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Blend the skyWith the mask selected, use the Eraser (E), Ctrl/right-click and take a soft round white brush at 277px and 0% Hardness. Now add some aerial perspective by painting along the horizon line as well as softly reducing the impact of the overlaid photo textures around the sun. Be sure to have Opacity set to Pen Pressure, under Transfer in the Brush settings (F5).
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Replacing the sky #2Toggle Sky_b visible and do the same as before, but move the right side more into the picture.
Now set Sky_a to Vivid Light at 66% Opacity and place the layer above Sky_b. This gives a bit of extra texture to the clouds. Now, set the Sky folder to 70%
Opacity to make it blend a little more with the overall scene. To fix areas around the sun and horizon, click on the Sky folder mask again.
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Replacing the sky #1Click on the eye symbol left of the Sky_b layer to toggle it invisible and select Sky_a. Since it’s far too big, use Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform it. Make the bottom part of the image align with the horizon. Go to the upper-left point, click, and move it to the upper-left corner of the workspace. Do the same for the right side. Use squashing and stretching to make the sky fit the perspective and sit nicely in the scene.
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looking foR detailNow it’s time to focus on the city. While there is great depth and nice silhouettes, it could still do with a little more detail. For orientation, open and import ‘specular.jpg’. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+A, switch to the Move Tool (V) and use the buttons in the tool bar to align it horizontally and vertically. Rename the new layer ‘Specular’ and set the blending mode to Screen or Color Dodge. This will give you an overview of the areas (marked white) that need a little extra detail.
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painting detailPainting highlights onto the edges of certain structures adds more detail and depth, but accuracy is not too important right now. First, make the Specular layer invisible, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer and name it ‘Painting’. Use a round brush at 6px Size and 90% Hardness and start to paint along some of the edges of the buildings.
Hold Opt/Alt to switch to the Color Picker and sample highlight colours right off the picture.
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city BackgRound extension Create a new layer via Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N and name it ‘Back City’. Now create a hint of city far in the distance by sampling (Opt/Alt) a darker colour from the foreground. Again, use a hard round brush with a size of 22px. Hold Shift while painting short, straight vertical lines into the background. These don’t have to be accurate, since you only want to suggest detail. Last but not least, set the Opacity of the Back City layer to 75%.To add a little bit more detail to your brush strokes, open Brush Properties (F5). Check Scattering and set it to 133%. Transfer should also be active, with the Opacity set to Pen Pressure. This is an easy way to suggest more detail when painting simple things, especially if using a tablet.
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TexTuring #1First, create a new folder and name it
‘Textures’. Open ‘IMG_1561.jpg’ into your project, put it into the Textures folder, name the layer ‘Lights’ and set its blending mode to Lighter Colour. With Cmd/
Ctrl+T, reduce it to a third of its original size and turn it 90 degrees. Now place it on the facade of the right building. To remove unwanted parts that still are visible, go into Levels (Cmd/Ctrl+L) and change the middle value to 0.75.
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Make iT shineNow it’s time to bring the lights into the city.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+A and then Cmd/Ctrl+C. Switch back to the city, paste (Cmd/Ctrl+V) the beam in there and change the layer’s name back to ‘Spot’. Do the same for the Point layer. Put them into a folder named ‘Lights’. For now, toggle Spot invisible, click the Point layer and set it to Linear Dodge. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T, reduce the size by holding Shift, find a spot to put it and hit Enter.
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adjusTing The lighTsScatter lights by holding Alt Gr. Easily vary the light sizes with Cmd/Ctrl+T and the colours with Hue & Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U). This results in a ton of layers. If it becomes too much, just hold Cmd/Ctrl, select all the Point layers in the Layers palette and press Cmd/Ctrl+E. Set the blending mode back to Linear Dodge. The same procedure can now be used for the spotlights. Playing with parameters like size, colour and opacity help to add variation to the lights.
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a plaTe of lighT #2Create a copy (Cmd/Ctrl+J) of the Point layer and name it ‘Spot’. Turn the Point layer invisible and move (V) the Spot layer to the right. Run Filter/Noise/Median with a radius of 24px to avoid artifacts. Hit Shift+M until the square selection tool is active again and create a selection right through the centre of the light. Via Cmd/Ctrl+T, stretch the light to the left. Ctrl/right-click to select Perspective, click the upper-left corner, drag it down and hit Enter. This results in a light beam-like shape. Save the image as ‘light_plate.psd’.
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a plaTe of lighT #1To bring in lights, create a separate picture that will serve as an additional plate. Cmd/Ctrl+N creates a new file. Make it 3000px wide and 1650px high. In the new picture, fill (G) the background black.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+J and name the new layer ‘Point’.
Hit the Marquee tool via Shift+M until the round selection is active. Hold Shift, draw a circle selection and fill it black as well. With Filter/Render/Lens Flare, 100 Brightness and the 105mm Prime, try to locate the centre of the flare and execute the Filter.
Techniques Sci-Fi concept Art
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additional touchesAfter adding/extending textures and lights with the techniques explained above, it’s time for the additional touches. Hold Cmd/Ctrl, select all layers, press Cmd/Ctrl+J and Cmd/Ctrl+E to create a copy and merge them down. In Filter/Filter Gallery/Artistic, select Poster Edges. Use a Thickness, Intensity and Posterization of 2. However, art is all about personal preference. If you wish to create a more realistic image, as seen on the first pages of this tutorial, don’t apply the filter and instead add in detail like the lighting bolts.