Ruby is mainly used for web development, particularly in developing server-side applications and frameworks like Ruby on Rails. It can also create desktop applications, mobile apps, and scripting tasks. Ruby’s popularity has grown due to its ease of use, flexibility, and availability of many libraries and frameworks. It is often used in startups and agile development environments, where rapid prototyping and iteration are critical.

RubyInstaller is a software package for Microsoft Windows that provides a self-contained installation of the Ruby programming language, including the Ruby language interpreter, development tools, and libraries. It is designed to make it easy for developers to install Ruby on their Windows machines and develop Ruby applications quickly.

The RubyInstaller includes a precompiled version of the Ruby interpreter and many libraries and tools commonly used in Ruby development, such as the RubyGems package manager and the Bundler dependency management tool. The installer also includes many development tools, such as the Ruby Development Kit (DevKit), which provides development tools and libraries that allow developers to build native C/C++ extensions for Ruby.

Step 1 – Download the RubyInstaller

Open your browser and head over to the RubyInstaller downloads page.

You will find two options on the downloads page: one with DevKit and the other without a DevKit.

If you want to use the system for developing software, ensure to include the Ruby version with a DevKit; otherwise, if you are only interested in the Ruby interpreter, select the one without.

Step 2 – Launch the Installer

Once the download is complete, double-click to open the installer program. This may prompt you whether you wish to install Ruby for you or all accounts in the system.

In the next step, accept the License and click Next to proceed.

Next, configure the destination directory. Once satisfied with the configuration options, click Install to setup Ruby on your machine.

In the Components page, choose the target components you wish to install or skip.

Once the installation is complete, the installer may require you to install the MSYS2 Package.

Select the option and click Finish.

In the Prompt window, choose the MSYS2 Base Installation to configure and set up MSYS2 on your system. The best just hit ENTER (witch installing the number 3rd option) or choose the number 1 option.

What is MSYS2?

MSYS2 is a collection of software packages for Microsoft Windows that provides a Unix-like environment for the development and execution of command-line applications and scripts. It is designed to provide a full-featured POSIX environment on Windows, including a bash shell, GNU utilities, and other development tools commonly found on Unix-like operating systems.

Wait for the process to complete, and you should set up the Ruby interpreter on your system.

Step 3 – Install IDE

It will sound funny, but this will be the hardest part. The problem is not with the installer, but the search for the right IDE. I can mostly recommend Atom and Komodo IDE.

The post Install Ruby on Windows 11 with IDE appeared first on ernteSKY.

In this tutorial you will learn how to blend different images together using adjustment layers and simple but effective photo realistic illustrations.

Resources Used (The following resources were used during the production of this tutorial.):

Step 1

Make a new document, sized 4960 x 2920 px, resolution 300.

Step 2

Add the picture of a forest and name the layer. Use free transform (Cmd+T), hold down Shift and draw the image to cover the whole canvas.

Step 3

Now add adjustment layers for the forest layer. Use Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation and bring down the master saturation to -85.

Step 4

Add a gradient map adjustment layer. You can pick another color if you like; I chose petrol blue for a cold feel.

Now your image should look something like this:

Step 5

Next add the picture of a bear. To cut out the bear you can use the pen tool (P) or any other technique, but because of the grass in this picture I found out that the best way to cut it out was just to mask the grass. It will take some time but the end result looks much better than by using the pen tool.

To mask the grass, first add a vector mask to the bear layer. With the mask selected, mask the surroundings with a black brush. Use a small brush for the fur on the edges. When you are done, copy the layer twice for later use.

Step 6

Now add adjustment layers for the bear. Make a new levels adjustment layer with the settings: 8, 0.70 and 255. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and bring down the master channel by -50. Also desaturate the yellow, green, cyan and blue channels by -100.

Step 7

To create shadows for the bear, choose one of the copied bear layers, left-click and select Convert to Smart Object. Left-click again and select Rasterize Layer. Make sure that the layer is selected and go to Layer > Transform > Flip Vertical. Use free transform to adjust the shadow to its place (Cmd + T). Hold down Cmd when in free transform to adjust the angle of the shadow. Select Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, with a Radius of 15 px, to soften the shadow. Finally bring down layer opacity to 40%.

Step 8

Now select the second copied bear layer and press Cmd + U to bring out the Hue/Saturation panel. Bring down the lightness to -100. Add a vector mask for the layer and use the gradient tool to draw the mask. Make sure that the gradient tool is set to default (from black to white).

Now the forest and the bear have been blended together. Your image and your layer panel should look something like this:

Step 9

Open the lamp picture. Cut out a lamp by using the pen tool. Drag the selection to the main illustration and duplicate it. Now place the other lamp to the ground next to a tree and use a vector mask to make it look like it’s behind the tree’s roots. Use free transform to adjust the size of the second lamp and place it to the tree on the right side.

Step 10

Create a new layer and select the brush tool with a color that matches with the lamps’ light. Start drawing different sized dots and lines around the lamps with a small brush. When you’re done, use Gaussian blur and motion blur on the layer to make it look more vivid. Duplicate the layer as many times as you wish and play around with layer opacity and blending modes if you like. Do this for both lamps.

Step 11

Add some more light around the lamps. Make a new layer; pick an orange/yellow color and paint around the left lamp. Use Gaussian blur and set the blending mode to screen. Set the opacity to 30%. Do the same thing for the right lamp, but set the opacity 15%.

Here’s what your work should look like:

Step 12

Now enhance some of the lines in the illustration. Make a new layer and select the brush tool with foreground color set to white. Set the brush size to 4 px and hardness to 100%. Start drawing lines that follow the shapes in the illustration. You can paint a lot or just focus on the bear. When you’re done, left-click one of the lines and select Stroke Path. Choose Brush and Simulate Pressure. Left-click the lines again and select Delete Path. Make a vector mask for the layer and start to mask them out so that they blend nicely but still clearly highlight your illustration.

Step 13

Bring out the bear’s eyes by painting white dots over the eyes using the brush tool. Duplicate the layer, and set the blending modes to overlay.

Step 14

Add some mist in the front. Once again we’re going to use the good old brush tool. Paint with white, use Gaussian blur and bring down the opacity to around 60%.

Step 15

Almost done! Let’s add some finalizing touches. At the very top of the layer panel, add a Photo Filter adjustment layer. For the filter, select deep blue and set density to 40%. Then add a Gradient Map adjustment layer. Make it go from dark blue to white and set the blending mode to overlay.

Final Image

And bang, you’re done! You can keep working with the lighting, add some more stuff in there or change the colors as you wish. I hope that you learned something useful with this tutorial.

All done!

The post How to Blend Images Together Using Adjustment Layers appeared first on ernteSKY.

Matte paintings are images commonly used in the film industry to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build. In this tutorial I will show you how to turn a single stock photo into a realistic panoramic scene.

Step 1

I use the following stock image in order to follow this step-by-step tutorial: if you choose to work on a different plate, try to find a photo with a mostly clear sky so it will be easier to enlarge the photo in the following steps.

Now open your stock of choice in Photoshop and increase the canvas size in all directions except for the ground. First right-click on the background layer in the layer palette and choose the option Layer From Background. Name your layer plate. After that go to Image > Canvas Size and set Width to 3250 and Height to 1450 pixels. Make sure to select the bottom centre rectangle for your canvas extension area in the Canvas Size menu and click OK. The image should now be extended with a transparent background.

Step 2

Now we will start to fill the new transparent area with life. This might turn out to be a very time consuming step if you are not used to working with stock images in this way. Duplicate your plate layer and move the original layer with the Move Tool (V) about 200 pixels to the left where the background is to be enlarged. Make sure the Show Transform Controls in the upper menu is selected and then increase the size of the layer to about 101%. Why do we do this? Have you noticed the thin white line in our stock image? The new area has to blend seamlessly with our original image, therefore we have to move both lines to the same height.

Next we have to get rid of the sharp edges in the upper layer. For this, select your duplicated plate layer in the layer palette and add a Layer Mask by clicking on the Add Layer Mask button below. Select the Brush Tool (B) and pick a large 200 pixel round soft brush to delete unwanted areas of your layer. To do this you will have to set your Foreground Color to black and Opacity as well as Flow to 100%. Then start brushing on your edges while the layer mask is still selected.

Step 3

The left area now obviously looks duplicated, so we will use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to fix that. First create a new layer on top of all other layers, then grab the Stamp Tool and select the option Sample: All Layers in the upper menu. This way the Stamp Tool will clone areas from all layers, while it will neglect everything except for the selected layer in case the option Current Layer is chosen. Again use a large round soft brush and set its opacity to about 50%. This is a very experimental step, so I recommend that you vary your brush sizes and opacities to get the optimal cloning result. Make sure you press Alt on your keyboard while you select the desired area in your image that you would like to clone. Do so with a single left-click.

After selecting your area, stop pressing Alt and click in your empty layer once again to start cloning. Depending on the direction you are moving with your mouse the Clone Stamp Tool will now recreate elements from the desired area in your new layer. Make sure you do not cross noticeable edges of your image while cloning as it will bring the quality of your result down a lot. With some patience you might get a similar result to mine. Feel free to merge your background layers whenever you are satisfied with the result. Be aware that it is not as simple to correct mistakes afterwards.

Step 4

Use the Clone Stamp Tool as described in step three in order to expand the background on the right as well. This is, again, very experimental. Try to clone some nice cloud formations and blend them as best as you can with your original plate layer by using methods from steps two and three. There is no need to be overly accurate here, as we will cover the sides with photos of trees and bushes later on.

Step 5

Create a new layer and then go to Image > Apply Image with the settings shown in the following image and press OK. We will now fill the empty areas by increasing the size of this layer. Go to Edit > Free Transform and increase the layer size to about 130% until all empty space is filled. The sky in our background is very dusty and grainy so this method does not hurt the quality that much. I usually do not recommend using this technique as it may bring down the quality of an image drastically. In our case the relevant areas will be hidden by other elements at the end, so it does not really matter to us.

Next, add a Layer Mask and erase all the parts in the center where the applied image and original layers overlap each other. That way we will keep the quality and sharpness in the central areas high. Like in step two, try to blend your layer as best as you can. You might want to use the Clone Stamp Tool again in order to fix all bad transitions, which you do not plan to cover with other elements in the end.

Step 6

In this step we will fill the canvas with more chimneys. Again go to Image > Apply Image as explained in step five. After that select Edit > Free Transform and rotate your layer 60 degrees clockwise. Then erase the chimneys but keep the smoke. We will add new chimneys instead to add variety to our scene. I have used the following stock photo: chimney.

Drag this layer into your file and erase everything except for the chimney. You can use Adjustment Layers to blend the stock photo with our original plate. Create a new Adjustment Layer by clicking the fourth button at the bottom of your layer palette and choose Hue/Saturation from the menu. Our other chimneys have a dark purple color, so adjust the colors as followed: Hue = -108; Saturation = -43; Lightness = -14.

Right click on your new Adjustment Layer in the palette and choose Create Clipping Mask. Make sure your Hue/Saturation layer is right upon your chimney as a Clipping Mask only affects one single layer and not the entire image. Repeat this step if you need to add more chimneys. You may want to set the Blending Mode of your chimney layer to Darken in order to blend it nicely with the background (do not forget to extract it with a layer mask or whatever technique suits you best). I also reduced the opacity to about 40%. It is reasonable that objects in the distance are covered with a lot of dust and haze, which is why we have to decrease the contrast to create the illusion of depth.

Step 7

Use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) described in step three to compliment the smoke on the right with additional clouds. However, pay attention to lighting and shading of the smoke while cloning areas. Concerning other objects in our image, the smoke clouds should always be lit from the right. In order to blend elements properly you always have to keep track of your color of light and shadows, as those are essential for a coherent image and realistic atmosphere.

Step 8

Apparently there is enough empty space for another chimney. I was download from the Internet the following stock image which appears to have similar lighting conditions: chimney2. The photo is desaturated, so we will have to recolor it. Open the stock photo and go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast to adjust the image with the following settings. Start with Color Balance and then do brightness adjustments. Do not change this order as it will alter your results greatly! After that drag the photo into your work-file and erase all unneeded areas. I recommend extracting it with a large round soft brush at different opacity levels.

Step 9

The new chimney does not blend very well with the scene yet, so we will apply a couple of additional adjustments. Firstly, create a new layer on top of your new chimney and set the Blending Mode to Soft Light. Pick a small soft round brush (about 20 pixels) and turn the Opacity of your brush down to 30%. Set the Foreground Color to white and then brush over the right of the chimney to brighten it according to the direction of our light source. Secondly, create a new layer, set the Blending Mode to Multiply and now brush over the chimney in order to darken it. This time be careful with your brush opacity as the Multiply Blending Mode tends to work more effectively than the Soft Light mode. Set the opacity to about 10% and change the Foreground Color to black or dark grey. Thirdly, create another new layer, again set its mode to Multiply, but this time grab a larger soft brush (about 100 pixel) and set the Foreground Color to #f0b5aa. By brushing over the smoke we will mainly adjust the colors of its highlights and therefore change the reflection of light. Depending on your result you might want to experiment with the layer opacity as well. Try to get a similar result to mine by varying brush sizes and opacities.

Step 10

Our image still looks awkward, but we will now finally add the missing foreground elements! Feel free to look for tree and bush images yourself. You may also can download any from the Internet.

First open stock image #2 and drag it into your work-file. The layer should be on top of everything else. Due to the fact it has a white background it can be extracted fairly easily. Go to Select > Color Range and make sure Sampled Colors are selected in the drop-down menu. Then click left into the white area of your layer to get the right color with the Eyedropper Tool. Set the Fuzziness to 95, activate Invert and click OK. After that directly apply a mask to this layer by clicking the third button at the bottom of the layer palette. If you did everything correctly, the branch should now be almost entirely extracted. You will most likely see some awkward white lines around it. Don’t worry about them for now because first we will apply a few color and lighting adjustments.

Step 11

The most important aspect of a matte painting is that all elements in our composition have similar lighting conditions. The easiest method to blend your stocks properly is to check highlights and shadows of your original plate and adjust the new elements accordingly. In our image the foreground elements (the bushes) are very dark, so we must decrease the contrast of our branch a lot to ensure that it blends nicely with the scene. Click on the fourth button in your layer palette and add the following Adjustment Layers (see image below). Once again make sure you don’t change the order. After that turn every Adjustment Layer into a clipping mask applied to your branch as described precisely in step six. Lastly set the Opacity of your branch layer to 85% and change the blending mode to Darken. Hopefully all white edges are gone now.

Finish this step by mirroring the branch layer with Edit > Free Transform and then move it to the upper right corner until you are satisfied with the composition.

Step 12

Now open the other stock image and try to change the color of the trees to a dark and desaturated purple with less contrast. I recommend to experiment with adjustment layers yourself. If you can’t get a similar result, use the following settings and drag the finished product into your work-file. Put it below the branch so that the tree layers overlap each other nicely. Set the blending mode to Darken. In this tutorial we will only use the right half of that stock image, however, feel free to make use of the left half as well.

Step 13

This needs more work on blending: Select the tree layer and then erase the red marked areas with a big round soft brush and brighten the green marked parts with the Dodge Tool. Make sure the Dodge Tool is set to Midtones with low Opacity (something around 15% will do it). Dodge the upper tree leaves until they disappear behind the branch we added in step 10. Do not overuse the Dodge Tool, though, as it also desaturates your stock image in the process. If the leaves appear to be too desaturated afterwards you might want to adjust them with Image > Hue/Saturation again.

Step 14

There is still a small area to the left which needs to be fixed. Create a new layer upon your tree layer and set the Blending Mode to Color. Now pick a purple color from the background with the Color Picker Tool (I chose #a08999) and brush onto the yellow marked area. After that turn the layer into a Clipping Mask and set the layer Opacity to 75%.

Step 15

As you might know cutting stock images of trees can be really exhausting. I have a special technique that is very useful for extracting images with leaves or any other random and sharp pattern. The following stock image and adjust the colors and contrast as described prior: stock.

Detail of umbrella

Drag this image into your canvas and position it as you like. Now add a Layer Mask as explained in step two and grab the Brush Tool (B). Photoshop comes along with a lot of nice default brushes. We pick the leaf brush: Scattered Maple Leaves and set the size to 44 pixels. Check the attached images if you are unsure of what brush I am talking about. Also the settings for Scattering and Shape Dynamics are really important. Choose black as your Foreground Color and then draw into your Layer Mask to extract the leaves. You will notice that this technique is not very accurate, so you might want to vary with scattering, brush size and opacities in order to get a better result. This method works best for objects with a random pattern, and a graphic tablet can be of great use, too. In case the contrast of this layer comes off as too high, set the Opacity of this layer to about 80%.

Step 16

Keep adding more trees and bushes in the foreground with the techniques listed in steps 10 to 15. Most importantly try to cover all the flawed areas which are still left. Also keep in mind that the basic composition tends to be central/symmetric, so try to fill equally as much space on the left as we did on the right to keep our composition in balance. Do not just simply copy + paste the existing layers. Matte Paintings have to be as realistic and convincing as possible, so any repetition in our scene will hurt the atmosphere of our piece badly.

Step 17

Now we need to fix some lines that disappear in our painting. This is very easy to do if you own a graphic tablet, if not use the Pen Tool (P) to create perfect lines. First create a new layer, then switch to the Pen Tool and click once for the starting point and a second time where you would like to end the line. Click and hold your mouse and then move it around to create perfectly curved lines. Before you go on, pick the Brush Tool and set the brush to Hard Round 3 pixels. After that choose your Foreground Color with the Color Picker Tool and pick up the color of the already existing lines, which should be #857082. Now switch to your Pen Tool again – make sure the paths are not gone yet – click right on your image and select the option Stroke Path. Select Brush from the drop-down menu and click OK. Finally deselect the path and repeat this step for all other missing lines.

Step 18

Since the basics of your image are done, all the following steps are optional. Feel free to proceed to step 20 where final touch-ups are made. In this step we keep adding more details to our composition to create more levels of depth and some interesting eye catchers. Let us start with adding more factories in the background.

This stock image and make use of the fact that it has a dark silhouette on a bright background. In this case the Blending Mode Darken works very well. Try to brighten the sky of your stock image until it is brighter than the background of our work-file, but at the same time keep the silhouette dark, so that it will not disappear when we switch the Blending Mode.

Additionally, do not forget to change the color to purple with Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Use the attached settings if you are unsure. You may place the factories several times in your background, always using different elements of your stock image in order to keep variety. Keep in mind that your composition has a lot of distance haze, so the new factories should be similar in contrast to the already existing chimneys. It can be helpful to reduce the layer Opacity to a value of 60%.

Step 19

Add some animals to your composition and bring your picture to life in order to make the scene more convincing. Also think of any other details that may support your concept. Our image represents the typical conflict of nature and technology, so a good idea could be to search for images which present deforestation, for instance rotten trees or tree stubs. Some of these stocks can give you an idea of what I am talking about:

Always pay attention to your light source while adding new elements. Use Adjustment Layers and Blending Modes to blend your images according to your light source.

I will give you one more example: Extract the tree stub and place it in your image where you like it best. Don’t forget to change the color to purple. Now create a new layer on top of your tree stub and turn it into a Clipping Mask. With the Color Picker Tool selected pick up a color from the highlights of the smoke in the background and then brush on your new Clipping Mask with this color to add highlights to your tree stub. Switch the Blending Mode of your Clipping Mask to Overlay.

Apply this technique on all other objects you would like to add. Experiment with the Blending Modes as the result always varies depending on the photo which you are planning to use. I can recommend the Blending Modes Soft Light, Overlay, Screen and Color Dodge for all actions which imply adding highlights to your composition.

Step 20

This is almost the final step. In this step we are going to add a lot of color and contrast Adjustment Layers, which will completely change the atmosphere of our image. The final result will look much more like an actual artwork rather than a photo-manipulated stock image. First we start off with a Curves Adjustment Layer in order to improve the contrast. Create new Adjustment Layers on top of all other layers with the following settings.

Step 21

You can stop here if you like this surreal night scene. Otherwise add some more Adjustment Layers as we are going to turn night into day with this step.

Step 22

There is a small area to the left which pops out with blue color. Fix this area by creating a new layer and setting the Blending Mode to Color. Pick up a desaturated brown color (#6b6254) and then brush over those parts which have to be recolored. After that decrease the layer Opacity to 75%.

Furthermore, we are going to add some light rays. Create a new layer, select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill it with black. Then grab a big round soft brush and pick a bright orange color. You can now draw diagonal orange lines onto your black layer (in case you own a graphic tablet), or click once with your mouse into your black canvas and create a big round circle. Then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set Angle to 45° and Distance to 999, then press OK. After that set the Blending Mode to Linear Dodge, which will result in some nice lighting effects. Move your layer around and erase the parts which you do not like. You may also duplicate and distort this layer if you want to add even more light rays.

That is all up to you…

The post Create a Realistic Panoramic Matte Painting appeared first on ernteSKY.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create apocalyptic manipulation using adjustment layers, vector masks, and some special effects. Let’s get started.

Preparation

You will need to search for compatible images to follow this tutorial. I also used an image of a gas mask, some crack brushes, curvy brushes, mist brushes and a grunge texture. You will also need an image of a person sitting down for Step 8.

Step 1

Blending the background… Create a new document. Open the pictures with the bottom part of the background and drag them into the new document. As you can see, I used the right picture twice to make the manipulation wider.

Now we have to blend all the parts nicely together. Start with the picture on the right. Add a vector mask to the layer. You can find the button Add Vector Mask in the palette Layers (If you don’t see the palette just click F7 on your keyboard and it will show up).

Open the Brush Tool (B). Pick a soft, round brush, then choose solid black color and lower the Opacity on about 25%. Start painting over the parts of the image which should be hidden. Do the same also with the middle and right part of the background.

Using a vector mask instead of the eraser tool (which is so popular among Photoshop users) is better because you can very simple reverse all steps you did. You just choose white for the color and paint over the areas which you want to see again. With the eraser tool there is no way to recover. The right part of the background is very bright. Fix it by adding an adjustment layer with Levels and set it as shown.

Right click on the adjustment layer and choose the option Create Clipping Mask. Thanks to clipping mask, the adjustment layer effects only one layer under itself. After this step, your image should look like that shown below.

Step 2

Blending the sky… It’s time to add sky. Open the proper sky photos and drag them into the manipulation. Blend them in the same way as you did with the bottom part, by adding in a vector mask to each layer, then with a black brush paint over the parts which should be hidden. Be very careful with blending because if you don’t do it accurately the whole manipulation will never look realistic.

Step 3

Coloring the background… In this step, we will desaturate the picture and add a decent cyan tinge. Click on the top of the layers and add an adjustment layer Hue/Saturation. Lower the Opacity to -100. Then add an adjustment layer of Color Balance and set it as shown.

The sky seems a little boring. To make it more dramatic, add an adjustment layer of Brightness/Contrast and turn up the contrast a little. You can not use a clipping mask because the sky is made of two layers. But you can reach the same effect if you fill a vector mask of adjustment layer Brightness/Contrast with black, then you paint over the sky with a soft, white brush. The vector mask should look like the one below.

After this step your manipulation should look like the image below.

Step 4

Fixing perspective… In this step, we’ll fix the perspective of the manipulation. Grab the Marque Tool (M) and select the whole manipulation. Now go to Edit > Copy Merged (Command + Shift + C). Paste (Command + V) the merged image. Click on this newly created layer and add apply Filter > Distort > Spherize…set the value Amount to 20%, then press OK.

Step 5

Adding nuclear power station… Open the picture of the nuclear station, then select the station area out of it using your preferred method. You don’t have to care about the smoke much, but be very careful with selecting the cooling towers. After you’re satisfied with selecting, grab the Move Tool (V) and drag the station into the manipulation.

Add the vector mask to the layer with the station, then using a soft brush paint over the areas you want to have hidden. You can change the opacity and size of the brush as often as you need, as the result will look more realistic. Just a little notice: it is better to use a lower opacity and paint over the layer more often. Thanks to it, there will be no hard edges and blending will look very realistic.

Step 6:

Adding the power station… Now we are going to add the power station. It would be hell to select all the parts with the Lasso Tool or something similar to that. Instead I will show you a little trick. Open the picture of the plant. Duplicate the layer. Now go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Set the Threshold Level to value 162. After this you should have something similar to the image below.

Grab the Magic Wand Tool (W). Make sure that you have unchecked all options as shown.

Now simply click on a black area and it will create the mask. Hide the layer with a threshold effect. Click on the layer with the station and drag it into the manipulation. Easy, isn’t it?

Since the plant is in the background, it should be little lighter. To do that I lowered the opacity a little. You can do the same or increase the brightness, or something else you usually use. There are some unwanted wires toward the right part of the picture. Grab the Eraser Tool (E) and simply erase them.

Step 7

Adding the car… Open the image of the car and separate it from the background. You can use any method you are comfortable with. I usually use the Lasso Tool, but there is no rule. After you’re done, drag the car into the manipulation. If you look carefully at the bottom part of the car, there is some mess to clean up.

Add a new layer above the layer with the car. Grab the Brush Tool (B), then choose a soft, round brush with a low Opacity. Pick some color similar to the shadow color under the car, then paint carefully over the mess. Now add an adjustment layer of Brightness/Contrast, set value of brightness to -20, and set the value of Contrast to -15.

Step 8

Adding a person… Search for a picture with a sitting person to use. I used one I had on file. Then separate it from the background and drag it into the manipulation. You don’t have the similar picture as I did so you may have to do some minor edits a little different than I will show you, but the overall process should be similar.

As you can see, the woman is too saturated, with bright highlights and too much contrast. To fix that, add an adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation above the layer, then set Saturation on -65. Now create a clipping mask from the layer.

There is too much highlights and contrast is also high because the photo was taken with internal light. This type of light is very hard and does not fit the global lighting of this manipulation. Add a new adjustment layer of Levels and set it as shown.

Now click on the vector mask of the adjustment layer and fill it with solid black color.

Grab the Brush Tool (B). Choose a small, soft, round brush. Lower the Opacity to 20%. Choose a white color and paint carefully over the highlights you want to have darker, as shown below.

It would be better to have the trousers a little bit darker. Add adjustment layer Levels and set the Input Levels on: 0, 0,57, and 255. Fill the vector mask with black and paint with white over the trousers. The whole picture of person should be darker. Add a layer mask of Brightness/Contrast and set the Brightness to -25 and Contrast to -15.

Step 9

Gas mask… Download the photo of a gas mask somewhere from the Internet. Separate it carefully from the background and drag it into the manipulation. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp and change the grid to fit better on the face. The result should look similar to the image below.

In the original stock photo the light source comes from the top, but it does not fit to this manipulation. To fix that, add an adjustment layer of Levels above the layer with the gas mask, then set the values as: 0, 0,38, and 255. Create a clipping mask. Fill the vector mask with black and then paint with a white brush over the areas which should be darker. Now we are going to add more cyan colors. Add an adjustment layer of Color Balance and set similar to that shown below.

The final step in the gas mask adjustment is to lower the opacity. Add an adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation and set the Saturation on -40. Also, create a clipping mask from it.

Step 10

Adding the flower… Open the picture of the flower. Separate it from the background and drag it into the manipulation. As you can see, the flower doesn’t have a nice yellow color like the final image. To improve that add adjustment the layer Color Balance and set it as shown.

Increase the contrast a little (add an adjustment layer of Brightness/Contrast and increase the value of contrast) and lower the saturation (with an adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation). Don’t forget to create clipping masks from all the adjustment layers you’ve just added!

According to me, it would be nice to separate the flower from the background a little more by adding an outer glow. Right-click on the layer with the flower and choose Blending Options. Now check Outer Glow and set it as shown.

After you are finished you should have something like the following image.

Step 11

Painting the steam… Don’t worry, you won’t have to paint anything difficult here, just one nice curve. If you have some big problem with doing that you can download some curvy brushes from the Internet. This is just a quick step. The results should look like the image shown below.

Alright! The basic part of this manipulation is done! We’ve placed all the main elements. Now we will work on some details and especially lighting. But before that, let me show you how your layers should look so far.

Step 12

Adding global lighting… In this step, we are going to change the global lighting to create a more dramatic atmosphere and catch the viewer’s attention. Click on the layer with the background and fixed perspective. Duplicate the layer. Now go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects, and set it as shown.

Add an adjustment layer of Levels. Set it on these values: 0, 3,74, and 255, then press OK. Create a clipping mask and fill the vector mask of the adjustment layer with black. Grab the Brush Tool (B), choose a white color, lower the opacity of the brush, then paint over the areas of horizon in areas where you feel should be lighter.

Step 13

Destroying the nuclear station… According to me the nuclear station should be a little more destroyed and dirtier. At first we will fix the cleanness issue. Install the dirt brush. Create a new layer and paint dirt over one of the towers. Now go to Edit > Transform > Warp, and adapt the dirt to the shape of the tower.

Erase unwanted parts and lower the opacity. Do the same with the second tower. Now install the crack brushes. Create a new layer and paint some nice cracks.

Step 14

Fix the lighting on the nuclear station… Since we added quite strong light in the middle of manipulation, we have to fix the lighting on the station. Add an adjustment layer of Levels above the layers with the nuclear station. Set the Input Levels to: 0; 1,25; and 255. Fill the vector mask with black and choose a nice soft, round brush with low opacity. Now paint over the areas which should be lighter. If you are not sure, look at the picture below for reference.

Step 15

Adding the mist… In this step, we will add a pretty mist to the background. Download some mist brushes and install them. Now add a new layer above the layers which are in the background (the layers with power and nuclear station, not the layers with car and person). Grab the Brush Tool (B), choose a white color, lower the opacity of brush, then paint the mist. If mist does not look natural, then try lowering the opacity more, or change the blending mode to Screen.

Step 16

Adding the lens flare… As you can see in the previous picture, light on the horizon isn’t still the same as in the final image. We will fix it with adding a lens flare. Create a new layer above the layer with the mist. Fill it with a solid black color. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare, then choose the type of flare you wish. I used Lens Type 105 mm Prime. Press OK. Now change the blending mode of the layer to Screen, or Lighten, and then lower the Opacity to about 40%.

Step 17

Shadows under the person… In this step, we will add shadows under the person and on the front of the car. Remember that shadows are very important and if you look carefully around you, you’ll realize that everything has some shadows. Keep this in mind when creating any of your manipulations!

Create a new layer under the layer with the person. Now Command-click on the thumbnail of the layer with the person. It activates the mask of the person.

Fill the selection with a solid black color and deselect it. Grab the Move Tool (V) and move the shadow down.

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur…and set Radius so it will nicely blur the edges of the shadow; I set it on 4 px. Lower the Opacity to 70%. Grab the Eraser Tool (E), then erase every parts of the shadow except the shadow under the leg.

Now do the same procedure as before, but lower the Opacity even more to about 40%. Very well, the shadows under the leg are done! Now we have to add shadows under the person’s back. The process is still same, except you move the shadows to the left and not down. After this step, your manipulation should look similar to the image below.

Step 18

Shadows in front of the car and person… There have to be shadows in front of the car and person because of the light source and background. We will fix it very easily though! Add a new layer under the layers with the car and person. Grab the Brush Tool (B), then choose a big, soft, round brush. Pick a black color and lower the Opacity to about 30%. Now just pain in front of the car and person. Easy isn’t it?

Step 19

Adding the highlights… In this step we will add some highlights to increase the contrast and make the whole scene a little more dramatic. Add an adjustment layer of Levels on the top of all your layers. Set the Input Levels to these values: 0; 2,30; and 208. Press OK. Now fill the vector mask of the adjustment layer with a solid black color. Grab the Brush Tool (B), choose a white color and lower the Opacity to 25%. Paint over the areas which should be highlighted. If you’re not sure, then look at the image below for reference.

Step 20

Shadows once again… Now we will add some more shadows. Add an adjustment layer of Levels again and set the Input Levels to: 17; 0,60; and 255. Fill the vector mask with black and with a white brush paint over the areas where you think there should be more shadows.

Step 21

Final adjustments… During this and next step we will create the atmosphere which you can see in the final image. Add an adjustment layer of Color Balance on the top of your layers, then set the Color Levels as: -3; +4; and +15.

Now we add a pretty vignette around the edges. Add an adjustment layer of Levels, then set the Input Levels as: 0; 0,50; and 255. Now fill the vector mask with black and then paint with a soft, white brush around the edges.

Open some grunge texture and drag it into the manipulation. Change the blending mode to Overlay and lower the Opacity to 25%. Texture adds some more contrast to the picture.

I changed the Color Balance once more and lowered the opacity, but it depends on your personal taste. Below you can see final two adjustments.

Well, that’s all. I hope that this tutorial was useful for you and you’ve learned some new techniques, or you have found inspiration for your own photo manipulations!

Done!

The post Create Apocalyptic Photo Manipulation appeared first on ernteSKY.

With oil prices the way they are today, everybody is thinking Green. I have done many projects recently that require a Green style applied to the design. In the following Illustrator tutorial, I’ll teach you how to create a Green type treatment. It works great for logos and other design elements.

Step 1

Create a document that is 8.5 inches by 11 inches. Choose a typeface for the type treatment (I used Helvetica Bold) and type out what you want. Next, Outline the text by going to Type > Create Outlines.

Step 2

With the text selected, create a Linear Gradient from the Gradient Panel. Change the color of the first swatch on the Gradient Slider (left swatch) to a light green (I used these CMYK values: C=40, M=0, Y=100, and K=0). Change the second swatch on the Gradient Slider to a darker green (C=60 M=16 Y=100 K=0). Use the Gradient Tool (G) to adjust the gradient by clicking at the top of the type and dragging to the bottom of the type so the dark part is at the bottom.

Step 3

Now we’re going to create some leaves. Start by drawing a leaf shape with the Pen Tool (P). Again, with the Pen Tool (P), draw a line that starts at the tip of leaf and ends in the middle of the bottom part of the leaf. After selecting the line and the leaf shape, press the Divide button in the Pathfinder Panel, located on the bottom left side of the panel. Ungroup (Command+Shift+G) the objects so you have two separate shapes.

Step 4

Select both shapes and create the same colored Linear Gradient as the Text. Next, select one shape and use the Gradient Tool (G) to click and drag at a 45 degree angle across the leaf half shape. Do this again for the other half of the leaf.

Step 5

With the Pen Tool (P) draw a highlight shape on the top leaf half. Change the highlight shape to a Radial Gradient. Change the left swatch to white and the right swatch to your green color (C=40 M=0 Y=100 K=0).

Step 6

With the Pen Tool (P), create a stem shape and send it behind the leaf shapes. Create a Linear Gradient, make the gradient the same colors as the leaf shapes, and adjust the gradient so the darker green is at the top of the stem.

Step 7

Next come the water droplets. Create an oblong ellipse with the Ellipse Tool (L). Then create a Linear Gradient using the same colors as the leaf and text. Adjust the gradient so the dark side is on the bottom left.

Create another ellipse on top of the previous ellipse and create a Radial Gradient with the same swatches as the highlight gradient. Adjust this gradient so the light part of the gradient is coming from the bottom left.

Create two more smaller ellipses with Linear Gradients matching the highlight gradient. Once you are done, group all the ellipses, scale and place them on the leaf shapes. You can easily copy the droplet by holding down Alt and dragging a copy.

Step 8

The next couple of steps deal with creating the ladybug. Create an ellipse and fill it with a Linear Gradient. Make the first swatch in the gradient a red (C=0 M=100 Y=100 K=0) and the second an even darker red (C=0 M=100 Y=100 K=35). Adjust the gradient so the red color is at the bottom of the ellipse.

Copy (Command + C) the ellipse and Paste it in Front (Command + F). Draw another bigger ellipse that overlaps the center of the original ellipse. After selecting one of the original ellipses and the overlapping circle, press the Intersect Shape Areas button in the Pathfinder Panel. Make the intersected shape a Linear Gradient with the first swatch white and the second swatch red. Adjust the gradient so the white is at the top of the shape.

Step 9

Draw five more ellipses over the ladybug body shape and group them together. Copy (Command + C) the original body ellipse shape and Paste it in Front (Command + F). With the copied body shape and the five ellipse selected, Intersect the shapes.

Change the dots to a Linear Gradient with the first swatch a really dark red and the second swatch a black red. Adjust the gradient so the lightest red is at the bottom of the combined shapes. Next, Copy (Command + C) the top highlighted shape of the body and Paste it in Front (Command + F).

Copy (Command + C) the dots and Paste it in Front (Command + F). Select the copied highlight and one of the dots copy and Intersect them. Create a Linear Gradient with the first swatch at 60% black and the second at 90% black. Adjust the gradient so the lighter black is at the top of the shape.

Step 10

Create another ellipse for the ladybug’s head. Create a gradient the same as the top dots gradient and send the head behind the body shape. Draw an antenna shape with the Pen Tool (P) and place it behind the head. Copy (Command + C) the antenna and Paste it in Front (Command + F). Reflect the antenna by pressing the Flip Horizontal option from the pop-up menu of the Transform Panel.

Step 11

Draw an ellipse roughly the size of the completed ladybug. Create a Radial Gradient so the inside swatch is black and the outside is white. Set the ellipse to Multiply from the Transparency Panel and send it behind the ladybug to the bottom left, creating a drop shadow. After grouping the ladybug and drop shadow, place it on the leaf. Then scale and rotate the lady bug as needed.

Step 12

After selecting the leaf and all the elements on it, place them over your text. I placed mine over the first letter of the word.

Step 13

Copy (Command + C) the leaf and elements, except the lady bug, and Paste (Command + V). Flip the leaf horizontally and scale down the leaf. When scaling you don’t have to constrain the proportions, this helps the leaf look different from the other. Repeat this step a couple of times around the text.

Step 14

For the other leaves we are going to create an Art Brush. You can draw these elements with the Pen Tool (P), but you’ll find it more consistent and easier to use a brush.

Draw an oblong ellipse. Then with the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the right anchor point in the ellipse. When you select an anchor point the Control Panel will default to the Anchor Point Options. Convert the anchor point to a Corner (the first button to the right on the Control Panel). Do this again for the left anchor point. Next, squish the ellipse down from the top to half its original size.

Step 15

Drag the oval into the Brush Panel and choose New Art Brush. In the Art Brush options change Colorization to Tints. This lets you change the color of the brush without creating a new brush. You don’t need to change the colors of the brush strokes for this tutorial, but it is good practice.

Step 16

With your new brush, make a swirl shape for a leaf blade. You might need to change the stroke of the brush if it looks to small or too big. When you get a stroke you like, go to Object > Expand. You will also want to clean up the unfilled stroke. An easy way to do this is to go Object > Path > Clean Up. Also, make sure all the check boxes are checked and press OK.

Step 17

Select the expanded brush shape and create a Linear Gradient with the same swatches as the original text gradient.

Step 18

Repeat the steps for creating the leaf blade around your text. Try to vary the shape and size of the blades.

Step 19

Next we’re going to add some more water droplets around the text. Simply Copy (Command + C) the droplets on the leaf you already made and Paste (Command + V) them around the text. Also, be sure to vary their size and shape.

Step 20

Now it is time to work on the dirt at the bottom of the text. Double click on the Pencil Tool (N) in the Tools Panel to bring up the Pencil Tool Options. Change the Fidelity to 5 to get really smooth lines.

Use you Pencil Tool (N) to draw a small circular shape. Press Alt before you let go to close the shape. Next, create a Radial Gradient with the interior swatch a brown color (C=35 M=60 Y=80 K=25) and the exterior swatch a dark brown color (C=50 M=70 Y=80 K=70) . Place the spot on the first letter of your word. Scale the dot down smaller than one of the droplets.

Step 21

Repeat this till you have a pile of dirt spots on you first letter.

Step 22

Copy (Command + C) and Paste the dirt pile until you have covered the very bottom of all the letters.

Step 23

Draw a Radial Gradient ellipse like you did for the ladybug drop shadow. Squish the ellipse to about half the size. Send the ellipse behind all the artwork and set it to Multiply.

Step 24

Repeat this drop shadow under all the letters.

Step 25

For the background create a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool that is the size of you document. Give it a Radial Gradient, make the interior swatch white and the second swatch a light green (C=13 M=0 Y=38 K=0).

All done!

The post Creating an Environmentally Friendly Green Type Treatment appeared first on ernteSKY.

Transform any typeface with this great looking grunge effect in Photoshop, much like the awesome Band of Brothers and 28 Days Later logos. The weathered look is highly customisable, and each result is totally unique – based on the trick that an image is used as a “destroy” mask. This ones a goldie oldie that Ive used for a long time now, but the technique has been refined a bit over the last year. So I thought I’d share!

Step 1

Base text… In your Photoshop document, create some white text and rasterize the type (right click on layer, select ‘rasterize’ type). Im really liking Helvetica Ultra Compressed at the moment – so Ive used that for my example! This background was created using textures from the awesome of any textures site.

Step 2

Choose a destroy mask… The idea behind this technique is to choose an image that can be used as a grunge layer… Have a look online and find an image that suits your requirements. The great thing about this process is that absolutely anything can be used, but some images are better than others. Pics with strong horizontal lines work to great effect, in my example I’ve used a scratched metal texture from the Internet.

Step 3

Threshold… Paste your chosen grunge image into the document, above the type layer.

With your grunge layer selected, open up the Threshold dialog via Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Choose a Threshold level that produces a good looking result, the blacks will be the parts that ‘eat’ into your text.

Step 4

Clear the white… To get rid of the white parts of the grunge layer go Select > Colour Range, when the dialog pops up set the Fuzziness to 200 and select a pure white area with the dropper. This will create a selection around everything that is white – hit delete, leaving you with just the grunge.

Step 5

Tweak as necessary… Theres lots that you can do with the grunge layer – you can rotate it, duplicate it to add more destruction to other parts of the text or simply move it to a more suitable position.

Step 6

Delete… Create a selection of your grunge layer (Ctrl / Cmd + click on the grunge layer). Go to the Type layer and hit delete. Hide the grunge layer (click eye icon on layer palette), you will be left with your type layer with the destroy effect applied.

Step 7

Bonus tip… Want to get that gnarly Horror movie look with your new destroy text? Give this a whirl.. Set your destroy text to Overlay Layer Mode, and duplicate the layer (Right click Layer, select Duplicate Layer). The intensity of this effect will depend on your background – so keep duplicating your destroy text layer (set to Overlay) until you get the amount of punch that you require. In my example I used 4 copies of the layer (set to Overlay), with one copy at the bottom of the stack set to Normal Layer Mode, Opacity 1% (because my background was very dark).

The post Grunge Text in Photoshop appeared first on ernteSKY.

Use the power of grid based designs to create a structured and professional page layout in InDesign, which can then be populated with a range of information to produce a polished CV or Resume.

My approach was to create a minimal two colour design that showcased Mr. Stevenson’s sophisticated Graphic Design skills through a clean and structured layout.

Let’s go process of creating the document, and see how the initial grid layout was produced. Hopefully these techniques will not only help put together your own Resume/CV design, but also span across other Graphic and Website design projects.

Being a design aimed more towards print, and one that concentrates on the fine grid details, we’ll use Adobe InDesign as the application of choice. Being a desktop publishing package InDesign has a bunch of useful tools for creating complex layouts. Create a new document, set the page size to A4 and place margins at 10mm from each edge. We’re not planning on mass-producing the document so no bleed is necessary, but it could be handy if you’re planning on trimming down the final page if doubled up on an A3 printer.

With the basic document set up, go to Layout > Margins and Columns. Create five columns with a gutter of 5mm.

Go to the InDesign preferences and look under the Grids section. With the planned design using a lot of Cyan, it would be handy to change the colour of the gridlines from blue. Choose a colour such as Light Gray. Also change the start to 0mm from the Top Margin, Increment them to every 13pt and untick the Grids in Back option.

Ensure all grids are visible through the View > Grids and Guides menu. Our page is now ready to place elements accurately in relation to the structured gridlines.

Use the Rectangle Frame Tool to draw a box in the top right corner, with the option to Snap to Grid active the shape should fit exactly to the gridlines. Fill the box with 100% Cyan.

Create a text area with the Type tool and spell out your name. Here we’re using the fictional Steven Stevenson character along with all of his details.

Change the font to a stylish classic, such as Meta. Adjust the size of the type so that the text fits perfectly between the baselines. Once the type is positioned correctly, go to Object > Fitting > Fit Frame to Content. With the title being large in size, any slight inaccuracies will be much more visible, spend a few moments to kern the letters. Place the cursor between two letters and nudge using the Alt and Arrow keys.

Repeat the process with the second line of text, but this time make the type smaller in size. The key is to ensure the elements align accurately to the nearest gridlines.

Draw a large text area spanning the first three columns of the page. Paste in a large selection of textual content.

Edit the text by setting in the appropriate font, set the size to 10pt and leading to 13pt to match the baseline grid. Indent the text to provide easy scanning and clear sections for each area of information.

Alter the titles in size and add the Cyan fill. Using variations in size and colour gives prominence to these elements, and helps display the various sections of information clearly.

Also alter the sub-headings to develop a clear hierarchy. The main titles at the top of the page stand out the most with their size and vibrant background colour. The secondary information is displayed under medium sized titles, which are also displayed in blue. The next level of information is set is a stronger weight font, but is toned back slightly with an 80% black, and finally the body text uses the standard 10pt black styling.

List out the contact details at the top of the right hand column. Draw a blue rectangle behind the text, but shorten it in size to just under the height of the baseline. When duplicated this will leave a tiny dividing line between each item.

Change the colour of the text to white and align it to the center of the rectangles, as opposed to the baseline itself. Notice how these elements flow neatly from the same gridline as the title.

Enter the remaining details and align as appropriate.

Add the remaining information to a text area spanning the remaining two columns. Use the same text styling and visual hierarchy on the titles and sub-headings.

Select the bunch of list items and go to Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists > Apply Bullets. This will automatically indent the text and add points to each line.

With the list still selected, go to Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists > Convert Bullets to Text.

We can now go through and select each bullet point, and change the text colour to Cyan, adding a little visual tweak to the page design.

Finish off the bottom of the page with a neat border using a rectangle at 210x2mm. Fill the shape with Cyan.

Zoom out and review the layout. Make any final checks to the page elements and ensure all items are aligned to the underlying grid.

When viewed without the guides the design holds itself together well with neatly aligned content and a clean, structured appearance. Go to File > Print, or export the layout as a PDF document.

The post Create a Grid Based Resume / CV Layout in InDesign appeared first on ernteSKY.

In this tutorial we will learn how to create facial hair for our character using 3ds max hair and fur modifier. This modifier gives you the freedom to create realistic hair and fur for your projects which I could say is fantastic. There is few more ways to add hair for your characters but this is more hassle free once you get to understand it.

Step 1

Fire up your 3ds max and bring the character you want to experiment. Since this is about to create facial hair for our character, so you have to select the faces where you want to grow hair from the face area. You could see I have selected the faces where I want to grow hair from his face.

Step 2

It’s time to detach the selected faces to have more control over the selected polygons, to bring them to the right shape by moving its vertices. Now with polygon still selected from your ribbon or from editable poly option hit detach.

Step 3

From the detach pop-up do as in the image showing below.

Step 4

Now as you can see we have copy of our detached polygons.

Step 5

With new detached polygons, go to vertex mode and refine the edges to represent smooth surface to grow believable hair from detached polygons.

Step 6

Still with detached polygons, right click and choose “object properties”.

Step 7

Now from the object properties uncheck “visible to camera” and this will help us to hide detached surface from render.

Step 8

It’s time to create our hair around the detached polygon faces, with detached polygons. Select it from modify panel drop down menu and choose “Hair and Fur” as show in the image below.

Step 9

We will see the hair is visible now around the surface we selected.

Step 10

It’s time to start tweaking the hair to represent proper beard around his face. Please follow the highlights showing in the image below.

Step 11

Expand the “Material Parameters” and do the settings illustrated in the image below.

Step 12

You could see the hair length is a bit longer, let’s fix it. Expand the “Styling” tab and click on the button “finish styling”. Choose that scissor icon to cut out the extra hairs from his face. If you notice a green circle is available now, with that click on the tip of the hair to cut out as showing in the image below.

Step 13

After I cut out the extra hair around his face.

Step 14

To deactivate the styling again click on “Finish Styling” button to deactivate and also uncheck “display guides” as well as play with “percentage” and “Max. Hair” parameters.

Step 15

Expand “Multi Strand Parameters” and change the settings according to your suit.

Step 16

Expand “Fizz Parameters” and “Kink Parameters” and change the settings shown in the image below.

Step 17

Again activate “Finish Styling” button and brush down his beard to down bottom for make it looks like realistic.

Step 18

Deactivate brush styling and we are done, let’s have a test render. Here is my test render, play with the settings for get interesting results.

The post How to Create the Beard on a Face appeared first on ernteSKY.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to manipulate a simple photo into a flooding torrent of a scene. We will use some relatively simple techniques to give this image a semi-realistic, stylized feel. Let’s get started!

Step 1

With the main image opened, use the Clone Stamp tool to remove any unwanted entities, like the elderly couple walking. Try and clone areas around the couple so it doesn’t look odd and mix your usage of soft, and heavy round brushes to define those edges.

Step 2

Next you will want to cut around the edges of the roof tops so we can add in our stormy sky. Use the Polygon Lasso Tool for this. Don’t worry about accuracy, as we’ll be blending everything later, just make sure that the sky is cut out. Once selected, unlock the “background”. Now double-click the layer, then rename it to “backdrop” and hit Enter. Delete the sky.

Step 3

Open the Stormy Sky image and place it underneath your “backdrop” layer. Then press Command + T to Free Transform, hold Command while you drag the bottom corners inwards to add some perspective to the sky, don’t forget to resize if necessary. Apply the transformation when you are happy.

Step 4

It doesn’t look very nice does it? That’s because we’re not done yet. Open and place the wave image in the center of the image. Now use the eraser, and a soft brush on it. Get in close and erase the bits you don’t want. Don’t worry if your messy, as the tidying comes later. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and use the settings shown below.

Then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and use these settings.

Rename the layer to “Wave” and your image should now look like the one shown below.

Step 5

Now comes the complicated bit. What you’ll need to do is add all the water files to you’re image and one by one, free transform them to flow with the perspective of the water then erase the hard edges.

You might also need to duplicate some files in order to fill up areas. Always remember to play about with the textures using the distortion method in free transform and a soft eraser. The more you do, the better it will look. You can see the phases of building up the flooding water in this image.

Step 6

Now we have our water sorted, merge all the “water” layers into one single layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and use the following settings. Your water should now be nice and blue and match the “wave” layer from earlier. Now merge the “wave” layer with the “water” one.

Step 7

Remember the tidy up I mentioned a while back? Well its time now. Turn off the “water” layer so you are left with just the backdrop and the sky. With the Burn Tool selected at highlights and at 50% exposure, and a soft brush set, start burning the rooftops and the sky around the rooftops so they appear darker.

Open the this next street image and place it at the right side of the street in the distance. Use a soft eraser to remove those sharp edges. Merge it with the “backdrop” layer.

Step 8

Let’s tidy up some more. Turn on the “water” layer sand and start tidying around the edges using a soft eraser. Then select the Smudge Tool and a 20px charcoal brush using the settings below.

Start smudging the edges of the “water” layer creating very small splashes and more defined edges to realistically create the effect of water hitting a surface. This might require patience and a steady hand, but time will pay off. It might also be wise to duplicate the layer before smudging as you don’t want to use all your undo’s.

Step 9

Next, select the backdrop layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and use these settings.

And your piece should now be coming together. Its still a little off, but there is a lot more to do, so lets move on!

Step 10

Time for the splashes. Now this is the hardest step of the tutorial, and requires a lot of patience, but persevere and you will find that patience is in fact a virtue (I know, silly right?). Open up the splash images and carefully cut out the splashes themselves one by one. Place them onto the canvas. Now use the Warp Transformation (Edit > Transform > Warp) to get the arches you need to create effective splashes, and erase any unwanted areas.

You’ll need to do this for the two cars and for where the water hits the wall down the buildings of the street. You might also benefit from smudging the edges of the splashes to give them more movement, as well as adding some white brushing to a new layer and smudging it. Now merge all your “splash” layers.

Step 11

Getting there right? Now you need to do some tweaking to the colors of the image. This can mean anything from water, to the sky or the buildings. In my example, I think the water is a little too blue, so I’m going to desaturate it a little. Basically use this step for any odd bits and bobs to tweak your image to make it look more streamlined. Be creative, and more importantly, make it look tidy. I lowered the saturation of the water a little, and added some red to the buildings.

Step 12

Now we’ll work on the fog. Its sounds daunting but its actually fairly simple to do. Select a blue color from your water using the Eyedropper Tool. Now select the Gradient Tool and use the following settings.

You will need to create a new layer underneath you’re “water” layer and create the gradient so it blocks out any backdrop behind the water. Duplicate the layer (Command + J) and place it on top of your water layer, at about 30% opacity. Set this layer to Multiply.

Step 13

This next step is to add rain. There are lots of tutorials on the web that show how to create rain.We’ll keep it relatively simple in this tutorial though. First, create a new layer and fill it with black. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use these settings.

Then Filter > Blur > Motion Blur > and use these settings.

Then Image > Adjustments > Levels and use the following settings.

Set the Layer to Screen and use a soft eraser to erase the bottom and top of the Layer, then go to Edit > Transform > Free Transform the “rain” Layer so it covers the whole screen.

Step 14

It looks a little bit empty in the middle of the water doesn’t it? Open up the car image and place it somewhere in the distance, underneath the “fog” layer. Resize the images and erase the edges carefully and use the splash image to give some life to the car.

Step 15

Now is the fun part. You’ll need to create a few gradient maps first. Click the Adjustment layer button located at the bottom of your layers window and select the Gradient Map option. Then Click the little arrow in the top-right of the box and select Pastels as shown.

Use the following settings. Finally, set the layer to Multiply at 100%.

Step 16

Now its just a case of adding depth and a few other adjustments. Select the Blur Tool at 20% strength, then start blurring the “backdrop” layer in the distance and on the rooftops.

Create a new layer and go to Image > Apply Image and then go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen, which gives the image a more detailed and stylized feel.

Now you’re done!

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Blitz World Assembler while it supports grid-based placement its main placement system is a snap to surface tool that works out how far an object should move away from a surface to be just resting of it.

Blitz World Assembler is designed for use with blitz basic games, if you don’t have it go to BlitzBasic for a free demo, it is a great programming language for games.

Blitz World Assembler v0.1.2b 745.18 KB 95 downloads

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