Wallpaper tutorial – Photoshop +Ilustrator

We will present you an amazing wallpaper tutorial from http://www.koikumi.com.
This tutorial is a combo of Illustrator+Photoshop. I’ll show you some interesting effect in both these 2 software. The result is shown below.

First of all take a picture you’d like to use, the grid effect works better on naked parts I think.

Create a new document in Illustrator, then on the top menu go to File->Place, find the picture and place it in the document.

Lock this level to be sure you’ll don’t move the image around while working on it. Create a new layer.

Now select a visible color for the stroke, empty fill (1). Pick up the Pen Tool (2). Choose a proper stroke weight (you can change it later) (3). Create the first line following the picture in the point you want to create the grid effect (4). Create a second line in the point you want the grid effect to finish (5). As you can see, my lines are going in random direction where the leg is no more visible. This for having a “veil” effect later.

Select both the lines and go tu Object-> Blend-> make. By default value you’ll see a single line in the middle of the other two. We’re gonna change this in the next step.

Object->Blend->Blend Options

Enable Preview and select Specified Steps as Spacing and set a value you think it’s fine. The result should be like this. You can also use Specified distance instead, as Spacing.

Now create two more lines, in the other direction, for the horizontal lines of the grid using the same process.

As you can see, the horizontal lines are going a bit out of the shape. Let’s fix this. Create a new line following the shape of the leg (or the other part of the body you choose). Select this new line and. holding SHIFT, the blend of the horizontal lines (you just have to click one of the lines of the blend)…

….now Object->Blend->Replace Spine. Thanks to this your blend should follow the shape in a better way.

Now pick up the Direct Selection Tool (1). Clicking on the vertex of the lines you blended move them to create the veil effect (2). Just select them one by one and move them around. You have to try and try to find the perfect disposition.

Let’s get that hair to float a bit more. Take the Twirl Tool (1) (it’s usually hidden by the Warp Tool. Click and keep it clicked to see the other tools). Choose the dimension, the same for height and width to have it round. I can’t tell you the exact dimensions because they depend by the size of the picture your working on. You have to try.

Now change all the stroke’s color. Pick up one single line and go to Select->Same->Stroke color.

Choose Black as Stroke’s color.
Keeping selected the lines you can change the stroke weight (1) if you want ‘em more thin. Hide the pciture layer (2). Save the document (3).

Open the picture in Photoshop. Filter–>Extract
Using the marker along the shape of your girl (or the thing you’re working on) and the bucket to fill it, click ok and extract it from the background. For this step you can use also other ways to cut-out the figure.

Paste it on a black new document. I choosed 1280×1024 since I wanna create a wallpaper in this case. Adjust the contours. It could be useful to duplicate once or twice the girl layer to adjust the opacity in certain points. If you do that don’t forget to merge those layers.
Add an Outer Glow (Fx button in the bottom of the layers palette). OK.

Duplicate this layer. Select the one down. Filter->Blur->Radial blur. Blur Method: Zoom. Display: Best. Choose a big amount. OK.

Duplicate the blurred layer and for the one on top set the layer’s blending mode on Vivid Light.

Add another Outer Glow on the blurred layer on the bottom. Choose a strong light color. Do the same for the blurred layer on top, but with a very light color (almost white).

Oper the illustrator document with grids. If you didn’t resize it you should be able to copy and paste it on your image without any transformation. Otherwise select the grid layer, CTRL+T and make it match on your picture.

Keep working on the layer with the grids. CTRL+I to invert colors. Now select the layer with the girl (not blurred) and with a soft eraser erase some area where the grids are. In my case legs, a shoulder and an arm.
Duplicate twice the grid layer and set all the three layers as Overlay. Now, layers (1) and (2) stay white as they are, and select layer (3) and CTRL+I to invert color.

Create a new layer right above the black background. Draw an elipse with a very large and soft brush, in a bright color. Add a new layer above this one. Press D to reset colors. Go to Filter-> Render-> Clouds. Set this layer as Overlay.

You can add some text, and this is all….