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wallpaper: Mommy's little Angel (aka pure Kitsch)
for the all the Mommies here around *g* this is a perfect wallpaper for the season...
plus grandmas love these things, too ;)
works with pretty much every cute photo... and it's very easy.
Step 01: Background
Fill your canvas (I was working with a 1024x768 one) with a color of your choice.
you can change this color later if it doesn't compliment the pic in the end...
Step 02: Photo
Find a nice pic of your spawn ;)
It looks especially nice when they're sitting propped on their arms and smiling...
add it on top of your background. if the quality is not that good, try auto-level/auto-contrast to make it decent looking, it doesn't have to be perfect though.
hey, look, who's that? (bonus points for the obsessed ones who immediately recognize her *g*)
Step 03: Cutout
Grab your magnetic lasso tool. it's under the selection tools in the tool bar.
Click somewhere on the edge of the kid you wanna cut out, then just follow the edgeline around. You'll see that the selection tool will magnetically snap to the edges.
it's much easier than doing everything on your own, you just need to follow the edges roughly.
Sometimes it happens that the tool can't decide what you wanna select, in these cases just make a click and you can force an anchor point.
if you have completed the whole round, make sure your selection is still active and then click the layer mask icon on your layer palette.
and taddaaa, we have the cut out photo on the background. you can paint with black/white on the layer mask if you need a better selection at some points.
I had to add the holes for her pigtails for example...
blur your layer mask slightly. Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur.
something around 2-5 should work, depending on your selection and picture.
see how it is not perfect at the moment? it doesn't matter *g*
Duplicate your cutout photo twice, we need that for later effects, but hide the upper two for the moment :)
Step 04: and then there was light
we're adding a little glow to our pic. open the layer style and tag the outer and inner glow.
set both colors to white, blending mode normal. make the outer glow rather large (around 120-150) but the inner glow smaller (around 15). leave everything else just like it is by default, except of the spread, that should be 0 or 1...
pretty, ain't it? and we cannot see our bad cut out work anymore ;)
time to reveal our first copy on top of this...
we're adding a little light to it... Go to Filter - Render - Lighting Effects.
choose the Spotlight as light type, make sure the color is white...
if your pic already has a visible light source (i.e. you can see where the light is coming from from the shadows/highlights in the face) aim for the same direction.
in this case there was a leading light on the upper left, so I worked with that...
the Intensity needs a very high value, while the Focus should be zero.
Go for shiny and metallic, everything else you can put to zero again.
now you only have to drag the handles on the spotlight to your liking.
you wanna have a nice highlight on the face...
click OK, and set this layer to blending mode Lighten
now unhide the second copy, desaturate it (ctrl+shift+U), and call your levels (ctrl+L).
Drag the out sliders more to the middle until you have a large dark area and some small white highlights...
Blur this b/w layer and call the levels again. You have to change the black part to gray, because we wanna put this layer to blending mode Softlight and gray is the neutral color for this blending mode (so that it doesn't affect the picture).
Just type 128 (~ half of 255 aka 50% gray) in the left box of the output levels.
set it to the afore mentioned Softlight blending mode...
Step 04: Colors
Make a new layer and fill it with a light peachy/orange/yellowish color. set it on blending mode Softlight.
Click on one of the layer masks you already have attached to the photo-layers while pressing control.
The selection will automatically load. Make sure you have your peachy layer selected, and add a layer mask.
this way the we will have no effect on the background only on the pic...
that's how your layer palette should look like now
and that's the result
Step 05: Wings
that's the hardest part actually. not adding them, but finding some nice ones. I never seem to be able to find nice stock images of angel wings...
therefore I just used Raphael's cherubs... if you have some better ones, do use these, please, it will make your life so much simpler.
I colored them in a light orange and brightened them a lot.
then I cut them out the same way I cut the photo out (magnetic lasso tool + layer mask + blurring).
I also added the same layer style as we already used for the first photo layer (outer and inner glow)
the result looks ok, but seriously, if you found better wings, just use them instead *g*
for the second wing, I've just duplicated the first one, flipped it horizontically and positioned it.
Step 06: Cloud
find a nice stock image of a cloud. a singular one not attached to others will work best here.
Cut it out with our well-known technique and add an inner and outer glow (this time don't make the outer glow quite as large though)
You can paint on the layer mask after you added the glow to trim your cloud to your liking...
Step 07: Fine Tuning
time to get a little more depth and details in.
on top of everything add a merge-copied version of the whole composition.
desaturate it and use an auto-contrast (ctrl+alt+shift+L) on it.
Set it on layer mode Softlight and lower the opacity to around 30 %
just above your background layer add a new layer and paint with a large soft round brush a vignette in black.
set it to Softlight and add another layer right on top of this one.
Paint with a large soft round brush a white spot behind your little angel, lower the opacity to around 60 %
looks so much better, doesn't it? ;)
Step 08: Text (in gold, OMG!!11!)
well, I decided now that the season of kitsch is coming along, I can add as much kitsch as possible, and it will be excused with seasonal lunacy...
and I went straight for the golden text. YAY!
Add your text. (something creative, like hmmm, let me think, oh yeah... Merry Christmas!) It should be of an orange color to make it work...
add a Layer Style with the follwoing settings (just Bevel&Emboss really)
and look, shiny, shiny golden text!
Step 09: Finishing
on top of everything, make a new layer and fill it with a merge-copied version of the whole image.
Sharpen this layer and then duplicate it.
Set one of the copies to Screen and the other one to Softlight
Lower the opacities of these two layers to your liking...
Step 10: Creative Decoration
add some winter/christmasy design elements, for example snow... *g*
(or you know... stars, bells, hollies, prezzies and so on...)
wow, to write this up took longer then expected. heee.
I mean the whole wall was done in ten minutes, but the walkthrough? hours...
Have fun! And kitsch up your life! ;)
comments are as always appreciated :)
plus grandmas love these things, too ;)
works with pretty much every cute photo... and it's very easy.
Step 01: Background
Fill your canvas (I was working with a 1024x768 one) with a color of your choice.
you can change this color later if it doesn't compliment the pic in the end...
Step 02: Photo
Find a nice pic of your spawn ;)
It looks especially nice when they're sitting propped on their arms and smiling...
add it on top of your background. if the quality is not that good, try auto-level/auto-contrast to make it decent looking, it doesn't have to be perfect though.
hey, look, who's that? (bonus points for the obsessed ones who immediately recognize her *g*)
Step 03: Cutout
Grab your magnetic lasso tool. it's under the selection tools in the tool bar.
Click somewhere on the edge of the kid you wanna cut out, then just follow the edgeline around. You'll see that the selection tool will magnetically snap to the edges.
it's much easier than doing everything on your own, you just need to follow the edges roughly.
Sometimes it happens that the tool can't decide what you wanna select, in these cases just make a click and you can force an anchor point.
if you have completed the whole round, make sure your selection is still active and then click the layer mask icon on your layer palette.
and taddaaa, we have the cut out photo on the background. you can paint with black/white on the layer mask if you need a better selection at some points.
I had to add the holes for her pigtails for example...
blur your layer mask slightly. Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur.
something around 2-5 should work, depending on your selection and picture.
see how it is not perfect at the moment? it doesn't matter *g*
Duplicate your cutout photo twice, we need that for later effects, but hide the upper two for the moment :)
Step 04: and then there was light
we're adding a little glow to our pic. open the layer style and tag the outer and inner glow.
set both colors to white, blending mode normal. make the outer glow rather large (around 120-150) but the inner glow smaller (around 15). leave everything else just like it is by default, except of the spread, that should be 0 or 1...
pretty, ain't it? and we cannot see our bad cut out work anymore ;)
time to reveal our first copy on top of this...
we're adding a little light to it... Go to Filter - Render - Lighting Effects.
choose the Spotlight as light type, make sure the color is white...
if your pic already has a visible light source (i.e. you can see where the light is coming from from the shadows/highlights in the face) aim for the same direction.
in this case there was a leading light on the upper left, so I worked with that...
the Intensity needs a very high value, while the Focus should be zero.
Go for shiny and metallic, everything else you can put to zero again.
now you only have to drag the handles on the spotlight to your liking.
you wanna have a nice highlight on the face...
click OK, and set this layer to blending mode Lighten
now unhide the second copy, desaturate it (ctrl+shift+U), and call your levels (ctrl+L).
Drag the out sliders more to the middle until you have a large dark area and some small white highlights...
Blur this b/w layer and call the levels again. You have to change the black part to gray, because we wanna put this layer to blending mode Softlight and gray is the neutral color for this blending mode (so that it doesn't affect the picture).
Just type 128 (~ half of 255 aka 50% gray) in the left box of the output levels.
set it to the afore mentioned Softlight blending mode...
Step 04: Colors
Make a new layer and fill it with a light peachy/orange/yellowish color. set it on blending mode Softlight.
Click on one of the layer masks you already have attached to the photo-layers while pressing control.
The selection will automatically load. Make sure you have your peachy layer selected, and add a layer mask.
this way the we will have no effect on the background only on the pic...
that's how your layer palette should look like now
and that's the result
Step 05: Wings
that's the hardest part actually. not adding them, but finding some nice ones. I never seem to be able to find nice stock images of angel wings...
therefore I just used Raphael's cherubs... if you have some better ones, do use these, please, it will make your life so much simpler.
I colored them in a light orange and brightened them a lot.
then I cut them out the same way I cut the photo out (magnetic lasso tool + layer mask + blurring).
I also added the same layer style as we already used for the first photo layer (outer and inner glow)
the result looks ok, but seriously, if you found better wings, just use them instead *g*
for the second wing, I've just duplicated the first one, flipped it horizontically and positioned it.
Step 06: Cloud
find a nice stock image of a cloud. a singular one not attached to others will work best here.
Cut it out with our well-known technique and add an inner and outer glow (this time don't make the outer glow quite as large though)
You can paint on the layer mask after you added the glow to trim your cloud to your liking...
Step 07: Fine Tuning
time to get a little more depth and details in.
on top of everything add a merge-copied version of the whole composition.
desaturate it and use an auto-contrast (ctrl+alt+shift+L) on it.
Set it on layer mode Softlight and lower the opacity to around 30 %
just above your background layer add a new layer and paint with a large soft round brush a vignette in black.
set it to Softlight and add another layer right on top of this one.
Paint with a large soft round brush a white spot behind your little angel, lower the opacity to around 60 %
looks so much better, doesn't it? ;)
Step 08: Text (in gold, OMG!!11!)
well, I decided now that the season of kitsch is coming along, I can add as much kitsch as possible, and it will be excused with seasonal lunacy...
and I went straight for the golden text. YAY!
Add your text. (something creative, like hmmm, let me think, oh yeah... Merry Christmas!) It should be of an orange color to make it work...
add a Layer Style with the follwoing settings (just Bevel&Emboss really)
and look, shiny, shiny golden text!
Step 09: Finishing
on top of everything, make a new layer and fill it with a merge-copied version of the whole image.
Sharpen this layer and then duplicate it.
Set one of the copies to Screen and the other one to Softlight
Lower the opacities of these two layers to your liking...
Step 10: Creative Decoration
add some winter/christmasy design elements, for example snow... *g*
(or you know... stars, bells, hollies, prezzies and so on...)
wow, to write this up took longer then expected. heee.
I mean the whole wall was done in ten minutes, but the walkthrough? hours...
Have fun! And kitsch up your life! ;)
comments are as always appreciated :)