Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a neon sign of a face.
Open a photo of a face that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
Before we begin, if you're not already a subscriber to Blue Lightning TV, smash that small "Subscribe"
button at the lower right corner or click the Subscribe link in my video's description.
I provided this brick wall background that you can download.
Its link is in my video's description below or in my project files.
The first step is to place the face onto the brick wall.
To do this, press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag the face onto the tab of the background.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
Reduce its opacity, so you can see the background through it.
To resize the face, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. Go to to corner
and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold, Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it in or out.
To reposition it, go inside the Transform’s bounding box and drag it.
Then, click the checkmark at the top or press Enter or Return twice.
Increase its opacity back to 100%.
Next, we'll separate the face from the the background by making a selection around the face.
There are many ways to do this and I covered them all in prior tutorials, so to save time,
I won't be going over how to do that here.
Once you make a selection around your subject's face,
click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the face.
We'll make a new layer below the face by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with white,
but first make sure your foreground and background colors are black and white, respectively.
If they're not, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since, white is your background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Shift-click the top layer to make it active, as well and click the icon at the upper, right corner.
Click "Convert to Smart Object".
This will allow us to modify our image non-destructively, so if we want to adjust some of the filters
that we'll be adding to it, we can do it an any time.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the "Stylize" folder and click "Glowing Edges".
Make the Edge Width: 3, the Edge Brightness: 9 and the Smoothness: 15.
Remember, you can always come back and adjust these setting later if you want.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Invert".
Shift-click the face layer to make it active, as well, and convert the two layers into one Smart Object.
Go back to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Close the Stylize folder and open the "Sketch" folder.
Click the "Stamp" filter.
Make the "Light/Dark Balance": 8 and the "Smoothness": 4.
To remove any unwanted lines or dots on the face, make a new layer at the top.
Invert the colors by pressing "x" on your keyboard.
Open your Pencil Tool and Pencil Picker.
We'll adjust its size in a minute.
Make sure its Hardness and Opacity are both 100%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Let's zoom in closer by pressing "z" on our keyboard to open our Zoom Tool.
Drag a rectangular shape over the face.
Press "B" to open back the Pencil Tool.
To adjust the size of your pencil, make sure your CapsLock key is off
and press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Draw over the unwanted lines or dots to hide them.
To zoom back out, press Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard.
Open your Channels panel.
if you don't see it, go to Window and Channels.
Click the dotted circle icon at the bottom to make a selection of lines of your image.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I to invert your selection and go to Select, Modify and Contract.
Contract it by 1 pixel.
This will make our lines a bit thinner.
Then, open back the Layers panel.
Make a new layer
and fill the selection with white.
Then, deselect it.
Make Layer 1 active and Shift-click the face to make it active, well.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + G to place them into a folder and then hide the folder.
Make the face outline layer active and convert it into a Smart Object.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it point 5 pixels.
Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Name the copy, "Neon Tube"
and change its Blend Mode to "Overlay".
Name the layer below it, "Neon Glow".
Double-click "Gaussian Blur" to open it the Smart Filter.
Change its Radius to 2 pixels.
Double-click an empty area of the Neon Glow layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the color box.
In the hexadecimal field, type in: 6EAAFB.
Its Blend Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100%.
Click "Outer Glow" and the color box.
Type in: 5B8FF9.
The Blend Mode is "Color Dodge", the Opacity s 100% and the Size is 60 pixels.
Click "Drop Shadow".
The color is black, the Blend Mode is "Multiply" and the Opacity is 100%.
"Global Light" is checked and its Angle is 120 degrees.
The Distance is 5 pixels and the Size is 7 pixels.
To save space, collapse the effects on both layers and make a copy of the "Neon Glow" layer.
Drag the copy below the original layer and rename it, "Neon Glow 2".
Open the effects and double-click, "Color Overlay" to see it in the Layer Style window.
Click the color box and type in: A0C8FF.
Click, "Outer Glow" and the color box.
Type in: 0B5BFF.
Change the Blend Mode to “Normal”, the Opacity: 75% and the Size: 10 pixels.
Click "Drop Shadow".
Change the Blend Mode to "Color Burn".
Double-click "Gaussian Blur" and change the Radius to 5 pixels.
Collapse the effects.
We'll make a new layer below the active layer by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the "Neon Tube" layer to make a selection of the neon tube's shape.
Go to Select, Modify and "Expand".
Expand it by 20 pixels.
Go back to Select, Modify and "Feather".
Feather it 30 pixels.
Fill it with white and deselect it.
Rename the layer, "Brick Glow".
Change the Blend Mode to "Overlay" and reduce its opacity to 60%.
Double-click the thumbnail of the Brick Glow layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the color box.
Type in: 0042FF.
Change the Blend Mode to "Color" and reduce its opacity to 70%.
Collapse the effects and make a new layer below the active layer.
Name it, "Brick Glow Outer".
Go to the Neon Tube layer
and again, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the the thumbnail to make another selection of the neon tube shape.
Go to Select, Modify and Expand.
This time, expand it 100 pixels.
Go back to Select, Modify and Feather and feather it 100 pixels.
Fill it with white and deselect it.
Change its Blend Mode to "Overlay" and double-click its thumbnail to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay".
Lastly, we'll brighten our overall image.
Scroll to the top and make the top layer active.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Levels".
Drag the Input Highlight slider to the left enough to brighten your image to your liking.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!