Fractalius Amazing Photoshop Filter ...

Fractalius Amazing Photoshop Filter ...

Fractalius plugin creates unusual, eccentric artworks in a single step. The effects are based on extraction of so-called hidden fractal texture of an image.
































You can also simulate various types of exotic lightings and high realistic pencil sketches.









Requirements:

· PIV-2000
· 512 MB RAM
· Photoshop-compatible image editor

Click Here To Download Fractalius 

Video Tutorial - How To Use Pen Tool and Make Colorful Glow Lines

Video Tutorial - How To Use Pen Tool and Make Colorful Glow Lines

Photoshop Video Tutorial -How To Use Pen Tool and Make Colorful Glow Lines

Photoshop default brushes ...

Photoshop default brushes ...

Some people lost the Photoshop default brushes so upload them Here ..

Download Click Here

Create an Emotional Post War Scene

Create an Emotional Post War Scene

In this photoshop tutorial, we will learn how to create an emotional post war scene photo manipulation. We will combine some picture to be manipulated into something unique and create scene with the feel of post apocalyptic war. 

Here are the stock images we need :
» Misty land
» Texture
» Gun
» Old gun
» Cloud
» Destroyed city
» Building
» Soldier
» Cat
» Child
» Soil
» gear (rims)

End result:

Step 1

Preparing the source

All you need to do is selecting good stock pictures, doing experiment on using Free Transform Tool and Adjustment layers to set the mood and lightning. Here are the stocks needed to manipulate the thing I called machine:

Step 2

Create a new white document of 1200 pxl wide and 900 pxl high on photoshop (Ctrl+N). Open the stock picture of an old gun on the document.

Step 3

We will extract the picture from its background. To achieve this, we will use Pen Tool. Activate the pen tool in the tool panel. Start tracing the picture with the pen tool by clicking every edge of the picture to make anchor point:

Step 4

Keep on clicking to trace the picture until the path is closed which is indicated by thin line around the traced picture:

Step 5

When the path is closed, right click on the path to show the path command option box. Choose Make Selection. This Make Selection option will change the path into selection. Hit Shift+Ctrl+I to inverse the selection and then hit Del to delete the background:

Step 6

Open the other stock picture of an old rusty car:

Step 7

Just extract the picture with Pen Tool just like the same way in extracting the old gun picture. Here is the result:

Step 8

Now there are two extracted picture on the document. Make sure to place the old car picture behind the old gun picture. This means that the layer of the old car picture is underneath the layer of the old gun in the Layer Panel. Select the old car layer. Now hit Ctrl+T to activate Free Transform Tool which is indicated by some transforming points around the selected picture:

Step 9

When the free transform tool is activated, right click on the document to show the command option box. Choose Perspective. Click and drag the lowest left corner point down. Refer to the old gun picture as reference to determine the perspective of the old car. Technically, the image will look like the one on the illustration below :

Step 10

Distort the picture a bit to get the fit result:

Step 11

Finally, erase the unnecessary parts of the car. Here is the result I created:

Step 12

Next is adding rear wheel. What you need to do are:
1. Take pen tool again in the tool panel. Trace the left front wheel by clicking to make path
around the wheel until the path is closed.
2. Right click on the document to show the path command options. Choose make selection.
3. When the wheel is selected, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate it into a new single layer.
4. Finally, move (hit V to activate the Move Tool) the duplication to rear side of the machine. Make sure to place this duplicated wheel layer below the main body layer in the layer panel.

Step 13

Do the same way to add the other rear wheel:

Step 14

From this step on, we will add rims for the wheel. We will manipulate the rims from this image of a gear. Since the gear is in png formatted file, we will simply copy-paste the image to the document. We do not need to be got bother by extracting because the image itself has already got transparent background.

Step 15

Place the rim ( I call the part rim ) above the wheel. Hit Ctrl+T to activate the Free Transform Tool again:

Step 16

Transform the rim to fit the perspective of the wheel:

Step 17

Distort the rim to get the best result:

Step 18

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the rim and place the duplication on the rear wheel:

Step 19

We have completed parts of the machine ( I call this thing machine ). Next, we will decorate the look of thee machine by adding some metal textures. I used this image for this purpose:

Step 20

Open the texture on the document. With Free Transform Tool, arrange the perspective of this texture to fit the entire image:

Step 21

Duplicate the texture as needed. Scale and place the duplications where needed. Remember to mask some unneeded parts of the duplications. I kept the blending of the duplication layers in normal at 100% opacity. Please see the illustration picture as the inspiration of the result I created. Do not stick to get exactly the same result as the one I created. In this part we can try to create different texture shapes.

Step 22

If we have found the best shape, select all the texture layers and group them (Ctrl+G). Give this group layer a layer mask. Mask the lines on the car. Please see the illustration picture:

Step 23

Finally, to complete the machine, I selected and duplicated the part between the front wheels and add the duplicated part to the rear wheels. Please refer back to previous step 12 on how to do this.

Step 24

Here is the final result I created after adding a machine gun which was cut out from the other provided stock image. Please refer the previous step to see how to use pen tool to cut the machine gun and how to transform the cut out to fit the perspective.

Step 25

Create another new document of 1200 pxl wide and 900 pxl high. Open the stock picture. We will create the background for the scene. After opening the stock picture, flip it horizontally. Hit Ctrl+T to activate the free transform tool again. There will be a manu bar for the tool above the document. Click thechain icon and put the cursor near the icon, when the pointing hand icon comes up, click and drag to the right to scale the picture up. See the result I created:

Step 26

Open the cracked soil picture on the document. Transform the picture to get the best result needed:

Step 27

To blend the soil well into the scene, give this soil layer a layer mask and mask the upper part of it.Then reduce its opacity a bit to 60%. Next is create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). On this new layer,make a selection on the lower part of the document. We will fill this selection with Gradient. Set the color of the foreground to white and the background to #0b5f04. Take Gradient tool. Make sure to choose Linear Gradient. Finally create gradient on the selection. Give this layer a layer mask and with soft round brush, masked the top edge of the gradient. Set the blending of this gradient layer to Soft Light at 55% opacity.

Step 28

Create another new layer. Make a selection on the lower part of the document and fill the selection with another gradient. For this gradient, set the foreground color to white and the background to #021701.Mask the top edge and set this gradient layer to Soft Light at 100% opacity.

Step 29

In this step, we will add cloud to the scene. Open the other stock picture. Scale the picture to fit the canvas. Mask the lower part of the image. To match the color of this cloud to its surrounding, we will add itcolor adjustments. Firstly, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color balance. Then, give the other adjustment layer: Hue/Saturation. ( please see the illustration picture for the settings). Make sure to create clipping masks for these adjustment layers. Mask a little bit the hue/saturation layer on the cloud part. Finally, set the blending of the color balance layer to Multiply at 100% opacity and the hue/saturation to Screen at 100% opacity.

Step 30

After finishing the background, copy - paste the ‘machine’ to the canvas:

Step 31

Next, open the soldier picture. Extract the soldier from its background. Scale and place it on the canvas:

Step 32

Proceed to add the child to the canvas. Scale and place the child in front of the soldier’s right arm. Give this child layer a layer mask and mask part of the child to make it looks as if she were in the soldier’s arm. Finally, add the cat to the scene.

Step 33

In this step we will treat the look of the child. We have to make as if she were desperate. Duplicate the child layer. Go to Filter > Others > High Pass. Take Burn Tool in the tool panel. With soft round brush at low opacity (10-20%), stroke the areas on the face, legs and the other skin. Finally, set this high pass layer to Overlay at 100% opacity.

Step 34

Do the same way as the previous step for the soldier.

Step 35

Finally, to set the entire tone of the scene, I decided to give it another adjustment layer: Hue/Saturation above all the other layers.

Step 36

We will add some destroyed building to the scene. Open the building picture on the canvas. Go to Image > Adjustment > Desaturate. With the building layer still selected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Option. See the illustration picture to see the setting for the blending option.

Step 37

Mask unnecessary part of the building. Used scatter brush to create the effect of destruction on the building.

Step 38

Scale and place the building on the canvas. Give this building Gaussian blur a bit. Finally add this layer new adjustment layers: Brightness/Contrast and Color Balance. Make sure to create these adjustment layers clipping masks.

Step 39

To complete the composition, we will add the other building. Open the ruin city stock picture. Flip it horizontally. Scale and place as farer building. Duplicate this layer. Arrange the duplication pictures in the position needed to complete the composition. Give them Gaussian Blur to set the depth of the image.

Step 40

Create a new layer. Fill this layer with linear gradient of #032501 to white. Then, mask lower part of the gradient layer. Finally, set this gradient layer to Soft Light at 45% opacity.

Step 41

Create the other two adjustment layers above all the other layers. First, add Gradient Map, mask some parts of this gradient map layer and then set it to Multiply blending at 100% opacity. Next, givePhoto Filter. Mask this layer as well on some part and set its blending to normal at 40% opacity.

Step 42

Hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp the visible layer. There will be a single layer above all the other layers.Desaturate this layer and give it Gaussian Blur with radius at 7 pixels. Set this layer to Soft Light at 25% opacity. Next, create another new layer. Take Brush Tool. Choose a very soft brush at 20 opacity. With black color, stroke distracting areas on the scene ( marked in yellow). Please see the illustration image.

Step 43

The image is a bit dark. We will add another adjustment layer: Brightness/Contrast to the scene. Finally, hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp again all the visible layers. Give this stamped layer High Pass filter at radius 7% to sharpen the image. Mask the area of the buildings. Set this layer to Soft Light at 100% opacity.

Step 44

Finally, to complete this work, on a new layer I stroked a black colored soft brush at 15-20% opacity on the areas under the machine and the soldier to define more shadow. So here is the final result I created:

Step 45

Or....optionally, to set more dramatic scene, I tried to add rain on the picture. I also used different rims for the wheels:

Photo Manipulate an Exotic Snake Charming Scene

Photo Manipulate an Exotic Snake Charming Scene

Resources Used In This Tutorial

• Snake Charmer
• Rocks
• Taj Mahal
• Cobra
• Small Snake
• Smoke
• Moss Texture
• Gem

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

Start by creating a new document (1000X1000px).

Paste in the Taj Mahal image from the resources section for this tutorial.

We want to improve the colors and contrast of our backdrop image, so apply a levels and color balance adjustment layer. Be sure to apply a clipping mask to all adjustment layers in this tutorial, unless otherwise specified, as we only want our adjustments to effect the underlying layer.

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

12 / 0.94 / 255

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlights: +1 / +2 / -5
Midtones: +4 / +8 / -16
Shadows: -11 / +2 / -1

Step 2

If you look at our backdrop photo, the distance is very sharp, but the bottom area of the photo gets slightly out of focus as it gets closer to us.

I’ve highlighted this area in red below:

To fix this, select your backdrop photo and both adjustment layers (hold shift to select more than one layer). Hit option+g to place these three layers within a layer group.

Duplicate this layer group.

Then, with your duplicate group folder selected, go to filter>convert for smart filters. This way you can non-destructively apply filters to an entire layer group, which contains multiple layers.

With your smart filters in place, go to filter>sharpen>unsharp mask. This will allow us to precisely sharpen our backdrop image.

Unsharp Mask Filter Settings:

Amount: 240%
Radius: 0.7 pixels
Threshold: 0 levels

You can see below that this has sharpened our entire image. However, we only really wanted to sharpen the bottom corners of our image, in order to focus them. The rest of our image is now too sharp:

To fix this, apply a layer mask to your duplicate backdrop smart object. Use a large, soft black paintbrush to mask off all of this sharpened layer apart from the bottom corners (which we want to sharpen).

I’ve shown where this mask is applied using a red area below:

And here is the result. Now the entire backdrop is nice and sharp, including the bottom corners, which were previously out of focus:

Step 3

Download the ‘snake’ image from the resources section for this tutorial.

Cut it out from it’s background (this should be easy as it has a plain white background). Paste the snake into the bottom right of your canvas, keeping it really large, as we want this to be a giant sized snake!

Apply a levels and color balance adjustment layer in order to blend the snake better with our backdrop:

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

20 / 1.00 / 230

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlights: +13 / +1 / -29
Midtones: +25 / +5 / -23
Shadows: +8 / -5 / -12

You can see the result of this below:

We want to extend the snakes tail to the left corner of our canvas, so simply copy/paste part of the snake’s body and position this in the bottom corner. Use the same adjustment layers to blend this area.

Don’t worry if there’s a gap in the middle, we’ll be covering this up!

Step 4

Download the ‘rocks’ image from the resources section for this tutorial.

Paste the rocks roughly into the bottom-center of your canvas, after extracting them from their background:

Apply a color balance and levels adjustment layer to your rocks layer:

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlights: -4 / +5 / -4
Midtones: +9 / +6 / -12
Shadows: +1 / +4 / -12

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

45 / 1.05 / 236

You can see the result of this below:

Step 5

Paste in your ‘moss’ image from the resources for this tutorial.

Duplicate this ‘moss’ layer, hiding the original. You can see keep this original layer though as we’ll be making many more duplicates.

Select your visible duplicate moss layer and resize it to fit over one of the lower rocks. Then go to edit>transform>warp. Warp your moss to fit more to the shape of the rock, thus making it less flat:

Apply a layer mask to your moss layer, and then use one of the roughly, grungy default brushes that come with photoshop (ensuring it’s set to: black) and mask off the edges of your moss area. You want to smoothly blend your moss into the rock surface.

To help blend it further, reduce the opacity of your moss layer to around 90%.

Now apply a color balance adjustment layer:

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlights: +22 / -13 / -8
Midtones: +19 / +32 / -26
Shadows: -1 / +6 / -12

This is the effect:

Step 6

Repeat the technique of applying moss, applying it to the rest of your rock surfaces:

Step 7

Create a new layer called ‘bottom shadow’ and use a large, soft black paintbrush to paint in a shadow along the bottom of your canvas.

Reduce this layer’s opacity to 10%:

Step 8

Paste in your snake charmer image, positioning him so that he’ll be sat roughly on top of the rocks in your main composition:

We want to get rid of his background, so use your preferred extraction method. Personally, I love being non-destructive, so I used a layer mask to mask off his background.

Now apply a color balance adjustment layer to blend your man better with the rest of your piece:

Color Balance Adjustment Layer Settings:

Highlight: -13 / 0 / -8
Midtones: +4 / +13 / -15
Shadows: 0 / 0 / 0

And here’s the result:

Step 9

Create a new layer called ‘shadow under man’.

Use a soft black paintbrush at around 10% opacity to paint in shadow between the man and the rock. Make it look more natural, as if the man is sitting on the rock and casting a natural shadow:

Step 10

Download the ‘small snake’ image from the resources for this tutorial.

Extract it from it’s background and then paste/position it to appear to be coming out of the end of the man’s pipe:

Set this layer’s blend mode to screen:

Now apply a hue/saturation and levels adjustment layer:

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer Settings:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -100
Lightness: +23

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

53 / 0.77 / 198

You can see the result of this below:

Step 11

Our snake is looking a little too solid to pass as smoke right now, so grab your smudge tool, set to around 25% opacity and smudge areas of your snake to blend outwards like smoke.

This should create a much softer looking effect:

To add a little additional smoke, download the ‘smoke’ image from the resources for this tutorial.

Position it over your snake image:

Change this layer’s blend mode to ‘screen’ to hide the black background for the smoke and just let the smoke show through:

Step 12

Download your ‘jewel’ image from the resources for this tutorial and extract it from it’s background.

Go to edit>transform and use the distort tool to resize the jewel to rest on the front of the man’s turban. Make it much thinner than the original to give the impression of it being part of the man’s profile.

Then apply a hue/saturation adjustment layer to this jewel layer:

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer Settings:

Hue: +95
Saturation: 0
Lightness: +2

Step 13

Create a new layer called ‘lens flare’.

Fill your canvas with black and then change it’s layer blend mode to ‘screen’. This will hide the black fill, but allow you to apply a lens flare effect non-destructively.

Go to filter>convert for smart filters. Then go to filter>render>lens flare. Apply a 50-300mm Zoom lens fare at 100% Brightness, trying to position your main flare over the end of the man’s pipe:

The image below shows this lens flare layer at ‘normal’ blend mode:

This shows the ‘lens flare’ mode at ‘screen’ blend mode:

Step 14

Create a new layer called ‘dodge/burn’. To dodge/burn your image non-destructively go to edit>fill>50% gray. Change your layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’ to hide your 50% gray fill, and then use a soft, low opacity (around 10%) black paintbrush to burn your image, and a soft, low opacity white paintbrush to dodge your image.

You want to try and create a more unified light source. In this image we can see that the main light source is coming from the right of your canvas. So try to add highlights to the right edges of your objects, and shadow the left edges.

The images below show your dodge/burn layer at ‘normal’ blend mode and then ‘overlay’ blend mode:

Step 15

To accentuate the highlights cast on your rocks by the sun, create a new layer called ‘rock highlight edge’.

Keep this new layer active, but in your layer’s palette option+click on your original rocks layer. This will create an active selection around the shape of your rocks.

This will allow you to paint just inside the edge of your rocks without leaking out onto the background.

Use a soft white paintbrush to paint in a highlight along the right edge of your rocks:

To make this highlight effect more subtle change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’ and reduce it’s opacity to 30%.

Step 16

The left edge of our rocks is looking too light considering the lighting of the overall piece.

To fix this, create a new layer called ‘rock shadows’.

Use a soft black paintbrush (around 20% opacity) to paint shadows over this area of rock:

Step 17

Apply a final couple of adjustment layers, but this time DO NOT create clipping masks for them as you want your adjustments to effect your entire composition.

Gradient Overlay Adjustment Layer:

Gradient: Default purple to orange gradient
Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 10%

Levels Adjustment Layer Settings:

9 / 1.00 / 238

Here is the result of these adjustments:

Step 18

Finally, to finish we want to sharpen our image just a little to make it clearer.

Go to layers>flatten image. Select your entire flattened canvas and then hit ‘copy’.

In your history panel undo this flattening, as of course we want to retain our original layers.

Then paste your copied flat image in as a new top layer.

Go to filter>convert for smart filters. Then go to filter>sharpen>unsharp mask. Apply these settings:

Unsharp Mask Settings:

Amount: 35%
Radius: 0.5 pixels
Threshold: 0 levels

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.