Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you a quick and easy way to create a face mask of a person.
Before we begin, if my tutorials have helped you learn or improve in Photoshop and you
haven’t subscribed to my channel, yet click the Subscribe button at the lower, right..
Open or shoot a high resolution photo of a person whose face is preferably turned at
an angle and if possible, the person's hand should be placed an inch or two below the chin.
I downloaded this photo from Shutterstock, however, due to licensing and copyright issues,
I'm not allowed to distribute it.
Once you have your photo, make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Next, we'll create a selection that will define the shape of the face mask.
There are many ways to create selections and I covered all of them in prior tutorials,
so to save time, I won't be going over them here.
For this particular example,
I find that the most accurate way to create the shape is to use your Pen Tool.
I did an in-depth tutorial showing how to draw paths with the Pen Tool, so if you'd
like to watch it, click the link at the upper right corner or in my video's description below.
First, let's zoom into the face by pressing "z" on your keyboard to open the Zoom Tool
and drag over the face.
If you're using the Pen Tool, as well, press p" to open it
and proceed to draw paths making sure that it follows the edge of your subject's chin.
Right-click directly on the path to open the fly-out list and click "Make Selection".
Make sure the Feather Radius is 0 and click OK.
After you've made your selection with whatever method you chose,
Alt-click or Option-click the Layer Mask icon to make an inverted layer mask of the selection next to the active layer.
Just a quick note: if you ever want to invert a layer mask, just press Ctrl or Cmd + I.
We'll angle and reposition the face mask by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
Before we transform it, go to View and make sure "Snap" is not checked.
If it is, just click it to de-activate it.
This will prevent the face mask from snapping to a particular position when we move it.
Go to a corner of the bounding box and when you see a curved, double-arrow, rotate it
to an angle you like.
To reposition face mask, just drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Next, we'll add a subtle bevel to the mask to give it a bit of dimension.
Double-click the angled face layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Bevel & Emboss".
The Style is Inner Bevel, the Technique is Smooth and the Depth is 100%.
The Direction is Up, the Size is 7 pixels and the Soften is 0.
The Angle is 124 degrees and the Altitude is 32 degrees.
The Highlight is white, its Mode is Linear Dodge and its opacity is 10%.
The Shadow's Blend mode and color are irrelevant, since its opacity is 0%.
Next, we'll create the string, but first let's save a little space in the Layers panel by
collapsing the effects.
Just click the small arrow.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Name it, "String".
We'll place this layer into a folder, since we'll be adding a few more string elements.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name the folder "String".
Make the layer active and open your Pencil Tool and Pencil Picker.
Make the Size: 2 pixels, the Hardness: 100% and the Opacity: 100%.
Open your Zoom Tool and drag a rectangle over the area of the face and mask where you'll
be adding the string.
Press "B" to open back your Pencil Tool and place your cursor to a location above the ear.
Then, click your mouse or pen and release.
Place your cursor where the string would be attached to the mask and click.
This connects the start and end point with a line.
Double-click the String layer to open its Layer Style window and click "Bevel & Emboss".
The Style is "Inner Bevel", the Technique is Smooth and the Depth is 1000%.
The Direction is Up, the Size is 2 pixels and the Soften is 0.
The Angle is 55 degrees and the Altitude is 25 degrees.
The Highlight Mode is "Linear Dodge"and its Opacity is 70%.
The Shadow Mode is 0.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it point 5 pixels.
Reduce its opacity to 50%.
In this particular example, I want the string to appear to be behind this area of the subject's hair.
I could either use the Eraser Tool, which would permanently erase that area of the string
or use a better method, which is to use a layer mask.
This method is non-destructive to the string.
I'll click the Layer mask icon, which adds a layer mask next to the string
and open my Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
I'll adjust the size in a moment.
The Hardness is 0% and the Opacity and Flow are both 100%.
If you want to adjust the size of a brush, make sure your CapsLock key is off and press
the right or left bracket key on your keyboard to make the brush bigger or smaller.
I'll brush over the area of the hair to hide the string.
Next, we'll create the string's shadow.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Name it, "String Shadow".
Reduce the brush size to 2 pixels.
Click just below the string on the mask, release and Shift-click just below where the string ends.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 1 pixel
and reduce its Opacity to 40%.
Make a copy of the shadow by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J and temporarily hide it.
Make the original shadow layer active.
We're going to bend the shadow to the curvature of our subject's face.
To do this, press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool and at the top, click
the "Warp Transform" icon.
In this example, I'll drag the points and lines to bend the shadow down on both sides
and I'll make sure the middle of the shadow is positioned just below the string.
When you've finished warping YOUR shadow, press Enter or Return.
To hide the shadow on the mask, click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next
to the shadow layer.
Press "B" to open back your Brush Tool, adjust its size and brush over the shadow on the
mask to hide it, as well as areas of the hair where the string is masked out.
To see the correct shadow on the mask, make the shadow copy visible and active
and click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to it.
Brush over the shadow next to the face mask to hide the warped shadow over that area.
Lastly, we'll create the hole for the string on the face mask.
Make a new layer below the string layer, by making the String layer active
and Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Name it, "Hole".
Open your Elliptical Marquee Tool and place your cursor at the end of the string.
Click and hold as you press Alt or Option + Shift and drag out a circle from the center
approximately this size.
We'll give it some dimension, but to do this, we need to fill it with a color.
The particular color is irrelevant, since we'll be reducing the Fill to 0.
You'll see how in a moment.
I'll fill it with my foreground color, which is black by pressing Alt or Option + Delete.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Reduce the Fill to 0%.
This makes the color invisible, but it'll retain the full visibility of any effects
that we add to it.
Double-click the thumbnail of the hole layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Bevel & Emboss".
The Style is "Inner Bevel", the Technique is Chisel Hard and the Depth is 200%.
The Direction is Down and the Size is 1 pixel.
The Angle is 140 degrees and the Altitude is 30 degrees.
The Highlight Mode is Linear Dodge and the Opacity is 50%.
The Shadow Mode is Multiply and its opacity is 60%.
You can reposition it by pressing "v" to open your Move Tool and dragging it.
Next, we'll be able to see through the hole.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the Hole to make a selection if its shape.
Go to Select and Transform Selection.
At the top, click the chain-link icon to link the Width and the Height.
In either field, type in 70%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel and make the layer mask active.
Fill the selection with black to reveal the face under it and deselect it.
To see your entire image, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!