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Sunday, February 19, 2012

How to Create an Oddly-shaped Surreal House

In this photo-manipulation tutorial, we will learn how to create an oddly-shaped, surreal-inspired, stone house. We will learn how to blend several stock images together to create a pseudo long exposure image of a surreal house at the edge of the dock. We will learn how to create realistic reflections on water and also, enhance the light and shadows of the stock images to create a seamless image.

Preview of Final Results

image004

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How to Create an Oddly-shaped Surreal House PSD.zip | 169.84 MB
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How to Create an Oddly-shaped Surreal House


Tutorial Resources


Step 1: Create a Photoshop Image File

Now, let's start by creating a new image file, go to the Menu bar and click File > New, and then input the following values on their respective fields:
  • Width: 3000px
  • Height: 3000px
  • Resolution: 300pixels/inch
  • Color Mode: RGB Color; 8 bit
  • Background Contents: Transparent
image006

Step 2: Create the Background

In this step, we will be creating the sky of our image. To start, open "Stock Field" by digital amphetamine. Next activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool by pressing M on your keyboard.
image007
Once activated, create a selection area around the sky as shown below:
step2a
Next, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected area by left-clicking on it and dragging it to the canvas.
Position the selected area as shown on the image below:
step2b
Now, let's rename this layer to "sky 1". To rename a layer, simply double-click on the words: "layer 1" (you can find that on the layer window) to prompt a text box to appear. Once that appears, you may now rename the layer. See image below:
step2c
Next, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and resize the image as shown on the image below:
step2d
Now, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and resize the image by following the instructions shown below:
step2e
The result of that should be like this:
step2f
Next, we will add another sky layer to give make the sky more dramatic. To start, open "Sky 17" by sacral stock. Once open, activate the Move tool (V) and drag this to our canvas, make sure to put this layer above the "sky 1" layer; to do that, simply left-click the new layer and drag it above the "sky 1" layer.
Rename this layer to "sky 2".
Position it as shown below:
step2f
Next, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and resize it as shown below:
step2g
The result:
step2h
Next, we will need to erase some parts of "sky 2" to make it blend with "sky 1", so activate the Eraser tool (E) and input the following:
  • Brush size: 2200px
  • Hardness: 0%
  • Opacity: 100%
  • Flow: 100%
step2i
Now, erase as shown below:
step2j
After that, change "sky 2"'s layer opacity to 80% to make it blend well with "sky 1".
To change the Layer opacity, go to the Layer window and then change 100% to 80%.
step2k
Now, let's Merge the sky layers; to Merge them, simply click on both layers and then right click on one of them and then on the contextual menu, click on "Merge Layers".
step2L
Now that both of these layers are merged, we will now make them move similar to skies from a long exposure image; to do that, click on the newly merged layer and then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and then input the following:
  • Angle: 0
  • Distance: 200pixels
step2m
The result should be similar to this:
step2n

Step 3: Create the Dock

In this step, we will add the huge body of water as well as the dock. To start, let's open "floating dock" by archistock. Once open, activate the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and create a selection area around the dock.
image008
step2o
Once you've created the selection area, activate the Move tool (V) and drag it to our canvas. Put this new layer above the merged sky layer. Name this new layer to "dock".
Position the layer as shown on the image below:
step2p
Activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and then resize the dock as shown below:
step2q
The result:
step2r

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