Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to transform a photo
into vexel artwork. Vexel art is a raster-based image that imitates the visual appearance
of vector graphics, which have sharp-edged lines and areas of flat color or smooth gradient
fills. The word itself is derived from a combination of "vector" and "pixel." There's no one defined
way to create a vexel and its look can vary from just 2-color outlines to pseudo-realism.
Open a photo you'd like to use. I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.com. To protect
the original photo, it's always a good idea to make a copy of it. Press Ctrl + J on Windows
or Cmd + J on a Mac. Next, we need to cut the subject from its background and place
it onto its own layer. To do this, we first have to make a selection around the subject.
There are many ways to make selections, so choose the method that works best for your
particular image. Since this subject is on a white background, I normally would use the
Magic Wand Tool or Color Range, but if your subject isn't on a white background,
we'll use the Pencil Tool for this example.
Keep the Hardness 100% and choose a small pixel size. Even though
the size here is 10 pixels, keep in mind, this amount will look smaller or larger on
your image depending on the size and resolution of your photo. Make sure your foreground and
background colors are black and white, respectively. If they aren't, press "D" on your keyboard.
Click the quickmask icon, so we can draw in a quickmask. Draw around your subject. Drawing
around the hair doesn't have to be perfect, since ultimately, your image won't have soft
edges. When you've drawn around the entire subject, fill it in by opening your Paint
Bucket Tool and left-clicking on your subject. Press "Q" to make the quickmask into a selection
and invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut your subject from its background and copy it to its own layer. Click the thumbnail
of the middle layer to make it active. We're going to replace this layer with a solid color.
Click the foreground color and pick a color that compliments your subject. I'll click
the lip to pick up its color and click OK. Notice, the foreground is now the color you
picked. To fill the layer with your foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
Next, we'll add a radial pattern on top of the color.
Click the Custom Shape Tool and open the shape
thumbnails. Click the small gear icon to open your list of shape presets. Click Symbols
and when you see this warning, click OK to see just the Symbols in the thumbnail window.
Scroll down and click this icon, which is called, "Registration Target 2". Click the
gear icon at the top, tick "Defined Proportions" and check "From Center".
Make sure there's no Stroke. The icon for it is a red, diagonal line. Click the color box and click the Color
Picker icon. Left-click on a darker version of the color you picked earlier and click
OK. Zoom out a little by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key.
Go to the middle of your document and drag out the shape past the corners. To hide the paths, press Ctrl
or Cmd + H. To fit the document back onto your screen, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Make the top layer active and rename it, "poster edges".
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery. Open the Artistic folder and click Poster Edges.
Set all the attributes to zero and click OK.
Make a copy of the layer and rename it, "Smart blur- edges only".
Go to Filter, Blur and Smart Blur.
Make the Quality, "High" and the Mode, " Edges Only". The Edges Only mode find the edges
of color transitions where significant contrasts occur and creates an image of it
of white lines on a black background. Drag the image to an area in the window where you
can see the face. Drag the Radius and Threshold to amounts that give just enough line detail.
For this image, I'll set the Radius at 2 and the Threshold at 37.
Press "D" to revert your
foreground & background colors to black and white
and open your Paint Bucket Tool.
Make sure "Contiguous" is unchecked. If it is, unchecked it. I 'll explain why in a moment.
Left-click outside your figure. Notice all the areas surrounding the figure is filled in. I'll
press Ctrl or Cmd + Z to undo it. If "Contiguous" is checked, the Paint Bucket Tool will only
fill in the areas that are connected. In this example, this area didn't fill in because
the figure is disconnecting it. I'll undo it. As before, uncheck "Contiguous" and left-click
outside the figure. Open the Channels panel. If you don't see it, go to Window and Channels.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail next to RGB to make a selection of the white outline.
Open back the Layers panel and click off the eyeball of the top layer to hide it. Make
a new layer above it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + N. This window will appear. Name
the layer, "outlines" and then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Press Alt or Option + Delete to fill the selection with black, which is the foreground color. Then, deselect
it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Double-click the thumbnail of the "outlines" layer to open
its Layer Styles window. Click "Gradient Overlay". I'll leave it on Linear with an angle of 90
degrees, however, you can choose another Style if you like. Click the Gradient bar and click
a gradient preset you like. I'm choosing "Spectrum". Then, click OK on both windows.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!