Kamis, 02 Juni 2011

Photoshop Zombie: Undead Eyes

Undead Eyes

photoshop zombie eyes tutorialZombifiying people in Photoshop is ridiculously good fun, there’s no doubt about it. In this new series of tutorials I will guide you through the various steps for creating top-tier Photoshop Zombies. I wanted to focus on the Undead Eyes look first, as it was an aspect of Zombie manipulations I had a few difficulties with when starting out. The trick here is to replicate the lighting, giving the illusion of glassy orbs as opposed to dull shapes slapped onto the model’s face.

The Stock

For this piece I have selected a quirky alternative model with an engaging pose – the clarity, lighting and resolution is good; which will benefit the final results. For those of you familiar with earlier posts, you’ll know what a stickler I am for using high quality resources! Check out the Selecting Stock article if you would like to get a heads up on stock. Image credit: Goth Girl by Harris Shiffman, Fotolia # 11108768
undead eyes demo

Dodge the Eyes

The first thing I usually do is duplicate the model layer (right click background layer, select Duplicate Layer), that means if anything goes wrong I can revert back to the original. On the duplicated layer use the Dodge Tool (O) to lighten the iris and pupil of your model. The exposure of my Dodge Tool was set to 60%, you may want to experiment depending on the darkness and eye colour of your chosen stock model. Reduce the size of the Dodge brush (you can use the brackets ‘ [ ] ‘ to change brush size) to dodge the dark edges of the iris’.

photoshop zombie eyes 2Creating the Base

Using the Eyedropper Tool (I), select a white midtone from the model’s eye. Using the Pen Tool or your preferred selection method, create a selection of both eyes and fill with your sampled colour, on a new layer. Give this layer a meaningful name, I called mine ‘eyeball base’. Use the dodge tool to subtly lighten the base layer in the centre of each eye (be conscious of matching the lighting of the source image). I used the Smudge Tool set at around 25% strength to gently smooth down the edges of the eyeball base, just to make things a little more natural. Check out the example below to get an idea of what you are after.
I created a layer group (small folder icon at the bottom of the layers palette), named it ‘eyes’ and put my ‘eyeball base’ layer in there. This is good practice as it helps organise your layers and you can easily hide the group from view when you want to check out the original model or sample colours.
photoshop zombie eyes 2

Shading the Base

For this step we hide the ‘eyes’ group for a moment (click eye icon), so we can sample one dark and one light tone from the model’s eye, using the eyedropper tool. You can use ‘x’ to switch between foreground and background colours. Make the ‘eyes’ group visible again and create a new layer above ‘eyeball base’, I called mine ‘light dark’ – this is where we will paint in the shades. The important step here is to create a Clipping Mask for the new ‘light dark’ layer – to do this hold down Alt and click between the ‘eyeball base’ and ‘light dark layers’.
Paint the dark and light tones onto your new layer using a soft edged brush (B). As there is a Clipping Mask in place, all the shading you do will be kept to the confines of the ‘eyeball base’ layer. Pretty nifty. Check out the examples below to get an idea of the brush strokes to use, I always try to mimic the lighting of the source image.
photoshop zombie eyes 4

A couple of Highlights

Create a new layer above the ‘eyes’ layer group and call it  ‘highlights’. On this layer use the Ellipse Tool with the colour set to white to create a few small circles in the centre of each eye. Apply a slight Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to soften the circles, and set the new ‘highlights’ layer mode to Screen.
This step is crucial in creating the illusion, as glossy objects bounce off a lot of light. The better you can replicate lighting, the more tangible your work becomes.
photoshop zombie eyes 5

Darkening the Sockets

To give the eyes a lot more punch and achieve the classic undead look, the next step is to darken the socket areas surrounding the eyes. In my example, I created a new layer group called ‘eye shadows’ and made some new layers called ‘shadow 1′ and ‘shadow 2′ set to Soft Light layer mode. Sample a dark tone from the eyelid area and use that to paint in the darker shades on your ‘shadow’ layers. Soft Light is great because it brings through a lot of the little details as well as darkening.
As opposed to just having one layer with the shadows, I like to use a few of them stacked up so I can emphasise certain areas – as seen below. Experiment with the opacity of each shadow layer and find the right balance; dark enough to do the job, but not overkill. This step really adds to the drama of the image and creates a lot more menace.
photoshop zombie eyes 6

Finishing Touches

Select your ‘eyes’ layer group, and set it’s opacity to 80%, this allows the vague outline of the iris to show through. Apply a layer mask to the ‘eyes’ group, and with a small soft brush set to black very gently brush the edges of the eyes – this will soften the hard edges and make everything just a bit more natural. See below.photoshop zombie eyes 7
The Result:
undead eyes photoshop final

Review

Be sure to add your own tweaks to improve the effect – as long as you incorporate the lighting principles you can take the work in any direction. I hope you enjoyed part 1 of Photoshop Zombie, head on over to part 2 where we will bring out her skeletal features >> Photoshop Zombie Part 2
Feel free to share via the applet below – spread the word!
Conzz 8-)

Photoshop Zombie: Skeletal Features

Skeletal Features

photoshop skeletal zombie title postIn this installment of Photoshop Zombie, we will be working on the bone-structure of the model, bringing out skeletal features using simple lighting techniques. This is a great step in the overall process because you can literally sculpt the expression of the model’s face by accentuating the brow using highlights and shadows. Read on for the skinny!

skeletal photoshop zombie before and after

Sketching the Bones

As you can see from the image below, I have taken all my layers and adjustments from the previous tutorial and placed them in one group called ‘eyes’ – nice and neat. The first step for creating your skeletal features is to create a new layer, set to Multiply. Using the Eyedropper tool (I), select a dark tone from the models skin, and draw out some bone outlines using your preferred method. I like to use the Pen Tool (P), because I can keep everything nice and sharp. The idea here is to work around the existing contours of the image – check out some reference pictures of skulls to get an idea of how the cheek bones and sockets look. I named this layer ‘Bone Lines’.
skeletal photoshop zombie 1
Once you have created the contours, duplicate your ‘Bone Lines’ layer (right click layer, select ‘Duplicate Layer’), and hide the old one as shown in the image below. With your new ‘Bone Lines copy’ layer, apply a slight Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), my blur settings were 3 pixels. Hopefully you should have something similar to this:
skeletal photoshop zombie 2
This next step is similar to the last – duplicate the ‘Bone Lines copy’ layer, and hide the one underneath (check out the example to see how your layer stack should look). With this new duplicated layer, which should be called ‘Bone Lines copy 2′ – apply a Gaussian Blur, this time a bit more than the last one – I used a value of 4 pixels.
skeletal photoshop zombie 3
Make both of the ‘Bone Lines copy’ layers visible (eye icon on layers palette). For this step, you will want to reduce the opacity of the ‘Bone Lines copy’ and ‘Bone Lines copy 2′ layers – so they look natural and not as obtrusive. These layers act as details and wider shadows of the bone lines, the original ‘Bone Lines’ layer has been left hidden – just in case we want to use it again later. Check out the layer stack below to see how things should look, Ive shown the opacity values I used on each layer – but it’s down to you how pronounced you’d like the effect 8-) skeletal photoshop zombie 4

Burn Baby Burn

With the vague outline of the bone-structure in place, it’s time to work over the skin with the good ol’ Burn Tool. As opposed to just hacking away at the original source image, we will use a non-destructive method to apply the burn effects – that way if any mistakes are made, they can be easily rectified.
Create a new layer and name it ‘Burn’, fill this layer with 50% Gray (Edit > Fill > Select 50% Gray from the dropdown menu) – set this layer to Soft Light layer mode. Using the Burn Tool (O) with a soft edged brush, go over the bone contours on your new ‘Burn’ layer. Use different Exposure settings for getting the desired effects, my Burn Tool was mainly set to 8% Exposure, using the Midtones Range. Subtlety is key here, it’s quite easy to overdo it. The great thing about working on the Soft Light layer, is that you can erase any mistakes using a 50% Gray brush – a lot trickier to do if you were burning directly onto the source image.
photoshop skeletal zombie

Highlights

Bones jutting out of the model’s face would catch the light, so for this step we will create some highlights. Create a new layer above your ‘Burn’ layer and set the layer mode to Soft Light. Sample a light flesh tone from the model’s face using the Eyedropper Tool (O), and with a soft-edged brush, paint onto the raised areas of the bones. I used the Smudge Tool (R) to make the strokes more natural, and at times I used the Eraser Tool (E) to soften the intensity of the strokes. Pay particular attention to the cheek bones and the brow, as they’re more pronounced,and would catch more light.
skeletal photoshop zombie

Finishing Touches

You may want to tweak the opacity of each layer until you find the right balance – I reduced my ‘Highlight’ layer to 40%, so the highlights weren’t as prominent. You can use these techniques to do further work such as wrinkles, contours and creases; as long as you keep lighting and shadows in mind, you should be able to achieve great results.
The Result:
photoshop skeletal zombie result

Review

You have been viewing Photoshop Zombie, head on over to check out part 3 ‘Flesh Wounds‘.
Conzz 8-)

Photoshop Zombie: Flesh Wounds

Flesh Wounds


Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wounds Title PostFor the final installment of Photoshop Zombie, we will be upping the horror-factor with the creation of flesh wounds and blood. By using textures we can replicate torn skin, crust and gouge marks, but it’s definitely an exercise in subtlely. Texture layers can often have a ‘flattening’ effect on the layers underneath, so the key is to use layer masks to effectively blend these elements into the composition.
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wounds before and after

Changing the Hue

The first step I took here was to reduce the hue of the model to take away the healthy pink colour of her skin; I selected the model and created a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer above all the existing layers (see Adjustment Layers tutorial to learn more).  See the screenshot below to check out the values I used, with your own settings adjust to personal preference and taste. I set the Adjustment Layer to Color Layer Mode and the Opacity to 85% so the adjustment doesnt wash out all the colour below it.
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wound 1
Further to this step, I darkened my model’s lips using a Levels Adjustment Layer, I placed this adjustment and Hue/Saturation adjustment above into a new group called ‘Colours’ at the top of the stack (Check out Layer Controls for more info). Grouping layers is good practice, and helps keep everything organised.

Lets Rip Flesh!

I tend not to use texture layers that much these days, but in the creation of Zombies – they are very useful. When thrown on indiscriminately, they look awful – but with a light touch, you can get some decent effects. Head over to Mayangs Textures to get a quality selection of free images for your Zombie. The thumbs below shows the various textures I used to create the wounds, crust and gouge marks for my version:
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wounds 2
First up, create a new Layer Group for your wounds – make sure it is at the bottom of your layer stack, I called mine ‘wounds’. Paste one of your texture images into the new Layer Group and set the layer to Hard Light mode. Check out the pic below to see how things should look:
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wounds 3
As you can see, Ive applied a layer mask to my wound texture layer. By using layer masks, you can blend in the texture elements and control the intensity of the effect. There are a lot of things to consider when placing your wounds; you may want to change the size (Edit > Transform > Scale), rotate the wound (Edit > Transform > Rotate) or even lessen the intensity of the colours using Hue/Saturation (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation). The worlds your oyster.
Soft brushes are essential when working with your layer mask, for more natural transitions use a very large soft brush (B) and use only the edge of the brush to gently ease in the blends. Working with Layer Masks is an artform in itself, and lots of practice is the key to success.
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wounds 4
Repeat the above steps and continue to work in different wound elements with new layers set to Hard Light and blend as necessary with Layer Masks. As you can see, it’s starting to come together nicely now and she’s starting to look pretty grody :D

Wound Definition

It’s always great to get your hands dirty and throw in some digital painting techniques. With my wounds, there were some parts that I wanted to accentuate manually – so I got the Lasso Tool (L) and started to draw out some elements on a new layer set to Multiply. Using the Smudge Tool (R) set to around 25% strength, and soft edge brush – work around the jaggy edges of the shapes created by the Lasso and manipulate to your liking. Use a soft edged eraser (E) to ease in the edges, lessening the intensity where required.
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wounds 5
Creating elements manually is what seperates the ‘men from the boys‘ so to speak – digitial painting is awesome and really makes your work unique. After a fair amount of tinkering with the above techniques I came to this point:
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wound 6

More Blood Pls

There are superior methods for creating realistic blood online, but for some reason I always struggled with the walkthroughs. So here, for your viewing pleasure is the ‘Quick n Dirty‘ SurrealPSD blood method! 8-)
1. On a new layer set to Multiply, create selections with Lasso Tool (L) and fill with a blood colour of your choice. Smear the edges using the Smudge Tool (R), with a light strength (around 30%)
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wound 7
2. Create a new layer above your blood layer, set it to Multiply and with your blood colour use the Lasso Tool (L) to draw in some darker regions of the blood. Use the Smudge Tool (R) once again to smear these parts and make everything natural.
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wound 8
3. On a new layer above the last, set the mode to Soft Light. With white as your colour, draw in some light spots and reflections using the Lasso Tool (L) and smear in as neccesary using the Smudge Tool. This layer acts as the highlight layer, be aware of the light sources of your image when placing reflections and shadows. Duplicate this layer to increase the intensity if necessary.
Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wound 9

Result:

Photoshop Zombie Flesh Wound Result

Review

That’s it for Photoshop Zombie! I hope you enjoyed the walkthough, please feel free to share online. Watch this space for new tutorials on lighting, biomech techniques and much more!
Conzz 8-)