d Photography Mash Up
Feb 9th in Drawing, Illustration by James Davies
Mixing
Vector work with Photography is a great way to produce a fun and
colorful art style. This approach is used in a variety of projects from
club flyers and CD Artwork through to high-end advertising imagery.
Expanding on the comprehensive guide to the Pen Tool
by Ian Yates, we look at creative ways of implanting the tool. This
tutorial should convince those of you lacking the confidence to draw
within Photoshop to do so with style.
I
am JamesZilla. I write tutorials for various magazines and websites
when I'm not designing gig posters, t-shirts, catalogues, magazine, etc.
Final Image Preview
Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be
creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of
every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.
Video Tutorial
Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.
Step 1
Usually, I would gloss over the cutting out of an image but as we're expanding on the Pen Tool tutorial here, I'll focus on a couple of useful tips.
First go to sxc.hu and download this image of a Gun (thanks to neoisam
for the awesome pic - there's a lot of variable quality images
available on this site, and this at the top end). Then zoom into about
300% and select the Pen Tool. Make sure it's set to Paths and Add to
path area (+), start drawing around the arm and the gun.
As mentioned in the Pen Tool tutorial it is good practice to begin
drawing a curve at the start of the curve and not in the middle. Pull
the anchor point so it runs along the angle of the straight edge.
Step 2
Add the next anchor point at the end of the curve where it meets the
straight edge. As we can see the curve is too great so select the
Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow not the black one) and pull the
handle back. After a while you'll be able to judge how to pull the
anchor points to satisfy each curve.
Step 3
Finally, we need to drop the outward handle of the second anchor
point so it doesn't prevent us from being able to follow the straight
edge. Select the Pen Tool again, hold the Alt key and click the anchor
point at the end of the curve. This will drop the outward handle
allowing you to then follow the straight edge with your path. I find
it's good practice to drag the anchor point along a straight edge
rather than using a single click. This way you can adjust to any waves
in the straight edge without leaving hard points.
Step 4
Finish drawing around the image. Below is an example of how to
manipulate the anchor points around multiple curves. The idea is to get
as few points as possible to create a natural line, but if you need to
put a point mid-curve then don't feel like you can't.
Step 5
Set up a new document. For the basis of this tutorial I've created
an A5 landscape at 300dpi. Copy and paste the gun into the document.
Select the Pen Tool and set it to Shape Layers instead of Paths. Select
a color, at this stage I've gone for 100% Magenta, but this can be
edited at any stage. Start drawing a dribble coming out of the end of
the barrel.
Step 6
You'll need to employ a certain amount of imagination. Picture the
vector as a thick, colored goo and then place it in the real world as
if affected by the laws of physics. As such, continue to draw it
dribbling from the barrel.
Step 7
Use the Direct Selection Tool to clean up any points that you're not happy with.
Step 8
Now it's time to apply some depth to the vector goo. Select the
"dribble" layer and go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options
and set up as in the three screen shots. Adjust the colors to suit your
own needs.
Step 9
Draw in more goo as if fired from the gun. Mix up the width and vary
the waves and bulges to get variety. Draw in some smaller waves and
think about how they'd move in relation to the bigger waves. Copy the
Layer Style from the "dribble" layer by selecting it, then go to Layer
> Layer Style > Copy Layer Style. Select the destination layer in
the layers palette and go to Layer > Layer Style > Paste Layer
style.
Step 10
The Layer Style settings aren't quite right for the smaller waves
of goo so select the appropriate layer, expand the Layer style icon
(looks like an ‘f' in a black circle) and adjust the settings as in the
screen shots.
Step 11
Keep adding goo coming out of the barrel until you're happy. Then add some smaller splats coming out of the end of the barrel.
Step 12
Draw a few small globules of goo and paste the Layer Styles to match
the rest. Using the Move Tool, hold the Alt key and drag copies of the
globules. Press Command + T to resize and rotate. Repeat this process
until you have a good covering of goo. Experiment with depth by moving
the duplicate layers up and down the layers palette so that they fall
in front of or behind other "goo" layers.
Step 13
Add drop shadows on the gun barrel, using: the eyedropper for color,
a new layer, soft brush, a selection from gun, a layer mask, draw, and
multiply.
Step 14
Open the grenade image from sxc.hu, cut-out, import it into the document, then Command + T to resize and rotate it.
Step 15
Draw a path around a section of the grenade, don't worry about the
outer edges, as they're already cut. Turn path to selection and cut and
paste onto a new layer (deleting the sections from the original grenade
as you go. Continue cutting out sections of the grenade until it's
broken into several pieces, you can go as detailed as you like. Once
you have all the pieces separated, rotate them as if blown apart.
Step 17
Use the Pen Tool, to draw smoke using the same techniques. I've
changed the color to depict the different areas of smoke, but make them
the same color as we'll be using Layer Styles to create depth.
Step 18
The smoke looks flat so set up some Layer Styles (as you did for
the goo) to add depth and lighting. See the screenshots for the
settings I used. Copy and paste the Layer Styles to all the "Smoke"
layers once set up.
Step 19
Drawing cartoon-like outlines around the smoke will add impact and
keep it looking fun. You can either do it manually or select the Smoke
Shape layer so the path is visible and copy the path. Go to the Paths
Palette, create a new layer and paste the path onto it. Delete the
parts you don't want by selecting the individual anchors. Draw in some
extra detail and extend any existing lines you want.
Step 20
Create a new layer, use this layer to apply outlines you've just
drawn. Select the Paintbrush tool and set the brush up at 7 pixels with
100% hardness. Select the Path from the Paths palette and then select
Stroke Path from the contextual menu (small right facing arrow in a
circle at the top right of the Paths palette). I then resized all the
"grenade" layers (including smoke etc) as it had too much presence.
Step 21
Now the fiddly bit, especially if your layers palette is as messy
as mine. Create a new layer and set the Layer Blending Mode to
Multiply. Command-click on all the "grenade" layer thumbnails to make
selections from them and add a layer mask (light circle in a dark
rectangle at the base of the Layers palette.
Now, (working on the new layer and not the layer mask) Command-click
the top grenade piece and invert (Command + Shift + I) the selection.
Select the Paintbrush tool and take a soft-edged brush and draw on the
shadow, I used a dark gray, rather than a Black. Press Command + H to
hide the selection if it helps. Continue in this fashion. Switch
between a 45 pixel brush and a 20 pixel brush.
Step 22
The Grenade needs more goo coming out of it for impact so draw in
some as you did for the gun. Move the "goo" layers in between the
"smoke" and "grenade" layers for depth. Adjust the Shadows layer mask
accordingly (I Command-clicked all the "grenade goo" layer thumbnails
and masked it off directly on the "shadow" layer). You may need to
manually edit your selection (using the Polygonal Lasso Tool) in
places.
Step 23
Copy all of the "Grenade" layers and flatten them to one layer.
Place the new Grenade at the top of the Layer hierarchy and resize to
fit the perspective. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and set up
as in the screenshot. Then use the Blur Tool to blur the edges of big
Grenade.
Step 24
Merge all of the Pink "goo" layers coming out of the gun and apply a
0.6 Pixel Gaussian Blur. This will further fuse the elements together.
Do the same for the un-blurry Grenade goo. Once you've done that,
flatten the image.
Step 25
I think it needs a little more punch so add a Curves adjustment
layer to boost the contrast. This will further fuse the elements
together and increase saturation as well. Go to Layer > New
Adjustment Layer > Curves and set up as shown below.
Step 26
Finally, duplicate the "Background" layer and go to Filter >
Artistic > Film Grain. Set this up as shown and OK it. Then reduce
the layer Opacity to 55%. From this point you can add further
Adjustment Layers like Hue/Saturation and fine tune all the Adjustments
until you're happy.
Conclusion
I hope that was as much fun for you as it was for me! You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.
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