Hi there, this is Unmesh from PiXimperfect and today we're going to explore the amazing
power of Gradient Mask to create a vibrant action comic look in five simple steps with
Photoshop.
So without any further ado, let's get started.
So here we are back in the brilliant world of Photoshop and the images that we're going
to use today are super stunning.
I actually personally purchased them from Shutterstock.
So if you wish to download the high resolution version, you can license it using the link
in the description.
Or if you just want to practice, you can always download the free version which is a little
low resolution, watermarked, but it's good for practice.
So, let's get started.
So here we have a picture of a female Cyborg which is super cool and step number one is
simply removing the background.
In this case, it's just white.
So with the Magic Wand tool selected right there, just click on the outside.
Make sure the Tolerance is low enough so that the inside bright areas are not selected.
Make sure Contiguous is checked.
Click to make a selection of the outside.
Now have a look, these areas are left out.
Hold the Shift key, click on it to select the inside white areas as well.
Have a closer look, this area is left out.
Hold the Shift key, click on it again and this time as well, on the inside.
Just make sure none of the areas are left out.
I can see that this area is left out.
So hold the Shift key, click on it again.
This is pretty okay, hold the Shift key, click on it again.
But, once I make a selection here, the inside bright area is also being selected.
What do I do?
Simply decrease the Tolerance.
This time let's set it to 5.
Hold the Shift key, click on it again.
5 is kind of too much again.
Let's set it to 1.
Hold the Shift key, click on it again.
This is great.
Hold the Shift key, click on in here again.
Not working well.
So what do we do?
Select the Quick Selection tool.
With the Quick Selection tool, the default is always plus, so you don't have to hold
the Shift key.
Just add this area.
Have a look how accurate this is.
So, most of the outside is selected.
We needed to select the inside.
What do we do now?
Let's Invert the selection.
Press Ctrl + Shift + I / Command + Shift + I to invert the selection.
Then click on the Mask button.
This will mask out the background.
Step number two is add the new background.
Simple.
So here we are in an Explorer or Finder, and the background that we have is in a vector
format.
No problem, Photoshop can support it.
So just drag it and drop it into Photoshop over the female Cyborg, just like this.
Now let's adjust it.
Hold the Alt key or the Option key and the Shift key together to make it larger from
the center.
If you're using Photoshop CC 2019, just hold the Alt key or the Option key.
All right, there we go.
Hit Enter or Return.
Now the background should be at the background, right, not in the front, and that's why it's
called the background.
So just drag it and drop it under the subject.
This is looking perfect.
All we need to do now before adding colors is softening up the details.
And that's step number three - remove the details.
Have a look, there's a lot of details ,right, textures and the robot.
And this won't look good in a comic book kind of look.
So here's how to blur it out without blurring these edges.
Surface Blur.
Now we cannot just apply Surface Blur like this.
You know why?
Have a look, it will also be applied to the mask and we don't want to disturb the mask.
So, first we need to unlink the mask.
Click on that link.
Now this is unlinked.
Now the mask will not be affected.
Make sure that the layer thumbnail is selected, not the mask right here.
And then let's go to Filter - Blur and then Surface Blur at the bottom.
Take the Threshold all the way to the right, take the Radius all the way to the left and
slowly and gradually increase the Radius and stop at the point where the details are gone.
So I'm just going to go for about 25.
And then once you have decided upon the Radius, let's decrease the Threshold.
This will bring the edges back.
I've tested in this image.
So I'm going to go for about six, hit OK.
All these details right here are subtly gone.
Here's the before, here's the after.
Pretty nice.
Coming to step number four, which is the most exciting step and that is adding the colors.
Now we need to add colors separately to the background and the subject and we're going
to do that by using Gradient Maps.
Click on the Adjustment layer icon and then choose Gradient Map.
Now, Gradient Map maps the colors of the highlights, mid tones and the shadows.
It maps colors according to the brightness levels.
So, on the right hand side, right here, there is white.
So the highlights are mapped to white and the shadows are mapped to black because black
is on the left hand side.
Okay.
So we can actually change this color to anything.
So, we can set the highlights to red and the shadows to something else, you get the point.
Now, I have sampled some colors from a comic book and I have placed the sampled colors
right here.
So I'm just going to bring in, I'm just going to copy this layer and I'm going to paste
it right there.
So we're going to keep the bright areas to yellow, the mid tones to orange and the shadows
to this color, I think it's dark purple, something like that.
So, let's zoom in right here and go back to the Gradient Map.
Click on the symbol, the Properties are right here, click on the Gradient to open up the
Gradient Editor, and for the highlights, just click on the right hand slider at the bottom,
select the color and sample this color at the top.
Hit OK.
For the shadows, we're going to click on right here, click on Color and sample the dark color.
Make sure Sample - All Layers is selected, otherwise it won't sample.
All right, hit OK.
And for the mid, click on the color, select this.
Now, it doesn't look right.
Something is amiss.
We need to make the color separation a little bit not so smooth.
Am I making sense?
Have a look at the colors.
They're blended together so well.
We need to make it a little harsh.
So click on the Yellow slider and click on in here again to bring up another Yellow slider.
Click on the Orange slider, click on in here to bring up another Orange slider.
Click on this dark color slider.
Click one more time.
So now we have two sliders of each.
Now we can bring them together to make it harsh.
You can also make a harsh comic kind of look, something like this, if you wish to, if you're
interested in that kind of stuff.
But we're going to keep it a little soft.
Although this is looking pretty good, I think we can add one more color to it.
So let's take this yellow to the left.
What if we add white on the highlights a little bit?
Click to add one more slider right there and set the color.
Click on the color and set it to White.
Now have a look at the highlights.
Isn't that fantastic?
Now we can control the highlights by using the slider again.
How much of it you want and how you want to add it - how soft do you want it, how harsh
you want it.
So, I'm going to keep it at that, hit OK and have a look.
Isn't that amazing?
Now you can also change the color of the background to something similar to go with the color
schemes.
So we can make one more copy of the Gradient Map.
With the Gradient Map selected, press Ctrl or Command + J. And this one, you bring it
below the subject, right there.
Now, it's not going well with the background.
We need to make some adjustments of course.
Make sure you select the symbol and only then make the adjustments.
Click on the Gradient and we will take away the white.
We will take away these and make a very smooth gradient.
What do you think of this?
This is pretty good.
Let's add white and see how it will look.
On the right hand side, let's add white.
Wow.
Now that's looking good.
Adjust it accordingly.
On the left hand side, we will also try adding the dark color here as well, see how it will
look.
Let's sample this dark color again.
There you go, it's not bad.
Once you're satisfied, just hit OK.
So this brings us to the final and the most simplest step, which is simply adding a stroke.
That's it.
So we need to make a selection of the subject, there already is, hold the Ctrl or Command,
click on the mask.
There is now a selection around the subject, and we need to place the stroke at the top.
Create a layer at the top.
We can actually delete this layer of the sampled colors.
And you can actually name this Stroke, right.
And all you gotta do is to go to Edit and then Stroke, self explanatory.
Let's add a stroke of Width 50 pixels.
Let's see how it is.
Hit OK.
It's kind of too much.
Let's go back, press Ctrl or Command + Z, Edit - Stroke.
This time, let's go for 20 pixels.
And we want the stroke on the outside, right?
Click outside.
Not on the inside of the selection, the outside of the selection.
Hit OK, and there you have it.
Press Ctrl or Command + D to deselect.
You can also change the color of the stroke by simply double clicking on the right hand
side of the layer.
This opens up the Layer Styles dialogue box and then just check Color Overlay - Blend
Mode - Normal.
You can click on this box to change the color to anything you like.
You can also keep it to the dark color on the robot, so you can also sample this color
and keep that color, keep the same color as well.
Once you're satisfied, hit OK.
And here we are, the final result.
So all you have to keep in mind is that the Gradient Maps Adjustment maps the color according
to the brightness levels.
So, the right hand side represents the highlights and the left hand side represents the shadows
in the Gradient bar.
If you place a color on the right hand side, it will be applied to the highlights, if you
place a color on the left hand side, it will be applied to the shadows, if you place it
in the middle, it will be applied to the mid tones.
You can always adjust the position of the color, you get the point.
I hope this video helped you and if it did, make sure to give us a like and also don't
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Thank you for watching.
I'll see you guys in my next one.
Until then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.