Tutorial 2
This one’s for Anon, who wanted to know how to make edits like this one and this one.
First of all, I’d suggest to check out the first tutorial which explains how to get the size of the screencap you want to work with and the width you should use to create your set.
Once you’ve picked the screencap or picture, you’re gonna open it and select the Pen Tool. I suggest you zoom in a little to get a clear view of the outline of the person or object you want to cut out. Always try to pick a screencap in which the object has, if possible, clearly visible edges/contour so that it’s easier to cut. Once you click on the Pen Tool, you’re gonna start clicking the outline of the object. I suggest not to leave a lot of space in between the “dots” so that the cropping is smoother. Whenever you reach an area that has curves, you can click and drag the selection so that the line from one dot to the other has the curve you want:
After you finish the outline you want, the last dot will have to be places on the first do you made. that is, the selection will have to come “full circle” so that it’s “closed”. You’ll get a line contouring the object. After that, you will right click inside the object and click “make selection”:
Once the object’s been selected you’ll click on “edit - Copy” and then “Edit - Paste” to get your cut out. You can see the object as a new layer in the layer panel on the right:
Now you can click on “new Layer” (bottom right) and paint it the colour you want. In this case i painted it white so that you can clearly see the cutout. i sugest you pick a colour that combines with the image you cropped (this part, of course depends on you and what you want to make):
Now comes the fun part. Unleash your creativity! change all the settings you want, add more layers, textures, colour gradients, add texts, play with the fonts, etc. In this case I changed the size of the object (you can do so by selecting the “Move Tool” which is the first icon on the left bar, and drag on of the corners towards the centre of the object while pressing shift so that you keep the original proportions of the object), sharpened it (Filter - Smart Sharpen), added some paper textures, changed the colours a bit and added some text. To get a better sense of what to do and which effects to use, here you can download the psd of this edit (and the ones from the previous tutorial!). The result was this:
Don’t worry if it takes you a long time, that’s the thing! You have to try each setting for yourself and discover rather intuitively what works for you and what doesn’t. Be patient with yourself and trust your choices ♥
You can leave the edit just like that and click on “File - Save as...” and save it as a .png. However, if you want to add some motion effects, you can look for “gif overlays” on google and pick the one you like most. In this case I used this one:
You’re gonna open the gif on photoshop and select all the layers on the right and all the layers from the bottom panel as well. Once you have, you’re gonna click on “Convert to frame animation” (near the bottom right). After that, you’ll click on “Filter - Convert to Smart Files”:
Now you’re ready to drag the gif layer to the edit. Usually, you have to set the layer on “Lighter Colour” so that the white parts of the gif are visible. On the animation panel at the bottom, you’ll see green horizontal bars that indicate the length of the layers on the file, in this case, this gif (layer 6) is long so I reduced the duration of the gif by dragging the small blue bar which sets the seconds it lasts:
Always bear in mind that, if the gif is shorter, you’ll have to drag the blue bar so that it covers the length of the gif. Otherwise, the overlay gif will “dissappear” during the animation because the file lasts longer than the gif layer. Here’s an example of a shorter gif layer and how to set the duration bar:
Finally, to save it as a gif, click “File - Save for Web & Devices...” and check that the settings are like the ones in this picture (especially the looping option so that the gif “never stops”):
Click “Save” and there you have it!! ♥♥ Hope I’ve been clear enough and that you find this tutorial helpful! Sorry if my language is technically incorrect or if I’ve made any mistakes :) There are probably easier ways lol, but this is the one I use.
