Wednesday 23 Jul 2008
Let it snow in the most unlikely of places, using Photoshop’s channels and layers.
The tricky thing about many outdoor-scene projects is that they’re often commissioned months before they’re used, meaning that you can find yourself trying to come up with summer scenes in chilly spring weather, or winter scenes in the height of summer.
This doesn’t have to be an impossible task, though – here, Jeff Huang shows how to convincingly fake a snowy scene using Photoshop channels, layers and careful painting.
01. Open Ruins.jpg from the cover disc in Photoshop. Rename the ‘Background’ layer to something else. For this instance, let’s name it ‘BG’. As well as helping keep the layers organized, this will also unlock the layer for you to work on.
Jump to page :
[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
What is this?
Tip
Another quick use for channels is separating plain backgrounds from images. A simple way to use channels for this is: go to Select > Color Range, and then use the Eyedropper tool to select the background colour. If there are several colours in your background, click on the eyedropper with the ‘+’ sign to add in more colours to your selection. Click on the Channels palette, and click the ‘Save Selection’ button at the bottom. Your background is now in its own channel and can be turned on or off, or altered.
Who: New York-based Jeff Huang is a 21-yearold graphic artist and illustrator, who specializes in digital illustration and print design but also has experience of 3D modelling, animation, motion graphics and compositing. He’s been working as a digital artist for three years, and has a style that name-checks graffiti, surrealism, digital matte painting and 2D illustration.
Contact: www.thefifthorder.net
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Time to complete: 1-2 hours
On the CD: All files for this tutorial can be found on the cover CD.
