Photoshop Tutorial: Making cool Street Dance posture Map

This is an advanced tutorial, I mean no technology is difficult to do, this work requires a high artistic appreciation, the use of some color experience and cast shadow knowledge.

Today, I'm going to show you how to create stunning lighting effects and use them to create cool images at work. Let's get started!

Source Energy Box

Final Effect Preview

Details of the tutorial
Software: Dobe Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Advanced

Get ready
This is an advanced tutorial, I mean no technology is difficult to do, this work requires a high artistic appreciation, the use of some color experience and cast shadow knowledge. Therefore, I do not recommend beginners to do this tutorial. I will skip the basic guide directly into the main question. Basically, I'm going to teach you how to create an example and achieve the results you want.

Before we begin, I want to tell you how the concept of the whole process has changed:

1. The first picture below is the main concept and is my plan. The first thought burst into my mind: a large number of rays of light were emitted around an energy ball.

2. While searching for images, I stumbled upon a very cool character action form, so I thought he had to use it. So I put him there, imagining that this man is creating all the energy.
3. The first plan is complete and I will start working on this project. The concept of the process is somewhat lacking in strength, so I rotate the whole picture.
4. Finally, I do not know what this energy ball should look like, it took me some time to finally come up with this approach, I removed the ball, and converted to the energy emitted by this person.

As you work you can see how each item changes, so you should remember to be flexible in this tutorial, and not all your steps will be as good as your plan. What you need is your time and imagination.

Step 1
Before we start, you need to know that the light will have the best effect on the black background. The darker the background, the more visible the light you create and the higher the contrast. So, I first created a black background with a 900*1100 pixel.

Step 2
Now is the first difficulty: search for the right image. I know a lot of people are dissatisfied with buying pictures, the fact is: if you want good quality pictures, you need to pay the price. I'm not against free photos if you have time to go to a lot of free pictures to find a good picture can also. In any case, you need to have a suitable image and then extract the person (or object) from the picture you choose. All the biggest problems in shearing are always hair. But, as you can see in the figure below, I have a short hair man. In this case, I just use the pen tool to deal with short hair. Because we have a black background on our main document, we can easily integrate this black hair into the background. To do this I used a medium-tone deepening tool to deepen the edge of a little hair.

Step 3
Now, I've added two adjustment layers on the layer panel: Levels and gradient mappings, which make it easier to blend people and black backgrounds. I used a gradient from black to white, and set the blending mode of the gradient map layer to soft light, and then reduce the opacity.

Step 4
OK, next we'll create the ground. I use the gradient tool to create a radial gradient from white to transparent on a new layer (as you can see in the first picture below). Then, this big white dot needs a little perspective, so here I press Command (CTRL) + T to twist it (the second picture below). A Gaussian blur with a radius of 40 pixels is used to blur the point. Then I copy this blur point, extend it a little bit (Command + t key), and do more than two copies of the original to enhance the ground effect. If necessary, the opacity of these ground layers can be reduced a little. This means that its surface cannot be too bright, because it will slightly destroy the entire black background.

Step 5
Now that you can see the effect of the first picture below, I start adding shadows underneath the shoes. I just need to make an outline. Show the effect of the character standing there, be careful to portray it. In order to make the shadow, I use the flow 2%, hardness 0% black brush, then, I started slowly one time click the mouse to create it (do not hold down the left mouse button to do, because then you will make a very ugly shadow). It's good for your job to click a brush each time. Now, let's focus on the second image below. I decided to add the first dynamic decoration on the diagram, so I chose all the layers and used the COMMAND + T key to rotate them a small angle (now it looks a bit tilted).

Step 6
I scaled and positioned the position of the person. Avoid putting people in the middle of the picture. Sometimes it's wise to move the main object/person to one side, which seems to me to be a more unique activity. OK, after deciding the position, I started polishing the shadows. Look at this man, there are some lights on him (for example, his left hand shows light from left to right). So, in this case, I decided to use the same technique as before to give him a soft shadow, just below him.
I just want you to notice that his shoes are the closest thing to the ground. This means that they need more shadows around them. The farther away the object is from the ground, the more the shadow disappears (the shadows begin to soften and then fade away).

Step 7
Now when I look at the picture, I feel a little bit too bright, so I use the burn tool to improve the shadow effect of the shoe. I also made some fusion of my left hand, because it seemed too bright.

Step 8
Finally, the character is ready. Now, images need to be integrated. So, I adjusted some of the overall color. I added a curve adjustment layer and then a gradient map with purple to orange (select from Standard presets). Then I lowered the opacity of the gradient 25-30% around and changed its blending mode to soft light. The two adjustment layers are built to give the picture some yellow.

Step 9
Now it looks like the character is really fused into the image and that's what we want. Next, I began to show the techniques of making light. This is the abstract I prepared for this piece (this is the picture of the light). So open the light and drag it into the project, and change its blending mode to linear dodge. This should be placed on top of all layers, except for the previous two color adjustment layers. Now look at this process. I already have these abstract lights, and I use the Burn tool (midtones) to deepen the part I don't want (the second picture below). There are a lot of these short rays, so I use the hard edge Eraser tool to erase the line I don't want to see here (the third picture below). Finally, I added image > Adjustment > Color balance to precisely adjust the colors of these three main lines (blue, green and yellow). Make these lines distinctive and bright. Separate each line, but before that, they need to be cropped to the new layer.

Step 10
As I said, if you do not have some color experience, you will find it difficult to follow this tutorial. Repeat the same process in the previous step, and go one step further. I create, delete, separate new lines, add different colors.

Step 11
I'm still thinking about adding colored light, and I'm going to tell you another example of flexible work. In the process I have a lot of ideas about how to connect and set these lines. First of all I think it would be a good idea to cross them in different places (Figure 1 below). This is not so good, so I decided to put all the lines almost parallel (Figure 2 below). For some changes I first added a green line to the space, but it seemed to break the composition, so I finally abandoned it.

Step 12
Now, I've added some more light with a soft white brush. Create a new layer underneath the light layer, because the light is translucent (because it is a linear dodge pattern), so everything placed underneath these rays is visible.

Step 13
I place these lights everywhere in order to get cool results (Figure 1 below). It's all done the same way I showed it before.

Next, I feel that this piece needs more detail around to fill some blanks. You can find some similar brushes that I use. This step can be tested using a variety of brushes.

I have chosen a splash brush. Then found a nice dark color (from the colors I used in the light-I used blue) and made a brush mark (Figure 2 below). Then I propose this brush selection, shrink by 2 pixels, select > Modify > Shrink (Figure 3 below). Next I click to remove the middle section of the brush (Figure 4 below). Then I put it in the next position near the pale blue light.

Step 14
Now that the brush mark is placed on the right place, I use a soft eraser to erase the unwanted parts. Then using the Burn Tool (midtones) and the Dodge tool (high light), I chose the brush mark on the deep position. When you actually use the burn tool to darken the dots and use the Dodge tool to lighten up. This step should be very careful, a small excessive can destroy the subject. So the process is to show you how it works, and the brush marks for the first three pictures below are just an example. In the fourth picture you can see the brush that I used originally.

Step 15
By the way we still have to use these brushes, pay attention to this piece of the man's head (Fig. 1) and the one near the leg (Fig. 2). Yes, they use the same method as before. To do this, you can even use some splash brushes and follow the same process. Also pay attention to the second image below. My point of instruction points to shadows. This shadow creates an illusion, just as these small pieces of light float in the air. So if you have more small blocks of light around the ground, you can cast shadows underneath them (but on the ground), which will make your results more realistic and richer.

Step 16
Next to add some sparks to the picture, I decided to use the sky photo (I don't know why I can't download it here) and cut the sun off. Then I lowered the saturation of the piece (Figure 2 below) and set its blending mode to linear Dodge, and I wiped out all the unwanted parts around the sun (with the Eraser tool). I also raised the color level (Command + L) to increase the contrast. I then used the Burn tool (midtones) to enhance the lighting effect, dimming the Rays (Figure 4 below). Finally, I color the sun with hue/saturation and color balance, I used green and then gave it some yellow.

Step 17
The sun was set to a very small size and could not be fully identified in this size. Now, it's just a bright spot. I copied it many times and put it in a different position. By the way, I changed the color so that it matched the light. To change the color I followed the same steps as before (basically hue/saturation and use color balance when the hue doesn't fully satisfy me).

Step 18
We continue, I used the nice clouds of the This sky, to make some dust. So, I open the image and reduce its saturation. Then, I use the levels (Command + L) to separate the clouds. Next, I use a soft eraser to erase the unwanted parts (Figure 5 below). Finally, I use the Burn tool (midtones) to polish these clouds. I separated them a little and pulled them out.

Step 19
I named these clouds "Dust", changing the layer's blending mode to linear dodge. Then, rotate them and place them in the direction of the light (pictured below). At the bottom I made a small comparison when I added the dust after the whole image was more angry.

Step 20
The image is almost complete, but the light is still not completely mixed with the model. I select the entire canvas by command + A, and then press the COMMAND + SHIFT key +c (copy merge) and command + V (paste). So I made a copy of the whole image and put it on top of all the layers. Then, select this image, go to filter > Liquefy, and as you can see in Figure 1 below, I did some stretching using the bending tool (in the liquefaction filter). In Figure 2 below you can see how to make these rays mix well.

Step 21
Finally, I wanted to make this work a little more realistic, so I added a light reflex to the model's clothes and skin. Each arrow has the closest line color underneath. For example, the first orange point on a shirt should be illuminated by an orange light. You should know the rest of it. To do this, I created a new layer, blending mode set to color (soft light also can), and then I used the appropriate color of the soft brush, see!

Conclusion
Finally, you can give it a good overall sharpening, using a high channel filter, which will greatly improve the quality of your work. I hope you like this work, thank you for your reading. The main purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to make this kind of effect. Therefore, hope to be able to help everybody.

Original from: tutsplus.com