| Step 15:
Building a Background - Artistic |
 |
Solid backgrounds are fine for some things, but can be pretty boring.
Let's take a look at how to add in a slightly more artistic background. Keep
in mind as you go through this that there are literally thousands of
different methods in Photoshop for creating unique, artistic style backgrounds
- what
follows is one method. We do not have the time
to cover more techniques, so you are encouraged to experiment with Photoshop's tools on
your own time (notice it says 'on your own time', which translates into 'not
during class') to discover more methods.
In this step we will use
two colors to create a patterned background (take a look at the graphic at the
bottom of the page to see what I mean and then scroll back up here..........are you back? I know, cool isn't it?). You first need to choose what two colors
you will be working with. You can pretty much use any two colors you want, but
it is helpful if they go well together. We will begin by selecting one of the
colors...
- Open the Cartoon file (be sure you are NOT
working with any other files - once you have saved them do not open
them again)
- Select the first color you want to use
using the Set foreground color box (just as with the solid background you can
use the same
colors as me, but I prefer you choose colors you like; note that you can choose black if you
really want to, but keep in mind that Dogman has a black outline and you will
loose a great deal of detail and beauty by choosing black)
- Select the Background layer (if you do
not have a good background layer any more, you can simply create a new
layer behind everything and call it Background)
- Use the Paint Bucket Tool (it's the button
that looks like a paint bucket) and click anywhere in the background layer to
turn the entire layer the color you have chosen
- Create a new layer just above your Background
layer and name it Background 2
- Change the foreground color to your second
color (keep the note about copying my colors and choosing black on direction 2 in mind here as well)
- Fill the Background 2 layer with your
second color
- We now need to add a mask for the Background 2 layer
so that we will be able to see both layers at the same time
- Select the Background 2 layer
- Click Layer on the menu bar then point at Layer Mask
then click Reveal All.
Take a second to check out what is going on with your layer tab. Notice that the
Background 2 layer has changed (see the graphic below).
You should see that it now contains 2 little color blocks, one with the
color you filled (which is the red box in the example graphic above) and
one that is white (the little box just to the right of the red box above), which indicates that a mask is being used.
Masks allow us to create really cool, complex, multilayered images. Mask
layers can be used to modify other layers, or just part of another layer, or can
be blended together with other layers (which is what we are doing). Back to the
layer palette: notice that there
is a funny looking little squiggly thing between the boxes (it is supposed to be
a link of chain) which indicates that the boxes are connected. Having them
linked means that when we do things to one of the thumbnails it will also happen
to the other one. We only want to make changes to the mask, so we need to turn
off the link...
- Click on the link icon between the 2 little
color blocks on the Background 2 layer to make the chain link disappear
We can work with either the layer color or the mask (we can tell which one
we are working with because it will have a white outline around it when it is
selected - take a look at the graphic above and notice that the mask thumbnail
has a white outline around it because that is the one that is currently selected). We want to work with the mask for what we are about
to do...
- If it is not already selected, click on the mask thumbnail on the
Background 2 layer
- Click Filter on the menu bar then click Noise then
click Add Noise... to get the following window...
- Move the amount slider all the way to the
right so that it reads 400% and leave all the other options in the
window alone
- Click OK
The mask layer should now be really speckled (see graphic below - remember, you
should have different colors than mine). 
Not exactly what we want - let's keep editing him...
- Click Filter on the menu bar then click Blur and
then click
Gaussian Blur to get the following window...
Gaussian Blur tends to make images appear softer or slightly out of
focus
- The radius of this blur determines the size
of the splotches, so choose a radius that you are happy with (a low number
will create many small splotches while a high number will create few, large
splotches; a radius of between 2 and 3 tends to work best, but choose one you
like)
- Click OK
The two colors are now blended together pretty well (see graphic below), too well in fact.
We can
adjust this to separate them out a little...
- Click Image on the menu bar then click Adjustments
then click Levels
- Move the far left and far right arrows on the
Input
level indicator in so that they are on each side of the large spike in the
graph (see the image below - DO NOT just type in the
numbers in the graphic below as your peak is likely in a different place than
mine and you will have to make different adjustments)
- Click OK
Your colors should now be bolder (see image below)
We now want to give our background a sense of movement, so we will apply a
blur...
- Click Filter on the menu bar then click Blur then
click Radial Blur to get the following window...
- Experiment with the Amount setting to find the Blur
you are happiest with - an amount between 10 and 20 seems to
work best, but choose one you like
- Change the Blur Method to Zoom - this
will give us a rotational blur but will also make it look as though our Catgirl
has been quickly shifted forward or backward
- Change the Quality to Best
- Click OK
The
Radial Blur feature tends to blur our beautiful background a little too much (see
graphic below).
We can use the same Levels adjustment as we did earlier to fix this...
- Click Image on the menu bar then click Adjustments
then click Levels
- Move the arrows on the Input level
indicator in just as you did before (see the image below - again, do not just
type in the numbers below but move the arrows based on where your spike is
located)
you should notice that the colors turn bolder
- Click OK
When you have reached this point, you should have a background something like
the one in the image below...
Don't panic if your background does not look exactly like mine - you should
have chosen your own colors and you will not have made the exact same
adjustments as I did, so there will be some differences and that is OK, but you should have a
somewhat similar image.
You will need to save this as a separate file so that you can return to
your original Cartoon file and create the next background...
- Click File
- Click Save As... [be sure the Format:
box reads: Photoshop (*.PSD;*.PDD)]
- Surf to your Cartoon folder within your
main folder
- Go into the Background folder within your
Cartoon folder
- Name the file Artistic (be sure you
name it correctly - if you name it wrong you will loose points!)
- Click Save
- Close the Artistic file
- Remember NOT to work with this file in
the future - it should be left with the artistic background - when
you move on to Step 16 you will need to open the Cartoon file back
up and continue working with it
Now move on to the next step...