Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. "Vaporwave" is a microgenre of electronic
music and its visual counterpart that emerged in the early 2010s. The visual aesthetic often
styled as, " A E S T H E T I C S " with full width, uppercase characters is a mashup of
early internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, cyberpunk tropes, Japanese anime,
Greco-Roman statues and 3-D rendered objects. I created this one and will show you how to recreate it.
I provided this image of NTSC video color bars that you can use for the
background. Its link is in my video's description below or in my project files. I also included
this image of the ancient, Greek statue “Venus de Milo”. We’ll also incorporate a generic
image that connotes the visual equivalency of elevator music. I downloaded this one from
Shutterstock. Feel free to use your own graphic elements for your vaporwave image. As long
as you incorporate the subjects that I mentioned in the intro, your finished Vaporwave image
is limited only by your imagination. Because Vaporwave images have a satirical or mocking
view of cutting edge graphics, they live and flourish in a low-tech world of visual imagery.
All this to say, there’s no right or wrong - just have fun creating it.
First, we'll create a simple, low-tech grid and place it in perspective. This type of grid is a common
theme seen in Vaporwave images. Notice, that the thickness of the grid remains consistent
throughout. Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. We'll fill it with white, but
before we do, check your foreground and background colors. If they're not black and white respectively,
press "D" on your keyboard. Since white is our background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Go to Filter and "Vanishing Point". Adobe added this feature starting in CS2.
Click the Zoom tool icon and Alt-click or Option-click three times to zoom out this much.
Click the "Create Plane Tool" and place it just outside the left side halfway between
the top and bottom. Click and release your cursor and place your tool just outside the
right side of your image. Position it near the edge of the right edge of your canvas
just below the bottom of the white background. Position your cursor near the left edge of the canvas.
If you see red or yellow lines, move the tool until they become blue.
Open the Zoom Tool again and click on your image twice. We'll take a screenshot of it.
To do this on Windows, press the "PrtSc" key located at the top row of your keyboard. On a Mac,
press Shift + Cmd + 5 and pause this video to follow these instructions. Once you have
a screenshot, click OK. Press Ctrl or Cmd + "v" to paste the screenshot onto your document.
We'll enlarge the screenshot by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T to open our Transform Tool. If
you're using a version earlier than CC 2019, go to a corner and press and hold Alt or Option
+ Shift as you drag it out. If you're using CC 2019 or later, just press Alt or Option
as you drag it. To reposition it, just drag it. Then, press Enter or Return.
We'll merge the two top layers by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + E. Change its Blend Mode to "Divide".
We'll increase its visibility by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J twice. Let's group the grid images
into a folder to save space in the Layers panel. Shift-click the bottom grid layer to
make all of the grid layers active and press Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name the folder, "Grid".
Open the statue I provided. We'll separate the statue from the background by making a
selection around the statue. To do this, open your "Quick Selection Tool" and make its "Tolerance"
anywhere from 10 to 20 pixels. Drag your tool over the statue to select it. To remove unwanted
selections outside the statue, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over them. To check
it, press "Q" on your keyboard. Revert it back into a selection by pressing "Q" again.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut and copy it onto its own layer. To place the statue onto the
video color bars, press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag it onto the tab of the color
bars. Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release. To resize and position
it, open your Transform Tool and drag the width or the height to the right
until its approximately this size. Then, drag it down so you can see the head. If you want to rotate
the head, go to a corner and when you see a curved, double arrow, drag it clockwise.
Continue to finesse its size and position. Then press Enter or Return. We'll convert
the statue into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively. To do this, click
the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Under "Advanced Blending", you'll see that the red, green and blue channels are checked. Uncheck the
red channel and click OK. Make a copy of the layer and double-click this Advanced Blending
icon to open it in the Layer Style window. Check the red channel to make it visible again
and uncheck the green channel.
At this point, your statue will look normal.
Press and hold the Shift key as you press the Right Bracket key four times. This moves the statue copy
to the right 40 pixels. We'll group the statue layers into a folder by Shift-clicking the
bottom statue and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name it, "Statue".
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and pick a font.
We'll adjust its size after we type the text. The aliasing is Sharp
and center alignment. Type out your text and highlight it. Drag the size icon to the left
or right to adjust its size. Open your Move Tool and drag it to approximately here.
You can always reposition it later if you want. Convert it into a Smart Object, so we can
modify it non-destructively. Make a copy of it
and hide the original.
Double- click an empty area of the copy to open its Layer Style window. Click "Color Overlay" and the color box.
Pick a color for your text. Since I already know the color I want, I'll type it into the
hexadecimal field: 58FFD8. Then, click OK on both windows. Open your Transform Tool
and click the "Warp Transform" icon. Open the "Custom" warp list. I'll click "Bulge",
but feel free to experiment with the others. For the Bend, I'll type in: minus 5.
Then, click the check-mark at the top. Make the original text layer visible and active.
Go to Filter, Distort and Wave. This filter will create an interesting wave distortion behind
your text. Before we adjust the settings, feel free to experiment with them. For mine,
I'll type in 40 for the Number of Generators. For the Wavelength, I'll type in 1 and 29
and for the Amplitude, it'll be 1 and 25. The Horizontal and Vertical scales are both
100%, the Type is Sine and "Repeat Edge Pixels".
Double-click an empty area of the text layer
to open its Layer Style window. Click "Color Overlay" and the color box. Pick a color for
your text's wave distortion. ll type in FF08FC.
Then, click OK on both windows. Shift-click
the top text layer to make it active, as well, and press Ctrl or Cmd + G to group them into
a folder. I'll name it, "Text". If you want to adjust the size of your text with its wave
distortion behind it, open your Transform Tool. If you see this message, it's just letting
us know that the Smart Filters will be temporarily turned off while we use the Transform Tool.
Just click OK.
Then, adjust its size and position.
We'll type in Japanese, since Japanese words
and images are a common theme in Vaporwave graphics. I recommend using Google’s translation
web page to do this. Open your Browser and type in "translate.google.com".
Click this arrow to open the list of languages and click on your native language. In this empty area,
type in a word or words that you'd like to appear on your final image. Click this arrow
and click "Japanese". Highlight the word and press Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it.
Then, minimize your Browser
and make a New Layer. Press "t" on your keyboard to open back your Type Tool,
click on your document and press Ctrl or Cmd + v to paste the Japanese text onto it. To
enlarge it, highlight it and drag the text's size icon to the right.
Position to an area you like. Remember, you can always adjust the size and position of any of the elements
on your Vaporwave image. Open your generic, idealized landscape or another image of your
choice and drag it onto the tab of your Vaporwave image. Without releasing your mouse or pen,
drag it down and release. Open your Transform Tool and adjust its size and position to your liking.
Double-click the layer to open its Layer Style window and uncheck the channel
that has the best effect for your image.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!