Angelina Jolie as a Na'vi from Avatar Movie

Понедельник, 15 Марта 2010 г. 12:31 + в цитатник

So by now you have seen a ton of people spit out photomanipulations of themselves as a Na'vi character. Some have been very well done... while others... could use a little guidance. Well it has been requested that I provide a thorough tutorial on how to turn someone into a more realistic looking Na'vi. Hopefully the information I provide will encourage some to go back and re-work their Na'vi'ed selves, or maybe inspire those of you who haven't made one yet... to hop on the bandwagon!

I must warn you: this is a VERY advanced tutorial. I do go through every step… but good Photoshop skills are going to be needed if you want a high quality result.

First make sure you have the tools you need!

— A GOOD picture! One that clearly shows eyes and eyebrows. Hair pulled back is the best option for a picture because it allows you to manipulate braids and other hair textures into the image if you want.
— Photoshop (I used CS3, but as long as you have the Liquify Filter… it's all good! To see if you have it, just go to the "Filter" drop down menu and "Liquify" should be there)
— Skin texture brush from here Skin texture (it's free!)
— WACOM Tablet (not required! But helps. Big time.)

Index

— Prep
— Eyes
— Eye Brows
— Skin Color
— Nose Shape
— Pupil Size
— Pupils Color
— Lips
— Nose Tip
— Face
— Eye Brows (Na'vi Style)
— Face Stripes
— Glow Dots
— Body
— Neck
— Background
— Ears
— Hair

Prep

Install the brush. If you need help doing so you can follow this tutorial: Install Fonts and Brushes

Open Photoshop. Go to Edit>Preferences>Performance. Where is says "History && Cache" Change the history states to "1000". Chances are you will mess up A LOT and you want to be able to go as far back as you need to. Press OK.

Go to File>Open and locate your file.

If you are experienced with Photoshop, I recommend a very large image with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. This way you can go in and add detail to make the final result look even more real! Also, the process will go a lot smoother if you can see the texture of the skin in the image. However, my image is large enough to see the skin texture and it's at 72 pixels per inch. So either way… make what choice you feel is best.

Create a New Layer

Click on the background layer. Use the selection tool

to select the image on the background layer. Select Layer 1 and paste the image. Name the Layer.

You should currently have two layers. A Background Layer, and the Original Layer on top of it.

Eyes

, select one eye. You want a large portion of the eye and the face around it as seen below.

Click Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V (copy/paste) to paste the eye onto another layer.

After painstaking research, I have discovered the calculation for the eyes. I have tested this method using the actors from Avatar and their Na'vied selves and these steps seem correct.

Still on that eye layer, go to Edit>Free Transform or Ctrl+T to open the Free Transform tool.

Change the Width, Height, and Rotate numbers to that shown below. If you are working on the right eye (the one I'm working on) then you rotate the eye -10. If you're working on the left eye, it's +10.

DO NOT QUIT THE FREE TRANSFORM YET!

Still in the Transform Tool… go to the Reference Point Location and change it from this

if you are working on the right eye, and

if you're working on the left eye.

Turn off the link between the width and height. Change the width to 115%.

Exit Transform Tool. Repeat for the other side. Again, select the eye, copy and paste it onto a new layer.

Remember: Left eye is

and rotate +10. Right eye is

and rotate -10. Only change the Reference Point Location AFTER you blow up the eye to 130%.

Exit Free Transform Tool. Select an Eye Layer. Select Eraser Tool

. With the settings shown below, erase around the eye just enough that it blends in. Try to erase as little as possible.

Repeat for other Eye.

Lower the opacity of the Eraser to 30% and carefully erase harsh edges and fix blending.

Select both eye layers by clicking one, holding Shift, and then clicking the other.

Layer>Merge Layers OR Ctrl+E. Select Original Layer, duplicate the layer by dragging it down to the "Create a New Layer" icon

Select the Eyes Layer and the Original Copy and hit Ctrl+E. Duplicating and merging layers is necessary when working on something like this. If you mess up, you need a back up copy. I re-named the file as "manipulated".

Now you have the original image and the "manipulated" one. We will continue to work with the Manipulated Layer.

Eye Brows

Select the Patch tool

and circle an eye brow.

Drag the selection to a large open area of skin (such as the forehead or cheek).

Select Eraser tool

and erase the skin around the eye brow so that it looks more blended. The Original image will show through as you erase.

(See the empty white area in the first image?)

Now select the healing brush

hold Alt and click on a large patch of empty skin. Try to even it out a bit like so:

Repeat with the other eye. Use the Patch tool

again, and if there is hair in your way just work around it or through it.

If You have Hair in the Way:

Skip the next step if your image does not have hair in the way. Just repeat the steps for the first eye brow.

My image has hair in the way - to even it out I used the Clone tool

.

Change the opacity to 10%, hold Alt, and click on a large area of plain skin (again I used the forehead). Use this tool on the eye brow a couple times to make it look like there is more skin.

Select the Spot Healing Brush

. Make sure "Sample All Layers" is NOT checked. Hold Alt and click a large area of skin again, and use it under the eye brow region to even it out like so.

Back to Healing Brush

and continue to smooth and even out, including the other eye so that they look more uniform.

Erase the harsh lines with a Smooth Round Brush to smooth it out.

Duplicate the Original Layer

Hold Shift, and click on the Manipulated Layer.

Ctrl+E to Merge Layers. Again you have the Manipulated and Original Layer.

Skin Color

The Na'vi skin has blue-green skin with purple-blue undertones. I tried to create this look by making a couple layers of color. Create a new layer and fill it in blue. I'm using color #00407f. Change the Blending Mode to Hard Light.

Create another Layer, color it Blue as well. I'm using #00819b. Change the Blending Mode to Overlay.

This will bring a light blue light to the face. Of course you can adjust the color layers if you do not like the effect. I usually use Hue/Saturation and play with it a bit.

Nose Shape

This is the hardest part because the Na'vi nose has a very unique look. Creating it depends on the angle of your picture.

The nose curves at the top, creating a little bulge if you are looking at it from the front. I have outlined the curves of the nose and how the eye brow is a little deeper than most humans. The circle is where the bulge is. Also, notice how the curves of the nose meet up with the eye. The more you study this and take the anatomy into mind, the more Na'vi-like the face and nose will be!

Duplicate the Manipulated Layer. Create a new Layer and make sure it's placed at the top of all the layers.

Select a color that is easy to see (I used Yellow) and mark the same parts of the nose and eyes as I did. The little dot under the nose is going to be where the new nose ends, eye ball this according to your references of the nose.

Click on the Manipulated Copy, go to Filer>Liquify. In the Liquify menu, locate and click on "Show Backdrop". And Change the setting to the following.

Now Change the brush settings to the following

And carefully take the dark shadows of bridge of the eyes, and move them to meet up with the Yellow marks:

Do not worry about the squished eyes.

Make the brush a bit smaller. Take the light from the center of the nose and moved it up to create a "bump". This should also deepen the brow just a little bit.

Zoom into the bottom of the nose. Change the settings as shown below:

Stretch the bottom of the nose down to the yellow dot.

Make the brush a bit smaller and stretch the nose to look more cat-like, like so:

Adjust the light from the tip of the nose so that it is down and spread out a little bit more. Move the point of the nose lower.

Click Ok. Erase the squished eyes delicately so that the eyes from the Manipulated Layer below come through. Be careful not to erase the crease we just made from the Liquify. I find turning off the blue helps.

Zoom into the nose and you will notice a little weirdness with the skin pores being stretched out.

Select the Blur tool

and blur the area for now.

Delete Yellow Layer. Select Manipulated and Manipulated Copy and Ctrl+E. Changed Layer name.

Pupil Size

Select the Pen tool

and outline the pupil

Right click in the selection and select "Make Selection…".

Click OK. Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V to copy and paste the pupil as a new Layer.

Edit>Free Transform or Ctrl+T. Select the top middle of the Reference Point Location and blow it up to 150%

Close the Free Transform Tool. Nudge the pupil so that the light spot is in the same place. Just try to make it look natural.

Repeat with the other eye. And then merge the two eye layers together.

Select the Manipulated Layer and turn the Pupils Layer off

Filter>Liquify. Uncheck "Show Backdrop" and adjust to the settings show below. The Brush Size should have a similar size relation to the eye as what I have. Select the Bloat Tool and slightly bloat the eye so that the bottom half is a little fuller, trying not to affect the upper lid.

Click OK. Turn the Pupil Layer back on. See the slight bubble on the lower lid?

Erase the excess Pupil.

Pupil Color

Duplicate the Manipulated Layer. Select the Manipulated Copy Layer, hold Shift, and select the Pupils, and both Blue Layers. Ctrl+E.

You should now have the Original image, a Non-Blue Manipulated image, and the final Manipulated image with the blue skin. I renamed the newly merged Layers to manipulatedBlue.

Still on the manipulatedBlue layer, erase the Pupil and the part of the eye ball that is in the outer corners with a Soft Round Brush. Leave the inner corner blue.

Make a New Layer, using the Paint Brush tool

and the color # fddc00, paint the Pupil yellow.

Change the Layer's Blending Mode to Overlay

Repeat for the other eye. I lowered the opacity of the yellow layer so that it isn't so saturated. Adjust the layer as you see fit.

Duplicate "manipulated" layer, and merge with manipulatedBlue and yellow Layers.

I outlined the eyes, crease, and Iris a bit with the Paint Brush (using black color) so they looked more defined.

Before

After

Still on manipulatedBlue Layer. Use Eyedropper tool to select a green color (I'm using ##095605). Select the Paint Brush tool

and change it to the settings below. Carefully paint a couple layers of color around the Iris.

Select Smudge Tool

change Strength to 60% and zig zag around the Iris like this:

Select the Burn tool

, change to the settings below and streak around the Iris.

Select the Dodge tool

, adjust the settings as follows, and make some highlights.

Still using the Dodge tool, make a few speckles in the inside corners of the eyes.

Select the Smudge Tool

, change settings to the following, stroke along the top of the bottom lid as shown below to make it bigger

Select the Dodge tool

and add highlights along the outer edge

And lastly, select the Paint Brush tool

and carefully paint in extra long lashes. This takes patience… alternatively; you can use the pen tool if you don't have a tablet.

Lips

Select the Burn tool

and slightly burn the side of the nose upwards to appear more cat-like

I also used the Clone tool with Opacity set to 10% and lightened the bottom of the nose a bit by selecting the area of skin right below the nose, and stroking along the dark areas.

Select the Burn tool

once again and change the setting that shown below. The dark streak on the nose is always right below the pointiest part of the tip.

Select the Smudge tool

smudge the streak slightly

Create a New Layer, Select the Paint Brush

and with a pink color (I'm starting with #dd23ff), paint the nose and lips

Change the Layer Blending Mode to Color. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or press Ctrl+U. Adjust the color to what looks right to you.

Lower the Layer Opacity to 75%. Select the Eraser Tool

lower the Opacity to 15% and Erase around the edges of the Pink so that it blends in more.

If the lips have lip gloss or lipstick: I suggest taking some of that shine away.

On the manipulatedBlue Layer, use the Eyedropper tool to select the color Blue used on the skin. Select the Paint Brush tool

Lower the Opacity to 12% and swipe some blue over the lips.

Select the Burn tool and with the following settings, darken the darkest area of lips (where the lips meet) to put the contrast back in.

Create a New Layer, Select the Paint Brush Tool, lower its Opacity and paint the lips where the light hits the outer edges with White

Lower the Layer Opacity and Fill. Use the Smudge tool to smudge along the contours until you reach a desired look. Change the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay

On the manipulayedBlue Layer, select the Dodge tool and put in just a couple of little highlights.

Select the burn tool, and with the settings below, darken some of the creases in the lips if you want more contrast.

(I changed my skin tone slightly while I was working. I did this by going to Hue/Saturation)

Select the Lasso tool and select the lips

Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels or hit Ctrl+L and adjust the contrast slightly.

Nose Tip

Select the Burn Tool, make a crease in the center of the nose. Also burn the bottom of the nose to deepen it.

Use the Dodge tool at a low opacity to make little highlights on each side of the crease. I made more detail with Clone Tool as well.

Create a New Layer. Select the Paint Brush tool. Locate the Skin Brushes you loaded earlier and select the one that says "330". Lower the Opacity to 50%, Select a dark blue color (I'm using # 08213e) and click once on each side of the nose.

Erase everywhere except for where the pink is.

Make a New Layer, select Paint Brush tool. Locate the Skin Brushes and select the fourth one. With a Light Blue color (I'm using #008fff) click once on the nose.

Erase everything but the pink.

Carefully erase around the outsides of the nose so there are more speckles towards the front of the nose.

Continue to mess with the nose until you are satisfied. I went back to manipulatedBlue and used the Burn tool to make nose a bit deeper.

Go back to the Nose1 Layer (the DARK spots) and change the Blending to Overlay

Adjust both the Nose layers until you arrive at a look that seems natural. Select the Smudge tool and with these settings, define the nose if you need to.

Keep adjusting until you find a look that you agree with.

Face

There are several ways of handling this. I prefer contrast, and enjoy using the shiny skin of the Na'vi in all my manipulations. Their skin is smooth and slick… reflecting a little more light than the human face.

Duplicate the manipulatedBlue layer. Leave the rest of the layers as they are in case you want to change them later.

Select the Dodge tool, and with the settings below, put in highlights where the light touches reflects off the face. Adjusting brush sizes for the area your working on.

Create a New Layer. Locate the Skin Brush that says "330" and with White or a very light blue color, cover the whole face.

Erase Extra. Leave just enough to make it look like the skin sparkles when being hit by the light.

Using the Burn too with the following settings, go in and contour the face a bit. Make sure the sides of the nose are dark enough to suggest a bump.

Eye Brows (Na'vi Style)

Remember that the Na'vi have very organic features. The eye brows taper at the ends, so no matter what your original eye brow shape is, try to keep in mind that the end should probably be pointy.

Create a New Layer. Turn off the "Blue" layers. Use the Pen tool to trace the Eye Brows. When the paths are both closed, right click and select "Make Path". Accept the default settings.

Turn the "Blue" Layers back on. Change the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. Fill in the selections with a light blue (I'm using #8c9aed)

Open Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or hit Ctrl+U and edit the Hue/Saturation to make them a dark blue

Press OK. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select one Eye Brow and move it up to where it would naturally be.

Repeat for other side.

Select the Smudge tool and with the settings below smudge along the outline of the eyebrows as seen in this example:

(This is how I move my brush while smudging)

Optional: I made a color adjustment for the eye brows.

Face Stripes

Create a New Layer. Change the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. Select the Pen Tool. Start making stripes on the face. Following the contours of the face, and make the stripes slightly longer than the hair line.

I put a guide in the middle of the face so I knew where to stop. To do this go to View>New Guide. Click on Vertical. Click Ok. Look to the LEFT and drag the guide to the center of the face.

Still using the Pen Tool, Right Click>Make Selection. Fill in the selection with a light blue (I used #7686b9).

Deselect. Open Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or hit Ctrl+U and edit the Hue/Saturation to make them closer to the skin color, only a little darker.

Repeat the Smudging Technique used on the Eyebrows.

The Na'vi Stripes are not completely opaque. They are darker on the edges than they are in the center. Select the Eraser tool and with the setting below, carefully erase through the middle of each stripe, starting at the ends closer to the center of the face. I do not recommend erasing parts of the middle head stripe yet.

Optional: I changed the Hue/Saturation of the stripes a few times. Here are the changes I made.

If you are unhappy with the shape of your stripes you can easily change them by using liquify.

Duplicate the Strips either by selecting them, copy and pasting, or by duplicating the layer itself. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Move the Flipped stripes over to the other side of the face.

If you have a guide still up, go to View>Clear Guides. If there is a break in between your stripes, nudge the seconds Stripe layer towards the other until thy meet.

If you have two "Stripe" layers, select one, hold shift, and select the color. Go to Layer>Merge Layers or Ctrl+E to merge the "Stripe" layers. Adjust their blending mode back to Overlay.

Select the Eraser tool and with the following settings, use the same Eraser method from earlier on the middle section.

Select the Burn tool and with the settings below, Burn the stripes where the shadow falls so they blend in better.

Glow Dots

Duplicate manipulatedBlue2.

Select the Dodge tool. Click on the Brushes Icon

and adjust the tool to the settings shown:

Use the Brush settings below. Use varying degrees of pressure. If you mess up, you can just erase the dots you don't want and the manipulatedBlue2 layer will show underneath.

Body

Repeat the process used for the face stripes. The body stripes are larger and require a bit of creativity when dealing with the size shape. The one's I'm making are very basic.

You need the color of the face stripes. Go to the Stripes Layer, change the opacity to "Normal" and use the Eye Dropper where the color is the most opaque or the darkest.

Restore the Layer Opacity to Overlay.

Create a New Layer. Change its Opacity to Overlay. Select the Pen tool, make stripes the same way you did for the face.

Right Click>Make Selection. Click Ok. Fill in the Lines with the color we selected earlier.

Deselect. Select the Smudge tool and smudge along the lines. Here is an Example of how I move my brush:

Select the Eraser Tool and erase like you did earlier.

Duplicate the stripes. Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal.

Merge the two Body Stripes layers.

Erase the stripes where the hair is covering the body.

Change layer Blending Mode back to Overlay. Select the Burn tool and burn the stripes where the shadows hit to make them blend in more.

If you are unhappy with the shape of the stripes, again, you can use the Liquify tool to move them around as I did.

Use the Burn tool on the stripes where the shadow hits to make them blend in more.

Return to the glowDots Layer.

Select the Dodge tool. Click on the Brushes Icon

and adjust the tool to the settings shown:

Use the Brush settings below. Adjust the Brush size as you go along, varying the size of the dots. This is made easy clicking [ to make the brush smaller, or ] to make it larger.

If you mess up, you can just erase the dots you don't want and the manipulatedBlue2 layer will show underneath.

Duplicate manipulatedBlue2 layer and merge the Duplicate with glowDots. If you erased anything on the glowDots layer, this guarantees no empty space in the images.

Neck

Na'vi have very long necks. You can change the length in a number of ways. I used the Liquify tool to push the shoulders down in this image. Brush Density and Pressure should be 100% and make the brush size relative to the figure as I have done. Pull straight down.

Background

I like using backgrounds from Avatar concept art, for screen grabs from trailers. However, you could easily use stock images of jungles.

Find your image.

Paste it into your file.

Stretch it out enough to cover the empty space. I changed the Blending Mode to Multiply so I could see where the figure was.

Move the Layer behind the glowDots layer.

Erase the empty space by using the Pen Tool to outline, select, and then delete the empty areas… or do it by hand.

Select the Background. Go to Image>Adjusments>Color Balance or Ctrl+B. I like the backgrounds to be more blue/purple in color.

Press OK. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or Ctrl+U and made it look more like nighttime… if that's the look you're going for.

Use the Burn tool with the settings below and burn around the figure

Click on the glowDots layer (the image that we erased the background from) and burn around the image.

I burned the background a little bit more.

Ear

There are a couple of tutorials on the internet that tell you how to turn your own ear into a Na'vi ear. Personally, I prefer to use ears from official images.

Find a picture that shows most of the ear. You need a very large, high quality image.

Select the Pen tool, and outline the ear precisely.

Copy, and paste the ear into your file.

Open the Free Transform tool and adjust the ear.

The ears are extremely difficult to figure out. Below I have showed the flow of how the ears are placed. Where the lines taper off towards the right side of the face, is where the tip of the ear should be. Look at as many Na'vi images as you can and decide where you feel the ear would look best.

Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and adjust the color to match the skin tone.

Erase the edge so that it blends in with the hair.

Burn the ear to adjust the amount of light that hits it.

Copy/Paste and Flip Vertical

Image>Adjutments>Hue/Saturation to adjust as you see fit.

Merge the two ear layers.

Hair

You can keep your natural hair, find some braided hair on the internet, or integrate some braids and feathers into your regular hair. Make your Na'vi unique!

Select the Clone tool, hold Alt and click on an area of hair. Use the tool to clone away any bits of the original ear.

Create a New Layer and Change its Blending Mode to Color. Select the Paint Brush tool, and with the settings below, paint over the hair with a foreground color of Black.