How to make puppete in photoshop

In this tutorial I am going to attempt to show you how to ‘puppetize’ Charlize from this…


…to this! Bear in mind that I used PSPv9 and that this is my first attempt at a tutorial!!!


Use this tutorial in conjunction with Jobigoud's mini-tut on joints: http://www.worth1000.com/stories/thread.asp?cid=29&eid=219537

The first step is to use your smudge brush at about 46% opacity and smooth out her skin, hair and teeth until they have a plastic look to them.

Now draw some oval shapes in the darker skin tones and place them on her joints…look at the angles of her joints to help you with the placing. Just keep adjusting them until they look right. Notice that I have some darker ovals and some lighter ovals…the lighter ovals are placed where I thought more light would fall.

Where you only have one oval on a joint, eg, the neck/chin, shoulders, elbows and wrists, you have to copy and paste these joints from your background over the top of your ovals and then erase as much as is needed until it looks as though there is a gap between the joint and the oval.

Now go to your background layer and using your clone tool, get rid of the bits of knee etc that you can still see behind the ovals.

After cloning, this is how your joints should look.

Now using your pen tool, draw in the lines that hold the joints together. I added a shadow to the knee lines for more effect.

Here you need to blacken her mouth and move her chin and lower lip down to give the full puppet effect. I also drew in two faint brown lines to define her chin/jaw more.

Next I airbrushed a lighter skin tone onto all of her body and gaussian blurred it until it looked right (you will have to play with this until you are satisfied with your result). I also added highlights to her hair in the same way. This gave Charlize more of the plastic puppet look that I was looking for.

Now draw in the dots/holes where you would like to attach the strings.

Using the pen tool, draw in your strings….and there you have it…all done!!! Good luck.

Create a Divine Angel Montage in Photoshop

Materials Needed:

• Vegetation1
• Vegetation2
• Female
• Wings

Step 1: Create a new document

First of all open a new document in Photoshop (Dimensions: 1019×1219 px).

Step 2: Apply Vegetation

Now import the first image “Vegetation1″ that we’ll use to create the background. Resize it and than place it to the top of the page.

Step 3: Reduce Saturation

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and reduce the yellow saturation and grow up a little bit the yellow lightness.

Step 4: Complete the background

Fill the background with black color and erase slowly the bottom part of the image you added so that it will blend in with the black.

Step 5: Add the main character

Import the second image “Female” resize it and fit it in the centre of the image like below. Change the name of the layer to angel.

Step 6: Selecting the model

Using the Pen Tool (P) you need to trace the female model and erase the background behind her.

Step 7: Correcting the colors

Go again to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and reduce the yellow saturation. Than select the Burn Tool (O) and try to make the females dress a bit darker, till you reach a result like the picture below.

Step 8: Add more detail to the background

Copy and paste the next image we used for the ground Vegetation2 and place it below the angel layer.

Step 9

Erase the trees from the top of the image, make sure you use a soft brush for this and that you will only have the ground visible and than change the Hue/Saturation and the Color Balance from Image > Adjustments.

Step 10: Create the angel

Import the image, which contains the wings. Select the contour with the Pen Tool (P) and get rid of the black part of the image. Than use the Burn Tool (O) on the pointed area.

Step 11: Add some color to the wings

Go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and use the settings below. Than you can change the contrast from Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.

Step 12: Building the star

Create a circle with the Ellipse Tool (U) (Shape Layers). Than go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, set the radius around 4%.

Step 13

Now you should smudge the circle from outside to inside, which will allow the finger be seen. To make it glow, right-click on the layer with the white sphere and go to blending options and use the options from the Outer Glow like below.

Step 14

The light should go over the face. So you must brush and smudge a white color over the face and the hair then set the layer to Overlay.

Step 15: Creating the star rays

Draw some lines like below and then select with the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) a circle.

Step 16

Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur set to around 15.

Step 17: Add mist

Create a new layer and fill it with black. Then go to Filter > Render > Clouds. For the colors use these codes: #bfb499 and #000000.

Step 18

Set the mist layer to Screen and Opacity 75%.

Step 19

Now create a new layer and move it below the clouds layer and add some shadow. Brush with black and then smudge a little bit to cover the legs and the dress.

Step 20

In this step you must create some more mist at the female’s feet. Make a selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Use the same colors like before.

Step 21: Light behind angel

To create the light behind the angel create a new layer below the angel layer and brush it with #dbbe79. Set the layer to screen in the end.

Step 22: Rays of light

Create a new layer then create some straight lines using the Line Tool (U) set to 2px and color #dbbe79.

Step 23

Wile still on the rays layer go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and than Filter > Blur > Motion Blur effect till you get the same result like below.

Step 24: Add final light

This is the final step. Select all the layers (Ctrl + A) and copy merged (Shift + Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + P). Then go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare. Using the Erase Tool (E) set to Opacity 70%, you need to slowly erase the lower part of the flare.

Final Result

Download the PSD

Download the PSD

Robotic Frog in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you some of the steps I took in making this image


There are a number of tricks and techniques people use when making an image of this nature, but I am going to show how I created this image using only the very basic tools. The same principles and process can be used on any animals, even humans, but I'm going to use a frog for my example because why not?
The first thing I did was gathered a few source images.

Finding a great subject source image to start with is one of the most important stages in the whole process. The reason I chose this particular image of a frog was that it was crisp, clean image with an interesting enough perspective, yet still be instantly recognizable as a frog even after we cover him in mechanical parts.
Now that we have our main subject and a few mechanical pieces ready, let's begin mechanicalizing him.

I needed to extract the usable parts from my mechanical sources. Using the Lasso Tool, I roughly selected areas from my mechanical sources I figured I could use, and saved these parts into a new document for easy access later.

I tried to select segments of varying shapes, sizes, and texture in order to create a nice library of chrome and mechanical sources for our image

The first thing I needed to do was to assemble the basic structure of the figure. Taking segments one by one, I started the assembly process of the actual robot figure. After pasting a segment of chrome onto our frog, we need to shape it. Using the Transform - Distort Tool, I transformed and skewed the segment in order to fit the contours of the frog's head. Making sure to always follow the curves and contours of the frog in order to help keep the familiar recognizable shape of the original frog.


Now we need to cover more space using the same basic idea. By selecting basic segments from our chrome sources and free transforming them to fit the shape of our frog. Select segments of your mechanical parts that best resemble the area of the frog you're trying to cover. It may help you to start by applying the pieces furthest most from the camera first, then overlap pieces as you come closer and closer to the camera. At this point i'm not worried about covering the background or overlapping any of the original frog, as we can go back and add them in again later. For now I just want to lay down the basic structure of the figure.

In order to create the mouth area, I needed to do something slightly different. I found a chrome pipe area on one of our chrome source pictures. I decided to use this segment for the mouth, as it was a nice long piece of chrome that I could transform into the shape of the mouth. I copied and pasted this segment onto our frog and Free Transformed it roughly in place until I was happy enough with the positioning of it. I also added this segment onto the head of our figure to create a median point on the figure.


Next, all I had to do was fine tune and clean up the pieces to sit right on our figure. I did this simply by using the Smudge Tool set at 70-80% in strength, and about 7-10 pixels wide. Then I proceeded to smudge and smooth out the surfaces of the chrome pipe and mold them to fit the curves and contours of the frog's original mouth.

When I'm satisfied with the positioning of all the mechanical pieces, the next step was to apply some highlights and shadows to separate the segments a little better. I started with the shadows. Using the Brush Tool set at 100% opacity, I painted in the black shadows on a new layer directly underneath each chrome segment layer. Next, I took the Smudge Tool set at 60-70% pressure and smoothed out the shadows. Following the contours of the underlying pieces, I shaped the shadows. The shadows should give our figure more depth and help to isolate each segment a little better


Next, in order to further accentuate the shadows, we're going to add some simple highlights. Again by using the Brush Tool (this time set to white) set at 100% opacity, I painted in some basic highlights on the edges and areas I figured could use a little further bump in contrast on a new layer directly above each piece of our chrome layers.

Then just like the shadows, I then took the Smudge Tool set at 60-70% pressure to smooth and shape out our highlights to fit the curves of our figure.

You may still notice some remnants of the original frog showing on the edges of the figure. This can be easily cleaned up with a little work using the Clone Tool. At this point, it'll be a good idea to hide all our layers except for our background layer. Create a new layer directly above your original frog image. With the Clone Tool selected, make sure you have the "select all layers" box selected. Hold the "alt" key and select an arbitrary area of the background to copy. Then it's all a matter of cloning the background in.

In order to make the image look even more interesting, I decided to create the illusion of the frog's skin being pulled away to reveal the robot. On a new layer above our background, I roughly painted the insides of the opened skin. Using the Brush Tool set at 100% opacity set to a brown, skin-toned color, I mapped out the area our skin would cover


Next, I wanted to give the skin some shadow. Selecting a darker shade of our original skin color, I roughly painted in the shadows. Then, using the Smudge Tool set at 60-70% pressure, I smoothed out the shadows just (as in Step 07) until I was happy with the general placement and shape of the skin

I then wanted to add some of the original skin from the frog to form the outside of the skin as well. I opened the original frog image in a new File for easy access. Using the Lasso Tool, I selected edges of the frog's original skin to copy. I copied this selection and pasted it on to our robofrog document. Using the Transfrom-Distort Tool, I transformed the skin to follow the direction of the skin "pull". And like we did in our earlier steps, I proceeded to add slight shadows and highlights to the skin to further accentuate the "pull" effect.

For the skin flaps on the arms, I did something different. First I selected the original arm and copied it onto a new layer. Then using the Smudge Tool set at 80-90% pressure, I smudged and drew in the direction of the skin and folds of the skin. Then, using darker and lighter shades from the original skin, I drew and smudged in shadows and highlights again as in the previous steps


When I was happy with the look of the skin, the next step was to go back and return some of the orginal rough skin texture from the original skin. I did this by copying an area of the original frog skin and pasting it on a new layer directly on top of our Arm Skin layer.

I then set this layer with the "overlay" Blend mode. This gives our skin the rough texture. I then erased the edges of the overlay skin layer so as it covers only the necessary areas

Next, I wanted to make the chrome look even more like chrome. By adding reflections from surrounding elements, I hope to add some more realism to the chrome. I did this by copying layers of surrounding elements and forming them to create an illusion of reflection.

For example, as in the image above, I started by Duplicating the layer with the metal valve. I then set the opacity of this layer to 50% then using the Transform-Distort Tool, I shaped and formed the element to fit onto the shoulder chrome segment. I used this same method for other surrounding areas like the leaf and areas where the skin overlaps a chrome segment.

Finally, I needed something to hold up the frog's skin. I decided to use a couple of dragonflies for this effect. After finding a good image of a dragonfly, it was then all a matter of extracting him from the original file and pasting him onto a new layer in our working document.

I added the Motion Blue filter to the winged areas of the dragonflies to simulate motion.


And voila! Our image is complete! A robotic frog created using only the very basic tools of photoshop!