Advanced' Photo Effects Tutorials

'Bell Snail'

INTRO
This technique is a bit like using Legos in Photoshop and can be applied in many ways. Firstly, decide what you want to make and grab an image to use as reference (or you can use a scanned sketch of you own) - using a reference image helps on the 2D shape, the 3D shape and lighting - though none of its actual pixels need be used in the final image. In this case It's a snail.

I started with a new Photoshop file say 3000 by 3500 pixels - or there abouts. Then I grabbed a reference image and placed it as a base layer above a layer of white - to be switched on and off as needed.

'Reference image on canvas'

MAKING BLOCKS
Using only one image to get all the parts from has a bonus - colour matching and lighting are already done, it also helps if the blocks start with good resolution. So next, I opened up the source image of the bell, figured out the 'parts' I needed (looking back and forth at the snail and the bell image), cut them out and pasted as layers under the white layer so they didn't get lost or accidentally edited. Naming these layers is essential.

Then I doctored these slightly as needed - an example of this is the chunks of metal running along the top of the head. One side of them showed bits of the original bell structure - the magic lasso tool, reverse selection command and rubber stamp tool sorted this out and then trimmed to make it look like a plausible 3D object again.

This proved to be unnecessary as that part of the metal chunk isn't shown anywhere in the final image but it can save on time and stress to have nice bits of lego to start with.

'Source image with cut-lines'

'Edited Lego bits'

LOTS OF LAYERS - SHELL
I started with the shell. The first layer was one of the most important as it defines the edge of the shell and the overall 3D look. I then used 'duplicate layer' and 'free transform' around and around until I got to the very middle of the shell.

At about the 5th bell layer, I realised I was going to get lost in bells so drew in a spiral (traced the snail reference image) on a separate layer, renamed it and dragged it to the top of the layer order to keep track of where the spiral was going. Then I realised some layers of the top part of the bell were needed at the start of the spiral to maintain the overall pattern.

For some parts I stretched the aspect ratio wider a bit to match the shape of the shell, then duplicated a previous (and more detailed) layer that hadn't had the aspect ratio changed, then dragged this layer to the top of the order and continued with the spiral. Once done, I finetuned the spiral so no layers stood out to break the pattern.

'Start of shell with guide line'

LOTS OF LAYERS - SNAIL SIDE
Next I put the eyes in place to see how they looked and then started work on the body of the snail, placing the first layer in the middle of the working area as a gauge and shaping it with 'distort' to fit the 3D shape of the snail.

Then, the same process as with the shell, duplicating layers and reshaping each slightly using 'free transform' - this time using 'distort' and sometimes 'skew' to create a more 3D look than with the shell. I worked on the left side of the gauge layer first, then scrolled back down to the gauge layer and worked to the right, the same deal, except you have to change the layer order each time, putting the one you are working on under the previous one, tedious, but there's no way around it that I know of.

'Gauge layer'

LOTS OF LAYERS - MORE SNAIL
I used the same process for the lower section of the snail body, then the edge of the body, the top section and then the eyes. each section should be in its own layer group. At this stage, I realised a layer of black was needed underneath the shape of the snail to make sure there was no background showing through.

'Halfway through lower section of snail body'

'Duplicating layers done'

CLEANING UP
At this point I saved the file, then saved again as another version to allow for mistakes. Now it's time to start merging layers. I merged each section of the body separately, then merged sections of the shell, keeping in mind that these shapes will be used to get masking shapes for shadows and lighting later. I'll call these 'dummy layers'.

Then, a layer of the combined sections of the snail body, and a layer of the combined shell was created. To do this, I switched off all layers except the ones needed, select all, 'copy merged' and paste as a new layer, move it to where it should be, if need be and rename.

I then duplicated the combined snail body layer, magic lasso-ed the space outside the shape, selected inverse and filled with a light yellow-gray, eye-dropped from the highlights of the image, and set the layer style to 'soft light' at 62%. This gave the snails body a bit of a sheen.

'Merged snail body'

'Snail sheen and first highlight on shell'

HIGHLIGHTS AND SHADOWS
For masking, I selected the dummy layer I needed, used magic lasso in the space outside the shape, selected inverse, create a new layer then drew in what was needed with a largish (160px - 300px) soft brush at about 8% opacity. This is the way I've done it - quick-masks and saving selections are probably far more efficient.

For shadows, I used a dark dark green from the image using the eyedropper, and set the layer style to 'multiply'. For highlights, a very light yellow from the image using the eyedropper and set the layer style to 'pin light'.

I started with the outside of the shell, shadows then highlights, working my way through the dummy layers till i got to the middle-ish, creating a new layer for each shadow and each highlight and putting each new layer at the top of the stack.

'Example of shell parts (dummy layers)'

'Shell tops done'

TWEAKING
I then put in a few shadows under the shell, but above the body, a shadow for the closest eye, some extra white over the space joining the two main sections of the snails body, a highlight on the edge of the body, but not right at the edge, a soft highlight on the snails head, and then two shadows on the ground.

Some more minor tweaking and then finished.

'Finished product'


[Edited by Moderator on 8/6/2010 9:43:14 AM]