Got Jedi? Tutorial

[rosamund]

My crappy Photoshop lightsaber tutorial

Here it is, as requested by many (2) of you.

Any better tip or techniques, pleasie postie!!

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Results or function paths will vary slightly between versions of PS:


1) Find a picture you wish to use, open it in PS and save as a PSD.

[rosamund]

2) Make a new image for your blade (mine was sized 6x200px, you will need to size or re-size (Image/Image Size) the image dependent on your source picture).

3) Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N), and fill it white.

4) Rotate (Image/Rotate Canvas) this till it lines up either with the angle of the user's hands or of the object it will be covering up.

5) Select all (Ctrl+A), and copy (Ctrl+C).

6) Go back to your source picture and paste (Ctrl+V). this will paste as a new layer, or prompt you to do this.

7) Select the move tool (V), and drag the blade layer to the right place over your image.

[rosamund]

8) Using the Eraser (E), with a small, soft brush, tidy up the edges of youre blade, to round it off or shorten where necessary.

9) Blur the blade slightly (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur - 0.5>1.0 or so).

[rosamund]

10) create a new layer in your source image (Shift+Ctrl+N). this is for your coloured glow.

11) Choose a paint brush (B), make it soft, about 3 or 4 times the thickness of the white blade shape. choose a nice colour (Primary Red, Purple or Green, Aqua Blue, etc...) paint a nice thick shape over where the white blade is on the lower layer (you can use the eraser to sculpt and edit this shape).

12) In layer styles (set to normal as default) select overlay.

13) Then blur the colour shape (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur - 1.0>2.0 or so).

[rosamund]

14) Merge down the colour layer onto the white blade layer (Layer/Merge Down or (Ctrl+E)).

15) Blur this complete blade a little more (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur - 1.0>2.0 or so), if necessary. If the blade is overlapping objects in the foreground, you can use the eraser on your blade to reveal the covered objects.

** You can apply the resizing, rotating, blur and eraser steps to a saber hilt as well if you want or need to add one. (they're easy to find in google image search)

17) save as a jpeg and post on your favourite ZGeek!!!