As said, skills needed to complete this tutorial is the very basic knowledge of the most common used tools in Photoshop. Anything else will be explained in detail as usual here on Minervity.com so if you are a novice that just started out using Photoshop don’t worry. You will be able to keep up just fine.

Step 1 – Workspace Setup

I have chosen to use a 450*400 pixel big workspace in order to fit this blog space perfectly. You can of course go ahead an choose whatever size you feel fits best for your needs. Also, when starting up you can choose to create the character in “Vector Graphics“, “Smart Objects” or just in plane “Bitmap Graphics“. Depending on your needs you can pick either way to create this. The creation is still the same however you will be using different tools. In this tutorial I will primarily talk about the bitmap way of doing it. However, I will talk a little about “Smart Objects” and how to create them when your character is done.

When choosing the background color you can go with whatever background you like. However “Black” (#000000) wouldn’t be recommended as it will be the color of the outlining of the character. The sketch lines if you will. I am going with a white background to start with. I will work a little on the background when I finish up the character though.

Step 2 – The Head

Alright, let’s start out with the shape of the head. We are going to use a couple of tools to get the right feel without using the “Pen” tool. Even though the pen tool is really useful in most situations as you can modify the lines when you have already drawn them I find the process a bit time consuming and prefer doing things fast and easy. However, when you are creating this character in vector graphics it’s kind of the way you have to go in order for it to become ultimately scalable.

So, before we start adding outlines, create a new layer and name it “Character Head“. Now, pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create an oval measuring Width: 160 and Height: 190. Fill the oval by selecting the “Paint Bucket Tool”. Fill it with the color Black (#000000). What we need to do now is to take a part of the fill out in order to get the desired outline line we want. So again, with the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” draw an oval measuring Width: 152 and Height: 182. Place the oval in the immediate center of your filled oval and then press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

We also need to delete the bottom half of the oval as the ehad won’t be an exact oval due to the cheek bones and all. So, with the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" select the bottom half of the bottom cutting it in perfect halfs. When selected again press the "Delete” key to erase it.

Now we should have a half of an oval drawn with just an outline which will in the end make up the top of the head. It should look something like this:

We now have the top of the head done and now moving on to the cheek bones. This time we will be using the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” in order to create a flowing and vibrant line meant to look like it’s hand drawn. With the “Polugonal Lasso Tool" draw a similar line to what I have on the right side of the head. We will go ahead and copy the right half of the head later to the left in order to make it summetric.

After drawing it and filled it, againg using the "Paint Bucket Tool“, you should have a cheek bone outline looking something like this:

Now what we need to do is to copy the right side to the left. But first we need to delete the entire half side of the head. So, go ahead and pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and select the LEFT half of the head and then press the “Delete” key on your keyboard. After doing so, select the right half of the head and press “CTRL” + “C” to copy the selection.

Press “CTRL” + “V” now to paste the copied selection. As you can see we now have two identical halves which we cannot use. A new layer has been created with the new identical half in it. We need to flip this horizontally in order for it to fit as the left half of the head. With the new, un-named, layer selected choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Flip Horizontal“.

Now we have two opposite sides of the head so go ahead an place it next to the right half to make it a complete head. After positioning the left half to the right correctly you should now have something looking like this:

You might think the head looks a little stiff and hard at this point. No worries. When we’ve added a slew of details to it its going to look quite good and the hard lines makes for a great facial appearance.

Before we start of the eyes we need to add some skin to the actual head. Create a new layer underneath the “Character Head” layer and name it “Character Skin“. Again, pick the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” and select the insides of the head. Important here is that you stay IN (actually in the middle of the outline) the outline (not inside the outline). After selecting the whole head fill the selection using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use either a Brown color or a lighter pink color depending on what kind of skin type you would like your character to have. I am using a brighter skin tone for this character (#ecc0a7). After filling your selection you should have something looking like this:

Step 3 – The Eyes

We now have the head all outlined and  it’s now time for us to create the eyes. Create a new layer above the “Character Skin” layer and name it “Character Eyes“. Time to get to work on the eyes.

Select the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create an oval measuring Width: 36 and Height: 32. This will become the character’s left eye. Fill the selection using White (#ffffff) as the color.

Now, using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” create a couple of lines outlining the eye which we also can add some eye lashes to in a second. I created these lines to make the eyes more recognizable.

Now when we have the eyes somewhat outlined roughly we can go ahead and add the eye lashes and the eye lid lines to create more details to the eyes before we start to add the iris and the main details.

Pick the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” and add small eye lashes to the left side of the eye attached to the line we just created there. Don’t add eye lashes all the way through the line. Just a few to the left side of the eye as it’s where you usually see them. After adding the eye lashes you should have something looking like this:

We also need to mark the eye lid out so that the character appears more human like. This is accomplished by just adding a small line just above the eye itself. To do this we need to add another layer, This time add a new layer underneath the “Character Eyes” layer (we will later fuse these layers so no need to name this new layer).

Select the “Elliptical Marque Tool” and create an oval measuring Width: 46 and Height: 34 and place the top of the oval a few pixels above the top of the eye. Fill the oval using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color Black (#000000). Now, move the oval down and right just a little bit and then press the “Delete” key on your keyboard. This will delete most of the oval and leave a small line marking the eye lid.

After adding this line you should now have something looking like this:

As you can see, the eye is taking form and giving a more detailed appearance to the face. However, wee need to add the iris and other details to the eye before it becomes entirely believable. Also, if you haven’t figured it out already, I am creating a female character.

Create a new layer (no need to name it). Pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle in the center of the eye measuring Width: 27 and Height: 27. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool“. Color is entirely up to you. I have chosen a Brown color (#6c2e21) to give the character more depth.

Also go ahead and create another circle in the middle of the circle that you have just created and fill it with Black (#000000) color. This will make up the “Pupil” of the character.

Before we add some gloss to the eye we need to mark out the edges of the iris a little bit. This we can accomplish by adding an outline to the iris itself. Right click the iris layer and choose “Blending Options…“. In the menu to your left choose “Stroke” and insert the following settings:

The color I am using is a dark Brown color (#2f0d06).

Before we take a look at the final result of the eye itself we need to add some gloss to the eye as well. Create a new layer on top of the layer you’re working with (do not name it).

Again, choose the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” create two circles. One at the top right corner measuring Width: 12 and Height: 12. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use White as color (#ffffff).

Create another circle at the bottom left corner measuring Width: 7 and Height: 7. Again fill it with White color (#ffffff).

After adding these details you should now have something looking like this:

Before we continue to the nose we need to bundle up our layers and copy the eye to the right side in order for the character to have two eyes. This is not as hard as it sounds. But there are a few things we need to do in order for it not to look weird. Select all the layers that has to do with the eye except the gloss layer and press the “CTRL” + “E” to merge these layers.

Now, copy the layer you ended up with by selecting it using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and pressing “CTRL” + “C” and the pressing “CTRL” + “V” to paste it. Again, we need to flip this new layer horizontally. Choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Flip Horizontal“.

We need to align the eyes just right and position them correctly so I will just go ahead and position my eyes and then show you where I put them. You can just position the right eye on the same distance as I have to the left, merge the layers as we did before and then just position them in the right vertical position.

Also, when you have aligned the eyes just right, copy the gloss layer and without flipping it position it in the right eye.

Here’s how it should look when you have positioned everything just right:

There, the eyes are done and all we have to do is to add some shadowing to create a more 3D like effect. But that we will get to later in this tutorial. Now on to the nose.

Step 4 – The Nose

The nose is fairly easy to create. However, there is a bunch of different ways to create a nose depending on what you want it to look like. I am going for a somewhat small noise slightly bent upwards. After you are done with this tutorial you can go ahead and experiment with different ways of doing it.

We need a new layer for the nose so go ahead and create a new layer and name it “Character Nose“. Select the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle measuring Width: 13 and Height: 13. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color Black (#000000).

Without deselecting your selection, move it slightly to the right and then press “Delete” on your keyboard to delete most of the circle leaving only a simple outline which will be the left side of the nostril wing.

We need to add the nostril itself before we copy the entire left side of the nose to the right side. Go ahead and choose the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” once again if you don’t already have it. Create an oval measuring Width: 5 and Height: 7. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and again use the color Black (#000000).

We also need to rotate the nostril a little bit to get the right angle of the nostril. Select the nostril alone and then choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate“.

Rotate the nostril “-75 degrees” and then positioning it about 3 pixels from the nostril wing and 3 pixels from the nostril wing bottom.

Now, copy the left side of the nose by selecting it using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and pressing “CTRL” + “C” and then pasting it by pressing “CTRL” +”V“. Now position the right side of the nose to the right side of the left side of the nose. The length between the two sides is entirely up to you to play with. If you want to do it exactly as I am doing it then just check the result hereunder and try to duplicate the length.

After positioning your right side of the nose then merge the two layers into one nose layer named “Character Nose“.

When you have positioned the right side of the nose, merged the two layers you should have something looking like this:

There, our nose is in place and again we will add some shadowing to it later in this tutorial to give it more depth. But for now it serves its purpose quite well.

Step 5 – The Eyebrows

With our nose in place we can now move on to the eyebrows in order to give the character some…err…character. This one is quite simple however probably the one that makes the biggest differents as it’s with the eyebrows we determine what kind of mood our character is in. Angry, Sad, Happy or just neutral. I will go for a more neutral look but you are free to experiment all you want to try and bring out the feeling you want your character to have.

Create a new layer and name it “Character Eyebrows“. Choose the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” and draw the eyebrow you feel most represents your character. If you’re going for the same as I am this is how I have decided to draw it:

Now all we have to do is to copy the left eye bro to the right side and align it correctly. Select the left eyebrow and copy it by pressing “CTRL” + “C“. Paste it by pressing “CTRL” + “V“. Now position it correctly and aligned with the left eyebrow on the right side.

After positioning it correctly merge the two eyebrow layers so it is one layer named “Character Eyebrows“. After doing so you should now have something looking like this:

There, our eyebrows are in place and we can move on to the mouth. Later on we will work on some shadowing to give them more 3d depth but that again comes later in this tutorial.

Step 6 – The Mouth

Here is the second hardest phase of the facial features. The mouth is such an important piece of the face that we really need to pay attention to the lining of it. We could go for a moth with big luscious lips or we could go with a more normal one or really, there’s a million choices here. I however, will go for a more normal mouth.

Create a new layer and name it “Character Mouth“. Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” I draw the left side of the mouth in order to copy it and use the same for the right side. All to make it more symmetrical. However, you can always freehand both sides to make it more "sketchy" and "cartoonish". I am doing it this way to make sure it stay symmetrical. While adding shadows later we get a chance to make it more free hand sketched looking anyways.

When free handing a mouth, remember that you are only drawing the outlines of the mouth and lips. If it would have been a male character we would have only worked with lines in order to give it a little harder features as a male almost never have luscious lips and so forth.

Now, copy the right side of the mouth to the left side and align it (you should know how to copy and paste by now). Don’t forget to merge the two layers so you have the whole outline of the mouth in just one layer.

After free handing the mouth it is looking like this:

There, our outline for the mouth is done. We need to color it as well in order to make it fit with the character itself. Create a new layer underneath the “Character Mouth” layer. Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” again select the lips by following the lines setting the point in the middle of the stroke itself. After having selected the lips fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool”. You can use any color you like whether you want lipstick colors or something in that direction. I am going for somewhat natural lips so I am using a darker Pink / Brown color (#cf9679).

Time to add the teeth. It’s rather simple and we are of course using White (#ffffff) as color. Again using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” select the inside area of the mouth again setting the points in the middle of the outline line. Fill the mouth using the “Paint Bucket Tool” once again.

We need just a couple of lines more to accentuate the teeth correctly. With the “Character Mouth” layer selected, in the left side of the mouth, add a small triangle (somewhat of a triangle, almost lines) using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool“. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color Black (#000000).

You can now go ahead and merge all the mouth layers by selecting all of them and then press “CTRL” + “E“. Remember to name the layer “Character Mouth” if doesn’t already have that name.

All you have to do now is to align the mouth to where you want it. I have decided to position the mouth quite close to the nose to give the character a more Manga influence.

After you have done all the above to create the mouth you should now have something looking like this:

There, our mouth is now in place and as you can see we are starting to get quite an interesting face despite the hard head lines we first started out with. We will further smoothing these out later with even more details making the viewer unaware of the rectangular facial outline. However, first we need to add the ears.

Step 7 – The Ears

Now comes the most tricky part. Not so much the creation of it but the description of each step. However, I will try and explain it the best I can and with the including images I am sure you will be able to follow the process.

Create a new layer and name it (yup, you guessed it!) “Character Ears“. Choose the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create an oval measuring Width: 30 and Height: 46. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use Black (#000000) as color. Create a new oval measuring Width: 22 and Height: 38. Position this new oval selection in the middle of the newly created and filled oval and press “Delete” on your keyboard to delete the selection.

Select the new outlined oval and choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate“. Rotate the outlined oval “20” degrees. Move the “Character Ears” layer underneath the “Character Skin” layer and position the ear’s oval top approximately aligned to the top of the eyes on the right side of the character head.

It should look something like this when aligned:

Now comes the tricky part. Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” create the ear lines to give it more detail and depth. By looking at the image below add the necessary lines to make your ear look exactly like mine.

Here’s how my ear looks after adding the inner ear details:

Alright, so the details for our ear is now there and all we have to do now is add a little bit of skin and then copy it to the left side of the head. Add a new layer underneath the “Character Ears" layer (no need to name it) and again using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” select the ear by adding the selection to the middle of the outlining of the entire ear.

After you have your selection all done fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the same skin color as you used for the face. In my case I am using a kind of Pink / Brown (#ecc0a7) color.

Merge the skin and the ear outline layer and name it “Character Ears” using the “CTRL” + “E” command.

Alright, our ear is colored and now we need to copy it to the left side of the head. Using the “CTRL” + “C” to copy and “CTRL” + “V” to paste copy the ear to the left side and align it to the same position that the right ear has.

After doing all this you should now have something looking like this:

Now, merge the two ear layers and make sure the layer is name “Character Ears“.

Alright, our ears are in place and now we can move on to the hair. We are now very close to add some shadows to the face and the up-coming neck so hang in there.

Step 8 – The Neck

Let’s add the neck before we start adding the hair. As the hair will be in a ponytail we need to add the neck in order to know where the ponytail is going to end up showing. The neck is one of the easiest parts to add to the character but again, there is a slew of choices you have when creating it. Either you go for a thick and larger sized neck which then will make the character look either fat or muscular. I am going for a fairly normal/slim neck to fit my character just fine.

Create a new layer and call it “Character Neck” directly above the “Character Skin” layer. Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” go ahead and create a line on the right side of the check bottom looking similar to what I have created underneath. Try keeping your outlines the same size all through the creation of your character. If it should differ from time to time and in various locations no worries. They can actually add to the feeling that the character is hand drawn using a pen.

When you have drawn the line, approximately the same size and length that I have done you should have something looking like this:

Now copy the newly created neck line using the “CTRL” + “C” command and paste it using the “CTRL” + “V” command. Also flip it horizontally the new layer choosing “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Flip Horizontal“.

We have to fit some skin to the next as well before we go ahead and add the hair. But let’s first merge the two neck line layers. Select the newly created layer (if not already selected) and then merge the two by using the “CTRL” + “E” command. You should now have one layer named “Character Neck“.

Select the “Character Skin” layer. Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” trace the neck line (again set your points in the middle of the line) all the way down and then imagine the invisible line where the neck would go until you again trace the right neck line all the way up to the position you started from. Fill the selection with the same skin color we used for the head. In my case the Pink / Brown (#ecc0a7) color.

After doing all this you should now have something looking like this:

There, our neck is now finished and we can move on to the hair. As you can see we are getting closer to a whole character and with a little bit of imagination you can create so many different faces just by adding different eyes etc. to your character.

Step 9 – The Hair

So it’s time to add the hair. As you can imagine there are quite a lot of hair styles we could choose from and you are free to pick whatever style you feel fits your character. I am going for a simple and stylish ponytail with a few streaks of hair hanging in front of the face.

Remember, here’s where your creativity comes in. You have the freedom to create a cool hairstyle so work on it a little and make it your own personal flavor. For references just look at pictures, your own hairstyle or come up with an entirely new on. Not an easy task but you are welcome to try.

Create a new layer directly above the “Character Head” layer and name it “Character Hair“. As always, use the “Polygonal Marquee Tool" to create the outline of the hairstyle. Make sure you’re keeping the lines flowing and in the same size as the rest ot the character outlining. This will ensure a way more unison character in the end. You are free to copy my hairstyle but praxtice is the best thing to do to learn.

After outlining the hairstyle you should have something looking like this (if you chose to copy the hearstyle that I did):

As you can see, the result get significantly more interesting after adding the hair. The hair does so much for the face that without it the face sometimes looks plain and uninteresting. As you probably also noticed the lines as way more “hand drawn” in their appearance. This is to give the hair a little bit more depth and life. Hair is never straight even if it is a short haircut.

We can now go ahead and add some color to the hair. I think I am going for Yellow (#ffd131) as it will add alittle bit of detail to the face. Create a new layer above the "Character Skin” layer and name it “Character Hair Color“. We do this in order to be able to change the color of the hair at a later stage if we so would want to.

Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” (and having selected the newly created layer) trace the hair outline (again setting your points in the middle of the line) until you have selected the whole hair area. In order to add more areas, if your hair should be in several pieces just like mine, hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard when you start a new selecting a new area and the old selection will still be selected.

After selecting your hair, fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and your desired hair color. After doing this you should now have something looking like this (you might have to trace the excess hair color with the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” and delete it if you’re going over the head and ear outlines):

As you can see we’re getting somewhere however the hair looks kind of flat and odd. We can change that by adding some shine to it.

Create a new layer above the “Character Hair Color” layer and name it “Character Hair Shine“. Again using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” go ahead and trace up the patterns (if you’re creating a hairstyle just like me. If not…then your imagination have to work a little) that I have created in the image below.

After tracing these selections the fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with a brighter shade of the color you are using, in my case I am going for something in between Creamy Yellow / White (#ffeba5).

As you can see I modified the hair a little bit making sure it was flowy enough. I also removed any overlapping where the hair disrupted the flow of any outlines. After doing this you should now have something looking like this:

We’re getting closer and closer to a neat cartoon illustration don’t you think? Well, a few steps left until we’re at the end of this tutorial so hang in there. Next is the shadowing.

Step 10 – The Shadowing

Time to add some depth to the face. Now we are going to add some shadows to the skin to make it appear a little bit more 3d. How you shadow your character is essential to the end result. Off shadows could make it look weird and throw the view off. Imagine a light source and work from there.

Create a new layer directly above the “Character Skin” layer and name it “Character Facial Shadows“. Using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” (and the newly created layer selected) start tracing out where you want your shadows to be. If you’re are unsure just take a look where I put mine and you can work from there.

After selecting where your shadows should be use a darker color of the skin tone you’re using. In my case I am using a darker Pink / Brown (#dfb096) color.

There you have my selection as well as the shadowing. These shadows are meant as facial feature shadows. To bring out the features of the bones underneath it as well as a little shadowing for the hair. Now you’re wondering why I have only made shadows on one side of the character. Well, to simplify the process again we’re going to copy the  left side cheek shadow to the right. Us the “CTRL” + “C” and “CTRL” + “V” command as we’ve done so many times before.

We still have a few more shadows to add to the face before we move on. Now we have to switch the color to an even darker skin color as we will be working with more distinctive features of the face. Again using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” trace exactly what I have traced and fill it with the darker color of your skin color if different from mine. I am using an even darker shade of Pink / Brown (#cd9a7d) color.

After adding these shadows and copying the left side of the cheek shadow to the right you should now have something looking like this:

OK, there is a few things to point out here. As you can see there are a few shadows added. The eyes, hair, neck and the ears I used the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” to select where the shadows should be. However for the nose I chose to use the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and just created a little oval spanning from nostril to nostril to create that depth of the nose.

Our face has now been completed and we can move on the clothes now. However, there are a dew things you could do to enhance the face even more. You could for example add some shadows to the eyes to create a more round feeling. You could add a darker shade of yellow to create even more depth in the hair. Also on the teeth you could add some shadowing but we’re not going to do that this time around.

Step 11 – The Clothes

Time to put some clothes on our character before we are done. Yup, we are that close. As usual we have a ton of options here to choose from. What kind of clothes to put on your character is entirely up to you. I will go ahead and add a shirt just for fun.

The “Polygonal Marquee Tool” is one of the most used in this tutorial and it is exactly what we’re going to use once again to create the outline for our character clothes. If you’re creating your own clothes the remember to keep the line flowing and the same size as always before.

If you’re copying what I do then just look at the outline I have done below and just take your time and perfect your outlining skills.

Create a new layer on top of all the other layers and name it “Character Clothes“. This layer will be the target layer for all your clothes outline layers. Sometimes one need a few layers to create several pieces of clothes in order not to mix them up. At a later stage we just merge them all and we’ll have one single layer containing all the outlines for the character’s clothes. So, if you need additional layers to create your clothes never hesitate. Go ahead and add as many layers as you need.

After outlining your clothes (if you have done what I have) you should have something looking like this:

As you can see I have only created the right half of the shirt. It’s because I am going to copy the right half to the left side and just make minor changes such as adding buttons instead of the holes etc. You can go ahead and copy the right half (first make sure all your clothes layers are merged into one layer called “Character Clothes” with the “CTRL” + “E” command) to the left side of the character and then align it just right so it looks like a complete shirt.

Time to add some color to the clothes. I say clothes as there is a couple of lines in there that will make out the t-shirt this lady is wearing underneath the shirt itself. Again you can go ahead an pick whatever color you’d like for your character but I will go for something more colorful such as Red (#b00000).

Create a new layer underneath the “Character Clothes” layer and name it “Character Clothes Color“. This is the layer we can add the colors for the characters clothes. Remember to use the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” to trace the outline before filling in your clothes with the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

After you have done this you should now have something looking like this:

Our shirt is now colored and as you see there is still some painting to be done. I want the edge of the T-shirt to have a Pink (#ff9e9e) color and we need to paint the rest of the neck as well. It’s easily accomplished by again tracing the outlines using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” and the filling it using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

Don’t forget to switch to the “Character Skin” layer when you are adding the color for the skin and then back again to the “Character Clothes Color” layer when you are adding color to the clothes. It’s a lot easier to keep track of everything if you stick to your layers and keeping it tidy and neat.

Now go ahead and add the colors and after you have done that you should now have something looking like this:

Clothes are colored and so is the character’s skin. There is only one part left now and that is to give the clothes some shadows to make them look even more 3d.

Step 12 – The Clothes Shadows

Only one thing left to do and that is to give the clothes a little bit of shadow treatment. We need to shadow the skin a little bit more where the shirt is. We also need to highlight the sides of the shirt as the light source seems to be coming from somewhere above and behind. We also need to add some shadows to the shirt where the light is fading. And lastly, we need to add some shadows to the shirt that is underneath where the shirt is blocking the light. All simple and straight forward really.

Let’s add the shirt shadows first. Create a new layer above the “Character Clothes Color” and name it “Character Clothes Shadows“. Using a darker shade of Red (#8c0000) just go ahead and add shadows where you can imagine the light can’t reach. Or, just copy what I am doing. Look at the result below after I have added the shadows:

Don’t forget to add shadows to the back of the collar as well. Really easy to forget that place as it’s already red. However adding a darker red there can sometimes do the trick of making it look 3D like.

Let’s move on to the high lighting of the shirt to accentuate the light source a bit. Again using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” and this time a brighter shade of Red (#d63737) create the spots that your clothes needs or just copy mine for simplicity. You can always get ideas from looking at other cartoons or just look yourself in the mirror and try and spot the highlights and shadows on yourself.

Still use the same layer and if you want change the name to “Character Clothes Shine & Shadows" to know eher everything is. Not a must just in case you should forget where you put your shines.

After ading the high lights you should now have something looking like this:

High lighting is a great way to make something look a little bit more real in terms of 3 dimensional space. Only a couple of things left to do now before we are done.

Lets add the shadows on the neck skin to make it look like the shirt actually blocks the light from coming through to the skin. Again using the “Polygonal Marquee Tool” (this you all know by now) use the same skin shadow color as before, the Pink / Brown shade (#cd9a7e) we have under the chin.

Make sure you imagine the light coming from behind and above. The shadow under the chin could work as a guideline here. After adding the shadow you should now have something looking like this:

Already making much more sense doesn’t it. Alright, let’s hit the last hurdle and add the shadowing on the T-Shirt. Let’s go for both colors at the same time. You should be able to handle it by now.

The colors I am using is a darker shade of Pink (#db7676) and a brighter shade of Gray (#cacaca). Make sure you keep the shadows in a straight line from where we left off with the skin shadow. A broken line can easily create some odd effects if not careful. Add these to the T-Shirt and when you are done you should have something looking like this:

Our character is all done and as you see we have come a long way from the edgy and clunky head shape that we started out with.

Round Up

As you probably understand there is a lot you can still add to this character and this way of creating an illustrated cartoon. You can add additional details to the eyes, work more on the shadows, create several sets of eyes, eyebrows, hairstyles etc. in order to make your character look even more pimped out.

In this composed and finished image I have added a background to give the image some additional depth. Your imagination is the limit and whatever you feel would fit your character just go ahead and add it. Create a full scale character if you want to. Adding the rest of the body shouldn’t be that hard now when you have completed the hardest part in creating the entire upper body. And in detail as well.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have done creating it. I get so inspired every time I finish up a tutorial and right away I always have something else I want to create a tutorial about. So, don’t worry. I am in great creative spirit so it won’t be very long until there is another tutorial up here at Minervity.com.

Thanks!

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator  are still the best softwares to use when it comes to image manipulation.  But for the budget conscious and those just trying it out for the first time or working on personal projects.  Some might even feel intimidated buying the premium soft wares so we have put together 12 alternative digital tools.  The aim here is to empower our readers to try out different tools and use which one they would feel they can be comfortable with.

The GIMP

The “GNU Image Manipulation Program” (originally the General Image Manipulation Program) sired by Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis.   In their own words, “GIMP is our answer to the current lack of free (or at least reasonably priced) image manipulation software for GNU/Linux and UNIX in general.”

It is a raster editor, which means that it performs operations directly on the pixels that make up the image, and not a vector editor.  Users wanting to edit photographs will certainly want a raster editor like GIMP. Graphic designers and illustrators may prefer a vector editor depending on their tastes.

Inkscape

An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.  Yes! While Inkscape does not have all the features of the leading vector editors, the latest versions provide for a large portion of basic vector graphics editing capabilities.  People report successfully using Inkscape in a lot of very different projects (web graphics, technical diagrams, icons, creative art, logos, maps). For example, thousands of images on Wikipedia are created with Inkscape, as is the majority of the content on openclipart; many examples of Inkscape art can be seen here and here. We try to always keep the codebase usable for real users, as we believe that a tight iteration cycle between users and developers will give best results. You can start using Inkscape alongside your other tools now!

Line Form

Lineform is the ideal Mac app for vector art, diagrams and illustrations. Useful features combined with a simple interface to create a wonderfully intuitive artistic process. Lineform has all of the most popular tools, including everything from freeform gradients to compositing effects, enabling you to create the designs you want without getting in your way with superfluous “features” you don’t need. Lineform is the clear modern Mac alternative to Illustrator, FreeHand, and other more costly or bloated vector drawing apps. Giving it a spin to try out its features and interface is sure to showcase its powers.

Blue Fish

Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdesigners, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, and it focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites. See features for an extensive overview, take a look at the screenshots, or download it right away. Bluefish is an open source development project, released under the GNU GPL licence.  The latest stable version is Bluefish 1.0.7. This is the preferred version. It requires gtk version 2.0 or newer (gtk 2.4 or newer is recommended), libpcre 3.0 or higher and (optional) libaspell 0.50 or higher for spell checking and (also optional, but recommended) gnome-vfs for remote files. More information is available in our manual.

Creative Docs.NET

Creative Docs .NET is a vector-based graphic design tool with support for rich text, ideal to quickly write short documents, manuals, posters, illustrations, schemas, plans, flow charts, and much more.  The interface is tailored for high productivity: it does never get in your way. Creative Docs .NET tools are simple, yet powerful. All styles and attributes can be modified interactively with a minimum number of mouse clicks. A color gradient, for instance, can be modified directly by dragging its handles in the document window.

Note: This software is being actively developed.

Pixlr

While it’s not the most full-featured image editor you’ll ever use, Pixlr makes it fairly easy to do some sophisticated (and unsophisticated) things with images online. The Flash-based web app has an impressive set of tools, from a text engine that can use nearly any font available on your computer to layers and filters for masking and effects, respectively. Incredibly, there’s even a multilevel undo! You can import images from your machine or via URL, or paint something up yourself, and either way save it to your desktop. It’s fun to play around with, though quickly frustrating if you’re used to more powerful tools.

Sumo Paint 1.1

If you’re looking for an alternative to Photoshop or would just like to be able to create and edit images from any computer with a flash enabled browser, then Sumo Paint is your answer. While Sumo Paint May not be a Photoshop killer, it is a great alternative for those who either can’t or won’t pay the price for Adobe’s Photoshop.  Check out the video of Sumo Paint in action after the jump.

Sumo Paint is a free online image editor that operates within any flash enabled browser. Surprisingly fast loading and stable, Sumo Paint is packed with many great features and tools that will be very familiar to any Photoshop user. Some of these great features include: layers with blending modes and layer effects, filters, shape tool, brush tool, eraser tool, magic wand, clone stamp, blur tool and many more. There are also a few unique tools like the symmetry and curve tools. The user interface looks a lot like Photoshop and is very straight forward and clean.

source

Artweaver

Artweaver is a Windows Freeware program to simulate natural brush tools. It is therefore suitable to leave your creativity free run. Artweaver offers you a clear program window, which can be used without training immediately.

Artweaver is available in English and German language. Through support for language files, the Artweaver program window can be translated easily into other languages.

Artweaver supports only 24-bit color depth. Other color depths (e.g. 256-colors) are automatically converted to 24-bit. I.e. pictures with another color depth than 24-bit are converted to 24-bit when opening/importing. For what can I use Artweaver? Artweaver is meant for users, who want to bring their creativity on digital paper. Artweaver can be used for different work, e.g.:

• Digital art, for creating realistic works.
• Photo improvements, for converting photos into realistic paintings and changing or improving parts of them.

Aviary

Aviary is a suite of free web-based multi-media applications currently in development from Worth1000, using the Adobe Flex platform. The individual tool names are bird-themed, hence the suite name. The scope of proposed tools has drawn comparisons to the Zoho Office Suite. Aviary exited their invitation-only beta in October, 2008 and announced subscription plans for private collaboration under their blue plan. They have 2 plans: a free plan and a Pro plan. Only Aviary Pro members can test current alpha releases ahead of time. Pro Members also have the ability to remove the Aviary Watermark, create groups, and view Premium Tutorials as well as unlimited storage. Aviary released Raven, their web-based vector editor on February 9, 2009.  ^(source)

Choco Flop

ChocoFlop is a graphics manipulation Mac-based solution.

ChocoFlop is based entirely on Core Image.

ChocoFlop allows you to edit your photos or design stuff using Apple’s CoreImage technology. It takes advantage of the power of your graphics card (GPU). Thanks to this it is able to show real-time previews of filters and keep modifications live for as long as you want.

This means that you can add for example a blur filter on your text and keep everything dynamic. You can change the strength of your blur filter at any time or edit your text, the blur will apply on the updated text. That’s called non-destructive image edition and it really saves you a lot of time.

Sk1

sK1 is an open source vector graphics editor similar to CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, or Freehand. First of all sK1 is oriented for “prepress ready” PostScript & PDF output.

sK1 editor is a fork of Sketch 0.6.15. It was a result of day-by-day patching of Sketch in an attempt to migrate our printing firm to free software. Sketch development seemed to be stalled already, so when the Sketch/Skencil maintainers decided to switch to Gtk+ widgetset, we were forced to fork. We migrated to Ttk (former Tile widgetset), added CMYK support, color management, and Cairo-based engine.

The “sK1″ name derives from “Sketch/Skencil” and second large K character means that application layout is similar with KDE applications althouh sK1 has no dependencies on KDE libraries. Number 1 means our goal – stable application compartible with Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator and useful for regular usage in prepress.

DrawIt

DrawIt is a vector editing application with support for bitmap-like image filters. Vector editing as well as the filters are completely non-destructive which means that a vector layer can still be edited even after a stack of filters has been applied.

Every vector, image, or text object is a layer. Layers can be grouped and because a group is also a layer, a group can in turn contain other groups. Groups can be resized and filters can be applied to its contents. This in turn creates a truly powerfull tool that can be applied and used into almost endless possibilities.

The skills needed for this tutorial is merely the basic knowledge of the most common tools used in Photoshop. We’ll be tweaking settings for the most part and everything that is apart from the most basic I will of course explain in detail so that even the most novice Photoshop user can follow this tutorial.

Step 1

First off we need to create our workspace. I have chosen the size Width: 450 and Height: 400 to make sure I can get the most detail in to the effect. Of course the bigger the better however the space of this blog makes it somewhat limited to what size on the workspace I can use and still be viewable in this column.

I have chosen to use a “Leather” background to make sure that all the details and shadowing will look as realistic as possible when the text effect is finally finished. You can go ahead and choose whatever background you like and fits your needs. Here is the background I have chosen to use:

Step 2

Now let’s pick a font to use for our text. I’ve gone ahead and used the “Magneto” font which can be purchased here but really any font that fits your need would do just fine. Or even a logo would do it. I’ve gone ahead an typed “Minervity” as my chosen word of obvious reasons.

I have also gone ahead an slightly rotated my text a few degrees using “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate“. If you haven’t done this before no worries. You will still be able to edit the text anyway you like if you want to change the text or something. Even if you rotate it the text doesn’t fixate in any way.

After adding our text you should now have something looking like this:

Step 3

Time to add some effects to our text to make it look more like a “Chrome” text. The way we are going to add effects to our text is to use the property “Blending” . Right click on you “Text” layer and choose “Blending Options…” In the window you get presented with choose “Bevel and Emboss” in the left menu of the window. Insert the following settings:

Here is the crucial step. If the font you have chosen doesn’t come out the way my preview will show then you can adjust the bevel to fit the size and structure of your text/shape by playing with the “Size” slider here in the “Bevel and Emboss” settings until you feel you have a matching effect. After adding these settings to my font I have this:

Step 4

We also need to add some shine to our text. The easiest way to accomplish this in a realistic way is to use the “Gradient Overlay” under “Blending Options…” In the left menu now choose “Gradient Overlay” and add the following settings:

As you can see the overlay gradient isn’t “Black” to “White“. Go ahead and click the actual gradient and click the left bottom box and change the color to “#000629“.

After applying these settings you should now have something looking like this:

Step 5

Alright, with that done we now need to add something that accentuates the structure and outer rim of our text. We can achieve that by adding a “Black” outside stroke to the text. In the menu to your left (still being in the “Blending Options…” window) select “Stroke” and add the following settings:

As you can see it adds quite a nice effect to the text/shape and really brings out the structure of our Chrome object. After applying the “Stroke” settings you should now have something looking like this:

Step 6

Now to our final step. We need to add some shadowing to our text in order for it to look realistic and for it to fit the scene. Often shadowing can make or break a picture if the artists/designer isn’t careful enough with the settings or cause of the lack of it entirely.

So let’s add some shadows. In the menu to your left choose “Drop Shadow” and insert the following settings:

As you can see the shadows had a definite effect on the text and it makes the text pop out in a way that’s not recreational any other way. Never be afraid to play around with the shadow settings. Usually it adds more depth to the picture the more you add to a certain point.

After adding the “Drop Shadow” effect you should now have something looking like this:

Round Up

What you can do to add even more detail to the text making it look more eye-catching is to add “Lens Flares” and “Shines” to the text/shape. If you do it carefully you will be able to create a stunning result. Just be careful. Too much of the good will make it look odd and out of place.

Also, playing around with the settings can give you some additional effect in your text. By taking off some of the bevel size you will get a cleaner “cut” of your font with less smooth edges. Sometimes this can be perceived as a “Platinum” text. Some detail to that and you will have another great text effect to add to your collection.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have enjoyed creating it. Been a while since I finished a tutorial but I feel this one was one that will make myself a little bit more pro-active.

I am now on to my next tutorial and I have a hunch that it will be yet another “Text” effect for you to utilize and share.

Thanks!

Skills needed for this effect is just the basic skills of how to use Photoshop itself and it’s most common tools. Everything else will be explained in detail so you will be able to follow it quite nicely.

The first method we’re going to be trying out is the most basic one. Blurring everything that’s in the background to make the focused object stand out more.

Depth Blur

Load your photo into Photoshop. Doesn’t really matter what  resolution it is just as long as you make the whole photo visible in your work area. I will be using this photo for this first method:

This method we’ll call “Depth Blur” and it will make the object in focus all clear and the rest blurry to put accentuation on the object the viewer is supposed to focus on.

The first thing we need to do is to select the object in the foreground. Use the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” to select the object. Before we add any blurring to the image me must copy what we just selected to be able to have it in focus later on. Choose “Edit” -> “Copy” for now. We will paste it after we are done with our blurring.

No choose “Select” -> “Inverse” to invert your selection to anything but the object you want to be in focus. Your selection should now be like this opposed to the one you had first (the selection is changed):

No Choose “Filter” -> “Blur” -> “Gaussian Blur” and insert the following settings:

As you can see our picture immediately gets more depth to it but we still have some fragments from the object in focus bleeding over into the blurry making it a bit unfocused on the edges. This we can fix with a little bit of “Liquify“modification. But first, let’s paste in our copied focused object. Choose “Edit” -> “Paste“. This will create a new layer with our copied object inside of it.

Now, select the “Background” layer and choose “Filter” -> “Liquify…“. This will open up another editing section where you can drag and alter your background image. In the right menu change the “Brush Size” to “16” instead of “100“.

Now, focus on the object in focus. With your “Forward Warp Tool” selected go ahead and drag the edges inwards toward the center all the time until you are certain that no edges of the object in focus are seen as a blurry edge under the object in focus when we are done here. Here is an image taken when I was done dragging the edges to the center of the object:

Alright, after doing that you can now go ahead and click “OK“. As you can see now with with the liquefied background and the “in focus” top layer of the object we want to accentuate the image sure gets more depth. The bleed edges are gone and the object is in pure focus now. Here is the “Before” effect applied and “After” the effect is applied:

That’s about it! With these easy steps you can create quite professional and stunningly realistic depth of field to your old photo’s that you just don’t want to use because you think they lack that professional look to them.

Now, on to the second method.

Gradient Blur

This method is as easy as the first method but delivers a totally different kind of effect. In some photo’s this method could be of better use as it has a more smoother transition between the focused area and the blurry area. If you have a photo that has a gradient falloff you may definitely have some use of this method.

Load your image into Photoshop, again make sure that you  the whole image is in view. When an image is far bigger then the plain view it can sometimes be hard to select the object entirely with it’s smallest details. If you find it hard to get the smaller detailed selected then you can of course zoom in and select it that way. However, make sure you see the whole image while you work with the blurring itself. That way you get more power controlling the outcome.

I will work with an image that has some falloff potential along with a great object that I can put the focus on.

As you can see the whole photo is in focus in this image. Gives little depth as it seems the whole photo is somewhat 2D. We will start by selecting the near vicinity of the car along with the entire car itself. My selections is like this:

A great trick is to actually select some of the area around the car that you want to remain in focus as well as it would look somewhat weird having all the surroundings, even in front of the car, out of focus. That would come across as odd and unnatural.

Now copy the the selection and paste it again in the same position as it is making the “paste” look seamless in the whole composition.

Select the “Background” layer and click the “Channels” tab. Create a new layer, it will automatically name itself “Alpha“. With your new layer selected choose the “Gradient Tool”, make the colors “White” (#FFFFFF) and “Black” (#000000). Now create a gradient from the back end of the car slightly upwards. After creating your gradient you should now have something looking like this:

Of course it depends on what your photo looks like and what angle the depth of field is directed. But for this image this gradient is well off being like this. To explain how the gradient will work is quite easy. Where the “Black” is located is where the focus will still be present while where the “White” is located is where the image will be out of focus.

After applying this gradient select the “RGB” layer at the top of the list and choose “Filter” -> “Blur” -> “Lens Blur…” and play around with the levels until you get a satisfying result. It all depends on how much you want the image to get out of focus. Too much and it will look out of place. Too little and it will have little effect on the image.

I have used these setting for my image which I find quite satisfying:

Click “OK“. After applying these settings now make the “Alpha” level invisible at the bottom of the list by clicking the “eye” of the layer. Your blur should now be in place and as you can see, with our copied “in focus” layer on top it makes for a great realistic “Depth of Field” effect that really fools the eye thinking it was there from the very beginning.

Here are the “Before” and “After” images of the photo. There are a million different ways to create realistic “Depth of Field” effects with these two methods. Just be creative with your gradients or your blur tool and selections and you will get better and better on knowing how they really work and what makes for a realistic result.

Round Up

There! We have now learnt how to create some stunning and realistic “Depth of Field” methods for photo’s that doesn’t have it incorporated already. These methods makes for a great saver of you have managed to capture something right at that second but didn’t catch the “Depth of Field” because it was a one time shot or blink of an eye moment shot. Either way, these methods are sure to help you gain a more professional result when you have practised the secrets of them.

I have had great fun creating this tutorial and I hope you have had a great time practising it. Remember, with just a bit of imagination and some minor skills in using Photoshop you can create some stunning results for sure. Keep practising and you will become the master.

I am now off to another tutorial for you guys! See you in a bit!

Thanks!

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It’s somewhat easy to use textures and other Masking techniques to create a truly realistic result. This time I want to take you through the process without any of those trick and really show you the true power of Photoshop. The tools and features that Photoshop packs is more then powerful so why not use them to it’s full extent.

Step 1

We will start by creating a work area that measures: Width: 500 and Height: 350. make the background Black (#000000). Create a new layer above the “Background” layer and name it “Panel“. In this layer we will create a panel for our neon sign to be attached to.

Now, create a rectangle using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” with the measures Width: 400 and Height: 150. Fill the rectangle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color Dark Gray/Blue (#17181c).

Center the whole thing vertically and horizontally using the “Layer” -> “Align Layers To Selection” – “Vertical Centers” & “Horizontal Centers“. Later we will be adding some reflection to the surface of this panel but for now we are only going to add a little bit more detail to it.

Right click the “Panel” layer and select “Blending Options…” In the menu to your left choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

Our panel is done for now. As said we are going to add a little more details to it later in the process. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 2

Alright, let’s add the text. Pick the “Type Tool” and select “Harlow Solid Italic” font and type whatever you like. Use the font size 100px. Also use the color Neon Blue (#00b4ff). Just make sure you are staying at least 20 pixel inside the panel on each side.

Position your text in the dead center of the Panel. Now, select your newly created “Text” layer and right click it. In the list select “Blending Options…” In the menu to your left again select “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We also need to add some other effects so go ahead and select “Drop Shadow” in the left menu and add the following settings:

We also need to add some inner shadowing to the whole thing. Pick “Inner Shadow” in the left menu and insert the following settings:

Now let’s create the little glow around the text before we continue. In the list to your left select “Outer Glow” and insert the following settings:

Ok, so our text is now complete and we can concentrate on making up the details to make it look more realistic. If all your settings are correctly setup you should now have something looking like this:

Step 3

Let’s create the attachment points for the Neon tube now. Create a new layer underneath the “Text” layer and name it “Attachments“. With the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” create circles measuring Width: 13 and Height: 13. Fill the circle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color Black (#000000).

Put the attachments where you would feel the Neon Tube would need to be attached to the “Panel“. This will require you to repeat the step several times.

When you are done positioning your attachment points select all of them and right click the “Attachments” layer at the bottom and select “Merge Visible“. All your attachment points should now reside in one single layer.

Time to add some effects to the “Attachments” layer. Right click the layer and select “Blending Options…” In the list to your left select “Bevel and Emboss” and add the following settings:

We also need to add some shadowing to these attachments. In the menu to your left go ahead and click “Drop Shadow” and insert the following settings:

Now, with all your settings in place you should now have something looking like this:

There, we are now done with the mounting of the Neon text. Time to move on to the detailing of the panel behind it.

Step 4

First thing we are going to do is to add some reflections to our panel. For this we need to go through a rather complex process. Not so much technically, just for the beginners to understand. I’ll walk you through it.

Ok, create a layer underneath the “Text” layer. No need to name it for now. Select the “Text” layer above it and choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. With all our effects now fixated in one layer (our new layer) select the whole work area and copy the contents of the new layer by pressing “CTRL” and “c“.

Now, we have our fixated layer all in our clipboard so we can go ahead and undo our layer merge by pressing “CTRL“, “ALT” and “z” twice. There, our “Text” layer is now back with all it’s effects intact and editable.

Now, select our newly created (now again empty) layer and press “CTRL” and “v“. Kaching! Our copied merged layer is now present in our new layer underneath the text layer. name the layer “Reflection“.

We now need to position the “Reflection” a bit underneath the real Neon text. First, move the “Reflection” layer underneath the “Attachments” layer. When you have done that choose the “Move Tool” and by using the arrow keys move the “Reflection” 6 pixels vertically underneath the real neon text.

After moving it you should have something looking like this:

We need to work a little with the “Opacity” of our “Reflection” layer so go ahead and change it to “16%“.

We also need to fix some outer glow on the reflection to simulate a nice light effect on the panel. Right click the “Reflection” layer and select “Blending Options…” In the menu to your left select “Outer Glow” and insert the following settings:

With that done we also need to make sure that the glow doesn’t exceed the outer rim of the “Panel“. So, go ahead and right click the “Reflection” layer and select “Create Clipping Mask“. This makes our reflection layer only show its content where the panel is. With all of these settings inserted and the Clipping Mask in place you should now have something looking like this:

Alright, all done with the reflection. However we also need some reflection on the actual panel and that is what we will be doing next.

Step 5

We need to fixate the “Panel” layer to be able to add a little bit more detailing to it. Create a new layer underneath the “Panel” layer. Right click the “Reflection” layer and select “Release Clipping Mask” for now (If we don’t the “Reflection” layer will be merged with the “Panel” layer). With the “Panel” layer selected choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. Our “Panel” layer is fixated. Go ahead and name the new layer “Panel” once again.

Now, go ahead and right click the “Reflection” layer once again and choose “Create Clipping Mask“. All back to normal again.

Select the “Panel” layer and right click it. Choose “Blending Option…” and then click “Bevel and Emboss” in the menu to your left and insert the following settings:

We also need to add some shine to the sides and bottom edges of the panel so go ahead and click the “Stroke” option in the left menu and insert the following settings:

With all the settings in place you should now have something that looks like this:

Round Up

OK, so we are done with our “Neon” sign text effect and it only took as some easy 5 steps to get it done. There is a myriad of different ways to create a believable “Neon” text and this is just one of them. However, without believable details not many of them will come through as realistic and eye catching.

Some creativity from yourself and I am sure you can come up with some clever and really interesting designs for this tutorial. Color and design is quite important in this tutorial. You don’t necessarily have to use a font to utilize this tutorial. Create a symbol or a logo with it and there you go. Something unique and interesting.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did creating it. I am off to write a new one and I am hoping to see you around here often. If you have any requests for a tutorial please feel free to send them to my using the contact form here in Minervity.com

Thanks!

The skill level for this tutorial is quite low. The basic knowledge of how to use the most common tools in basic is required and if you still wouldn’t be that experienced you can just follow this tutorial step by step as I will be commenting everything. It would be quite easy just following what I do.

Oh, and don’t be thrown off by the text. I wanted it to be something else instead of “Stone” as that would have been affecting your mindset to much.

Enjoy!

Step 1

Let’s start by creating our workspace area. Make it Width: 550 and Height: 300 and set the background to Black (#000000) for now.

In the middle of the work area type “STONE (or whatever you prefer) using the “Type Tool“. I am using “Arial Black” and size “130” to make sure I get the best detailing in to it.

Step 2

We are now going to add the realistic texture to it. However, we aren’t going to do it the conventional way. When I usually create designs I want to have as much creative freedom as I can get so we are going to use “Masking” instead to make it easier for us to get the best result possible.

We are going to use a texture which we are going to size several times and you can download it right here “Stone Texture“.

Open your newly downloaded texture file and copy the whole thing. Paste it (when you choose paste it will automatically create a new layer for you) in a new layer on top of our “STONE” text layer and name it “Texture“.

Before we do anything to the layer we need to re-size it a little bit. Choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Scale” and size it so it’s just a little bigger then the text.

Alright go ahead and “Apply” the new size by clicking the “Move Tool“. This should fixate the new size for the texture. Let’s make sure we can really see the details in the texture as well.

With the “Texture” layer selected choose “Filter” -> “Sharpen” -> “Sharpen More“. As you can see the details pop out quite a bit more and we can go ahead and fit the texture to the text.

With the “Texture” layer still selected right click it and select “Create Clipping Mask“. The text is now textured and as you can see, it already give us a realistic feeling. What we have now is a way to manipulate the texture in itself without having to worry about the text. If our texture would have stayed bigger we could have moved around our texture until we would have felt satisfied with its positioning.

Step 3

Let’s add even more realism to the text before we go ahead and do some really cool effects to it. Right click the “Texture” layer and select “Blending Options…” In the left menu select “Gradient Overlay” and insert the following settings:

Step 4

Let’s continue to transform our text into 3D. Select the “STONE” layer and the “Texture” layer by holding down the “Shift” key and clicking on both layers. When selected right click the top layer and choose “Merge Layers“. Name the new layer “STONE“.

With our new merged layer selected choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Perspective” and drag the top right dot inwards “45” degrees.

Step 5

Now we have our perspective set and it’s time to add the 3D looking realism to the text. Copy the “Stone” layer and past a new copy of it underneath the “Stone” layer.

Move the new layer down using the “Move Tool” 20 pixels and also set its “Opacity” to “30%“. We are only going to use this layer as a guide so no need naming it.

We now need to fit the text with the sides. We’ll do it in two groups as we need to have control of the “Bottoms” and the “Sides” of the text for effect settings later on.

Create a new layer underneath the “Stone” layer and above our guide layer. Name it “Bottoms“.

Create rectangles between the top text and the darker bottom text using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and the color White (#000000). Don’t worry about how it looks. Once done we will fit the white rectangles with textures just like we did with the “Stone” text.

With those done, let’s create the sides as well. Create a new layer underneath the “Bottoms” layer and call it “Sides“. This time we need to use the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” to create the sides. Drag straight lines following the edges of the “Stone” text and the guide text and then again fill them using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with white color.

All done creating the sides for our 3D Stonetext. Time to fit them with some textures.

Step 6

Before we continue now we can go ahead and delete the guide layer we’ve been using to make sure our sides are correctly located.

Now, copy the texture we used for the text again and copy it to a layer above the “Bottoms” layer. We again need to re-size this one to fit the text texture so select the layer and again choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Scale” and re-size it so it’s just a little bigger then the “Stone” text itself.

With it re-sized and still selected right click it and choose “Create Clipping Mask“. It pops right in there.

Choose “Filter” -> “Sharpen” -> “Sharpen More” to make its details pop out just like the “StoneText“.

We also need to work a little with the “Brightness” and “Contrast” to make sure it fits to be on the bottom of the text.

With the new texture layer selected choose “Image” -> “Adjustments” -> “Brightness/Contrast…” and insert the following settings:

We also need to fix a little gradient on these bottom textures to make it more realistic. Right click the texture layer and select “Blending Options…” In the menu to the left select “Gradient Overlay” and insert the following settings:

You might have to work a little with the gradient itself. Just click “ON” the gradient and another window will open where you can adjust it to look like mine. You should now have something looking like this:

Alright, time to fix the “Sides” as well. But first, select the new texture layer and the “Bottoms” layer and right click the texture layer and choose “Merge Layers“. name the new layer “Bottoms” again. We just fixated the layer and can now move on to the sides.

Let’s copy the texture again and paste it in a new layer above the “Sides” layer. Again re-size it by selecting the new texture layer and choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Scale” and make it just a little bigger then the text itself. Fixate the new size by clicking on the “Move Tool” when you are done.

Select the layer (if not already selected) and right click it and choose “Create Clipping Mask”. It pops right in there just like the other textures.

As you can see we need to make some adjustments to the texture in order for it to look really believable. First off (with the texture layer selected) choose “Filter” -> “Sharpen” -> “Sharpen More“.

We also should set the “Brightness/Contrast” for the texture. Choose “Image” -> “Adjustments” -> “Brightness/Contrast…” and insert the following settings:

And again we need to add some gradient to it so go ahead and right click the new texture layer and choose “Blending Options…” In the left menu select “Gradient Overlay” and insert the following settings:

Again you might have to fiddle a little with the gradient itself to make it look like mine but it should be that hard I think. After you are done with it you should now have something looking like this:

Step 7

Our text looks more like stone right now but we will fix that in the coming steps. Now, let’s fixate the “Sides” by selecting the new texture layer and the “Sides” layer. Right click the texture layer and choose “Merge Layers“.

Let’s add some edge reflections to the text. Select the “Stone” layer and right click it. Select “Blending Options…“. Select “Bevel and Emboss” in the menu to your left and insert the following settings:

Also click the “Contour” option right underneath the “Bevel and Emboss“. leave the settings as they are.

Now select the “Bottoms” layer and right click it and select “Blending Options…” Again choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

Again click “Contour” to activate it. No need to set anything in this area.

Finally select the “Sides” layer. Right click it and select “Blending Options…” In the menu to your left again select “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings (don’t forget to click the “Contour” option underneath it again):

When everything is setup you should now have something looking like this:

Result

With these few steps done the result is quite realistic. You can add exactly whatever you want to this text. I’ve gone ahead and created reflection floor version as the result.

Round Up

Well, there we go. All done and in just a few steps. You can go ahead and use any textures you want with this technique and the result will come out just as realistic as this one if you just put a little time in to it and work out those details. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have creating it. There is always things to learn from tutorials whether it is a technique or just a particular angle and usage of a tool that you never thought of before.

If you have used this tutorial and use your creation on the Internet or otherwise I would love to check out what you have created. Comment with a link down below and I will as soon as time permits. For me, I am on to my next tutorial.

Thank you!

Need professional assistance for 70-642? Join testking to and get free access to 220-701 as well as 640-822 resources to practice and pass your certification exams.

In this micro tutorial I will teach you how to get the very best out of the “Bevel and Emboss” tool that Photoshop has to offer to make your designs look ultra realistic. Before we get going there are some pointers that need to be expressed. A design can be ultra correct and still not have that realistic look to it. This is usually due to three different factors.

1. Detail – Everything we see around us is not flawless. Everything has its scratches, dirt and distortions. It’s the small bits of imperfect details that makes it real to us.

2. Time – It’s important to spend a lot of time on your realistic designs. Time is what will teach you what will look real and what will not. Just slabbing something together to be time efficient will always set you back when it comes to realism.

3. Creativity – It’s an obvious one but oh so important. Nothing makes up the quality of your designs as much as creativity. Try thinking out of the box. Try using the tools in a non conventional way and you’ll see you will take a huge leap forward raising the quality bar quite a lot.

Alright, let’s get to business. Time to take a look at how we can raise the realism in our designs with a few short tips and tricks. So, in Photoshop we have the option of adding some beveling to any created object in Photoshop. We can do so by right clicking the layer in which the object is located that we want to create a bevel to. Right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…”

A whole bunch of different choices come up in a new window. In the list you can find “Bevel and Emboss“. Click it and you will be taken to it’s settings which we will be playing with.

The trick is really just to try and capture the realism and true angle of things when adding the bevel. It’s really important to study and do some research on how things truly are and how they look. Just adding a bevel to an edge won’t make it look raised or lowered just like that. It is equally important to look at the shadowing of the bevel itself and the angle the light is projected at the bevel.

The object in itself always has a source of light being pointed at it from a direction. It’s important to remember to make the light source come from the same direction consistently. However, not using the exact same settings as light also illuminates itself off of other things around it. This making it even more complex. But, we’ll be talking a little about it in a short bit.

First, let’s take a look at the usual way a novice would add “Bevel” to an object and how we, with just a few carefully set settings, can add much more realism to the object. In this case we’ve just created a rectangle measuring Width: 150 and Height: 150.

Novice Settings and Beveling

As you can see we are here using the very basic settings to create a bevel. This is usually the  way a beginner setup their beveling. However, ultimately incorrect if we are trying recreate some kind of realism in the design itself. A cleaner and much more efficient way to put the tool to its ultimate use is to first try and create a realistic surface to the object and then add beveling and shadowing to is. This will enable the viewer to look at the object in a whole different way.

Let us setup the “pro” way of beveling and surfacing the object. As you will see there is a few more steps to the process. However, not too many and not to complicated.

Pro Settings and Beveling

Now we have created the surface for our object and it now incorporates a clear light source from the top left corner. Time to add some beveling to it before we add some shadowing to it.

We need to “Fixate” the layer to be able to add new layer blending on the layer. Create a new layer underneath the object layer and (still having the object layer selected) choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. We have now fixated out layer and the surface effects.

We have now created the beveling itself and we only have two more step to make it look quite realistically believable. We need to add some shadowing to the object to give it more “time and room“.  Realism is all about capturing the imperfect noise around any real objects. With shadowing we can achieve a lot of this noise in a simple yet effective way.

As you can see the shadowing adds quite a lot of realism to the object and it makes it easier to create details that match the reality. Lastly we will add some noise to the object to incorporate the imperfect surface that creates the realism in the object itself.

To add noise to it choose “Filter” -> “Noise” -> “Add Noise…” and add the following settings.

There! The object now visions a more realistic illusion and is more likely to catch the viewers attention in a more positive way. Playing around with the settings will quickly make you a pro at incorporating the realistic light sources and noise. This process you can add to just about any surface or object you want in order to make it look more realistic. Just be creative and play around with it.

That’s how you add beveling to an object. But, there is a few other things you can create with the “Bevel and Emboss” tool. One of those are to create perfect orbs that looks stunningly real and you can create great icons with these.

I will take you through the simple steps of how to create an orb and during the process also show you some great tricks to create realistic reflection and gloss.

I just created a new work document and made it Width:250 and Height: 250. Also added a circle with the measures: Width: 120 and Height: 120 in the middle of the work area.

Novice Orb Settings and Beveling

As you can see it is not quite there and this is the mistake that beginners usually do when trying to create an orb using the “Bevel and Emboss” tool in Photoshop. There is a more efficient way to create an orb and far more realistic then the novice way of doing it. Again, it will require a bit more steps. However, the result will be a stunningly effective orb that will catch just about any viewers attention.

Pro Orb Settings and Beveling

As you can see we’ve found a way more believable way to create an orb. However we are not done yet. The simple orb is there but there are still a couple of things we can do to create that ultra realistic look and feel.

Add a new layer above the orb layer. Create a elliptical orb just at the top of the orb using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool“. We’re going to use the “Gradient Tool” to make a little gloss on the orb. Make sure its set to “Foreground to Transparent“, “Linear Gradient” (you set it at the top of the screen) and use white color (#FFFFFF).

So we just made our orb look a little more realistic. Now, as usual, we should add some shadowing to the orb in order for it to really come across as being right there in 3D in front of us.

Create a new layer underneath the orb layer and create a circle measuring Width: 90 and Height: 90. We are going to use the “Gradient Tool” again but this time use the “Radial Gradient” and use Black as the color “#000000“.

Now we need to do some modifications to the shadow so go ahead and choose “Edit” -> “Transform…” -> “Distort” and then distort the shadow like I’ve done underneath.

We need to make the shadow layer a bit more transparent to make it more realistic so go ahead and change its “Opacity” to “25%“. This should make it just a bit more smooth and believable.

There! Our orb is done and looking quite realistic. You have again the option of adding noise to the orb but that depends on if you want it to have a more rough surface or a more glossy shiny surface.

Round Up

There are millions of ways you can use the “Bevel and Emboss” tool to make things look realistic and believable. It is all up to you what you can come up with. Your creativity is the limit.

I hope you have enjoyed this micro tutorial on how to master “Bevel and Emboss” and that it has taught you a few bits and pieces of how to create more realistic designs. Practising this over and over in different ways is the best progression to becoming a really unique and professional designer in Photoshop.

On to the next tutorial.

Thanks!

I hope you will enjoy following this tutorial and please, if you have any questions feel free to ask at any time and I will try to see if I can give you an answer or some guidance.

Enjoy!

Step 1

Let’s start by creating a new work document. Make it Width: 500 and Height: 500. Make the background White (#FFFFFF) for easier detailing. We will change the background to black as well in the end but it’s much easier working with a white background when you are working with details.

We will start out by creating the Game Boy body. We will use the characteristic plastic gray/white that we all know it by. So, create a new layer on top of the “Background” layer and name it “Game Boy Body“.

In our newly created layer use the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle measuring Width: 250 and Height: 420.

Fill the rectangle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color bright Gray/White (#E2E2E2).

We need to round of the corners a bit and due to the fact that all four corners of the Game Boy aren’t the same rounded edge we need to do it by hand. Simple though so no worries.

Use the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle measuring Width: 15 and Height: 15. Delete the three corners “left top“, “right top” and “left bottom“. In the “right bottom” corner repeat the process but this time create a rectangle measuring Width: 55 and Height: 55.

After you have deleted the corners you should have something like this:

Now when we have prepared the corners for a bit of a round off we can go ahead and pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool“. Create a circle that measures Width:25 and Heigtht: 25 and place it as far up in the cut out corners as possible without breaking the boundaries of the Game Boy Body when the circle is filled. Only use this circle for the three smaller cut out corners. The bigger one we’ll do when we’re finished with these smaller ones.

Fill the circle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with the same Gray/White (#E2E2E2) we used for the entire body.

Alright, so our three smaller corners are now rounded off. On the the bigger one. Create a bigger circle measuring Width: 100 and Height: 100. Position it as far out on the edge of the bigger cut out and fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with the same Gray/White color (#E2E2E2) just like before.

After creating and applying these circles to the corners you should now have something looking like this:

So the body for the Game Boy is all mapped and laid out and we need to add some effects to it to make it look 3D and thick. We later will also have to to a bit of cutting on some of the sides to make the carvings that are detailed on the Game Boy but we’ll get to that later.

With our “Game Boy Body” layer selected go ahead and right click it and choose “Blending Options…” Choose the “Bevel and Emboss” option in the menu and add the following settings:

So already we get some weight to the body but we still need to add a few more things in order for it to look really realistic and appealing. The plastic on a Game Boy is not entirely smooth so we need to roughen it up a little.

With the “Game Boy Body” layer still selected choose “Filter” -> “Noise” -> “Add Noise” and insert the following settings:

There, our plastic is now a bit more rough and gives the impression that it has some realism to it. In the bottom right corner we need to make a little effect making it look like it’s decreasing in thickness so we’ll go ahead and add a little shadowing right there.

Create a new layer above the “Game Boy Body” layer and call it “Grip Shadow“. With the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” again create a circle measuring Width: 100 and Height: 100 and position it at the bottom right corner just like before. Now pick the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” and while holding down the “Alt” key cut the circle in half and make a lasso around the upper part of it making it deselect that portion of the circle. Now we need to add a little more by the bottom so again using the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” add a bit more straight selection at the bottom making the half circle a bit off. It can be a little tricky to get the right result but have a few goes and I am sure you will make it look all good. You should have a selection looking like this when you are done selecting:

Alright, so we have our selection and we need to add some shadowing to it. Pick the “Paint Bucket Tool” and choose a darker Gray color (#C4C4C4). We need the “Gradient Tool” so go ahead and hold down the mouse button on the “Paint Bucket Tool” and you’ll be served with the option of choosing it. We also need the gradient to be from “Color to Transparent” so go ahead and choose it at the top of the screen.

Now apply the gradient tool to the selection by starting the gradient from the bottom and drag it diagonally to the top. We should now have something that gives the illusion that the grip is a little bit decreasing in thickness right at the bottom right corner. You should now have something looking like this:

Our Game Boy Body is all done and we can go ahead and add some detailing to it before we start adding the functionality details like buttons, screen and labels.

Step 2

Now, let’s add those carvings and plastic reflection effects to make it even more real. What we need to do first is to fixate our body layer to be able to cut sharp edges in it.

Create a new layer underneath the “Game Boy Body” layer and select the “Game Boy Body” layer and choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“.

Now go ahead and select the “Grip Shadow” layer and again choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. This makes the shadow permanently fix itself to the “Game Boy Body” layer.  There, our Game Boy is now fixated and we can go ahead and work on it.

We can actually now make sure that our Game Boy in the dead center of the work area just for the benefit of work flow. With the new layer we’ve just added the fixated Game Boy Body to (You can again name it “Game Boy Body” by the way) pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and select the entire work area. Now choose “Layer” -> “Align Layers to Selection” -> “Vertical Centers” and also “Horizontal Centers“. It should now be dead center of the work area.

Create a new layer above the “Game Boy Body” layer and call it “Plastic Reflections“.

With the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a rectangle measuring Width: 152 and Height: 2 at the bottom of the Game Boy body. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with plain White color (#FFFFFF). Also create a rectangle measuring Width:107 and Height: 2. Again fill it with the white color.

We need to bend it a little bit to fit the body grip decrease at the bottom right. Choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate” and rotate it to fit the edge. When you are done your white line should look something like this:

The line is still a little rough so we need to make it a bit less loud and also add a little smoothness to it.

With the layer “Plastic Reflections” selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” Select the “Outer Glow” option in the menu and add the following settings:

Now when we have our slightly smoother reflection line we should also change a bit of it’s intensity. With the “Plastic Reflections” layer selected change its “Opacity” to “80%“.

So our plastic reflections are done for now. We’ll modify it slightly a bit later but we need some carving details before we go in to that.

Step 3

Time to cut out a bit of carvings on our Game Boy body to get that Game Boy:ish look and feel. Before we start adding the real carvings we need to make sure the run continuously on the side of the Game Boy as well so we need to cut out a few small pieces of the Game Boy body.

With the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and the “Game Boy Body” layer selected, cut out the edges using the measures Width: 4 and Height: 2. Cut out the sections just like this (at the top and bottom of the Game Boy):

So, before we start adding the body carvings we also need to add the thicker edge cuts. Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and cut the edges just like on this following picture using these measures: Width: 5 and Height: 2 at the top and Width: 2 and Height: 5 on the sides. Should look something like this when you are done cutting:

Time to add the “real” carvings to the Game Boy body. Create a new layer above the “Plastic Reflections” and call it “Game Boy Carvings“. Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” again and create a rectangle straight from the left side cut to the right side cut. Don’t include what we just cut out. Begin where the cut ends. It should measure: Width: 246 and Height: 5. Fill the rectangle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the same color as we used for the body of our Game Boy (#E2E2E2).

Still in the same layer, now create rectangles going from the 2 top thick cuts all the way down to the horizontal line we just created. again fill the rectangles using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and the same color as the body.

Now with our carving pattern all set up we need to add some effects to it to make it look real. With the “Game Boy Carvings” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu choose “Bevel and Emboss” and add the following settings:

We also need to add some realistic shadowing to the carvings to enhance the feeling that the light is actually creating shadows on the body. Go ahead and click the “Inner Shadow” option in the menu and add these settings:

There, now we have a realistic and natural shadowing of the carvings as well. You should now have something looking like this:

Now we need to add the thinner carvings as well along with the outlet carvings where text goes eventually. Let’s start with the boxed in carvings where the text will go.

Create a new layer above all the others and name it “Connector Carvings“. You might have to make the “Game Boy Body” layer invisible for a few seconds to be able to see what you are doing. Just click the little “eye” on the layers layout to the right.

Using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a rectangle at the top of the Game Boy right under where the three (3) thinner carvings are located. Use the measures: Width: 46 and Height: 12. Push it to the right so the three carvings end up kind of almost all to the left of the box. Also position the box about 5 pixels underneath the three cuts as we’ll be adding carving lines right there.

Using the “Paint Bucket Tool” fill the rectangle with the same Gray color as we’ve been using for the body all along.

We need to add some rounded edges to the box we just created to so ahead and pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle measuring: Width: 12 and Height: 12 and position it halfway out of the edge if the box to the left and then fill it just like we did with the box. Repeat the same process for the right side of the box.

We also need to create the carvings from the cuts me made so go ahead create them by using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool“. Create each of them from the cut into the round edged box we just created. Again fill it using “Paint Bucket Tool” with the same Gray color.

Before we go ahead and add the carving effect to this we need to create the bottom text box as well. Using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” again go ahead and create a box that measures: Width: 45 and Height: 12. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

Again create the rounded edges by using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool“. Fill the rounded edges again using the Gray color.

The box is done and left is only them connecting lines from the cuts we created in the Game Boy body. Go ahead and connect them using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” just like you did with the top box. Use the “Paint Bucket Tool” and the same Gray color as before.

We also need to add a bit of sparkle to the plastic to make it look reflective. Under the “Bevel and Emboss” click “Contour” and add the following settings:

We also need to add a bit of shadowing to the carvings to make it more realistically lit. Click the “Inner Shadow” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

There! Our carvings are almost done now. We still have six speaker holes to take care of before we move on to the actual screen. You should now have something looking like this:

Alright, let’s go on and create the speaker holes now. Create a new layer above all the other layers and call it “Speaker Holes“.

Using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a box that has the measures: Width: 48 and Height: 5. Like before we need to create the rounded edges so go ahead and first fill the rectangle we just created with a little darker Gray color (#B4B4B4).

Now using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” create a circle measuring: Width: 5 and Height: 5 and position it at the left edge of the newly created box. Again fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with our darker Gray color. Repeat the step for the right edge of the box.

Alright with that done we now need to rotate the newly created box a little to fit the decreasing grip section. Select the newly created box with the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate“. Rotate the box “55” degrees.

Position the rotated box along the diagonal shine line going (look at the finished laid out speaker holes down below). Just copy the rotated box and paste in 5 additional speaker holes aligning them upwards along the diagonal shine line.

When copied and aligned you should now have something looking like this:

Now we need to add some effects to those holes to make them look realistic. With the “Speaker Holes” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We also need to add some realistic shadowing to our speaker holes so go ahead and click “Inner Shadow” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

Now we should have some good looking realistic looking speaker holes right where we would like them to be. However, we need to get a little bit of shine inside them as well. We can accomplish that by changing the “Opacity” of the “Speaker Holes” layer to “65%“.

You should now have something looking like this:

There it is! Pretty much all of the carvings are done except the ones where the buttons will be but those we will take care of a little bit later as they are of a different kind.

Step 4

Let’s create the monochrome screen next. We will be using the same techniques as we’ve been using but with a bit different color palette. Create a new layer above all the other layers and call it “Screen Encapsulation“.

Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle with the measures: Width: 210 and Height: 150 about 12 pixels from the body carving above.

Fill the rectangle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use a Gray/Blue color (#948F9E).

Just like before we need to round off the corners to get that smooth look that the Game Boy has. Using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” cut out the “Upper Left“, “Upper Right” and “Bottom Left” corner using the measures: Width: 12 and Height: 12.

In the “Bottom Right” corner cut out a piece that has the measures: Width: 40 and Height: 40.

Now pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create and fill, using the “Paint Bucket Tool“, a circle measuring: Width: 24 and Height: 24. Do it in all the three smaller corners (“Top Left, Top Right and Bottom Left corner).

In the “Bottom Right” corner create a circle with the measures: Width: 80 and Height: 80 and fill it too with the “Paint Bucket Tool” using the same Gray/Blue color we used for the screen encapsulation.

You should now have something looking like this:

We need to put some effects on it in order for it to look like a glossy plastic encapsulation but we’ll wait with the glossiness of it. First we need to add a black outline to make it look like it’s stuck in to the the Game Boy itself.

With the “Screen Encapsulation” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We also need to put a little black stroke around the screen encapsulation plastic so go ahead an choose “Stroke” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

No we need to cut out a hole in the encapsulation plastic in order to fit our real monochrome “dot matrix” screen. We need to fixate our “Screen Encapsulation” layer so add a layer underneath the layer and choose “Layer” – “Merge Down“. You can go ahead and call the new layer “Screen Encapsulation” as well.

Using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” go ahead and create a rectangle with the measures: Width: 130 and Height: 112 and position in in the center of the screen encapsulation and delete the content of it.

With the selection still intact go ahead and create a new layer underneath the “Screen Encapsulation” layer and call it “Dot Matrix Screen“.

Using the “Paint Bucket Tool” fill the selection with a Green/Brown color (#A49408).

We need to add a little effect to it to make it a little bit more random in it’s appearance. Right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu choose “Inner Shadow” and add the following settings to it: (the color is #FF7E00)

We also need to add some characteristics to the dot matrix screen so go ahead and choose “Inner Glow” in the menu to the left and add these settings: (the color is #FF4E00)

There! Our screen should now be completed but we also need to add some shadowing to the screen from the rim of the “Screen Encapsulation” layer.

Go ahead and select the “Screen Encapsulation” layer and right click it. Choose “Blending Options…” and then pick “Drop Shadow” in the menu to the left. Insert these settings:

There we go. Our screen layout should be all done now and left is just detailing and some labels and buttons and lights. We’ll get to that next. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 5

Let’s add some buttons. Let’s go for those Pink/Purple “B” and “A” buttons that we’ve probably used a billion times by now.

Create a new layer above all the others and call it “Trigger Button Dip“. We need to create a little hollow for our buttons so we’ll use this layer for that.

Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle with the measures: Width: 54 and Height: 44. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with the body Gray color (#E2E2E2).

Again we need to make rounded edges so go ahead and use the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” once again making a circle measuring: Width: 44 and Height: 44. Position the circle half way our on each edge (Left and Right) and fill it with the Gray color using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

We need to rotate our trigger dip a little so go ahead and select the rounded box we just created using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and the choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate“. Rotate the trigger dip “-35%“.

Now we need to add some effects to the trigger dip for it to be visible and realistic. With the layer still selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” Choose “Bevel and Emboss” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

We also need to add an almost invisible white outline to it just for the plastic shine characteristics. Choose “Stroke” in the menu to the left and add the following settings to it:

Ok, so it’s time to create the anticipated trigger buttons. They will sure add some well deserved color to the design and those buttons and their color is truly synonymous with the Game Boy.

First create a new layer above all others and call it “Trigger Buttons“. Pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle measuring: Width: 33 and Height: 33.

Fill the circle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and with a Pink/Purple color (#AF0061).

Time to add some realism to the button. Let’s add some effects to it so right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…“. Choose “Bevel and Emboss” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

Now we have smoothened the button a bit and can go ahead and fixate it for further effects. Create a new layer underneath it and choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. Name the new layer “Trigger Buttons” again.

Again right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…” and the choose “Bevel and Emboss” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings to it:

We also need to ad a little “Contour” to it to make the glossiness on the button really come through alright. Choose the “Contour” option in the menu to the left and the add the follow settings to it:

We still need to add one additional effect to the button and that is some shadowing to it to make it appear like it has a cavity underneath it and really is a pressable button. Choose “Drop Shadow” in the menu to the left and then add the following settings:

OK, all effects are set up and all we have to do now is to copy the trigger button and paste it so we have one “B” trigger and an “A” trigger button. Go ahead and do that and we’ll move on to the “Cross” right after it.

After copying it and pasted it in it’s right place in the “Trigger Buttons” layer (which gives it all its effects) you should have something that looks like this:

So we’ve finished up the trigger buttons and it’s now time to move on to the “Cross” on the left side of the Game Boy.

Step 6

To incorporate the “Cross” we first need to create a dip for the the cross to be positioned inside just like the two trigger buttons.

Create a new layer and name it “Cross Dip” above all the other layers. Using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” create a circle with the measures: Width: 75 and Height: 75.

Fill the circle bu using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the same Gray color as we used for the body once again. (#E2E2E2).

With the layer selected let’s add some effects to it. Right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…” and then click “Bevel and Emboss” in the menu to the left and also insert these settings:

Alright, as usual we also need to add a “Contour” effect to that bevel so go ahead and pick “Contour” in the menu to the left and the insert the following settings:

And to finish the dip up we also need to add a little white outline to the dip. Choose “Stroke” in the menu to the left and then add these settings:

Align the cross dip approximately all the way to the left of the trigger buttons. Almost horizontally perfectly aligned to the trigger button dip. (If you don’t know where have a look at the rough down below after we’ve added the cross)

OK, all done now with the dip. We’ll be adding a few more details later but for now it’s done. Let’s continue to the actual black cross.

Create a new layer and name it “Black Cross” above all the other layers.

Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle measuring: Width: 25 and Height: 55. Fill it with Black:ish color (#333333) using the “Paint Bucket Tool”

Position the rectangle in the horizontal and vertical center if the cross dip.

Now before we can go on and add some details to the cross we need a horizontal rectangle as well. In the same layer repeat the steps above but use these measures using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool“. Width: 55 and Height: 25.

Fill the rectangle with the same color we just used using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

Make sure the two rectangles create an even cross with equal length on every side and position it in the dead center using the “Layer” -> “Align Layers To Selection” -> “Vertical Centers” and also “Horizontal Centers”

Now we have our cross layout all done and we can begin to add some effects and details to it.

With the “Black Cross” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” In the left menu click “Bevel and Emboss” and insert these settings:

Now we have a nice effect making the “Cross” look a bit bend but we need to add more effects to it when it is like this so we will need to fixate it. Create a new layer underneath it and then choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. Name the new fixated layer the same thing, “Black Cross“.

Right click the new layer and again choose “Blending Options…” In the menu to the left once again choose “Bevel and Emboss” and add the following settings in it:

We also need to add “Contour” to this cross so go ahead and click the “Contour” in the left menu and insert these settings:

To make the illusion that the cross is playable we need to add some shadowing to it. Click the “Drop Shadow” option in the menu on the left and insert these settings:

With that done there is one thing left we need to do before we can move on to the details of the cross. It being plastic we of course need to make it a little bit worn. Nothing in this world stay entirely perfect forever not even a Game Boy. No matter how bad you want it to.

With the “Black Cross” layer still selected choose “Filter” -> “Noise” -> “Add Noise” and insert these settings:

With everything added and the cross centered in the dip you should now have something looking like this:

Alright, we are now ready to add the little squares present on the cross. Create a new layer above the “Black Cross” layer and name it “Cross Grip“.

With the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a rectangle with the measures: Width: 10 and Height: 4.

Fill the rectangle with the same dark Gray as we used for the cross itself using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

We need to fix the rounded edges on this one as well so go ahead and pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle with the measures: Width:4 and Height: 4. Position the circle half way out over the border of the rectangle and fill it with the same Gray color using the “Paint Bucket Tool“. Do this on both sides of the rectangle.

Copy the rounded rectangle so you have three laying in a vertical row. We need these three to be separate from the other three edges of the cross as this top one will be a little brighter to give the illusion that the cross is somewhat bent.

When you have the three rounded rectangles aligned above each other we will add a couple of effects to it. Right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…” Choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We also need to add a “Contour” effect to the “Grip” so go ahead and click the “Contour” option in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

After copying, aligning and adding these effects you should now have something looking like this:

OK, now let’s add the other grip rectangles to the three other edges of the “Cross”. We need to create a new layer so go ahead and do that and name it “Cross Grip Darkened”.

Copy the top three and add to your new layer but skip the effects for now as we will need to modify them a little. Use the “Rotate” tool under “Edit” -> “Transform” – “Rotate” to fit the “Grip” rectangles to the side edges of the “Cross“.

With all the rounded rectangles aligned and positioned right on there part of the “Cross” right click the “Cross Grip” layer and choose “Copy Layer Style“. Now select and right click the “Cross Grip Darkened” layer and choose “Paste Layer Style“.

We need to do some modifications to the “Bevel and Emboss” part of the effect so go ahead and right click the layer again and choose “Blending Options…” and again choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert these settings:

Before we check the result of our modification go ahead and create a new layer above the “Cross Grip Darkened” and name it “Cross Grip Center Circle“. Pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle in the middle of the “Black Cross” measuring: Width: 10 and Height: 10. Fill the circle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the same dark Gray we’ve used so far for the “Black Cross“.

With our newly created layer still selected go ahead and right click it. Choose “Blending Options…” and then in the menu to the left click “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We also need to add a little white outline to the circle so go ahead and click the “Stroke” option in the left menu and insert the following settings:

There! Our “Cross” should now be all done and we can move on to some other details. We need to add a few triangles at each edge of the cross on the dip so we’ll be taking a look at that next. You should now have something looking something like this:

Now let’s add the triangles that you are positioned on each edge of the “Cross“. We will be using “Wingdings 3” to easy and fast add these triangles. Select the “Wingdings 3″ font and add the “Top Triangle” by pressing “p“. Use the font size “7” and the color (#E2E2E2) just like the body of the Game Boy.

We need all the rotated triangles on each end so go ahead and add them. They are all located at (case sensitive) “p” = Top, “q” = Bottom, “t” = Left and “u” = Right.

With all our triangles aligned and positioned we can go ahead and add the effects to them. Right click the “p” layer and choose “Blending Options…” and then in the left menu click “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We also need to add a little shadow effect to the triangle to give it that extra realism. In the left menu click “Drop Shadow” and insert the following settings:

Now when we have the effects set up on one of the triangles go ahead and right click the “p” layer and choose “Copy Layer Style” and the paste it onto the other triangle layers.

The triangles are done and you should now have something looking like this:

OK, so now we’re finished with the “Cross” and all. Let’s move on to the “Start” and “Select” buttons.

Step 7

Before we start creating those new buttons we of course need to add a couple of dips for them as well. Create a new layer above all the others and name it “Start / Select Dip“.

With the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” go ahead and create a rectangle with the measures: Width: 26 and Height: 12. As usual fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and with the Game Boy body color (#E2E2E2).

We need to create those rounded edges again so go ahead and pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle with the measures: Width: 12 and Height: 12 and position it half way out of the edge of the rectangle and fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with the Game Boy color. Do it on both ends of the rectangle.

Now when we have our rounded rectangle we can go ahead and rotate it a little. With the layer selected choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate” and rotate the rectangle “-35” degrees.

With it rotated we can go ahead and add some effects to it. Right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…” and then click the “Bevel and Emboss” option in the left menu and add the following settings:

As always we also need to add some “Contour” to the dip so go ahead and pick the “Contour” option in the menu and insert the following settings:

And to end it we need to also add a white outline to the whole dip. Choose “Stroke” in the menu to the left and then insert the following settings:

There, all done! We can now go ahead and copy this dip so we get one for the other button as well. Just use the “Rectangular Marquee Tool“, select it and copy and paste it. Add the effects by right clicking the first “Dip” and then choose “Copy Layer Style” and the paste it to the new “Dip“. Then align it right by it’s side. When you are done you should have something looking like this:

Let’s add some buttons to those dips. Create a new layer above all the other layers and name it “Start Button“.

Using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a rectangle with the following measures: Width:24 and Height: 8. Fill the rectangle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with the same color (#948F9E) we used for the “Screen Encapsulation“.

Again create the rounded edges using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” with the measures: Width: 8 and Height: 8. And again position it halfway out from each end of the rectangle. Fill it with the same color we’ve been using.

Again rotate the button by choosing “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate” and rotate the button “-35” degrees.

Position the button inside our first “Dip” that we created. Time to add some effects. With the “Start Button” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…“. Again choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

Again we need to add “Contour” so go ahead and click the “Contour” option in the menu to the left and add the following settings:

And we also need to add a dark outline to make the illusion that the button is attached and click-able. Click the “Stroke” option in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

So our button is done, all we have to do now is copy it and it’s effects to a new layer and we have our “Select” button as well. Use the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” to copy the button and then use right click “Copy Layer Style” and “Paste Layer Style” to copy the effects.

When you have copied everything you should now have something looking like this:

So we are finished with the buttons and can move on to some smaller details.

Step 8

Let’s add that little battery lamp on the side of the monochrome screen. Create a new layer above all the other layers and name it “Battery Light“.

Pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle with the measures: Width: 6 and Height: 6. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color (#606060).

Let’s add some effects to make it a realistic lamp. Right click the “Battery Light” layer and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu to the left choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

OK, let’s add a “Contour” as well as we always do. Click the “Contour” option in the menu on the left and insert the following settings:

Also need to add some shadowing so click the “Drop Shadow” in the left menu and insert the following settings:

There! Our battery light is completed and all we really need now are some labels, lines and a couple of icons and we are all done. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 9

Let’s add the connector labels. Should be fun and easy. Let’s start with the “OFF-ON” label at the top of the Game Boy.

Select the “Horizontal Type Tool” and also choose the “Wingdings 3” you you don’t already have it since last time. We need a couple of triangles on each side of the label so go ahead and add a “t” to the left and a “u” to the right. Use the Game Boy body color Gray (#E2E2E2).

Now we can go ahead and add some effects on the triangles so go ahead and right click on the “t” layer and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

Also need to add some shadows to the triangle so click the “Drop Shadow” option in the menu to the left and add the following settings:

Now copy the effects like we’ve done before with the “Copy Layer Style” and “Paste Layer Style” to the “u” layer (the other triangle).

So our triangles are in place and we now need to add the text “Off – ON” to the connector carving.

Pick the “Horizontal Type Tool” and also select the “Arial” font size “8” and type “OFF-ON” between the triangles using the same color as we used for the triangles (#E2E2E2).

Right click the “OFF-ON” and choose “Blending Options…” Choose “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

On to the shadowing as well. Pick the “Drop Shadow” in the menu to the left and insert the following settings:

There! Our top connector label is all finished and we can move on to the bottom one.

In the bottom one there’s a “Headphone” icon that we need to create before we add te “Phones” text to the carving connector space.

Before we start, create a new layer above all other layers and name it “Headphone Icon“. Using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” create a circle with the measures: Width: 6 and Height: 6. Fill it using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and again use the same color as we’ve been using for the body of the Game Boy.

When our circle is filled we need to hollow it out as well so go ahead and create a circle with the measures: Width: 4 and Height: 4 and place it at the bottom (inside) the newly created and filled circle we have and delete the content of it.

Our headphone headband is done. Now create a circle measuring: Width 2 and Height: 2 and fill it on both ends of the headphone headband making it look like a pair of headphones.

There! Now copy the effects by right clicking on the upper triangle (either one) we’ve just created for the top connector label and choose “Copy Layer Style” and then right click our “Headphone Icon” layer and choose “Paste Layer Style“. Now align it to the left in the bottom connector carving.

Time to add the “PHONES” label and then add the effects to it. Pick the “Horizontal Type Tool” and again using the “Arial” font and size “8” and type “PHONES” which becomes a layer on top of all the others.

Our label is there. Now copy the effects from the “OFF-ON” layer by right clicking the layer and choose “Copy Layer Style” and the right click our newly created label layer “PHONES” and choose “Paste Layer Style“. Position and align the “PHONES” text in the middle and to the right of our newly created icon.

Finally all the carving labels are in place and we can move on to the more decorative and informative labeling. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 10

So we’ve come the final step of this tutorial where we are going to add the decorative and informative labeling. Quite simple and straight forward but there is a few different fonts we are gong to use so stay focused.

Let us start with the label on top of the screen. Select the “Horizontal Type Tool” and choose the “Arial” font and use the size “6” and type “DOT MATRIX WITH STEREO SOUND” on top of the screen. Align the text to the right end of the actual screen (not the screen encapsulation). Use the same color as we are using for the Game Boy body (#E2E2E2).

After doing that and still having the newly created text layer selected change its “Opacity” to “50%“. The text should now blend in much more graceful.

Alright using the same font, size and color use the “Horizontal Type Tool” again and type “BATTERY” under our “Battery Light“. When done also change the “Opacity” to “50%” on this text layer for the same blending.

Time to add those colored lines on top of the screen. Create a new layer and name it “Purple Line“. Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle measuring: Width: 54 and Height: 1 and fill the rectangle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” and use the color Pink/Purple (#AF0061). Align the line to the same horizontal position as where the light starts and let it run and stop about 3 pixels from the “DOT MATRIX WITH STEREO SOUND” text.

Repeat the steps but use the color Blue (#290090) instead and create a new layer called “Blue Line” where the blue line will be created. Align the blue line just underneath the purple line about 4 pixels under it still aligning with the bottom of the “DOT MATRIX WITH STEREO SOUND” text.

We need to create lines on the right side of the text as well so go ahead and select the “Purple Line” layer again and using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a rectangle measuring: Width: 28 and Height: 1 and align and position it 4 pixels to the right of the “DOT MATRIX WITH STEREO SOUND” text in the same vertical height as the previous purple line.

Do the exact same thing with the blue line and don’t forget to create it in the “Blue Line” layer.

Before we go on to the “Nintendo GAME BOY” logo you should now have something looking like this:

Alright, time to add the “Nintendo” logo. Select the “Horizontal Type Tool” and use the font “Gill Sans” as font, “Bold” and use the size “12” and set the anti-aliasing to “Crisp“. Type “Nintendo” and align it to the far let of the “Screen Encapsulation” layer.

Now we’re going to type the “GAME BOY” label. Use the same font but make the size “18“, “Italic” and set the anti-aliasing to “Smooth“. Type “GAME BOY” and align it to the right of the “Nintendo” text.

We also need to add the “TM” text to it so again using the “Horizontal Type Tool” and the same font but with the size “6“, “Regular” and set the anti-aliasing to “Crisp“. Type “TM” and align it to the right of the “GAME BOY” text.

With everything typed our correctly and with the right font and all you should now have something looking like this:

All we need to do now is to add the “Start“, “Select“, “B” and “A” texts and we’re done. YAY!

What we need to do first is to download a fitting font for the text. We are going to use Samuel Park’s “Grungerocker” font and you can download it right here.

With the font downloaded and installed we can now start adding some more text.

Pick the “Horizontal Type Tool” and select our newly installed font “Grungerocker“. Use the size “6” and set the anti-aliasing to “Smooth“. We also need to set the “Tracking” for the font. You can do this by clicking the “A” with a vertical line after it on the side of the color palette. In there set the “Tracking” to “300“. Use the same Blue color as for the “GAME BOY” logo (#290090).

Now when all our settings are correct go ahead and type “START“. We need to rotate the text so with the “START” text layer selected choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate” and rotate the text “-35” degrees. Now align and position the text directly under the right Gray button on the Game Boy.

Do the exact same thing but type “SELECT” instead. Align this text immediately underneath the left Gray button on the Game Boy.

Now we need to set both the “START” and the “SELECT” layer’s “Opacity” so go ahead and set it to “75%” to make the text even more crisp and clean.

Alright, let’s add the last two characters to the Game Boy now. Select the “Horizontal Type Tool” and change the size of it to “10” and then type “B“. Use the same Blue color still.

Again we need to rotate the “B” a little bit so go ahead and choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Rotate” and rotate it “-35” degrees. Position the “B” directly under the left “Trigger” button.

Repeat the process but this time type “A” and use the font “Silom” and set the size to “11“. When rotated correctly position it directly underneath the right “Trigger” button.

Again we need to set the “B” and the “A” text layer’s “Opacity” so go ahead and set it to “60%“.

If all is done correctly you should now have something that is looking something like this:

So, we are all finished up…nah…not quite. We still need to add some reflection to the plastic window of the Game Boy.

Step 11

OK, last and final touches to the Game Boy. Select the “Screen Encapsulation” layer and pick the “Magic Wand Tool” and select the Gray are of the “Screen Encapsulation“. When you have done that pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and while holding down “Shift” select the entire inner screen as well so we have the whole encapsulation entirely selected.

Now select the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and while holding down the “Alt” key go ahead and start creating the circle from approximately 1/3 from the left edge of the selection and about 50 pixels underneath it and start dragging upwards to about 2/3 of the selection. Then drag it to the right until you have a selection looking like this (you might have to give it a couple of shots but it should be pretty straight forward):

Alright, we have our selection and we now need to make it look as a reflection as well. So, create a new layer above all other layers and name it “Game Boy Reflection“.

Select the “Gradient Tool” and set the color to White (#FFFFFF). Also make sure the Gradient is “Color to Transparent“. Start dragging from the corner edge and diagonally down to about 2/3 of the selection.

After you’ve got a satisfying result we need to change the “Opacity” of the “Game Boy Reflection” layer so go ahead and set it to “15%“.

We also should add a nice room reflection and for that we need to download this “Room Reflection” file.

Create a new layer underneath the “Game Boy Reflection” layer and call it “Room Reflection“. Load the “Room Reflection” file we just downloaded and copy it into the layer we just created. Position it so you get a lot of detail visible in the plastic screen.

Select the “Screen Encapsulation” layer and use the “Magic Wand Tool” to select the entire screen encapsulation area. Again use the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” to select the inner window as well.

With our selection intact go back and select the “Room Reflection” layer and copy the content of the selection. Paste it into a new layer and name it “Room Reflection“. Delete the old “Room Reflection” Layer.

We need to adjust the “Room Reflection” layer’s “Opacity” to make it less loud in the window and make it more realistic. Go ahead and change it’s “Opacity” to “2%“.

Wow, so we are finally done with our Game Boy at last. With everything done right you should now have a finished result looking like this (I’ve gone ahead and added shadowing to the whole Game Boy to make it look more realistic when it’s laying on a flat surface. Also created a version with black background.):

There! I added some things in order to showcase how real it can look if you just put a little more time into the setup of a picture. We are finally done!

Round Up

Several steps later and we finally finished up our Game Boy. Looks quite realistic doesn’t it? There is so much power in Photoshop with a few simple steps and if you then add your own imagination you can create just about anything if you put your head in to it.

As you see now you can change the color of pretty much anything to make it fit your own taste. Why not create a Golden Game Boy or why not a Glass one. The limit is in your own imagination.

I hope you will enjoy this tutorial as much as I have during the process of writing it. It’s such a great thing to be able to put down on “Paper” what you have in your head and this proofs that a computer together with a little bit of thinking really can create some amazing looking images without that much power. This would probably be way quicker than to create the Game Boy in a 3D software anyways.

On to the next tutorial for me now.

Thank you!

Enjoy the first hand success with testking 642-812. This all in one 70-647 training kit help you prepare accurately and also practice for 70-649.

I truly hope you will find this tutorial useful and inspiring.

Enjoy!

Step 1

When you have launched Photoshop and are ready to start working create a new work area by selecting “File” -> “New…” Name the new document “Realistic iPhone” and set the work area size to: Width: 500 and Height: 500. Click “OK“. We now have our work area all set up. However, let’s set the background color to black to make the image more appealing as the iPhone is usually white or black (however you can as said use any color you want for your iPhone). Select the “Paint Bucket Tool” and make sure that the color you are using is Black (#000000). Use the paint bucket tool on the background layer making it our black background.

Step 2

We are now going to create the chrome rim of the iPhone so go ahead and create a new layer and call it “iPhone Chrome Rim“. Select the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle measuring Width: 220 and Height: 410 at the center of the work area. Go to “Select” -> “Refine Edge…” and insert the following settings. Click “OK“.

Now select the “Paint Bucket Tool” again and change the color to a medium Gray (#8C8C8C). Fill the newly created feathered rectangle. We now have the shape of our iPhone but we need to hollow it out to make sure we have the chrome area all freed up for us to work with and put effects on.

We need to make sure the iPhone shape is dead center of our work area before we start messing around with it for easier work flow so go ahead and select the whole work area using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool“. After selecting the entire work area select the “Move Tool” and use the align buttons on the top of the screen to align the iPhone shape to the center of the work area. You do so by clicking “Align Vertical Centers” and “Align Horizontal Centers“. Our iPhone is now dead center of the work area.

Now select the iPhone shape and got to “Select” -> “Transform Selection…” In the input fields on top of the screen use the following settings: W: 92% and H:96%. Click the “Move Tool” to fix the selection (a window will come up saying “Apply the transformation?“, just click “Apply“.)

Now, delete the selection in the “iPhone Chrome Rim” layer giving us this:

Now we have our rim to work with. We are going to add a few effects to make it look more like a chrome rim so go ahead and right click the “iPhone Chrome Rim” layer and select “Blending Options…”

We are first going to add some bevel to the rim so go ahead and click “Bevel and Emboss” in the left menu of the “Blending Options..” left menu. After doing so add these settings:

Now continue to select the “Contour” option to the left and insert these settings:

We also need to add a “Color Overlay” to the chrome to get that realistic and natural shine of the material itself. Go ahead and click the “Color Overlay” option on the left side of the “Blending Options…” menu and insert these settings:

The color we are using is a light blue:ish color (#E9EEF0) for the natural shine.

The last effect we are going to add is a “Gradient Overlay” to mimic the shine streaks and the light reflections. Go ahead and select the “Gradient Overlay” in the left menu of the “Blending Options…” menu and insert these settings:

The color we are using for the gradient is pure white which you can set by clicking the preview of the gradient called “Gradient“. When you have the window open make sure you have the color to transparent gradient selected and make sure it starts from white by clicking the bottom rectangle color box presented underneath the gradient preview to the left.

Now we are done with the effects for our Chrome rim for our iPhone. Click “OK” to see your result. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 3

It’s time to add that shiny black touch surface that has become synonymous with the iPhone. We need to have a reflection image to use to enhance the realism of the image itself so go ahead and download this image before we start.

Select the “iPhone Chrome Rim” layer and then pick the “Magic Wand Tool” and select the inner void of the iPhone Chrome Rim.

OK, now select the “Background” layer and create a new layer above it. Call it “Touch Surface“.

With it selected and your selection still intact use the “Paint Bucket Tool” on your selection. Use pure Black (#000000)  for color.

Now, with the “Touch Surface” layer still selected right click it and select “Blending Options…” Pick the “Bevel and Emboss” option in the menu to the left. Add these settings:

We need to create a little black outline of the surface to make it have the illusion of a real surface. Create another layer underneath the newly created “Touch Surface” layer name it “Touch Surface” as well. With the old “Touch Surface” layer selected go to “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. Our layer is now all fixated and we can add a few more effects to it.

With our new “Touch Surface” layer selected once again right click the layer and choose “Blending Options…” Select the “Stroke” option in the menu and add these settings:

Now we have a nice outer black line that encapsulates the touch surface giving the illusion that it’s mounted inside the chrome rim. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 4

Time to add that little touch window where all the action is happening. The illusion of a surface over the actual screen is captured by making the viewer believe the work window is underneath the black touch surface that makes up the front of the iPhone.

What we need to do is to first fixate the “Touch Surface” layer and cut a hole out in the middle of it to fit our “Touch Area” inside and underneath it. Create a new layer underneath the “Touch Surface” layer and again name it “Touch Surface“. Select the old “Touch Surface” and choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“.

Now, with the new “Touch Surface” selected use the “Rectangular Marquee Toll” and create a rectangle right in the center of the iPhone “Touch Surface” with the following measures. Width: 180 and Height: 284. Delete the contents of your selected area.

Create a new layer underneath the “Touch Surface” and call it “Work Area“. We’re going to place a screenshot from the iPhone right in that opening so go ahead and download it and open it in Photoshop.

Copy the entire downloaded image and paste it into the “Work Area” layer and place it right in the center of the hole we just cut out from the “Touch Surface” layer.

Select the “Touch Surface” layer and right click it. Choose “Blending Options…” and from the menu click the “Drop Shadow” and add these settings:

We now have our work area in place and we are ready to go ahead and add more of the details to the iPhone itself. You should by now have something looking like this:

Step 5

It’s time to insert the all important “Home” button on our iPhone. It’s the one most important feature on the iPhone so let’s try and pay some extra attention to detail when we incorporate it.

Create a new layer above the “Touch Surface” layer for our “Home” button and call it simply “Home Button“. With the “Home Button” layer selected and at the bottom and in the horizontal center of the iPhone create a circle using the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” with the measure: Width: 35 and Height: 35.

Fill the selected circle using the “Paint Bucket Tool” with the color Black (#000000).

We now have our home button (even though we can’t see it yet) and we need to add some effects to it to make it really realistic.

With the “Home Button” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu to the left click “Bevel and Emboss” and insert the following settings:

We need to accentuate the button so it’s easy to see where the edges are so we need to add a little outline. Select the “Stroke” option in the menu and add the following settings:

Our button is done for now but we are still missing the little icon square that symbolizes home on the iPhone.

Create a new layer above the “Home Button” layer and call it “Home Icon“. Choose the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a square measuring: Width: 13 and Height: 13.

Choose “Select” -> “Modify” -> “Smooth…” and set it to “1” and click “OK“.

Choose “Select” -> “Modify” -> “Feather…” and set it to “0,4” and click “OK“.

Now when we have our smooth, feathered selection we can go ahead and fill it with pure White color (#FFFFFF) using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

With the selection intact choose “Select” -> “Transform Selection” and set the measures at the top of the screen to: Width: 80% and Height: 80%. Click the “Move Tool” and click “Apply“. With the intact selection delete the content inside it leaving only a round edged square icon. Position the square icon in the middle of the home button.

We now have our home button all completed and we can move on to the next detail on the iPhone. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 6

Let’s create the speaker at the top of the iPhone next. We want it to look as realistic as possible and for every little extra effort we put in to the details of this iPhone the more realistic it will look.

Create a new layer above the “Home Icon” layer and call it “Speaker Hollow“. Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and create a rectangle at the to top center of the iPhone using the measure: Width: 34 and Height: 6.

Choose “Select” -> “Modify” -> “Smooth…” and insert “1” and click “OK“.

Choose “Select” -> “Modify” -> “Border…” and insert “2” and click “OK“.

Choose “Select” -> “Modify” -> “Feather…” and insert “0,4” and click “OK“.

Now when we have our little feathered square ready go ahead and pick the “Paint Bucket Tool“. Select the color Black “#000000” and fill the selection.

Let’s add some effects to our newly created feathered rectangle. With the “Speaker Hollow” layer selected right click it and choose “Blending Options…” In the menu click “Bevel and Emboss” and insert these settings:

Now we need to add that little speaker “Net” that is present in the speaker hollow on the iPhone. We can get that from the picture we used for the “Work Area“, the iPhone Screenshot.

Load the iPhone Screenshot again if you have closed it already. Now, copy a piece of the “Net” from the iPhone “Dock” panel. Pick the upper top of the panel to get the a great piece. Make the piece: Width: 32 and Height: 6.

Create a new layer underneath the “Speaker Hollow” layer and name it “Speaker Net“. Paste the piece of net into our new layer and place the piece of the “Net” directly underneath the “Speaker Hollow“.

Let’s add some shadowing to our hollow to make it even more realistic. With the “Speaker Net” layer still selected set the layer’s “Opacity” to “50%“. This should make our “Net” appear a little more indent.

We now have our speaker all mad and we are ready to move along to the next little detail. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 7

We still have a few more details we need to take care of before we add the finishing touches to our new iPhone. There are three buttons on the left side of the iPhone and one on top of the iPhone. We are going to start with the “Volume” buttons on the left side of the iPhone.

Create a new layer underneath the “iPhone Chrome Rim” and name it “Left Buttons“. At the side of the iPhone, using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool“, create a rectangle using these measures: Width: 5 and Height: 30.

Using the “Paint Bucket Tool” fill the rectangle with a light Gray color (#8C8C8C).

Pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” and create a circle with the measures: Width: 25 and Height: 100. Position the circle like this and delete the contents of it:

Now we have the upper volume button done but we need the bottom one as well so go ahead and select the upper button using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and copy and paste it into a new layer.

Select the new layer that is named “Layer 1” and choose “Edit” -> “Transform” -> “Flip Vertical“.

Now move the new layer (“Layer 1“) and align it just underneath the upper button. Now choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“. We now have our volume buttons all created. We now need to add some effects to it to make it look realistic.

Now pick the “Move Tool” and move the buttons four (4) pixels underneath the side of the Chrome Rim.

Go ahead and right click the “iPhone Chrome Rim” layer and choose “Copy Layer Style“. Select the “Left Buttons” layer and right click it and choose “Paste Layer Style“. There, now our buttons are made out of chrome as well.

Let’s add the “Vibrate/Mute” button before we take a look at what we have and move along to the top button.

Create a new layer above the “Left Buttons” layer. Pick the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” again and create a rectangle on the left side and above the volume buttons measuring: Width: 5 and Height: 10.

Fill it just like with the other buttons using the same Gray color we used for the “Volume” buttons.

When finished position it about ten (10) pixels above the top volume button. and again four (4) pixels in to the iPhone chrome rim.

With the new layer selected choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down” to fuse it with the “Left Buttons” layer.

Our left buttons are done and you should now have something looking like this:

Step 8

Now we only have the upper “Sleep” button left to create before we add the finishing touches to our iPhone.

Create another new layer above the “Left Buttons” layer and call it “Top Button“. With the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” create a rectangle on top of the iPhone to the right with the following measures: Width: 35 and Height: 6.

Again fill it, with the Gray color we used for all the other buttons, using the “Paint Bucket Tool“.

Position it five (5) pixels in under the chrome rim and about twenty (20) pixels in from the right edge of the iPhone.

With the layer still selected choose “Layer” -> “Merge Down“.

Select the “Left Buttons” layer and right click it. Choose “Copy Layer Style” then select the “Top Button” and right click it and choose “Paste Layer Style“.

We need to do some modifications to it in order to make it look good as the settings are meant for the side buttons.

Right click the “Top Button” layer and choose “Blending Options…” Click the “Bevel and Emboss” option in the menu. Now, change the angle of the shading to the following settings:

There, we are now all done with the details for the iPhone and all that’s left to do is to add the finishing touches to it. You should now have something looking like this:

Step 9

All we have to do now is to add a little shine to the thing and we are all done with our new iPhone.

Create a new layer on top of everything and call it “iPhone Shine“. Select the “iPhone Chrome Rim” layer and pick the “Magic Wand Tool“. Select the insides of the chrome rim and then pick the “Elliptical Marquee Tool“. With the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” hold down the “Alt” tool and start selecting as far as you can get at the bottom of the screen approximately 4/6th from the left edge of the iPhone.

Drag till you are about 4/6th from the top of the iPhone and drag it out to the right. You might have to do it a couple of times in order to achieve the right feel to it.

When you feel are done you should have a selection looking something like this:

Now, let’s add some shine shall we? Click the “Paint Bucket Tool” and hold down the button until you get to choose the “Gradient Tool“. With the tool selected make sure you have the “Color to Transparent” gradient in the list on top of the screen selected along with pure White (#000000) color.

Start using the “Gradient Tool” approximately about “50” pixels out on top of the selection and drag down (still holding down the mouse button) to approximately “100” pixels out under the selection and now release the mouse button.

After you’ve done adding the “Gradient Tool” to the selection you should have something looking like this:

The shine is still a little bit too overtaking so we need to quiet it down a bit for the really realistic look before we add THE final touch.

So, with the “iPhone Shine” layer selected change it’s “Opacity” to “30%“.

Step 10

It is finally time for the final step of this tutorial. It’s time to add some reflections to the iPhone for the ultra realistic effect.

Load your downloaded “Reflection Image” image and copy the entire image and paste it into a new layer underneath the “iPhone Shine” layer. Call the new layer “iPhone Reflection“. Position it where you think the image’s details would benefit the iPhone reflection.

Select the “iPhone Chrome Rim” layer and again, using the “Magic Wand Tool“, select the inside of the chrome rim.

Again select the “iPhone Reflection” layer (still having the “inside chrome rim” selection intact) and copy the content of the selection.

In a new layer (call it “iPhone Reflection” as well) paste the copied piece of the reflection image.

With the “iPhone Reflection” layer selected we need to change the “Opacity” of it to make it believable. Change it’s “Opacity” to “8%” which should give the iPhone a nice and realistic reflection of the surrounding room.

There! Our iPhone is finally finished and the result should look something like this with either Black or White background:

Note that I have adjusted the “Speaker Hollow” for a more vertical centration at the top of the iPhone. I had missed it during the creation and saw it now when I created the finishing images. Should be quite easy for you to do as well using the “Move Tool“.

Round Up

Well, that’s that ladies and gentlemen. The result is presented and the tutorial has come ti it’s end. I hope you all have enjoyed the this tutorial as much as I have enjoyed creating it. I find it soothing and inspirational working with graphics and I hope that it shows in the dedication of this tutorial.

As you can see there are no limits to what you can do with Photoshop and the trick is really only to set your mind to it and open up your imagination. As you can imagine you can now add any color to your iPhone and still have it looking quite realistic. Why not create a pink one and send the image to your friend as a joke saying you have the only pink one ever made. If you do, please send me the reaction and the response. I would very much like to hear it.

More tutorials will come shortly. Stay tuned!

Thank you!

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Enjoy!

Sleek And Textured Web Layout

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Design Studio Header

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Sleek And High End

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Grungy Interface

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Band Interface

Ever wanted to create a website for your band? Well, here is a simple yet quite powerful tutorial on how to create that grungy but still sleek look. This user interface design is simple and leaves a lot of room for your own creativity to speak it’s language.

Dark Interface

A dark and grungy website user interface with plenty of ways to tweak it your way. Looking at the original tutorials final result it can come across quite cluttered and dark but it fast becomes clear that it has huge possibilities. Add your own touch to it and you’ll have a sure eye catcher.

Volkswagen Navigation

Car brand websites has always sported some really nice designs through out the course of the Internet. Volkswagen has their own navigation panel for their website and here is a tutorial for you to create your own Volkswagen inspired navigation panel for your website.

CSS Based Interface

This playful CSS based user interface is quite a nice addition to this collection of tutorials. The tutorial is super extensive and describes every step in the most detailed ways. All the CSS code is carefully explained and this design will sure give you some inspiration.

Professional Header

This user interface tutorial will take you through the steps on how to create this hybrid tabbed professional header design. With a bit of tweaking you can create quite a huge variety of different styles sure to fit your own taste and needs.

Sleek & Simple Footer

Any website could use a footer to type out the usual copyright declaration and possibly some user agreement rules or a link to a site map. This tutorial will take you through the process of creating a really stylish and professional footer for you new website.

Slick Blue Navigation

A truly stylish and useful navigation header for any professional website design. This tutorial sports a simple and straight forward way of creating this minimalistic website header. Bigger icons will sure make this navigation panel look quite different and would bring some eyes your way.

Latest Tweets Box

I bet there’s not anyone out there still that haven’t head of the huge impact Twitter has had on the social networking of Web 2.0. This simple and stylish “Latest Tweets Box” will preview all your latest tweets right on your website for your visitors to see. Great and simple tutorial.

Unique Bookmark Box

Social bookmarking has become a huge success and a great way to keep track of your favorite websites and resources. This tutorial will take you through the process of creating a really neat and useful social bookmark box. The design is entirely up to your imagination if you want to tweak it.

Sounds System Studio Layout

A blue:ish and stylish user interface design that is quite original in it’s creation. This tutorial will teach you some nice and useful website design effects that will promote your website in your visitors eyes quite well. The tutorial is quite extensive and goes into the depth of things.

Hero Header

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Modern Web Layout

This tutorial is one of my favorite. It doesn’t only teach you how to create a really nice user interface website design, it also teaches you how to create this really nice metal/plastic look and feel. A truly eye catching results makes this tutorial one of the top rated ones.

Design Studio Web Layout

A really modern and fun user interface website design tutorial that takes you through the process of creating this stunningly fresh and useful design in 6 pages. A little bit of customization and you will have a design that can stand the test of the modern progressive design evolution.

Header Backgrounds

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Content Box

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Design Studio Layout

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Glossy Carbon Fibre Navigation

I have always like the look of the glossy icons or the carbon fibre layouts. This tutorial will teach you how to create a minimalistic glossy carbon fibre navigation menu that will enhance your website in the best of ways. Tweak it a little and the result could be stunningly beautiful.

Green Content Box

There are a million ways to design and create a really useful content box for you website user interface. This one feels fresh and creative and this tutorial teaches you in surprisingly few steps how to create it. The tweaking is up to your imagination as always.

Nature Inspired Painted Background

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Viget Inspire Background

This hybrid watercolor/grunge background user interface design is stunningly beautiful. This tutorial will teach you how to accomplish this effect in just a few simple steps. The design is soothing and creates an urge to come back for more. It’s a sure visitor eye catcher

Tutzor Web 2.0 Design

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Business Website Page

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Real Estate Theme

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Stylish Black Layout

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Professional Web Template

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Portfolio Web Layout

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Flickr Box

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Interior Design Layout

This captivating and seamless user interface design is perfect for your interior design website project. This tutorial takes you through a number of steps creating it however it maybe be quite hard to follow so I suggest you download the accompanied files instead to understand the tutorial better.

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Modern Portfolio Layout

A creative and modern way to create a really nice user interface. This tutorial, consisting of 7 pages, will teach you how to accomplish this appealing design. It has many pointers and tips worth checking out and should inspire you to be creative.

Design Studio Theme

Simple but really nice looking website user interface with vibrant colors and great easy to use layout. This tutorial will take you through the process of creating this really nice website template in just 6 pages of instructions.

Web 2.0 Content Box

Again, content boxes have become a great design aspect when it comes to user interface design. Blogs and website use them to style their posts or ad boxes to make them more appealing to the visitor. This tutorial will teach you how to create a really clean and useful Web 2.0 content box.

Cool Photography Layout

Stunningly simple but effective website user interface design. In just 14 steps we’ll learn how to create this appealing website template. You can go ahead and do all the modifications you want and it’s only up to your inspiration and imagination where you want and need to take it.

Royal Interface

This tutorial handles a quite pristine user interface that is sure to catch the visitors eyes in the best of ways. However, I wouldn’t really call this one a website user interface, instead a theme design with that little extra to it. In 10 pages we will learn how to create this nice theme.

Design Theme Layout

This nice and clean design theme layout is somewhat flash inspired in my opinion. It feels fresh but still dated in a way but this tutorial is sure to help you create a nice and clean  website user interface. 13 pages and you will be set to add your content.

Professional Blog Layout

This comprehensive and well designed layout is a sure bet if you want your blog user interface to look clean and appealing. This tutorial will take you through the steps of creating this quite stylish yet modifiable professional blog layout. Let your imagination flow.