Step 1
Open
up Background.jpg in a new document. As you can see its quite a high
resolution picture and this will enable us to work at a high resolution
which has its advantages in being able to add more details and being
able to print at larger sizes. On the other hand it be slower to use
filters and others tools especially if your PC is slightly older and
slower. Its a trade off and you have to choose how big you want to work
and resize to a desired size using Image > Image Size. The rest of
the tutorial is in relative to this layer so you can choose whatever
size you think works best for you.
Step 2
Open up
Sports Car stock in a new document. We need to isolate the car from its background. Use your preferred
selection technique
to select the white background of the Sports Car stock. Personally I
prefer using the Pen Tool (P) to manually select the background. After
selecting the background you can remove it by adding a Layer Mask to it.
I prefer isolating stock in a separate document to the main file
because it means you don’t have to resize the stock, because of
differences in canvas size between the stock and main file, before
isolating it.
Step 3
Import
the Sports Car image into the file with Background.jpg. Using the Free
Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) flip the car horizontally by adding – before the
figure in the W: box. Then resize, move and rotate the car so that it
fits into the background better, don’t worry if it isn’t perfect at this
stage as well will be modify the car a lot in subsequent sets. You can
see some of the numbers I used for making the car fit in the image
below.
Note: Don’t be fooled by the – in front of the H: box, I
had initially put the – in the W but the rotation added after changed
it to a minus in the H box.
Step 4
Duplicate the Background Layer. If you look at the references in the
introduction you can see the background is blurred and to achieve this
we are going use Filter > Blur > Radial Blur on the duplicated
layer. The settings used are shown in the image below. It is very
important to get the blur center absolutely right, keep doing and
undoing the Radial Blur until the center looks correct to give a good
perspective on the road.
Step 5
Add
a layer mask to the duplicated Background layer and using a Soft Black
Brush at about 20% opacity brush into the layer mask to remove some of
the blur to bring out some details from the background.
Step 6
Now
we are going to go back to the Sports Car layer to make it fit better
into the scene. Start by transforming it using Edit > Transform >
Perspective and Edit > Transform > Skew. There is no exact method
to this, just use the various transforming tools to make the perspective
and proportions of the car fit into the scene.
Step 7
Now
we are going to the blur the wheels of the car so they look as if they
are in motion. Select the rear rims using the Pen Tool (P) and use
Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. For settings have Blur Amount: 10,
Blur Method: Spin and Blur Center slightly down and left of centre.
Afterwards
select the front rims in the same way and apply Radial Blur but this
time with Blur Amount: 50, Quality: Best and Blur Center slightly up and
right of center
Step 8
Now
we are going to remove the white in the car windows. Select the white
areas using the Magic Wand Tool with a tolerance of 32, Shift + Left
Click to add multiple areas. This will also select some of the white of
the card hood. Deselect it by using the lasso tool around it while
holding the Alt key. Then delete by pressing the delete key.
Erase
some of the seat seen through the front window using a Soft Brush at
about 20% Opacity. We will be going back to the windows at a later stage
so don’t worry too much about the details.
Step 9
Now
to a add to shadow to the underside of the car. Create a New Layer
(Ctrl + Shift + N), name it "Soft Shadow" and drag it under the "Sports
Car" layer. Start with a Soft Black Brush at 100% Opacity and brush the
underside of the car using a Soft Eraser at 100% Opacity to erase any
mistakes.
Add
a Radial Blur Filter to the layer with Blur Amount: 50, Blur Method:
Zoom, Quality: Medium and the Blur Center roughly the same as we used
for the background in Step 4. Now set the layer Blending Mode to Soft
Light and the Opacity to 75%. If any areas look like they need more
shadow add it with a Soft Black brush at 20% Opacity.
Step 10
Create
a New Layer above the "Soft Shadow" and name it "Hard Shadow." Get a
Soft Blue (#00ffff) Brush and brush in the immediate underside of the
car. Apply a Radial Blur to it with the same settings as the last step
but with Amount: 30. Set this layer to Hard Light with Opacity 10%.
Step 11
Now
to fix the lighting. Use Image > Adjustments >
Brightness/Contrast with Brightness: -75 and Contrast :5. Then using
Dodge and Burn tools at Range: Midtones and Exposure:20% give the car
some highlight and shadows.
Step 12
Make
a New Group (Cmd + G). Name it "Window" and drag it above the "Sports
Car" layer. Create a New Layer in it and using a soft black brush at 70%
Opacity brush in the side of the windows to make them slightly darker,
this will be the shading for the windows. Then set the layer to Opacity
50% .
Create
a New Layer (Cmd + Shift + N) above the previous then using a Soft
Brush at 100% Opacity with # 2b1e05 brush in all the windows. Set the
Blend Mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 70%.
In
another new layer using a Soft Brush at 100% Opacity with # 103624
brush in all the windows like before. This time set the Blend Mode to
Hard Light and Opacity to 80%.
Step 13
Lets
add some reflections in the windows. Create a New Group (Cmd + G), name
it reflection and drag it under the "Windows" group. Create a new layer
in the new group and using the Eye Dropper Tool (I) select some
coloured highlights from the background and brush them into the front
windows with a Hard Round Brush at 100% Opacity.
Then do a Filter
> Blur > Blur Motion to this layer with Angle : -9 and Distance:
30. Now there will be bit of ‘reflection’ on the car and background. To
get rid of this we are going to select the layer below, with the #
103624 windows, by Cmd + Left Click on it and then selecting inverse
with Cmd + Shift + I and deleting to remove colour outside the windows.
Then change the layer to Hard Light and Opacity to 60%
Now
we are going to do the same thing to the side windows on a new layer.
The only difference is that the motion blur is at Angle: 5 this time.
Step 14
Lets
add some motion blur to the car to give it a sense of movement.
Duplicate the Sports car layer and move into a New Group called "Blur"
above the "Reflection" group. While the layer is select do Layer >
Layer Mask > Apply, if you isolated with a Layer Mask. This leaves
the layer with just the car with no white background and no layer mask.
Apply a Filter > Blur > Motion Blur to it with Angle: -9,
Distance: 50.
Duplicate
the layer with the motion blur. Set the original layer with the motion
blur to 40% Opacity. On the duplicated layer using a Soft Eraser at 100%
Opacity erase the parts of the blur which are covering the car and the
repeat the Motion Blur filter by pressing Cmd + F.
Step 15
Let’s
add some lights to the car. Make a new Group called "Front Lights" and
drag it to the top of all the other layers. Select All (Cmd + A) and
Copy Merged (Cmd + Shift + C). This is layer is not going to be part of
the final image, its only use is to help get the center of the Filter
> Render > Lens flare where light would leave the head lights.
Click ok on the filter and check that the flare is coming from where it
should be and then delete the layer.
Create a new layer and fill
it with black. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and this time
keep the flare center the same as before but change the brightness to
40% and Lens Type to 105mm Prime. Then change the Blend Mode to Linear
Dodge and Opacity to 25%. We need to illuminate the light on the cars
left side as well so on the same layer do another Lens Flare but this
time have the Flare Center slightly right and above the previous one and
the Brightness: 20%. You can use another Copy Merged layer to get the
position of the Flare Center spot on if you want.
Step 16
Create
a New Layer above the previous one with the flares and using a Soft
Brush with #6dcff6 and 80% Opacity brush around the two headlights. Set
this layer to Hard Light with 50% Opacity.
Step 17
Using
a Soft White Brush at 100% draw three lines on the near head light as
seen on the image below. Then do a Radial Blur to the layer with the
same Blur Center as we used for the background, Blur Quality: Medium and
Blur Amount: 50. Name the layer "Head Light".
Step 18
Duplicate
the "Head Light" layer. Using the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl + T) resize
and rotate it like in the image below. Select both the "Head Light"
Layer and the "Head Light Copy" Layer and then Right Click on them and
Merge Layers. Name the merged layer "Head Light Right"
Step 19
Duplicate
the "Head Light Right" layer and using the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl +
T) move it and resize it so it fits well into a role as the left head
light. Name this "Head Light Left". Using a Soft Eraser at 100% Opacity
erase the parts of the light that would be blocked by the car. The
lights are a little too bright so change both Head Light layers Opacity
to 80%
Step 20
Create
a New Layer above the previous one with the light and using a Soft
Brush with #fff200 and 100% Opacity brush around the two headlights. Set
this layer to Overlay with 10% Opacity.
Step 21
Now
make a new Group called "Rear Lights" and you guessed it we are going
to put the rear lights here. Duplicate the "Head Light Right" and using
the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl + T) move, rotate and resize it so it fits
in as the light from the rear. Duplicate this layer and rotate it and
resize it again as shown below. Right click on this duplicated layer and
Merge Down. Name this new layer "Head Light Rear" and change its
opacity to 70%.
Step 22
Create
a New Layer above "Head Light Rear" and using a Soft Brush with #fd8a8a
and 100% Opacity brush around on the rear headlight.. Set this layer to
Vivid Light with 25% Opacity.
Step 23
Create
a New Group called "Floor". Drag it below the two head light groups.
Zoom out of the image to about 50%. Using the Pen Tool (P) draw a line
from outsize the bottom right corner to the where the blur center from
the radial blur is.
Now
to change the Brush Preset which you can find in the Brushes window, to
access it you have to have the Brush Tool (B) selected. Load the Square
Brushes brush set which should be one that comes as standard with
Photoshop and choose the biggest square brush. Then change the settings
as shown in the image below (adjust the Brush Size and Spacing to the
needs of the canvas size your working on but the other settings should
be the same).
When
the Brush Presets have been set go to the Pen Tool (P) again and right
click on the image and select Stroke path. In the next box choose Brush
and tick the Stimulate Pressure box. You should now have some road
lines. Move and rotate the lines with the Free Transform tool so they
fit in better and then do a Radial Blur on them with the same Blur
Center as for the background with 50% on Amount.
Then
using the Eraser at 100% opacity erase parts of the lines to make it
look like its fading in to the distance. Set the layer to Hard Light and
75% Opacity and to finish name the layer "Road Markings" so you don’t
forgot what it is in the future.
Step 24
In
a new layer, paint on various bright colours selected from the
background using the Eyedropper Tool (I) to the side of the car and the
road. Use a variety to bright colours on the car body for highlights
while using mainly red on the floor. Use Cmd + F to repeat the previous
Radial Blur filter to blend the colours in nicely and then set the layer
to Overlay and 20% Opacity.
Step 25
Make
a New Layer called "Front Light". Using a White Soft Brush of varying
size and opacity as shown in the image below brush in the some more
light coming from the head light. Then using a small black brush draw
some black lines into the white light to give it depth. Do a Radial Blur
to the layer with the same settings as before expect Blur Amount: 30 to
blend it all together and then set the layer to Hard Light 15%.
Step 26
The
left side of the road looks a little too bright so lets make it darker.
Make a New Layer and using a Soft Black Brush at 100% Opacity brush in
the areas that look a little too light. Set this layer to Overlay and
25% Opacity and using a large Soft Eraser at 25% Opacity to brush away
the parts that are darker than they should be. Use your own discretion,
Cmd + Z is your friend.
There
is still a very light area left (pointed out above) which is from the
background and we need to cover it up. Create a new layer and using some
of the brown tones from the background by way of the Eyedropper Tool
(I) colour in the ground with a 100% Opacity Soft Brush. Use a Soft
Eraser at 20% Opacity to make it blend in with the background.
Step 27
That’s
it for this car. Make a New Group called the "Leading Car" and drag all
the Groups with their layers from the previous steps, expect for
"Background". This is just to keep the file organized as we will still
need to add a lot more elements to complete the piece. Create a New
Group called Explosion and place under " Leading Car" but above
"Background".
Step 28
Create
a New Layer in the "Explosion" Group. We could use a stock to make the
explosion but its more interesting to create our own and I feel this
will fit the piece better as well even if it may not be that realistic.
First select a Soft Round Brush and go into Brush Presets and give it
the settings below.
Now
we are going to brush in the basic shape and colour of the explosion. I
have outlined below the steps that I used as well as the colours, a
brush of Opacity 100% was used throughout. This part is all about trial
and error, the beauty of working on a computer is you that you can use
Undo. After the brushing is done apply a Zoom Radial Blur of Amount:40,
with the same center as earlier. to the layer.
Step 29
Move
and Free Transform the layer so that the explosion fits into the scene
better, you want it to be where the horizon would be. Create a New Layer
and drag it below the one with the explosion. Use a 60% Opacity Soft
Brush with #f3d711 to brush under the explosion on this layer, and then
reduce the brush opacity to 10% and use Black to give the yellow some
shadows. Select the layer above, Right Click and Merge Below and name
the layer "Boom!".
Step 30
Add
a Layer Mask to the "Boom!" layer and remove the bottom part of the
explosion by painting with a black brush inside the layer mask. Then
Create a New Layer and Right Click on it and select Create Clipping
Mask. We are to shade the explosion below in this layer so use a black
brush with low opacity to add shadows and a white brush for highlights.
Then use a Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U) on the "Boom!" layer with Hue: +3 Saturation: -15 & Lightness: -3.
Use
the Dodge and Burn (Midtones) tools on the layer to accentuate the
shadows and highlights to give more depth. The dark spots also looked
out of place so use a small eyedropped Soft Yellow Brush of 30% Opacity
to hide them.
Step 31
To
finish of the explosion Create a New Layer and draw a big dot around
the explosion with a Soft #fff000 Brush at 100% Opacity, this will be
the glow from the explosion. Erase the bottom half of the glow with a
20% Opacity Soft Eraser and set the layer to Overlay at 20%.
Step 32
Now
lets add a car chasing the leading car to give the piece even more
drama. Create a New Group and name it "Police". Place it above the
"Explosion" Group but under the "Leading Car" one.
Open the
Cop Car
stock and isolate the car from background like you did for the Sports
Car and similarly duplicate it into the file we are working on. Drag it
into the "Police" group and use the Free Transfrom (Cmd + T) tool to
resize and move it into a appropriate position for it to be in pursuit
of the Sports Car. Name the layer "Cop Car"
Step 33
Let’s
transform this Cop Car just like we did for the Sports Car. The tools
used can be found under Edit > Transform. The steps are shown in the
image below.
Step 34
Go
to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast on the layer with
Brightness: -12 and Contrast: -26. Then create a New Layer and add it as
a Clipping Mask. In this new layer use a Soft #fff000 Brush with 30%
brush in the right side of the Cop Car (your left) to show the light it
would be receiving from the explosion in the background.
Step 35
Now
let’s add shadows to the Cop Car just like we did for the Sports Car.
Create a New Layer under the "Cop Car" layer and name it "Soft Shadow".
Using a Soft Black Brush at 100% Opacity lets colour in a Shadow. When
done use a Zoom Radial Blur filter on it with the same center as always
with Amount: 50. Set this layer to Soft Light at 75% Opacity.
Step 36
Create
a New Layer above the "Soft Shadow" and name it "Hard Shadow" just like
for the Sports Car but this time use a Soft Black Brush to brush in the
immediate underside. Leave the Blend Mode on just Normal this time but
change the Opacity to 80%
Step 37
Create
a new New Group within "Police" and name it "Lights", this new sub
group needs to be above the others layer in "Police". Create a New Layer
in it and name it "Head Lights". Using a White Soft Brush at 100%
Opacity paint two dots that cover the two headlight/ Then reduce the
opacity to 50% but increase the brush size to almost double its original
size and paint on the two dots to give them a glow. Change this is
layer’s Opacity to 80% to finish giving the Cop Car head lights.
Step 38
Create
a New Layer above "Head Lights" and name it "Red". We are going to make
the red portion of the Cop Car’s emergency light on this layer. Using a
Red (#ff0000) Soft Brush at 100% Opacity paint a big red dot on left
emergency light on the top of the car and the right emergency light on
the grill of the car. Then reduce the Brush Opacity to 50% and brush
around these two dots to give them a glow then set the layer to Overlay.
Step 39
Now
Create a New Layer above "Red" and name it "Blue". Using a Blue
(#0000ff) Soft Brush at 100% Opacity paint big dot like before on top of
the car and the grill but on the opposite side this time. Then reduce
the Brush Opacity to 30% and brush around these two dots to give them a
glow but don’t make it as wide as the red glow because emergency lights
often work out of phase to each other so one light will be bright on one
side of the will the other will be bright on the other side of the car
which we can’t see. Then set the layer to Soft Light.
Step 40
That’s
it for the Cop Car. Now let’s add a gun man in the leading car shooting
at the cop cops, what’s an action seen without some gunfire? Create a
New Group and named it "Gunman" and place it above the "Leading Car"
group.
Open the
Gunman
stock and isolate him from background just like you did for the two
stocks previously and similarly duplicate him into the file. Drag it
into the "Gunman" group and using the Free Transform (Cmd + T) tool
resize and move it so it looks like the man is leaning out of the
window.
Step 41
Now its time to get transforming again. You should know the drill by now; the process is shown in the images below.
Step 42
If
you isolated the image with a Layer Mask go into it if not make a new
one on the layer with the stock. Using a Black Brush of 80% mask the bit
of the gunman that would be seen through the glass. Use a 100% opaque
Brush to mask parts that would be hidden by the car.
Step 43
Use
Dodge & Burn (Midtones) to shade the gunman. A little guide and
side by side comparison of before and after is given below.
Step 44
Create
a New Group within the "Gunman" group and name it "Bullets". Make a New
Layer called "Light Trail" in it. Now we are going to paint on some
gunfire coming from the gun. For this we are going to use a brush that
comes as standard with Photoshop, to find in the brush selection menu
choose Reset Brushes and from the selection of brushes choose the one
shown below. Choose a appropriate brush size to cover the barrel of the
gun and paint on top of it with 100% Opacity in White. Then use [ to
decrease brush size and paint the trail of light coming from the barrel
of the gun. Apply a Filter > Blur > Motion Blur to this layer with
Angle: 4 and Distance: 5 to finish off the "Light Trail".
Step 45
To
finish off the bullets let’s add some glow to them. Get a Soft #fff200
Round Brush at 100% and draw a big dot around with the centre where the
light trail is. Reduce the brush Opacity to 50% and draw an even bigger
dot on top of the one you just drew. Use a 70% Opacity Round Eraser and
eraser the yellow from where the light would be obstructed by the car
and set the layer to Vivid Light Opacity 30%.
Step 46
That’s
it for the piece as far as adding elements are concerned. Hopefully you
have learned quite a bit already. Now all we have to do is polish up
the piece with a few adjustments to finish it off. Below is the image so
far. Make a New Group called "Adjustments" on top of all the other
groups and you guessed it we are going to put our Adjustment Layers
here.
Step 47
Adjustment
Layers can be reached either by Layer > New Adjustment layer or by
clicking on the black/white icon in the Layers window which is shown
below. Most of these adjustments are to finish the piece to my personal
preference. Experiment with the adjustments settings as they have a big
visual impact on the final product, I will outline what I did below.
Let’s
start of off with a Levels layer. The aim of the layer is improve the
contrast in the piece and the values used are shown below.
Afterwards make a Black and White Adjustment Layer with the values give in the image and set that layer to Overlay 15%.
Step 48
Now
let’s add some Gradient Maps to the piece, they too can be found under
Adjustment Layers. In the Box for Gradient Map click on the drop down
menu and then the arrow and choose Color Harmonies 1. In this selection
of gradients use the orange and blue one shown below and set layer on
Color at 15% Opacity.
Now
add another Gradient Map from the Color Harmonies 1 set called
Red-Orange, Blue-Green. On Gradient options tick Reverse and press OK.
Erase the parts of the Gradient Map that affect the more foreground
elements of the piece and then set it to Soft Light 20%. This will help
give the piece more depth.
Step 49
We
are now going to create our penultimate layer. We are going to start
this layer differently by first changing the layer blend mode Soft Light
and Opacity to 30%, this is to enable us to directly see the effect
this layer will have on the rest of the picture. Now use the Gradient
Tool with a White to Black, Radial Gradient on 100% Opacity to make a
gradient as shown in the image. The aim of this layer is to increase the
attention given to the foreground elements by lighting them while
darkening the background ones.
Step 50
This
is will be our last layer, finally! Select All (Cmd + A), Copy Merged
(Cmd + Shift + C) and Paste (Cmd +V) to get a layer with the image so
far. Do a Filter > Other > High Pass with a Radius of 1.0 and set
it to overlay to give the image a slight sharpen to finish it off.
Conclusion
So
that’s it! See all the action we can create from just four stationary
pieces of stocks. Hope it was an interesting read for you and that you
have picked up some nifty tips, tricks and techniques you can use and
even improve upon to great create future works.
