This is how the Torn Edges Poster was created in 18 steps.
Disclaimer: Idea and techniques are given full credit to Dhab.
Photoshop Painting
Posted by on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 in
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Position Sketch I took a number of embarrassing photos of myself and opened them in photoshop. Once I had a visual of how I wanted the final image to look, I started sketching free hand with a Wacom pen scratching in lines where I thought they should be. |
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Detail Sketch On a new layer with the first layers opacity lowered to 10%, I re-sketched the same image but with more details. |
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Pen Tool Sketch Again I lowered that layer to 10% and on a new layer, traced the outline a 3rd time but with the pen tool making clean smooth lines. |
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Color Fill On another layer set to multiply to allow the lines to be seen, I filled in solid colors for an initial starting point. |
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Burn Tool Using the burn and dodge tools, I created a 3D illusion by lighting and darkening areas. |
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Shading Very similar to the previous step but with stronger brush strokes. Some areas where defined with the smudge tool. |
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Highlights and Black Background Continued to work the highlights/shadows and filled the background with black. I also changed a few of the colors at this step. |
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Level Adjustment Layer A levels adjustment layer was added and grouped with the shaded layer to increase the highlight brightness. |
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Texture Filter for Mesh With the texture filter, I added a canvas effect then used the liquify filter to make necessary lighting distortions. With a layer mask, the effect was limited to selected areas. |
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Texture Filter for Metal Armour Similar to the previous step but with slightly altered settings and then masked only to the armour plates. |
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Plastic Wrap for Water Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap gives a nice glossy feeling for the water soon to be added. A layer mask was also used here for areas that didn't look good such as his face. |
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Noise and Motion Blur for Rain Rain was then added on 2 different layers. One in the front and one in the back. It was created by filling an empty layer with noise, reducing the frequency with levels and then a strong vertical motion blur. With the layers set to screen mode, only shades lighter then 50% grey where showing allowing the rest of the image to show through. |
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White Beam The white beam was an altered version of dhabih's painting. It was a cool way to develop a light source. |
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Cloud Filter and Riple Filter The background was created with the Cloud Filter and the reflection was a copy of the image flipped with the Ocean Ripple filter applied. |
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More Shadows A basic step with the paint brush set to a black soft edge. |
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Sword Reflection The left side of the sword was given a reflection of the clothing colors simply by using the clone tool and a clipping mask. |
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Layer Styles for Water Drops Bevel and a drop shadow on a layer with 0% fill opacity created some nice water drops. The splashes on the ground and shoulders were simple brush strokes. |
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Final Shadows and Highlights Final steps included a dark area near the bottom to hide his knees and a light area near the top to reflect off the light source and bring attention to his face. |
View a complete Quicktime animation of the process.