Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create you own
cup of Café mocha topped with your own custom image made from chocolate syrup. You can apply
these techniques to any high contrast image including text and clip art.
I included this image for you to download, so you can follow along.
Its link is located in the video description of project files.
If you're using a photo of someone, we need to convert it into pure
black on white, with no continuous tones. The techniques we're going to use after converting
it will be the same whether you're using photos, clip art or text. Your original photo can
be color or black and white. If it's in color, desaturate it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + U
on Windows or Cmd + Shift + U on a Mac. We need to create a selection around the head
to cut it out from its background. There are many ways to do this and I covered them in
my tutorials. For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool with a size of 20 pixels.
If you're using this tool as well, you may want to use a different number depending on
its resolution. Drag your tool over your subject making sure your background isn't included.
Make sure your foreground and background colors are black and white, respectively. If they
aren't press "D" on your keyboard. Press "Q" to convert the selection into a quick mask.
Open your Pencil Tool, choose a medium point size and make the Hardness: 100%.
Draw a line following the contours under the chin. Open your Paint Bucket Tool and click under the
chin to fill it in. I generally like to click again to ensure that its completely filled in.
Press "Q" again to revert it back into a selection.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut the face out from its background and copy it to its own layer.
Go to Image, Adjustments and Posterize.
Make the Levels: 2 and click OK.
To smooth and simplify it,
go to Filter, Noise and Median.
I'll make the Radius: 7 pixels, however, depending on the resolution
of your photo, you may want to change this number. Click OK or press Enter or Return.
To enhance this effect, press Ctrl or Cmd + F to repeat the filter.
Double-click on the thumbnail of the face to open its Layer Style window.
Click Stroke. For the resolution of this image,
I'll make the Size: 12 pixels.
Make the stroke's Position: Inside. Then, click OK.
We want to make a new layer below the active layer. To do this, Ctrl-click or
Cmd-click on the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with white and since white is the background color,
press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
At this point, you should see a stark, black shape on a white background.
This is the same as black and white clip art.
To separate the black areas from the white background, make the face layer active and
go to Select and Color Range. Select Highlights and click OK or press Enter or Return.
We now have a selection that surrounds everything that's white. Press the Delete key on your
keyboard, which deletes the white areas. When I hide the other layers in the Layers panel,
you can see that we now have just a black shape on a transparent background. To get
it into the coffee cup document, press "v" on your keyboard to open your Move Tool and
drag your image onto the tab of the coffee cup document. Without releasing your mouse
or pen, drag it down onto the image and release. Press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform
Tool. To see the Transform's entire bounding box, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
To resize the black shape, go to a corner
and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt
or Option + Shift as you drag it in. Then, position it over the coffee cup. To see your
document at 100%, press Ctrl or Cmd + 1.
If you're using text, use the same steps that we'll be using from this point forward.
Continue to resize it until it fits comfortably inside
the coffee cup. To angle it, go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow, rotate
it to an angle you like. Then, press Enter or Return.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 1 pixel and click OK or press Enter or Return.
Go to Layer, Rasterize and Layer Style.
This fuses the Stroke with the face. Now, any new Layer Styles we'll be adding
to it, will be applied to the stroke, as well. Double-click on the thumbnail to open the
Layer Style window. Click Color Overlay and the color box.
Type in a rich, chocolate color: 3C2310. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return on both windows.
Next, we'll convert the face into a Smart Object.
This will allow us modify it nondestructively, as well as,
ultimately replace it with another image without having to redo all the effects. To do this, click
the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Change its Blend Mode to Linear Burn and go to back to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
This time, blur it 4 pixels. We want to change the Blur's blend mode. To do this, double-click
the icon, to the right of Gaussian Blur. This opens the Blur's blending options. Change
the blend mode to Screen. Then, click OK.
Open your Transform Tool. You may see this message
that tells us that the Smart Filters will be temporarily turned off while the Transform
is being previewed. This is fine, so click OK.
We're going to angle it in order to correctly apply the
next filter. You'll see why we're doing this in a minute. Go to a corner and press and
hold Shift as you rotate it clockwise until it snaps 90 degrees. It'll snap to the angle,
because we're pressing Shift. Then, press Enter or Return.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Artistic folder and click "Plastic Wrap". The Highlight Strength is 7, the Detail
is 15 and the Smoothness is 4.
Notice the angle of the highlight is pointing toward the top of his head,
which is what we want it to do and why we angled the head in this
direction. Click OK to accept it.
To retain the highlight's angle, convert the layer into another Smart Object.
Zoom out of your document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd plus the minus key
on your keyboard. Open your Transform Tool, go to a corner, and rotate it counterclockwise
90 degrees. Fit it back on your canvas
and position your image over the coffee.
Notice the highlight has retained its angle of pointing down towards the top of the head,
which matches the light source of the background.
Double-click on the empty space inside Layer 1 to open
its Layer Style window. Click Bevel & Emboss.
Change the Style to Emboss. The Technique is Smooth,
the Depth is 50% and the Direction is Up. The Size is 6 pixels and Soften it
6 pixels. Uncheck Global Light. Make the Angle: minus 90 degrees and the Altitude: 42 degrees.
Make the Highlight Mode: Linear Dodge. Then, click OK.
Next, we'll add an organic ripple to the shape.
Go to Filter, Distort and ZigZag.
Feel free to experiment with the Styles and settings,
however, for this example, I'll use "Out From Center", minus 10 for the Amount
and 20 for the Ridges.
Lastly, I'd like to reduce its saturation and increase the lightness.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click Hue/Saturation.
Click the Clipping Mask icon.
This restricts the adjustment layer to effect just the one layer beneath it in the Layers panel.
Slide the Saturation all the way to the left and make the Lightness: 20.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!