Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Trucos. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Trucos. Mostrar todas las entradas

martes, 3 de agosto de 2010

How To Create The Expendables Winged Skull Poster Art

How To Create The Expendables Winged Skull Poster Art

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When I saw the bad-ass poster design for the upcoming movie The Expendables, I just had to open up Photoshop and have a go at recreating it. Follow this step by step guide on how to create the menacing winged skull design for yourself, complete with an overkill of weaponry surrounding a sinister looking skull face.

Expendables style poster design

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The design is a homage to the original The Expendables poster. It features a sinister skull surrounded by an array of rifles, pistols, knives and bullets which form a pair of detailed wings. The Expendables movie itself looks just as bad-ass! It pays tribute to the action movies of the 80′s and early 90′s and star just about every action movie veteran there is.

Unless you have Rambo’s armory in your garden shed, the first step to creating this design is to scour the web for stock photos of various weaponry. Most of the items I found were sourced from ThinkStock, with inspiration being taken from the IMFDB (Internet Movie Firearms Database) by searching for the weapons used in your favourite action movies. What about Commando, Rambo, or Predator?

Once you’ve built your arsenal, open up the shots in Photoshop. With the images being high resolution and set on white, we can cheat by using the Magic Wand to select the background, then inverse the selection (CMD+Shift+I).

To prevent a white outline appearing around the weapon when clipped out, go to Select > Modify > Contract and enter 2px. Copy the selection and paste it into a new document.

Cut out each weapon from your collection and paste it into the temporary document. Quickly remove the colour from the photos by hitting CMD+Shift+U.

Some photos will be larger resolutions than others, so scale the weapons down so they’re all roughly in proportion to each other.

Hold ALT and drag the largest weapon from the collection to make a duplicate. Rotate this object to produce the first of the ‘primary feathers’. Repeat the process with the other rifles, rotating them so they start to form a flaring wing shape.

Some of the photos will have high contrast, while others won’t. Adjust the Levels (CMD+L) of the images as you go.

Work down in size through the rifles onto the handheld weapons. Remember to ensure the layers are stacked sequentially, so each additional item goes underneath the rest.

When working with pistols, use duplicates to fill out the inner area of the wing. Remember to keep following the angle so the objects are flaring out from a centre point.

To fill out any large gaps in the design, use another rifle graphic and send it to the bottom of the layer stack. The large body fills out the inner area of the wing while the barrel protrudes out to give the impression of another feather.

Once all the firearms have been used, move onto knives and bayonets near the bottom of the wing. These items can be laid out in a typical feather-like pattern by creating layers which overlap each other.

Make duplicates to fill out any gaps in the design and make any adjustments to the angles to give that realistic wing appearance.

Add a Levels Adjustment Layer to darken the objects and increase the contrast.

Next we need a skull image for the centre of the design. This particular shot was sourced from ThinkStock. The photograph isn’t quite square on, so make a selection across the first half of the design, copy (CMD+C) and paste (CMD+V).

Press CMD+T to Transform, then right click and select Flip Horizontally. Move this copy over to the right side and line it up with the original.

There will be a line down the centre of the image where the two parts are joined, so add a Layer Mask and softly erase out portions of the design to remove this connecting line and to remove any obvious duplications of flaws or textures in the skull.

Draw a path around the outline of the skull with the Pen Tool, right click to make a selection then copy it ready for importing into the main document.

Group all the objects that make up the first wing, then duplicate and Flip Horizontally.

Move the duplicate to the left side of the document and align both wings centrally on the design. Make adjustments to the canvas size to create a typical poster size.

Paste in the skull graphic, then scale and position it to sit in the centre of the two wings. Remove the colour by desaturating the layer (CMD+Shift+U).

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask to bring out the details of the skull to match the level of detail in the series of weapon graphics.

Add some dabs of black with a soft brush to the upper portion of the skull. CMD-Click the skull layer thumbnail, inverse the selection (CMD+Shift+I) and delete out the excess. Change this layer to Soft Light.

Next, add a series of highlights using a white brush. Load the selection from the skull layer to delete out the excess, then change this layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity to around 30%.

On a layer underneath the skull, but above the wings, paint an outline of black with a soft brush. Change this layer to Soft Light.

Import an image of a bullet, cut it out and begin positioning duplicates of the object to form a series of smaller feathers on the underside of the skull.

Group the collection of smaller feathers, then duplicate and flip horizontally. Move them into place on the opposite side of the design.

Use a soft brush to paint an overlay of red across the lower portion of the design. Confine this to the outline of the design by loading selections from the layers. Tip: I duplicate the groups then flatten the layers so I have a temporary layer that can be used for loading masks of the complete design.

Change the blending mode of the red layer to Overlay at 70%. Use a Layer Mask to erase out portions of red around the skull to give the impression that the light is being cast from below.

Import a rough texture into the background, desaturate (CMD+Shift+U) then increase the contrast using Levels (CMD+L). Reduce the opacity to around 5%.

Press CMD+A to load a selection, then right click and select Stroke to add a 100px black outline. Blur this outline into a vignette with a 250px Gaussian Blur.

Change the layer style of the vignette to Dissolve, then merge (CMD+E) the layer with a blank layer to rasterize the effect. Transform (CMD+T) and scale the vignette outwards slightly so it just creeps in from the edges.

Give the vignette an opacity of 50%, then add another 50px stroke and give this a blending mode of Overlay.

Press CMD+A to Select All, then CMD+Shift+C to Copy Merged. Paste this layer at the top of the stack then add a High Pass filter (Filter > Other > High Pass). Change this layer to Linear Light and tone down the opacity to around 50%.

This High Pass layer does a great job of bringing out the tiny highlights and details from the weaponry and the texture of the skull.

Finish off the poster with the “Choose your weapon” tagline centred up below the main skull graphic. Right click the text layer and select Rasterize Type.

Give the text a stencilled appearance by deleting out a thin selection from each letter.

Rough up the text using a Layer Mask and a range of splatter and spray brushes. Lower the opacity of the brush to generate a range of tones and textures.

Expendables style poster design

jueves, 1 de julio de 2010

Recreate the Epic 80’s Metal Text Effect in Photoshop


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It’s funny how trends reappear through the years. The bright and shiny chrome text effect could be found everywhere in the 80s, then it disappeared altogether when people realised how hideous and gaudy it was. Recently though, this text styling seems to be making a comeback in the world of digital art as the 80s generation are implementing inspirations from their childhood into their designs and artworks. Follow this tutorial to recreate the epic metal text effect for yourself, making use of modern day digital design techniques in Photoshop.

Epic metal text effect

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1980’s Inspiration

80s chrome metal text research

WWF Wrestling, Metallica’s Ride the Lightning album, Robocop, Amiga games and Transformers are all examples that I can relate to. As a little initial research, collect a few logos and graphics to refer to when creating your own text effect. Look closely at the colours used, the style of text and what seems like a desert landscape in the reflection of the text.

We’ll begin in Illustrator for the first couple of steps to lay out our type. Set out the wording of your choice in an appropriate font and convert the text to outlines (CMD+Shift+O). Here I’m using the font Viper Squadron, and the word ‘Epic’.

With the shapes selected, go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter 3mm in the options box. Right click on the objects and select Ungroup.

Add a couple of basic gradient fills to the two shapes to make it easy to identify them. A sky blue to white on the inner shape and a red to blue gradient on the outline will do the trick.

Draw a temporary rectangle around the text, then select this along with the outer shape. Paste the objects into Photoshop. Repeat the process but this time with the inner shape. The temporary rectangle will maintain the proportions between the two objects when copied through to Photoshop.

Double click the inner shape layer and begin adding some layer styles. Start by replacing the fill with a Gradient Overlay. Use dark blue (#426bc7), light blue (#719cff) and white (#ffffff) swatches and run the gradient vertically from the top.

Next, add a soft Inner Glow using a mid-blue (#76a5cd), set the opacity to 100%, blending mode to Normal, size to around 8px and add a 2px stroke to accommodate the stroke in the next step.

Add a 2px stroke in white, then set the alignment to the Inside and blending mode to Color Dodge. Adjust the opacity to around 60%.

Hold the CMD (Mac), or CTRL (Windows) key while clicking the thumbnail of the inner-text layer to load the selection. Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool and hold Alt while dragging a selection across the upper portion of the text, leaving just the lower half selected. Fill this with white on a new layer.

Double click the layer to open up the layer styles and add a vertical gradient running from dark indigo (#261528) to mid-indigo (#241e53) to white (#ffffff) to a very light indigo (#b6b4c7).

Zoom right in and draw a circular selection at each end of the reflection gradient layer on each letter.

Use the rectangular marquee tool to remove the middle portion between each circle. Repeat the process on every other letter.

Load the selection of the reflection layer, then go to Select > Modify > Contract. Enter 2px to reduce the mask size to accommodate the stroke, then inverse the selection (CMD+Shift+I) and delete.

The text is beginning to develop some definition with the gradients and stroked outlines. Now let’s start work on the chamfered edge.

Zoom in and draw around each edge of the outer outline with the Polygonal Lasso tool. Close the path by cutting diagonally across the outline at each corner. Fill each edge with white on individual layers.

Add a simple black to white gradient on one of the shape layers. Right click the layer and select Paste Layer Style, then select all the other layers and paste the same layer style.

The gradient is running in the wrong direction on the horizontal shapes, so tweak each one by adjusting the angle of the gradient fill.

Repeat the process on every other letter. Aim to contrast black against white on each shape to highlight the diagonal edge lines.

CMD-click the layer of the original outline shape and fill a new layer with white. Then CMD-click the original inner shape layer and delete this selection from the fill.

Replace this white fill with a blue (#283891) to red (#f07b71) gradient using the layer style options.

Change this layer’s blending mode to Linear Burn to allow the gradient overlay to replace the colour of the white to black gradients underneath.

Dab a few spots of white across the text to add a variety of highlights and tones. Load and inverse the selection of the text layer and delete out the excess from the highlights layer.

On a new layer, draw some 1px white lines across the straight edges of the text to act as highlights.

Add a layer mask to the highlighting lines layer and erase out the ends of the lines with a soft brush.

Find a stock lens flare and paste in multiple copies to highlight the edges and corners of the text.

Load the outer text selection and fill a new layer with white. Add a Noise filter (Filter > Noise > Add Noise) with the settings 10%, Uniform & Monochromatic. Change this layer’s blending mode to Color Burn to allow the texture to interact with the text.

The text effect is just about complete, but let’s finish off the design with a subtle background. Use some Subtle Grunge Brushes to add some background texture to the design. Reduce the opacity down to around 30%.

Dab some large spots of colour above the texture layer, but below the text. Use samples of blue, red and purple from the outer edges of the text.

Change the blending mode to Color Dodge at 80% to allow the colours to interact with the textured background.

Finally add a soft Drop Shadow to the outer text outline layer to anchor the text with the background.

Epic metal text effect

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