Butcher Billy is an illustrator based in Curitiba, Brazil. He creates powerful illustrations in a comic book style and has a real talent for creating a vintage look-and-feel in his art.
One of his most popular illustration series is this Planet Mercury work. In it, the artist integrated rockstar Freddy Mercury into comics covers and turned him into all kinds of heroes. This work can be purchased as prints on the illustrator’s Redbubble shop.
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Today we will be learning how to make a movie poster in Adobe Photoshop, paired with Placeit’s poster maker!
We will be focusing on creating a gritty post-apocalyptic color grade using adjustment layers, and you’ll also learn how to apply quick and easy typography with Placeit. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
You’ll need the following resources to complete this project:
1. How to Create a Red and Black Silhouetted Character
To start everything off, we will be creating our base and the main focus of our poster. In a real movie poster, this is where the hero would be located!
Step 1
Create a 4349 x 5907 px canvas with a Resolution of 300.
Step 2
Create a Color Fill Layer and fill it with black.
Using the Gradient or Brush Tool, create a red #ef0000 to transparent gradient coming from the bottom of the canvas.
Step 3
Using a massive, soft, round Brush Tool, paint a black shadow gradient coming in from the left and right sides of the canvas.
Step 4
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a long red #ff0000 vertical rectangle going from the top of the canvas to the bottom.
Group all of your background layers into a group named „Base.”
2. How to Plan Out and Place an Effective Composition
Next, we want to place our secondary characters—in this case, our hero’s enemies.
Step 1
Take Nuclear survivor 1 and Nuclear survivor 2 and place them side by side, but facing away from each other. This will help frame the main female character.
To help place him and get his positioning just right, loosely extract him from his background using the Lasso Tool—just enough so that you can see behind the character.
Step 3
Finally, drag and drop Nuclear survivor 4 onto your canvas, setting the layer to Lighten.
He will represent our main bad guy, so let’s not only make him bigger but also place him looming over all the other characters.
Placing all your characters before extracting them is helpful when you have multiple poses or people to choose from. It will keep you from wasting time removing the background of people or objects you end up not using.
3. How to Create a Gritty Post-Apocalyptic Photo Effect
Before we go any further, we are going to add a gritty color grade. Most of the time I save this step for last, but given the intensity of this effect in particular, it’s best to do it earlier on so you have a better vision of the outcome.
These are layered from bottom to top and should be placed above all future layers from here on out.
Step 1
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Bleach Bypass
Opacity: 50%
Step 2
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Foggy Night
Opacity: 20%
Step 3
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Crisp Warm
Opacity: 40%
Step 4
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Edgey Amber
Opacity: 50%
Step 5
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Horror Blue
Opacity: 100%
Layer Mode: Darker Color
Step 6
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
Selective Color Settings
Reds
Yellow: +100%
Blues
Cyan: +100%
Magenta: +3%
Yellow: -96%
Step 7
Create a Color Lookup adjustment layer.
Color Lookup Settings
3DLUT: Teal Orange Plus Contrast
Opacity: 62%
Layer Mode: Color
Group all of your adjustment layers together, naming the group „Color Grade.”
4. How to Composite Multiple Subjects Together
Now that we have our colors fleshed out and our characters placed, we can finally composite them all together.
Now is the time to get their exact positioning just right.
Step 2
Extract and place your third subject located in the front. I also went ahead and enlarged him slightly to give the characters more of a hierarchy.
Step 3
Extract the fourth, largest character using the Magic Wand Tool. We want this character to have mostly highlights and be roughly extracted with a lot of jagged and torn edges.
Make sure the layer is still set to Lighten and place it behind all other characters.
Group all of your characters into a group named „Subjects.”
5. How to Draw Highlights and Blend Characters Quickly
Given the darkness of the overall image, it’s important to make sure your characters pop against their background; adding some strong highlights is a great way to do that!
Step 1
Create a New Layer above the „Subjects” group.
Paint a red, somewhat sloppy outline around your three lower subjects using a small, hard round Brush.
If you don’t have a graphics tablet, bring up the Smoothing of the brushto 30-50% and use the Smudge Tool to taper out the ends of the lines.
Step 2
Create a New Layer above your red outline.
Using a large, soft, round Brush, paint a black shadow below your three lower subjects.
Make sure not to hide any crucial details such as the subject’s weapons, while also making sure the bottom edges of the subjects aren’t showing and it’s a smooth black transition.
6. How to Add Typography Using Placeit’s Poster Maker
Finally, we will be bringing our poster into Placeit’s poster maker to add our movie’s title and other relevant text!
Step 1
Save your poster design as either a JPG or PNG at a max of 12 MB in size.
I’d suggest making your width at least 3600 px.
Step 2
See all of the poster templates available by going to www.placeit.net > Designs and searching „Poster”.
Scroll down to see some of the horror genres presets available.
I will be using „Ritual”. Although this is a horror preset and our film is more in the post-apocalyptic action genre, Placeit gives you tons of customization options!
Step 4
While Placeit has a library of images available to use, we, of course, will be using our own.
Do this by selecting Custom Image on the right-hand side where the background images are located.
Select your saved poster PNG or JPG image.
Crop your image using Placeit’s simple slider crop feature if needed.
Step 5
Add your own text by replacing the text found on the left-hand side of the screen.
The changes happen live and in real time!
Step 6
Once all your text is decided, you can start to change the color, font face, and font placement!
I will be using a pale-yellow color #f4d150 for the title font to make it stand out.
Use the Color Picker Tool in Photoshop to pick colors right off your poster.
Step 7
Next, I will be changing the font to Ultra.
Step 8
Finally, to finish everything up, I am going to arrange our poster text.
To do this in Placeit, drag and place the text wherever you want it. Once again, it’s all live editing!
It also has guides to help you align everything perfectly!
We’ve Done It!
The only thing more important than the composition or color story of a movie poster is the text itself! It must be bold, readable, and something that draws the eye to it!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following excellent photo manipulation tutorials:
Say you have an image you’re using in an <img> that is 800×600 pixels. Will it actually display as 800px wide on your site? It’s very likely that it will not. We tend to put images into flexible container elements, and the image inside is set to width: 100%;. So perhaps that image ends up as 721px wide, or 381px wide, or whatever. What doesn’t change is that image’s aspect ratio, lest you squish it awkwardly (ignoring the special use-case object-fit scenario).
The main point is that we don’t know how much vertical space an image is going to occupy until that image loads. This is the cause of jank! Terrible jank! It’s everywhere and it’s awful.
There are ways to create aspect-ratio sized boxes in HTML/CSS today. None of the options are particularly elegant because they rely on the „hack” of setting a zero height and pushing the boxes height with padding. Wouldn’t it be nicer to have a platform feature to help us here? The first crack at fixing this problem that I know about is an intrinsicsize attribute. Eric Portis wrote about how this works wonderfully in Jank-Free Image Loads.
We’d get this:
<img src="image.jpg" intrinsicsize="800x600" />
This is currently behind a flag in Chrome 71+, and it really does help solve this problem.
But…
The intrinsicsize property is brand new. It will only help on sites where the developers know about it and take the care to implement it. And it’s tricky! Images tend to be sized arbitrarily, and the intrinsicsize attribute will need to be custom on every image to be accurate and do its job. That is, if it makes it out of standards at all.
There is another possibility! Eric also talked about the aspect-ratio property in CSS as a potential solution. It’s also still just a draft spec. You might say, but how is this helpful? It needs to be just as bespoke as intrinsicsize does, meaning you’d have to do it as inline styles to be helpful. Maybe that’s not so bad if it solves a big problem, but inline styles are such a pain to override and it seems like the HTML attribute approach is more inline with the spirit of images. Think of how srcset is a hint to browsers for what images are available to download, allowing the browser to pick the best one for the scenario. Telling the browser about the aspect-ratio upfront is similarly useful.
I heard from Jen Simmons about an absolutely fantastic way to handle this: put a default aspect ratio into the UA stylesheet based on the elements existing width and height attributes. Like this:
img, video {
aspect-ratio: attr(width) / attr(height);
}
Let that soak in.
Now if you already have:
<img src="image.jpg" width="800" height="600" />
It automatically has the correct aspect ratio as the page loads. That’s awesome.
It’s easy to understand.
A ton of the internet already has these attributes sitting on their images.
New developers will have no trouble understanding this, and old developers will be grateful there is little (if any) work to do here.
I like the idea of the CSS feature. But I like 100 times more the idea of putting it into the UA</abbr? stylesheet so that the entire web benefits. I'm sure that changing a UA stylesheet is no small thing to consider — and I’m not qualified to understand all the implications of that — but it feels like a very awesome thing at first consideration.
Flexibility is one of the most fundamental cornerstones of
artistic expression. This doesn’t just apply with already established art forms
either, as it also reflects the new and constantly evolving avenues which our
artistic appreciation can take.
One of the most recent forms that has been becoming
increasingly visible is that of static gaming images as art. Of course, games
themselves consist of enormous quantities of art assets but, as we commonly see
in photography, images when properly framed can account for more than just the
sum of their parts.
Borrowing from the Old, Relying on the New
Perhaps the most obvious component of this burgeoning art
form comes from the classic discipline of photography. Light, framing, focal length,
and so many other forms of image manipulation raise their heads here, and these
have benefitted heavily from improving graphical horsepower.
Rising graphical standards through better in-game textures,
model quality, lighting techniques, anti-aliasing, and antistrophic filtering
have all been growing increasingly convincing in recent years, and these are
only a few of the technologies involved.
While depictions of realism have obviously seen some of the
biggest leaps in believability, it should also be noted that stylised graphics
like those from cell-shaded games have also made significant strides in recent
years.
Aiding in this more traditional appeal to photography is
the inclusion of what is known as a photo mode in many newer games. This is
usually triggered through the pause menu or by performing a special button
combination, which then pauses the action and opens up the photo tool.
This tool then allows players to fully rotate and tilt the
camera, change its distance, add filters to the screen, remove certain
characters, add borders, manipulate saturation and brightness, and otherwise
play with a whole host of other options.
In effect, this gives more freedom than a real-life
photographer could ever find, which can give rise to some astounding artistic
pieces. Take a look at a few from Redbull, for the recent PS4 Spider-Man game, to see just a hint of the
possibilities here.
Building the Business
The other side of this equation is afforded through the
inclusion of humanity as a means of guiding expression and understanding.
Before taking a look at how we accomplish this today, however, we need to
examine the place screenshots have had in gaming’s past.
Primarily, screenshots were a form of advertising above all
else. By placing images of the most exciting parts of a game on the back of the
box, a studio could show their games in the most measured way possible. This
could allow them to draw from parts of high action or the areas where games
possessed the most graphical fidelity.
This was so important, in fact, that it sometimes involved
less than honest practices and, more recently, helped shaped the current form
of console gaming. On rare occasions, the screenshots on the back of the gaming
box would only include images from the best-looking version of a multiplatform
release, for example, while the game included within might never match these
standards.
When it comes to the most recent generation of consoles,
gaming enthusiasts have lamented the emphasis of resolution over frame-rate.
This very deliberate choice has allowed games to look amazingly good in still
images like screenshots, though it inevitably makes the gameplay itself suffer
as a result of less fluidity.
Better in screenshots, and better for their art, but less
helpful to those invested in more mobile depictions of gaming art.
Taking from the Human Aspect
In terms of bringing the visibility of gaming and the art
within to mass attention, few developments have been as influential as game
streaming. Giving space to both the game and the human participants, this goes
for a different tact than just in-game illustration, relating human response
and feeling back to the game with a direct line.
It's been 2 years since I first pressed start stream. From trying to find a path in life working as a QA tester, to crying before starting stream cause I was scared I would fail. Now being partnered with a beautiful community, it's been an amazing journey.
There is a modern classic style in taking screenshots from
live gaming services like Twitch, UStream, and YouTube, for example, in times
of success, failure, frustration, or comedy. Selecting the right moment, and
using this to capture emotion is an incredibly effective system and one that
has inspired memes the world over.
This doesn’t just apply to these services either, as casino online services utilise game streaming to offer
interactive classics such as blackjack and roulette though the likes of live casino
games. These are more interactive, and all the more effective at conveying and
setting a mood because of it.
Static, Moving, and Virtual
As graphics and animation only improve, and the gaming
market continues to grow, it is inevitable that we will see a greater emphasis
on gaming-related art in the future. With the introduction of new tech like virtual reality, this could even take the form
of fully immersive images, which could shape the medium in ways not yet
conceived.
Offering itself as one of the more communal and
participatory illustrations of art, from the assets to the placement and
capture, this opens doors to an interesting future of collaboration. Regardless
of how you see gaming itself, these possibilities are certainly expansive and
exciting.
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