Photoshop Tutorial: Poster Advert Design by Swerve™ (Project Files Included)

And this episode is brought to you by lynda.com Hey, you're watching Swerve on YouTube and today I'm going to be showing you how to make this poster. It looks pretty epic. So how about we strip this back to the way it was when we first started. So here we go. This is the beginning of the design. So I was looking at this, the Night Karachi, and I thought, why not make a poster out of it? So I did. So let me take you through the process I went through to extract this shoe from this background. So a little, you know, information. If you were to do your own shoe, for example, you had a light shoe, make sure that the background is dark. And if you have dark shoes, then it's vice versa. Dark shoes, light background, light shoes, dark background. Wait, did I say that right? Anyways, you get the gist. So to extract this, what we need to do is make a duplicate. So we're going to press control J. We're going to hide the original layer. So that's going to be our backup layer. And this is going to be the layer that we change. All right. So I'm going to name this highlight and you're going to see why just in a minute. So what we need to do is go to select and choose color range. So this is why we named it highlight. So what we're basically going to do is highlight most of our shoe. So if you copy these digits and play around with it, what we're trying to do is select most of our shoe and less of our background. So play around with fuzziness, play around with every single thing in this section. You can even go through a lot of these, but I think this is the most effective way to extract anything from a background. So I'm going to click OK and you'll see some marching ants. And once you see that, all you need to do is select your highlight layer and click the mask option. Okay. So you've probably noticed that most of the background is gone and that's good. So what we need to do now is get rid of some excess bits that we can see. So we've still got a ground in there and it's pretty simple to take it away because all we need to do is get our rectangle marquee tool and go like this, move it around, holding space while resizing. Okay. I think that looks good. And what I'm going to do is get the brush, make sure that this box is selected. And all you need to do is switch your color palette to black, resize your brush using the square bracket keys and just go over like that. Press Ctrl D to deselect. And now we can get rid of these sections over here. All right. So it looks pretty perfect, right? Well, to our eyes right now, it looks pretty perfect, but to be honest, it's not. If I was to show you what it would look like on a light background, here's the problem. Well, it's not really a problem, but we can solve it. So what we're going to do is get our same brush, make sure that the box is still selected and we're going to switch it to white. So now we can just go over the bits that the highlight tool missed or the color range. All right. So we're going to bring back everything that was lost and we're going to get rid of anything that we don't need. All right. So take your time with this, be as slow as you like. After all, you want this to look perfect. All right. So I'm just going to go around like that. Perfect. All right. I like that section. And just resize your brush. To resize it again, it's the square bracket keys. And we're just going to zoom in a bit more and get all the sections we don't need or all the sections we need. All right. I'm just going to go over these sections. All right. Perfect. All right. That's good. All right. So if you're doing this with a person, it would be a lot harder, I would say, but there are easier ways and I'll probably be showing you how to do that in other videos as well. Like faster ways. There's a lot of tutorials on how to do it already, but there's a way that I like to do it, separating the head from the body and stuff like that. So we're going to get rid of these little specks. And I think we're missing some bits as well. So I'm going to bring him back. Yeah, that's it. Okay. So that's pretty much near finished, I think. Is it done? Yeah. We're going to get rid of this bit using the Pen tool and it doesn't have to be too precise. So don't go too extreme on this bit. So don't go too close to the laces. Make sure that you leave a little bit of a gap because we're going to use the Refine Edge tool straight after this bit. All right. So I'm just going to stop there and just go around here like so. All right. And make sure that your Pen tool is set to Path instead of Shape. And we can click Selection. Make sure that your pixels are set to zero. And now we can get our brush, select your mask area, and just get rid of that area. Okay. So we're like, I would say, 80% done. So now we can select our Mask tool, selecting Control and clicking the area, and you should see much enhanced. From this point, all we need to do is go to our Marquee tool, Refine Edge, and I've set my view to Overlay, which is probably the best for me. It may not be the best for you. So play around with all of these just to see what works for you. All right. So I've already got a preset done, and I feel it's the most effective. So just copy down 0, 0.8, 35, and minus 20%. And what we can do, I'm going to cancel quickly on zooming, and then go back in, and we can just get rid of this area. So all we need to do is go over like this, and go over like that. And it should get rid of every area that we don't want. All right, perfect. And I'm going to click OK, I think. Yep. All right. So I'm going to click OK, and most of our background is gone. Well, all of it is gone. So if we were to bring back our dark background, you'll see it's looking pretty much perfect. So in the next bit, I'm going to be showing you how to make the studio and the rest of the design. So stay tuned for that, and I'll see you in the next part. So today's sponsor is lynda.com. And if you check out lynda.com slash swerve, you get a 10-day free trial with unlimited access to a whole lot of goodies. You do the math. That's 10 days. Imagine how many videos you could watch in 10 days. I know I watched the entire season of Breaking Bad in just one. That's pretty badass. So if you want to learn how to shoot a professional video, find out the magic behind Photoshop, or make an animation using keyframes, then you've come to the right place. Tons of tutorials at the click of a button. Watch them whenever you want, wherever you want. Don't forget, that's lynda.com slash swerve. All right. So here we are in the second bit. And I feel like our shoe's looking a bit flat. But before we add some life to this shoe, what we're going to do is clean up our composition. So we're going to select the original highlight and select the last layer, and we're going to hold shift and click the folder, and we're going to change that to backup. So now it's just about time to add our grading and stuff like that. So what we're going to do is select our hue and saturation. So in the hue and saturation, we're going to move that to the top, and what we're going to do is change the saturation to minus 49, and change the lightness to 9. By doing this, we've basically taken away color, and using the curves, we're going to add some color. So I'm going to go to Curves, and with the RGB selected, what we're going to do is go low, then a little bit high. And then for the second bit, which is red, we're just going to go low. Oops, just low. And then for green, we're going to go low, not too low. And for blue, we're going to go high, low, like so. And as you can see, we've added some dramatic color to give it that, how would I put it? That Gotham feel. So that was the grading. It was pretty simple, but it's really effective. So for the next bit, we're going to focus on shading and a bit of lighting, and then in the last bit, we're going to focus on the text and add in extra elements. So I'll see you in the next part. Right, so it's time to add some shade and, you know, perspective. So what we're going to do is select our shoe layer, we're going to press Ctrl T, and rotate it. I think that's a good rotation. And we're going to move it back a bit to somewhere around here. And before we do the shadow, I want to explain a few things. So the closest bit of the shoe is going to have a darker shadow. So this area is going to have a really dark shadow. And then as it goes further out, and as the height increases, the shadow will decrease in, you know, thickness. So I like to use the Pen tool to create our shadow first, just so I can get a base shadow. So this shadow starts off from here, goes out like that. Wait, before we do that, we need to make sure that our path is set to shape. We're going to do the same thing again, like that. Perfect. Like that. Perfect. And what we're going to do is move this below our shoe. So this is kind of like a cell shading preview. And from this stage, what we can do is select our shape, we're going to call it shadow. And what we're going to do is select the mask. And now we can start fading out the back, like so. Oops. All right, so we need to set our hardness to zero. And yeah, I think that's about it. We're going to make our brush really big. All right, that's looking pretty good. Pretty awesome. All right, so now we can go to Filter, Convert to Smart Object. And we can choose Blur, Gaussian Blur. Oops. All right, so Gaussian Blur, and we're going to make it, I would say, 7.2 is good. That's really good. And we're going to choose our mask again, we're just going to decrease the shadow from the distance. And we're going to move our shoe around a bit, just so it looks more realistic. I think closer to the shadow looks pretty nice. And we're going to stretch our shadow a bit. So just resize it till it looks to your liking. I think that's about it. That's pretty nice. And for the shadow, what we're going to do next is add a noise filter to it. So we're going to add noise. And I'm going to change it to a lower amount. So I'm going to change it to, let's say, a 16.57. All right, that's good. Okay, so on top of the shoe, what we need to do is add a shadow around this area. Because right now, it's looking a bit unrealistic for this section. So we're going to get our brush, make sure that the flow is set to something really low, like 7. And we're going to choose a black. We're going to decrease our brush size. Going to go around here and make sure that it's only set on our shoe. So we're going to go in between those two layers and just click. Going to go like that. We're going to make sure it's not too harsh. Yeah, that's a bit harsh. All right, that's perfect. Just simple, subtle things like that just make it look a bit better. Okay, so now that we've got that bit of our shoe done and that light in, what we can do now is go below each of those layers, make a new layer. And what we're going to do, this is going to be the highlight section. So we're going to get an ellipse. We're going to change the color to white. And we're just going to make a big highlight like this. So this is going to be the floor. It's going to reflect the floor. This is a really good technique to make an infinite background kind of thing. And let's see, we need to make this have a blur. So we're going to make it a Gaussian blur. Convert to Smart Object, yep. We're going to increase the size, but not too much. So let's say 31.7. And we're going to decrease the opacity. Maybe overlay it. Yeah, that's looking nice. All right, so we may need to change the Gaussian blur again. So to do that, you just select the Gaussian blur, double-click it. Just reduce it till you like it. And what I'm going to do is get my brush, click the mask, and I'm going to increase the brush size just a bit, just to get rid of some bits. I'm going to increase the flow. All right. All right, that's looking perfect. And all we need to do is go to Filter, Add Noise, just to smoothen it out. Ooh, that's looking nice. Okay. So we're going to resize it a bit again. Yeah, that's perfect. Absolutely perfect. All right. So for the background, the background needs a bit of a gradient as well. So what we're going to do is make a gradient. And we're going to change the darker bit of the gradient to a dark black. And the other half would be a lighter grey. So somewhere around there. And we're going to change this to radial and reverse. Okay. Increase the scale. We may need to decrease the darkness of our shadow. So we're going to increase the lightness of the dark area. Click OK. And now we're getting a feel of how it's going to look later on. So we're going to add a noise filter to this just to take away the bands. Whoops. All right, that's looking so much better. All right, so we're nearly done with the highlights and shading. So what we're going to do is, we're going to move down the text quickly. Well, not the text, the shoe, just so it's closer to the shadow. Move it back a bit. Maybe a bit forward. Yeah, that's perfect. Absolutely perfect. Okay. And there's a few more things that we need to do. Oh, yeah. We need to add some tints of orange to the floor because with vibrant colours like orange, it kind of reflects on the ground a bit. So what I'm going to do is make a new layer, maybe below the shoe. We're going to select the orange, so we're going to turn off our colour adjustments. And what we're going to do is press our colour picker, so we click I. We're going to turn back our hue and saturation. And what we're going to do is make sure that the flow is really low. Maybe like 3 or 23. Okay, that's better. Okay, maybe less. Less is more. Whoops. So little dabs around the area that's touching the ground. Yeah, it's looking really nice. We may need to get rid of a bit. Yeah, I think that looks better. Okay, so we're pretty much done. Well, nearly done. Wait, there's a few more things we need to do. So what we're going to do is add some highlights to the white bit of the shoe. So we're going to change the flow to like a 2. We're going to make a new layer above, change the colour to white and just dab, dab like that. May want to increase a bit. Okay, so we're going to do that again. Make a new layer. Make sure it's not connected to the layer below and just dab. I'm going to set it to 9. Just add some highlights to those areas like that. And now we're getting somewhere. We're really getting somewhere. So in the next bit, we're going to focus on adding extra elements to finish off the piece and make it look that much awesome. So it's just about time we add our elements. So first element we're going to add is the triangle that goes around the shoe. So make sure that your pencil selected, make sure that your stroke is set to two and it's white and that your shape or your pencil is set to shape. OK, so now that we've got everything checked, all you need to do is make a point, make another point there, make a point behind the shoe and make a point up there. OK, so by doing this, all we need to do is maybe increase it a bit. So that would be control T, resize. And now we can select our mask section. And what we're going to do is get our brush, make sure it's set to black, make sure that we've selected our mask box. And all we need to do is set our flow to 100 and get rid of these sections. So for this area over here, we can go a bit slower because we want to make that look like a shadow. Right, so it's looking a lot more like a shadow now and it looks like it's going behind the shoe. So I just really like the look of this, like prisms, squares, you know, stuff like that. It just looks really nice. So the next bit we're going to make is the pyramid. So I'm going to make a new layer, make a pyramid like this, maybe a bit bigger. So a pyramid like that. And I can make another one. So I'm going to click from here. Make sure you click to center, click over there. And then we can make another one so we can select from the middle point and go to the end like so. And that is our prism. So from this point, we can make a new layer. And what I would like to do is select the few shapes that we made. I would shift, click your folder and name this prisms. So that's going to be our triangle shapes. And our new layer is going to be prism highlights. So with the highlights, what we're going to do is make a brush. Make sure it's set to white. We're going to set the flow to about five. I'm going to make a big highlight over there, another highlight. And then we're going to make the highlight a bit stronger. So we're going to make it like 11. And we're going to resize our brush using the square bracket keys. And just click on the areas that we want to shine. So now it's looking a lot better. It's got a feel to it. And I feel that we can add an extra flow, so we're going to decrease the flow to three, increase like that. OK, it's looking a lot better. All right. So the next part we're going to focus on is adding our text. So the text that I used in the previous one was the Harajis. Wait, hold on. Let me check. The the Harajis live on. Yeah, that's that's a pretty good phrase. Like for those who know about Harajis, they were classic. And I've got a couple of pairs myself and pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. So I'm going to start off with the first text. The font I'm going to be using is Unisans, and I think I've left that in another video. I'm not sure, but I'll leave it in this video just so you can have it as well. So I'm going to start off with D and that is not Unisans. All right. So D, who are Harajis? The Haraji lives on. So it goes like that. All right. So the text is not that big. And we're going to move the first prism a bit closer. So how am I going to do this? Let's see. Hmm. I could merge those together. And yeah, I'm going to convert them to a smart object. And what I can do is select this section and move it. Whoops. OK, that's not working. Control X. Like these are the problems that we encounter. All right. So I think I'm going to leave it like that. I may have to restart that again. Actually, I don't. All right. So I think it's good that I encounter problems in tutorials because some of you are going to get the same problems that I'm having now. So I'm going to show you how to fix it. So we're going to have to restart our highlights. So we're going to get rid of the highlights and we're going to have to redo them. So I'm going to move this prism closer. I'm going to move the text away. And by doing this, all we need to do is redo our highlights. So I was able to move it and I couldn't move it before because the highlights were on the same layer. This time we're going to do it on different layers. So we're going to make our first brush and make it flow free. Make sure that your caps lock is not selected and decrease. All right. So that's the first one. First one. And then we're going to change it to let's say six or seven decrease and just click. And then we're going to do the same, but on a new layer. So we're going to make this free again, free and select the area. And then we're going to make it seven and decrease. All right. Perfect. So now we have it on different layers. What we can do is put those layers into the prism layer. Perfect. So now if we wanted to move it, they're both on separate layers so we can move each individual element separately. All right. Perfect. So that's a problem solved. Next bit we need to do is lives on. So the hierarchy lives on lives on. I just want to put it on different layers. So it looks like it's running. If you get what I mean. So like there's a bit of an offset on each one, like an increment, like running upstairs and stuff like that, like little things like that really get people thinking when they look at a poster. So I like to make sure that I can make someone think. All right. So we're going to have to move a few things and move this back. Perfect. I'm going to group that. So I've selected all my shoe layers and the shadows. I'm going to group that. So control G and that's going to be shoe or sneaker. All right. So with the text, I want to make sure that I turn off the hue and saturation just so I can get a few colors quickly. And let's see. So I'm going to change this color to something like that. And I'm going to change lives on to the same color. All right. Perfect. All right. So I can turn on the hue and saturation and put this below. Perfect. All right. So I like to add a gradient to the text. So I'm going to double click the text, go to gradient. And what I can do is make sure that the base gradient is set to the orange that I had. So I need to copy this orange quickly. So I'm going to press control C. Click OK. Double click. Go to gradient. And I'm going to make sure that the top color is the color I just selected and the lowest color. I'm going to paste that in and I'm going to choose a darker orange that just gives it a more dynamic touch. So now I can hold alt and drag that onto lives on. So I'm going to put that at the top and Harachi in the middle, just so it has some hierarchy. OK, so this looks nice so far. What else is there to add? All right. So we've got a nice logo. We don't really need to add this bit. We need to focus on adding the extra prism. So this prism that I have here is basically depth of field. So what I'm going to do is make a new layer and I'm going to use the pencil. So it's going to start from here. Go like hair around there. And what I'm going to do is increase the stroke size because it's closest to us. So I'm going to go back to the pencil. Increase the stroke size by let's say four. Perfect. So it's double the size of the previous one. And what I'm going to do is go to Blur, Gaussian Blur. Convert to Smart Object. Like that. That looks nice. I may move it down a bit just so it's not over the text. But yeah, that's looking really nice. Yeah, I like it. OK, so next bit. Oh, yeah. I just remembered Harachi has a gradient as well, and it's just going to be a gray to white gradient. And it also has a highlight over there. So I'm going to make a new layer just above. I'm going to choose a brush. Make sure it's set to free for flow. I'm going to make a little dab. OK, and I'm going to set this to 18 just so has a little touch to it. Yeah, that looks really nice. Really nice. May need to add another highlight just to make it pop. All right, perfect. All right. So next bit we're going to add is a texture. And I think this texture already comes with Photoshop. So if it doesn't, I'm going to leave a text in the description for you to download. So I'm going to make a new layer or a new solid. Doesn't matter what color it is. So I'm going to double click it. Go to pattern overlay. And let's see. I'm going to select this one and change the scale down to, let's say, 19. OK, so by doing this, all I need to do is change the field to zero. And you can see we have some like some shell kind of things going on. And I can just play around with this. Change the opacity just to give it some halftone looks. That's looking a lot better. OK, so I need to add a night sign just to add that extra authenticity and just that look to it. So I'm going to do that quickly. So to get a logo, what I'm going to do, wait, sorry, is go to Google quickly. Google.co.uk. And what I can do is type in Nike logo vector. And I think seek logo is the best place to get, you know, logo types and stuff like that. So I'm just going to get this one type in the code quickly for to download vector. I think I typed it right. What's going on? OK, it's there. All right, so we've got a download when I open it up, I have to open it in Illustrator. OK, so if you don't have Illustrator, I think you can find some PNG version. So if you go to Google search, you can type in night logo PNG and it should come up with a logo with a transparent background. But if you have Illustrator, what you can do is get the vector version, make it as big as you want and place it. So I'm just going to select this logo copy. Actually, let's make it white first. So I don't have to do that in Photoshop. I'm going to copy that and paste. So once you paste it there under the overlay, it just has that authentic look. So, yeah, that's about it. With the text I just added there, that was just to show that it was a concept piece for Nike. It wasn't an official piece for Nike, but it would have been awesome if it was. OK, so I'm just going to add my stuff to it. So I'm just going to copy everything that I added. All right. And we're pretty much done. So this is a concept project for Nike. This is a poster. Hope you liked it. Don't forget to leave a like, subscribe and comment. And I'll see you in another video.