Photoshop tutorial 005.

PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL 005
Create a Zombie.
I have a quite big list of requests now, so let's start with those, and let's make a Zombie, but not a pretty girly-like zombie - we will make a horrific, gore and bloody meat eater. I chose an image of Angelina Jolie, but you can pick whomever you want. To create such an image, I used quite a lot of stock: overlays and wounds. You can always create your own wounds, but the easiest way is to use stock images. I will share the ones I used, no worries. I also used brushes for blood, however I do not recall the exact place where I got them from, but I will try to find them and post a link to them.



Let's start, shall we? Open your image in PhotoShop and create a double layer of the original. At first, we will need to make the skin look somewhat greenish slash desaturated, because the model should look dead, so using the second layer we just created, open Color Balance: Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance, and play around in there, to make look the skin somewhat green (not too green, we are not creating an alien). After which, go into Hue/Saturation (it's just above Color Balance) and move the Saturation line slightly to the left, just enough for the skin to look pale and give away the sensation of the person to be dead, because the skin turns grey after death, but the one of Zombies has that greenish contrast, that we desire to reproduce. Once you have what you wanted, select the Eraser Tool and erase everything but the skin (in the end, only the skin must remain). Since we have our original layer beneath, it's like we only changed the colour of the skin (be sure to erase the hair also). That's what I got after that step:



Now, let's take care of the eyes. As you know, Zombies have empty soulless look to them, so that's what we will do to our image. Cut out the eyes of the layer using Lasso Tool (select them and then do CTRL + J), and then using Curves and Selective Color, make the eyes look whitish, after which, remove the light reflections in them with Clone Stamp Tool.
There, we have the base. Now we need to make the model look bloody and gore, and for that, we will need overlays, stock images and brushes. I will gladly provide the overlays and stock images I used to do it:
OVERLAY 1 | OVERLAY 2
STOCK 1 | STOCK 2
The overlay 1 image was used by me to give that veiny look to the skin, even though the image itself is of cracks, and the overlay 2 is the image I used for the skin wound on the arm. It's quite easy to work with that; just place the images in the file you're in, above all the layers, and just play around with the Blending Modes. For the overlay 1, I used the Soft Light blending mode, and that's what I got:



Same goes to the Overlay 2 image, but I used there the Linear Light blending more, with 80% of opacity and I changed the colour of the overlay, adding more red to it. That's what I got:



We already have quite the effect, do we not? But let's proceed to the blood and wounds. Open the Stock 1 and Stock 2 images that I have provided. As you can see, the Stock 1 is an image of a serious cheek wound, and the Stock 2 is an image of a bruise. You can apply them using the same steps as for the Overlays. The Cheek Wound required more editing, because you need to erase parts so it would fit your manipulation, set it to Soft Light blending mode, then I duplicated the stock image, and set the opacity of the second one to 37%. As for the bruise, you can apply it anywhere you desire, however I thought it looked good on the forehead, using the Darken blending mode, with 86% of opacity. And that's what I got out of it:



Play around with the blending modes, with the contrasts and colours, because every image is different and for each one of them, you would need to edit the overlays and the stocks for them to fit the picture. That's how it is, and that's how it always will be.
I thought that the face needed some blood spatter, so I used one of my brushes to do it. I do not recall where I got them from, but I shall find them and post links to them. Meanwhile, use one of your own, or download one from one of the resource websites. I tutorial about blood effect was also requested, but while I do not have one up yet, I will simply advice you to use brushes, and also play in the blending mode with them.
Almost everything is ready, but when we look at the image, we can see that something is missing, something is not right, and I'll tell you what - look at the teeth. How often did you see a decomposing Zombie having such perfect white teeth? Never, I would say. So, we need to change that. Zoom in on the teeth, create a new empty layer and select the Brush Tool. Choosing the #846d4f colour, paint over the teeth (on top and near the lip at the bottom), then apply the Color Burn blending mode with 86% of opacity, to have that dirty look to them.



Now we have the image more of less ready to be posted, but it's not looking natural just yet. Flatten all the layers, and open the Curves window, to make the image darker and raise the contrast:



After which, go into Selective Color, and do the following:





You have your Zombie manipulation done and ready. Mine looks slightly different, because I also applied the Paint Daubs in the end, to enlighten the details, but that's not necessary.
[!]: If you're not quite pleased with the outcome, and your image does not look scary, then using the Burn Tool and the Sponge Tool, work around the eyes (making them darker), and the cheeks and forehead (making them more desaturated).


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Written on Tuesday 16 October 2012 at 08:02 by DefyingxMars