Step 30

Select the Medieval European Knight layer and add a Layer Adjustments Curves layer so that it’s on top of all the main knights. Try to simulate the settings below for each channel.

By putting this Adjustments layer on top of the main knights, it will only affect the sky background and the knights.

Step 31

Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustments layer and put it on top of the European knight, right-click and select ‘Create Clipping Mask’. Input the following settings, go in every Channel and set the Saturation level of the Green, Cyan and Magentas to -100. The saturation in the Blue channel should be set to -45, the Red and Yellow channels should be left untouched. This will give the knight a grey-ish look which will be different when we add our final Curves Adjustment layer.

Step 32

It’s very important to create a ‘mood’ to base your color correction on, so create a new Curves Adjustments layer and put this on top of all the layers. We have our European knight as a reference, so simply try to create your own color scheme which you think looks best. These are my settings:

Step 33

Back to the European knight. To make the top knights really pop, we’re going to create an almost majestic type of glow around them. Create a copy of the European knight, name it ‘majestic_glow’ and make it all white by using Hue/Saturation and set the Lightness to +100. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and set the Angle to -90 Degrees and the Distance to 775 pixels. Make a copy of this layer and you will notice it becomes much brighter.

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 45 pixels, this will soften the harsh streaks of the motion blur a bit.

Step 34

Create a new Levels Adjustment layer and input the following settings in the appropriate channels. This Adjustment layer should be made into a clipping mask on top of the Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer we’ve made earlier for the European knight.

Step 35

We’re going to give our knight a bit of shine as we want the majestic glow to sort of engulf him in light. Add a new Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer and but this on top of the Adjustment layers we’ve already made. By default, a new Adjustment layer will have a white window but for this effect to work properly, simply fill the canvas with white while the mask is selected. Grab a Round brush and set the Brush Opacity to 20% and set your foreground color to white. Vary between brush sizes and brush over the area as many times you think is necessary. You should brush over the area shown in red below.

Step 36

The images all have a bit of hard line around them because we’ve used the Pen tool (P) but you can get rid of this but using the Blur tool (R) on the Layer mask.

Step 37

Repeat steps 31, 33, 34, 35 and 36 for the knights on the right and left but hopefully at this point of the tutorial, you will implement some of your own color variations and techniques. Get rid of what you like or add something else of what you think benefits the composition. At this point I have added a few more Color Balance Adjustment layers to all three knights and did more tweaking and this is my result at this point of the tutorial:

Step 38

At this point I’ve added a Color Balance Adjustment layer with the following settings:

I’ve also added a Color Fill Adjustment layer (#004762) at the top of all the layers to get a good idea of where I’m headed with this poster. Order of layers:

Step 39

On top of these layers, create a Gradient Fill Adjustment layer and click OK. Set the Layer mode to Hue and the Opacity to 20%. Double click on the Gradient window and change the gradient from Solid to Noise. Click on Randomize to see a different gradient you like and click OK. This way we’ll get a gradient with a huge amount of color.

Big change, isn’t it? The middle of the poster looks very dark but we’re going to fix that now.

Step 40

Select the ‘Renfair Stock Battle’ layer, add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer and set the Brightness to +55% and click OK. Right-click on this layer and select ‘Create Clipping Mask’. Use the same methods we’ve used on Step 35 to make it look the way you want. Use the Smudge tool to create strands of hair on the long-haired knight.

Step 41

At this point, I think the Tuscan landscape looks a bit too dark and the color isn’t very exciting. Select the top layer of the Tuscan Farm landscape, add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer and set the Brightness to +32 and the Contrast to -10 and click OK.

Only the landscape should be affected by this Adjustment layer but currently it is not, we can edit this by painting on the top of the mask with black as shown below.

Step 42

We’re getting close now but I’m still not happy as I want the colors to pop a little more. Add a Color Balance Adjustment layer and play with the sliders to get the tint you want or enter the settings shown below.

Once you are done, paint on this mask as we’ve done with step 41.

Step 43

It’s time to work on the small army on the left. Because the image is a lot brighter at the bottom, we can edit this easily by using the Burn tool. Grab the Burn tool (G) and make sure the Range of the brush is set to Midtones and the Exposure at 50%. Now you can start darkening the lower parts of the knights.

Step 44

Create a copy of this layer and make it all black by using the Hue/Saturation menu and drag it below the knights, this will be part of the shadow. Press Ctrl + T, right-click on the selection that is made and select the option Distort. Try dragging one of the points to create a believable shadow, it doesn’t have to be placed correctly as you need to apply a small Gaussian blur, adjust the effect your own liking.

Repeat Steps 43 and 44 for the army on the right. Apply a Color Balance Adjustment layer and try to match the color tone of the knights with the background.

Step 45

Because I want to add some more spectacle to the composition, download and open the Fireballs image, drag it into our composition and set the Layer Mode to Screen. Resize and divide the fireballs into three individual layers. Because the blending mode of these layers have been set to Screen, they will work best on dark backgrounds so I have placed all three fireballs on top of the European knight folder.

If you are satisfied with the placements of all three layers, then go ahead and merge them. Photoshop will automatically revert the Blending Mode to normal but you will have to set it back to Screen. We will get back to this section later.

Step 46

Now it is time to start working on the title of this fictional poster. For this type of work I have decided to use the Old English Text MT which is an old school font that really fits the whole medieval style. If you have followed every step of this tutorial, then you probably used the original resolution as shown in Step 1 so type the name Infictus with a size of 405pt.

Since the tutorial is rather lengthy to follow for some, we will need to apply several Layer Styles for the effect to work so double-click on the right of the text layer within the Layer Menu and apply the following styles:

I have used a simple grey to white gradient to give the stroke a bit of a 3D look. That should be it for this text layer!

Step 47

I have already written a tutorial called “How to Create a Movie Poster Billing Block in Photoshop“, so go ahead and implement it into the composition.

Step 48

Now that the text is out of the way we can focus on adding the finishing touches. Download any photographs of my Sparks Stock Photograph Set and basically repeat the techniques we have used for the fireballs in Step 45. While this step may seem short, don’t be fooled as it still is a lot of work to individually rotate and alter every spark. Use these same sparks to create a trail for the fireballs.

Final Image

Your Comments Are Very Appreciated!

That’s it for this tutorial, I hope you have learned something new and if you did, please leave a comment!

Download

• Knight profile
• Medieval European Knight
• Before Fight
• Knightly Tournament
• Sunset Sky
• Langdale
• Tuscany Farm
• Renfair Stock Battle
• Medieval Knights
• Fireballs

Final Image

Step 1

Create a new document and set the size at 27×41 inches (72DPI). The reason we are doing this at 72dpi is because files like these can get very large and some computers might be too slow to handle them but I wanted to create a large enough canvas to see all the details during editing. Make sure you set ‘Background Contents’ to White.

Step 2

Download and open the ‘Medieval European Knight‘ image and scale the image by pressing Ctrl + T, hold Shift and drag and rotate one of the corners so that the image is placed the same as below.

Step 3

We are going to remove the background by using the Pen Tool (P). Once you’re done creating a path around the knight, close it by clicking on the first anchor point. Right-click within the path and select ‘Make Selection…’ and input the following settings (this is done automatically by Photoshop, just in case your version has a fluke) and click OK.

Once the selection has been made, click on the Mask icon in the Layers menu and you will see that this will create a very clean cut-out of our main knight.

Personally I always use Layer Masks no matter what kind of image I’m editing because it is incredibly easy to undo a mistake without permanently destroying the image.

Step 4

Repeat steps 2-3 for the knight in the top right (Before Fight) and try to scale and rotate the image as shown below.

Step 5

For the top left knight we use similar techniques but with one exception; we’re going to mask his beard. Always go for the highest amount of details no matter what they are, the viewer of your work will notice! Download the ‘Knight Profile‘ image and open it up in Photoshop. Do not drag this into our poster canvas yet. In the Layers menu, go the Channels.

When masking you want to select the channel with the highest contrast, in this instance we’ll need to select the Red channel. Right-click on this layer and create a duplicate, the original Red channel will be selected by default but you need to select the copied layer.

Step 6

Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and try to create a much higher contrast by moving the sliders. If you want to go the easy route, just copy the settings shown below and click OK.

Step 7

Select the Pen tool (P) again and create a path around the knight. You might want to go around the beard on the inside as we’re going to use a gentle technique to extract the beard. Once the path is done, create a selection and fill it with black. The fastest way to do this is by using a very large Soft Round brush. On to the beard, use a smaller sized Soft Round brush and set the Brush Mode to Overlay. By setting it to Overlay, it will be much easier painting on or over areas you want to keep.

Step 8

We will need to remove the background to get a clean mask, so go to Image>Adjustments>Levels again and move the sliders but keep your eye on the fine detail of the beard as you don’t want to go overboard.

Step 9

You’ll notice that there are still some major leftovers which need to be removed. Grab a big Soft-Round brush, set your foreground color to white and set the Brush Mode to Overlay. With the Layer Mask selected, gently paint over the background of the image.

If you have done this properly, you should be left with a pure black and white image. Click on the RGB channel and go back into the Layer menu. Go to Select>Load Selection and a menu will pop up. Select the Red copy as the Channel, check the box to invert the selection and click OK. By inverting the selection, the white will be removed from the selection.

Click on the ‘Add layer mask’ icon in the bottom of the Layer menu and voila! We have a clean mask.

Step 10

Drag this image into our poster canvas and position it below the European knight layer. Rotate, scale and flip the image horizontally as shown below.

Step 11

Download and open the ‘Tuscany Farm‘ image but don’t drag it into our poster canvas yet. We will need to mask the landscape on the foreground as we are going to use it to create our own landscape. Go to Channels and copy the Blue channel, as this is the channel with the highest contrast. This will be a bit different from the steps we’ve used for the bearded knight as the landscape has a lot of detail we don’t want to lose.

With the Blue channel copy selected, go to ‘Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels’. By doing this, Photoshop will automatically change the levels and is sometimes extremely helpful and time-saving.

Step 12

We will need to darken the foreground a whole lot more to get a clean mask. Go to ‘Image>Adjustments>Levels…’  and start moving the sliders until you are convinced that it’s going to work, or you could just input the following settings and click OK.

Step 13

Grab a big Soft Round brush and start darkening the foreground by using a pure black color. Go easy on this one and don’t go near the trees yet. To darken the trees you will need a lot of patience as this is the part where it gets tedious. Set your Brush Mode to Overlay and darken the trees very slowly and gently. Vary between brush sizes and to see what you’re masking, simply click on the RGB channel and switch between that and the Blue copied channel.

Step 14

A nice trick to make the masking easier, is by using the Curves adjustment menu. Go to ‘Image>Adjustments>Curves’ and try to find the best balance to contrast the landscape.

Step 15

Once you’ve darkened the foreground landscape and are satisfied with the result, we’ll need to start painting over the remaining area so it doesn’t show up in our mask. Use the Same Soft-Round brush and the Brush Mode to Overlay but set the foreground color to white. Paint away the areas you don’t need but go easy around the trees. Keep doing this until you are left with something similar to this;

Step 16

Click on the RGB channel and go back into the Layers menu. Go to ‘Select>Load Selection…’, load the Blue copy channel, check on the Invert box and click OK.

Step 17

Drag the image into our poster canvas and scale as shown below.

Step 18

We are going to place a background so we have a better view of what the composition is going to look like. Download and open the ‘Sunset Sky‘ image and drag it below all of the layers, place the image as shown.

Step 19

Download and open the ‘Langdale‘ image and place it below the ‘Tuscan Farm’ layer as shown below. Highlighted in red are the mountains which are going to be edited later on.

Step 20

This is where the fun part starts! We’re going to manipulate the two landscape images by blending them together. Disable the view of the ‘Tuscany Farm’ image, by doing this we’ll have a better view when we’re editing the ‘Langdale’ image. Not only are we going to use the mountains but also the land itself for the battlefield.

Before we can do that, we need to clone some of the land and get rid of the sheep and fences. Grab the Clone Stamp tool and zoom in by 300%. Clone the land by pressing Alt right next to the sheep you want to remove, then simply brush over the sheep and it will disapear when done correctly.

Once you’re done with the sheep, go ahead and remove all fence posts and farm houses. If done correctly, you should end up with this;

Step 21

Select the ‘Tuscany Farm’ image and click once on the Layer mask to select it. What we’re going to do now is blend the two landscapes together. Grab a big Soft Round brush as this will help the blending a lot better. Zoom in at the bottom of the Tuscan hill and simply start painting over the entire bottom area (the Tuscan ground), zoom in by 300% if you want to get the detailing right (trees, fences etc.), vary between brush sizes for this. I’ve lowered the opacity of the ‘Tuscan Farm’ image for better viewing, the red line indicates the figurative border you really shouldn’t cross!

Step 22

We need to separate the land from the mountains as we are about to add color correction and we really don’t want to give those mountains an ugly color. Select the ‘Langdale’ image, grab the Rectangular Marquee Selection tool (M) and select the ground section. Right-click and create a copy.

Step 23

With the copied land layer selected, go to the bottom of the Layers menu and add a Color Balance Adjustment layer. By default, this Adjustment layer opens in the Midtones channel which we’ll need to change to blend the photographs together.

Step 24

Select the original ‘Langdale’ layer and add a Layer mask to the image. Grab a huge Soft Round brush and paint away the entire right side of the clouds and atmosphere area.

You might have noticed that the shield of the European knight is cut off but that won’t be a problem as it will be blocked from our view in the next steps.

Step 25

Download and open the ‘Renfair Stock Battle’ image in Photoshop and cut out the left and middle knight (or should I say victim?) by using the Pen tool (P) again. This image is slightly problematic as both knights have their feet and legs in the grass which prevents us from creating a clean mask. Just cut around their limbs and around the head of the long-haired knight as there is no way we’re going to get a clean mask. Scale the image as shown below.

Step 26

Now we’re going to add a small army on both sides of the battlefield. First download and open the ‘Medieval Knights‘ photograph and cut them out by using the Pen tool (P) and place them on the left side of the poster. Repeat this step with the ‘Knightly Tournament‘ photograph but place these on the right.

Step 27

Every movie poster has ‘noise’, the little specks which helps blend everything together. The following method is really easy but there are other ways to do this but since this is a rather lengthy tutorial, I’ll show you the easy way. Create a new layer and name it ‘poster_noise’, fill it with black and set the Layer mode to Overlay. This layer should be on top of the rest of the layers. Go to ‘Filter>Noise>Add Noise…’ and a menu pops up. Set the amount of noise at 7% and the Distribution should be set to Uniform, then click Ok.

Step 28

The composition is coming along nicely but we also need to add a black area at the bottom of the poster to act as a transition between the poster art itself and the typography for titling and the billing block. Create a new layer and name it ‘bottom_black_billing’, put this on top of all the layers, use a big Soft Round brush (yes, I love that brush!) and gently paint towards the bottom of the landscape and fighting knights in an oval shape.

Step 29

If you haven’t done so already, you really should start organizing at this point as it might get confusing. Simply create folders for every element in the composition (‘Top_Knights’, ‘Landscape’ ‘Sky’ etc.). For even better organizing you can give every single folder a different color by right-clicking on the layer visibility icon; the eye, then choose your color of choice.

- End of Part One -

The second part of this tutorial will be published on monday the 19th of April.

Final Image

Before we begin, I would like to mention that I am aware of the fact that the letters have not been mirrored. This was done intentionally for promotional purposes.

Download

Scratched Metal Texture by D. Sharon Pruitt
Paper Texture by ‘Bemybutterfly‘

Step 1

Create a new document of 1680×1050 and fill it with a grey color for better viewing later on. For this tutorial I have used Impact, for most computers a system font but if you don’t have it, you can always use a big and bold font.

Step 2

You can really go crazy with this effect but for now I just want to show you the basics so you can expand or modify the effect by the end of this tutorial. Create a new text layer by selecting the Horizontal Text tool (T) and type your text. Because I want the text to be huge, I have set the size at 360pt but fortunately I can always resize it later. The text should be bolded so that the edges are cut off which will give a great look to the effect when it is done.

Step 3

We are going to start working on the metal base of the letterpress first so that we will have a better idea later on how to alter the text effects. Simply type the letter I on a new layer and place it beneath the first letter of the INFICTUS text layer which in this case, is also the letter I. Change the color to something dark but make sure it is visible. Press Ctrl + T to resize the base letter as shown below.

Simply copy this layer for and drag it beneath each letter and resize them but keep enough space between the letters.

Step 4

Download this scratched metal texture and open it up in Photoshop, this texture will make the final effect much more realistic. Drag it into our composition and put it on top of the first base letter we have made in Step 3. Right-click on this layer in the Layer Menu and select ‘Create Clipping Mask’, what this will do is wrapping the texture around the base letter so it will not affect the other layers. We need to resize this texture layer because we need as much detail as possible so press Ctrl + T to resize the texture, hold Shift to prevent distortion.

Step 5

The base needs Layer Styles in order to look realistic. With the base letter selected, double-click on the right of the layer in the Layer Menu. That will bring up the Layer Styles menu, apply all effects as shown below. The Inner Glow is used for highlighting the outer ridges you often see on metal blocks.

The Gradient Overlay is used for creating a shadow on the base letters.

Step 6

Right-click on the base letter to copy the Layer Styles and paste them on the remaining base layers. Copy the Texture layer several times and drag these over to the other base layers, don’t forget t make these Clipping Masks. When you are done, create a new group folder and drag them into this group. At this point of the tutorial, you should have something like this:

Step 7

You might have noticed that the textures literally look like copies but with the power of Photoshop we can change that. Check the INFICTUS text layer on so that we don’t have to any excessive cloning. Have a look at the image below and see how many scratch copies there are, they will all need to be cloned away.

Grab the Clone Stamp tool (S), hold Alt to clone the source and brush over the repetitive scratches, it is best to use a Soft Round brush to not get hard edges in your cloning.

Step 8

Time to finally start working on the INFICTUS text layer. First, set the Layer Mode to Vivid Light so that the lighting will be easily adjusted later on. Open the Scratched Metal Texture again and drag it on top of the INFICTUS text layer and make it a Clipping mask right on top of the INFICTUS text.

The Metal Texture looks very dark but here is an easy trick; Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert (or Ctrl + T). By inverting the texture, white scratches will be turned black and by setting the text layer to Vivid Light the scratches of the previous clipping mask will show through. Use Layer Masks to get rid of any excessive texture on the rest of the letters.

Create copies of the texture for each letter until you have something like this:

There are more scratches that are repetitive so clone them away like we did in Step 7.

Step 9

The INFICTUS text layer needs some effects because now it looks rather flat. Double-click on the right of the text layer and apply the following effects:

These effects will make the text look like it has been extruded.

Step 10

To make the edges of the letters look weathered and shiny, you need to do the following. With the Layer Mask of the letter I selected, gently paint from the outside towards the insides of the edges.

Go around every letter until you have something like this:

Step 11

At this final point I have added a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer and a Color Balance Adjustment layer to spice things up a bit and to make it look more like metal.

Final Image

And that is it! Really easy techniques used to achieve great results.

Final Image

Downloads

• Paper texture by ‘Bemybutterfly‘
• Flames
• Floral Pattern by Xe0s

Step 1

Open up Photoshop and create a new document of 1680×1050 and click OK. For now, we need to fill the background with a grey colour (#606060) so that all details of the flames will be visible when we are going to edit them.

Step 2

Create a new layer and name it ‘Poker_card_base‘. We are going to create a custom poker card from scratch by using the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Set the Radius at 40px and try to drag the regular card shape.

Create a selection of this shape and fill it with white, this will be our base to work from.

Step 3

Time for some creative fun! We are going to create our own poker card with custom shapes. With the Custom Shape Tool (U) selected, you will notice that at the top of the screen there is a small arrow (it could be another symbol showing up on your screen). Click on the arrow and a huge list of custom shapes will pop up, try to find the Spades symbol. Drag the tool in the upper left corner and make the spades symbol as large as you want. Create a new layer and name it ‘Spade_symbol’. Make a selection of the symbol and fill it with a dark grey colour (#3b3b3b).

I want the symbol to show on each corner so we need to duplicate this layer and simply drag it to the right corner. Select both symbol layers in the Layer Menu and copy them. Press Ctrl + T and rotate these layers 180 degrees, drag the copied layers to the bottom and merge these four. You should have this result at this point of the tutorial.

Step 4

Before we continue creating our own custom card we need to apply a paper texture to the card. Download this paper texture and open it up in Photoshop and drag it into our working canvas. Place the texture below the ‘Spades_symbols’ layer. Press Ctrl + T and make the texture smaller so that it fits the card, make sure you overlap the texture by a few pixels. Note: I have lowered the Opacity of the texture on the left for better viewing. In the Layer Menu, right-click on the texture layer and select ‘Create Clipping Mask’.

As you can see the texture will be wrapped around the poker card base. The texture has a soft pink tone which I want to get rid of by using the Hue/Saturation menu (press Ctrl + U). Set the Saturation to -45 to saturate the colour but keep a little bit of colour.

The card looks better but could still use some improvements. Go to Filter>Distort>Lens Correction to create some vignetting. On the right side you will see a huge menu which may look a little daunting but it isn’t. Simply go to the Vignette section and set the Amount to -70 and the Midpoint to 0.

Step 5

Back to customizing our card, Photoshop comes with a set of custom shapes we can use for this tutorial. Find the Fleur-de-Lis shape (shown below), create a new shape and fill it with the dark grey colour on a new layer.

Step 6

You can go as crazy as you want with your own custom poker card with the wide variety of shapes. At this point of the tutorial I have added a few ornaments to break away from the generic poker card image but still keep it simple. As you may notice, I have also reduced the size of the Fleur-de-Lis.

Step 7

There is a huge collection of free floral patterns on the web which we are going to use for the background. Download this floral pattern by Xe0s and open the Photoshop file. Select the pattern layer and drag it into our poker card composition beneath the poker card layers. We have to create several duplicates so that the entire background is filled with the pattern (in total I have created about 23 copies). Merge all the copied pattern layers.

Rotate the pattern layer about 45 degrees in any way you would like and lower the opacity to 15%.

Step 8

Fill the grey background with a darker grey (#454545) and apply the vignetting trick again by going to Filter>Distort>Lens Correction but only this time, set the Amount to -100 and the Midpoint to 0. This will darken the the edges but gives a nice spotlight for our card.

Step 9

The composition still looks bland and full but we are going to change that now. We are going to change the perspective of the card so that it will give the impression that the card is 3D, not quite like Avatar but let us try it. Select all of the layers that are connected to the card such as the shapes and texture. Press Ctrl + T and right-click on the selection, this will open up a small menu with various options, choose Perspective.

Drag the lower right Anchor point anywhere to change the perspective into something more 3D and something visually exciting. Just try to keep it a bit realistic.

Once you are done finding your own perspective, press Enter. Please note that I have also rotated the card and reduced the size a little bit, this could be what you have right now;

Step 10

Download and open the Fire image in Photoshop but don’t drag it into our composition just yet. In the photograph there are three seperate flames which we will need to cut out so that they all have their own layer. Simply use the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) and create a selection around a flame and you can cut the flame by clicking your right mouse button and select ‘Layer via Cut’. Do this with all three flames.

Step 11

Drag the middle flame into our composition and drag it on top of all the layers. Set the Layer Mode to Screen so that the black background will dissappear, this is a nice trick as you can do this with most nature elements (fire, water, earth). As you can see the fire image layer is too big for the card so simply resize it by pressing Ctrl + T and the image will be selected and ready for resizing. Drag one of the Anchor points to do so.  Notice how every flame has a straight to curve section, this is perfect because we are going to align those with the sharp edges of the poker card.

Step 12

Press Ctrl + T to rotate the flame and align it with the poker card like so:

Repeat steps 11 and 12 to create a poker card that is engulved in flames by using layer masks and the other flames until you have something like this:

Once you are done, create a new group and drag all the flame layers in there.

Step 13

This is starting to look good but to intensify the flames simply copy the flames group and you will notice that the flames are much brighter and this is exactly what we want!

Step 14

I am kind of tired of seeing the generic flame colours we always see so let’s go ahead and give it another tint by using a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and simply set the Hue to -24.

Step 15

Create a copy of the Paper Texture layer and set the layer mode to Darker Color and set the Opacity to 50%. Use the Burn tool (O) to darken some of the spots on the paper texture to accentuate the flames a little better.

Step 16

I personally think all the card shapes look a bit flat so I am going to add a layer style to help show them more. Double-click on the right side of the Fleur-de-Lis shape and check the box for Inner Shadow. Set the Blend Mode to Multiply, the Opacity at 75%, the Angle at 120 degrees and set the Distance to 1px (the image looks like pixelated but that is due to the menu being so big).

If done properly, you should end up with this effect:

Repeat this step for all shapes or simply copy the Layer style and paste them onto the remaining shapes.

Final Image

For the flames on the sides, I just used the full resolution Fire image and put the flames on both sides and added a Gaussian Blur. You can go crazy on this one! That’s a Photoshop tutorial wrap! Click on the image to download the wallpaper.

Resources

• Movie poster base
• URW’s Bee Two font

Step 1

Download the Movie poster base image and open it up in Photoshop. Press Ctrl + R to bring up the rulers in the canvas, use the Move tool (V) to drag a guide to align it with the title. The reason we need to create two guides is because we want the billing block to align with the title on both sides.

Before we get ready to place the text, head over to Posterwire.com to read more in-depth information about the billing block. It’s basically must-know information for anyone who wants to be a professional poster designer.

Step 2

As described in my Poster Credit Font List, there are only a few proper fonts you can use for billing and in this tutorial I will be using URW’s Bee Two font. The font size needs to be set to 21pt and you need to check the ‘Small Caps’ box. For better organising, create a new group and name it ‘Upper Billing’.

Select the Horizontal Type tool (T) and click on the left guide to start creating the billing block. With the ‘Small Caps’ box checked, we can easily switch between larger and smaller text. Hold Capslock to type larger text for names and release Capslock for smaller text.

When you’re done creating the upper billing, create a new group and name it ‘Mid-Billing’.

Step 3

For job titles such as ‘Music by’ or ‘Costume Designer’ we need to type it on seperate text layers if we want to move them easily, make sure you click on the Text Align Right button in the top menu. The font size needs to be set to 14pt, set the leading to 7,3pt and the tracking to 18. Type ‘Music’ and then press Enter to type ‘By’. Repeat this step for every job title until you’re finished.

Step 4

You can add logos and website links right under the billing block. When you’re done with the entire billing block text, you can create a new group and drag all existing groups to the new one. Now you can switch between layer modes, I often use Soft light.

Finished

Now that we’re done, have a look at the final image. Please note that I removed the logos for obvious copyright reasons.

You do not have to follow this tutorial step by step. If you want to change colors or change the composition, go ahead. This tutorial is meant to be learned from!

Final Image

This will be our final outcome, it takes a lot of work but in my humble opinion it is definitely worth it.

Downloads

NOTE! For this tutorial I had to use premium stock photographs so I apologize to those who are unable to follow this tutorial.

• Clouds
• MiG-29 Fighter Jet
• F-15 Fighter Jet
• Cloud of smoke
• Fire flumes
• Explosion

Step 1

Open up Photoshop and create a new document of 2270×3450 and click OK. Open the Cloud image and scale it down (Ctrl + T) so that it fits the canvas. Create a new layer and name it ‘Color_Gradient’ and set the layer mode to Color. Select the Gradient Tool (G) and set a grey-ish green color (#58686b) as the foreground color and a marine blue color (#394f61) as the background color. Drag the gradient tool from the bottom left to the top right.

Create a new layer and name it ‘Billing_Block_Shadow’. Grab a Soft Round Brush of any size and start painting the bottom of the image black. Set the Opacity to 50%.

Step 2

Now we’re going to add a whole bunch of color correction layers. Create a new group and name it ‘Color_Correction’, add a new Curves adjustment layer and go to the Red and Blue channel and try to simulate the settings shown below. Leave the Green channel untouched.

Add a Color Balance adjustment layer by clicking on the, as I’d like to call it ‘Yin-Yang’ button in the Layer menu. By default, the Color Balance menu will open in the Midtones channel. Set the Cyan color level to +60, Magenta to +4 and the Yellow channel to +10. Go to the Highlights channel and set the first level to -37, set the second channel to -3 and the third channel to +1. Drag this Adjustment layer underneath the Curves Adjustment layer.

Add a Photo Filter and select the Deep Yellow preset. Keep the Density at 25% and check on Preserve Luminosity. Drag this Photo Filter Adjustment layer underneath the Color Balance Adjustment layer.

This next layer will be our noise layer which will help blend all of the images together. Create a new layer, name it ‘Adjustment_01′ and fill it with a grayish-black (#222222) and set the Layer Mode to Screen. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, set the amount to 7%, set the Distribution to Gaussian and check on Monochromatic.

Create another layer, name it ‘Adjustment_02′ and fill it with a bright blue-ish color (#17d7ff), set the layer mode to Color and the Opacity to 15%. At this point of the tutorial, you should have a result similar to the image below and your layers should be kept as shown below.

PLEASE NOTE! From this point on, everything we are going to be working on needs to be placed below the color correction group.

Step 3

Download the image of the F-15 Fighter Jet, open it up in Photoshop and drag it into our composition. Scale and rotate the image just like the image shown below.

Because the aircraft has lots of curves and sharp corners, the best and fastest way to get rid of the sky is by using the Pen Tool (P). Try to get every detail of the aircraft including the smallest metal parts, it will look more realistic in your final design. When you’re done creating a path around the aircraft, right-click within the path and click on Make Selection…, click OK.

Once the path is turned into a selection, click on the Mask icon at the bottom of the Layer menu and you’ll see that the entire background is gone.

Repeat this step with the image of the MiG-22 Fighter Jet and place the image as shown below. Make sure you flip the image horizontally! For better organizing, create two new groups with the names of the aircraft layers and put the images in the corresponding groups.

Back to the F15 Fighter Jet. Because I want to add some vapor trails we’ll need to create a copy of the masked layer, place it below the F15 and press Ctrl + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation menu. Set the Lightness to +100 and click OK.

Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, set the Angle to -52 and set the Distance to 999.

We’ll need to remove the white motion blur in front of the aircraft. You can do this by clicking on the layer mask thumbnail, set the Foreground color to black and select a Soft Round brush of around 500px. Now paint away the white area in front of the aircraft.

You can now rename this layer to ‘Vapor_trails’. The lines in this layer are too strong so I’m going to add a Gaussian Blur so it will soften up a bit. Select the layer thumbnail and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 15.

Step 4

To blend the aircraft with the background even better is by using the Blur, Dodge and Burn tools.

• Blur tool (R): By using this tool you can blur sharp edges such as the wings of the aircraft which will make it look even more realistic.
• Dodge tool (O): For highlighting the brighter areas of the aircraft, it is best to use the Dodge tool.
• Burn tool (O): You can use this tool for darkening areas that you want to hide or to create shadows.

Select the Blur tool (R) and go easy on blurring the edges of the aircraft, don’t go overboard!

Next, select the Burn tool (O) and set the brush mode to Shadows, set the Exposure to 10% and check the ‘Set to enable airbrush capabilities’ box on. By using these settings you can create a subtle difference when using the Burn tool. You need to ‘burn’ the shadows on the left part of the fighter jet image.

Step 5

Create a new layer and name it ‘Afterburner’ and drag this empty layer on top of the left fighter jet image. Grab a Soft Round brush of  100px, go to the color palette and select an orange color (#fe8900). Click twice on each jet engine to give it a nice glow and set the layer mode to Linear Dodge (Add).

Download the ‘Fire Flumes’ image and open it up in Photoshop. Pick the first and fifth flume and cut them from the original stock photograph. Drag these on top the ‘Afterburn’ layer and set the layer mode to Screen. You can rotate and scale these as much as you want or place them exactly like the image below.

With the ‘Flumes’ layer selected, click on ‘Add layer mask’ in the bottom of the Layer menu. This way we can easily undo any mistakes that are created on the flumes layer. Grab a black Soft Round brush of 50px and start masking everything away that’s outside of the jet engines.

To intensify the heat of the flumes, go to Image>Adjustments>Curves and put the settings exactly as shown below.

Step 6

I’m still not entirely happy with the aircraft as it looks like it is rather flat. So what we’re going to do is adding new vapor trails but on top of the wings. You can simply copy the ‘Vapor_trail’ layer we did earlier, drag it on top of the flumes and set the Opacity to 60%. For organizing purposes, you should rename this layer to ‘Vapor_trail_left_wing’. When moving this layer around by using the Move tool (V), you’ll see that the layer has a sharp edge. We can use this to align it with the wing, have a look at the images below.

You can mask away any white areas you don’t like or think it looks too much. For the right wing you should create another copy of this layer, press Ctrl + T and right-click within the image and click on ‘Flip Horizontal’. Rename this layer to ‘Vapor_trail_right_wing’. Rotate and place this layer on the right wing as you would like.

Because we’ve put this layer on top of the aircraft the lower part of the plane still looks flat. We can fix this by making the upper tail wings looking less 2D, create a path around the left upper tail wing, right-click and click on ‘Make Selection…’ and click OK.

With the layer mask selected of the ‘Vapor_trail_left_wing’ layer, pick a large Soft Round brush and gently start masking away the top of the vapor trail on the top of the tail wing. Do the exact same thing for the right tail wing. The difference is subtle but noticeable.

We are done for now with the F15 fighter jet so let’s move on to the Russian MiG-29. For the next step you should drag the MiG-29 folder below the F-15 folder. If you have followed this tutorial step by step, your order of layers should be exactly like the image below. Click to view the entire order of layers!

Step 7

Download the ‘Explosion’ image and open it up in Photoshop. What we’re going to do now is masking the explosion from the background. Go to Channels and select the channel with the highest contrast which in this case is the Blue channel. Right-click on the Blue channel and create a copy, make sure you are working on the copied layer otherwise the masking won’t work properly!

Go to Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels. By clicking on Auto Levels you can see that this helps us tremendously as we need to separate the black from the white but there is still quite a bit left to be masked. Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and the Levels menu will pop up. Enter the settings as shown in the image below.

Select everything you don’t need by using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) for example, you can select the trees on both sides and the bottom of the image, just as long the explosion itself is left untouched.

Paint this over with a white color in Normal brush mode. Now that the explosion is as good as being separated we can start working on the explosion. Grab a Soft Round brush of any size, set your foreground color to black and set the brush mode to Overlay. By setting the mode to Overlay we won’t be able to mask away the black color but we can darken or paint away the white and grey colors. Gently start painting outwards of the explosion, the final outcome will profit from this. Make sure you switch from the RGB channel to the corresponding channels to see what’s actually part of the explosion and what isn’t.

To remove white or grey areas, simply switch your foreground color to white. When you’re done painting on the layer mask, click on the RGB channel and head back to the Layers menu. Go to Select>Load Selection… and switch the Channel to the Blue copy channel, make sure you check the ‘Invert’ box.

When you’ve done this, you’ll notice that the mask you’ve just created will be turned into a selection. Click on the Add Layer Mask icon and voila! A masked explosion has been created.

Now that this layer mask is done, drag it over to our poster canvas on top of the MiG-29 layer. Try to scale and rotate the explosion as shown below.

In the image below you can see I didn’t do a really good job masking the explosion but we can fix this. By clicking on the layer mask thumbnail we can still edit the mask by using black and white colors. It still doesn’t have to be perfect as we’re going to apply color correction later.

Step 8

We’re going to start working on the burning wing but first, you need to set the Opacity to 70%. This will help us to see what exactly what we’re going to be editing, have a look below to see how you should place the explosion.

Because of the explosion, I want the aircraft look like it is about to stall and crash down back to earth. This is why the fire (and later smoke trail) looks like it is burning on the wing rather than a fire trail. Grab a large Soft Round brush and start masking away the areas on top of the wing. Do this very gently!

We need to show a large piece of the wing to show through the fire so create a rough path around the right wing using the Pen tool (P), make a selection and create a copy. Drag this copy above the explosion layer. As mentioned before, masking is all about subtlety and you need to do this with patience! By creating a copy the wing got ‘cut’ from the other Layer Mask so you will need to add a new Layer Mask to the copy. In this case you can vary between brush sizes and brush opacity as we need to make it look as realistic as possible. This is my result:

Download the ‘Smoke Cloud’ image and open it up in Photoshop. We need to mask this exactly like the explosion image. If you’re experiencing any trouble, try adjusting the settings yourself.

Once you’re done masking, drag it into our poster document and drag it under the explosion layer but on top of the aircraft layer. Resize and rotate the cloud as shown below.

The cloud still has some spill left from the masking but we can hide this by simply desaturating it. Press Ctrl + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation menu and set the Saturation to -100. Click on the Layer Mask thumbnail and remove any leftover spill. Grab the Burn tool and set the Range to Shadows and the Exposure to 35%. With the Burn tool you can darken up the smoke cloud, this is especially handy to blend the explosion with the smoke cloud. Switch between those layers to blend them perfectly.

Step 9

We’re finally ready for some color correction. Let’s start of by selecting the Explosion layer, go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance. Set Brightness to -55 and Contrast to +25.

Personally I think the overall poster colors look a bit bland so I’m going to add a new Curves Adjustment layer with the following settings. Try to place these as shown below.

When you’ve followed my instructions, you should have something like this.

Finishing Touches

At this point the poster is almost finished but still needs some tweaking. I’m missing sparks, vapor trails and text. Later this week I will publish a tutorial on how to create the typical billing block in Photoshop but let’s focus on finishing this image.

Step 10

Create a long and narrow white rectangle and rotate it so that it lines up with the angle of the F15 wings.

Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, set the Angle at -67 and the Distance at 463.

Set the layer mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 30%. Remove the leftover part on top of the wing. Once you’re done with this, create a copy and drag it to the other wing.

Step 11

Open the Flumes image, drag it into our composition and set the layer mode to Screen. Focus on the smaller sparks surrounding the flumes, these will be used for the explosion. Create a selection around the sparks you want to move over to the explosion. Use the Move tool to drag them over to the explosion, place and rotate them anywhere you want.

FINAL IMAGE

YOUR COMMENTS ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!

If you experience any trouble when following this tutorial, please leave a comment and I might be able to help you out! Do you like or don’t like the final outcome? What else do you want to see? Please let me know what you think about the tutorial!

The character in the illustration may look like an evil Superman but basically that’s because he is. His name is Bizarro and you can read more on his Wikipedia page. While Bizarro’s costume colours are different from Superman’s costume, I chose a more realistic look because of the highly detailed illustration. Let’s begin!

Resource needed:

Download Walter’s illustration here.

Final image

Step 1: The Base

Start of by creating a copy of the illustration. Set the Layer Mode to “Multiply” and set the Opacity to 50%. To eliminate the chance of doing any kind of work on that layer you simply need to select that layer and click on the little lock icon.

Now create a new layer, name it Dark Purple Base and put it in between the background layers.

Step 2: Coloring the costume

Start blocking in the base colors, these are usually called ‘flats’. Use the Pen Tool (P) to create a new Path Layer. Let’s begin with the torso. Start by clicking on the point where you want the path to begin. Now you’ve created an Anchor Point. Drag the mouse to the point where you want to create another anchor point and do a simple click with the left mouse button.

If you need to create a curve, click and hold the left mouse button and drag it. Now you can curve the line where ever you want. Whenever you create a curved line and click at the next point, you’ll notice a very annoying Bezier curve you don’t need. You can edit this by dragging the Tangent line. You need to hold the Ctrl button when you edit the Tangent Line.

It doesn’t really matter if you miss or overdo small spots, you can edit this once it’s colored. Once you have finished the path around the torso, close the path by clicking on the first anchor point. Right-click on that path and go to Make New Selection.

Set the Feather Radius to 0 pixels, check on Anti-Aliasing and create a new selection. Now it’s time to select a color. Go to the Color Palette and set the color to #640093. Now use the Paint Bucket (G) tool to fill the selection. Set the Dark Purple Base layer to Soft light and set the Opacity to 75%. Repeat Step 2 for all of the other parts of the costume until you get something like this;

Step 03: Setting the background on fire

To blend the costume colors with the background, we need to start working on a few (but very easy !) background layers. Create a new layer, name it Fire Base and go to the Color Palette and select an orange/yellow color (#ab6e00). Now fill the layer with this color and set the layer mode to Overlay.

Create a new layer, name it Warmth and fill it with an orange color (#bb581f) and set the layer mode to Color Burn and the Opacity to 71%. This is what you should have when you’ve reached this point of the tutorial;

To really make the background pop, create a new layer, name it Intense Heat and set the Layer mode to Screen. Go to the Color Palette and select a light blue color (#1864b9) and fill the layer. Create a new copy, name it Adjustment, put it second in the Layer menu and set the Opacity to 37%.

Order of layers;

Get ready to start working on the Intense Heat layer. Grab a Soft Round Airbrush around the size of 45 pixels and start ‘painting’ slightly outside the heat streaks like this;

Do this with every heat streak you see in this illustration but focus mostly on the center. Don’t worry if you paint over the figure, we’ll edit this later. Lower the opacity if you think the heat looks a bit too intense. This is what I have at this point;

Step 4: Color correction

Select the Intense Heat layer, grab the Pen Tool (P) and start drawing a path layer around the figure (cape included!). Once you’ve finished this path, close it by clicking on the first anchor point. Right click on the path and click on Make Selection. Set the Feather Radius to 0 pixels, check on Anti-Aliasing and create a new selection and delete the part you want to get rid of. Repeat this step on the Fire Base layer and erase the skin part of this figure. Do not erase the parts on his hair.

Create a new layer, name it Reflections and set it to Screen. Go to the Color Palette and select the same blue color we used on the Intense Heat layer (#1864b9). Grab a Soft Round Airbrush of around 60 pixels and start painting on various spots around the figure to give it a sort of glow from the heat. Once you’re done with this, do the same steps again with the Pen Tool (P) and erase the outer part of the figure. If the blue is too much you can lower the Opacity, in my case I’ve set it to 29%.

Time to add reflections to the skin. Create a new layer, name it Heat Reflections and set it to Color Dodge. Select a color in the Color Palette (#8e2618) and use a Soft Round Airbrush of any size you may need. You now can start painting the heat reflection wherever you would like. There’s now one last thing to do. Create a copy of the Dark Purple and Purple layer. That’s all there is to it!

I’d appreciate to read what your thoughts are on this tutorial. Please let me know in the comments!