Step 1:

Let’s start out by creating a new file. I used a 700×525 pixels canvas set at 72dpi, and I filled my background with a black color. In a new layer add a picture of a face, grab the example used in this tutorial here.

Step 2:

Duplicate your picture layer from step one and go to Filter > Pixelate > Pointilize, add the settings below.

Step 3:

Turn the picture into black and white by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Step 4:

Now sharpen the image through Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen More.

Step 5:

Set the layer’s blending mode to Soft Light at 80% opacity.

Step 6:

Create a new layer and draw a black circle with 57 x 57 px dimensions.

Step 7:

Under Layer Style(Layer > Layer Style) add an Outer Glow, Inner Glow Satin and Gradient Overlayblending options to your black layer. Then set the layer’s blending mode to Lighten.

Step 8:

You should now have a break out effect on the skin.

Step 9:

Add more break out designs by duplicate the original layer and resizing through Edit > Transform > Scale.

Results:

‘Breakout’ Photo Effect.

Take an image with skin well exposed with flash or overexposed natural light, and select the skin areas / areas you wish to recover detail from :

You can use the magic wand tool for example after a selection of color range :

After doing a selection with the color range, choose the magic wand tool , press and hold SHIFT while clicking on other skins parts to ADD those to your selection, do the same with ALT pressed to detract from your selection.

It’s necessary for the beginning to create a new file (File>New) of 512×512px and 72 dpi. Select the <a href=”javascript:void(0)” class=”HelpLink” onclick=”showHelpTip(event, ‘Ellipse Tool (U)

Ellipse Tool (U). Use the ellipse tool to draw ovals and circles. To draw a circle, hold down the Shift key while dragging. Double-click the ellipse tool to open the Color inspector.’); return false”>Ellipse Tool (U) and try to make an ellipse like the next one:

Fill 0% on the layer:

Select Blending Options>Gradient Overlay (making a mouse click on the processed layer on the layers’ palette) setting the next demands as below:

This element we should get. It’ll represent the shadow of the icon:

. Select the same tool to draw now a circle, colored with #F36523

Select Blending Options>Inner Shadow and set the next parameters for the last layer:

Blending Options>Stroke

Fill 0% for the layer. We should get the next result. It’ll represent the basis of the icon

Next we shall represent one more circle:

Choose the next selection for the layer: Blending Options>Gradient Overlay

Gradient Editor:

Now we need to draw another circle, but a circle that needs to be corrected with Direct Selection Tool (A), as it is shown below:

Select Blending Options>Inner Glow

Fill 0% on the layer. This way we’ve got several highlights on the icon:

Let’s represent one more circle colored with #F36523

Mark out the last made circle, press Alt button and cut out a half – moon element:

Set the next parameters:

We’ll get this way a half – shadow:

Now we need to select the <a href=”javascript:void(0)” class=”HelpLink” onclick=”showHelpTip(event, ‘Ellipse Tool (U)

Ellipse Tool (U). Use the ellipse tool to draw ovals and circles. To draw a circle, hold down the Shift key while dragging. Double-click the ellipse tool to open the Color inspector.’); return false”>Ellipse Tool (U) and represent two circles of different sizes. The color’s code is #FEDB8A

Next we shall use the <a href=”javascript:void(0)” class=”HelpLink” onclick=”showHelpTip(event, ‘Rounded Rectangle Tool (U)

Rounded Rectangle Tool (U). To reshape the corners of a rounded rectangle, select the rounded rectangle tool and select the rectangle. Extra selection handles appear inside the rectangle corners. Dragging an inside handle toward the center of the rectangle to make it more rounded; drag it toward the outside of the rectangle to make it less rounded.’); return false”>Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) (radius of 30 px) and represent a bended rounded line.
1. Represent the line
2. Insert the points of the bend, applying the Add Anchior Point Tool, bending the element with Direct Selection Tool (A) and Convert Point Tool.

Place the new element as below:

Apply for the new layer Blending Options>Gradient Overlay

Gradient Editor:

We’ll get the next result!

Next we shall draw one more element, but a bigger one, having the icon finally finished!

2. Before we soften the skin, we’ll actually apply a medium level of sharpening to get the most realistic results. With your image selected, go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and set the Amount to 100%, Radius to 1px, and Threshold to somewhere between 4-6.

3. Duplicate your image three times (press Ctrl/Cmd + J three times). Name the layers “Gaussian Blur”, “Surface Blur”, and “Median Blur” respectively, then hide the latter two layers so that only the “Gaussian Blur” layer and your original image are visible.

4. With the “Gaussian Blur” layer selected, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur and choose a setting somwhere between 15-20px. You’re looking to blur out most of the detail in the skin, but retain a hint of some of the larger features, such as the eyes, nose, and mouth. Hit OK to apply the gaussian blur to the layer, drop the layer’s opacity to 50% and then hide the layer.

5. Select your “Surface Blur” layer, make sure it’s visible and then go to Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Your settings for both sliders will need to be somewhere between 25-40. The concept here is the same as with the gaussian blur in that you want to smooth out most of the detail to make sure you have smooth transitions between shadows and highlights. Apply the surface blur to the layer, drop the layer’s opacity to 50%, then hide the layer.

6. Select the “Median Blur” layer and toggle on its visibility. Go to Filter > Noise > Median… and move the slider to somewhere between 20-25 pixels. Keep in mind the same concept as with the two previous layers in that you only want to blur out most of the detail and retain smooth skin tones and transitions. Apply the median blur and drop the layer’s opacity to 50%.

7. At this point, select your “Gaussian Blur” layer and toggle on its visibility so that only it and your original image are visible. Hold down your Alt/Option key and click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette to add a black layer mask. Grab the Brush Tool, set your foreground color to white, and start painting over the skin of your subject. Avoid areas of detail, such as the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, strong creases and wrinkles, etc. You only want to paint over the open areas of skin.

In the video, I only worked on the face of the subject, but I urge you to apply this softening to any areas of skin that are visible. The reason being that the retouched areas of skin will look obviously altered against the areas of untouched skin. To keep a sense of realism to your photo, it’s recommended that you go ahead and include all of the skin in your retouches.

Be sure to check the progress of your layer mask by Alt/Option clicking on the layer mask icon to view only the mask. This will show you the areas where you may have missed some spots. Simply Alt/Option click on the layer mask icon again to return to normal view.

8. Once your layer mask is complete, you can copy it to your other layers. To do this, simply hold down the Alt/Option key, click and hold on the layer mask in your “Gaussian Blur” layer and drag it straight up to the “Surface Blur” layer. Repeat this step to add the layer mask to the “Median Blur” layer as well.

This is the point where most people stop, but we’ll be doing one more quick technique to add back in some of the detail and texture of the skin.

9. Alt/Option click on one of the layer mask icons to load the masked area as a selection. Select your original image and Ctrl/Cmd + J to jump the selected area to a new layer. Drag that layer to the top of the layer stack. Desaturate this layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

10. With this layer still selected, go to Filter > Other > High Pass… The easiest way to work with this filter is to drag the slider all the way to the left and slowly bring it to the right. Keep an eye on the highlights as they start coming back into the layer. You’ll want to end up between 10-25px, just so some of the highlights are starting to peek back through. Hit OK to apply the filter.

11. Change the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light and drop the opacity to around 25-50%, depending on how much detail you want to add back to your photo. Leave this layer at the top of the layer stack as it will be a detail overlay for the underlying softening layers.

At this point, you have three of the most popular skin softening techniques on separate layers. Now you can easily toggle the visibility of each layer to compare the different methods of skin smoothing. This is a great way to not only find a great look for your photo, but to get a little more hands-on experience with the different levels of softening and smoothing available in Photoshop.

Once you’ve found the skin softening technique that you like the most, you can raise or lower the opacity of the layer to make the effect more or less dramatic. For optimum realism, take the opacity to around 35-40%. To achieve the once-popular porcelain skin appearance, simply raise the opacity of your softening layer to 85-90% and hide the top layer that we created in steps 9-11.

Click below for a quick comparison overview of each softening technique against the original image.

We will start by searching a photo. I have one downloaded from deviantart.com Stock images section and here it is.

Here we have the picture of a girl with devil wings. Now I’m only interested in a girl for my project so we have to get rid of background. I will use Quick mask and simple rough edged brush to make a selection of this girl.

Select Brush Tool.

… And begin to cover the area with mask. Try to stay close to the edges.

Refine the edges if needed. You have the X key to switch between Cover with mask and erase the mask.

Tap Q again to switch to selection mode.

Now we will create a new document

with the same dimensions as our initial image.

And here are the dimensions.

Select inverse before you drag the girl to our new document.

And here we have the girl on a new document. We will work with this document now so you can close the initial image now.

I will also rotate my girl a little bit at the very start.

Now I will refine the edges of the girl, especially the hair and the wings, when there are a lot of tiny details there.

As we have our image on a new layer we can use simple eraser without spoiling the background.

And here is our result.

Create a new document. Mine is 1600px by 1200px at 150 dpi. On the background layer create a radial gradient. It doesn’t need to be perfectly centered, so it’s OK if you’re bit off. I used the follow colors for my gradient: a foreground of #4a1c00 and a background of #311300.

Step 2

Open a paper texture of your choice. I used this one. Desaturate it and bring it into the letter document. Change its blend mode to lighten and lower its opacity to something near 70%.

You may need to stretch it a bit, or you could duplicate the layer and flip it horizontally. Then go to Edit > Auto Blend Layers. Just be sure to flatten the layers or convert them to a Smart Object.

Step 3

Now open a canvas texture of your choice. I used this one. As before, Desaturate it and bring it into the letter document. Make sure it’s the top layer. Change its Blend Mode to Color Burn and lower its Opacity to around 10%. If the canvas texture is too big, remember to scale it down a bit.

Step 4

Duplicate your background layer (the one with a radial gradient). Drag it to the top of you Layer’s Panel. Then change its Blend Mode to Overlay with an Opacity of approximately 70%. After doing this, select all the layers and group them. Call this group “Background” (you may need to unlock the background layer in order to include it in the group).

Step 5

On a new layer use the rectangle tool to create an envelope sized rectangle. Make sure the fill color is #f2d27d.

Step 6

Duplicate the same paper texture (this one). Then drag it on top of the “envelope layer.” Be sure to change its Blend Mode to Hard Light with 75% Opacity.

Step 7

Create a Clipping Mask between the envelope layer and the texture layer by holding down the Alt key and clicking between the two layers.

Step 8

Now select both layers, flatten them, and rotate the new flattened layer a bit to give it some interest. For the sake of being organized, rename the flattened layer “Envelope.”

Step 9

On the new Smart Object, apply the layer styles and settings shown below.

Step 10

On the envelope layer, use the Polygonal Lasso tool to select one of the corners. Once you’ve made you selection, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection onto its own layer.  Make sure to remove the layer styles on the duplicate layer.

Step 11

Ctrl+click on the new layer’s thumbnail to load it as a selection. With the selection still active, select the envelope layer while holding down the Alt key and press the Layer Mask icon. This creates a Layer Mask with the selection being masked out.

Step 12

Select the new corner layer and distort it a bit. I went to Edit> Transform > Distort. I chose to bring in the bottom left corner towards the right and up a little bit.

Step 13

Now on the new corner layer, use the Polygonal Lasso tool again to make a selection similar to the one shown below. Repeat steps 10 through 12 after you’ve done this. Except instead of creating a mask on the envelope layer, you’re going to create the mask on the corner layer that you duplicated from.

Also, instead of pulling the bottom left corner to the right, you need to pull it to the left and down a bit. I went ahead and repeated the process one more time. Before you go onto the next step, make sure to make any final touch-ups regarding selections. You may have some stray pixels that weren’t covered by the layer mask.

Step 14

Select all corner layers, flatten them, and use the Smudge tool to soften the edge that connects the corner to the envelope. Then name this layer “Corner.”

Step 15

Here is where we’re going to make it look better. Create a new layer, fill it with 50% gray and change its Blending Mode to Overlay. This allows you to get the same effect as dodging and burning, but it does so non-destructively.

Name this layer “depth.” Use a large soft edge Brush and paint over the top of the envelope and document using a black fill for your brush. You’re probably going to need to lower the Brush Opacity and Flow. I have my Brush set at 25% Opacity. If the effect is still too dramatic for your liking, you can always turn down the opacity of the layer.

Step 16

Now onto the corner. Use a small soft Brush with a much lower Opacity and Flow (so that the effect is more subtle) to paint with. Go over the areas you want to be shadows with black, and paint over the areas you want to be highlights with white. You may have to go over certain areas more than once. Remember to make sure you’re being accurate with you painting, from here on, making changes will be difficult.

Step 17

Duplicate the image by going to Image>Duplicate. Now flatten all the layers. Then Desaturate them by pressing Ctrl+Shift+U. Save this new file as letter_map.psd. This is critical. The file has to be saved as a PSD in order for the remaining effects to work.

Now drag the desaturated layer to the original document. Hold down Shift as you’re dragging it from one document to the other to center it perfectly.

Step 18

In the original document, move the recently imported file right under the “depth” layer. Then change its Blend Mode to Multiply and change the Opacity to a setting you feel is necessary.

Step 19

Using Rectangle tool, create a long thing rectangle. Then duplicate the layer two times.

Step 20

Line up the layers alongside each other. Change the left most layer color to #ff0000. Change the middle one to #dbdbdb. And finally, change the right most layer to #000e61.

Step 21

Select all three layers and rotate them by 21.7 degrees. With all three layers still selected, convert them to a Smart Object.

Step 22

While holding down the Alt key, click and drag on the Smart Object. Then line up the stripes along the edge of the envelope. Don’t worry about going over the edge of the envelope, as we’ll solve that in the next step. Just make sure to cover the corners really well.

Step 23

Now select all the pattern layers and convert them into a Smart Object. Then move the border layer above the envelop layer. Create a Clipping Mask between the envelope layer and the border by holding down the Alt key and clicking between the pattern layer and the envelope layer.

Change the Blend Mode to Multiply, duplicate the border layer, drag it above the corner layer, and create a Clipping Mask between the border and the corner.

Step 24

Add a layer mask to one of the border layers so that you get a nice thin border inside the envelope. After you get the right look, hold the Alt key and click on the Layer Mask. Then drag it to the other border layer.

Note: The best way to make your selection is to Ctrl+Click on the thumbnail of the envelope layer. Then go to Select > Transform Selection and scale the selection.

Step 25

So far the border has been rather flat. Here is where you’re going to make it more realistic. Select one of the border layers. Once it’s selected go to Filter > Distort > Displace. The default setting should be fine, so don’t worry about messing with those unless you want to.

Press OK, and navigate to letter_map.psd, select it, and click Open. Do the same thing on the other border layer. For those who are curious about what the displace filter does, there is a great explanation here.

Step 26

On a new layer use the Rectangle tool to create a square with a fill color of #e9e8e8.

Step 27

Add a Layer mask, select the Brush tool, and go into the Brush Engine. Increase the Spacing of the Brush Tip Shape . It may take a bit of experimenting to get this part right depending on the size of your image.

Step 28

With the square layer selected, grab the Pen tool. Then right-click in the square and select Stroke Path. Select Brush in the dialogue box that appears. Make sure your foreground color is black.

Step 29

Now duplicate this square layer. Then delete the layer mask on the duplicate layer. Once you’ve done this scale down the duplicated square by going into free transform mode and holding down shift+alt/option and dragging in one of the corners. Change the color of this new square to something bright so you can see it.

Step 30

Drag in the image you want to use for your stamp. I used this one. Once you have it in the document, apply the Dry Brush Filter to it by going to Filter > Artistic > Dry Brush. Try to make the picture look less like picture and more like artwork.

Step 31

Scale down the image if necessary. Then create a Clipping Mask between the duplicate square layer and the image.

Step 32

Select all the layers that make up the stamp and convert them to a Smart Object. Once you’ve done that, duplicate the Smart Object two times, and rotate each stamp differently.

Step 33

Group the stamps and move them under the “depth” layer. If you like, you can turn down the Opacity a bit.

Step 34

One a new layer, use the Ellipse tool to create a circular path. Make sure you’re using a hard edge Brush. The size of the Brush will depend on the size of your circle. Right-click on the circle path and select Stroke Path.

Step 35

Duplicate the circle several times, and scale each duplicate down till you have an effect like the one shown below. It’s easiest to make one duplicate at a time, scale that duplicate down, and then repeat the process again on each one.

Step 36

Once you’ve finished scaling your circles, select the Custom Shapes tool and select one of the Symbol Preset Shapes. Place it in the center of the circles.

Step 37

Use the Line tool to create a long line stemming from the outer most circle. Remember to hold down the Shift key to make the line perfectly straight. Once you’ve done that, press Ctrl+T to go into Free Transform mode. Move the line down by pressing Shift+ The Down Arrow. Then press Enter when you’re done.

Step 38

Now press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T six to nine times. This will duplicate the line and move it the exact same distance every time you press the T. The distance was determined by the number of times you press the Down Arrow in the previous step. Now apply the Wave Filter by going to Filter > Distort > Wave.

Step 39

Select all the layers that make up the mail cancellation and group them. Create a Layer Mask for this group. Then fade out the ends of the lines. Gradients and Grunge Brushes work best for this. I also took the opportunity to get rid of the wavy lines that were in the circles using a Layer Mask.

Step 40

Scale down the cancellation stamp and move above the postage stamps. Also don’t forget to add some text to the letter with the handwritten font of your choice. I used Luna Bar.

Step 41

Now to give the letter a distressed look, select the border layers and paint on the Layer Masks with a Paint Splatter Brush or any Grunge Brush of your choice. You can find a lot of these types of brushes on DeviantArt. You can also use the same technique on the stamps and the text layer, just remember to turn down the Flow and the Opacity of the Brush.

A preview of the effect we’re going to create in this tutorial can be seen in the back of this graphic:

The purpose of this tutorial is not to actually recreate this exact graphic, but rather show you how to add similar lines into your own compositions. For this reason, I’m not going to explain how to design this specific background, but you are free to download the background here if you’d like to follow using our example.

Step 1 - Start with a Flare

Create a new Layer.

First, we’ll create a large, bright flare where our lines will sprawl out of. Using a large, soft brush (0% hardness, 100-200px, or greater for large documents), and a white foreground color, dab a bit somewhere in your document as a starting point for your lines.

Set this layer to Overlay. If need be, duplicate this layer several times to get a more intense effect. Here is the flare after 3 duplicate layers:

Step 2 - Adding Some White Lines

Create a new layer above your flare. Still using a white foreground color, set your brush size to 1-2px, and your brush hardness to 100%.

Plan out a path for your lines. Decide which direction you want your lines to flow, how many sets (directions) you want your lines to flow in, and how you want your lines to interact with any subjects you may have in your composition. I want to have 3 groups of lines, two shooting upward out of my flare, and one coming out the bottom as if the flare fuses those groups together.

Now, making quick, smooth strokes (a Graphics Tablet really can help), draw your groups of lines into your new layer (Video Below). With a mouse, you need to be sure to make fast flicks to create a smooth looking line. Alternatively, you can create dozens of paths with the pen tool, and then stroke those paths with a 1-2px white brush. This approach will almost alway look better, but is more time consuming.

Here’s a quick demonstration video:

Step 3 - Adding More Lines

Continue to build upon your lines with additional colors as you see fit. Try to choose colors which compliment the other colors in your image, or are similar to the colors used in your graphic. Yellow is a nice complimentary color for blue, so I’ll add some extra yellow lines.

Step 4 - Scribbles

Create a new Layer.

Using a 1px, 100% hard, white brush, draw in some scribbles that closely follow your line work completed in steps 2 and 3. Add some extra scribbles that shoot out further than the rest near your flare, as if it is filled with electrical energy (you’ve gotta love the terms I’m using to describe such things in this article by now, but really, thinking of ways to compare your linework to real world examples can help you put your ideas to paper).

Step 5 - Add Depth with a Shadow

Duplicate the layer of white lines, and move the layer underneath your flare layers. Apply a Gaussian Blur with a radius of 5-10px. Change the color from White to Black by going to Image > Adjustments > Invert.

Using a shadow is a great way to create an illusion of depth in a graphic. After applying your shadow, the lines and flare should appear to pop forward a bit from the canvas.

Step 6 - Adding a Vibrant Blur

While holding Ctrl, select every line layer and flare layer you’ve created so far. Once every layer is selected in your layers palette, right click one of the selected layers, and choose to Duplicate layers (or Layer > Duplicate Layers).

You should now see a group of layers above your layers you just duplicated (all still selected). Merge these layers (Ctrl + E, or Layer > Merge Layers).

Set this new layer to Overlay. Apply a Guassian Blur with a radius of 10-20px.

This will simply five your lines a more ambient light feel, as if they are actually glowing a bit.

Step 7 - Adding Sparks

On a new layer, using a 1px, hard, white brush, paint in some small sparks (just quick dabs of paint), which increase in number as they approach closer to the flare and lines.

Wrapping Things Up

That’s really all there is too creating this sort of effect. The real creativity is not in the effect itself, but how you tie it into your design work. You can use the lines to wrap around objects in your compositions (would require some extra work with the eraser or masking), to direct attention to different parts of an image, or even use the lines to frame something.

The first thing you will have to do is create the 3D text. To do that you can use Illustrator. It has a very nice 3D filter and it will work just fine.

Type the text you want and go to Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel. Change the Position to Off-Axix Bottom. Then you just rotate the X,Y, and X Axis until you get the result you want. Follow the image below for reference. Tip: It’s very important that you select Draw Hidden Faces. Otherwise Illustrator will not create some faces that will be very important for the end result.

Step 2

Now you will have to expand the 3D effect in order to select and change the color of the faces you want. Go to Obejct>Expand Appearance. First select the top faces, and move them away. Then select just the outer faces and fill them with black.

Step 3 - Photoshop

Create a new document in Photoshop and fill the background with Black. Copy the 3D text without the top faces and paste it in Phothoshop. Position it in the middle of the document and reduce its size.

Step 4

With the Magic Wand Tool (W) select the black faces and delete them.

Step 5

Go to Images>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, change the color of the text to Orange.

Step 6

Make sure you have black and white for the background and foreground colors. Then go to Filter>Render>Clouds… After that, resize the layer. Make it smaller just to cover the word. Then just change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge

Step 7

Now create a new layer on top of the others and fill it with black, then with the Brush Tool (B) select a regular brush, very soft, like 0% hardness, and white for the color. Then just paint over some ares to make them brighter. (1-4)

Step 8

Apply a Layer Style to the 3D word, use Stroke with 1px Size, 40% Opacity and Black for the color.

Step 9

Let’s add a Gradient Overlay to the background. It will be necessary in order to make some of the light effects work. Use Radial for the Style and use Black and #412e1d(brown) for the colors.

Step 10

Now duplicate the 3D layer and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur use 30px for the Radius. Position this layer beneath the Hell layer.

Step 11

With the Ellipse Tool(U) create an ellipse like the image below, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 70px for the Radius. After that, just change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Step 12

Create a new layer on top of the Backgroud layer. Fill it with white and go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer. Use 60% for Scaling, 15 for the Relief and Top for the Light. Change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 13

Here I wanted to add a nice texture to the floor, so I used a wooden texture. You can find the one I used at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/947335. Or you can check the Great Wood Textures at http://abduzeedo.com/great-wood-textures.

Paste the image in the document and resize it to make it cover the gradient area. Then go to Edit>Transform>Distort. Move the vertices to apply a nice perspective to the wood. After that just change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 14 - Fire

Now let’s create the fire. To do that I will use what I learnt from the awesome Dramatic Text on Fire Effect in Photoshop by Collis from PSDTUTS.com. Basically we will get a photo of fire with flames and use the Warp tool to create different variations of the flame.

Download the image at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/985088 and paste it in the document. Make sure that it’s in front of the other layes. Then with the Eraser Tool (E) delete some areas. Also go to Edit>Transform>Warp and distort the flame to get a nice effect. Then just change the Blend Mode to Screen.

Step 15

Create more flames using the same technique, you can even use the Smudge Tool (R) to change the form of the flames.

Step 16

Create a new layer in front of the other layers and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Make sure you have selected Black and White for the Background and Foreground colors. Then you can resize the layer a bit to make the smoke smaller. With the Eraser Tool (E) delete some areas and just leave smoke over the text. Then change the Blend Mode to Soft Light.

Step 17

Repeat the same thing as the previous step, this time however use Hard Light for the Blend Mode. This step will create a more volumetric smoke to the image.

Step 18

Let’s create the cracks on the floor. To do that let’s use another image from sxc.hu, you can download it at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/995884. Place the image on the document and resize it to cover the gradient area. Then like we did before with the wood texture, go to Edit>Transform>Distort. Distort the image until you get a nice perspective, then change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 19

This step might look complicated but it’s not. Actually it’s quite simple. Duplicate the crack layer and change the blend mode to Normal again. Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert, then go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. This will invert the colors so what was once black will now become white and vice-versa. Now go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and use 40, 1.00, and 226.

Right after that select the Magic Wand Tool (W) and select the black part of the image. Then go to Select>Similar, Photoshop will select all the black from the layer. Then delete the blacks and you will have the cracks in white. Now just apply a Layer Style. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Color Overlay. Use #ffba00 for the color.

Step 20

Select the Eraser Tool (E) with a big soft brush, use 0% hardness. Then start deleting the layer. Leave just a small area close to the word. After that go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a small value 0.5%. Then the last thing here, move this layer 2 pixels left and bottom, so it will create a nice 3D effect.

Step 21

Here you can duplicate the yellow crack layer and apply a another gaussian blur, this time use a greater value and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. If you want you can duplicate it one or two more times to make the effect brighter.

Conclusion

You can add more cracks or change the flames, now it’s up to you. The idea of this tutorial was to create an image using fire coming from hell, like a deeper place using 3D typography. It’s basically a mix of tutorials and techniques. It’s all about playing and looking on the web, there are really great tutorials out there.

In this tutorial we will examine the methods behind creating an image that contains a window to another world within it, as we smash a hole in urban life to reveal the jungle waiting in the wings. We’ll look at several basic techniques that are the cornerstones of creating any mixed media composition, including simple transformations, creating clipping paths and layer masking.

Here is the image you will be creating.

Download the rar file below to follow along with the tutorial.

Urban Tiger Tutorial Files

Note: Please click the images to enlarge.

Step 1

Open up ‘wall.jpg’ that you just downloaded. As uninspiring as it looks right now, this photograph is actually going to serve as the basis for our finished image - so take a moment to get familiar with it.

Step 2

Etching is the process of tracing around an element to extract it from its background. In this instance, what we actually want to do is etch the central hole in the wall, and then remove it to create a frame. Bearing this in mind, hit ‘P’ to select the Pen tool and zoom in to 300-400%.

Step 3

Start creating anchor points that trace precisely around the gap in the wall. Experiment with dragging your mouse once you have clicked to get a curved result. If curving around an object results in an anchor that doesn’t allow you to continue etching easily,try Alt-clicking the anchor point to ‘pick up’ the path..

Step 4

Continue tracing around the hole until you reach your original anchor point. Click on it again to complete the path. Bring up the Paths palette and save this path as ‘Path 1′. Now, right-click in the middle of your path and select Convert to Selection. Ensure Feather Radius is set to ‘0′ and click OK.

Step 5

Once you have made this selection, it’s time for you to mask out the hole. Add a layer mask by simply clicking the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of your Layers palette. This will automatically create a mask based on your selection.

Step 6

Import a forest Import ‘forest.jpg’ that you just downloaded. Duplicate the background layer into your main composition. Now drag it below your masked Wall layer in the Layers palette. It should drop neatly behind the hole and look like a new backdrop.

TIP : Dare to experiment! Make sure you put the techniques discussed here to good use. Don’t just follow the steps and then move on - take a minute to experiment with everything along the way and ensure you have a thorough understanding of each process. These methods are fundamentals that can form the basis of a balanced skill set, but they’ll only end up in your toolbox if you don’t take the time to comprehend them thoroughly.

Step 7

Hit Ctrl-T to bring up the Free Transform dialog. Hold down Shift to constrain proportions, and re size your forest so that it fits snugly into the hole in the wall. Position the Forest layer so that the sky is barely visible and the foliage sits neatly centralized.

Step 8

Let’s make this forest look a little leafier and more lush - press Ctrl+B to bring up the Color Balance dialog. Hit the ‘Shadows’ radial, and tweak towards Blue. Now go to the Midtones and move towards Cyan.

Step 9

Open up the ‘tiger.jpg’ that you just downloaded. Now repeat the etching process, taking care to be as meticulous as possible. Remember, the higher in you zoom, the better quality etch you will end up with.

TIP : Flexibility is the key A tutorial is just a step along the path, never the complete journey, so do feel free to use these techniques on your own photographs.

Step 10

Duplicate the Tiger layer into the main composition. Position it below the etched Wall layer,but above the modified Rain Forest layer. Free Transform the layer so the tiger fits proportionally with the rest of the piece.

Step 11

One of the problems with bringing etched animals into compositions is that they often have a ‘cutout’ feel. To remedy this, bring up the Brushes palette and browse through the presets until you find the Dune Grass brush.

Step 12

The Dune Grass brush actually utilities both your foreground and background colors. Bearing this in mind, use the Eyedropper tool in order to sample two different highlight colors from your tiger’s back. Create a new layer and then brush some fur on!

Step 13

Repeat this process around the entire exterior of the tiger, ensuring you frequently re sample both colors from his coat. Continue until the ‘cutout’ effect is completely neutralized. Feel free to use as many layers as you require- in fact, the more you use the better. .

Step 14

Duplicate your layer and hit Ctrl-M to bring up the curves dialog. Bring the shadows down and the highlights slightly up increase the contrast; you want to match up as closely as possible with the Forest and Tiger layers.

Step 15

Because the bottom half of the Wall ayer is drastically brighter than the top, we have an imbalance. To fix this, we’ll add a ‘Burn’ layer to create a natural vignette. Use the Eyedropper to select a dark color from the shadows of this photo.

Step 16

Create a new layer and select a large soft brush around 300px in diameter. Set Opacity to 10%and start gently brushing in a vignette at the bottom of the image. Don’t worry about the tonal disparity - we’ll fix this up shortly.

Step 17

Bring up the Paths pale e again, and bring up your original Hole path that you etched in the first steps. Now move a the Layers tab. Select your Forest layer, right-click, make a selection and duplicate the selection to a new layer. Position it above the Wall layer.

Step 18

Now apply a mild Gaussian Blur to the layer - this will softly diffuse the light out across the bricks and simulate the outside lighting conditions. Ctrl-click this blurred layer to get its selection. Contract your selection by 10 pixels, Feather by 5 and clear the remainder, to be left with the finished effect.

Step 19

To wrap up, all we need to add is a Color Balance adjustment layer. Add one over the top of all your other layers (Layer>Adjustment Layers> Color Balance). The first thing to do is to drag the shadows towards Red and Yellow 20 Color Balance part two Now drag the Mid tones towards Yellow, and the Highlights towards Red. Take your time to balance these values here. This adjustment layer is the only thing that you really need to unite these elements, so be sure to give it the time and care it needs.

Do this by eye, and trust your instincts!

Photoshop CS3 Extended has the useful feature of editing videos and animations directly inside of it. This time I’ll show you some of the basics of video editing in Photoshop. Before getting started, you must know that Photoshop can edit any video as a Smart Object. This opens endless possibilities to create amazing outcomes to our videos by adding effects, filters, and more.

Let’s begin, for this tutorial we’ll start by creating a new blank document 640 pixels by 480 pixels. You can choose the Preset Film and Video and change the Width value. Go to Layers > Video Layers > New Video Layer From File, and search for any video in your computer.

I used this video, which was filmed about a year ago. It’s of my friend Ariel rafting the Espíiritu Santo river here in Bolivia. As you can see, the video layer is on your Layers Palette right now. Convert it into a Smart Object (Right click on the layer miniature’s name and click on Convert to Smart Object). Then name it “Video.” Now, to set up your workspace, go to Window > Animation to show the Animation tools.

Step 2

First, we’ll edit the Levels of the “Video” layer. Click on Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer > Levels in the Layers Palette. This will create a new Levels Adjustment Layer for the entire video. Use the following values.

Step 3

Then add another Adjustment layer by clicking Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Set the color to #704302 and the Density to 100%. This way the “Video” layer turns into a nice sepia tone. Also, as you can see, each layer added turns into a new layer in the Animation window.

Step 4

Here comes the fun! We’re going to animate some objects in Photoshop. We’re trying to get a vintage style video. First, we’re going to create some random lines moving across the screen. Draw some vertical lines, three or four, using a 2px soft Brush, then delete some parts of the lines using a soft Eraser with the Opacity and Flow each set at 50%. Also, add all the layers into a new group named “New Video.”

Step 5

Go to the Animation (Timeline) window. Click on the arrow to explode the “Lines” layer. You’ll see three rows: Position, Opacity, and Style. Each row can contain any number of Keyframes. When you create a keyframe you’re setting a modify point for your layer.

Photoshop will create the motion between two keyframes. You can modify these three values on each of your layers as many times as you want. You can create a combination of several positions, opacity values, and layer styles over the timeline.

The movie has 20 seconds in length, the frame rate is 30 frames per second, so that means the movie has 600 frames. By default the timeline measure is in seconds. Below there’s the control tools, there’s a Play button, a Next button and Prev frame button. Also there’s a slide to enlarge the size of your timeline viewing.

One of the most important tools in this window is the Current Time Indicator slider. It’s the blue triangle over the timeline. By moving this slider you’re selecting a unique frame-second to add a keyframe in. Armed with this knowledge, let’s add some effects!

Step 6

Drag the Current Time Indicator to 00:00f. Click the Time-vary stop watch (The tiny clock) of Position row. This will create a yellow rhombus over the Time line where the slider is located; This is a Keyframe. Now using the Move Tool (V) drag the “Lines” layer just a little to the right. This will be the first position of the motion.

Step 7

Now we’ll animate the Opacity of the “Lines” layer. Click on the Time-vary stop watch (The tiny clock) of the “Opacity” row. You’ll see a gray rhombus appear. Then go to the Layers Palette and set “Lines” Opacity to 0%. By changing the opacity the gray rhombus will become yellow.

Step 8

To create the second keyframe of animation drag the Current Time Indicator slider a few frames forward in the timeline. Then using the Move Tool (V), drag the invisible “Lines” a little bit to the right.

In the Layers Palette change the “Lines” Opacity to 75%. As you can see at the bottom of the image below, there’s two more keyframes in both the “Position” and “Opacity” rows.

This is the hardest step of the entire process. If you miss this your first try, don’t give up; just repeat the steps in order. By now you can use the Play button of the Animation window to start viewing the result: a motion fade in effect for the lines.

Step 9

To complete the “Lines” sequence. Drag the Current Time Indicator slider just like in the previous step, a little bit forward. Then using the Move tool (V), drag the lines to the right, not to much, but no to few. Finally, set the “Lines” Opacity to 0% once again. If you click Play, you’ll see a fade in + motion + fade out animation.

Step 10

Now we have a three keyframes animation for one layer, and it’s less than three seconds. So we need to repeat the lines animation across the time line. For this, go to Layers pallete and duplicate the “Lines” layer. Then go to Animation window and Shift + click all the keyframes of “Lines copy” layer. Once you have select them all, drag those frames forward, maybe near 10:00f.

Repeat the process, duplicate the “Lines copy” layer, select all the keyframes of “Lines copy 2″ layer, and drag them forward. I did this just three times, though you could do it as many times you want. Try to not have two or more keyframes at the same time on your timeline, because the lines will look bold on the final video. Again, see the result by clicking the Play button.

Step 11

To make the lines effect softer, convert each one of the “Lines” layers into a Smart Object. Then change their Opacities to 50%, 70%, and 50% respectively.

Step 12

Create a new layer above the “Lines” layer and name it “Noise.” Then press D to load the default colors. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Once you have your favorite clouds, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise, and set the Amount to 30%. Also, set the Distribution as Uniform and select Monochromatic.

Step 13

Set the “Noise” layer’s Opacity to 25% and its Blending mode to Color Burn.

Step 14

In the Animation window, drag the Current Time Indicator slider to 00:00f. Then click on the Clock Position row and free transform the “Noise” layer increasing the width as in the image below. Then drag the Current Time Indicator slider to 20:00f (the last frame) and move the “Noise” layer to the right. This way you’ll get an animation for the noise.

Step 15

Now if you want to add more grunge details to your video, add another layer of lines below the “Noise” layer, but this time make them more bold (Brush 3px). Follow the same steps for the basic lines (Steps 6 through 9). The differences are the following: Set a larger space between the keyframes and the first keyframe isn’t in the 00:00f. If you want to get a better result, repeat this adding lines process three or four times.

Step 16

Now just because we can we’ll add some Subliminal text to our video. You can use it to add a signature to your work too. The steps are the same. First, create keyframes and change their layer’s properties.

Draw any text into a new layer named “Subliminal image.” Place this below the “Noise” layer. This time we’ll animate only the Opacity, and for a very short time to make a subliminal image. Create a 0% opacity keyframe, then another 88%, and finally another at 0%.

Step 17

Now we’ll add a dark border to our video. Create a new layer above the “New Video” group, Ctrl + A to select all, Ctrl + Alt + D to Feather the Selection. Then set a 50px radius. Ctrl + Shift + I to inverse the selection. Then using the Fill tool and a black foreground, fill the selection.

Step 18

Put everything into a new Group and name it “Full video” (I’m bad with the names).

Step 19

Paste this image into a new layer above everything, and delete the screen. I used the Magic Wand Tool with a Tolerance of 50 for this.

Step 20

Now convert all the “Full video” group into a Smart Object. If you want to edit the video later, Double-click on this layer. Now using the Warp tools distort the image to match the screen shape. I used some guides to make the work easier. Also, add a Drop Shadow to the TV layer. You can add more effects and layer styles if you want. I kept it simple this time.

Step 21

To render your video go to File > Export > Render video. Select the folder and name the file. Choose Quick time Export (If this option is disabled you need to get Quick Time 7.4.X or higher). By clicking on Settings and then Adjustments you can select a lot of options for render quality. This time I’ll use the default settings. Finally, click on Render.

Conclusion

Our final movie file can be viewed here. Editing video using Photoshop is not always easy work, but you can get excellent results with a little bit of patience. Try this tutorial to add a signature to your videos or to add vintage effects to your next video blog post.

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So let’s get going.

Create a document. You won’t have to set the CMYK color gamma.

Now let’s set some background color and the mood to our picture. I’ve created a gradient here.

Here is our gradient fill.

As this is not a layer tap twice on the background to create a layer.

I would also like to warp my picture a little.

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Crete a layer. 1st one.

Choose a round soft edged brush, set it to AIRBRUSH and hold a little bit on the tap. This way you can choose the diameter of the spot that you need. This will be our sun.

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I would like now to apply some layer styling to our sun.

Here is our result.

Choose a sponge brush, let’s say N 14, create a new layer and make several strokes.

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Something like this.

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Create another layer (there will be 4 strokes layers in total).

Set the radius of the brush a little bit smaller and make some strokes.

I will also warp my strokes.

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I will create a mask to my first stroke layer and make it a little blend with my background. I’ve switched off all the background layers for you to see how it will work.

Apply a normal contrast blue drop shadow to our strokes. To all strokes that are on the left.

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Warp the strokes a little bit more and crate 2 copies of any stroke layer. Transform the strokes- flip them horizontally. So now we have them on the right too.

Switching back to the sun; I will apply a layer style.

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And one of the left strokes needs a layer style too; a gradient overlay.

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Here we have all the view to our picture.

Now I will grab my brush tool and select the LEAF brush with standard settings in Photoshop. This brush is set to scattering and etc.

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Make several clicks and here we have the areas covered in real like leafs. That’s why I like Photoshop; you can make a brush out almost anything.

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I will bring out the levels a little bit, and color balance my image

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In the eng I will a ply plastic wrap filter, you won’t have to do it, but I like the picture with this effect.

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And this is it.

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Here is our Funny and sunny mood painting done in Photoshop. Hope you learned something.

Ok what you should know before starting to read this tutorial is that there are many ways to make a vexel. This is just one way that I’ve developed to make a realistic vexel using the traditional techniques.

Now let me introduce you to the concept of a vexel. A vexel is a pixel based technique that is similar to the vector technique, but the vexel technique uses vector lines to plot out the picture. To create a vexel one can use vector lines and shapes to illustrate the picture that they are using as their base.

To create the vector lines on an image we can Posterize the picture to see its vector lines, and this gives us a guide on all the lines in the image and what to trace.

Pen Tool Tutorial

The most important part of this project will be the Pen Tool (P). This will be the tool we use most frequently. If you want to make a vexel, you have to be able to use it well. I will now give a mini tutorial on using the Pen Tool.

First thing you have to do is set the correct settings of the Pen Tool in it’s options. Below is a picture of where the Pen Tool is located. And above it are the correct settings that you should have set for this tool.

Now that we have the correct settings on the Pen Tool, we have to learn how to properly use it. So there are two main ways you can use it. First, I will explain the way which simply uses the basic Pen Tool. Now in vexeling we will be doing a lot of shape tracing; So I will demonstrate how to trace a random shape with the first Pen Tool technique.

Step 1

Ok, here is the first way to use the Pen Tool. This way isn’t a 100% accurate, but its the easiest way. Now below we have a shape that we will trace with the Pen Tool. This is still a small tutorial for the Pen Tool to get us a little bit of practice.

First thing we will do is start at one of the edges. You’ll want to zoom in for more accuracy. Now take out our Pen Tool and left click on the edge. Then move our pointer to the next edge above and to the left and click again. Now this is how you trace around shapes without rounded sides.

Now you should have something like the second image below. I cropped the piece of the image that we are trying to trace first. So you’ll have two little boxes one open and one closed.

Step 2

Now move on to the curved part of the image. We still have a small horizontal part left before the curve comes, so take your mouse and click on the point right before the image starts to curve. If you want to practice with the same image you can get it through the Photoshop Shapes.

Now once you are up to the curve, put the mouse about half way through the curve and click, but do not let go. Instead, after you have clicked, drag your mouse upwards until your line matches the curve. Below is what your trace should look like.

Step 3

Now take these two simple steps and apply them to the rest of the shape. Just go around the whole shape. Once you have fully traced it, go back to your starting point and connect it by simply clicking on the open box.

Step 4

OK great, now we have a full traced object. Also, our trace is Closed meaning there are no openings and no lines that are not connected. The last step is to fill this trace. You’ll need to know this because we’ll be filling our traces with skin colors when making our vexel.

You should still have the traced U Turn shape. Next thing you do is make a new layer. Then select it and move your pointer inside the shape and right-click. Then go to Fill Path and place in any color you want, and click OK. Right-click once again and Delete the Path. This gets rid of the trace we just did and leaves our new filled object.

Step 5

We have now learned the first way of tracing and making shapes with the Pen Tool. Now we’ll learn the second which is very similar, but it uses an extra part of the Pen Tool to make its shapes more accurate. It is called the Anchor Point.

Now we have a new more difficult shape to trace. This one can also be found in the Photoshop Shape Library. This shape has a lot of curves and is perfect for using the Pen Tool with the Anchor Point. So we’ll begin by starting at the bottom of a curve and making our first point. Then drag to the opposite side of the curve and make a diagonal line.

Step 6

Use our Anchor Point to make a curve. Take our pointer and drag it to the middle of our line. Then right-click and select Add Anchor Point.

Step 7

OK, now you can see a small box in the middle of the line. Hold Command to turn your Pen Tool into a pointer. While doing this, drag the box up to the top of your curve and let go.

Step 8

We still have two parts of the line that aren’t quite traced along side our curve. So, let’s add anchor points to them too, the same way you did to the first. Use the same method of holding Command and moving them towards the curve. There you have it.

Step 9

Now you can go on and complete the rest of the shape by repeating this process. So you can use whichever technique you are more comfortable with and apply it to the vexeling process. If you are still not a 100% comfortable with the Anchor Point way of using the Pen Tool, below is another step-by-step walk through on how to make shapes.

Step 10

You are now ready to vexel your image. Only thing you need to do is pick your image out. Now not all the images you see can be cleanly vexeled. You have to find an image of a person that has all their attributes fully visible and nothing hidden behind a shadow of a fuzzy picture. For example, the image used for this tutorial is below. Also, notice the reasons I picked this image.

Now when picking your stock remember that a larger resolution is better. The original resolution of the image chosen for this tutorial is 1414 pixels by 2121 pixels. So you want something like that or bigger. Now that we have our stock, we are ready to begin the vexeling process.

Step 11

Let’s set up the picture. Once you’ve selected your stock, open it in Photoshop. First thing you should do is duplicate the original once. Then change the name of the original stock to “Original,” just so you know which one is the original. Now you have the duplicate, select it and place it over your “Original.” Then when its selected, go to Filter > Blur > Smart Blur, and use the settings below.

Step 12

Duplicate your new Smart Blur layer. Now you should have two. Hide the duplicated layer that is on top. The one in between of the duplicate and the original should stay un-hidden. Now select that layer which is in the middle this, which should be the Smart Blur layer, and go to Image > Adjustments > Posterize. This effect is very very important.

You can see that when you apply this effect you get different shapes on your stock. So you need to pick a level of around 20-25. I picked 23 because to me it just looked the best. Now when you’re trying to select your level you should zoom into the stocks skin to just see how the shapes will play out at that level.

You want a level that gives you a good flow of shapes and skin tones but does not go overboard with it. As you can see in the image below, the 23rd level gave me a nice balance of shapes that I could trace out.

Step 13

If you look closely at the colors of the skin, there are a lot of colors that you would never see on real skin, like pink, green, and blue. So we need to get rid of them.

You should still have that duplicated Smart Blur Layer. Un-hide it and then place it over the posterized image. Then set its Blending Mode to Color. This should bring all the colors to realistic skin tones. Below are the before and after images.

Step 14

Let’s make sure you’re following along. The image below shows how the layers should look at this point.

Step 15

Now! we are ready to vexel! We have set up our stock and we’re ready to get going. So the first question we should have is what should I start vexeling first? Personally, I don’t like starting with the skin because its too hard to avoid vexeling the eyes and mouth while your doing the skin.

I like to start on top by vexeling the eyes and mouth then going to the lower level and doing the face. It doesn’t matter really if you prefer to do the mouth or the eyes first, but I started by doing the lips and teeth first. So we’ll do that.

Take out our Pen Tool and make a new layer. Please remember a very important thing. Each shape should have a new layer. This will cause you to have a lot of layers. I highly recommend that you seperate all the pieces of the vexel. Meaning that you do the lips, then you make a new document and do the eyes, and so on.

If you have one document with every shape in it, then it will make Photoshop run very slow. This will cause you to mess up a lot. So remember to seperate each body part, and make a new layer for all shapes.

What you should do is Zoom in (Ctrl and +). I usually go to around 600 - 800%, but thats just me, as I prefer it to be realistic. Once you zoom in you will see a lot of shapes. Then grab your Eye Dropper Tool. This is the 2nd most important tool for vexeling.

For the lips I usually start in the middle and work my way around. After you pick a spot in the middle, look for a shape to start from. Once you have that, use the Eye Dropper Tool to get its color. The color should be your foreground color.

Now grab your Pen Tool and trace this shape. Most of the shapes are rough shapes with a lot of edges. So, do not exactly trace every edge. You should trace to look more circular and softer. Look below, I have an image of my stock zoomed in at 700%. Look at the first shape I picked and how I traced it. Once its traced with the Pen Tool, right-click and fill it with that color. And that was your first shape!

Step 16

Go to your last shape layer and Command + click on the layer. This will select it. This helps because it shows you exactly where it is. This helps when you make the next shape, as you’re not going over. Also, you’re not taking the wrong color.

Now that you have that selected, make a new layer over the last shape. Then look for the next closest shape and repeat the process. Only thing you should do is Deselect the selection by pressing Ctrl+D before you fill your new shape. Below is the process I used to get to the next shape.

Step 17

This is a repetitive technique. You should repeat this process for awhile. It’s a simple process of taking the color of a specific shape and using the Pen Tool to make that shape. So I hope you made new layers for all your shapes. After about nine shapes my lips look like the image below.

Step 18

After about twenty-five layers in you should start seeing some progression. I have my twenty-five layers shown below. You can see what mine looks like and compare to yours.

Step 19

OK, after fifty layers you should be done with at least half of the lips. Keep in mind, I am purposely avoiding the inside of the mouth and the teeth. You should do the same because this will be a seperate topic coming later. So don’t focus on the inside of the mouth if your figure in your image’s mouth is open. Just focus on the outside.

Step 20

At the end I had about ninety or more layers on the lips. Once you have it done, we’ll hide our original layers. This way, all we have is a transparent layer with our lips. Then go to Image > Apply Image on a new layer.

Now select that new layer and place it over all the lip shapes. Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. This just adds to the realism and gives it a good effect. The image for my lips is below. Once you are done with your lips you should compare it to the original picture and see if you can make small changes

Some of these changes can be changing the colors of the shapes. You can do this by selecting the shape and pressing Ctrl+U. Then adjust the Hue or Saturation. You can also use Brushes if you need to add gloss to the lips. Remember to be original and think of nice ways you can make your vexel look interesting and realistic.

Step 21

We want our layers to be organized. This is important throughout the whole project. Go to your layers and click on the folder button to make a separate folder just for the lips. Then carry all your lip shapes into that folder. Name that folder “Lips.”

Then make one for the “originals” also and one for the “Teeth” we are going to do next. After that, you should have the folder for “Lip”s on top, the folder for “Teeth” next, and the “originals” on the bottom.

Step 22

Now make a new layer inside our “Teeth” folder, which should be under the “lips” folder. Then zoom into our image and start with the vexeling of the teeth, or whatever is inside the mouth in your image.

The first thing I did here was take a dark color found inside the mouth and filled that open spot with that color. Then with a new layer I outlined the teeth and filled the outline with a common color found on the teeth. After that let’s start adding detail to the teeth and what’s in the mouth.

Step 23

For this part of the vexel I did not use the Pen Tool. For the lighting on the teeth, take a soft brush and sample another common color from the teeth of the posterized image. Then brush the teeth with a small brush. After all the brushing to the teeth was done I had about nine layers. The final image for the mouth is below.

Step 24

Ok now since we are done with our “lips” layers we should now move out to the “eyes” layers. For the eyes the techniques are slightly different, but mostly the same as the lips.

So lets make a new document since we are done with out lips. If you have a lot of layers on your lips, then make a new document so Photoshop doesn’t get too slow. Remember to carry over the folder of the originals into your new document.

Make a new folder for our “Eyes,” then we make a new layer in that folder and start the process of the eyes. Start with the bottom and work your way up. So you should definitely start with the bags of the eyes. So pick your eye, take either the right or left, and then zoom in once again around 700%. Start creating the shapes on the bags of the eyes.

Step 25

So six layers in I was done with the bags. Once you have done that you should move on to the top of the eye, which usually has the eyelashes. So start on that. In my case it was all black so it was not hard to vexel.

Step 26

Ok after ten layers I was done with the top and bottom of the eye. And now we’re ready to get into the actual eye.

Step 27

Ok now we have to outline the shape of the actual eye. Once we have outlined it we will make a new layer and fill it with a light gray color. Once we did that go and start adding some more shapes from the posterized image, just do the outsides around the pupil after 20 layers of shapes you should have something like below.

Step 28

Make a new layer over the last one you made. Then outline the actual pupil of the eye and fill it with a dark color. I filled mine with very dark green, but it depending on the color of the persons eye. Just fill it with a dark version of that persons eye color.

Step 29

Lets add some detail into the eyes. To start this by making a new layer. Then take the Eye Dropper Tool and sample colors that are in the posterized image’s eye. Then get out a small soft Brush. Make a new layer and Brush small strokes on this pupil. The colors should be ones found in the eye.

So you are pretty much painting the pupil. You want to get it realistic so paint the strokes exactly over where they actually are on the eye. Then paint the white part where the reflection comes from. Merge all those “eyes” layers and go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen.

Step 30

Add some light to the eye because mine is looking a bit dark. So make a new layer and take a small soft Brush and set it with the white color. Then brush over the middle of the eye, just one small dot will lighten up the eye. Then turn its Opacity to around 35%. This gives the eye a bit of a lighter tone to it.

Step 31

For the last part we need to add the eyelashes. Make a new layer and go to our Brush palette. Then set the main Brush to the 1px. Then we set its color to black. After, take out your Pen Tool and create a line that looks like an eyelash. Then right-click and Stroke Path. Repeat that until you have created all the eyelashes.

Step 32

Repeat what you just did with one eye, and do the same for the other eye. Below is the final result for both eyes.

Step 33

So since we finished another important part of the vexel we should make a new document. The next section we’ll be doing is the skin of the face. Now this is the longest one to do and there will be a lot of layers needed to make it look realistic.

I had about just four hundred plus layers for the face. So be ready to have a lot of layers. Zoom in around 300% on the posterized image. Then find yourself a nice spot to start. Your spot should either be the lightest or darkest part of your face. In my case, I started with the darkest part, which was the shadow coming from the nose.

Step 34

Now that we have picked our first spot, we need to find that shape and trace it out. For the face we’ll be working with layers slightly differently from how we worked with them on other parts. We’ll be putting each new layer under the one that came before it. Meaning once you make shape number 1 then shape number 2 will come under it and not over it. This helps you because you don’t have to make extra shapes to fill space and it controls the proper levels.

After making your first shape, fill it with the color from the Posterized image. Then go to its layer and Command + Click it to make the selection. Then grab your Eye Dropper Tool and take the next color selection. Make a new layer under the first and trace out its shape. Then just keep following this pattern.

Step 35

Below shows how much I did after twelve layers of work. Look at that and compare it to yours.

Step 36

If by now your skin isn’t looking very smooth, you’ll want to use something called Transition layers. Simply put, a transition layer is a layer put in between two shapes, which helps them to blend better.

Step 37

If you are still having trouble with skin colors you can look at this color pallet full of skin tones. If you’re having trouble finding those tones in your posterized image, then it will help you find the colors you need.

Step 38

OK, so below are progression pics at full-view. Then a couple of zoomed in pics at 300% of important parts. This way you can analyze the techniques used here.

Step 39

OK, now that you have vexeled the face, lets move on to the hair. Since vexeling is starting to get a bit boring and repetitive. Now if you have too many layers already in your “face” file, you’ll want to make a new document.

Now we don’t need the posterized image to do the hair. We only need the “original.” After making a new document, carry over the “original” picture onto that new canvas. Now go get your Pen Tool and look at the hair.

This technique also applies to male hair as well as a females. Look at your hair and find the one Light tone. Once you have found it, grab then Eye Dropper Tool and get its color. Now we’ll make a new layer and zoom into the hair at about 300%.

Take out the Pen Tool then start from whichever side you like (top, bottom, right left, just not in the middle). Try to make hair shapes by tracing that first light tone of the hair. Below is an example of me tracing a couple of the hair strands. And under that is an example of the light colors that can be found on the hair.

Step 40

Once you have outlined all of the light strands, right-click with the Pen Tool, and Fill in your light color. Then take the Burn Tool and kind of run over the hair strand with a soft Brush set to MidTones at about 30%.

You don’t want all your hair to be the same color. This gives it some shading and diversity. Below is the first layer of hair. I put it behind a dark background. That way you can see it better.

Step 41

The next step is very simple. You do the exact same thing except this time you work on a different shade. This time you do the midtones (the middle shade of the hair). If you want to make it detailed ,you should use about two or three different medium tones in the hair.

They should all be