Making Fantasy Images Tutorial
How many times have you looked at those really interesting fantasy
images and wished you could make them? Well, you can! And it
actually isn't that difficult. The technical steps for this tutorial
are not complicated. What will be difficult is choosing what you
want to use for your fantasy image. Quite a few supplies have been made
available for you to choose from, or you can use your own images, photos
and tubes. Take your time, have fun, and make more than one!
We would love to see what you have created.
I suggest you read through the tutorial once, look over all the materials
we have made available, then decide what you want to make. Here are
the following for your use:
Create a new transparent image, 400x300 pixels.
Pick the landscape you want to use for the bottom of your fantasy image.
When picking this image, look for a fairly simple horizon line. The
landscape should be about half of the image you are choosing unless you
intend on cutting off part of the bottom. Take the freehand select
and trace along the line of the horizon, then once you are all the way
across, just go straight down, across the bottom, and then up to where
you started. It is best to do this step with the image at the 1:1
size, not zoomed in. Don't worry about the little jagged edges because
that will be dealt with. It is also better to take a little more
than a little less. So if drawing around a tree, be careful not to
cut too deeply into it.
With your landscape still selected, copy and paste it to the transparent
image as a new layer. Use the Layer
Mover tool to place it in the right position. If you want
to stretch or squish it any, click on the Deform
tool. Make your adjustments, then click on the select tool.
It will ask if you want to apply the deformation.
Deselect and flood fill with a bright color not in the image.
At this point if you notice any areas that you didn't want in your landscape,
you can do one of several things. You can either use the paint brush
to remove a few stray pixels, use the air brush for ease of toning down
bright edges, or use the freehand select to remove a problem area.
I used the air brush to remove extra sky around the tree line.
Now using the wand again, select the area
you colored and hit delete. Leave this area selected. It would
be a good idea at this point to name your image and save it with its layers,
as a PSP file.
Save often through the rest of
your work so you don't lose any layers.
Add a new layer. Pick the space or sky you want as the top
of your image. Open it and copy. Go to
edit, paste, paste into selection. Your space or sky will
fill in exactly in the selected top of the image. Delselect.
Well.......all the hard part is done with. Now it's time to really
play and have fun. Make sure you add a new layer for each new thing
you add to your image. You want to be able to move things around.
The first thing I'm going to add is a planet. Add a new layer.
Pick the planet of choice. You do not have to turn the planets available
here into tubes unless you want to. They are in PSP format and are
selected with the marching ants. Open the one you want to use.
Copy it. Paste it onto your new layer. Now use the Deform
Tool on it to change the height and width, and even rotation.
After using deform, you should sharpen. If the sharpen is too severe,
use the Unsharp Mask. You can adjust the level of sharpness.
For this fantasy image, I decided to have my planet coming from the top
of the image. In another example, I used two planets and had one
on a layer arranged under the landscape layer. This gives the appearance
of the planet rising above the horizon.
Next it's time to add some other wordly appearance to the landscape.
Make the landscape layer active. Click on the Retouch
tool. Choose Color To Target.
The size of the brush and the opacity you use will vary with the area you
are coloring.
On the color palatte, choose the foreground color. I want to add
bright greens, blues, reds, purples and yellows. For the trees and
bushes, I used red, green, yellow and blue. Purple on the ground.
Blue for the water. These were my choices, but you should be picking
whatever colors you see your fantasy as.
Now that I have the landscape colored, I want to add something interesting
to the landscape. For this I used a set of ballerina tubes that I
had made. I've made the whole set available for you to use if you
want. I'm sure many of you have your favorite subjects such as angels,
faeries, unicorns, or animals. For each ballerina, I created a new
layer. Then I moved them around until they were in the positions
that I liked.
Now it's time for a little touchup before merging. Oh, you have
been saving as you go along haven't you? Make the landscape layer
active again. Click on the Retouch tool, Soften.
Set the size anywhere from 3 pixels to 10. Opacity anywhere from
50% to 100%. Zoom in on the horizon line. Go along this line
with the Soften. Once you've done the landscape layer, make the top
space or sky layer active. Now go along the horizon line again.
I've found it works better to do the landscape layer first, especially
if you have a light sky on the top.
Well.......save one more time. Now merge
your layers and save the image with another file
name. You don't want to lose your work with layers!
That's it, that's the first fantasy image. I have made 5 other examples
with a brief explanation for each. You are now ready to pick your
materials and start having fun. I can hardly wait to see what you
come up with! Now this wasn't so hard was it? Here is a side
by side comparison of the before and after. For a good look at the
finished image, go to the examples page.
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