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Step 16
Finally, add some finishing touches, such as the adornments to the man shown. Let’s also change
the mood of the piece. We’ll experiment with the colour balance by adding a gradient map and
colour balance and brightness/contrast adjustment layers at the top of the layer stack. Also, apply
texture.jpg with an Overlay blending mode at 30% opacity, and place this layer just above the

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Session 2: Undress a Giraffe in Photoshop

Undress a giraffe using image Editing techniques or tools like Clone stamp
tool, brush tool etc..
http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/remove-giraffe-spots-
Source photoshop--psd-11933
Date of Retrival 22/04/2014

Have you ever wanted to know what a Giraffe looks like without its spots? If so, this tutorial is for
you, you pervert! Today, we will demonstrate how to undress a giraffe by removing its spots. We
will then show how to turn its spots into an outfit that will be draped over an ironing board. Pretty
cool! Let’s get started!

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Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.
Step 1
Let’s start by creating a new document in Adobe Photoshop. The size of document is 2200×3200
pixels at 72 px/inch of resolution. Start by filling the background with any color (white for example).

Step 2
First of all let’s create a simple and plain background. You may crate your own more interesting and
multi-layered background - old style wallpapers or may be savanna landscape.

We will use gradients and filters. Unlock the “Background” - right click on background thumbnail and
choose “Layer from background”, click “Add a layer style” small iconUndress a Giraffe in Photoshop
in the bottom part of the Layers Palette. Apply “Color Overlay” and “Gradient Overlay” styles. Use
setting and colors just like on the screen shots below.

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Step 3
Create a new empty layer above background layer - click “Create a new layer” icon Undress a
Giraffe in Photoshop. Choose huge soft, light color Brush Tool and draw a spot in the central part
of the document.

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Step 4
Create a new layer above light spot layer. Go to Menu > Filter > Render > Clouds.

Choose Filters menu again and find Blur filter, apply Motion Blur and Gaussian Blur filters to clouds
layer one by one. Add Layer Mask to blurred layer, click “Add Layer Mask” iconUndress a Giraffe in
Photoshop. Make Layer Mask active and fill it with black and white Reflected Gradient in the bottom
part of the document.

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Step 5
In order to create Vignette effect, choose Menu > Filter > Distort > Lens Correction > play with
Vignette Amount & Midpoint settings.

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Step 6
Merge all created layers. Make lighter the right part of our background, the light source will be directed
from right. Make active Quick Mask Mode Undress a Giraffe in Photoshop, choose Linear “black and
white” Gradient Tool. Fill layer with gradient from left to right edge of the document. The left side should
become pink. Make Quick Mask inactive (clickUndress a Giraffe in Photoshop icon).

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Step 7
You will have selected area like on the screen shot. Play with Levels settings. Menu > Image
> Adjustments Levels, move gray marker left. You can add small noise effect, to the created
background layer. Go to Menu > Filter > Noise > Add Noise > 4; Uniform.

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Step 8
Insert giraffe image. Menu > File > Place - choose giraffe .jpg file. In order to separate giraffe
silhouette from background, choose Polygonal Lasso Tool. You may use other methods, but this
one is pretty easy and convenient. Click in the giraffe silhouette area to set the starting point.
Continue clicking to set endpoints for subsequent segments. To close the selection border click
over the starting point.

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Step 9
Click Refine Edge to improve the quality of a selection’s edges.

Step 10
Use following Refine Edge settings. Click “Ok” and inverse selection: Menu > Select > Inverse.
Erase or clear selected background area (Menu > Edit > Clear).

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Step 11
In order to retouch and improve color balance of the Giraffe image choose Shadows /Highlights
from Image > Adjustments menu. Apply following settings:

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Step 12
Add the new adjustments layers above Giraffe layer- “Levels”, “Color Balance”, “Selective Color
Options”, click Undress a Giraffe in Photoshop icon in the bottom menu of the Layers Palette.
Select all adjustments layers (make them active), right click > choose “Create Clipping Mask”.
Apply setting for each adjustment layer like on the examples below. Fill “Selective Color” and
“Levels” Layers Masks with linear “black and white” gradient.

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Step 13
Load selection for white stripes with Magic Wand Tool. It is not necessary to load selection for all
white spots at once, you may do this work by portions. Go to Menu > Select > Modify > Expand
(expand by 1px).

Step 14
Duplicate the retouched Giraffe layer and fill selected stripes with brown color in the duplicated
layer, name it “Clean skin layer”. The original retouched Giraffe layer will be needed in the future
steps, be sure that the original layer is below duplicate). Use 0% hardness brush and hold down
the “Alt” key to activate Eyedropper Tool and find right color next to each stripe.

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Step 15
You should have something like this and you may fill out white areas with color step by step. Brown
color stripes will be helpful to create more accurate result.

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Step 16
To remove stripes traces, use Patch Tool. Drag the selection border to the clean and textured skin
area. When you release the mouse button, the trace of the selected area is patched with the sam-
pled pixels. Repeat these actions to mask all stripe traces.

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Step 17
You will have giraffe body without spots.

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Step 18
Correct the “Clean skin” layer edges with smooth Eraser Tool to create blending effect between
original (spotty) bottom layer and “Clean skin” layer.

Step 19
Mask the small defects with Patch Tool and Spot Healing Brush Tool. Choose a brush size in the options
bar. A brush that is slightly larger than the area you want to fix works best so that you can cover the entire
area with one click.

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Step 20
Now we can change skin color and levels balance. Add “Gradient Map”, “Levels” and “Black and
White” adjustment layers and create Clipping Mask for “Clean skin” layer. Apply following settings.

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Step 21
Insert Ironing Board image, it doesn’t require any changes and adjustments.

Step 22
Return to the retouched Giraffe layer and duplicate it once again. We will make Giraffe’s jacket
using a new copy. Erase head and legs area.

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Step 23
This is a shape for our future jacket.

Step 24
Correct the shape of the spotty jacket using Warp Transformation. Make a shape flatter. Go to Edit
> Transform >Warp.

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Step 25
Liquify filter from Filters menu will help you to create flat shape effect. Use large Forward Warp Tool
to correct large areas and smaller Warp Tool size to work with parts such as legs or skin wrinkles.

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Step 26
Now we have flatter shape for the jacket.

Step 27
Apply Free transformation to jacket shape, make it smaller and little bit stretched by horizontal.

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Step 28
Select top part (above ironing board bottom edge) of the spotty jacket, cut out this part and paste it
into a new layer. Stretch it by vertical using Free Transformation like on the example below.

Step 29
Apply Perspective Transformation to the top edge, Menu > Edit > Transform > Perspective.

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Step 30
Keep active modified top part of jacket layer. Cut out top part again (above ironing board top
edge), just leave stripe above trouser-legs (“Layer 20” on the screen shot below). Stretch top part
by vertical again.

Step 31
Apply Perspective transformation.
Undress a Giraffe in Photoshop

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Step 32
Make active top layer of the jacket layers. Erase iron and area above ironing board. Try to imitate
skin wrinkles shape.

Step 33
Draw white line with Line Tool in a new layer above giraffe jacket, use weight around 13 px and
apply Gaussian Blur Filter (R=10px).

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Step 34
Change Blending Mode for this layer on “Overlay”.

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Step 35
Copy neck area from the original retouched Giraffe layer. Paste it into a new layer below ironing
board layer. Apply flip Vertical transformation to this shape and Gradient Overlay layer style effect
with settings like on the screen shot below.

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Step 36
The final part of our work is creating the drop shadow effect for Giraffe and Ironing board. Load
selection for Giraffe shape (Command/Ctrl + click Giraffe layer thumbnail). Create a new layer
below of the all visible giraffe layers. Fill selection with any color.

Step 37
Apply Distort transformation to created shape. Edit > Transform > Distort. Move top edge and left
bottom corner left and down. Try to combine drop shadow and legs in same points. Correct central
legs shadow with Eraser Tool.

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Step 38
This is result of our transformation.

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Step 39
Set Fill parameter 0% and Opacity around 20% for the shadow layer. Apply Gradient Overlay layer
style effect. Make active Quick mask Mode, fill layer with linear gradient like on the example below.

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Step 40
Click Quick Mask icon and apply Gaussian Blur to the selected area of the shadow layer.

Step 41
Duplicate shadow layer and apply Gaussian Blur filter with radius = 50 px and change Opacity to 70-75%.

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Step 42
Create shadow effect for the ironing board using the same method. Load selection for ironing board
and jacket, Apply Fill = 0%, Gradient Overlay effect with the same parameters. Apply Blurring 10 px
and duplicate shadow layer with Opacity 75% and More Blurring.

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Final Image

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Session 3: Avatar Photoshop Tutorial

Transform simple potrait image of man to Avatar’s main character Na’vi using
various image edting techniques in Photoshop.
http://csscreme.com/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/avatar_
Source photoshop_tutorial
Date of Retrival 22/04/2014

Avatar’s main character Jake Sully, paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet called Pandora.
Pandora is inhabited by a primitive race called the Na’vi, and Jake is sent in to learn their ways so that he
can help relocate them in order for humans to take over their resources.

3D computer graphic adventure Avatar is the most expensive film in history, it took $500 million and
10 years to make. The James Cameron film, uses pioneering 3-D technology and computer graphics.

With this tutorial you can easily transform yourself into a Na’vi. I used Photoshop CS3 to transform
my boyfriend to Jake. I hope you will like this Avatar movie tutorial.

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Step 1 - Creating Na’vi’s nose

Import a photograph of your choice, just make sure that size is relatively large. Also, make sure that
the person on the photograph is well lit (but not over lit) perhaps taken with flash, so that enough
sharp details are visible.

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First you need to duplicate background layer.

This is one of the most important steps. To do this, we will use Liquify filter. Go to Filter > Liquify >
Forward Warp Tool. First, pull from the middle of the nose to the left, then to the right side, as shown
in the picture below.

After you fix the nose you have to raise the eyebrows. If you are not precise, and if your hand
is not trained, it’s suggested that you set the brush pressure to 50. But I used Brush Size 205,
Brush Density 50 and Brush Pressure 100. If you make a mistake you can use Reconstruct Tool.

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Step 2
After first step, duplicate layer. Use Burn Tool and darken the nose from both sides.

Step 3 – Cleaning eyebrows and enlarging eyes

Use Clone Stamp Tool to remove the excess of the eyebrows. When you are done with that you can
make eyes bigger with Bloat Tool. Go to Filter > Liquify and choose Bloat Tool.

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Step 4 – Na’vi’s Skin color

In this step, we will transform human skin into Navi’s. So, for this, we will use Hue/Saturation. Select
the following parameters:

Step 5 - Staining of the lips and the nose

Set the opacity of the Brush to 50% and choose #fa7d7d for color and paint the mouth and top of
the nose. After all this you have to switch Layer Mode to Hue.

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Step 6 – Levels
To darken or lighten a picture (in my case darken) you have to use Levels. Go to Image > Adjust-
ments > Levels and set the best effect for your picture.

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Step 7 – Na’vi’s Eyes

Na’vi’s iris is considerably larger than human one in relation to the size of the whole eye. For the
Na’vi’s eyes I copied left eye from the Avatar poster picture. The copied eye was smaller so in that
case you have to press CTRL+T (transformations) and expand the eye. If something does not fit in
place try different types of transformations, for example, Skew. When you finish with one eye just
copy it, flip horizontally (Edit >Transform >Flip Horizontally) and move to the other side and again
set to match the size of the original eye. Than use Dodge and Burn Tool to have more realistic look.
In the end, you have to lower layer opacity to 71% and fill to 89%.

Step 8
For nicer look you can make a new layer and merge all previous layers by pressing CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E
and than change Layer Mode to Soft Light.

Step 9 – Ears
Copy the ears from poster image and paste them on your picture. If it’s necessary, increase the ears
and rotate them to fit natural. When you finish with Na’vi’s ears, make new layer and merge all visible
layers (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E). In new layer delete human ears from the photo, like on the picture
below.

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Step 10 – Na`vi’s Skin

You may remember from movie, Na’vi have some dark lines on their skin. In this step, we will
create those lines, using pattern. You can simply go right click on the picture below and save it
on your computer.

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After that open this zebra pattern in Photoshop and, while holding Ctrl, just drag and drop to your avatar
photo. If you need bigger pattern you can expand it. Then, use Eraser Tool to delete unnecessary pattern
from background, eyes and lips, till you have something like this:

The next thing you have to do is to set Layer Mode to Overlay and lower the Opacity to 19% (in my
case).

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Step 11 – Sparkling dots

The next thing we’re going to do is creation of glowing dots on the skin.

First you have to set brush like on picture below and than click on Pen Tool, change to Paths and
draw. Then, switch from Layers to Paths, right click on Work Path and choose Stroke Path. On drop
down list select Brush and check Simulate Pressure.

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Go to Layer > Layer Style> Blending Options > Outer Glow and set it like this

Result

The last thing remaining is to make new layer, merge all previous layers and set Blending Mode for
layer to Overlay and Opacity to 26%.

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Finally, we are done with our Avatar movie character. As you can see transforming an image into a
Na’vi is not a very difficult task. So, get started and create your own Na’vi images.

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Session 4: Flaming Car in Photoshop by Lincoln Soares

Creating flaming car using various fire images and car using blending mode,
color correction tools, masks etc..
http://abduzeedo.com/reader-tutorial-flaming-car-lin-
Source coln-soares
Date of Retrival 22/04/2014

Step 1
Open Photoshop and create a new document. Make the background with a mix of black and red
(#160000). Then with the image of a car with no background. For this first step the idea is get the
outlines of the car for our image. To do that, it’s pretty easy. Create a new layer by duplicating the
car’s layer. Rename it to “Base” and hide the original. Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert.

After that go to Filter>Stylize>Find Edges. Repeat the same thing again in order to have another
layer but for the Blend Mode use Hard Light. After that you can merge those 2 layers into one.

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Step 2

Your image will look like this:

Step 3
Now that we’ve gotten the cars outline we will have to apply the light effect on it so it will look like
a flaming car.

In the same layer that we created in the step 1, let’s apply a Gaussian Blur. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian
Blur. The value will vary depending on the resolution you are working on. In my case I used 1.6 for the
Radius. After that change the Blend Mode to Scree.

Duplicate the the layer keeping the same blend mode, however let’s apply a Gaussian Blur again,
go to Fitler>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use 3.6 pixels. Rename this layer to “Top”. Duplicate the layer
we created in the first step and merge it down with this one. Then duplicate the first layer again and
rename it to Red and go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation. Select Colorize and change the
Saturation to 100. The Blend Mode of this layer will be Overlay.

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Let’s repeat this again to create the yellow version. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation and
use 40 for the Hue. Do the same again to create an orange version, then for the Hue and Saturation use
-22.

After that change the Opacity of the yellow and orange layers to 50% and put them inside a folder.
You can do that by selection both and going to Layer>Group Layers. Then with the group select go to
Layer>Vector Mask and then delete the outlines on the rear part of the car.

Step 4
Our effect is pretty much done. Now let’s duplicate the original layer that we hid on the step 1. Select it
and go to Image>Adjustments>Hue an Saturation. Select colorize and change the Saturation to 100.
Put this layer in a folder and rename it to Car.

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Step 5
Add a new layer and name it “Superior Line” before starting adding flames and other light rays. With the
Brush Tool (B) with Hardness 0 add a line following the tires skid marks and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian
Blur. I used 4.5 pixels for the radius. After that go again to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation. Use
+76 for the Hue. Tip: You will have to do that for the right side tires and the left ones as well.

Step 6
Now let’s start mixing some images in our composition. Get some flame images ad start adding
them in your image. Notice that the flame images I have they are all in black background, that way
you can use Screen for the Blend Mode and the black will be transparent.

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Step 7
Keep adding more flames.

Step 8
Here I added another flame image. You can change the perspective of the image by going to
Edit>Transform>Perspective. Once again use Screen for the Blend Mode, and if you wan the
effect to be stronger, just duplicate the layer.

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Step 9
Select one of the flames that you used for the skid mark and move it so it is underneath the car. Do
that for the front and rear part of the car.

Step 10
Almost done. Let’s add a few more details. Add a new layer and then with the Brush Tool (B), use a
rounded brush with 0% Hardness to create some little spots of fire following the skid marks. Make
sure you use different sizes for the spots like the image below.

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Step 11
Duplicate the layer and go to Image>Adjustment>Hue and Saturation. Select Colorize and change the
Saturation to 100 and the Lightness to -50. After that change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Duplicate that
layer again and go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation. Change the Hue to 76.

The next thing here is add an image of smoke like the image below.

Conclusion
That’s it, our image is done. It takes a little time and work but the technique is quite simple. The end
result is quite nice as well. I also hope you liked my first tutorial here at Abduzeedo. If you have any
questions or want any asset I use here you can reach me at designsoares@hotmail.com
Email links icon

I am very happy to contribute with Abduzeedo, a blog that has helped me quite a lot.

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Session 5: Create a Surreal Apocalypse Photomanipulation

Photoshop Tutorial
Photomanipulation techniques

http://design.creativefan.com/create-a-surreal-apoca-
Source lypse-photomanipulation-photoshop-tutorial/
Date of Retrival 22/04/2014

Step one: Background setup

To start off we need the background, a nice cloud scene is preferred but you can use whatever you
like. An example is the below image.

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Once you have your stock image its time to identify the light source. My light source comes from the
left side of the screen. So to enhance this I created a black to white gradient and set it to overlay at
35%. Yours might not come from the left thought, so take a peak at your scene and decided which
direction your gradient should be emerging from and then create!

Now we need to adjust the colors for our scene. To do this we will create a color balance layer, I prefer
using color balance layers like this because of their ease to adjust. You will find the color balance layer
style under Layers > new> Adjustment layers> Color Balance. Once you have created the layer you will
get the same old color balance dialog you are so used to seeing. So, set yours up as mine is in the next
few screen shots or adjust it to better fit your scene.

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My clouds now look like the below screen shot.

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Now we need to add even more color! So create a new layer and fill it with a light purple. Set this
new layer up as an overlay at 50%. Keep in mind that these are the percentages and color balance
adjustments for my background, if you are using another one you may need to play around with the
colors a bit!

Now continuing on with the theme lets make another color balance layer, this time however we will
just adjust the shadows. Once that is done we can create a photo filter layer, which like the color
balance layers, are hidden away in the adjustment layers drop down. Set both of these up as mine
are in the below screen shot.

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My scene now looks like the below screenshot.

Now lets make another photo filter layer! This time set the layer up as an color layer at 45% opacity.

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Step 2: Making Orbs

Now its time to get started on the creation of our orbs, for those of you who are fimilar with past tutorials
this will be very simple. To create the orbs you will need a base texture, any old stone or concrete texture
will do. I got mine from CGtextures and suggest you start your search there as well. Once you have your
texture making a perfect circle using your elliptical marquee and erase everything outside of the circle.
Once that is done just burn one side up nice so it appears as If its shadowed.

Next make a selection around your orb and apply a sphererize filter, which can be found under filters
> distort. Leave it at 100% both vertical and horizontal. Next just drop it into your scene directly above
the background layer, so it is under all the color adjustment layers.

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Now using a soft eraser (300px soft edged) with an opacity of about 35% erase the bottom of your
orb slightly so it appears as if its in the clouds. You could also apply a layer mask and do this if you
like.

Now just repeat the process and create a few more orbs. Place them all over the place, be sure to
blur the distant orbs and reduce their opacity so it appears as if they are in the horizon amongst
the clouds.

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Step 3: People
Now lets add in some people, to do this is very simple but it might take a few tweaks to get them
to look right.

So to start off with find yourself a nice picture of someone sitting, I went with one from shutter stock
but you can get them from Deviantart and Sxc alike.

Now you want to isolate out your figure, and drop it in to your scene right on top of the orb. You may
need to burn/dodge the sides of your figure to match the lighting of your scene, if you do, remember
to make a backup of the isolated stock! You don’t want to have to go isolating all over again!

Once you have dropped them in you may also need to apply some quick color corrections as I did, if
you do remember to create a color balance layer and mask out everything but the figure! Also keep
in mind that the below color balances are for my figures and my scene, yours more than likely will
need to be tweaked slightly but don’t worry experimentation is key to success!

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Now we will stop working on the figures for a slight second, the scene whilst being wonderful, slightly
bothers me. To correct this I created a new layer and drew some big lines of color. Blue for the highest
point, pink for the middle section and yellow for the bottom. Once this was done I applied a Gaussian
blur with a radius of 250px twice and set the layer up as overlay at %. This is not required but it was
bothering me and why not just give it a try, you might like the end result!

Now back on to our figures, they look great but there is something wrong with them as they are…
They need a shadow! So create a new layer under the figures but over the orb and draw some
shadows on with your feathered brush of choice. My brush setup was : 25px, 0% hardness and
opacity of 40%.

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Now its time to add in some more figures for our distant orbs, so keep doing the above process with
new stock images from sites like sxc and deviantart. Keep in mind when doing this, if the orb is at
40% opacity and blurred, then the figure needs to be as well! You could also just paint these since
they will be blurred and have a reduced opacity, I painted about half of mine.

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My scene now looks like the below screen shot.

Step 4: God’s Wrath?

Now its time to create the next focal point for our piece, that is of course the meteors. To start off we
will need a base rock, I got mine from shutter stock and it looks like the below screen shot, however
you can find rocks ALL OVER the net and if you don’t find one you like you can always whip one
up in 3ds, vue, Bryce etc…

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Next we need a base smoke trail, something that as is, looks like a smoke trail. What’s better than
an actual smoke trail? So if you cant find yourself a smoke trail like the below image from shutter
stock, you can use the cloud brush we used in our previous tutorials to paint one or you can use a
combination of clouds and smoke stock images.

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In the case of my base, I inverted it and placed it into the scene along with my rock.

Now its time to get to the nitty gritty part. So lets start off by grabbing a nice soft brush on a new
layer, leave your brush’s opacity low, something like 40/50% should work great.

Now paint some highlight clouds and darker clouds as I have done in the below screenshot, keep
in mind that you want them to flow and wave as if they are real clouds. If you are having trouble
with this step a cloud stock image or the cloud brush we created previously should work just fine.

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Next with our brush still transparent we can switch to a grungy brush, something that can help aid
in the creation of particles flying about.

Now drop a few of these brush strokes down in random spots so it seems as if they are breaking
away from the meteor. You can also blur these (or smudge them as I did) for a more dramatic result.

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Now using the same brush you can swap between white and black and part debris over the previously
created clouds. Once you have done that use your smudge brush (200px 0% hardness pressure of 15%)
and smudge these along the cloud/smoke trail.

Now for final touches. This is where you can blend everything together, add in more depth (shadows
and highlights) and make the entire thing seem to flow in to one cohesive segment. Sadly there is no
rhyme or reason to this step, it depends upon your skill level and your meteor. Just keep playing with it
until you achieve something you like. The below image shows my approach to it, the orange being the
darkened areas, blue being highlights and black being where I blurred to achieve a feathered result.

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Now this is where we take our meteors to the next level! So we start off by grabbing a stock image of
an explosion, like the below image from shutter stock. And then dropping it into our scene, masking
out the section we want (the part covering the asteroid and about 15% of our tail) and then setting
the blending mode to screen.

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Now lets repeat the entire process but this time lets make it something closer to the screen, the
piece needs some depth anyway. So start off with the smoke trail, be sure to blur it! I blurred my
close trail using the Gaussian blur filter with a radius of about 9px.

Now we drop in our explosion, mask it out and set it up.

Be sure to blur this with the same blur you used for the trail!

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Now taking a closer look I felt like the closer meteor needed some umph, so to help this I created
a new layer above the screen layer and painted with a dull red/black combination using the soft
brush we used previously. All I really did here was darken up certain sections and adding in slight
contrast. You don’t have to do this step but I would suggest it if you are not satisfied with the way
the piece looks as of now.

Now we can do this a few more times and put these out in the distance, which means, like our orbs
they need to have a low opacity. Keep in mind when doing this that if your smoke/asteroid combo
has an opacity of 40% then your screen layer should be the same!

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And now we are done! My scene now looks like the below screenshot, I finished the piece off by
creating a few layers above everything and painting over certain aspects to get them the way I
really wanted them to look. You could do the same, leave it as is or even add in more dynamic
elements like a aircraft exploding!

I hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial and learned a thing or two! Don’t hesitate to drop a question
or comment below!

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Session 6: Matte Painting: Create A Distressed Surreal

Cityscape
Creating Matte Painting using various reference images.

http://www.myinkblog.com/matte-painting-create-a-dis-
Source tressed-surreal-cityscape/
Date of Retrival 22/04/2014

Intro
Matte painting plays a major role in today’s films. The first known matte painting shot was made
in 1907 by Norman Dawn (ASC), you can see how the traditional matte painting evolved from
“The Wizard Of Oz” to the ground breaking “Avatar”. In this tutorial I’m going to show you some
techniques in matte painting to create a distressed surreal cityscape.
Notes

This tutorial is for Photoshop users with intermediate to advanced skills

All the keyboard shortcuts are mentioned within ( )

Resources

If you are following along, you’ll need to grab the following resources.

Buildings
Distressed Buildings
Destroyed Building 1
Destroyed Building 2
Destroyed Building 3
Destroyed Building 4
Clouds
Fog Brushes
More Fog Brush Options

Preview

Before we begin, check out a quick preview of what we will be creating.

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Step 1
Just like every construction needs a blue print, so do matte paintings. Here’s a little sketch I created
to map out my project. The numbered sections shown here will be used as a reference throughout
this tutorial.

Step 2
I found this pic which is a perfect fit for the blue print. Open it in photoshop, and remove the clouds
using the Magic Wand (W) tool, or whichever pixel cutting technique you are most familiar with.

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Step 3
In this painting we could do without any green foliage, so turn the plants in the foreground into
pigmentless plants. Select the Lasso Tool (L) and roughly draw around the bushes as shown,
and set the Feather Radius to 60. Then alter the curves to approximately what is referenced
below.

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Step 4
This step requires some decision making on your part. Choose which portion of the building you’d
like to destroy. Then use the Lasso Tool (L) to roughly make your selections. Lastly, erase the edges
using the Eraser (E) tool.

Step 5
Next, darken the building by using the Burn Tool (O) with a rust brush. It’s the perfect tool to distress
the buildings like what is shown below.

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Step 6
Now lets add some rubble and gutted patches to the buildings. Start in the sequence that was layed out
in the blue print. I found this pic suitable for the section marked as ‘B1′. Cut out the portion required, and
name it (B1 Grid).

Step 7

Now paste that piece back into your original canvas and blend it with the prespective of the building.
Select the Free Transform tool (Cmd + T), then with the Move Tool (V) selected while holding (Ctrl)
move the edges to match the prospective.

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Step 8
Once you are settled on the prospective, duplicate the layer untill the gap is filled. Then merge all
those (B1 Grid) layers and erase some parts of the grid to show it’s broken.

Step 9
Now adjust the curves to the following output. Red 150, green 122, and blue 95.

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Step 10
Next, apply similar destroy and burn techniques that you used in steps 4 and 5. We will come back
to this layer for more details later in this tutorial.

Step 11
Lets start to work on the B2 section. Choose the best pic for B2′s destruction, I used this image.
Now, repeat the same steps you followed in step 7 while aligning the B1 Grid layer. Be sure to take
your time with any of these perspective steps, getting them wrong will be detrimental to the entire
effect.

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Step 12
Change the Exposure values to the following: Exposure: -0.63, Offset: +0.0061, Gamma Correction:
0.94.

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Step 13
Grab this photo to be used for the middle of ‘B2′ and name the layer ‘Broken Floors’. The floors in
the middle of B2 need some attention. We should concentrate on the perspective. First, draw some
lines matching the perspective using the Pen Tool. Then use the Free Transform tool to adjust the
floor lines with the building lines.

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Step 14
Change the exposure values to: Exposure: -1.22, Offset: 0, and Gamma Correction: 1.00. Then
select the Burn Tool (O) and use your creativity to make it look old and destroyed.

Step 15
Now it’s time to let your creative juices flow. In much the same way as the previous steps begin
filling in the gaps with distressed buildings. Remember this is a surreal destroyed cityscape, so
you can’t go too wrong, as long as you’re creative and maintain consistent color, perspective and
shadows. The steps I used are referenced in the sample pics below.

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Step 16
Now lets add some details to the ‘B1 Grid” layer. Add a new layer, then select the Lasso Tool (L) and
outline some hanging grass. Fill your selections with the colour #5d6e5e. Again select the Lasso
Tool (L) and add shades to the grass with colour #3a413a.

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Step 17
Every abandoned building needs some broken windows, so lets add a few. Select the Brush Tool
(B) and choose the colour #0c0d11, now start painting some random boxes which represent the
broken windows. When it comes to painting details, your creativity is what makes the difference
between a beginner and a professional.

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Step 18
Now add some clouds to the backdrop which suits the environment we created. Drop them into our
cityscape behind all the building layers.

Step 19

Grab some fog brushes and make the scene more realistic by brushing some fog where it’s needed.
Be wary not to go overboard with this step.

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