Sunday, January 11, 2009

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene

Preparation:

I came across a very nice shot from jademacalla. Reminds me alot on 007. We also need a jail background.

Download REQ15 image.
Download Eastern State Penitentiary image.

All rights of these resources belong to their respective owners.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 1

Step 1 - Setting Up Background:

Create a new document with size 750x550 pixels.

Open up the Eastern State Penitentiary image, drag into the document and resize it like the one shown in the diagram. Rename this layer as Jail.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 2

Step 2 - Adding Lens Blur:

Duplicate the Jail layer and rename it as Blurred Jail.

Select the Jail layer and go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Check on Faster, set Blur Focal Distance to 0, Iris Shape to Hexagon(6), Radius to 25, Blade Curvature to 0, Rotation to 0, Brightness to 0, Threshold to 255, Noise to 0 and Distribution to Uniform.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 3

Step 3a - Cropping Figure:

Open up REQ15 image.

Crop out the figure using Pen tool.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 4

Step 3b - Cropping Figure:

Drag the figure as a layer above the Jail layers. Rename this figure layer as Hero. Resize the figure so it looks similar to the one on the left.

Select the Soft Eraser tool with size 800pt, click once at the center of Blurred Jail layer.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 5

Step 4a - Adding Shadow:

Create a new layer above Hero and name it as Shadow.

Fill the layer with #000000 using Paint Bucket. Set the opacity of this layer to 80%.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 6

Step 4b - Adding Shadow:.

Select the Soft Eraser tool with size 800pt, click once at the center of Shadow layer.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 7

Step 5 - Adding Saturation Effect:

Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer above all layers.

Set the Hue to 0, Saturation to -40 and Lightness to 0.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 8

Step 6 - Adding Exposure Effect:

Create a Exposure Adjustment layer above all layers.

Set the Exposure to +0.6, Offset to -0.01 and Gamma Correction to 1.2.

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 9

Step 7 - Adding Levels Effect:

Create a Levels Adjustment layer above all layers.

Set the values to 20, 1, 240 and you are done!

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene image 10

Optional:

I have added another Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and check on Colorize. Set the Hue to 120, Saturation to 25 and Lightness to 0. Set the opacity of this adjustment layer to 50%

I also included a top and bottom border to make it look cinematic. Hope you enjoy this tutorial!

Create an Action Pack Movie Scene Tutorial: Final Result