Tutorial #3: Wallpaper
Yup, I've finally decided to write another tutorial. The outcome's pretty basic, but you can do a lot more with it if you just swap in different textures for some of the steps. I didn't provide any exact numbers for the adjustment layers because every image is different and what works for mine might not work for yours. Plus, I don't want people copying this word for word.
You'll be making this wallpaper:
01) Create a new canvas, 1024x768. Create a new layer and fill it with black. Now open this texture and invert it (ctrl+I), then copy and paste it onto your new canvas just above the black filled layer. I'm not sure who made this texture, but if you know, please tell me. Set the blend mode of the texture to difference and the opacity to 50%.
02) Duplicate the texture (ctrl+J), and change the duplicate's blend mode to multipy and the opacity to 100%.
03) Select the images that you want to use. I used various screencaps of Elyon and Phobos of W.I.T.C.H. taken by the lovely bentfire @ whoresque. Then resize your images and copy and paste them onto your new canvas. Arrange them however you'd like. If you want, you can apply a 3-4 pixel white stroke around each of the images or just leave them as is. You should end up with something like this:
04) I thought that the background needed something else, so I blended in a few images by taking the lasso tool, setting the feathering to 50 pixels, and then cutting and pasting them onto my wallpaper just above the textures' layers. You might have to play with the opacity a bit in yours, but mine were fine on normal at 40%-50%.
05) Now go to the little half circle on your layers panel and add a gradient map. Set the colors so that they go from black to white, and hit OK. Why do this rather than simply desaturating it? Because this gives it a bit more contrast. Now you should have something like this:
06) Now, you can either leave it like that or add some color to it. To add some color to it, I started by duplicating that first texture and dragging it to the top. I then set the blend mode to difference and the opacity to 25%. I also gaussian blurred (filter>blur>gaussian blur) it a bit so that it wasn't so scratchy looking. After doing that, I came out with something like this:
07) I thought that was kind of dull, so I added a levels adjustment layer by going back down to that little half circle on the layers panel. I'm not going to give you my exact settings as every image is different, but after playing with the RGB levels a bit, I came out with this:
08) I thought that looked nice, but I still wasn't satisfied with my result. So I added a color balance adjustment layer. Play with the color balance a bit. I wanted mine to look sort of purple/yellow, so I pulled the sliders more toward the magenta and yellow sides on the highlights and shadows, and pulled them toward the megenta and blue sides a tiny bit on the midtones. This was my result:
09) I didn't like how blah it looked, so I added a selective color adjustment layer. The only colors that I played with were the reds (-cyan, +magenta, +yellow), yellows (-cyan, +magenta, +yellow), magentas (+magenta, +yellow), whites (-10 on the black slider), neutrals (-10 on the black slider), and blacks (+5 on the black slider). Then I got this:
10) I wanted it to look more red, so I played with curves (I lowered the green and blue curves a little to get this) a bit until I came out with this:
11) Finally, lets add the text. I added lyrics from the song "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera in all caps using sylfaen for the smaller text. For the larger text, I used windsong, which should be available at dafont. And this was my finished result:
I also made this using a similar technique, just with different images and textures along with a dark blue exclusion layer thrown in there. You can get some really interesting results if you just play with it a little. So be creative! ^^
If you decide to use this tutorial, I'd love to see your results.
You'll be making this wallpaper:
01) Create a new canvas, 1024x768. Create a new layer and fill it with black. Now open this texture and invert it (ctrl+I), then copy and paste it onto your new canvas just above the black filled layer. I'm not sure who made this texture, but if you know, please tell me. Set the blend mode of the texture to difference and the opacity to 50%.
02) Duplicate the texture (ctrl+J), and change the duplicate's blend mode to multipy and the opacity to 100%.
03) Select the images that you want to use. I used various screencaps of Elyon and Phobos of W.I.T.C.H. taken by the lovely bentfire @ whoresque. Then resize your images and copy and paste them onto your new canvas. Arrange them however you'd like. If you want, you can apply a 3-4 pixel white stroke around each of the images or just leave them as is. You should end up with something like this:
04) I thought that the background needed something else, so I blended in a few images by taking the lasso tool, setting the feathering to 50 pixels, and then cutting and pasting them onto my wallpaper just above the textures' layers. You might have to play with the opacity a bit in yours, but mine were fine on normal at 40%-50%.
05) Now go to the little half circle on your layers panel and add a gradient map. Set the colors so that they go from black to white, and hit OK. Why do this rather than simply desaturating it? Because this gives it a bit more contrast. Now you should have something like this:
06) Now, you can either leave it like that or add some color to it. To add some color to it, I started by duplicating that first texture and dragging it to the top. I then set the blend mode to difference and the opacity to 25%. I also gaussian blurred (filter>blur>gaussian blur) it a bit so that it wasn't so scratchy looking. After doing that, I came out with something like this:
07) I thought that was kind of dull, so I added a levels adjustment layer by going back down to that little half circle on the layers panel. I'm not going to give you my exact settings as every image is different, but after playing with the RGB levels a bit, I came out with this:
08) I thought that looked nice, but I still wasn't satisfied with my result. So I added a color balance adjustment layer. Play with the color balance a bit. I wanted mine to look sort of purple/yellow, so I pulled the sliders more toward the magenta and yellow sides on the highlights and shadows, and pulled them toward the megenta and blue sides a tiny bit on the midtones. This was my result:
09) I didn't like how blah it looked, so I added a selective color adjustment layer. The only colors that I played with were the reds (-cyan, +magenta, +yellow), yellows (-cyan, +magenta, +yellow), magentas (+magenta, +yellow), whites (-10 on the black slider), neutrals (-10 on the black slider), and blacks (+5 on the black slider). Then I got this:
10) I wanted it to look more red, so I played with curves (I lowered the green and blue curves a little to get this) a bit until I came out with this:
11) Finally, lets add the text. I added lyrics from the song "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera in all caps using sylfaen for the smaller text. For the larger text, I used windsong, which should be available at dafont. And this was my finished result:
I also made this using a similar technique, just with different images and textures along with a dark blue exclusion layer thrown in there. You can get some really interesting results if you just play with it a little. So be creative! ^^
If you decide to use this tutorial, I'd love to see your results.