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Insight
Adding Vector Graphics to a Photoshop Illustration
Dateline: December 12, 2005
Version: Photoshop CS/Illustrator CS
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|  Illustrator Derek Lea began by importing a PICT file of the larger
figures running and leaping across the image from Bryce
(originally rendered from Poser models) into Photoshop.
To alter the two figures at the left, he created a
new layer and used a Wacom tablet to trace over the
outlines and draw motion arrows at the figures’ joints.
Lea then set the layer’s blending mode to Hard Light
at 69% Opacity and added a layer mask to the Bryce
figures layer to paint out the rendered detail and create
a gradual transition between the figures. Underneath
these layers, he duplicated the Bryce figures layer twice,
set the layers’ Opacities to 39%, and set the blending
modes to Hard Light and Color to add to the visual
evolution of the figures. To simulate a burnished metal
effect, he duplicated the Bryce figures layer again,
changed the Opacity to 39%, and set the blending mode
to Luminosity (click to enlarge the dialog box at right).
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For the tumbling figures at the top left and lower right, Lea created
the figures in Illustrator using the Ellipse and Line Segment tool in combination
with the Pathfinder tools. To bring the shapes into Photoshop, Lea
choose Illustrator > Preferences > File Handling & Clipboard, checked
the AICB (no transparency support) box, and selected Preserve Paths.
In Photoshop, he pressed Command/Ctrl-V to paste his vector shapes
from Illustrator into Photoshop. In the resulting Paste dialog box, he
chose Path, clicked OK, and the vector shapes appeared as a new path.
He then created a new blank layer, returned to the Paths palette, and
Command/Ctrl-clicked on the path thumbnail to load the path as a
selection. Lea stroked the edges of the upper-left figures with blue, filled
the selection with a darker blue, and set the layer to Screen to turn the
figures into a transparent white while the outlines remained solid. For the
lower right figures, he copied the upper-left figure layer twice, filled one
copy with dark blue, removed the stroke, and applied a heavy Gaussian
Blur to act as a drop shadow. On the second copy above, he changed the
stroke to yellow.
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Click to enlarge
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Lea created a template for the film frame in
Illustrator and pasted the lines as paths in Photoshop.
Once he loaded the path as a selection,
he duplicated it to bridge across the length of
the image. He then brought in a scanned image of
scratched acetate and duplicated and sized it to
fit inside the film frames in a layer underneath. On
top of these layers, Lea imported, duplicated, and
gradually enlarged a flame image to fit in the film
frames spanning across the image, then set the
blending mode to Overlay to intensify the orange
and red colors. Lea also added Hue/Saturation and
Selective Color adjustment layers to intensify and
subdue the colors of the film images in combination
with layer masks to better control the effects.
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Lea added the outlines of the film perforations
from Illustrator in the same way.
He made a copy of his base collage layer of
torn-up bits of paper, pasted the path into
the duplicate layer, then activated the path
as a selection. To restrict the background
pattern within the selection, Lea pressed
Shift-Command/Ctrl-I, then Delete. In order
to keep the layer from blending with the
background, he increased the Saturation of
the red with a Hue/Saturation adjustment
and by setting the blending mode to Multiply.
He finished by putting a red stroke around
the selection, and used a layer mask to paint
out portions and fade it out on the right.
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To add to the repeated, yet
slightly modified and developing
shapes in the background,
Lea used copies of a mask
containing the figures and
a scanned-in brushstroke.
Lea created the mask by
Command/Ctrl-clicking on the
Bryce figures and brushstoke
layers’ thumbnails, copying two
duplicates of each selection
into a blank layer mask, and
shifting the duplicate selections
slightly apart. He then
filled each activated selection
in the mask with white
and inverted them to fill the
background areas with black.
The use of the mask resulted
in the ghost appearance of the
figures and brushstrokes in the
background details when used
with layers containing different
material—generating a subtle
echo effect throughout the
entire piece. The final image is shown at the top of the page.
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Derek Lea is a Toronto-based illustrator.
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