Here Comes the worm!

Do you see this cool little thing? Strange but exquisite! If you want to "adopt" a pet, don't miss this article.

1, a new 440x320 pixel document, for convenience, with white as the background. Create a new channel, select the Ellipse tool, and create a general shape of the worm's head and eye by adding and subtraction the object frame. If you're not used to this method, use the path tool to slowly hook out the shape and convert it to a selection. Finally, subtract two small ellipses from both sides of its face as its jaws. (Figure 01)

Figure 01

2, back to the level of the layer board, a new layer on the background, named "Head", load a selection (the channel's mission is complete, you can now delete it), set the foreground and background color panels as defaults, select the radial Gradient tool, and in the Edit Gradient dialog box, select the previous color to the background color and fill the gradient in the selection. (Figure 02)

Figure 02

3, add layer effect: Projection, opacity is 28%, Angle is 90, the rest by default; stroke, size 1 pixels, position is outside, opacity is 26%, fill type is color, shadow and stroke color are black. (Figure 03)

Figure 03

4, now to add luster to the head of the worm to make it more metal texture. The method is to create a new adjustment layer on the head layer, with the content as a curve, note that the tick and the previous layer are grouped, and adjust the curve as shown in the following figure (Figure 04).

Figure 04

Adjust the curve according to your graphics until it can perform the desired gloss well. Next adjust the brightness and contrast, the same with the adjustment layer to achieve, new brightness and contrast adjustment layer, still determined and the previous layer grouping, increase brightness 6, contrast 11. (Figure 05)

Figure 05

The most fascinating thing about this little thing is that it's a pair of big eyes, isn't it funny? Here's how to make it. But look carefully!

5, a new layer, named "Eyes", near the side of the head, with an elliptical tool to draw an ellipse, near the left position, with just the gradient set to fill the ellipse. Deselect, select this move tool, Shift+ctrl+alt Drag a copy of the gradient ellipse to the other side of the head (Shift ensures parallel movement), and if you don't want your pet to be eye to eye, flip the copy layer horizontally, then merge the copy layer down, creating a new layer that is still named eyes. (Figure 06)

Figure 06

6, adjust the gloss of the eye, new curve adjustment layer, adjust the curve, make contrast more obvious. (Figure 07)

Figure 07

7, continue to decorate the eye, apply the following layer style in the eyes layer: Inside Shadow, opacity is 28%, distance 2 pixel, size 4 pixel, rest according to default set; stroke, size 1 pixel, position is outside, opacity is 68%, color is black. (Figure 08)

Figure 08

8, the following we want to paint the eye of the worm. Similarly, to not break the original layer, we also use the method of adjusting the layer. Create a new hue/saturation adjustment layer on the curve layer on the eyes layer, check and the previous group, in the Hue/Saturation dialog box, click Coloring, and then choose Hue 83, saturation 75, brightness 0, which is very bright green, of course, you can also use other colors. (Figure 09)

Figure 09

9, a new layer, named "Highlight Eyes", select an ellipse with an elliptical tool that is slightly smaller than the eye, select the gradient tool, such as the diagram to edit the gradient style (the green here is the green we selected in the previous step, and if you use another color, change accordingly here) (Figure 10),

Figure 10

The two color midpoint positions of the white color label are 70%, 25%, and the gradient is filled in the selection, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11

Move the selection to the right and down two pixels, delete the image inside the selection, and deselect. Decorate the image with the burn tool and the eraser tool. Copy the layer, flip it horizontally, move it to the right eye, flatten the two layers, and change the layer blending mode to "overlay". (Figure 12)

Figure 12

10, the following to carry out the insect eye part of the pattern. It is this pattern that gives it a sense of mystery and technology, and we now look at its approach.

First, create a new document, 5x5 the pixel size, and the background is transparent. With black as the foreground color, select all the images, select the Stroke command in the Edit menu, the stroke size is 1 pixels, position, and then deselect. Use the image size command to change the image to 3x3 pixels, defining the current image as a pattern and naming it eyes.

Back to the image, a new layer on the highlight Eyes layer, named "Pattern Eyes", load into the Eyes layer of the selection, select the Paint Bucket tool, select the pattern in the fill type, with the pattern we have just defined to fill the selection, deselect. As shown on the left of Figure 13.

Now its eyes look like a microphone, and we're going to improve on that right away. Change the blending mode of the layer to "overlay" and reduce the opacity to 40%, when the eye part is finished. (Figure 13)

Figure 13

11, a new layer under the eyes layer, named "Eye socket", load the eyes layer of the selection, the selection expansion, expansion of 2 pixels, the foreground/background color panel to restore the default value, with a linear gradient from top to bottom fill the selection, deselect.

Create a new layer, select the selection of the eyes layer again, fill in white, deselect the layer to move up 3 pixels, erase parts with different transparency eraser tool, the result is as shown. (Figure 14)

Figure 14

12, a new layer, named "Cheek", put it on the background layer, in this layer, we want to do worm 锷 department. First select the head level selection, enter the quick mask editing mode, and add the two-month bud to the selection with a white brush, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15

Exits the quick mask, subtracting the shape of the head from the selection, so that the shape of the 锷 section is determined. Of course, you can also use the object addition subtraction method to determine the shape. Select two shades of dark gray, respectively, as foreground, background color (Figure 16),

Figure 16

Fills the selection with a linear gradient (Figure 17).

Figure 17

13. Add layer effect for check layer: projection, opacity 17%, distance 2 pixels, size 4 pixels; inner shadow, opacity 17%, rest default; bevel and emboss, style inner bevel, method for smooth, depth 1%, orientation, size 24 pixel, soften to 0, rest by default. After you've set it up, you're wondering why it's not as obvious as the effect we're previewing, because the head layer blocks some of the effects. We load the header selection and delete the selection image in the check layer, so that's it. (Figure 18)

Figure 18

14, there is a little detail to deal with. Create a new 1x2 pixel document with the upper half filled with black, and this black-white image is defined as a pattern (Figure 19),

Figure 19

Load the check layer's selection, save the selection as a new channel, fill the selection in the channel with just the pattern, deselect it, create a new layer on the check layer, load the channel, fill with black, and erase a part with the eraser tool, reducing the layer opacity to 35%. (Figure 20)

Figure 20

15, a new layer, named "Nose", select the Single Column Marquee tool, select a 1-pixel-wide rectangle from which to select a section, fill the black; Deselect, copy this layer, move one pixel to the right with the Move tool, and copy and move it again, but this time it is white, merging the three layers, Reduce layer opacity to 60%. (Figure 21)

Figure 21

So the worm's head is done!

Then there is the body part of the worm. The production method and the head is basically the same, we need to briefly introduce.

16, a new layer on the background layer, named "Body, with an elliptical tool to draw an ellipse, with gray to white radial gradient fill, as shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22

Move it to the right place. Then add a curve adjustment layer for this layer, and note the selection and the previous layer grouping, as shown in the graph adjustment curve (Figure 23),

Figure 23

Increase the metal luster for the worm's body (Fig 24).

Figure 24

17. Create a new layer under the head layer, load the head layer opaque area, fill any color. Select an outer glow in the layer style to change the light source color to black, blending mode to normal, opacity to 60%, and size to 16 pixels. Then right-click the effect in the Layers panel and choose Create Layer from the pop-up menu. In this way, the outer glow effect separates from the layer and becomes a separate layer, removing the layer that has just been created that fills any color. Because creating a layer command separates all the styles on this layer, we use this method. (Figure 25)

Figure 25

18. Add some decorations to the head and body of the worm, and attach tentacles to the jaw part. You can draw one first and then use the copy to make another one, and we'll use this method a lot in the following way. (Figure 26)

Figure 26

19. Next, we need to make antennae for bugs. Select the vector ellipse tool, select "Create New work Path" in the toolbar, draw an oval path in the image, select the Path Component Selection tool, press ALT, and move a path to make it wrong with the first path (Figure 27);

Figure 27

Press SHIFT to select all two paths, click the Intersect button on the toolbar, click the combination, convert the path to a selection, create a new layer on top of the topmost layer, fill the selection with black, and deselect. Of course, you can also use the marquee subtraction method to determine the selection. After filling, use the rubber tool, select a soft brush, modify the tentacles of the tip. Rotate the horn to a certain angle and place it in the right position. into the transparent area of this layer, shrink select range, shrink to 2 pixels, feather 2 pixels, fill white; shrink and feather again, each 1 pixel, you may be warned to select the range is not visible, there is no relationship, the selection is actually there, once again filled with white on it. As shown in Figure 28.

Figure 28

20, choose a pen tool, select a and the diameter of the tentacles of the same pen, hardness of 30-40, brush roundness of 40, with black at the root point of the tentacles; then choose a slightly larger soft brush, a new layer under the tentacles layer, with white at the root of the tentacles to merge the two layers, so that Our worms look more metal-textured. (Figure 29)

Figure 29

21, a new layer on the tentacles layer, with the pen tool to check out the shape of the figure, converted to a selection, with a gray to white straight line gradient fill (Figure 30).

Figure 30

Create a new layer on it and populate the gradient area in the previous layer with the pattern we defined in step 14th. Set the layer mode to multiply. Flatten the layer down, select the outer glow style, change the light source color to black, size to 1-2 pixels; to increase the gloss, you can select the Pencil tool, use a 1-pixel white brush, and draw a diagonal line in 45° (Figure 31).

Figure 31

Such a tentacle is done. Copy it, flip the copy horizontally, and move to the appropriate location. (Figure 32)

22, Next is the leg. The approximate process is a gradient and curve adjustment layer, as well as a lot of copying and flipping. Here I am secretly lazy, no longer detailed. (Figure 33)

Figure 33

23. Finally, hide the background layer and the tentacles layer, create a new layer on the top, hold down the ALT key, select the merge all layers in the layer command, then create a layer stamp. Flip the stamped layer vertically, place it below the worm, compress and deform, and make local distortion when necessary. The reason to hide the antennae layer is because it disrupts the screen. Finally, add some decorative text above the image and, if necessary, adjust the text in Photoshop. (Figure 34)

Figure 34