How to edit skies in ACNL using Photoshop!!
I’ve been seeing a few animal crossing edits here and there, so I decided to learn how to do it using Photoshop! Here’s my first one that I did so far~ > http://sycamore-crossing.tumblr.com/post/137180130099/make-a-wish-mayor
Some ppl were asking me how I did it, SO! Here’s a (not so tiny) tutorial on how to replace the ACNL sky with a real photo of a sky ~ It’s really (well, kinda) simple actually, so I’ll get right into it!
Step 1: (You may skip to step 2 if you already have PS)
So the first thing you wanna do is download the program that I used for this task, which is Photoshop CS5. You may choose to buy it (for like $100 omg) or download it here~ (Updated version of CS5, but no big difference.) It’s a pretty big file so it may take some time to download.
After downloading, you should get a .zip file. Just unzip the file, jump right into the folder that comes up, and the program should be there!
Step 2: Get your favourite ACNL pic! Make sure that the sky is fully visible, or it won’t work that well.
-> A quick trick for getting clear screenshots of your town: Instead of pressing L+R to take the picture, press the Home button, go to Miiverse on your 3DS, and upload the screenshot there! Then log in to Miiverse from your computer and save~ It’s so much more clearer than the regular L+R method!
Use this website to make your photos even more clear!!! <-
For this example, I’m gonna use my best friend’s ACNL pic c: @wilted-rafflesia
Source: http://wilted-rafflesia.tumblr.com/post/134870177805/cumulonimbus-clouds-are-my-favourite
Step 3: Open your file in Photoshop!
Pretty straightforward so far, right? Get that photo in Photoshop!
The only windows you need here in Photoshop is Layers and Navigation (as you can see on the right-hand side), so look for “Window” on one of the drop-down menus on top, and select ‘Layers’ and ‘Navigation’.
Step 4: Crop the sky out using the Quick Selection Tool.
And simply press and drag along the sky (bc you wanna get rid of it, right?)
There should be a moving outline along the edge of the part you wanna cut out. You can resize the tool by pressing the keys that have ‘[{’ and ‘]}’ on them.
Now if you look closely, the character’s face is included in the cut, as well as the roof of the brown house and smoke from the chimney. Simply press ALT on your keyboard and remove them from the moving outline.
Now we cut! Go to your Layers window, and you should either see ‘Layer 0′ or ‘Background’. Either one is fine, and I have Layer 0.
Right click on the layer itself, and select “Duplicate Layer” and press ‘Ok”. This is to make sure you have an extra copy in case you make a mistake. In that case, you may delete the copy and start over by duplicating the bottom layer again.
Click on the eye inside the box next to Layer 0 or Background to ‘hide’ it.
Now right click on the area you wanna cut out and select ‘Layer via Cut’ to cut it out. Press on the ‘eye’ inside the box next to the new layer that pops out and it should look like this:
Step 5: Choose your sky and open it in Photoshop!
FINALLY the fun part!! You can choose any sky you want! I’ll be using this moon + clouds pic c:
Source: http://www.wallpaperup.com/162867/moonlight_moon_night_nature_landscape_clouds_stars_sky_g.html
So open your sky photo up in PS and drag it down from the tab, like so:
Then drag the sky photo itself into the ACNL photo you’ve been working on:
And you can close the sky photo window.
Now drag the layer with your sky photo down right above your last layer so that it’s underneath your ACNL pic.
Use the Navigator to zoom out of the picture and press CTRL and T to change the size of the sky photo. The red box is what the Navigator looks like.
Use the corner to resize. Press Shift as you resize to maintain the aspect ratio. You may use the direction pad to adjust placement.
Double click the sky photo to remove resizing box, and viola! You got yourself a nice background!
But wait!! Because the ACNL photo was originally taken in the daytime, the photo has the wrong kind of lighting.
The next steps are optional, but it will definitely help enhance the effect of the background :)
Step 6: Fix the lighting!
You wanna try to make it as blended together as possible, so you gotta fix the lighting.
Select the layer with your ACNL photo in it, then look for the drop-down menu that says ‘Image’ and select ‘Exposure’.
An Exposure window will open. Experiment to get the best result!! I used this setting:
I also slightly darkened some colours by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
Now we’re gonna merge all the layers into one whole photo.
Go to the drop-down menu that says ‘Layer’ and select, ‘Flatten Image’. Select ‘OK’. The layer should now be called ‘Background’.
Now create a duplicate of ‘Background’ and select it. Go to the drop-down menu that says ‘Filter’, go down to ‘Render’ and select ‘Lighting Effects’
Experiment!!! This is my setting:
Step 7: Blend Blend Blend~
So to make this as blended as possible, you wanna smooth out the edges of the parts that were cut. We use the Blur tool, which looks like this:
Resize the tool (the smaller the tool, the better but make sure you see effects!) and make sure you use the right brush, which is one that is called ‘Soft Round’ and looks like this:
And use them on the edges! Like this :)
Touch up the photo on whatever you want… and viola!!! All done! It makes the town look like it’s living on a cliff or sky lol.
But see the difference it makes when the lighting is fixed?? ^.^
Enjoy the edited photos! I believe it’s better to save the photos as a PNG file (don’t mind the box that pops up when you save it as PNG, just click OK.). But… yeah lol. OH and it’s best if you keep a PSD file so you can edit it again..
Hope this guide was helpful! Happy editing!! <3
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