Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Today, I'm going to show you how to create the look of the computer screen
in the movie, "The Matrix" and how to embed a face into it.
If you're working on Windows, open "Notepad" or if you're on a Mac, open a similar text
editor like “TextEdit” or “BBEdit”.
Drag any random image into your text editor.
After a few moments, it should fill with random characters. We want to find a huge block of
text that doesn't have a lot of space between characters.
Click to the left of a character,
scroll down and when you have approximately this much of text, Shift-click to the right
of a character to highlight the block of text. Press Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it.
Minimize the text editor and open Photoshop.
Create a new document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + N.
Make the Width: 1550 pixels, the Height: 870 pixels and the Resolution: 150 pixels per
inch. The Color Mode is RGB and 8 bits per Channel. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Press Shift and the F5 key at the top of your keyboard to open the "Fill" window.
Open "Contents" and click "Black". Then, click OK.
Open your "Vertical Type Tool". Open your list of fonts
or if already know the name of the font that you want to use, just type it in. I'm using
"Benegraphic Regular". If you'd like to use it, I provided its link in the video's description
of projects files. Make its size: 6 points, the Anti-aliasing: "None" and left alignment.
Click the color box and in the hexadecimal field, type in: 00FF0C.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Place your cursor at the top, left corner of your document and
drag a text box to the lower, right corner.
Go to Window and Character.
The Character panel will open.
Make sure the Vertical and Horizontal scales are 100% and the "Baseline
Shift" is 0 points. Make the "Leading": 6 points. Leading is the amount of
space between lines of text. In the "Tracking" field, click: 0. Tracking is the amount of
space between characters. It's also known as,"kerning".
Go to the top, left corner and press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste your text into your document.
Then, click the checkmark to accept it.
Make a copy of your text by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. It may take Photoshop
a minute to process. Make the Leading: 10 points. Again, Photoshop
may need some time to process it. Make the Tracking also 10.
Make another copy of your text and this time,
make the Leading: 14
and the Tracking: 25.
Once it processes, we can close the Character panel.
Next, we'll give our text depth.
Click the Layer Mask icon
to make a layer mask next to the top, text layer. Go to Filter, Render and Clouds.
Make the middle text layer active
and place a layer mask next to it. Repeat the last filter, which
is the Cloud filter, by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + F.
We'll darken the midtones of this layer mask to give our image a bit more depth.
To do this, open your Levels window by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + L. Drag the Input Midtone slider to the right approximately this much. Then, click OK.
Next, we'll add random depth by opening your Brush Tool
and Brush Picker.
Make the Size approximately 150 pixels and the Hardness: 0%. The Opacity and Flow are
!00%. Make sure Black is your foreground color and then, randomly brush over your image to
mask out more areas of the layer mask. Click the top layer mask to make it active and brush
over your image again to mask out areas from this layer mask. We're going to copy the 3
top layers. To do this, Shift-click on the bottom text layer to highlight all of them
and press Ctrl or Cmd + J to copy them. Merge the copies into one layer by pressing Ctrl
or Cmd + E. Now drag the merged layer below the original layers. Let's rename it. Double-click
the characters and press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select the name. Type in "Motion Blur".
Go to Filter, Blur and Motion Blur.
Make the Angle: 90 degrees and the Distance: 20 pixels.
Uncheck and check "Preview" to see
your image without and with the effect.
We're ready to add a face to the Matrix screen.
First, make a composite snapshot of our image. To do this, make your top layer active and
press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E on Windows or Cmd + Shift + Option + E on a Mac.
We'll rename the layer, "comp snapshot".
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to embed into the Matrix.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.com. Press Ctrl of Cmd + 0 to fit it onto your
canvas. We want to make a selection just around the head. For this example, I'll use the Quick
Selection Tool. I'm using a size of 10 pixels, however, if you're using this tool as well,
you may want to adjust this amount depending on the size and resolution of your image.
Drag your tool over your subject's head.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Click the Refine Edge button or go
to Select and "Refine Edge". I did an in-depth tutorial on Refine Edge, so if you're not
familiar with this feature, you should watch that tutorial. I placed its link in the video's
description. Drag the Radius to the right and check "Smart Radius". Brush over the hair
and output it as a "New Layer".
Remove all its color
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + U.
To adjust its brightness and contrast, open your Levels window by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L.
Slide the Output Shadow to where the histogram starts to rise and do the same
for the Input Highlight.
To place it into your other document, press "v" to open your Move Tool
and drag it onto the tab of the Matrix image. Without releasing your computer mouse
or pen, drag it down onto your image and release. To resize and position the head, open your
Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. If your subject is too large to see it entirely,
press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 to see the Transform's entire bounding box. Go to a corner and when
you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it
in or out. The result will look best if the size of the head is large. Drag it to the
center and resize it if you need to. Then, press Enter or Return and fit it back onto
your canvas. Next, we'll save the head as a displacement map, thereby making the text look like
its wrapping itself around the head. Go to File and "Save As". Save it to your Desktop.
For its name, type in "Displacement", save it as a Photoshop PSD file and check "As a
Copy". Then, click "Save".
If you see this message, click OK. Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail of the head
to make a selection of its shape. Click off the eyeball next to the head to hide the layer.
Make the composite snapshot active
and go to Filter, Distort and "Displace".
Make the Horizontal and Vertical Scales: 10, "Stretch to Fit and "Repeat Edge
Pixels". Then, click OK.
Click the "Displacement" document and click "Open".
Notice inside the selection, the Matrix text became distorted.
To deselect it, press Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Make the head visible
and active.
Change its Blend Mode to "Soft Light".
Make two copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J, twice
and change the blend mode of the top copy to "Overlay".
Next, we'll make the head more discernable. Make the composite snapshot active and click
the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to it.
Go to Filter, Render and Clouds.
This Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!