Digital Illustration with Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended

Teaching this semester

2012-01-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

Spring semester has started and I am teaching once again. In addition to teaching Flash and related courses at Santa Rosa Junior College, I also began teaching at Napa Valley College. This is a Digital Art class, DART 130, using Photoshop. Students in this class should download this image for their first assignment, Creating a Face using Selection tools.

Homework is due on 30 January.

Read my interview

2012-01-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! I've got some new stuff planned for this year. Recently, I was given a set of interview questions from the website Exhibitions without Walls, the same site that had me as one of their judges in their last competition. The questions were thought provoking and commercial artists just starting out might find some helpful info.

Click here to read the interview.

Judging for an online art competition

2011-12-19T22:34:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was asked to serve on a panel of jurors for Open, the latest photography and digital art competition at Exhibitions Without Walls. All of the work was really good and it was a bit hard to narrow things down, but luckily all the jurors had to do was evaluate each one for points in various categories. The winners were then calculated from the totals. As I said, all of the entries were high quality, so it was tough. Most of the entries were photographic, but there were a few illustrations, so I always like that.

Click here to see the the winners of Open.

My latest work

2011-12-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

I recently completed an illustration of the Brooklyn Bridge. The end client is a construction and infrastructure company and it will be used as the header image of their calendar for next year. The final image was 26" long, but not so tall, so it's a hard format to show, but here is a detailed section of it. As you can see, it ended up being very detailed and I had a deadline I was working to hit, but it all worked out. The illustration was painted from scratch in Photoshop and took just over a week of full-time work to complete.

You can see a full-length version of the image on my portfolio site here.

My artwork on a shirt

2011-12-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

Remember the very first tutorial I posted? If not, you can see it here. Recently, I was asked to build it into a T-shirt design. I've done this sort of thing before, but not always with the most exciting art. This was one of my favorite images and the final output actually looks pretty good. This doesn't always happen. They've promised to send me my own shirt, but I haven't seen it yet.

Some recognition for my work

2011-11-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

My contact at the Directory of Illustration has a blog about her work and other commercial art topics. She put up a post about my large exhibit image I did a couple of months ago. It's always nice to have someone else want to show my work. I recently decided to advertise in the Directory for next year. It's a big commitment because of the cost, but I'm serious about finding new work and bigger clients.

Click here to read the post.

Online recording of the NBAUG presentation

2011-11-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

We all had a good time at my presentation last month on Hallowe'en. Hopefully, that didn't keep too many people away. Luckily for those who could not be there, my entire presentation was recorded and is up now for all to see. Adobe Connect was used, and it all worked seamlessly. Here I am with Cyndi Reese (the Count), an SRJC instructor in charge of the event. Remember, it was Hallowe'en. Can you guess my costume?

Click here to watch my tutorial presentation on layer effects and vector shapes.

I'm giving a presentation this month

2011-10-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

It's been in the works for a while, but now I know I'm giving the presentation at the North Bay Adobe Users Group meeting this month. The topic I have chosen is Vectors and Effects: from Photoshop to Illustrator and Back Again. I know it's a long title, but I wanted to be accurate. And I can pretty much guarantee you won't see anyone else teaching these kinds of techniques.

The NBAUG (as it's called) meets once a month at the Santa Rosa Junior College campus. It starts at 7:00 in the evening and since it just happens to be Hallowe'en, costumes are encouraged. I'll be in one, so come and join in the fun. You just might learn something. Click here for more info.

Greenscreen spill correction

2011-10-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to remove the green spill, so let's start simple and work our way up. A good technique is to see what an adjustment layer will do. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the photo. Clip it down so the photo is acting as a clipping mask. You can do this by OPT (Mac)/ALT (PC) + clicking between the two layers, or just click the clipping button at the bottom of the Adjustments panel. We need to try and affect just the green areas, not the whole photo. To do this, try a little-used option on this panel. Click the Master drop-down and choose Greens instead. Now slide the Saturation slider all the way to -100. If the Master option had been left on, the photo would be greyscale, but since Greens are chosen, they are the only colors affected. The green hasn't been removed completely, but the spill's intensity has been reduced somewhat and any overall green cast to the photo has been lessened.

It's a bit better, but it's not there yet. The next step is to try and directly adjust the color of the green spill. Add a new layer above the adjustment layer and fill it with an average color sample from the photo that will counteract the green. In this case, I chose a reddish-brown taken from the hair. Change the layer's Blend mode to either Hue or Color and clip it down with the rest of the layers. I chose Hue for this example, but they are really quite similar. Currently, the Opacity is 100% and it is tinting the entire layer. The next step is to restrict this effect to just the edges and then adjust the Opacity as needed.

To do this, we need another mask. Load a selection from the alpha channel originally created by Calculations by CMD (Mac)/CTRL (PC) + clicking on its thumbnail. With the selection active, add a mask to the Hue or Color layer. Now, do a Levels adjustment, sliding the white slider almost all the way to the left. This will expand out the white portions of the mask so that this brown tint extends farther into the photo.

The next step is to expand out the mask so that more of the green spill is covered. There are a number of ways this could be done, but let's try some of the newer tools in Photoshop. With the mask active, click the Mask Edge... button on the Masks panel. Take the Shift Edge slider up to +100% and then increase the Feather amount until the green disappears. Make sure Output To: is set to Layer Mask and click OK. Now the masking is pretty much complete.

You still may need to fine-tune the edge, but it might be a good idea to pop in a new background first. That way, you'll more accurately see what adjustments need to be made. The foreground will also probably need some adjustments like Color Balance and Curves or Levels to match the background. Once you have added these adjustment layers and clipped them down to the masked photo layer, you can see what needs to be done to the mask edge, if anything. Some options to consider: lowering the Opacity of the Hue/Color layer, expanding the sliders in the green area on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, or doing another Levels adjustment on the original mask, as you see here. If any haloing or fringing still appears around the edges, moving the midtone slider to the right will darken up those greys and hide more of the image. Use restraint here, because you don't want to lose too much hair detail. You could also try Shift Edge in the Refine Mask options; it does about the same thing.

Now zoom out and admire your work Check to see if the shadows of the background match the shadows of the subject. You may need to mirror one or the other as I've done here. For really good photo compositing, the images need to match in terms of noise, grain, and blur. These can easily be added in with filters, especially if you convert the photos to Smart Objects.

That's it! This is the process for extracting greenscreens. You could even automate the process of combining channels and making the initial mask. Other tutorials out there use Extract (which isn't even automatically installed with Photoshop anymore) or modifying a selection with Refine Edge, but these tools really aren't designed for greenscreens. They are more appropriate for other backgrounds. This is really the way to do it and mastering these skills will open up many doors of Photoshop goodness.

Fixing the mask

2011-10-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

With a few quick steps, we can fix the mask. The information is there; we just need to pull it out. Layer masks are simply greyscale images that can be adjusted like any color photo with Levels or Curves. To see the mask directly while you are working on it, OPT (Mac)/ALT (PC) + click on its thumbnail. Since these kinds of adjustments are pretty simple, use a Levels adjustment. The histogram shows where the dark and light values are. The mask needs to be mostly pure black and pure white with some greys for anti-aliasing. You can either drag the sliders inward manually or use the eyedroppers. Choose the white eyedropper and click in the mask in areas that aren't quite white but should be. Choose the black eyedropper and click in the dark areas that aren't quite black but should be. The trick here is to get enough black and white, but not lose the detail around the hair which comes from the greys and fine detail in the mask. It's a trick because in keeping this detail, a lot of green from the background still comes through. Add a solid color layer behind the masked image to get a better idea of your edge quality. If you don't know what the new background will be, use 50% grey as I have done here. As you can see, soft edges like hair pose the greatest challenge. This is compounded by what is called 'spill,' where light bounces off the greenscreen and illuminates the edges of the subject. For good greenscreen extraction, we need to remove spill as well. That will be covered in the next tutorial.

Green screen removal

2011-10-08T01:28:00.000-07:00

This tutorial is a departure from illustration, but it's a topic we have been covering in some of my classes lately. Background removal is an important skill in Photoshop, something every digital artist should know how to do. I have seen a lot of tutorials on the web, both written and video, about how to do this, but honestly, most of them get it wrong. It's true that there are many ways to remove a background in Photoshop and some of them can work well, but greenscreen removal is a special process. There is a reason it's used a lot these days for digital compositing. Decades ago, a special color of blue that had unique photographic properties was used. This is because it was all done optically with cameras. Now, this kind of work is done digitally and green has become more commonly used because of how this color interacts with the RGB channels. You can it here in a scene from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones:

For this example, I'll use this picture of Jessica Alba that I 'found.' I just hope that none of the creators of Machete get too upset, but if Ms. Alba would like to discuss the details with me personally, I'm sure we could come to an agreement. The start to getting a good green screen extraction is a good image: well lit, consistent green color, large pixel size, and high image quality. Although this one is a JPG, it should work well enough. The first step is to make a mask, of course. We aren't going to use anything like Color Range or Refine Edge; we'll go straight to the channels.

The reason that so many effects shots are done with greenscreen these days has to do with how this color affects the Red and Green channels specifically. Obviously, digital compositing is done with footage using AfterEffects, Nuke, or other specialized software, but the concept is the same as what we see in Photoshop. We'll need to use an RGB image with the color profile set to sRGB. Since this is a greenscreen, let's start with the Green channel first. It has good separation of the darker areas from the background, but that's about it. The Red channel has good separation of highlights and skintones, but the darker areas fade into the background. The best way to make a mask from a photographic source is to do it procedurally (letting Photoshop do all the hard work) in the channels, but I've seen many tutorials give up here and go for some other tool because no single channel has all the necessary information. However, the best masks come from a multi-step process and the usefulness of greenscreen is how the Red and Green channels combine. Taking another look at the Red channel of any greenscreen image, you will see that if it were inverted, it would have just the right dark information that the Green channel is missing. If we could then just get its dark parts (Multiply) into the Green channel, that would work. What we want here is an easy way to combine what we need from each channel into a new channel and Photoshop has just that: Calculations.

Go to Image >Calculations... You will see the options for combining two channels. Choose Red and Green. It doesn't matter which one is Source 1 or 2. Be sure to check Invert on the Red channel, since we need the opposite of its information. By default, the Blending will probably be Multiply. Already, this looks pretty good. The background is noticeably lighter than the foreground and the highlights have been replaced with darker values. But there is still some definition inside the figure and it could be better. Change the Blend mode to Color Burn; it's much stronger, like Multiply on steroids. The background appears to lighten up just a bit, but the foreground gets almost black. It's almost a mask with practically no effort! However, if your foreground has any pure white in the highlights, it might not get turned to black. That's because Color Burn won't appear over white, just like Color Dodge won't appear over black. I see some blocky white specks in my black areas. If that's the case, try Linear Burn. It's very much like Color Burn, but it will cover white. The background darkens up a bit, but now the white specks are gone. Make sure the Result is New Channel and click OK.

You now have a new Alpha channel. At this point, you will really be able to see how good your greenscreen photo is. The brighter and more consistently lit it was, the smoother and brighter your background will be, with more contrast between darks and lights. In my case, it's good but not great, and I see some artifacts from the JPG compression that weren't so evident in the full color photo. Here is where higher quality will certainly pay off. Load the channel as a selection, go to your layers, and make a mask. As you know, if this layer is a Background layer, you'll have to convert it to a regular pixel layer first.

If you have followed all the steps exactly, you should end up with something like this. The problem is that it's just the opposite of what we need. Actually, it's not a problem. It's easy to invert a mask, or selection, either before or after you make it; there's no loss of information. With the mask active, you could press CMD (Mac)/CTRL (PC) + I for Invert, or you could just press the Invert button on the Masks panel. Now you see the foreground and the greenscreen is masked out. Well, almost. In my example, there is still a fair amount of green back there because that part of the mask is not completely black. There may also be a little transparency in the foreground as well. Be that can all easily be corrected as we fine-tune the mask. Tune in next time for that.

Painting in the energy beam

2011-09-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

To make the image a bit more exciting and tell more of a story, we need something to happen. It's all set to fire some kind of beam down into the ground. Because the background is so warm with a red/orange color palette, let's use a cool color for contrast. I chose a green color, leaning a bit toward blue. Take the color straight from the Color Picker with a B value of 100%. For a color that is so bright like a laser beam, this is better than choosing a PMS color, because they don't tend to have the brightness or saturation necessary. Paint it with a simple brush and have the size set to pen pressure. This beam needs to be opaque all the way through, but taper off at the ends, so this is a rare instance where using the pen pressure to control opacity won't work. The color should be flat and solid, because the glows will be taken care of with Layer Styles. Use the settings shown here. The major part to remember is that the Inner Glow is set to Center; that gives you the nice, white-hot center of the beam.

The glowing beam looks good, but to really get the effect of luminosity, the ground right below it should be lit as well. Use a radial gradient in the same green as the beam down with the previously-completed ground layers. Change the Blend mode to Screen and scale the gradient down a bit vertically to follow the perspective of the ground. To create a more interesting ground and give the light something to do, you could paint some features like rocks. These are done in a solid dark color with the help of a scatter brush, then touched up a bit with a normal brush. Use this rocks layer as a clipping mask for layers above it, upon which to paint the highlights. Layer Styles won't work here because the rocks encircle the light source. Paint an orange highlight from the setting sun on the tops of the rocks. Having the highlights on separate layers allows you to adjust their Opacity and Blend modes if necessary.

To really make this work, the rocks need to cast shadows against the ground. The first thing to do here is to figure out where they should be cast. A trick from perspective drawing class will help out here. Use the Line tool. Make sure it's set to create a vector shape layer. After you make the first line, hold down Shift for each additional one to add them to the same shape layer instead of making new ones. Start where the beam hits the ground and draw lines out to the rocks. Now, make a mask on the green gradient layer. With the lines as guides, paint black on the mask to simulate the shadows cast by the rocks. They don't have to be exact, just close enough to be convincing. Now this is starting to look really cool, but there's one more thing to do.

Start at the point where the sun hits the mountains; that's the light source. As before, use the Line tool to draw lines on a vector shape layer, radiating out to the edges of the image. I used a different color to differentiate these from previous lines. Go back to the ground layers and make a new layer in Multiply mode. Paint shadows on this new layer, using the lines as guides. Remember that objects cast long shadows at sunset. Lower the Opacity of the layer as needed. That should do it! There is now a really cool interplay of shadows from the two different light sources. Some rocks are now casting double shadows and the green light spills into some of them. The whole thing looks complex and fairly accurate, but you can see that by using Blend modes, several layers, and masks it's not that hard to do.

Painting the spaceship

2011-09-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

Even though the ship is basically black, you don't want to start with a color that absolute. It's best to avoid pure black (0, 0, 0) or pure white (255, 255, 255). Using a very dark grey is a better way to go, so you can go darker if you need. I chose PMS 440. Paint the spaceship on a new layer and use just this color to paint what amounts to a flat silhouette. An easy way to paint perfectly horizontal or vertical lines with a brush tool is to hold down Shift as you paint your line. This may seem obvious, but I painted in Photoshop for years before I figured this out. To paint a straight line at an angle, click once with the brush, then hold down Shift and click again. This one I knew. I find that it's better to use a mouse for this technique, because it's hard to get fully opaque on one click when using the stylus set to pressure, which is how you want to do most of your painting.

For the surface detail, paint on a new layer and clip it to the main spaceship layer. Notice how I have used cool greys for the top and warmer, rusty colors for the bottom. This helps with the image's color scheme. I'm trying to suggest that the warm sunlight is reflecting on the bottom of the ship. Speaking of the bottom, notice how the gradual highlights on the edges of the round parts make them look hemispherical and not flat. Painting on a new layer is great because you can adjust your details if they are too much. In this case, I wanted to tone them down toward the bottom edge, so I added a mask to this layer with a linear gradient. But now, it lost too much detail in the black part of the mask. That's why the Masks panel is so great. Notice how I've pulled the Density down a bit to bring the detail back in somewhat. This panel was introduced in CS4 and is something I've been wanting for a long time.

Instead of painting in some highlights from the sun, let's try it with layer effects. Bevel and Emboss works, but an Inner Shadow using these setting adds a nice look to the underside. A Gradient Overly in Multiply mode darkens the texture painting of the upper layer. To get a bit of an unearthly glow from the bottom, I added an orange Drop Shadow in Screen mode. The problem is that with the settings to get the right look, the shadow extends past the bottom and over to the sides and top. Currently, there is no way to mask off effects directly, but in this case, a layer mask will do the trick. CMD+click the main spaceship layer to load the pixels as a selection and add a layer mask. At first, you won't see any difference. Double+click the layer to open up Layer Styles. Under Advanced Blending, check the Layer Mask Hides Effects box. Now the outer effects disappear. Add a white-to-transparent linear gradient to the mask from the bottom upward. Now the Drop Shadow is visible at the bottom and fades away at the sides. This image shows the relationship of the original selection to the final mask.

The rest of the spaceship details are painted in on separate layers not clipped to the main spaceship layer. To further illuminate the bottom areas of the ship, use a rusty color on a new layer in Color Dodge mode. Lower the Opacity until it looks right. The finishing touches are the cables that hang down. They might not look very practical, but this is a common sci-fi element. They have their own Bevel and Emboss and other effects, similar to the main spaceship layer.

The ship looks done now. For the last tutorial, we'll work on the energy beam fired from the ship. Not only will it tell an exciting story, but it will add some visual interest.

Painting the ground

2011-09-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

The ground and mountain range were quickly sketched in using dark colors, all on the same layer. To get a hint of the sun's glow peeking over the mountains, load a selection from this layer, make a new layer, and fill it with a color, any color. The important step now is to lower the Fill to 0% and check the Layer Mask Hides Effects option in the layer's Blending Options. Add an Inner Shadow as shown, then use a radial gradient on a mask to reduce this effect to just where the sun is. I have used this same technique over and over in my work, as you can see from previous tutorials.

A second row of more distant mountains will make things a bit more interesting, so I painted some on a layer under the existing mountains. This was done with lighter colors, and a Color Overlay was added to brighten them up even more. I used the same Inner Shadow technique as on the closer mountains to add a bit more of the setting sun's glow peeking over the top. I told you I used this trick a lot.

To get some more glow happening, add a bright, reddish-orange radian gradient on a new layer. Change the Blend mode to Screen and lower the Opacity until you like it. This layer, like the others, gets clipped down so that it uses the mountains layer as a clipping mask. Do the same thing for the foreground mountains. At this point, if the far mountains near the right edge of the image look too bright, add a dark linear gradient on a new layer, also clipped with the rest. Usually, I would change this layer to Multiply mode, but that was a bit too dark and I was wanting to obscure detail, not enhance it, so I just used Normal mode.

Just for fun, I painted in a hint of some sort of structures at the peak of one of the mountains. There was no other reason than to try and make the background look interesting. The flat ground looks a little dull, but we'll take care of that later. On top of all these layers, make a new layer with some dark orange linear gradients on each side of the image. Change this layer's Blend mode to Multiply and lower as desired. The sun's glow stands out even more and the look simulates a camera lens vignette. Now the scene is ready for the spaceship to come.

Starting the background

2011-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

For this little painting, I decided to use standard HD size (1920x1080). As you should know, if you are dealing just in pixels, resolution doesn't matter. I chose this size for a good width to height ratio and it's good for a quick painting: not too big, not too small. If you have followed my previous tutorials, you know that I start skies with a solid color on the bottommost layer and make each gradient as foreground to transparent on a separate layer. This allows me to have the most control over them in terms of Opacity and Blend mode.

To help me along with my dramatic, sunset sky, I chose a picture from my source library and used it as a guide to paint the sky. I picked colors directly from it since I was working quickly. Having each gradient on its on layer was especially useful here, because I could add a layer mask as shown in the screenshot to suggest where the sun was going down. Notice that the layer is set to Color Dodge and the Fill has been lowered. This is a great way to simulate luminosity, especially with gradients. Usually, I add a darker gradient at the top in Multiply mode, as I've done here.

Next come the clouds. They were roughed in quickly with a softer, natural brush. I added some layer effects to give them a bit more depth. You can see here what I've done with the Inner Shadow to be more of a lit edge. This layer became a clipping mask for layers above it. Highlights were painted on one layer, shadows on another. The highlights' layer was changed to Color Dodge mode. A foreground-to-transparent radial gradient was added above that to represent the glow of the setting sun, reflecting on the clouds. Its Blend mode was also Color Dodge and the Fill was lowered as shown. Finally, A dark gradient in Multiply mode was added to the top above all the clouds, but not clipped with the other cloud layers.

In the next tutorial, we'll cover the ground and mountains for the landscape and tie them together with the sky.

New painting tutorial

2011-09-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, as promised, here is a new tutorial based on a digital painting I did earlier this year. This was just a quick little sketch, just something I had in my head that I wanted to see if I could put down in pixels. What made this image a bit unusual is that it's very much a sci-fi theme, something I really admire, but don't do much myself.

Just to show you how things can start out, I scanned the little sketch I did in a page of my planner. It's not much, but sometimes it's a good idea to manually draw out your ideas before creating them digitally. Old fashioned drawing is a skill that is still relative, no matter how things progress technologically. This is a good way to solve problems like composition and value. Once I got the idea out of my head and onto paper, I was ready for the next step of trying to paint it in Photoshop.

The results of all my hard work lately

2011-09-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been very busy for me around here. In addition to my new fall classes, I had a large exhibit graphic to paint and prepare for printing in a very short amount of time. The tight deadline was mainly because the client delayed giving approval and sending final details until very late. The graphic backdrop had to be done and ready for an exhibit in a tradeshow, so that was a firm date.

But the real problem was the size of the file. The final image was to be over 19 feet long. Even reducing the resolution (which is common in large images), the initial file was over 4 Gb, and I hadn't done much painting yet. So I decided to split it in half. Even with that, each half was so large that I had a hard time working on them, due to the way they slowed down my computer. All in all, the final composite, layered image would probably be about 5 Gb. Photoshop won't save a PSD over 2 Gb; for that you have to use a PSB, the large document format.

In spite of last-minute size changes and additions to the image, I finished it on time (3:00 a.m. on the morning it was due). I had been working days, nights, weekends, and every spare moment to get this darn thing done. The final image was output as eight different panels and assembled on a curved backframe. Here is a picture of it. I was quite pleased with how it came out. Mostly, I'm pleased that this whole ordeal is over.

New teaching gig

2011-08-17T22:29:00.000-07:00

You may know that most of my work is as a freelance illustrator, but I always try to supplement it with a regular paycheck by teaching. As an adjunct or part-time instructor, I never know from semester to semester what I will get, if anything. This fall, I found out at the last minute about an opening at the College of Marin. They did what they call an emergency hire and I am now teaching a design class, focusing on Illustrator and Photoshop. Also, I was offered Photoshop imaging classes at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the same ones I taught last year. This means that I can depend on at least some money each month.

You may have noticed that my posts have been very infrequent for the past few months. I have been really busy with the end of summer classes and other very big, high-pressure projects. I'm on one of those right now. But I do have a new tutorial planned next month on a personal painting I did recently.

Flash certified

2011-06-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

Good news, everyone! I had been putting it off, but at the last minute, I decided to take the Adobe Flash recertification exam. I won't embarrass myself by giving you my score, but I did pass, so I am now an Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor in Flash. I am up to date in all my certifications. Now let's see if I ever get the chance to teach Flash again.

In other not so good news, for much of May and the first half of June, I was involved in interviewing for an onsite 3D illustrator position at Apple. I did several art test for them and went down to the Apple campus in Cupertino for a grueling 4-hour session of interviews. They liked my work and felt I would be a good match for the team, but for some reason, they won't be hiring me this quarter. What does that mean for the future? I'm not sure. But I am back teaching this summer: Photoshop 1 at Santa Rosa Junior College. Things have been busy, but I hope to get another tutorial up soon.

Speaking at an illustration class tonight

2011-04-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I made any posts. I guess after finishing up a year's worth of tutorials, I took some time off to concentrate on work. I did a new personal painting recently, so I plan on putting that one up and going through my steps for all of you.

But I do want to let everyone out there know that I will be giving a presentation to the Digital Illustration class, GD56 taught by Jesse Bilyeu at Santa Rosa Junior College tonight. It will be at the Santa Rosa campus in Maggini Hall on the 3rd floor. I can't remember which classroom it is, but it shouldn't be hard to find. The class runs from 7-9 pm, so if you are in the area and are interested, drop on by.

Photoshop and Illustrator CS5 certified

2011-02-27T01:33:00.000-08:00

Good news, everyone! I just passed the Illustrator CS5 ACE recertification exam. I must tell you, this one was tough. I haven't been using the latest version of Illustrator much these days. I'm not teaching it and I haven't found much professional use for the new features yet, although some of them are cool. It was a hard test and it took me within a few seconds of the 2-hour time limit, but I ended up with a 91% score. As usual, there were some obscure questions on topics I had never heard of, but I did learn a few good things about Illustrator. I passed the Photoshop recertification exam a couple of days ago. I should know it much better than Illustrator, but for some reason I got a 90% on Photoshop.

The deadline for taking the shorter recert tests is tomorrow. If I had missed that, I would have to do the full proctored exams, and that's something I never want to do again. Yeah, I know, I waited until the last minute, but it's been a busy month and I don't like tests. I still need to recertify in Flash, but that one isn't even out yet. So as of this moment, I am current in my status as an Adobe Certified Instructor.

Creating the final glows (4 of 4)

2011-01-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

For the glowing ring underneath the ten coils, make a circle on a new Shape layer with the Ellipse tool. I am using a bright blue with a Hue of 188. If you want a different color, adjust the hue of this shape and all of the associated Layer Styles. Hold down ALT/OPT to make an additional circle that cuts out the middle. Do this again for the little wires along the top of this wide ring. Refer to earlier posts of this tutorial if you need to remind yourself of the various ways to do this. In order to see the coils underneath this ring, load a selection from that Shape layer and may a new mask on this layer. Invert the mask so that it looks like the example shown here. You may wonder why this ring is above the coils, and we'll see why in a moment.

Add an Outer Glow of the same blue color. Adjust the Size and Opacity to your liking, but keep the Blend mode at Screen. For the Inner Glow, use the settings shown. The key element here is to change the Source to Center. You can keep it at the default light yellow; it may warm the interior a bit, but with Screen, it will be pretty much white anyway. Now you see why we have this shape on top of everything else. Luminous glows will always appear to be above solid items around or even above them. Make sure you don't check the Layer Mask Hides Effects option on Advance Blending. If you do, you can see what happens: the glows around the masked areas disappear completely. Here you can see the difference between having this option checked and unchecked. This is a great example of why this option is here. It is very powerful and can do a lot for you if you understand it.

The one possible negative effect of this technique is that because of how the mask affects the Inner Glows, it now looks like we have ten individual lights instead of one lighted ring. If this isn't what you want, duplicate this layer, turn off its Outer Glow, and check the Layer Mask Hides Effects option. You can see the bright central glow going all the way around the ring. Now one layer is giving you the Outer Glow you need, and another is giving the Inner Glow. Lower the Opacity if you would like to reduce this and delineate the ring sections somewhat; it's all a matter of personal taste. I won't judge.

For the central light, make a circle on a new Shape layer, using the same color and effects as on the ring. I added Photoshop's Herringbone pattern on this layer's mask to suggest a wire mesh or grill over the light, but it will probably get blown out after the final layers are added. To increase the amount of light wrap around the solid elements and extend the glow behind everything, make a new layer and add a foreground-to-transparent Radial gradient with your bright blue color. Give it the same Outer Glow as on the previous layers and add a layer mask based on a selection loaded from the solid interior elements. Make sure that Layer Mask Hides Effects is not checked and set the layer's Blend mode to Screen. Use this layer as a Clipping Mask for a new layer above it and fill that with a Radial gradient of white to transparent. Now the center looks really luminous, with light spilling out in all directions and fading away from the center. The reflected glows we put on parts like the coils and brackets are finally starting to make sense.

It looks good and we could call it done at this point, but there is just a bit more to do that would really take the image to the next level. It might not be completely accurate, but to really show the effects of luminosity, we could lighten the black background. Go all the way down to the bottom layer and make a new one right above it. Use a dark grey of your choice and make a Radial foreground-to-transparent gradient from the center of the arc. I suggest using the next to the darkest slot from one of the PMS grey ramps. The one you choose depends on what color cast you want to give the background. Then go to the outer ring Shape layer and give it a Drop Shadow as shown. If the Distance is set to 0, the shadow extends out evenly from the shape, similar to an Outer Glow. This suggests that the ring is raised up a bit from the background and casts a small shadow from the reactor's lights.

That's it! Now you have a realistic and accurate depiction of Tony Stark's arc reactor to decorate any item or device you wish. If only it could power it as well...

Making the coils (3 of 4)

2011-01-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

This early version of the arc reactor has ten wrapped segments, or coils, around the light ring. That divides nicely into 360. Hold down SHIFT to make a square on a new Shape layer with the Rounded Rectangle tool. For the size of a 2" diameter reactor, a Radius of 5 px for the corners works. Make one of the vertical squares first and use PMS 4695 as the color. As in the earlier tutorials, select this shape with the Path Selection tool, Copy/Paste, then Transform. Move the reference point to the center of the design and enter 36 in the Set rotation field. Copy/Paste this new shape, then Transform Again eight more times. This should be the last time we need to do this. Add a Bevel and Emboss, similar to on the other pieces. You may need to adjust the colors.

Now for some fun. Use this Shape layer as a Clipping Mask for some new layers above it. Using PMS 175 and a small, hard-edged brush, draw some thin lines across the squares, pointing toward the center. These lines represent copper wire wrapped around these blocks, so they should look a little loose and wiggly. Add a bit of dark Outer Glow and a Bevel and Emboss as shown on this layer. Since if you draw lines too close together they just meld into a bigger blob, you will need two layers of hand-drawn lines to get enough. Make sure both are clipped to the Shape layer with the rounded rectangles. Notice how the highlight from this Clipping Mask layer transfers to and is 'inherited' by the wires. To suggest the corner where the shapes turn down and face the interior, make a new layer, clipped along with the rest, and paint some loose scribbles on it to suggest this edge. The color we will use for the light has a Hue of 188, with Saturation and Value as bright as they can be. We are using HSV (Adobe calls it HSB) instead of Pantone colors is to get the greater saturation needed for luminosity. Change the Blend mode to Color Dodge and lower the Opacity. You can adjust this later depending on how it combines with the layers we have yet to make.

To get an intense specular highlight along these corners, we need to make a new Shape layer. Instead of using a circle as we did earlier on the three brackets, use the Polygon tool with Sides set to 20. Rotate it so that the straight sides line up with the rounded rectangles. Use our bright blue light color, set the Blend mode to Color Dodge, and lower the Fill to 50%. For a Layer Style, use the same Stroke as on the outer ring and the inner-facing portions of the three wide brackets. Use the bright blue with a Hue of 188 for the Inner Glow, and make an Outer Glow using the settings shown. Clip this layer along with the others to the rounded rectangle Shape layer and see how the the colors along this corner are starting to combine to increase specularity. If you do this successfully, the flat, two-dimensional squares will start to look like three-dimensional cubes that are turned slightly to show a hint of another side.

To increase the impression of luminosity toward the center, we should darken the far edges of these coils. Make a new vector circle on a Shape layer above the highlights, lower the Fill to 0%, and give it a dark Inner Glow in Multiply mode using the settings shown. Clip it down along with the other layers we have been working on. Adjust the Size to your liking.

As a final touch, add some blobs of solder on the wire-wrapped sections. These will be the connecting points for two thin wire circles joining them, so you may need to do this later in the process. to get everything to match up. But whenever you do it, paint them with a brush similar to what you used for the wires, but perhaps a bit larger. Use a golden brown color, PMS 464 or something similar. Use the Layer Style on the wires layer for this one. Adjust the Bevel and Emboss as needed; try the settings shown here. Notice how Color Dodge really makes them look like shiny metal. That's just about it. In the last step, we will add the glows that really make the reactor come to life (so to speak).

Building the inner brackets (2 of 4)

2011-01-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

If you hadn't guessed yet, we are apparently making Tony Stark's first arc reactor, built with scraps while he was imprisoned in the cave (in the movie version, anyway). I liked the rougher, handmade look of it and it makes for a more interesting image. It has a circular grate in the middle, one that might seem daunting to build at first, but with the trick we learned in the last tutorial, it should be easy.

Use the Ellipse tool to make a new Shape layer with PMS 432. Pantone greys are really helpful here, because you can get nice different colors to represent different kinds of metal. What we want here is a dark, bluish grey. Cut out the inner circle, either by duplicating the outer path, Transforming it down, then pressing the Subtract from shape area (-) button; or by holding down ALT/OPT when you make the second circle. When you have the ring made, hold down ALT/OPT and use the Rounded Rectangle tool to cut out a little vertical shape that is actually known as a lozenge. Use a high value for its Radius so that the ends are really round. Based on my reference material, I counted 30 of these little holes, which divides nicely into 360. Select the lozenge with the Path Selection tool, Copy and Paste, then Transform. Move its reference point to the center of your design (guides are essential here), and type 12 in the Set rotation field. Now, you've got your second hole. Copy/Paste it again, then choose Edit> Transform Path> Again, or the keyboard shortcut of CTRL(PC)/CMD(Mac)+SHIFT+T. This might seem like a lot of keys, but if you already know the shortcut for Transform, just add a SHIFT to it and you're there. Do this 28 more times and you have all the holes, perfectly placed. Not so hard, huh? The last step is to add a Layer Style. Use a Bevel and Emboss and Inner Glow as on the previous pieces, but you could also give it a bit of texture with Pattern Overlay. I found that Photoshop's own Molecular pattern actually worked okay, with the settings shown.

There are three wider brackets on top of this ring, radiating out from the center. Use PMS 432 and the Rectangle tool to make them. Do the vertical one first. It has three different rectangles, all on the same Shape layer. To turn the middle one into a trapezoid, select it, then Transform it a little with Perspective. When you have this one complete, select all three rectangles with the Path Selection tool, and use our Transform Again trick to make the other two. See how handy this is? I'll bet you find all sorts of uses for it. Give it the same Layer Style as the ring below, but I don't think it needs the texture.

These brackets have three grooves embossed into them. This is easily taken care of with thick lines or thin rectangles on a new Shape layer clipped to the brackets layer. After making the first three vertical ones, you'll use our good ol' Transform Again trick for the others. A bit of Outer Bevel should do the trick for the embossing. You can use the same colors and Blend modes from other layers, then adjust the Size and Style of the Bevel and Emboss as needed. Even though there is no light source yet, we need to keep it in mind as all these pieces are being built. The trapezoidal parts of the brackets are facing inward, toward the light source, so they need to reflect some light. Make a new vector circle and clip this Shape layer, along with the grooves layer, to the main brackets. Use 431 as the color and set the Blend mode to Screen. Lower the Fill and give it a Layer Style as shown. The Stroke is the same bright blue we used on the outer ring in the first tutorial. Give this layer a raster Layer Mask, make a selection with the Elliptical Marquee, and fill it with black so that the vector circle is only visible where it intersects the trapezoid shapes. Go to the Blending Options for this layer and choose Layer Mask Hides Effects under the Advanced Blending section. This is why we used a raster mask instead of cutting this hole out with another vector path.

There are bolts attaching these brackets to the grated ring. Make a circle with the Ellipse tool using 431 as the color. This layer should not use the brackets layer as a Clipping Mask. Add Layer Styles as shown. The real trick here is that we are going to fake the side of the bolt head with a Drop Shadow. With the Spread all the way up to 100%, you can use any Size and still get a crisp edge. With a little adjustment, it can make the circle look like a short cylinder. Add the usual other effects. The Inner Shadow will be a bright blue in Color Dodge to simulate the light hitting it from above.

At this point, you may be tempted to make the other bolt heads on the same layer with Transform Again, but that won't work. Because of the view, each bolt is at a different angle and the sides need to point toward the center. Duplicate each layer, move the bolts into position, then adjust the Drop Shadow's and Inner Glow's Angles. Each layer here will need a different angle. For the hex openings on the tops, use the Polygon tool, set the Sides to 6, and make a little hexagon on a new Shape layer. Use PMS 432, set the Blend mode to Multiply, and lower the Fill a bit so it's not too dark. Unlike the bolt heads, the three hexagons can all be on the same Shape layer. Add the usual Layer Style, but on this layer, give it a small, dark Inner Shadow on the top left to make the hexagons look like recessed holes.

The last step in this tutorial is to make the innermost ring. It should look like glossy chrome, so use the Ellipse tool to make a little ring, connecting the inner edges of the three brackets. Use 425 as the color. The glossy look is achieved simply by Bevel and Emboss settings. The key here is the Ring Contour. Choose light and dark greys from the same ramp as 425 for the Highlight and Shadow. Color Dodge for the Highlight is also important in getting a shiny, metallic look. That's it for now; the inner structures are complete.

Making the base rings (1 of 4)

2011-01-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

The smooth lines and structural design of the arc reactor suggest that the best way to start is with vector Shape layers. Most of the final image will rely on these combined Layer Styles, so the final artwork will basically be resolution-independent. That is always a plus. I decided to make mine 2" at 300 ppi, so all my effects sizes will be based on this. It can easily be sized up or down later.

Start with a black background larger than your final shapes. Pull down guides to create your center point and then measure out from there. This will become extremely important in getting accurate positions. Use the Ellipse tool to make a Shape layer with PMS 425. Position your cursor at the center of your design where the guides intersect. After you start making the circle (but not before), hold down ALT/OPT to build the shape out from the center and not the corner. Before you finish dragging, hold down SHIFT to constrain the ellipse into a circle. To create the inner circle, select the path with the Path Selection tool, Copy and Paste, then Transform this second path down proportionally to the width you want. Accept the transformation, make sure the inner path is selected, and then click the Subtract from shape area (-) button in the Options bar. Now you have a perfect ring. Add a Layer Effect. You should probably be able to guess by now which ones they should be: a dark Inner Glow in Multiply mode, a Bevel and Emboss with the Highlight in Color Dodge, and a Gradient Overlay. Use the settings shown. We'll be using Color Dodge a lot, because it creates intense, specular highlights indicative of shiny metal.

This outer ring represents the container for the reactor and it should like like brushed steel. On a new layer, make some thin, triangular selections with the Polygonal Lasso tool, emanating from the center point of the design. Fill them with 425 and clip this layer to the main ring Shape layer. Convert this new layer to a Smart Object. Double-click the layer thumbnail to edit the Smart Object, then make it a Smart Object again. Now we have two Smart Objects, one nested inside the other. Hopefully, you'll see why in a moment. Click on the layer of the first Smart Object and add a Radial Blur. Adjust the center and Amount as needed. Because we are doing this on a Smart Object inside of another Smart Object, the amount of blur can be adjusted if you don't like it at first. I had to keep reducing the Amount until it looked good. That's the beauty of Smart Filters. Save and close the Smart Object, then go back to the layer in the main PSD and change its Blend mode to Multiply. Lower the Opacity if you want.

Hold down ALT/OPT and click the Create a new layer button. With this modifier key, you get some nice layer options. Set the Blend mode to Overlay and check the Fill with Overlay-neutral color option. For this mode and all others in its section, this neutral color is 50% grey. That means that it's transparent on this layer. You should also select Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask. Convert the layer to a Smart Object and Add Noise... Use the settings shown. This noise will be the basis for the metal texture. Lots of textures start out this way. Then add a Radial Blur to blur the noise radially (obviously) around the ring. Because these are both Smart Filters, you can go back and make changes if they don't look right. Also, remember that the order of the filters is important to the final look. In this case, we want to add the noise, then blur it, not vice versa.

The view here is basically a 1-point perspective looking straight down the reactor, so we'll need to see a bit of the inside of the outer ring to help set up some depth. Make a new Shape layer with the Ellipse tool. Follow the previously mentioned steps to make it a circle, centered around the center point of the illustration. Use a dark grey. Clip this layer along with the others and change the Blend mode to Multiply. give it an Outer Glow of light grey in Color Dodge and a Stroke with the settings shown. This is to show a bit of highlight from the glowing elements that will be added in later.

For the inner rings, make a new Shape layer with the Ellipse tool. This layer should not be clipped along with the rest. These rings should look different, more like brass, so use PMS 450. Add a bit of Bevel and Emboss. They will need some glow on them eventually, so make a new vector circle on a new layer clipped to this one. Lower the Fill to 0% and give it an Outer Glow and a Drop Shadow as shown. The bright Drop Shadow is to counteract the Bevel and Emboss' Shadow.

There are three thin brackets underneath the inner rings. To make these, use the Line tool to make a dark grey Shape layer under the rings. Make a thick vertical line right down the middle guide. Since there are three, each one should be 120º apart. Select the line with the Path Selection tool, then Copy and Paste. Now Free Transform. The first thing to do is move the reference point to the center of your design instead of the center of the shape. With one this thin, it may be a bit difficult, so hold down ALT/OPT and it will be easier to move the reference point. Now, type 120 in the Set rotation field. accept the transformation. With this line still selected, Copy and Paste again, then choose Edit> Transform> Again. This new line has new been rotated another 120º, using the same reference point. This is a handy way to rotate, scale, or move shapes in specific increments. Illustrator has a simple key command to to this. In Photoshop, it takes a few more steps, but it's still pretty easy. A nice keyboard shortcut to Transform Again is CTRL(PC)/CMD(Mac) + SHIFT + T. Add a bit of Bevel and Emboss if you want and these little bits are done.

Tony Stark's arc reactor tutorial

2011-01-14T19:57:00.000-08:00

I watched Iron Man again recently and remembered what a fun movie it was. I had always thought that the soft glow of Tony Stark's arc reactor through his shirt was cool looking and would make a great t-shirt. Apparently, others had the same idea and after searching a bit on the web, I found some online stores selling the shirt I was looking for, even a design that glowed in the dark! It's a great idea, but I found the art a bit lacking and decided to make my own version of the Stark arc reactor. After scouring the web for source images, I opened up Photoshop and about four to five hours later, had my own arc reactor illustration. What do you think? For this month's tutorial, I'll show you how I did it.

Download a PDF of all my 2010 tutorials

2011-01-13T20:20:00.000-08:00

While working on my blog, I came across a link for Blog2print. The idea is that you can use it to print a booklet of your blog or even generate a PDF of it. It seemed like a good idea, so I used it to create a PDF of last year's tutorials. All other posts have been removed and the tutorials are presented in reverse chronological order (from start to finish), so you get a full dose of Photoshop goodness. The PDF came out looking pretty good, and since I don't have anything else to do with it, I'm making it available to any of my blog's visitors. You can download a screen-res version free by clicking here. I do have a high-res version and have considered getting it printed up and bound into an actual book, but that would involve some money, so if that interests you, let me know. But for now, the lower resolution version is free to anyone who would like it.

Download the free low-res PDF of the 2010 tutorials.

Adding foreground elements (7 of 7)

2010-12-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

At this point, the image could be considered done, but something in the foreground would tie the scene together and add some depth. A rustic fence would be a nice touch. For this, we need some long, thin vector rectangles. You could use the Rectangle tool, but the Line tool set to a very high Weight might be a better way to go. Make a new Shape layer using PMS 418. Use your perspective lines as guides so that the fence looks correct. To make the vertical posts look round, hold down SHIFT and put some ovals on top with the Ellipse tool. You may need to select them and rotate them slightly. Add Layer Styles similar to what you have been using. The Highlight of the Bevel and Emboss should be in Color Dodge Mode. The Gradient Overlay should be using Multiply and a blue from the background to add more shadow the the right edge. An Inner Shadow with the settings shown will show some rimlight on the right edge, reflected from the snow. Use this layer as a clipping mask for a new layer above it and paint in some details like the rough would grand and the edges of the boards. You can see how using vector shapes here is better than pixel-based shapes because the fence edges can extend past the canvas size. That way the Layer Styles won't stop at the edge of the image.

Make a cord wrapping around the fence using the same steps that you used for the light cords on the barn. Copy the Layer Style from the barn cords and paste it on this layer. That way you get the effects and the blend options. Load the fence shapes as a selection for the layer mask. Add new layers for snow and paint it on the top areas of the fence using the same colors and technique as on the barn's roof. For the Christmas lights wrapped around the fence, follow the same steps as on the barn's lights. For contrast, I decided to make this lights a different color. The settings are the same as on the other lights, but the color and Outer Glow were changed to a warm yellow. I used the Path Selection tool (the black arrow) to position each vector circle precisely on the cord. When these details are in place, your holiday illustration is complete. Now your next Christmas card is all done.

Putting on the Christmas lights (6 of 7)

2010-12-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

To really make the barn stand out and give it the right holiday look, it needs to have some Christmas lights. Shape layers will really help out here. Start by making the lights' cord with the Pen tool. Remember that Photoshop doesn't like open paths, so you will need to close your shape. Set the Fill to 0% and give the shape a small, black stroke with Layer Styles. You can also give it a little Bevel and Emboss, with the Style set to Stroke Emboss. Make a layer mask to mask out the cord as it cuts in front of the barn. The selected area shown is the masked area. Here's the important part: make sure you check Layer Mask Hides Effects so that the stroke disappears where you mask it off, instead of just updating to follow it. Now you have just a thin wire for the lights to hang on and you can change it if you want by simply editing the path with the Direct Selection tool. Make a new Shape layer with the Pen tool for the vertical cords at each corner.

For the light bulbs, use the Circle tool to make a new vector Shape layer. Hold down ALT(PC)/OPT(Mac) and use the Path Selection tool to drag a duplicate of the circle. Keep doing this until you have the number of lights you want. If you want different colored lights, you will need a different Shape layer for each color. The nice thing about doing this with vector shapes is that you can easily reposition them if needed. I started with blue lights. Use bright, fully saturated colors. For a luminous appearance, use an Outer Glow in Linear Dodge mode. give them an Inner Glow as shown. Set the Source to Center and make the color a bright yellow, almost white. This gives the actual bulbs a warm glow. Use the same Inner Glow settings for each color of light, but change the Outer Glow to a color that matches the light. You may also want to give the layer a drop shadow as shown to increase the glow's intensity. The combination of Linear Dodge over Color Dodge will really make them look like they are glowing.

This looks good, but the bulbs would probably be casting a bit of light and reflecting on the barn. This can also be accomplished with Layer Styles. Duplicate the light layers and move them to the right and down a bit. Lower the layers' Opacity to 70% and their Fill to 20%. Turn off all the Layer Styles except the Outer Glow. You will need to adjust the position of some of the glows so that they land in the right spot. Because they are still vector shapes, you can easily move them where you want with the Path Selection tool. You may also need to make a mask for this layer so that none of the reflections are floating out in the sky; that just wouldn't do. Load a selection from the barn's vector Shape layers. The barn is now decorated and ready for the holidays.

Making icicles (5 of 7)

2010-12-28T01:04:00.000-08:00

What the barn really needs now are some icicles hanging down from the edges of the roof. There is a great way to make them that uses some of the same steps I have used in previous tutorials for streaks. Refer back to them if you need a review. Start by making a new Alpha channel, make a tall selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool, and fill it with white. Run the Wind filter on it with the options shown. You will have to run it a few times to get long, thin streaks. Transform the channel and rotate it 90º counter-clockwise. Adjust the levels to get a very hard edge with just a bit of anti-aliasing. This is about the same way you would make architectural streaks, except we didn't blur them before the Levels. For icicles, we need longer and sharper shapes than we would need for most streaks and stains you would find on exterior surfaces.

Since icicles aren't perfectly smooth, we need to roughen them up a bit. There are several filters that could do the job: Sprayed Strokes, Spatter, Ocean Ripple, and perhaps others. I have chosen Sprayed Strokes with very low settings, as you see here. Do some experimenting to see which ones you like best. You may need to run another Levels adjustment on it when you are through, just to sharpen up the edges.

Load this channel as a selection, make a new layer under the rooftop snow layers, and fill it with a light color. Transform it to match the perspective of the scene. Set the layer's Fill to 5% and add some Layer Styles. The look we are trying to achieve here is translucent and very shiny ice. Give it a Bevel and Emboss as shown. To accentuate the edges, check the Contour option and choose the Ring - Double shape. To really punch up the highlight edges, add an Inner Shadow as you see here. The combination of Screen and Linear Dodge in the same place results in some really bright highlights. I wish I could say that I came up with this technique, but I found it by searching the Internet for Photoshop tutorials long ago. I have modified it a bit to suit my needs, but I don't think I could have figured it out all on my own. Whoever did that initially is a Photoshop genius.

A bit of Gradient Overlay in Linear Dodge will brighten up the icicles just a bit to suggest that they are catching more light the farther away they get from the solid, shadow-casting roof. They look pretty good and it's obvious that they are icicles. Of course, the other side of the barn needs them too, so follow the same steps to add them on a new layer underneath the barn front layers. Since the icicles on this side are not in shadow and more directly affected by the sun, increase the Opacity of the Inner Shadow to pump up the highlights on that side. Now that nature's winter decorations are complete, it's time to turn our attention to the artificial ones.

Completing the barn (4 of 7)

2010-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

To finish up the barn, let's start with eaves. Make a vector Shape layer with the Pen tool and use PMS 447. Give it a Color Overlay of 5404 in Multiply mode to put it in shadow and an Inner Shadow as shown to create a nice highlight edge. Make a new layer to paint some details on and clip it to the Shape layer.

Turn on the perspective lines as guides and use the Pen tool again to make the side of the barn. Use something like PMS 4695 and add the usual Layer Styles. Add an Inner Shadow as Shown to suggest the overhang of the roof. The same Color Overlay as on the eaves will put the whole side in shadow. Add a layer mask and paint out a bit of the bottom to show the snow around it. Just like on the front, put the same wood texture on a new layer, using the Shape layer as a clipping mask. Change its Blend mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 50%. Add another clipped layer and paint some rough stains and streaks on it to complete the look.

With your perspective lines as guides again, use the Pen tool to make a new vector Shape layer with 447 as the color. Copy the Inner Shadow from the far eaves layer to this one to give it the same edge highlight. Add a Bevel and Emboss and maybe a Gradient Overlay in Color mode with a blue from the ramp of PMS colors you are using for the snow to put a nice, snowy feel in there. For the roof texture, I must have been feeling a bit lazy, or perhaps it was because of a tight deadline, but I used a photo of old corrugated metal instead of painting it on. To make it look less like a photo, I used Color Dodge mode to bring out just the highlights and then lowered the Opacity. It ended up looking nice and frosty. Depending on the photo you have, you might need to try other Blend modes. I ended up using other photos of old wall textures in Multiply mode to create a look that was a composite image. This is a good way to go beyond just simple photos and create unique textures. Remember to Transform them into position so that they match the perspective of the scene. You may need to add a final layer of painted details to tie everything together. All of these layers should be clipped to the vector Shape layer of the roof.

What we really need now is some snow on the roof. Use a simple Brush to paint on a new layer with PMS 5415. To get the look of snow, add a large Bevel and Emboss as shown. Take the Opacity of the Shadow down to 0%, since we don't need it. To complete the look, a bit of Inner Shadow along the bottom in Screen mode will give a nice feel of reflected light. You may wonder why not just use the Shadow of the Bevel and change it to Screen, but we need a much smaller shape here, and the Bevel and Emboss' shadow would be just as large as the Highlight. Inner Shadow gives just the amount of control here that is needed. Use this layer as a clipping mask for some new layers where you paint on the light of the setting sun. Pick colors from the highlight areas of the snow on the ground. Load the snow layer and the roof layer as a selection and use that as a mask for a new layer on top of it all. Put a foreground-to-transparent gradient on it, using a blue from the shadow areas of the snow. Change its Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity as needed. This will make the far edge of the barn recede further into shadow. Don't forget to use the same steps to make some snow under the far eaves layer. Also, paint some black on a new layer behind the open hayloft door so that it looks really dark in there. Now the barn is finished and ready for decorations!

Starting the barn (3 of 7)

2010-12-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

Now, it's time to get started on the barn. Working with vector shapes is a good way to go. You could make this shape in Illustrator, but I like doing it all in Photoshop if possible. Start with the Rectangle tool set to the Shape layers option. Hold down Shift to make a second rectangle right above the first one. Select the top rectangle with the Path Selection tool (that's the black arrow) and then use the Pen tool to add an additional point in the middle of the top side. You will then need to click that new point with the Convert Point tool to turn it into a corner. You can then select it with the Direct Selection tool (that's the white arrow) to move it up. Use the same to select the top corner points and move them in to make the peaked roof shape. To make the doorway, just make a new rectangle on the same shape layer, but hold down ALT(PC)/OPT(Mac) to subtract from instead of add to the existing paths. Just so you know, if you were doing this in Illustrator, you would be doing just about the same thing.

If for some reason you are making this shape in Illustrator, Copy it, then Paste it into Photoshop as a Shape layer. To put it into perspective we'll use the Transform tool. But first, it's a good idea to set up your perspective with vanishing points. Use the Line tool to make a new Shape layer and add as many lines as you need. This is a two-point perspective image and the vanishing points should be outside of the image area. Transform and use Skew to match the barn shape to the right view, using your lines as guides. It's always best to build things flat-on first, getting all your dimensions right, then Transform them into place.

Use PMS 483 as the fill for this Shape layer. As usual, put some Layer Styles on this layer to liven it up. If you have been following along with previous tutorials, you know what to do. To save some time, I used a photo of old planks of wood as the barn texture. This layer was clipped to the Shape layer and set to Hard Light Blend mode at 70% Opacity. Transform it with Scale and Skew so that it matches the perspective of the vector shape. For a special trick on this one, I used an Inner Shadow of grey set to Saturation to make the wood look bleached and faded at the upper edges and sides of the barn front and beneath the door. Using photos and effects can save a lot of time over painting in all the details, but it can't do everything. I added a new layer to paint in what I couldn't achieve otherwise. You can also add layers for seams in the planks and a cast shadow for the roof overhang. These all work best in Multiply mode. Adjust their Opacity as needed and make sure all of these extra layers are using the barn Shape layer as a clipping mask.

Every barn needs doors, right? Make them with the Rectangle tool on a new Shape layer, but don't clip this one along with the other barn layers. Use the same color and Layer Styles as on the main barn layer, but the doors need a bit more. Add a dark Outer Glow in Multiply mode, a bit of Drop Shadow, and a Bevel and Emboss to show that it sticks out a bit. Copy the wood texture from the barn face and give it the same Blend mode and Opacity. Clip this layer to the doors Shape layer. To make the traditional crossed slats, use the Line tool with PMS 409 to make thick lines on a new Shape layer. Paste the Layer Styles from the barn layer to this layer. Scale these effects down a bit and turn off the Inner Shadow, since you don't need it here. Add a layer mask and paint with black along the bottom to make the slats look like they are behind the snow. Make a new layer to paint some details on and clip it to the main slats Shape layer. Use the same steps to build the small door up in the hayloft, but reverse the Gradient Overlay to brighten the right side of the door. This makes it look like it's sticking out from the building and catching more light.

As an added bonus, you can put some kind of messaging or image, painted onto the barn front. Since I initially did this as a corporate Christmas card, I used a company logo, but you could use whatever you want. Place the art or type the message and Transform it into position. At this point, we need it to look like it's painted onto old wood, so it should show gaps and bare areas where the paint has peeled away. An easy way to do this is to use the Blend feature. This extremely powerful but perhaps little used feature of Photoshop is the perfect choice here. Double-click the layer to bring up the Blending Options. In addition to the usual Blend mode, Opacity, and so one, there is a section at the bottom labeled Blend If. This is Photoshopspeak and it really means "make transparent if." Instead of using channels to make a static layer mask, you can do basically the same thing by adjusting these sliders. You can make parts of a layer transparent based on either the pixels on its layer or the pixels on layers underneath. In this case, we want to fade away parts of this layer that are over the darkest parts of the underlying layers to suggest shadows and gaps in the wood. To do this, move the Underlying Layer's black slider to the right and you will see parts of this layer drop away. Pretty cool, huh? The only problem is that the transparency is quite harsh; it's either 0% or 100% and looks extremely jaggy. The solution is to use what has to be one of the least document Photoshop features. Hold down ALT(PC)/OPT(Mac) and move the black slider again. You are now splitting the triangle and anti-aliasing the transition from transparent to opaque. The farther apart you slide the two halves, the softer the transition becomes. This is a great way to make painted signs on old wood, stone, brick, or anything with enough contrast. The best part is that you can move the signage around and the transparency updates.

Painting the ground (2 of 7)

2010-12-19T21:21:00.000-08:00

If you know where the horizon is, it's easy to paint in background elements like forests or mountains, because they should pretty much just sit right on it. For the tree-covered hills, start with PMS 5477 as a base. You can choose the lighter and darker swatches in this same strip as needed. Notice how the painting is loose and not very detailed. These colors are way too dark and saturated, but they are good evergreen tree colors. We can take care of this with layer styles. Effects like Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay, and Bevel and Emboss will give the look we need. The idea is to push it back with atmospheric perspective. Photoshop's effects can really help with this. You can also add additional layers in Color mode, clipped to the base layer, to tint it further.

The little village is painted with very simple shapes. Remember that the rooftops should be covered with snow. The Bevel and Emboss' highlight in Linear Dodge adds a nice highlight along the edges to suggest the setting sun. The shadow's Opacity is set to 0% because we don't need it here. Clip this layer along with the others to the tree/hill layer. Paint the windows on a separate layer so you can give them a bit of Outer Glow. Don't include them with the clipping mask layers because we don't want them to be affected by the atmospheric perspective as much as the other layers. The windows' luminosity will cut through the haze more than the buildings or trees. Paint a large field of PMS 5415 on a new layer for the snow. This range of greyish-blue is great to use for snow, especially in shadow. The key here is to remember that snow isn't white. A bit of light blue Outer Glow completes the look of the frosty haze.

Use the snow layer as a clipping mask for the details painted on other layers. A 535-to-transparent Linear gradient on a new layer will lighten the background. Keep the greatest contrast of dark to light in the foreground area. The highlights from the setting sun are painted on yet another layer, also clipped to the 5415 snow layer. The colors used here are quite pink, but that's okay. Strong colors can work in situations like this. I mostly used my favorite basic brushes here, but some scatter brushes were also used, as you can see.

Use PMS 5405 or 5395 to paint the shadow layers. Don't forget to set the layers' Blend mode to Multiply. For the sled tracks, I ended up using Overlay for the main portion, then Multiply for the shadow areas. The highlights are painted on a layer in Normal mode to make them look more dense and substantial. Just pick colors from the highlight areas you have already painted. Now zoom out and see how it all looks. We are trying to get a luminous feel on the left side of the image. Darkening the right side may help to achieve this. If necessary, add a gradient on another layer in Multiply mode and play around with the Opacity until you like it. Something like this should work.

Painting the sky (1 of 7)

2010-12-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

Since this was to be used as a Christmas card, I created the image at 8.25"x5.5" at 300 ppi. Of course, you can use whatever size and resolution you want. The place to start is the sky. If you have been following along with previous tutorials of mine, you know that I create skies with separate gradients. Each one is a foreground-to-transparent Linear gradient on its own layer. The benefit to this is that you can easily change each color, or its Opacity and Blend mode. The PMS color I used is on each layer's label. For the final Radial gradient, use Color Dodge to increase the feeling of luminosity. This is to suggest the sun, which has just set in this region of the sky.

Paint the clouds on a separate layer using a simple brush and PMS 437. Add a black Linear gradient on a layer mask to fade away the bottom of the clouds as they approach the horizon. When I originally created this image, I had to use Fade to lighten the gradient, but now you can use the Masks panel to lower the mask's Density for the same effect. For the cloud details and highlights, paint on new layers that use the main clouds layer as a Clipping Mask. The painting should be a bit loose and free; you just need to suggest these other colors.

This is supposed to be a night scene, so we need some dark areas. On new layers in Multiply mode, add some gradients using 539 to transparent. Adjust the Opacity as needed. This is a great way to get in all the subtle gradients of the sky at dusk that you just can't get by making a custom gradient with many colors. For the star, use the Line tool to make two intersecting lines on a vector Shape layer. Add a layer mask and use a white-to-black Radial gradient on the mask to fade away the star's edges. Add Inner and Outer glows to complete the effect. The Inner Glow should be set to Center so that the center of the star is the brightest. Make sure Layer Mask Hides Effect is checked. For convenience sake, you can group all these layers into one folder to keep your file organized. In the next tutorial, we will start on painting the ground.

Holiday illustration tutorial for December

2010-12-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

I've been really busy with crazy client deadlines and getting ready to grade class finals, but I figured I should get this month's tutorial going. Since it's December, I thought about using one of my corporate holiday (I can't really say Christmas, can I?) cards.

I have a few from which to choose and I just finished another one a couple of days ago, but I do like this one. It turned out nice and is a good example of a holiday painting and has some very useful techniques. Originally, I created it in 2007 for a large construction and infrastructure company. The subject matter was picked for me, but I was able to put a lot of my own creativity into it. In the next post, we'll start breaking it down and see what I did.

Painting the windows (4 of 4)

2010-11-28T23:58:00.000-08:00

The last step is to paint in the reflections on the windows. This will probably need to be done with a stylus and tablet. The thing to remember is that you don't need to do much; simply suggesting shapes and colors in an abstract way can get across the idea of reflected sky, buildings, and so on. As you can see, what I have actually painted is very loose and light on details. Even though not much is really there, it works because this layer also uses the windows Shape layer as a clipping mask and 'inherits' its effects.

For the ground level displays, make a new Shape layer with the Rectangle tool and PMS 410. Give this layer a little Bevel and Emboss and an Inner Glow in Color Dodge. Paint the window displays on a separate layer that is clipped to the Shape layer. Do this in a loose and free style like the window reflections. Using warm colors will help to differentiate the interior scenes from the exterior windows. That should do it. These last freehand painted details contrast nicely with the hard, angular details created by Pattern Overlays and vector shapes and give a sense of realism and randomness that the textures require. They also provide a much-needed splash of color that makes the building much more interesting to look at. If at this point you needed bump, reflection, luminosity, or other maps for texturing in a 3D program, these would be easy to make from your layers.

Creating filtered streaks (3 of 4)

2010-11-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

Now it's time for one of my favorite effects. I showed this technique back in the very first tutorial on this blog, but I like it so much, I'll share it again. Even if they are not visible in the photo, most structures that are out in the elements will have some weathering. This is often cause by dirt or rust that collects in recessed areas, combined with rainwater dripping down from those areas. The result is streaks from windowsills, cornices, and other architectural features.

You could paint these in by hand, but there is an effective way to do this with a filter. The first thing we need to do is make selections of all the elements we want to use as sources for the streaks. In this case, it's the windows and the signs that are mounted to the buildings wall, as well as the top edge of the building. Hold down CTRL (PC) or CMD (Mac) and click on the main building layer's thumbnail image. Make sure the holes at the top get included. Next, we need to subtract from this selection. To do this, keep holding down CTRL or CMD, press ALT/OPT as well, and click the other layers' thumbnails. Go to the Channels panel and make a new alpha channel. Invert the selection and fill with white. We are working with the channels because we need to end up with a selection. The white areas will create our selections when we are done. Also, the filter we have to use will only work on existing pixels, not on empty ones.

You may want to duplicate this channel just to be safe. With your alpha channel ready, it's filtering time. This effect requires the Wind filter, but in Adobeland, wind apparently only blows horizontally and we need vertical streaks, so we need to rotate the image 90º clockwise. Now you can go to Filter> Stylize> Wind... For Method, choose Wind and for Direction, choose From the Right. Click OK, but you're not done yet. We have the beginning of streaks, but they need a bit more, so apply the filter again. You can use this handy shortcut: CTRL (PC)/CMD (Mac)+F. Keep doing this until you get the amount you want. When you are done, rotate the image 90º counterclockwise.

These are streaks, but they are rather thin and harsh. If that's what you want, I won't judge, but you can adjust them further. Load a selection from your original, unWinded(?) channel and invert the selection. This is so that we affect just the streak areas. Add a Gaussian Blur; this needs just a small amount. Now you have smoother, softer streaks. If you need to make them more substantial, do a Levels adjustment. As you bring the white and black sliders in, the edges sharpen up and the streaks get denser. Adjust the midtone slider to to give more or less streaks as you need. As you can see, by adjusting the amount of blur and Levels adjustment, you can create all different sorts of streaks. When you like them, load a selection from this channel.

Go back to the layers and make a new layer above the building texture. It will be clipped to the main building Shape layer. Fill the selection with a warm grey. Change the layer's Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity until you like the look. That's it! This is a great way to add a bit of realism to architectural structures. In the next tutorial, we will finish off the windows with some painting.

Adding building details and signage (2 of 4)

2010-11-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

Upon closer inspection of the photo, some lines or seams become visible. To make these, use the Line tool to make a new vector Shape layer. Set the Weight to 1 pixel and use Warm Grey 11. Hold down Shift to add additional lines to the same layer and constrain them vertically or horizontally. For their effects, you can copy them from the windows layer. Right+click on that layer and choose Copy Layer Style, then right+click on this lines layer and choose Paste Layer Style. All we need here are the Outer Glow and Bevel and Emboss, so turn off the other styles. Lower the layer's Fill to 40%, make sure the lines layer is using the main building layer as a clipping mask, and they're done.

For the doors and display windows, use the Rectangle tool to make a new Shape layer. Use PMS 419. Since there are only two sizes of rectangles, make one of each, select them with the Path Selection tool, then duplicate them and slide them over. Line them up with your guides or select them all and click the Distribute horizontal centers button to space them out evenly. Copy, then Paste the Layer Style from the lines to this layer.

To make the signs attached to the building, use the Type tool. I don't know for sure the typeface that Louis Vuitton uses for their logo, but Century Gothic regular looked like a close match. It needs a dark Outer Glow, similar to what is on the lines and windows. It also needs a bit of Drop Shadow. Set the Size to 0 so that it is nice and sharp. A hint of Bevel and Emboss will help out as well, but it needs to be very small. As you can see, you can set the Size to 0 and there is still a bit there. For the illuminated signs, use the same typeface, but this time in bold. Give them a bit of Outer Glow, this time in the default Screen mode. A little Inner Shadow gives them a look that matches the photo.

Century Gothic also seemed to match the Macy's logo. Use PMS 4515. We need to make this sign look like it's metallic, shiny, and standing out from the building wall a bit. Layer Styles should do that for us. Use the Drop Shadow settings as shown. Taking the Spread up to 100% will keep the edge sharp, so if you take the Size up a bit, the shadow widens out and attaches better to the shape. Just like the other elements, this sign needs a dark Outer Glow and a little bit of Bevel and Emboss. For the shiny, metallic look, use a Gradient Overlay. Try a light Cool Grey in Color Dodge as shown. It looks pretty good, so I'd say this part is done. What's really cool about what we have done so far is that since it's all done with vector shapes and Layer Styles, this image is pretty much resolution independent. If you use Image Size to scale the image up and make sure the Scale Styles option is checked, everything should be fine.

Building with shapes (1 of 4)

2010-11-10T01:25:00.000-08:00

To start out, we'll need a photo of the building; this isn't the kind of stuff you can just make up. For this project, we'll use the corner Macy's building. The photo isn't great quality, but it will do. The first thing to do is to Transform the photo so that all the lines are horizontal and vertical, at least as much as is possible. Guides will really help out with this task. In fact, you will probably need lots of them before this image is done. I have been ridiculed by co-workers for the amount of guides I use, but in cases like this, they are really important.

Start by using the Rectangle tool to make a vector Shape layer with Warm Grey 3. You can build it right on top of the photo. Try to work in increments of 10, 20, 50, 100, and so on. It will make things easier later on. Much of the work here is going to be done with Layer Styles. As you can see, I am using a lot here, much like I have done on earlier projects. There is a grey Inner Glow in Multiply mode, a subtle Gradient Overlay in Multiply mode to darken the bottom half of the building, a small Bevel and Emboss, a Pattern Overlay of just thin lines that make a grid, but the surprise here is the Drop Shadow. It's being used to create a bit of the side of the building. If the Size is set to 0, the Blend mode to Normal, and the Opacity to 100%, you get a nice hard edge. Since this view will be from the bottom and the right, adjust the Angle so you can see the bottom and right edges.

If you are wondering how to make the holes at the top, use the Rectangle tool again, make sure the Shape layer is selected and the path visible, then hold down ALT/OPT. You should see a little minus sign (-) next to your cursor. Make a small rectangle and presto! You have cut a hole out of the building. Use the Path Selection tool (that's the black arrow) to select the rectangle. You can either Copy and Paste it, or you can ALT/OPT + drag it to make a copy. When you have all the holes you need, select them all with the Path Selection tool, then use Photoshop's Align and Distribute buttons to align all these small rectangles to the same baseline and distribute their horizontal centers. What could be easier?

To add a bit more texture to the wall's surface, make a new layer and clip it to the vector Shape layer. Fill it with a color; any color will do. Take the Fill down to 0%, then add some kind of brick Pattern Overlay. I chose one that has randomly-sized bricks. Experiment with Opacity and Blend mode until it looks good. The idea here is just to add a subtle hint of texture.

For the windows, use the Rectangle again with PMS Black 4. Hold down Shift to make a square. Make the duplicates and align them in the same way you did the holes at the top. Once you have the top row in, click the Combine button to make them a compound path. Now you can easily select the row of windows as one element. Make the duplicate rows. For architectural images, it's crucial to keep things perfectly centered and aligned. Make sure the margin to the left and right edges of the buildings is the same. Using the guides becomes almost necessary at this point. For the taller windows at the bottom, you can Scale them vertically. Now, it's time for the effects. That will really pull things together. Dark Inner and Outer Glows in Multiply mode should be standard. A small outer Bevel and Emboss helps to inset the windows a bit, but the real surprise is a 2-pixel inner Stroke in Black 4 to suggest a bit of the frame. To top it off, add a cool grey foreground-to-transparent Gradient Overlay from the upper left in Screen mode to show a bit of sky reflection. Make sure this window layer is not clipped to the main building shape layer; it will need to act as a clipping mask for other layers later on.

This is a good start, but now we need to work on the details. Tune in next time for that.

My student work

2010-11-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

Last month I visited my alma mater, BYU, to speak to the illustration students. I talked about my time there, then shared my student work with them. It's interesting to see how different my work was then, compared to work as a professional. What I liked doing then and what I thought I would do after school are nothing like what I ended up doing. I think that's probably not that unusual.

If you are curious about what I was doing as an illustration student, you can download a screen-res PDF that I showed to the BYU students. It has some of my best or most interesting student work, along with my musings about working on the pieces.

Click here to download the PDF.

Texture-mapping the 3D model (3 of 3)

2010-10-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

If you want, you can make a specular map as well. Just like the bump map, this is a greyscale image, but this time it controls shininess. The lighter parts will be shiny and the darker areas less so. Start with the color image and add Adjustment layers to remove the color and increase the contrast. Save it as a separate file.

Now it's time to go into a 3D program. I am using Cinema 4D, but you can use Maya, 3D Studio, or just about any other. Make a cube primitive. Since the images are 200x1000 pixels, it will work best to make the X and Z dimensions of the cube that same ratio. Lower the Y value or height so that the shape is a thin slab. It's also a good idea to add just a bit of a fillet to the edges. Nothing in real life has the perfectly sharp corners of a default 3D primitive; there is always some bevel or rounding. Create a new material and load the color, bump, and specular maps into the appropriate channels. For this model, a cubic projection is the best way to apply the texture. I won't go into detail here because each program is different.

Your main decision here will be to adjust the amount on the bump map. You may need to do some test renders until you get the right look. Add some lights and any other effects you want, like Global Illumination or Ambient Occlusion. I used AO here. For a long strip, scale the cube along the Z axis and make sure the texture is set to tile. Render out your scene and there you have it: a nicely textured 3D model. You see, 3D isn't so hard after all.

Making the bump map (2 of 3)

2010-10-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

Next, we need to make the bump map. This is a greyscale image that gives the 3D program information about the relief or depth of the image surface. Our color texture looks good, but if it were applied to a 3D model, the result would be rather unrealistic. On the real item, the non-skid pattern sticks up from the rest of the yellow panel, the metal strips are a bit lower, and the seams or gaps would be even lower recesses. All of this detail could be built into the geometry of the model, but that would be time-consuming and the result would be a much more complex model.

This detail can be simulated with a bump map. The grey values will give the 3D renderer this information; light values will be high and dark values will be low. So what we need is basically a greyscale version of our texture that is exactly the same size as the color version. But we also need to remove any unnecessary parts like the dirt or splotches. Turn off the Clouds layer. Disable the Pattern Overlay on the grey strips layer and the Gradient Overlay on the yellow layer. These details make the texture look better, but they are not part of its depth. Now, add an Adjustment layer to remove the color. You could use Black & White or Hue/Saturation and take the Saturation down to 0. This looks pretty good, but the non-skid texture is lacking in contrast. As it is now, these little bumps won’t stick up very far. With this pattern, changing its Blend mode to Hard Light, then lowering the Opacity to 40%, it looks about right. If necessary, you could use a Levels or Curves Adjustment layer to push the contrast a bit more, but this will work.

Save this file as a new image and that’s it; your bump map is done. But before going to the time and trouble to do a full render from your 3D scene, you can use Photoshop to test it out. To do this, open up your original texture, Select All, Copy Merged, then Paste on a new layer. We need a flattened version of the texture for this technique. Now do the same thing to your bump map image. Go to the channels of your color map image, make a new Alpha channel, and Paste in the merged copy of your bump image.

Go back to the layers and click on the merged copy layer of the color texture. We’ll try a nifty trick with Photoshop’s lighting effects. Go to Filter >Render >Lighting Effects… Grab the light source and move it up and away from the image to get some more even lighting. Now for the important part: for Texture Channel, choose the new Alpha channel you just made. Make sure that White is high is checked. You may also want to move the Height value down somewhat from its default setting of 50.

Click OK and you see your texture lit with the Alpha channel acting as a bump map. The higher areas are catching more highlights and casting shadows on the lower areas. Your texture is no longer flat; it has some depth. It is becoming three-dimensional. This is similar to what your 3D program will be doing, but you can get a nice preview here in Photoshop to see if there are any problems. Check in next time as we start working with 3D geometry.

Making the color map (1 of 3)

2010-10-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

The first part we will work on is the color map. This image will provide the overall color of the 3D object. Texture maps have many different properties in the 3D program; this one will be called color or maybe diffuse, depending on the program you use.

When creating the image in Photoshop, work in pixels, not inches. And don't worry about resolution; all the 3D program will see is pixels. Resolution only matters when you are going to print your image. Another thing to be sure of is that you are working in the sRGB color space, as opposed to Adobe RBG (1998), which is designed more for print. How large should you make your image? That all depends on what size it will be in your final rendered scene or animation. A good rule of thumb is to estimate the final size in pixels, then work at 150% or 200% of that size in Photoshop.

This image is at 200x1000 pixels. That's probably much larger than is necessary, but there is no problem working big and it will make our job in Photoshop easier than if it were a tiny image. To start out, use the Rectangle tool and make a vector Shape layer using PMS 416. Even though the final will get rasterized on the 3D geometry, working with vectors is a great way to work in Photoshop because they are so flexible and editable. You can also easily extend them beyond the canvas so that layer effects don't stop at the edge of the image. This shape will be the dull metal strips on the sides. To make things look used and grimy, add some effects like a dark Inner Glow in Multiply mode and maybe Bevel and Emboss. A Pattern Overlay will work here as well, in this case, Photoshop's default Clouds pattern is useful. Take the Scale up and set its Blend mode to Multiply, so we get a nice, dark, splotchy texture.

Next, we will create the channel in the middle that the non-skid strip will fit into. Make another vector rectangle on a new Shape layer, this time with PMS 419. As before, extend the top and bottom past the canvas size of the image. This is because this texture needs to tile vertically. Add some dark Outer Glow and a Bevel and Emboss. Give it a Gradient Overlay with the settings shown here. The idea is to darken the edges a bit.

For the yellow part, make a new vector rectangle using PMS 108. Extend it past the canvas on the top, but not the bottom. Select it with the Path Selection tool, then Copy and Paste. Move your second rectangle down so that there is a little gap between the two. Now you have two non-skid panels. They will need the same Outer Glow, Gradient Overlay, and Bevel and Emboss as the other layers. In fact, you could just Copy and Paste the Layer Styles to save time. But this one needs a stamped metal texture or something similar like this. If you don't have a pattern like this, it should be easy enough to find on the web. Scale it down to the right size and set the Blend mode to Overlay. That way, you get the lights and darks of the texture, but the midtone values drop away. Now we are starting to get somewhere.

It looks good, but the problem is that it's a bit too clean. The trick with computer graphics is to make things look scuffed, used, and dirty. To get the look of dirt stuck in the recessed areas, make a new layer, set your foreground/background colors to the default black and white, then apply the Clouds filter. Change the Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity if needed. Then, clip it to the non-skid panel's layer so that the vector rectangle becomes its Clipping Mask. Now the non-skid texture appears on top of the Clouds texture and it looks like there is dirt in the crevasses. It's done! Next time, we will make the bump map.

This month's tutorial - texture maps

2010-10-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

For this month, we are going in a bit of a different direction. It's not quite illustration, but making texture maps for 3D models is a very important use of Photoshop. Much of the final process happens in the 3D program, of course, so we will concentrate on what you need to do in order to create good images.

I have a new 3D animation up on my site. You can view it here. There's a lot going on here and many of the textures are procedural, or created right in the program itself. But I did need to make some specific maps for signs, machinery, control boxes, and the floor. In the next tutorial, we will see how to make texture maps for the yellow non-skid strip that goes along the floor.

Digital illustration classes

2010-10-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

One of the places where I teach is the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) in San Francisco. When we can get enough people, I do a 2-day digital illustration course that I have put together. It covers many of the techniques that I share here in my blog. Click here to read a bit about me and my work as they try to drum up some interest to hold another class this year.

And I think I have figured out what this month's tutorial should be. It's been a busy month as I am getting ready to go back to my alma mater BYU and speak to the art department about my career since I graduated. That should be fun.

Finishing the illustration (5 of 5)

2010-09-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

Our last step is to finish up the fence and gate by painting them to match the rest of the image. It shouldn't take long, so let's get to it. Paint on a new layer clipped to the base vector Shape layer. Use darker cool greys. Paint PMS 126 on the top layer in Multiply mode to blend the bottom edge into the background color a bit. All the fence posts will be painted in this way. Very loose, simple strokes will hint at the wood texture and weathering from the elements. The Gradient Overlay is 123 to transparent in Screen mode. This lightens the top of the fence and brings in a bit of the background color. Tying all the elements together is important in order to have an image that works as a coherent whole.

Some cast shadows will attach the main post and the feet to the ground plane. Fore the fence shadows, you can use a different vanishing point than the one you used for the sides of the slats. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to make the selections and fill them with 418. Use the Elliptical Marquee to make some ovals under the feet. Right+click on the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. Change the layer's Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity to 40%. Add a layer mask and put a black-to-transparent linear gradient to fade away the edges. Then put a 10-pixel Gaussian Blur on the layer. Since it's a Smart Object, you can add a mask to the filter. Put a gradient on this mask to fade away the effects of the blur at the shadow's origin: the gate. Shadows will get softer, blurrier, and less dense the farther away from the source they get. You can accomplish this with the mask on the layer and the mask on the Smart Filter. Use the Masks panel to lower its Density to 50%. Now the origin of the shadow has a bit of blur. This great feature was introduced in CS4. There is slightly more accurate way to do this, but it takes a lot of steps. Maybe we'll cover it some other time.

To really connect the shoes to the ground, make a new layer and use the Polygonal Lasso tool to create selections for where the bottoms of the shoes contact the ground. Fill it with a color and use Layer Styles to give it a hint of drop shadow and an Outer glow in Multiply mode. Use 433, the same base color as the shoes to add some scatter shadow. These effects will really help the shoes look like they are making contact with the ground and not just floating in the air. You can also put a hint of soft shadow under the fence slats, but since they are farther away from the ground, it's not that necessary. The illustration is now complete.

Painting the clothing (4 of 5)

2010-09-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

Now it's time to move on to finishing the clothes. There is a bit of a challenge here because she is wearing black and white, but this can be overcome if you remember this simple axiom: Black isn't really black and white isn't really white. These are the absolute extremes in value and you should stay away from them in most circumstances. White usually represents the brightest level of illumination and black is the darkest possible shadow, neither of which is really the general value of clothing (or anything else, for that matter).

To show you how this works, paint the flat overall jacket shape with PMS 433. Using Pantone grey colors is really helpful because there are a wide variety of greys from which to choose. In real life, there is rarely anything that is completely greyscale; most greys have some color in them. 433 is the darkest value in its color ramp, but it's not quite black. That's what we are looking for here. Pick colors that are a step or two lighter from this same ramp and paint in the highlights on a separate layer clipped to the 433 layer. Use a light touch and don't paint anything too bright. This is black, after all.

To finish it off, make a new layer for shadows and change its Blend mode to Multiply. Use 433 to paint the shadow areas on this layer. You might be surprised, but it is darker than the 433 on the underlying layer. That's because any color multiplied against itself will get darker (except for white, which can't be multiplied). Some parts on this layer may end up being close to pure black. If the jacket needs a little something more, make a new layer in Screen mode and paint in a few highlights with 123. Just like before, we are bringing in some background color to tie things together. That should do it; because the jacket is so dark, it doesn't need much in the way of painted detail.

Let's not forget the buttons. They are a nice little detail and should be fun to paint. Paint them with 432, one step lighter than the base jacket color. You could use the Ellipse tool to build vector shapes for them, but painting them would be quicker and we are going for a loose, painted look here, not crisp perfection. Paint the details on a new layer, using the bottom one as a clipping mask. All you need to do is just suggest some shapes. You can pick colors directly from the image. Make sure to put in a few points of specular highlights to show the shininess of the buttons, just not too bright.

Finding the base color for the white skirt was trickier because it needed to be a very light cool grey with a hint of blue. I eventually settled on 7541. The shadows where painted on a separate layer with 441, but since it needs even lighter greys than that, you will need to paint very lightly and then start picking colors directly from your image. Notice how the bottom strip was left unpainted to suggest the hem of the skirt. The highlights were painted on a new layer in (you guessed it) Screen mode. Use Cool Grey 3 or 4, painting very lightly. Painting highlights with just a bit of color yields much better results than just using white. Keep the details loose and just try to hint at the pleats and seams. It doesn't need much more.

The shoes need to look smooth, dark, and shiny. Paint the base layer with 412. Even though they are black, their color and texture need to look sufficiently different from those of the jacket. As always, paint the detail on a new layer. Shiny shoes will mainly just need some intense highlights. Because the ground plane is yellow, pick some colors from it and lightly paint into the bottoms to show that they are reflective. The top highlights should be painted with a light cool grey. On a new layer in Screen mode, paint over the highlights with 123 to put some yellow back in. Color Dodge might seem like a good idea here, but that Blend mode won't be visible over black or very dark colors. Finally, paint some shadows on a new layer in Multiply mode. You can use 412 or some other dark color; it will probably end up being black anyway. Now we are done painting the black jacket and the white skirt, but there is probably very little pure black or white in the image, aside from the background. That's the way it should be; reserve those extreme values for the few places that really need it.

Painting the hair (3 of 5)

2010-09-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

This lady obviously spent a good deal of time (or money) getting her hair done for this shot, so we need to make it look nice. It's red hair, so the color can be a bit tricky, but we can make it work. The best way is to start with a medium value and then paint darks and lights on top of it. This is a good technique for painting in general. In this instance, PMS 730 was a good choice. To add a bit of red, use a range from 4695 to 4755 to paint in the light and dark values. You can use the same brush for all of this, but some areas on the hair might need a bit of a softer edge. Photoshop has a great selection of chalk and pencil brush shapes that should work. The key here is to paint with very light pressure, gradually building up the color. After a bit of painting, you can pick colors right from the image (hold down ALT/OPT to temporarily get the Eye Dropper) instead of going back to the PMS library. For the highlights, use 123 as before and change that layer's Blend mode to Screen.

It's looking good, but something is still missing. In the photo, there are some really intense highlights on the top of her hair that really give it a golden sheen. We need to try and replicate that. Use PMS 471 for some intense, reddish-orange color. Blend modes can help give the look we need, but Screen just doesn't quite cut it here. If you really want some intense highlights or luminosity, a good mode to try is Color Dodge; it's like Screen on steroids. That's a bit better, but too intense. Try lowering the Opacity and Fill to tone it down. For some reason, Fill works a bit differently from Opacity here. It tends to give some saturated color as it gets more transparent. I ended up with an Opacity of 80% and a Fill of 70%. As a final step, one which I almost forgot as I was working on this illustration, she needs a suggestion of ears and hair right next to the face. Work on a layer behind the skin and paint a hint of an earlobe on the left (her right) side of the face and some darker shadows.

You may have noticed that I didn't quite finish the neck area, but there is a necklace that needs to be painted in. Make a new layer above the skin layers and paint the overall shape in PMS 428. Add some Inner and Outer Glows and a Drop Shadow to make it stand out. They should all be using Multiply mode and the Outer Glow should be quite subtle. Paint the details on a new layer clipped to this base layer. For the little specular highlights, work on a new layer in Color Dodge mode. Paint with a light cool grey to add that little sparkle of light. These are the fun things to paint; we artists love stuff like this. Tune in next time when we turn our attention to the clothes.

Painting the skin (2 of 5)

2010-09-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

With the basic shapes laid in, it's time to start painting. This woman has red hair and a light, yet ruddy, complexion, so the coloration is a bit tricky. A good choice for the base skin tone is PMS 475. Start painting the details on a new layer that is clipped to the main skin layer. Use the same brush and settings as you used on the flat basic shapes. For the facial features, pick colors from the 475-469 ramp. For some variation, you can try some other browns as well. The 483-489 ramp has some nice warm reds that work well for lips and cheeks. Notice how I am following along with my source photo, but I decided to minimize her double chin. I doubt she really wants to see it and I suspect that it's more a product of how she is smiling than anything else. The darker colors are painted on a separate layer and the eyes and mouth are painted on a layer above that. So far, everything has been done in Normal mode with a light touch on the stylus to get lots of transparency to the painting when needed.

To finish things off, let's add some highlights. Since the background is yellow, pick a light value from the same PMS ramp. In this case, it's 123. That may seem a bit strange, but change this layer's Blend mode to Screen and you'll see how light the color gets. It works nicely as a highlight and it brings a subtle hint of the background color into the figure. That will help to tie everything together. This is an area where you can have some fun and punch up the highlights even more than what is in the photo.

One more thing: our subject has freckles. You can choose to include something like this or not, but since I was going for personality and a good likeness, I decided to keep them. We don't want to have to hand-paint every one, but Photoshop's brushes should provide a good shortcut. I used my favorite Pencil - Thin brush, but I made a duplicate of it with a lot of jitter in the Shape Dynamics categories, but the most important here is Scatter. Make the brush size quite small and paint lightly on a new layer with PMS 484. Change the layer's Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity to 40%. You can also add a layer mask and put some black radial gradients on it to fade them out around the center of the face. Now they are concentrated on the edges and the neck. I think it's a nice look, and hey, I like freckles.

In case you're wondering if I had forgotten about the legs, well I haven't. The face and legs use the main base 475 layer, so all the leg details are painted on the same layers (except for the eyes and teeth layer, of course). Here is what the painting progress on the legs looks like. As I was working on them, I was a bit worried, but for some reason, the freckles layer seemed to make them look finished.

Last but not least, the hands: one of the trickier parts of human anatomy to draw. The other skin layers are underneath the clothes layers, but the hands' base is painted on a new layer above the jacket. Other than that, they are done in the same way as the rest of the skin, with detail, highlight, and freckles layers clipped to the main 475 base layer. The selection shows how I masked out where the hand are covered up by the jacket. Now that the skin is done, in the next tutorial, we will work on the hair.

Creating the background (1 of 5)

2010-09-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

This illustration is one of a series I am currently working on. The people and props will change, but the background will remain constant. It needs a ground plane receding into the distance, so you obviously know that you will start with a straight-on image with right-angle corners. You will use your own, but here is mine. Now for the important step: Once the image is created with all its layers, convert it to a Smart Object. This is so that any transformations or filters you apply will be non-destructive.

Transform the layer with Scale and Perspective. You can see that for this view, the object you need to transform must be much, much wider. Also, remember to Scale it down a bit vertically. Most people forget, but when things turn away so that their parallel lines converge, they are also getting foreshortened and need to be shorter. As a final step, add a simple linear gradient on a layer mask to fade toward the horizon. Even with this extreme transformation, all you have to do is double-click on the Smart Object's layer thumbnail to edit the original version. Just save the PSB and your original image updates. That is so cool.

Now it's time to start painting the figure. To do this well, you will need a good source photo. Why not just use the photo, then? I have been asked that. Well, with a digital illustration, I can work at the size I want, fix any problems (we'll see that later), and the image has greater flexibility for changes in the future or use across multiple media. Plus, illustration is just intrinsically cooler. For a digital painting, you might think that you just make a new layer and start painting away. Well, there's more to it than that. Photoshop allows a great deal of flexibility, so we want to take advantage of that.

Start by giving each basic shape of the figure its own layer. Put the hair on its own layer, the skin on its own layer, and so on. For this painting, each distinct color is on a separate layer. As usual, start with PMS colors. You could make these flat shapes with selection tools or the Pen, but I like painting them out by hand; it gives the edges a more natural feel and we're going for a painterly approach here. No surprise, I used my favorite Photoshop brush (Pencil - Thin pressure) with the Opacity jitter set to Pen Pressure and I adjusted the size as needed while I was painting. You can do what you want.

For this concept, she had to be standing at an open gate. You could paint this as well, but it seems like a perfect job for Photoshop's vector tools. Use the Line or Rectangle tool to make a thin, vertical bar on a new Shape layer. It's supposed to be white, but use cool grey 1. White isn't really white, anyway. Select it with the Path Selection tool, then click the top with the Pen tool to give it an extra point. You have to use the Convert Point tool to make it a corner point, because Photoshop still always gives you curved points with this method. Then select the new point with the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow) and move it up a bit. Presto! Now you have a fence section that would be uncomfortable to sit on. Duplicate this shape as many times as you need, select them all, then click the Distribute horizontal centers button to space them out evenly. You can then use the Direct Selection tool to select the top three points and move them up incrementally to create the curve at the top.

After that, the rest of the fence should be easy. Use vector Shape layers and add some layer styles: a bit of Inner Glow in Multiply mode and some Bevel and Emboss and Inner shadow to give them a bit of depth and highlight.

For the open gate, create the vertical pieces using the same techniques as the fence. Use a darker cool grey, since it is turned away from the light. Make some perspective lines that converge at the horizon, then Skew it into position, using your lines as guides. Remember to Scale it down a bit horizontally to account for foreshortening.

It looks good, but quite flat, since it's only the front face of the gate and now we need the sides. You'll have to do this on a new layer and you'll need a lot of perspective lines. The Pen tool is probably the easiest way to make this shape. Use cool grey 2 and build a vector shape that zig-zags at the top and bottom to match your perspective lines. After it's built, you may need to zoom in and do some fine adjustment with the Direct Selection tool. Now that the solid shapes are done, it's time to start painting. We'll cover that in the next tutorials.

Painting a figure tutorial

2010-09-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

For this month's tutorial, we will go in a different direction. If you have looked at my blog or portfolios at all, you will see a lot of architectural and industrial illustration. But as illustrators, we need to be able to tackle anything that comes our way. Here is an image where I had to paint a person. Not only that, but it was a specific likeness, so it's a portrait, if you will. Even worse (here it comes) it was of a woman. Why do I say that? Well, women are harder to paint than men. Generally, they need to look beautiful, feminine, and soft. This requires a different and more subtle approach than what you would do for a man. And please, don't shoot the messenger, but women seem to be a bit more sensitive about how they are depicted; maybe it's just our culture. Anyway, This is the image I painted that was used as part of a series in a magazine ad campaign.

In my next post, I'll start breaking the file down and show you how it was done.

Speaking at the North Bay Adobe Users Group

2010-09-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

I will be the featured presenter at the North Bay Adobe Users Group's monthly meeting. It will be held on the last Monday of the month (as usual) at Santa Rosa Junior College. I will be talking about using Photoshop for digital illustration and demonstrating a couple of the projects that are on my blog. I will also go over a few new features of CS5 that may be of interest to artists.

If you happen to be in the San Francisco North Bay area that Monday afternoon, I invite you to drop by; it's always fun. Click here for details, times, and directions.

Good news, everyone!

2010-09-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

This comes as quite a surprise to me, but tomorrow I begin teaching at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. They were looking for a Photoshop expert to teach some classes this fall, so I interviewed with them on Friday and now I start working. I'll be teaching four sections of Digital Imaging 2, an undergrad class. Hopefully, some of the tutorials on this blog will make their way into my classroom.

The finishing touches (7 of 7)

2010-08-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

Just a few more steps and this illustration will be complete. The red platform needs some shadow in the water, just like the other one. Go back to the shadows layer in the waters group and paint some more 5535 for this shadow. You can give it some reflections on the reflections layer if you want, but it doesn't need much.

This platform is an intense red, so if you want to make it really sit in the scene, you can adjust the color a bit. Load a selection of the entire platform. You can do this by Shift + CTRL (PC)/CMD (Mac) + clicking on its Shape layers. Make a new layer above everything and fill it with a color. It doesn't matter what the color is, because you will take the Fill down to 0%. Give this layer a Color Overlay of PMS 292 at a very low Opacity. Next, make a Gradient Overlay of 292 to transparent and add a Linear gradient so that the left side gets the color. Adjust the Opacity to your liking. Now the rig is tinted with the overall blue of the scene. The left side, which is farther away, gets a bit more blue as it recedes in the distance. The effect is subtle, but it's there.

Now, let's turn our attention back to the yellow rig. Use the same Layer Styles trick to fade it into the background as well. You can even copy and paste the Layer Style you just made. But since this structure is farther in the distance, double the Opacity of the Color Overlay. Make the Gradient Overlay vertical, so that more of the color goes at the top against the sky. This is an easy way to add atmospheric perspective.

This rig has a lot of yellow and could use a bit of color to give it more interest. Also, in the photo I was using as reference, there was a big red and white boom sticking out at the corner. By now, it should be second nature to build something like this, right? Use the Line tool to make vector Shape layers. Build the ladder with perpendicular lines, then duplicate the paths and Transform them into position. Inner Shadow and Bevel and Emboss effects will help to give it roundness. Paint on clipped layers. To tie things together, pick a red from the other platform. Since you added atmospheric perspective to knock the rig into the background a bit, do the same for this tower. Make the Color Overlay's Opacity half of what you used for the yellow rig. I used 10%, so this structure will be 5%. Adjust the Gradient Overlay so that the color is at the bottom of the boom and fades away toward the top. This will help it to come forward and stand out from the background. Do any needed painting touch-ups on a new layer and the image is done.

Building the red platform (6 of 7)

2010-08-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

This image also has another kind of platform that is more in the foreground. The same techniques as on the previous one were used for this one, so I won't go into as much detail. I will show you the steps, but it's going to be very similar to how the yellow rig was built. Start with the Rectangle tool to make a Shape layer. Use PMS 484 as the base color. Add a linear Gradient Overlay of 296 to transparent in Multiply mode to add a nice shadow to the column. Use an Inner Shadow of 290 in Color Dodge to give the left edge a bit of highlight. Sometimes I use this method instead of Bevel and Emboss because Inner Shadow gives you a bit more control. Add a layer mask and paint out in black where the column meets the water. Check Layer Mask Hides Effects in the Blending Options section of the Layer Style so that the layer's effects won't follow the new edge created by your mask.

I'll assume that by now, you know you will paint the details on a new layer that uses the Shape layer as a clipping mask and put the shadows on a layer in Multiply mode that is also clipped. Use a vanishing point on the horizon and draw perspective lines from it with the Line tool. This should be on a Shape layer near the top of your layers stack and will be the guides for this platform. The main shapes were made with the Pen, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, and Line tools as vector shapes all on one Shape layer using 419 as the color. I rarely use pure black or white. The ranges of greys in the PMS library are really more versatile. Here's how it looks with some details painted in. I chose colors directly from my photographic source material. All the details were painted on one layer with a shadow layer on top, this time at 100% Opacity for some really dark and drastic shadows. Foreground objects can have more contrast and extreme values than objects farther back.

Use as many layers as you need to add all the detail. Again, start with vector shapes and use them as clipping masks for your painted layers. This rig has a yellow railing, but it's a bit more of a mustard color than the yellow platform, so use PMS 458. Make sure all lines that are parallel to the ocean or ground plane converge at the horizon somewhere. You can see how much the perspective guides help here. If you want to paint a straight line that isn't vertical or horizontal, you can make a selection with the Polygonal Lasso tool, fill it with a color, then keep painting on top of it.

This rig has some interesting vertical pipes mounted on the outside. Use the Rounded Rectangle tool to make the main shapes, then use the Ellipse tool to add in the round areas. The Inner Shadow is 290 in Color Dodge mode, so it's acting as a highlight, just like on the big column. It also has Bevel and Emboss for the shadow on the right edge. You can use this technique if you want the highlight and shadow to have different sizes or edge sharpness. If you do them both with Bevel and Emboss, they will look the same. There is also a 296 Gradient Overlay in Multiply mode to darken the bottom of the pipes.

This collection of tubes, ducts, and whatnot was made in the same way with PMS 416. The Shape layer has an Inner Glow of 411 in Multiply mode to give it a dark, rusty feel. The pipe with the elbow bend can be made with the Pen tool and carefully adjusting your curves, or by subtracting one rounded rectangle from another. Hopefully, you can see that the painting is quite loose. It was all done with the Chalk 11 pixel and Pencil - Thin brushes, two of my favorites and some of Photoshop's most useful. Their Opacity Jitter is set to Pen Pressure, and the size is adjusted as needed. That's about it; the platform almost looks done. In the next tutorial, we will wrap up the entire image.

Finishing the yellow platform (5 of 7)

2010-08-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

The last major pieces still missing are the different levels of the platform. Build these as Shape layers, just like you have done on the others. Use PMS 123 and the Line, Rectangle, or Pen tool. Be sure to follow your vanishing point guides. You can Copy and Paste the initial railings from previous layers. That's why it's good to keep the untransformed versions of these shapes. If the transformed railing sticks out past where you need it, hold down Shift and create a new rectangle or similar shape on this layer. Then, select it with the Path Selection tool and click the Subtract from shape area (-) button. That selected shape now acts as a vector mask, hiding the paths it intersects. As with earlier steps, create a new layer for painted details and one in Multiply mode for the shadows. It shouldn't take many more layers to finish this section off.

Next are some walls of corrugated metal. Again, make them as vector Shape layers using PMS 428. Use the Line tool and hold down Shift to make the vertical beams that stick up a bit. Use the Rectangle tool and hold down ALT (PC)/OPT (Mac) to cut out that open area in the middle. Use the same vertical lined texture in Luminosity mode as on the cargo containers and clipped layers for painted details and shadows.

Build the outer stairway with (you guessed it) the Line tool on a Shape layer. for the little stairs, make a pattern of thin, horizontal white and black lines and fill a new layer with it. Change its Blend mode to Multiply and lower the opacity a bit. Use Transform >Skew to make the pattern match up with your perspective lines. Clip it down to your Shape layer and mask out any areas where you don't want to see the stairs. Add the usual detail and shadow layers.

This rig is almost done, but it needs just a few more details and doodads. These can all be painted on one layer above everything else. You can add poles, lamps, pipes, tubing, lifesaving rings (at least, I think that's what they are) on the railing, and so on. That does it! Now, there's the other platform...

Adding more detail to the rig (4 of 7)

2010-08-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

It's time to start thinking about perspective. Actually, perspective needs to be taken into account when starting the illustration. For architectural subjects, having accurate vanishing points is crucial. The Line tool is an obvious choice, but try using it to make a vector Shape layer. That way, you can extend the ends far beyond the canvas size of the image. You can also reposition them once they are down. I like to use a different layer and color for each dimension. Remember that parallel lines converge at the horizon.

Most of the necessary detail consists of pipes, beams, girders, and so on. As on the other parts of the base, use the Line tool in varying weights to make vector shapes. Use PMS 447 for these ones and then paint on a clipped layer. Follow the vanishing point lines as guides and move them as needed. For railings that have evenly-spaced vertical pieces, create them straight on with the Line tool. Hold down Shift as you make the lines so that they will be perfectly vertical or horizontal. With the Path Selection tool, select all the vertical bars, then use the Distribute horizontal centers button to space them out evenly. Duplicate these shapes by ALT (PC)/OPT (Mac) + dragging them or just Copy and Paste. If you like, click the Combine button to join all the shapes into one compound path. Transform the duplicates using Skew so that they match up with the perspective lines. Not only do the horizontal lines converge, but the vertical ones get smaller and closer together as they recede into the distance. How cool is that? The only way to efficiently do this is with Shape layers. Aren't they great?

Keep building up the different parts of the platform. So far, the only colors you need for the Shape layers are 123 for the yellow and 447 for the grey. Use the Line, Rectangle, and maybe the Pen tools to make the shapes. For this image, Layer Styles are minimal; most of the detail comes from painting. You can see that the painted details are really loose. Just suggesting the details they represent will be enough. Organize related sections of the oil rig into Layer Groups to keep things tidy. Naming and color coding them helps, too.

For this corner tower, these same simple Shape tools will do the job, except this one also requires the Ellipse. Just eyeballing it should do okay. When you break it down, there's not much to it. Hold down Shift to add paths to the current Shape layer. Here you can see the three Shape layers that combine to make the basic shapes of the tower. Since its color is a bit more orange than the rest of the rig, use PMS 1235. Each shape layer has a layer with painted details clipped to it. For the final details, you can paint those on a new layer on top of it all. Painting them instead of building them with vector shapes will be okay, because it allows you to work a little more freely. To make these thin lines, use a small, simple brush and a mouse. This is one instance where a stylus isn't the preferred tool. Click with the Brush on a starting point, then Shift + click on the end and you get a perfectly straight line between the two points.

This rig has some cargo containers mounted on the side. These are basically big boxes, so you can make them with the Rectangle tool. Use the vanishing point lines as guides. Create the main shapes as vector Shape layers in white and add a black Gradient Overlay in Multiply mode with very low Opacity. Create the blue and red shapes as separate Shape layers using the same techniques and clip them to the white base layer. Now to texture them. The containers are made of corrugated metal, so they will need a pattern of light and dark vertical lines. This pattern is in a layer in Luminosity mode and low Opacity and clipped along with the rest of the layers. You could probably also do this with a Pattern Overlay. Create a new layer to paint in some dark details like streaks, dirt, and grime, then create another new layer in Multiply mode for the shadows and paint them with PMS 296. Adjust the Opacity as needed. As you can see, all these layers are using the bottom Shape layer as a clipping mask. Where would I be without this technique?

Building the base (3 of 7)

2010-08-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

For the base of the oil rig or platform sitting in the water, we'll need the Line tool. Make sure it's set to make a Shape layer and start putting in the columns with thick lines. Use PMS 123 as the color. Hold done the Shift key as you make each new line so that they are all on the same layer. Use smaller lines for the railing. The left and right bracket keys are a handy way to make your lines lighter and heavier, respectively. Since these columns are on the far side, add a Color Overlay of 296 in Multiply mode to show that they are in shadow. A bit of an Inner Shadow is nice, too. Add a layer mask and paint out where the columns go into the water. Then, on a new layer clipped to the Shape layer, do some random dark painting to suggest grime, rust, oil, corrosion, and so on. This is the pattern we will follow for most of this rig. On a new layer, build some thinner vertical pipes with the Line tool. Use the same colors and Layer Styles as on the first set. To create the curved pipes, you can draw the line first, then use Transform >Warp to curve them. You could also click on a line with the Path Selection tool, then use the Pen tool to add anchor points, then use the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow) to move points and adjust the curves. Once you have a curved pipe that you like, select it with the Path Selection tool (the black arrow), copy, and paste it to create duplicates. The idea here is to keep all of them on one Shape layer. To keep things simple, I mentally divided the base into back-, mid-, and foreground components. Each has its own layer. This one is the mid layer.

Now, create the foreground parts of the base structure using the same tools, colors, and techniques. Use the Direct Selection tool to click on corner points and move them out to widen the bases of the columns. Remember that Photoshop doesn't really make lines; even the smallest of these are actually rectangles. This Shape layer won't need the Color Overlay, because it's not in shadow. See how the depth is created here? As you are working, keep in mind where the sun is and where the core and cast shadows will be.

In between the front column and middle pipe layers, make a new layer and paint the interior levels of the platform. This can be done loosely. Just try and suggest pipes, beams, control panels, and so on. An easy way to paint perfectly vertical or horizontal lines with the Brush tool is to hold down Shift as you are painting. Then, make a new layer above the front columns and clip it to that layer, just like on the mid and back layers of the base. Paint shadows, grime, and other details on it, using the vector Shape layer as a Clipping Mask.

This part of the rig is done, so it's time to turn our attention back to the water. Make a new layer in Multiply mode and 70% Opacity above all the other water layers and paint the shadows in with 5535. I used my favorite Pencil -Thin brush, but I used the Brush Tip Shape section of the Brushes panel to rotate it so that it was horizontal instead of vertical.

Paint the reflections of the structure on a new layer. Use a larger brush and pick colors right from the platform base. Paint the reflections very loosely; there's no need for detail here. The reflections will only show up on the lighter areas of the waves, the part that faces upward to the sky. Where the water surface faces away from the sky or the oil rig, there will be no reflection. These are the darker areas. So, make a mask on the reflections layer, load a selection from your painted shadows or other dark parts of your water, and fill the mask with black to block out the painted reflection from these areas. The result should look about like this. Notice how you really don't end up seeing much reflection at all. This is because the sea is choppy and much of the water surface faces away from the sky or whatever is sitting in the water. On calmer water without waves, you would see more reflection.

How to not paint the water (2 of 7)

2010-08-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have painted water by hand before, and I have also used a combination of filters to try and get a water effect. Both have their place, but usually neither one looks realistic enough and both can be time consuming. For this water, we will start with a photo.

This is the photo of water that I chose. It has a nice expanse of empty ocean. I don't want to just use it as is, but it can help to create some nice photo-based textures. What we need is a selection made from the highlight areas of the water. The best way to make selections from photos is procedurally, with the channels. See which one has the most contrast between the lighter wave tops and the darker areas. In this case, that turned out to be the green channel.

Duplicate the channel and apply a Levels command. Pull in the highlight and shadow sliders to increase the contrast so that the tops of the waves turn white and the shadow areas turn black. Then, load a selection of the alpha channel by CMD (Mac)/CTRL (PC)+clicking its thumbnail.

With the selection active, create a new layer on the illustration and fill it with PMS 291. Change the Blend mode to Screen and the Opacity to 50%. Clip it to the 5395 Shape layer. The result looks pretty good, but in this photo, the sun's reflection on the water was blown out and is now a solid color. It needs some shadow areas to make it blend in with the rest of the water surface. This is best handled with a mask. Add a mask to this layer and paint black wave shapes back in with a small brush. Try to mimic the surrounding water texture. Incidentally, the lightest part of the water faces upward to reflect the sky. That's why it's blue. The darker part faces more to the side and can contain more colors like green and brown. That's because you are looking through the water and seeing what's below.

To add some shadows back into the water, look at the photo's channels again and see which one has the most contrast in the darker areas. This time, it was the blue channel. Duplicate it and Invert it so that you have a negative image. Now, perform the same kind of Levels adjustment to get enough contrast and make a selection. Make a new layer under the highlights layer and with the selection active, fill it with 296. Change the layer's Blend mode to Multiply. If it isn't dark enough (mine wasn't) you can always duplicate the layer. Make a new layer in Color mode and add a foreground-to-transparent gradient of PMS 5535. This will add a nice touch of green as the water gets closer. To finish things off, make a new layer above the highlights. Make sure it is not clipped along with the rest and change its Blend mode to Screen. Put a Reflected gradient of medium blue to transparent along the horizon to really fade it into the distance. Lower the Opacity if you like and that's it! You've got a great ocean that's not quite a photo and it didn't take all day to paint.

Starting the oil rigs illustration (1 of 7)

2010-08-21T01:18:00.000-07:00

This is the image we'll take apart for this month's tutorial. As with much of my professional work for print, the original image was created 9x12 inches at a resolution of 300 ppi. The final image was vertical with foreground details and some other images vignetted on top. But this tutorial will just concentrate on the back image; that will be plenty to do.

Fill the background layer with PMS 2905 for the main sky color. Make a new layer above that and add a vertical gradient of 285 to transparent. Change the Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity as desired. I chose 40%. Paint some clouds on a new layer using a simple brush and Cool Grey 2. I used one of my standard favorites. Paint just the lighter part of the clouds. Since they are in the distance, the shadow areas won't be any darker than the sky.

On a new layer, paint the cloud highlights with a smaller brush using white. You are looking to make some sharper edges here. Now, add some gradients above the clouds. This will help them fade away as they approach the horizon. As always, the gradients will be foreground to transparent. The first one uses PMS 290. Lower the layer's Opacity a bit. The next gradient will be 2905 again, but change its layer's Blend mode to Screen. Lower the Opacity if necessary.

For the ocean, use the Rectangle tool to make a vector Shape layer. with 5395 as the color. This dark greenish-blue will give some shadow areas to the water. To make the horizon a bit more exciting, curve the top of the rectangle by selecting it with the Path Selection tool, then clicking in the middle with the Pen or Add Anchor Point tool. Then click that new point with the Direct Selection tool (that's the white arrow) and move it up a little bit. Now you have a curved horizon.

Add some Layer Styles to give the water some depth. A medium blue Gradient Overlay in Screen mode brightens the water as it approaches the horizon. A soft Inner Shadow with Cool Grey 1 in Screen mode and Outer Glow of 290 in Normal mode will fade the water's edge at the horizon. Adjust Opacities until the edge looks sufficiently distant and fading away. In the next tutorial, we will cover how to not paint the water texture.

My page in the Directory of Illustration

2010-08-13T02:46:00.000-07:00

Last year, I decided to advertise in the Directory of Illustration. It's something we all talked about in school. Now that I am concentrating on my freelance work, I figured it might be a good idea. Recently, I finished my first big project for a new client since having a portfolio page on the Directory's website. I don't know if there was any connection, but it is a good sign. The published directory will be out later this year and I will have one page in it. Here it is, combining several industrial illustrations I have done over the last couple of years. You can download a PDF of it by clicking here.

This month's tutorial will be based on the illustration of the oil rigs at the top of my Directory page. I'll take you through all the steps I took to create it.

Writing a column on another website

2010-08-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to do some writing periodically for Zero2Illo, A Blog for Aspiring Illustrators. They have an Ask the Expert section and for some crazy reason, I was given a list of questions to answer. The topics include how to transition from traditional to digital artwork and getting consistent color. You can read all of the questions with my answers here.

Final color corrections (6 of 6)

2010-07-31T01:54:00.000-07:00

The last step is to do some color correction to get the lighting just right. My original photo is barren and rocky. Since Europa is covered in ice, we need to make it a bit bluer, especially in the lighter areas. To create a mask for this, duplicate the red channel. Perform a Levels adjustment and pull in the shadow and highlight sliders to increase the contrast. Load this channel as a mask by CTRL(PC)/CMD(Mac)+clicking on its thumbnail. Create a new layer, add a mask, and fill it with dark blue. Experiment with Blend modes and Opacity to find an effect you like. I ended up with Vivid Light at 40% Opacity. Now the ground highlights are tinted blue, but they should be orange in the middle because they are lit by Jupiter's light. Add a vertical reflected gradient of black-to-transparent on the mask to hide the blue tint in this areas. We'll add some color back in with the next step.

Create a new layer and load a selection from the channel (not the layer mask) used in the last step. With the selection active, add a layer mask. Pick a bright orange from Jupiter and create a vertical reflected gradient on this layer in about the same spot as the black gradient on the mask of the underlying layer. Change the Blend mode to Hard Light and reduce the Opacity to 70%. Now, Jupiter is casting its light on the reflective surface of the icy ground.

Add a new layer, put a dark linear gradient on the left side, and change the layer's Blend mode to Multiply. Make a Levels adjustment layer and adjust the midtone slider as shown. Add a vertical black-to-transparent reflected gradient on the adjustment layer's mask, in the middle like on the previous layers with gradients. The idea is to darken the edges to make the middle seem more luminous.

Add a new layer in Screen mode and hand paint in some highlights along the ground as needed. Put all of these color correction layers in a layers group. You can do this by Shift+clicking to highlight the layers, then click CTRL(PC)/ CMD(Mac)+G. Load a selection from the far ice wall layer masks and add a mask to this group. Now all of the layers in the group will affect only the ground layers of the image and not the sky.

As a final step, add one more layer on top of everything else and put some dark linear gradients along the sides and bottom. Change the Blend mode to Multiply and lower the Opacity to 50%. This darkening of the edges mimics the vignette that can appear in photographic images. It's not entirely necessary, but it is a nice look and is similar to techniques used by the famous matte painter Yanick Dusseault, so it must be good.

Adding lighting effects and moons (5 of 6)

2010-07-30T01:28:00.000-07:00

The image looks pretty good, but a few final touches will pull everything together. Since Jupiter is acting as a light source in the sky, some light wrap around the edges of the background ice will help to suggest its luminosity and make the ice look translucent. Load a selection from the ice wall masks, create a new layer, and fill it. The color doesn't matter.

Add Inner and Outer Glows to this new layer. For once, keep them in Screen mode. Pick some orangey-pink colors from the background. Now Reduce the Fill of this layer to 0% so that only the glows are visible. The glowing edge and light wrap should be concentrated on the ice in front of Jupiter, so add a mask to this layer and put black linear gradients on the edges to hide the effects there. Make sure the Layer Mask Hides Effects option is checked. Now the glows are only visible in the middle, where the mask fades to white. To further complete the lighting effect, Jupiter itself needs a glow. But an Outer Glow using all the pixels on the planet's layer won't work, because the left side is in shadow. We need to make a selection from just light lit areas.

Turn off the ground layers and go to the channels. Duplicate the red channel, since it has the greatest contrast between Jupiter and the sky. Use a Levels adjustment and move the highlight slider to the left to make it mostly white. Move the shadow slider to the right to make sure the sky is entirely black. Load a selection from this channel and feather the edges by going to Select >Modify >Feather. Enter a large number to give the selection a very soft, blurred edge. Create a new layer and fill it with a rust color picked from Jupiter. Change the layer's Blend mode to Color Dodge and lower the Fill to 60%. Give it a large Outer Glow in Screen mode, using an orange picked from Jupiter. Load a selection from the ice wall's mask, add a mask to the new planet glow layer, and fill it with black. This time, leave Layer Mask Hides Effects unchecked so that the glow follows the edges of the jagged ice wall.

A couple of moons orbiting Jupiter is really what this image needs. Astronomers may disagree with the placement, but they will look cool. I used photos of Io and Ganymede. To tie them into the scene, add some Layer Styles. A little dark Inner Glow in Multiply mode should do the trick. Give them an Inner Shadow using the settings shown. You also may want to add a Bevel and Emboss and Color Overlay. Create a layer in Multiply mode for the shadow that Io casts against Jupiter. For a hint of reflected light on the moons from Jupiter, load selections from the moon layers, create a new layer, and fill it with a color. Again, what color you use doesn't matter. Set the Fill to 0%. Use an Inner Shadow with these settings to give the moons a rimlight coming from Jupiter. At this point, the image is just about complete.

Creating the foreground (4 of 6)

2010-07-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

What this image is lacking now is a foreground. The idea is to create an icy expanse to suggest the frozen surface of the moon. I chose this photo of a barren, bleak landscape. It doesn't look too frosty right now, but we will take care of that later. You may notice one big problem: the ground photo isn't large enough to stretch all the way across my new image. Since I really liked this photo, I decided to make a ragged selection with the Polygonal Lasso tool, then copy and paste that area to a new layer. I moved it to the right edge of the image and used the original selection to mask out that same are on the original ground photo and just like that, instant crevasse! It's a bit of a cheat, but it works. Use the same channel techniques shown in the last entry to create a mask to drop out the sky. Finally, put a dark blue-to-transparent Gradient Overlay in Multiply mode to darken the left side of the ground. Now Europa's surface is really coming together.

Obviously, the gap has to be filled, so use another ice wall photo for the side of the crevasse. Put a dark Gradient Overlay on the left side, similar to the one on the ground, to darken the interior of the crevasse and suggest more light entering in from the right side where it opens up. The final step is to paint in the missing details and extend the ground. In my case, I also have to cover up the hiker from the original photo. To pull things together, paint a bit of a highlight edge along the tops of the rocks that stick up. Remember that the light is coming from behind, so we need a backlit look. Use a small brush to paint in these details. As usual, I used one of my favorites: Photoshop's own Pencil - Thin brush.

To make the near edge of the crevasse stand out a bit more, add a dark linear gradient over it on a new layer in Multiply mode to darken it even more. Put a reflected gradient going horizontally over the far edge of the ground to soften it and blend it up into the ice wall. Keep its layer in Multiply mode, but reduce the Opacity to 50%.

The ground is almost done, but the right edge of the crevasse needs a bit of hand painting to finish off the edge and add any necessary details. Also, the rocks that are sticking up from the ground should probably cast a bit of shadow. Paint the shadows on a new layer in Multiply mode, using a dark color. Try a brush with a softer edge for this. Reduce the Opacity as needed, and the foreground is finished.

Creating the horizon (3 of 6)

2010-07-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

Since the background is pretty much done, it's time to turn to the foreground, which is supposed to be on the surface of Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. The far edge of the surface up to the horizon will be an ice wall backlit by Jupiter. Start with photos of ice walls. Antarctica is a good source. Since I didn't have one that was large enough to stretch all the way across, I used two photos.

Once they are sized and placed, their backgrounds need to be removed. If you were about to reach for the Tragic Wand or other manual selection tools, that's strike one. Put it back. The best way to do this is to make a mask procedurally from the channels. Find the channel that has the most contrast between the area you want to keep against the area you want to remove. In this case, it's the blue channel. Duplicate that channel and perform a Levels adjustment. Slide the highlight and shadow sliders in to increase the contrast of these areas. Move the midtone slider as needed. What you want is pure black against pure white, with a bit of midtone to anti-alias the edge, so your sliders should end up quite close to each other. You may need to paint in black and white by hand above and below the dividing line. CMD(Mac) or CTRL(PC)+click the channel's thumbnail to load the white area as a selection. With the selection active, add a mask to this layer.

If your photos don't quite match each other (like mine didn't), add the necessary adjustment layers and clip them to the photo layer. I used Levels and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers on the left ice wall to darken it, grey it down, and warm the hue just a bit. The edge of the photos is still quite obvious, so it's time to do some hand painting. Even working with photo-realistic images, some painting like this is usually necessary. Use a small brush and pick colors directly from your image. Paint on a new layer the details needed to seamlessly join the images. I also painted out the highlights along the wall's face, since the lighting in this scene should come from behind and to the right. Then, I added a linear gradient on a new layer above all the ice wall layers using a light grey-blue picked from the image to suggest an icy mist floating in the canyon and lowered that layer's Opacity to 60%. It may not be astronomically accurate, but overall mood is my primary objective here.

To further enhance the icy feel of the moon's surface, add some layers behind the ice wall and put linear gradients on them, using dark blue and rust colors. Set their Blend mode to Screen and adjust the Opacity as needed. The moon probably doesn't have an atmosphere for ice crystals to be suspended in, but it looks cool. Just don't show this image to many of your astronomer friends.

Finishing the planet (2 of 6)

2010-07-24T02:54:00.000-07:00

To finish up Jupiter, we need a softening of the planet's edge on the lit side to suggest the atmosphere. This effect will probably be a bit exaggerated, but it's commonly done on planet paintings and it will look cool. The best way to do this is with Layer Styles. Load a selection from Jupiter, create a new layer, and fill that layer. It doesn't matter what color you use, because the Fill will be set to 0%. Add a small Inner and Outer Glow in Screen mode, using a reddish brown. Now there is a soft glow around the planet's edge. In order to have it fade away along the dark edge of Jupiter, make a mask on this layer and put a linear gradient on it. In order to avoid strange transitions along this gradient edge, be sure to check the Layer Mask Hides Effects option.

Did you know that Jupiter has rings? I don't know if they would be visible from one of its moons, but it seems like a cool element to add. If you can find an astronomical image of some rings that will work, put it in an alpha channel and load a selection from it. You can see my selection here. With the selection active, make a new layer and fill it with a light color picked from the planet. Add a subtle Outer Glow in Screen mode and a Color Overlay if you need to adjust the color. If you want, you can put the left and right rings on separate layers and give the left side of the rings less glow because they are in shadow. Lower the rings' Opacity so that they don't stand out too much. I used 50%.

This looks good, but to make them look rounder and less flat, create some new layers to darken the edges and brighten the middle. Use a reflected gradient with a bright color for the middle of the planet and a linear gradient with a darker color for the edges on a separate layer set to Multiply mode. Adjust the layers' Opacities as necessary. You will need a mask on these layers, so load a selection from the ring layers and use it as a layer mask for these layers. Here you can see the mask I used. The rings are now complete, but something is still missing. They should probably be casting a shadow against Jupiter, given the current lighting setup. This shadow will also help make the planet look more spherical.

Use the Pen tool to create a gentle curve that cuts across the planet. It should follow the rings quite closely around the middle and curve away toward the edges. Set the Fill to 0% and make a stroke with Layer Styles. Pick a dark color from the image for the stroke color, set the size to 3 pixels, and use the Center position. So that the stroke is only visible across Jupiter, load a selection from the planet layer and use it to create a layer mask on this layer. Check the Layer Mask Hides Effects option. The shadow layer should be set to Multiply mode and the Opacity lowered. I used 60%. Now you too can see Jupiter's rings.

Creating the background sky and planet (1 of 6)

2010-07-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

This started out as a concept painting, but quickly evolved into a photo-realistic background image. Before I started out, I did a quick sketch from scratch in Photoshop to work out composition, lighting, color, mood, and so on. Dylan Cole, a great matte painter working professionally right now, starts out with a painting, even if the final will be done using photos. Here is my painted study for this image.

I made some changes in the final, but this gave me a good idea of what I was shooting for. I made a new document at 1920x1080 pixels. This is HD resolution and I would normally work at twice that size if HD was my final goal, but since this was really just concept art, working at a smaller size seemed okay. The first thing I needed was a starry sky for the background. There are some good tutorials out there on how to make a star field using the Add Noise filter on various layers, or you can pull some good images from NASA and similar websites. I did that just to save some time.

These stars looked a bit too bright, so lower the layer's Opacity to 60%. Then to add some denser clusters, create a new layer, fill it with black, and add Gaussian Noise with Monochromatic unchecked. This is to give some color to the stars, but it is a bit too much, so perform a Hue/Saturation adjustment to the layer and lower its Saturation down quite a bit. Normally, I would use an adjustment layer to make non-destructive edits, but this is a situation that requires the direct approach. The end result should look about like this.

Change the layer's Blend mode to Screen and lower the Opacity to 40%. Now the black drops away and the stars on the layer beneath will show through. To add a random, cloudlike pattern, make a layer mask for this layer and add a black-to-white linear gradient at a bit of a horizontal angle. Then run a Difference Clouds filter on the mask. You should see something like this. The wavy black line running through the clouds texture is created by the interaction of this filter with the gradient ramp. Now, invert the mask so that you get a negative of this image. Do a Layers adjustment and pull the black and midtone sliders to the right so that you get more black in the image. The white areas of the mask will reveal the noise texture on this layer and the black will conceal it. Just so you know, this technique is great for bolts of lightning and electricity.

As a final touch, add a new layer and fill it with a light blue, clip it to the noise layer, and change its Blend mode to Color. Lower the Opacity to that it looks good. The idea here is to add a bit of blue tint to the background stars. Adjust all of these layers to get just the effect you want. Here is what I ended up with.

Now for Jupiter. The best thing to do is find a nice, high-res astronomical photo of the planet. Again, NASA or other image banks are a good source. Scale and rotate the image as needed and remove it from its background with the Elliptical Marquee. This is a nice photo of Jupiter, but it looks a bit flat. To take it to the next level and heighten the drama, use some Layer Styles. The effect we are looking for here is Jupiter as a light source in the night sky, reflecting light from the sun, but we also want to see the shadow's edge along the planet. The Layer Style includes an orange-to-transparent radial Gradient Overlay in Multiply mode to give the planet some roundness, a Color Overlay of rust in Overlay at 40%, an Inner Glow of dark grey in Multiply to curve the edges away a bit, and an Inner Shadow. Use these settings for a realistic shadow. Quite the difference, no?

To further darken the edges, create some new layers and clip them to the bottom Jupiter layer. Add some linear gradients using a medium greyish-blue-to-transparent linear gradient from top to bottom and right to left. Use darkening Blend modes on these layers like Color Burn or Multiply and adjust the Opacity as needed. To punch up the white bands across the planet a bit, make a new layer and change its Blend mode to Color. Paint some light blue over the white bands where you would like to bring some white and grey back. Don't clip it along with the other layers or the Color Overlay will override this one as well. Jupiter looks about done at this point, so in the next tutorial, we will finish it off and add the final details.

My work at the BYU alumni show

2010-07-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Last month, I submitted a piece for BYU's 30-year Alumni Illustration show. Since my work now is digital and of subjects that most people would not necessarily want to see hanging in a gallery, my options were a bit limited. But I had a nice print of a concept matte painting I did for a project in the Pixel Corps a couple of years back. It's a view of Jupiter, as seen from Europa, one of its moons. The print was large enough to get framed, so I did that quickly and sent it off.

Earlier this month, I was actually passing through Utah, so I stopped by the campus to see the show. The work was just amazing and I felt humbled to have my work in the same exhibit. Of course, commercial art and illustration are extremely diverse, serving very different needs. My work serves its purpose. You may recognize this painting as one of the images on the site. Since the month is slipping away, I decided to do July's tutorial on this image.

Surreal digital matte painting tutorial

2010-06-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here it is! This is quite an extensive tutorial on a matte painting I did that uses photos as well as painted elements. This should serve as June's tutorial. It's on the PSD Tuts Plus site that has some great info on how to achieve many effects in Photoshop. If you join on that site, you get access to the full tutorial, plus its source files. If you don't want to join, don't worry; I'll be putting up a tutorial on creating a set extension from a photographic plate, which is an important matte painting technique.

Click here to see the tutorial.

Article on digital matte painting

2010-06-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to have some posts up by now, but this month has been very busy. I actually already wrote a long intensive tutorial on matte painting for another site, so that may have to be this month's tutorial. It's a great site for many different kinds of Photoshop tutorials, so check it out. I wrote an article on matte painting for them and it has already posted. It should serve as an intro to the full tutorial. Click here to read the article at PSD Tuts Plus.

Creating a bread loaf with vector shapes and Layer Styles tutorial

2010-05-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

For the last step in this illustration, the table needs a loaf of bread sitting on it. Since the rest of the image was done with vector shapes and Layer Styles, the bread should be done in the same way to create a slightly stylized look and make it fit in with the rest of the image. Start out with the Pen tool to create a flat slice of bread. This can be done in either Illustrator or Photoshop; the result will be the same. To make a symmetrical shape like this, try making one half, then duplicate and mirror the shape. This is the best way to get the two sides to match up. In Photoshop, make a closed path on a new Shape layer. Select it with the Path Selection tool, duplicate it and transform the path, then Flip Horizontal. Move the two shapes together and with both selected, click the Combine button in the Options bar. Your shape should look about like this.

Duplicate this layer and transform the duplicate so that it matches up with your perspective lines. Then ALT/OPT drag with the Path Selection to make a copy of the shape on the same layer. Move it into position along the perspective lines, then use the Pen tool with the Add to shape area button selected to join the two profiles. This creates the overall loaf shape. You may want to round the far edge a bit, since it is not sliced. You can combine the shapes on this layer if you want. Double-click the Shape layer's color swatch and set it to PMS 4635. A dark brown Gradient Overlay in Multiply mode darkens the far edge of the loaf. Give it some Bevel and Emboss and a large Inner Glow of 464 in Multiply mode with a Noise of 7%. A dark Inner Shadow darkens the bottom edge of the bread where it's resting on the table. The line curving through the loaf is a new vector Shape layer created with the Pen tool and clipped to the main loaf layer. Give it a Fill of 0% so that only its Layer Styles are visible and Multiply Inner and Outer Glows as usual. A bit of Drop Shadow helps to bring it forward a bit. The highlight is an Inner Shadow. Use PMS 464 set to Screen mode with the Cone Contour. Set the Distance to 17 and the Size to 22 and give it a Noise of 11%. The clipping mask of the bottom layer will hide all exterior effects that are outside the main loaf shape.

Make a new Shape layer with a copy of the transformed slice shape and use PMS 7501 as its color fill. Clip it to the bottom loaf layer. Give it a Drop Shadow of 4655 in Screen mode and high Distance and Size values to create a soft, light edge along the top of the loaf. The Inner Glow is 471 in Multiply mode with a Noise of 14%. Use Precise as the Technique to make it conform to the edge more closely. The high Noise value breaks up the edge and blends it into the lighter interior color. For the Pattern Overlay, use Wrinkles, a default Photoshop pattern, set to Overlay at 15% Opacity so that you just get the darks and lights.

To make the slice, start with a duplicate of the original flat bread slice profile. Transform it into position and use the same Layer Styles as on the parts of the loaf. You will need two layers: one in PMS 4635 for the thickness with the front and back slice shapes with a connecting path in-between, and one in 7501 for the lighter interior bread color. You can right+click on the main loaf and slice layers and select Copy Layer Style from their drop-down menus, then right+click on the new layers and choose Paste Layer Style. Clip the top slice layer to the bottom one.

Duplicate these two layers and offset them a bit for the second slice of bread. The drop shadow of the top slice on the bottom slice is created by making a new Shape layer from the bottom path of the top slice and clipping it to the bottom slice layer (on top of the 7501 layer). Then you can give it a Drop Shadow and it will only show up over the bottom slice and not outside of its path. I hope you could follow all that; it sounded a bit confusing.

Now the bread is almost done. It looks good, but it appears to be floating above the table and we need it to look like it's actually sitting on it. You can't use a Drop Shadow or Outer Glow on the loaf and slice layers, because that would tend to make it look like it's a flat bread image floating in front of a vertical backdrop. So, create a new Shape layer underneath all the bread layers. Use the Pen tool to make a shape that corresponds with the base of the bread that's touching the table. You can select the bottom path from the bottom slice layer with the Path Selection tool, copy, then paste it on this bottom shadow layer. Use a small Drop Shadow in PMS 4485 in Multiply mode and a very large Outer Glow in 4495 and Multiply mode (of course). Now it looks like the bread is really sitting on the table and you are done. If only you could eat it!

Making the table with vector shapes tutorial

2010-05-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

Now it's time to build the table. This turned out to be kind of fun and it is a cool effect. This table is circular, so start with the Ellipse tool to make a Shape layer with PMS 4495. Hold down SHIFT to make a perfect circle. Then transform the circle with Perspective or Skew to make the far end look like it's receding in the distance. I created some perspective lines on a top layer to help out with this. The best way to do transformations like this is to use Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar so that you can work on transformation points outside of your image. You used to be able to switch screen modes back and forth while transforming, but with the release of Photoshop CS4, that feature is now gone for some reason. Thanks so much, Adobe.

Since the table has some thickness to it, we need to show a bit of the side. Use the Path Selection tool (black arrow), select the tabletop so that you see the vector path, then copy and paste. You won't see anything new, but a new vector shape has been pasted in place above the original on the same Shape layer. Nudge it down with the arrow key and then scale it down a bit. I am using my vertical perspective lines as a guide. You may also need to create a little piece to bridge the gap between the two circles. Make sure the layer is selected with the paths visible, choose the Pen tool, and click the Add to shape area button in the tool options. You need to make sure this new shape stays on this layer and doesn't make a new one.

The next step is to copy the tabletop to a new Shape layer. You can just duplicate the layer, select the paths you don't want on the new layer with the Path Selection tool, and delete them. Or you could Select the top circle, copy and paste the path, then choose Layer> New Fill Layer> Solid Color... This will make a new Shape layer using the path you just pasted. Choose the same fill color: 4495. What you want is the tabletop to be in exactly the same position on this new layer. Clip it to the bottom one. On the bottom layer that has the top and side shapes, add a Layer Style. I chose a standard Bevel and Emboss and used Inner Glow in Multiply mode with a dark brown. To show the edge of the table, use an Inner Shadow of 4495 in Multiply mode. Set the Angle to about 90º. Taking the Size up will give you a softer edge, suggesting a more gradual turn at the corner. A crisper edge suggests a sharper, less rounded corner. On the top layer, add an Inner Shadow, but choose a light color and select the Cone Contour to add a glint of highlight around the edge. I chose Color Dodge to give it that extra kick of specularity. This is a great effect and I never get tired of how cool it looks.

The texture is the one part that has to be raster. I used two different wood photos: one with the grain and one with the plank edges to get just the look I wanted, which was a rustic table. The wood grain layer was set to Soft Light and the planks layer was set to Multiply at 20%. Transform them into position using the same perspective you used for the tabletop shape. You can SHIFT+select both layers to transform them at the same time. The last step is to load a selection from just the tabletop shape and create a layer mask on both texture layers. That way the texture doesn't extend down the side of the table. We'll take care of that in the next step.

Use a copy of the wood grain texture for the table's edge. Transform it into position using the bottom vanishing point. Don't worry about the plank lines; that would be too hard to match up with the photo texture. Use the Line tool to make another Shape layer with 1px vector lines. Hold down SHIFT to add lines to the same layer and pull them up from the vanishing point to meet the plank lines on the tabletop. For the final step, both of these layers need a mask that is the inverse of the mask on the tabletop layers. CMD(Mac)/CTRL(PC)+click the tabletop layer's mask to load it as a selection. Make sure you have one of the table side's layers selected and click the Add layer mask button. Now you have a mask, but it's the opposite of what you need. Open the Masks panel and click the Invert button. Pretty neat, huh? Do the same for the other side layer and you are done with the table.

For the text, I used Illustrator because of its nice Type on a Path tool. Create a circle in Illustrator and put the type along its path. Then convert the text to outlines, copy, and paste into Photoshop. Choose Shape Layer as your option. You might be tempted to choose Smart Object, but this is a vector Smart Object and you won't be able to use Skew or Perspective, so the Shape layer is the best way to go. Transform it into position just like you did for the tabletop shape and the wood textures. When the angles match up, scale it in a bit by pulling in the edges so that it's not right on the edge of the table.

The perspective is good, but the text looks like it's sort of floating above the table and we want to make it look like it's painted on. Change the Blend mode to Screen. That's better, but we really want the texture and gaps between the planks to show through. Double+click this layer and change the Blend If options of the Layer Style. This little-used option is really useful, but it's not obvious what it does. Blend If basically means "make transparent if." Grab the black slider of the underlying layer and move it to the right until the grain and gaps show through. What you are doing is making the text layer transparent over the darker areas of layers underneath it. The only problem is that the opacity is either 100% or 0% and we need a bit of fading. For what must be the most hidden feature of Photoshop, hold down ALT/OPT and drag the black slider a bit more. This splits the slider in two. The farther apart these two halves are, the softer the transition between opaque and transparent. How about that?

The last step is the reflection on the table to bring it all together. The more reflective a surface is, the sharper and stronger the reflection will be. For a diffuse surface, the reflection will be fainter and softer. Create a new layer in Multiply mode and add a black to transparent gradient. Add a layer mask, load selections from the chairs, transform the selections, and Flip Vertical. Move them around so that they match up where the chair reflections should be and fill the mask with black with the selection still active. The problem is that the reflection is too sharp and strong. In the past, you would need to fade your fill, then apply a Gaussian Blur to the mask, but these are permanent changes. However, with CS4 you have the Masks panel. Take the Density down to 25% and the Feather to 7px. What is cool is that you can come back and adjust these settings if the blur isn't right or if you need the effect of the mask to be more or less. I've been waiting for this feature for a long time, so it's great to finally see it implemented.

Building the chairs with vector shapes tutorial

2010-05-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

These shapes could be created in Illustrator, but the point of this tutorial is to see how easily you can do it in Photoshop. The first shape is simple; it's just a circle. Use the Ellipse tool to make a Shape layer. I chose PMS 483, which is the top in a great range of reds. This slick, rounded, slightly marbelized look comes all from Layer Styles. All the colors come from this range of 483-489. The Inner Glow uses a dark color in Multiply. The Gradient Overlay is a light color in Color Dodge. The texture is a Pattern Overlay using one of Photoshop's default patterns: Satin with a Scale of 1000% and a Blend mode of Overlay at 7%. This mode drops out midtone grey and keeps the dark and light. The little highlight along the beveled edge can easily be done with Inner Shadow set to Color Dodge and using the Cone Contour as shown.

The text in the black field can be done in Photoshop and transformed with a Warp mode, but for the curved text, Illustrator is a better choice for creating text on a path. Copy the curved text in Illustrator and paste it in Photoshop as a Smart Object. I don't usually recommend doing it this way, but you can double-click it and re-edit it in Illustrator, which will automatically update in Photoshop. This is handy with curved text, which often needs to be adjusted back and forth.

Now, for the chair hoops. Use the Rounded Rectangle tool with a huge radius, like 70 pixels or something. Make a very rounded rectangle in PMS 4485. Transform it with Perspective to taper the bottom end. You can also scale it at this point if you need. Then, select the path of the Shape layer with the Path Selection tool (the black arrow). Copy and paste it. You won't see anything new, but it's there. Transform the path and scale it down. You'll see the copied path inside the original one. When it looks good, accept the transformation and with the inner path still selected, click the Subtract from shape area option. Now the inner shape is cutting out a hole from the outer shape.

Hold down SHIFT and use the Line tool to add a thick line (which really is a tall, thin rectangle). Select it with the Path Selection tool and use Perspective to taper the top a bit. You can also skew it slightly. Then copy/paste or ALT/OPT + drag it to create some duplicates. When you have one half done, you can select them all, copy/paste, then mirror them horizontally to get the other half. make sure all these paths are on the same Shape layer. Then add some Layer Styles to give it some depth. The Inner Shadow really is a shadow this time and the Gradient Overlay is the default black and white set to Multiply mode. That way, the white goes transparent and you are just left with some darkening to suggest a shadow on the lower part of the chair back. Now, duplicate the layer, then select and delete the inner pieces so that you are left with just the hoop. Clip it to the bottom chair layer. Add an Inner Shadow with a light brown in Linear or Color Dodge, which gives shinier highlights than Screen. Use the Cone Contour and adjust the Distance so that this bright line is just on top of the dark Inner Shadow. Remember that this layer is inheriting the effects from the Clipping Mask layer, but it can have its own as well. This is how you can get more than one instance of the same effect. For the final touch, add a light wood texture to a layer above these two and clip it along with the rest. This one is Soft Light at 100%, but use the settings that work best for you.

Put all the chair layers into a layer group, then duplicate it. Transform the entire group with Skew, Rotate, and Scale as necessary to make other chairs. You may also need to adjust the Bevel and Emboss or Inner Shadow to give the side chairs more of a highlight or shadow edge. Don't worry about how the bottoms look; that will all get covered up by the table, which we will work on next.

Stylized, vector-based illustration

2010-05-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

For this month, I am showing an image that is a bit different than previous examples. This was done for a local client with a smaller budget. Because of the fact that this illustration had to function more like an icon or logo, I chose to go in a more stylized direction, relying on Layer Styles instead of painting. With one exception, this image is basically resolution independent. Sometimes, it's nice to have a different style that you can market. Some of it was done in Illustrator, but for this month's set of tutorials, we'll see just how far we can go with vector shapes in Photoshop.

Presenting Photoshop at NBAUG

2010-05-03T01:42:00.000-07:00

The first of May, I made a presentation on some of the new features in Photoshop CS5 along with other SRJC instructors at the North Bay Adobe Users Group's big CS5 launch party. Instructors from the college each spoke about their areas of expertise in the new Adobe Creative Suite. I demo'd a little on the Content Aware Fill option on some tools, but mainly on the new Bristle brushes, which seek to emulate traditional paint media. As usual, new tools in Photoshop are a mixed bag for digital artists, so we'll have to see which ones end up being the most useful. But for the first time in a while. brushes have received some attention and the updated brush engine seems to work better.

I probably should have posted this before the event, but I may be back in the fall to present a more in-depth look at Photoshop's new tools, so stay tuned. If you are in the San Francisco North Bay, I recommend joining; it's free and easy. Read about it here.

Texturing the train tutorial

2010-04-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

This part of the illustration needed a sleek, modern commuter train. An elongated, rounded cube was built in Cinema 4D, but it needs a lot of Photoshop work to get it there. The train render layer is using its own alpha channel as a mask, but I put all the train layers into their own folder, which is using both a layer mask and a vector mask. Here you can see the vector paths I created for the folder mask which curve the corner a bit more and cut out a bit from the bottom. Some parts of the train hang below the 3D cube, so work on layers below the render (Layer 52) to add some simple shapes around the wheels with dark greys. Adding a Color Overlay effect in Multiply mode is an easy way to make them look darker.

The end of the train should be created as a new image. This can be quickly and easily done with Shape layers and Layer Styles. PMS 1797 was used as the base color. Use a dark grey to make lines and holes on new Shape layers. Remember to hold down SHIFT to add to your layer, instead of making a new one. The lines have a simple effect of Bevel and Emboss and Outer Glow (dark warm grey set to Multiply, of course). You can use white for the bevel highlight, but change the mode to Linear Dodge to make them more intense and specular, suggesting metal. Use the same effects for similar pieces of the train. Create the rest of the shapes with the Rectangle and Rounded Rectangle tools. Use the Direct Selection tool (white arrow) to pull in corners and create angles. You should end up with something like this. A judicious use of the effects will suggest the details you need. The window uses a black Stroke and subtle Gradient Overlay. The angled piece under the window facing upward uses a white Gradient Overlay to reflect an overhead light source and a little Inner Shadow to show the shadow cast by the vertical piece to its left. The lights have Gradient Overlays with a Reflected Style. What's great is that because it only has vector Shape layers with Layer Styles, this image is completely resolution independent.

This entire image was brought in as a Smart Object. Transform it into position and add Color and Gradient Overlays to make it work. I used PMS 296 in Multiply mode to put the back in shadow. The color of the rendered cube doesn't quite match the colors of the back texture, so I added a layer of PMS 704 in Color mode to get it to match.

Create the train's side texture using the same techniques as for the end. To give it some more gritty realism, you can add streaks, one of my favorite tricks. Refer back to the 27 February tutorial if you need a review of how to accomplish this using the Wind filter in an alpha channel. Load a selection and fill a new layer in Multiply mode with a warm dark grey. Adjust the Opacity as needed. For more grime, load a selection from the windows and fill it on a new layer. Set the Fill to 0% so these pixels are transparent and give it a dark Outer Glow in Multiply mode. Add some noise to the glow to roughen it up. To take it even further, paint dark grey around the door seams with a scatter brush on a new layer set to Multiply mode. Adjust all the Opacities to your liking. Yes, the reflection is a photo, one I took in Boston, I think. If you notice, it is nice and sharp on the window glass, but has a Gaussian Blur and lower Opacity over the metal sides. This is to differentiate between the glass, which has a more accurate reflection, and the metal, which will be more diffused. As a final touch, a light blue gradient at the top suggest the sky's reflection as the side curves away at the roof.

Here it is transformed into position, but it needs some masking to make it fit. The tricky part is that it needs both sharp-edged and soft masks. Use the Pen tool to make a vector mask that hides the side texture along the shadow cast by the tunnel. Use the Polygonal Lasso to make a layer mask along the top and end. Then, open up the wonderful Mask panel, new to CS4. Adjust the Feather of the mask to soften its edge and suggest a curving up to the top, rather than a hard corner. The softer the edge, the more gentle the curve. Corners will often catch a glint of highlight along the edge, especially if they are metal. A curved corner will have a wider and softer highlight. To simulate this, add Drop and Inner Shadow effects. Use PMS 698 and Color Dodge. With the same color, opacity, and blend mode for both shadows, a nice, intense, and soft-edged specular highlight follows this edge of the train's roof. The glint layer above it uses a radial white-to-transparent gradient in Color Dodge. You can see how this blend mode really gives the illusion of shiny metal.

Don't give up, we're almost done. The top of the train has this long black piece. Never use pure black or white. In this case, try a very dark grey like PMS 433. To get the highlight along its corner edge, use an Inner Shadow with the settings shown. Choosing a light color and Color Dodge will make it a higlhight, but change the Contour to Cone. Now you have a line away from the edge that is perfect. Adjust the Size and Distance to control the height of this black piece and how curved the corner is.

For the finishing touch, we need some glowing lights. Make them with the Rounded Rectangle tool and use Cool Grey 1 and a vibrant orange. The Inner and Outer Glows actually use the default yellow color in Screen mode. The kicker here is the Drop Shadow. With the Distance set to 0, it acts more like an Outer Glow. Set the color to white and the blend mode to Linear Dodge. What's the difference between Liner and Color Dodge? Color Dodge sometimes keeps a bit more color, but has a hard time showing up against dark backgrounds. In fact, it won't show up at all over black, so in these cases, you may need to try Linear Dodge. The intense, glowing aura of the lights is created by the combining of the Linear Dodge Drop Shadow and The Screen Outer Glow. The same approach was used on the amber lights, except with orange glows. This 'doubling up' of lightening blend modes is a good way to simulate luminous glows.

That's it! There was more here than I initially realized, so I worked hard to cram it all in. The truth is, this could easily end up being 2 or 3 tutorials. But I hope you got something out of it, anyway.

Texturing and painting the bridge tutorial

2010-04-22T03:34:00.000-07:00

The bridge was built as a very simple 3D model and textured in Cinema 4D. It's a good starting point, but it needs some more detail and realism. The first step is to reduce the size of the stone blocks somewhat. The very same texturing technique used for the buildings will work here as well. Create a new layer and fill it with a color. Add a Pattern Overlay effect and choose a brick or stone texture. Convert that layer to a Smart Object and transform it into position using Skew or Distort, then adjust the Opacity and Blend mode as needed. I chose Darken at 70%. Now the larger blocks are obscured and there is more stone detail. And because it's a Smart Object, you can go back in and change the pattern's scale or choose a new one if you want to later.

Now it's time to start painting. Do this on a new layer with a fairly simple brush and the Opacity Jitter set to stylus. Paint in some architectural features to cover up the overall stone texture. Top areas will need cornices and edges often have larger stones. To paint the straight lines, you can use the Line tool with the option set to Fill pixels. That creates new pixels on your current layer, instead of making a new vector Shape layer. You can also click with a brush, then SHIFT+click elsewhere and Photoshop will draw a straight line between the two points. This often works better with a mouse. With a stylus, it's hard to get enough pressure for that second click. Add a new layer and set it to Multiply mode. Choose a warm grey or brown and paint in streaks and stains. These will often be under overhangs and in crevices. Use a photo as a guide for how it should look. In case you can't tell, this bridge was loosely based on the Brooklyn Bridge.

As usual, clip all these layers down to the bottom render layer, which will act as the clipping mask. If you need to add details that stick out past the alpha channel of the original render, do it on a layer that is not clipped along with the rest. Since I lowered the top of the arches, I had to do this to show their undersides. Add a layer of light blue and maybe a Gradient Overlay to give the bridge some atmospheric perspective and push it back into the distance. As a last step, put all the bridge layers into a layer group and add a mask to it, then paint out some of the edges with black on this mask to remove the sharp, straight lines of the original 3D geometry and make it follow the contours of the new painted details. I did this on the group's mask so that I wouldn't mess up the rendered alpha channel used as a mask on the bottom layer.

That's about it. This was a quick one, but I hope it's useful. Tune in for more before the month is over.

Creating dirt texture tutorial

2010-04-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

A dirt material was applied to the base geometry in Cinema 4D, but the render came out looking flat and smooth. It needs some realistic texture applied in Photoshop to to make it look rough and natural, more like real dirt. In the past, I have painted dirt by hand or tried a combination of filters to get the right look, but that is time consuming and doesn't end up looking very real. I decided to create the texture from a photo. A couple of years ago, as I was traveling through Guatemala, we were stopped to wait for road construction (that happens a lot there). Near the road was a section of earth that had been cut away, leaving this great cross section of dirt, so I took some photos. This is why it's always a good idea to carry around your camera with you.

Drag the photo over and transform it into position using Distort or Skew. Change the blend mode to Luminosity. Now, only the dark and light values of the photo are affecting the image behind it; the hue remains unchanged. Duplicate the photo layer and experiment with blend modes and opacity. I ended up with Normal at 70%. Photo-based textures tend to look better if you combine several different images with different blend modes and opacities, instead of just using one photo.

Select the angled part on the left and skew it a bit more to follow the plane of the original 3D model. For the little sliver that faces to the side, you can just paint it by hand. Choose a simple brush with the Opacity Jitter set to stylus and hold down ALT/OPT to pick colors from the surrounding areas. Start big and work down to the smaller details. Continue the different bands along this face and pick new colors often to add more color diversity.

To make the roadway look like it's hanging over the dirt a bit and casting a shadow, create a new layer and make a selection along the edges of the roadway with the Polygonal Lasso tool. Fill it with any color and add a Layer Style. Set the Fill to 0% so that the pixels on the this layer will be transparent, but the effects will still be visible. Give it a Drop Shadow and adjust the settings similar to what you see here. Remember to uncheck Use Global Light, so that other effects won't change. The scene was rendered as a multi-pass, so I've got separate layers for the shadow and ambient occlusion calculated by Cinema 4D. These layers were dragged over on top of the photo and paint layers to add greater realism.

One of the products shown in this illustration is a pump for water deep underground. The dirt cutaway needs to have a cavity with water in it. Paint a rough hole using a dark brown picked from the surrounding dirt. Let the cracks and contours of the texture be a guide as you paint the edge. Give it a dark Outer Glow in Multiply mode and a Bevel and Emboss using settings like these. Color Dodge for the highlight will not affect the darker areas as much as Screen would. The Chisel Hard Technique makes the edge rougher and more angular. Reduce the Fill of this layer to 80%.

For the water, create a shape layer using the Pen tool and clip it to the void layer. Use a dark blue as the fill color and add an Inner Glow of light blue in Screen mode. Yes, sometimes, I actually use light glows. A light blue stroke represents the edge of the water cutaway. Reduce the Fill to 70% so that the water becomes somewhat transparent, but the Layer Styles remain unaffected. A light blue shape on top represents the top of the water. Because both these layers use the void layer as a clipping mask, they inherit its Fill setting of 80%.

As a final touch, roughen up the edges by painting on the mask of the bottom render layer. As before, let the cracks and contours be your guide on where to cut away the edge. This will help sell the idea that it's rough, loose dirt. That should about do it. Now we have what looks like a chunk that is cut out and removed from the surrounding ground and it's about as realistic looking as something like this could be.

Transforming Smart Objects with Layer Styles tutorial

2010-04-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

This is the final render of the 3D scene I had to work with. It's a good start, but it has that sterile, perfect look that is so easy to do in 3D. However, it's great for taking care of composition, shadows, and perspective and is a good foundation to start with in Photoshop. The first thing to do is add perspective lines to assist in transforming textures. This is best done by creating vector Shape layers with the Line tool. Use Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar. This option used to be at the bottom of the Tools panel, but in CS4 it's in the new Application Bar. With this viewing mode, the image window extends out to the edge of the screen and you can zoom out to see a blank area outside of the borders of the image. A similar space in Illustrator is called the canvas, but as far as I know, there is no corresponding term in Photoshop. Here, the canvas is the visible artwork and anything placed beyond it is not seen. Selections and raster-based tools don't work in this area, but vector-based tools do. Set the Line tool to 1 pixel and make a line from a straight edge in the image out to what is presumably the horizon. You can see that the line extends into this blank are beyond the Photoshop canvas, whereas a raster line would not. Incidentally, you can change this background color by right+clicking on it and then choosing a better color than the default midtone grey. That's what I have done.

Hold down the shift key and you will see a little plus by your cursor. Now you can add a new line to this Shape layer instead of creating a new layer (which is what would happen by default). That is the goal: to put all these lines on one layer. I often use a Shape layer for each axis: X, Y, and Z. If I get too many lines going, then I'll add new layers. Unlike Illustrator, all the vector shapes on a single Shape layer must be the same color. This is because the layer really only holds one color and the vector shapes are acting as masks to show that color.

Where two lines converge that are in reality parallel is a vanishing point. Remember perspective class? For most 3D rendered scenes, you will probably have three vanishing points (for width, height, and depth), but depending on how much objects are turned, you could have more. I used to use raster lines, but with vectors, you can grab the ends and move them around; this is amazingly useful, especially if you didn't get it quite right the first time. In order to reposition a line, you must use the Direct Selection tool. That's the white arrow. One odd thing to keep in mind is that since Photoshop doesn't like open paths, these are not stroked rules like you might find in Illustrator. Each line in Photoshop is actually a long, skinny rectangle acting like a mask. Vector shapes here don't have strokes and fills. So to move just one end, you have to make sure you select both points on the end with the Direct Selection tool. Dragging a marquee to select them both is the easiest way. What's great about this technique is that you can zoom out to select what you need, then zoom back in to view a different part of the image and use the arrow keys to move the line end(s). Hold down Shift to move in increments of 10 pixels instead of 1.

With the vanishing points and perspective lines set up, it's time to start texturing. For this, you'll need to make or load some patterns. Texture map libraries for 3D models are a great resource. For this application, we need seamless building patterns: photos of brick, stone, windows, etc. Put together a library of patterns that are most applicable to the kind of work you do. Keep adding to it when you come across new ones you like. Other useful textures are cracks, concrete, wood planks, dirt, grass, and decorative architectural elements. You can also save your patterns as an external file and take them with you.

Load an alpha channel from your render and use it as a mask on the render layer. Create a new layer and fill it with any color. Then add a Pattern Overlay with Layer Styles. Choose a window texture that you like. Don't worry about its scale; we can deal with that later. Convert it to a Smart Object by right-clicking on it in the Layers panel and choosing from the drop-down menu. ALT/OPT+click between the two layers to use the render layer as a clipping mask. Now, transform the Smart Object layer with Distort and Skew. This is only possible in CS4. In previous versions, transformations like Warp, Distort, and Perspective would not work on Smart Objects, so this technique did not exist. But now, Smart Objects are finally 'smart' and can be fully transformed. Vector Smart Objects are still limited, though. Oh well, maybe in CS5.

You may be wondering why I didn't use the Vanishing Point filter. Well, if you look carefully, you'll see that it's not really a filter, since it's in a category all by itself. Vanishing Point doesn't recognize Smart Objects or vector shapes, so it is limited. Also, I have found the quality of the images it produces lacking at times. Transforming Smart Objects is non-destructive, so it really is the way to go. Try different Blend modes to see what you like. You want the highlight and shadow of the 3D object to show through; that's the whole idea. For this one, I chose Overlay at 80%. Hard Light, Soft Light, and Multiply may also work.

This first building has a middle piece that sticks out from the front face, so the windows need to look like they're wrapping around it. First, use the Polygonal Lasso tool to make a selection around this part, then add a mask to the layer. Duplicate the layer and invert the mask. You will also need to mask out the dark sides of the building. Be sure to unlink the mask from the layer so that you are only transforming the Smart Object and not the mask as well. The great thing about Smart Objects in CS4 is that when you go back to transform them, all the settings are still there; nothing has been reset. The skewed sides are still in place, so to match the window pattern to the receded front, grab the top and Scale it down a bit. The grab the bottom edge and scale it as well so that you end up with the same height as when you started. Make sure you don't just move it; that will mess up the perspective. If you scale the edges instead, you will keep them perfectly aligned with the perspective of the scene.

If the building texture isn't quite right, you can double-click on its layer and edit the Smart Object, which opens up as a PSB, for some strange reason. That's also Photoshop's large document format for files over 2 Gb in size, so why it should be the file format here as well is a mystery to me. It's apparently not a linked file that resides externally; it just magically pops up when you want to edit it. With the Smart Object open, you can edit the Pattern Overlay to change its Scale or even choose a new texture altogether. When you're done, save the Smart Object and your main file automatically updates. Pretty neat! You can keep making adjustments in this way until the pattern is perfect.

This building has windows only in the recessed areas. Since all the shapes are composes of straight lines, it's easy to make a selection for the mask. With the non-destructive editability of Smart Objects, you can keep fine-tuning all the sides until they match up. These windows worked best in Multiply mode. For the blue building behind it, Hard Light gave the impression of shiny glass and steel. Adjust the Opacity of each layer as needed so that the original balance of highlight and shadow on the render shows through.

The smaller building in front was done the same way. A brick pattern was used as that's more likely in a building with fewer storeys. Pick textures that you like to give each building some unique character. Notice that all of these layers are clipped to the bottom render layer, so that nothing sticks out beyond the building shapes. What's cool is that with not very many patterns, you can create a wide diversity of buildings, just by varying the scale and Blend mode of the Pattern Overlays, along with the color behind them. And the best part of it all is that with Smart Objects, you can come back and easily make more changes. In a few clicks these could be completely different buildings. This is something I've been waiting for in Photoshop for a long time, so I'm glad Adobe finally implemented it.

Illustration for April

2010-04-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

This month, I am showing an image that is a bit different from the previous ones. It still has realistic painting and textures, but the perspective is exaggerated. I worked on this image with another designer who built the geometry in Cinema 4D. To achieve this unusual look, the scene camera's Aperture Width was set to 50 and the Field of View to 69º. The camera was then moved in close so that the models filled the image area and the perspective around the edges was distorted. I did some final editing and positioning of the 3D geometry.

The final render was brought into Photoshop for painting and texturing. Some photos were used to streamline the process. I was able to develop a texturing technique with Smart Objects that was not possible in previous versions of Photoshop. This was very exciting because it allows a greater degree of editability and flexibility with transformed objects that I had been hoping for since I first began using the Transform tool to Skew and Distort. I'll share this technique in this image's first tutorial.

Creating the blueprint tutorial

2010-03-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

The last step to finishing this image is to have the guys holding a blueprint as requested by the client. The Pen tool is the best way to go about this. Many tutorials would suggest using it to make a path, then load a selection, and fill it on a new layer. However, there is a better way that leaves you with a shape that is much more editable with fewer steps.

Start with the Pen tool, but check the option at the far left of the Options bar to make a shape layer instead of just a path. There are so many benefits to working with a vector shape in Photoshop. As you can see, you can build it so that it extends past the edge of the image. This way, Layer Styles will follow the edge of the shape, rather than the image. PMS 642 was used because it's a good color for blueprints and has a nice range of light to dark. An Inner Glow and Gradient Overlay were added, both in Multiply mode using dark blues from the same range as the 642. Noise was added to the glow to give the paper some texture. A reflected gradient was used to darken the sides, giving the blueprint a bit of a curve. To complete the look, add a new layer above the vector shape layer, hold down ALT/OPT and click between the two layers to use the bottom one as a clipping mask. Render the Clouds filter on the new layer with PMS 643 and white as the foreground/background colors. Set the layer's blend mode to Multiply so that the white becomes transparent. Lower the Opacity to 60%.

To create the rules on the paper, duplicate the blueprint shape layer and move it above the clouds layer. Transform the layer to make it smaller than the paper. Because the shape layers use vector masks and are resolution independent, you can transform them over and over without any loss of quality. Use Layer styles to give it a stroke of dark blue and Inner and Outer Glows of dark blue in Multiply mode. To make the fill of the shape transparent but keep the effects, lower the Fill (not the Opacity) to 0%.

For the drawing to go on the blueprint, the client provided a black-and-white schematic. That image was dragged into the final illustration. Change its blend mode to Multiply to make the white transparent. To make it look like it's actually on the curving paper, use Transform and then Warp. With this option, you can move the corners independently like Distort, but you also have control handles that allow you to curve or envelope the sides. Move the points and adjust the sides to mimic the curvature of the paper. Don't worry about being too exact, so when it looks good, apply the transformation. To make the schematic blue, add a layer above it and use the schematic layer as a clipping mask. make a selection on this empty layer that covers the schematic, fill it with PMS 654, and set its blend mode to color. The schematic is now blue, but it's a bit too dark, so lower the opacity of the schematic layer to 80%.

For the final touches, shadows were painted with PMS 296 on a layer set to Multiply. Lower its opacity until it looks good. The edge of the paper curling over was done with the pen tool to make a new shape layer with PMS 642. A little Inner Shadow effect was added to turn the curve. The last step is to add yet another layer in Multiply mode, clip it to the curling paper, and paint just a hint of shadow from the guy's arm. That should do it.

Stay tuned so see what I can come up with for next month's tutorial.

Painting people tutorial

2010-03-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Drawing and painting people accurately is one of the greatest challenges in art. This is one area where doing it digitally doesn't offer many shortcuts. But we can apply many of the principles used for other subject matter here as well.

Unless you are an unbelievably talented artist, working from photos is crucial to drawing human figures and faces correctly. Here you can see the photographic source material for the guy on the train, scaled down to about the right size. Work on a new blank layer to paint a flat silhouette of the figure. Don't tell anyone, but you can put your photo in the exact spot you need it, then trace over it. Pick a midtone color that is related to any noticeable areas of large color in the photo. In this case, it's PMS 5405, a good choice as a base for denim. This layer will act as a clipping mask for the layers of detail painting. Add a layer mask to it, load a selection from the railing mask or alpha channel by CMD (Mac)/CTRL (PC)+clicking on its layer or channel thumbnail, and use it to paint black on the silhouette's layer mask where the rail covers up the guy. Since the other layers clipped to this one will use its layer mask, you won't need separate masks for each one.

Create new layers, clip them to the bottom layer with the flat silhouette, and get painting. I'll be using my favorite brush again, the 9-pixel thin pencil brush with the Opacity jitter set to Tablet. Size the brush up and down as needed by tapping the left and right bracket keys (just to the right of the P). You can pick colors directly from the photo if you want to. Hold down the ALT/OPT key while painting to turn your brush into the eyedropper temporarily. When picking colors from photos, it's a good idea to check your Sample Size. Select the eyedropper from the Tools panel and look at its options. Make sure the Sample Size is set to 3 by 3 average or higher. Because photos contain so many different colors, you may not want to pick a color from just one pixel. This option averages out that pixel with the pixels around it, so what you get is a more accurate representation of the blend of colors in that area. The more color noise in your photo, the higher this setting should be. Break your details up into layers. I used one for the hands and head, one for the pants and shirt, and one for the orange safety vest.

Paint the reflective stripes on a new layer not clipped with the rest because they need to be their own clipping mask. Add an Outer Glow to simulate the light this tape can reflect back. You can use the standard yellow color for the glow, but change the Blend Mode to Linear Dodge to make it really intense. This effect is a bit exaggerated, but it looks cool, and isn't that what it's all about? You may need to load a selection of the opacity of the main silhouette layer and use that as a mask on this layer so that the stripes don't stick out past the edges. Make a new layer and clip it to the stripes layer then add a few quick light and dark swatches to indicate the highlights and shadows on the folds of the tape. Now, the workman needs a hardhat, because you never know when something is going to fall on your head while you are on a train. The same approach was used for the hat. Put it on its own layer not clipped to the rest; that way, you can extend it past the edges of the head. Paint it as a solid color, then add the highlights and shadows on a new layer, using the bottom on as a clipping mask. That should do it. Just to keep things organized, put all these layers into their own group.

Now, it's time for the closeups. Since these are not really portraits, they don't need as much effort put into them. It's not a likeness, so there's no need to worry if it looks like your source photo or not; what's more important is correct anatomy. Start out with a flat base layer. For this guy, it's PMS 7516. All of the skin, face, and hair detail was painted on just one layer using the base layer as a clipping mask. I Did put a subtle dark to transparent gradient in Multiply mode as an effect on this layer to slightly darken the figure toward the back. All the upper layers clipped to this one will 'inherit' this same effect. If this had been a serious portrait, more time and effort would be required and several layers should have been used to allow for minute adjustments. Colors were picked directly from the photo. The shirt and vest were painted on separate layers also clipped to the base layer. Just like on the guy riding the train, paint the hardhat on a new layer not clipped along with the others. It will serve as a new clipping mask for the details above it. This is a yellow hardhat, so I used PMS 116 as the base.

You can try another little Layer Styles trick for the shadow cast by the hardhat. Load the opacity of the base hardhat layer as a selection, make a new layer above the painted face, clip it along with the others to the 7516 base, and fill it with a dark yellow (the color doesn't really matter). Then, add a Drop Shadow effect along the bottom of this shape. Because this layer uses the base as a clipping mask, not only do you not see any of it that sticks out beyond the original silhouette, but you don't see any effects outside of it, either. This is easier than trying to paint in the drop shadow and it is adjustable. The reflective tape stripes were added on a layer above all these ones just like on the train workman. That about does it. The other guy was painted using the same techniques. If the job requires it, logos can be added (and then later removed as the client requests) on separate layers above the hardhats.

Painting the final details tutorial

2010-03-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Now it's time to finish this part up. We need to paint on the final details to make it look as realistic as we can. Rails tend to look rough and rusty, except on the top, which is polished smooth and shiny by the continual movement of the wheels over it, so it reflects the color of the sky. Make a new layer to do some quick, loose painting. The mask is the alpha channel of this geometry that was rendered from Cinema 4D. The next layer is for shadows. I painted those with PMS 296 on a layer in Multiply mode and used the same alpha channel for a mask. The next layer is for the pieces at the intersection, called a frog because they supposedly look like a frog (I don't really see it, either). Now the rails are looking done. The last details like the clips that hold them down can be added. As usual, the main shape was created as a solid color on its own layer, then the details were painted on a layer above it, then clipped to the bottom layer.

For the railing, I used the rendered alpha channel and used it as the mask for this layer. Notice how the painting can be very loose and indistinct and yet with the clean edges of the mask and the 3D render underneath, it looks okay. Depending on the complexity of the model and its overlapping areas, several alpha channels may have to be rendered. But this will be enough and the other details can be added on separate layers.

Whenever possible, try to use vector shape layers to keep clean edges and maximize editability. For the framework around the screens, start with the Rectangle tool. Make sure the Shape Layers option is chosen at the upper left of the Options top bar. After making the rectangle, hold down the ALT/OPT key to subtract from the current shape and put holes in the rectangle, making it look like a frame with crossbars. Use the Path Selection tool (the black arrow) to select all the separate shapes on the one shape layer. Now you can copy and paste these shapes or just ALT/OPT+drag them to make a copy. Notice that with the Path Selection tool active and paths selected, some very helpful options become available. A number of Align and Distribute buttons can be used to make sure the shapes are evenly spaced out. Click the large Combine button to combine all the separate shapes into one path on the shape layer.

Now that the paths are all one and the unfilled areas hanging out below are gone, it is easy to transform the frame. Create some lines on an upper layer to serve as perspective guide lines. Follow the angles of the 3D geometry. Use Distort and Skew to match the edges to the perspective lines. Then add some Bevel & Emboss and Inner Shadow layer styles to give it some dimension. A layer clipped to it is used for some quick scribbles to add hints of dirt and rust. The shape on the screen layer was filled a fence pattern, then scaled down and transformed to match the frame. A Color Overlay adjusted the color and a Stroke thickened it up a bit.

Now, it just needs some final details to finish it off. I didn't bother to build and render these in 3D because they are fairly simple. You can create them in Photoshop as vector objects on a shape layer. With layer styles, add a Gradient Overlay and Inner Shadow. In this case, the shadow is really going to be a soft highlight. Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and pick a light warm grey. Use a reflected gradient with the same light grey in Color Dodge to add the wide highlights on either side. Now there is a soft shadow going up and down the middle. The painting was added on an upper layer using this vector shape layer as a clipping mask. You won't need to paint much on this details layer; just indicate some dark smudges and streaks. I did this exhaust pipe and the canister behind it in the same way. This should do it; the train, rail, and tracks are done. In the next tutorial, I'll cover how to paint some people into the scene.