tkv
07-14-2008, 09:57 AM
Despite been classed as fantasy art, this is a mere photomanipulation - make a fairy and your own mystic scenery; creating a landscape from scrap is now possible! I was inspired by the huge success of my previous fantasy art tut, which I posted in this forum last week... I got quite a few emails thanking me for it and many PS blogs featured it, so I decided to give in to repeated requests from millions of loving fans and do one more fantasy / scenery tut...
This is basically a mix of whats we call "fantasy art" and "dark/ gothic art"
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/00.jpg
I want to mention in advance that this tutorial is mostly for more experienced users,
here we will need to use a lot of "hand work" and common sense; you will be working with your own images, and would need
to adjust to the "needs" of your landscape.
So, lets get started... make a new canvas - 600* 400.
Fill your background layer with any dark colour, we chose to do it with blue, but you can use black as well.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/1.jpg
Take a picture of a girl... we used this one, from Liam Stock, free photo resource.. ( http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39058232/ <-- Full resolution image)
This would depend on the image you use, but try to crop the figure accurately and remove the background.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/2.jpg
Select the cropped girl from your canvas, and paste it unto the blue fantasy canvas we will create.
Place her in the middle, not to close to the edge, as she will be our leitmotif.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/3.jpg
Next step, you will need different photos in order to combine a landscape.
First off, a photo of a shore. We took a pic offered free by ~gladly.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/4.jpg
Press ctrl + a to select the entire water scape, Ctrl + c to copy it, and then , when you go to the fantasy canvas - press Ctrl + V to paste it.
Be sure to place the water scape layer UNDER the layer with the girl. This is important, we placed the girl first in order to be able to see what proportion are we creating with the landscape, however, remember, that she shall always be the top later.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/5.jpg
Using the Eraser tool, with soft edge, 40 or 50 px size, draw a line (horizon), which will he around the level of the main figure's eyes. This is ideally, but if you use a taller person, or not a sitting figure, of course you can draw the horizon wherever you wish.
In order to make sure that your line is straight, press the Shift button while pressing the mouth, this way, even if your hand will hove, the line will remain straight.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/6.jpg
Now we need sky. Don't look for any spy picture, because we mostly need a horizon line (with mountains, or just a stroke of land) rather than mere clouds.
The hue of the picture is not important, all you need is a cloudy interface with a bit of land to symbolize the horizon.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/7.jpg
Paste your clouds photo unto the fantasy canvas, UNDER the water scape layer.
The horizon line of the water has to be a little darker, so u can go back to the background later (blue canvas) and brush it with black or a darker blue hue.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/8.jpg
Create a new layer.
Select a Round Brush with a sharp edge (do not use a soft edge here!) and Make a stamp near the figure, as shown on the picture below.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/9.jpg
Set the opacity of the layer to "soft", to make it semi transparent. Using the eraser tool with a sharp edge, remove all the remains, so that it will look as if this sun (or moon, if u wish) will create the illusion or setting behind the hills / land line of the horizon.
See the illustration for understand it better, and once you have finished erasing, don't forget to set the blending options back to normal
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/10.jpg
Go to Layer >>Layer Styles >> Blending options, and apply these settings for the outer glow effect. Don't skip this step, this is necessary to make an effect of shine and glow.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/11.jpg
Select the water scape layer.
Go to Filter >> Renders >> Lightening Effect.
Make a light spot, exactly on the place where the sun is... this will lit the water in front of the setting sun.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/12.jpg
This is what we got so far, beautiful water with a local lightening.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/13.jpg
Select the layer with the cropped girl (main figure) and apply same spot lightening effect.
Its important to use same location for the spot, as we only have one sun here!
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/14.jpg
Set the blending options of the layer with the girl to "Luminosity", in order to give her same hue as the layers underneath her.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/15.jpg
After the recent few steps, you canvas should look like this... If anything looks different - don't worry, in the end you might get even a better result than the example in this tut.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/16.jpg
Now, we are going to need wings to add to our girl and turn her into a fallen fairy.
I'd recommend to use Photoshop brushes in a shape of wings, and not to crop wings from other photos, as we need high quality transparent wings.
For this very tutorial, i used wings brushes downloaded free from Deviant art - http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/11925788/
Once you have installed the brushes, make a new layer (don't for get) which will be placed BELOW the girl, and ABOVE water scape layer and the sky.
Use a size that will suit the size of your figure and canvas.We used wing brushes 185px, but this is individual.
Make one stamp for a right wing, and one for the left.
Since our figure is not sitting straight, we made separate layers for each wing and after applying the second one, we pressed Ctrl + T to transform the layer freely, and rotated it a bit, as shown on the pic below
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/17.jpg
This is our result so far...
Now, Flatten the Image. (Don't skip it!)
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/18.jpg
Go to Image >> Adjustments >> Levels
and set these parameters for the BLUE channel
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/19.jpg
And these parameters for RED channels. We are looking to create a mysterious atmosphere with dark yet not dull colours, therefore colorizing the entire canvas will not look good.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/20.jpg
Now your canvas has a nice, blue-green hue...
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/21.jpg
Apply omni spot light once again, same position as before (center spot in the center of the sun), using light blue colour.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/22.jpg
that is it, ur canvas is ready...
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/00.jpg
This is basically a mix of whats we call "fantasy art" and "dark/ gothic art"
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/00.jpg
I want to mention in advance that this tutorial is mostly for more experienced users,
here we will need to use a lot of "hand work" and common sense; you will be working with your own images, and would need
to adjust to the "needs" of your landscape.
So, lets get started... make a new canvas - 600* 400.
Fill your background layer with any dark colour, we chose to do it with blue, but you can use black as well.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/1.jpg
Take a picture of a girl... we used this one, from Liam Stock, free photo resource.. ( http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39058232/ <-- Full resolution image)
This would depend on the image you use, but try to crop the figure accurately and remove the background.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/2.jpg
Select the cropped girl from your canvas, and paste it unto the blue fantasy canvas we will create.
Place her in the middle, not to close to the edge, as she will be our leitmotif.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/3.jpg
Next step, you will need different photos in order to combine a landscape.
First off, a photo of a shore. We took a pic offered free by ~gladly.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/4.jpg
Press ctrl + a to select the entire water scape, Ctrl + c to copy it, and then , when you go to the fantasy canvas - press Ctrl + V to paste it.
Be sure to place the water scape layer UNDER the layer with the girl. This is important, we placed the girl first in order to be able to see what proportion are we creating with the landscape, however, remember, that she shall always be the top later.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/5.jpg
Using the Eraser tool, with soft edge, 40 or 50 px size, draw a line (horizon), which will he around the level of the main figure's eyes. This is ideally, but if you use a taller person, or not a sitting figure, of course you can draw the horizon wherever you wish.
In order to make sure that your line is straight, press the Shift button while pressing the mouth, this way, even if your hand will hove, the line will remain straight.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/6.jpg
Now we need sky. Don't look for any spy picture, because we mostly need a horizon line (with mountains, or just a stroke of land) rather than mere clouds.
The hue of the picture is not important, all you need is a cloudy interface with a bit of land to symbolize the horizon.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/7.jpg
Paste your clouds photo unto the fantasy canvas, UNDER the water scape layer.
The horizon line of the water has to be a little darker, so u can go back to the background later (blue canvas) and brush it with black or a darker blue hue.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/8.jpg
Create a new layer.
Select a Round Brush with a sharp edge (do not use a soft edge here!) and Make a stamp near the figure, as shown on the picture below.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/9.jpg
Set the opacity of the layer to "soft", to make it semi transparent. Using the eraser tool with a sharp edge, remove all the remains, so that it will look as if this sun (or moon, if u wish) will create the illusion or setting behind the hills / land line of the horizon.
See the illustration for understand it better, and once you have finished erasing, don't forget to set the blending options back to normal
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/10.jpg
Go to Layer >>Layer Styles >> Blending options, and apply these settings for the outer glow effect. Don't skip this step, this is necessary to make an effect of shine and glow.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/11.jpg
Select the water scape layer.
Go to Filter >> Renders >> Lightening Effect.
Make a light spot, exactly on the place where the sun is... this will lit the water in front of the setting sun.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/12.jpg
This is what we got so far, beautiful water with a local lightening.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/13.jpg
Select the layer with the cropped girl (main figure) and apply same spot lightening effect.
Its important to use same location for the spot, as we only have one sun here!
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/14.jpg
Set the blending options of the layer with the girl to "Luminosity", in order to give her same hue as the layers underneath her.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/15.jpg
After the recent few steps, you canvas should look like this... If anything looks different - don't worry, in the end you might get even a better result than the example in this tut.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/16.jpg
Now, we are going to need wings to add to our girl and turn her into a fallen fairy.
I'd recommend to use Photoshop brushes in a shape of wings, and not to crop wings from other photos, as we need high quality transparent wings.
For this very tutorial, i used wings brushes downloaded free from Deviant art - http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/11925788/
Once you have installed the brushes, make a new layer (don't for get) which will be placed BELOW the girl, and ABOVE water scape layer and the sky.
Use a size that will suit the size of your figure and canvas.We used wing brushes 185px, but this is individual.
Make one stamp for a right wing, and one for the left.
Since our figure is not sitting straight, we made separate layers for each wing and after applying the second one, we pressed Ctrl + T to transform the layer freely, and rotated it a bit, as shown on the pic below
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/17.jpg
This is our result so far...
Now, Flatten the Image. (Don't skip it!)
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/18.jpg
Go to Image >> Adjustments >> Levels
and set these parameters for the BLUE channel
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/19.jpg
And these parameters for RED channels. We are looking to create a mysterious atmosphere with dark yet not dull colours, therefore colorizing the entire canvas will not look good.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/20.jpg
Now your canvas has a nice, blue-green hue...
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/21.jpg
Apply omni spot light once again, same position as before (center spot in the center of the sun), using light blue colour.
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/22.jpg
that is it, ur canvas is ready...
http://www.loreleiweb.com/28/fant/00.jpg