Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to design and create a 1970's, vintage, New Wave, Punk-Rock poster.
I provided this aged, stained paper texture background for you to download.
Its link is in my video's description below the video or in my project files.
I also included a link to a folder containing 7 New Wave-style fonts that you can use in your design.
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
The first step is to make a selection around your subject, so we can separate it from its background.
For this image, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
Starting in the release of 21.0.1 of CC 2020, Adobe introduced an automatic way to select
your subject by clicking the "Select Subject" button.
It does a pretty good job, however, you still may have to use your quick selection tool
to correct some areas it may have missed.
Drag the tool inside your subject to select it.
To remove areas outside your subject, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
To check the selection, press "Q" on your keyboard to see it as a quick mask.
Press "Q" again to revert it back into a selection.
We won’t be refining its edges, since the characteristics of New Wave, punk-rock
are essentially, unrefined and raw.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
We'll convert our subject into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right and click "Convert to Smart Object".
We'll place it onto the paper texture background by pressing "v" to open our Move Tool and
dragging it onto the tab of the paper texture document.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To resize and position your subject, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
If you can't see the entire Transform's bounding box, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0
to fit it onto your canvas.
Go to a corner.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2019, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift
as you drag it in or out.
If you're using CC 2019 or later, just press Alt or Option as you drag it.
To reposition it, go inside the bounding box and drag your image or, in this case, since
I just want to slide my subject down, I'll press the "Down" arrow on my keyboard.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To fit the document back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 or you can zoom in incrementally
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the plus key on your keyboard.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Sketch folder and click "Halftone Pattern".
Make the Pattern Type: Dot, the Size: 2 and the Contrast: 30.
Change its Blend Mode to “Darken”.
Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Double-click "Filter Gallery" to open it.
Hide "Halftone Pattern" and click "Photocopy".
Make it visible.
Make the Detail: 2 and the Darkness: 50.
Reduce its opacity to 50%.
Let's save some space in the Layers panel by grouping the layers that comprise our subject into a folder.
To do this, Shift-click the bottom subject to make it active, as well
and press Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name it, "Subject".
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and Type Picker.
As I mentioned, I provided links to 7 retro, New Wave-style fonts that you can use, however,
feel free to pick whatever fonts you want.
For the most prominent font in y poster, I'll pick, "Impact Label Regular".
I'll make its size 70 points, but again, feel free to adjust its size based on the font
you choose and the amount of characters in your text.
I'll make the aliasing smooth and center alignment.
Click on your document and type out your text.
To adjust the space between 2 characters, known as "kerning", click between those characters
and press and hold Alt or Option and the left or right arrow key on your keyboard.
To reposition your text, open your Move Tool and move it.
To resize it, open your Transform Tool.
I'd like to hide the text behind my subject's head.
Now normally, I would just place the text under the subject in the Layers panel, but
because my subject's blend mode makes its lightest tones transparent, I'll need to create
an inverted layer mask of the subject next to my text.
To do this, I'll open the Subject folder and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of either
of the 2 subject layers to make a selection of its shape.
I'll click the text to make it active.
To create an inverted layer mask of the selection, I'll press Alt or Option as I click the Layer Mask icon.
Think of layer masks as stencils.
Black masks out, while white reveals.
Close the Subject's folder.
Note, the text layer is still active.
Place it into a folder and name it, "Text".
All of the text that we'll be adding to this poster, will go into this folder.
Press "T" to open back your Type Tool and click on your document.
Reduce its size by dragging the Type icon to the left.
For the font of this New Wave artist, I'll pick "Still Time Regular".
You can reposition it by placing your cursor next to the text and dragging it.
Type out your text.
You can also reposition it by using your Move Tool.
You can angle it and adjust its size with your Transform Tool.
Press "T" to open back your Type Tool and click on your document.
I'll choose my next font and type out my text.
If you type two lines and want to adjust the space between the lines, click the Character/Paragraph
icon or go to Window and "Character".
Double-click the text layer to highlight it and drag the "Baseline Shift" icon to the
left or right until the space between the lines looks good.
Feel free to change a character from upper to lower case and vice-versa.
I'll click back on my Move Tool and open the Transform Tool to rotate my text.
Continue to add the remainder of your text using the same steps.
If text overlaps your subject and you want to change the color of that text,
double-click the large "T" of the layer that corresponds to the text.
Click the color box.
I'll use the same color as the paper background by clicking on the paper.
Open back your Move Tool and close the Character/ Paragraph panels.
If you have other text that overlaps your subject, but that you don't want to change
its color, you can make that text more visible by brushing a stroke of color under that text.
Make the overlapping text active.
We'll create a new layer under it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd as you click the New Layer icon.
I'll name it, "Brush Stroke".
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
I provided a custom brush that you can download to create the brush stroke, which we'll use again later.
If you're not sure how to install brushes, watch my tutorial showing you how to do it.
It's link is in my video's description.
We'll adjust its size in a moment.
Its opacity and Flow should be 100%.
Click your foreground color and click the paper background to pick up its color.
To adjust the brush size, make sure your CapsLock key is off
and press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Then, brush across.
Next, we'll weather the subject and the text.
Scroll to the text folder, close it and double-click the layer to open the Layer Style window.
I'll move it over, so we can see the poster.
In the "Blend If" section, there are two sliding bars: "This Layer" and the "Underlying Layer".
I did many tutorials explaining how "Blend If" works.
Basically, it blends layers using their luminosity to determine how much or how little they'll
show through each other.
"This Layer" affects the layer we currently have selected in the Layers panel, which in
this case is our Text folder.
The "Underlying Layer" affects all the layers below the text.
For this example, we'll smooth out the blending by going to the white Underlying Layer slider
and Alt-click or Option-click the middle of it.
This splits it in two.
Drag the left and right halves across individually until you find just the right amount of background
that appears through your text.
Open the Subject folder and make the bottom subject active.
Double-click an empty area of that layer to open its Layer Style window.
As before, go to the white slider of the Underlying Layer and Alt-click or Option click it.
I'll drag the left half to 206 and the right half to 244,
however, feel free to adjust the amounts to get the right balance for your subject.
I noticed in the light-colored text, the paper nor the subject showed through it.
That’s because the “Blend If” in the folder was adjusted to the black text.
Before we adjust the light-colored text, lets close the Subject folder.
I’ll open the Text folder and drag the light colored text above the Text folder.
I’ll double-click an empty area of the layer to open the Layer Style window
and drag the white Underlying Layer to the left, which makes the subject and the paper punch through.
Next, we'll add some stains, splats and arrows.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Make your foreground color black by pressing "D" on your keyboard.
Open your Custom Shape Tool and open the Custom Shapes.
Click the gear icon and click "Small Thumbnail".
Drag the window out until you see all of them.
Click on whatever graphic you like.
Click the gear icon at the top and I'll tick "Defined Proportions" and check "From Center".
Choose "Pixels".
Place your cursor on the general area you'd like the graphic to be and drag out.
To reposition and angle it, use your Transform Tool.
Place it into a folder and name it, "Graphics".
Make a new layer and add the same or another graphic to your poster.
Continue these steps to add more graphics.
Scroll to the top of the Graphics folder and close it.
Double-click on the layer to open its Layer Style window and drag the Underlying Layer sliders
to allow the subject and paper to punch through it.
Lastly, we'll add a bold, colorful ,graffiti stroke.
In the Text folder, make the top text layer active
and click the New Layer icon to make a new layer above it.
Click the foreground color and pick a color for the graffiti stroke.
Press "B" to open back your Brush Tool and adjust its size.
Now brush a quick graffiti stroke across your poster.
Change its Blend Mode to Multiply.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!