"The Edge": wallpaper tutorial, part III
Previous parts: Part I, Part II.
Cleaning up the sketch: backrounds and Castiel manip
It is very important to get clean, precise edges when you cut an object from background: that's what makes the wallpaper look HQ and professional. I'd already cut Dean and Castiel base out from background, but roughly. I now needed to clean up the edges. To do that in this wallpaper, I used layer masks and small hard brushes. (This is where graphic tablet came handy.) I turned off my coloring layers and carefully masked away everything I didn't need. Dean's hair was particularly stubborn, so I used a very small brush to mask around the tiny spikes. To make them look perfect, I applied the mask to the layer and then went to:
Layer > Matting > Defringe (Width = 1 pixel).
That cut the hair a little, but didn't make it look too unnatural; and, what's most important, helped me to get rid of those thin messy remains of the background around the edges. I then used History brush to restore the parts that were too severely cut out by the Defringe command, and Eraser to remove the occasional mess that sometimes appears after defringing. The Cas base was easier: I didn't need his hair (his entire head, actually), and I did already have an older PSD file of Castiel's profile extracted from background that I had used before in an icon. So I moved on to the manip.
I used Hue/Saturation to reduce the blues and cyans in the base, then pasted Cas' head onto it. Naturally, I resized the head, rotated it etc. until it fit, then very carefully masked away the neck, leaving only the part that was supposed to show up from the collar of the coat. The face was lit differently than the base, but I decided that it wouldn't be very obvious, considering the small size of the image.
In that promo picture I took Cas' head from, he was wearing a white shirt. I cut it out (together with the tie) and pasted into the wallpaper in such a way that it covered the base's black waistcoat, then masked the parts I didn't need and drew a couple of shadows on the side to make the lighting more believable. (I now see I should have removed that little bit of base's white shirt sticking out from under the waistcoat :/ Oh well.) Finally, I created a new layer on top of the base, set it on Multiply and, using paintbrush, recolored the base's jeans, making them darker and more slacks-like :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/screenshots17.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/layers01.jpg
Details and final coloring
So I switched my coloring layers back on and looked at the wallpaper again, analyzing it and trying to decide what was okay and what needed correcting. The coloring seemed a bit cold for a romantic piece. I added a soft blob of yellowish paint underneath all layers. I placed it in such a way that it helped to reveal the tips of Castiel’s wings that were hard to see against the dark background. (I liked the resulting combination of dark green and brown and decided to color the text accordingly.)
Also I added a light, soft, semi-transparent stroke of paint between Dean's hair and Cas' wings because I didn't like how they seemed to overlap, with no 'air' between them. Oh, and added falling feathers, too.
However, the coloring still didn't satisfy me, so I played with additional Selective Color layers and gradient maps. I added two more gradient maps and four selective color layers, to achieve a richer and more saturated, colorful look:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/layers02.jpg
Here are the Selective Color layers settings:
"Selective color 2";
"Selective color 3";
"Selective color 4";
"Selective color 5".
This is when I also changed the background color from dark gray to dark green.
Text
I had already decided on the typefaces and color of my text, but it needed some decoration. I chose two very simple effects: drop shadow and gradient overlay. My settings were:
Drop shadow:
Blend mode: Multiply
Color: #000000 (black)
Distance: 0
Spread: 49
Size: 1
Gradient overlay:
Blend mode: Soft light
Opacity: 51%
Gradient: the default black-to-white one
Now text looked better, but parts of it were hard to read against the background. I thought it would be nice to 'highlight' those parts. I did so, using the wonderful grouping/clipping mask trick that I've explained above: for each line that needed highlighting, I created a new layer on top, grouped it with the text and simply painted on it in white, with large soft brush. I lowered the opacity of those 'highlight' layers so that the white wasn't too harsh. Here's my layers palette, to make this clearer:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/screenshots18.jpg
I finally added thin white lines around the text (drew them with pencil tool and softened the edges with large soft eraser).
And, wow, I can't believe it but this monster of a tutorial is (finally!) almost over.
The final touches
I liked the 'painted' effect the coloring gave to the wallpaper and decided I didn't want any additional filtering. So I simply sharpened it up a little and made the surface a tiny bit smoother.
I copied merged:
Select > All; Edit > Copy merged (or Ctrl + A, Ctrl + Sift + C)
and pasted the copy on top of all my layers. Then applied the Smart sharpen filter*:
Filter > Sharpen > Smart sharpen
(amount: 30...50; radius: 0,5...0,6; Remove: gaussian blur).
*PS7 doesn't have it, but you can achieve similar effect if you do this:
Filter > Other > High Pass (radius approx. 0,6); and then Edit > Fade > Soft light.
I prefer Smart sharpen to the regular Sharpen filter because it sharpens the piece nicely without making the edges jagged and pixely (which Sharpen often does).
For smoothing, I chose Surface Blur*:
Filter > Blur > Surface Blur
(radius: 2; threshold: 2)
*Old versions of PS don't have it, but you can use Smart Blur instead:
Filter > Blur > Smart Blur
(radius: 2...3; threshold: 5...7)
Then I added my signature, and phew! The wallpaper was finished. As is, basically, this tutorial :)
What else?
I guess the order in which I worked on the wallpaper might seem chaotic, what with all the starting-a-part-then-switching-to-another-then-returning. But even though it is perhaps true, this order is easier for me and I find it more effective. I get tired quickly, and so do my eyes; switching subjects I work on helps me stay focused. It also helps to notice mistakes and makes the working process more... organic, allowing to get each stage and detail in accordance with all the others. (I hope that makes sense.) But you are absolutely free to disregard my example and organize your process how it suits you.
In conclusion, some tutorials from other artists that you might find interesting:
Pretty much all of Vrya's tutorials are a must read.
I recommend also:
herdestiny 's guide on Curves.
justaddcolor 's guide on color fill layers.
Julie's guide on gradient maps.
That's it! (Boy, that was long. I guess I'm not writing any more tutorials next couple of years at least.)
Please do not repost or translate this tutorial without permission.
Linking to this entry is okay, though, and comments are always appreciated :)
Also, thanks to
smth_blue for the beta ♥ All remaining mistakes are mine.
Cleaning up the sketch: backrounds and Castiel manip
It is very important to get clean, precise edges when you cut an object from background: that's what makes the wallpaper look HQ and professional. I'd already cut Dean and Castiel base out from background, but roughly. I now needed to clean up the edges. To do that in this wallpaper, I used layer masks and small hard brushes. (This is where graphic tablet came handy.) I turned off my coloring layers and carefully masked away everything I didn't need. Dean's hair was particularly stubborn, so I used a very small brush to mask around the tiny spikes. To make them look perfect, I applied the mask to the layer and then went to:
Layer > Matting > Defringe (Width = 1 pixel).
That cut the hair a little, but didn't make it look too unnatural; and, what's most important, helped me to get rid of those thin messy remains of the background around the edges. I then used History brush to restore the parts that were too severely cut out by the Defringe command, and Eraser to remove the occasional mess that sometimes appears after defringing. The Cas base was easier: I didn't need his hair (his entire head, actually), and I did already have an older PSD file of Castiel's profile extracted from background that I had used before in an icon. So I moved on to the manip.
I used Hue/Saturation to reduce the blues and cyans in the base, then pasted Cas' head onto it. Naturally, I resized the head, rotated it etc. until it fit, then very carefully masked away the neck, leaving only the part that was supposed to show up from the collar of the coat. The face was lit differently than the base, but I decided that it wouldn't be very obvious, considering the small size of the image.
In that promo picture I took Cas' head from, he was wearing a white shirt. I cut it out (together with the tie) and pasted into the wallpaper in such a way that it covered the base's black waistcoat, then masked the parts I didn't need and drew a couple of shadows on the side to make the lighting more believable. (I now see I should have removed that little bit of base's white shirt sticking out from under the waistcoat :/ Oh well.) Finally, I created a new layer on top of the base, set it on Multiply and, using paintbrush, recolored the base's jeans, making them darker and more slacks-like :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/screenshots17.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/layers01.jpg
Details and final coloring
So I switched my coloring layers back on and looked at the wallpaper again, analyzing it and trying to decide what was okay and what needed correcting. The coloring seemed a bit cold for a romantic piece. I added a soft blob of yellowish paint underneath all layers. I placed it in such a way that it helped to reveal the tips of Castiel’s wings that were hard to see against the dark background. (I liked the resulting combination of dark green and brown and decided to color the text accordingly.)
Also I added a light, soft, semi-transparent stroke of paint between Dean's hair and Cas' wings because I didn't like how they seemed to overlap, with no 'air' between them. Oh, and added falling feathers, too.
However, the coloring still didn't satisfy me, so I played with additional Selective Color layers and gradient maps. I added two more gradient maps and four selective color layers, to achieve a richer and more saturated, colorful look:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/layers02.jpg
Here are the Selective Color layers settings:
"Selective color 2";
"Selective color 3";
"Selective color 4";
"Selective color 5".
This is when I also changed the background color from dark gray to dark green.
Text
I had already decided on the typefaces and color of my text, but it needed some decoration. I chose two very simple effects: drop shadow and gradient overlay. My settings were:
Drop shadow:
Blend mode: Multiply
Color: #000000 (black)
Distance: 0
Spread: 49
Size: 1
Gradient overlay:
Blend mode: Soft light
Opacity: 51%
Gradient: the default black-to-white one
Now text looked better, but parts of it were hard to read against the background. I thought it would be nice to 'highlight' those parts. I did so, using the wonderful grouping/clipping mask trick that I've explained above: for each line that needed highlighting, I created a new layer on top, grouped it with the text and simply painted on it in white, with large soft brush. I lowered the opacity of those 'highlight' layers so that the white wasn't too harsh. Here's my layers palette, to make this clearer:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/zugma/tut/theedge/screenshots18.jpg
I finally added thin white lines around the text (drew them with pencil tool and softened the edges with large soft eraser).
And, wow, I can't believe it but this monster of a tutorial is (finally!) almost over.
The final touches
I liked the 'painted' effect the coloring gave to the wallpaper and decided I didn't want any additional filtering. So I simply sharpened it up a little and made the surface a tiny bit smoother.
I copied merged:
Select > All; Edit > Copy merged (or Ctrl + A, Ctrl + Sift + C)
and pasted the copy on top of all my layers. Then applied the Smart sharpen filter*:
Filter > Sharpen > Smart sharpen
(amount: 30...50; radius: 0,5...0,6; Remove: gaussian blur).
*PS7 doesn't have it, but you can achieve similar effect if you do this:
Filter > Other > High Pass (radius approx. 0,6); and then Edit > Fade > Soft light.
I prefer Smart sharpen to the regular Sharpen filter because it sharpens the piece nicely without making the edges jagged and pixely (which Sharpen often does).
For smoothing, I chose Surface Blur*:
Filter > Blur > Surface Blur
(radius: 2; threshold: 2)
*Old versions of PS don't have it, but you can use Smart Blur instead:
Filter > Blur > Smart Blur
(radius: 2...3; threshold: 5...7)
Then I added my signature, and phew! The wallpaper was finished. As is, basically, this tutorial :)
What else?
I guess the order in which I worked on the wallpaper might seem chaotic, what with all the starting-a-part-then-switching-to-another-then-returning. But even though it is perhaps true, this order is easier for me and I find it more effective. I get tired quickly, and so do my eyes; switching subjects I work on helps me stay focused. It also helps to notice mistakes and makes the working process more... organic, allowing to get each stage and detail in accordance with all the others. (I hope that makes sense.) But you are absolutely free to disregard my example and organize your process how it suits you.
In conclusion, some tutorials from other artists that you might find interesting:
Pretty much all of Vrya's tutorials are a must read.
I recommend also:
herdestiny 's guide on Curves.
justaddcolor 's guide on color fill layers.
Julie's guide on gradient maps.
That's it! (Boy, that was long. I guess I'm not writing any more tutorials next couple of years at least.)
Please do not repost or translate this tutorial without permission.
Linking to this entry is okay, though, and comments are always appreciated :)
Also, thanks to
smth_blue for the beta ♥ All remaining mistakes are mine.