01
STOCK SEARCH
The first step is to find some high-quality mountain stock images. The sky was white in our image and we wanted to add some clouds, so we searched for good sky photos, pasted them over the landscape, then blended using layer masks as well as the Overlay, Multiply and Normal modes.
02
BRING IN SOME COLOUR
To add the green tint, create a new layer filled with #f6f6e5 and set to Multiply. Now create a new layer set to Multiply, but fill this with a bluish gradient at 36% Opacity. Use Curves to up the contrast and tweak the greens with a Color Balance adjustment layer
03
MOUNTAINS AND BIRDS
Now add in some mountains from another stock photo. Set the layer’s blending mode to Multiply with an Opacity of 68%, then make the mountains a little greyer so that they all blend well together. Blur the mountains using the Gaussian Blur filter set to a Radius of 5px because they are further away and this will create a greater sense of depth. Finally, find some nice bird images and paste them into the composition, using the Edit>Transform options to match the scene’s perspective and scale.
04
FLOATING MOUNTAINS
With the help of CGTextures, source some free landscape stock images and blend them together to produce a mountain reminiscent of those in Avatar. This is very much a matter of artistic licence so you will have to decide on the scale, shape and which materials constitute your mountain when you come to constructing it. As previously demonstrated, use layer masks to bring elements together, as this will help to blend effectively using black and white brushes. Also, make sure that when you are using these brushes that you are working with a low Flow value as this will help to achieve a smooth blend
05
GRADIENT SHADING
Select the floating mountain and, with a black to transparent gradient, create a shadow at the bottom of the scene, fading out towards the top of the image. Lower the Opacity to 28% and repeat this step. Select parts of the mountains from the background and paste into the bottom to give it more texture. We’ll go into more depth with this in a moment. At this stage, it’s a good idea to take a final look and check you’re happy with the composition. To do this, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal.
06
DEPTH AND HIGHLIGHTS
To create depth and highlights, use a small, hard brush, painting with black where you want to generate a bit more shadow. Set this layer to the Soft Light blending mode and lower the Opacity to around 70% with the brush Flow at 70% too. Follow the same process with a hard white brush, this time creating highlights with the layer set to Overlay. You can use this technique with all your photomanipulation projects to great effect.
07
ADD SOME CLOUDS
To add realism to the floating mountain and to establish its significant scale and airborne position, import some clouds, placing them around the bottom of the mountain. Render the clouds with channels, put them on a new layer and then invert it (Cmd/Ctrl+I). Now select the black parts (the clouds) with the Magic Wand tool and erase the rest. Blur the clouds with Filter>Motion Blur to lend them a greater sense of movement.
08
SHADOWS, ACCENTS AND EERIE MIST
As this project goes on, and the more that you work on the mountain, the more likely you are to notice that it requires more details. At this stage, for example, we decided that this image needs more shadows and highlights. Repeat step 6 and go into more detail using a smaller brush. It’s time-consuming work, but this effort will pay dividends when it comes to the final result. To generate a mist effect, take a soft brush, sample the colour from the background with the Eyedropper tool, and brush over the mountain and background before switching to Soft Light blending.
09
ADD SOME PLANTS
In Avatar, the floating islands have long, vine-like plants to help people move from one island to another, and you can also create these in your scene. Take a hard brush and draw some simple lines to get the basic plant forms from one mountain to another. Then, with a green colour, add more lines over the first set and then a final group of lines in a lighter tone for shading. You can also set some of the lines to Overlay
10
MORE CURVE CHANGES
You can now add some shady plants to the bottom of the scene and around the base of the floating mountain. You can do this very simply by taking the hard brush again and, with a grey colour, drawing in plants that are hanging down. The trick is that they don’t have to look exactly like plants when zoomed in, but when you zoom out they should look convincingly like the silhouettes of trees or shrubs. You only have to make these plants as complicated as you want to
11
ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Once again you need to add more highlights – you can never get enough of them! The more you have, the more detail there will be in your scene and the better it will ultimately look. You can also add a bit of green here and there with a hard brush. By doing this you give the image a more digitally painted feeling, but don’t forget to make sure that everything blends well together, with no one area stealing the show
12
MOUNTAIN EDGES
Because you could never render the rock in a way that makes the plants at the edges look good too, you need to add your own flora and fauna to the mountain edges. This will help to better blend the mountain into the sky and reduce that copy and pasted feel. Again, you don’t have to paint the plants or leaves very realistically as they’re in the distance and shrouded by mist. But be sure not to use only one colour when doing this – always add in highlight and shadow tones too.
13
SPLASH OUT
Before making a waterfall, look up some references to get an idea of the basic structure. As you will see, there isn’t too much detail in a waterfall – it’s basically a white cloud. Take a soft brush at around 150px, brush a thick line in white and then apply Soft Light blending at 25% Opacity. This is the start of the waterfall and shows how it’s floating. You can now add a couple of finer lines either side of the waterfall to serve as edges.
14
WATERFALL DETAILS
With a soft brush sized around 500px, brush once more into the waterfall, but lower the Opacity to 28% and set the blending mode to Soft Light. For details, zoom in and use a hard brush to make a couple of small strokes and then, on a new layer, add a series of lines. If they look too hard, you can blur them a bit. Add vertical lines until satisfied, then apply some smoky mist underneath the cascade
15
RAINBOW EFFECT
Waterfalls can often be seen with a rainbow near them due to light refracting through the moving water. Create a subtle rainbow with your hard brush, as per the screenshot, lowering the Opacity to 80%. Change the layer to the Soft Light mode and apply a Gaussian blur so that the rainbow doesn’t draw too much attention. With the soft brush set to the Soft Light mode, add a little more mist coming off the waterfall.
16
MOUNTAIN SHADOW
Because it’s a floating mountain, you need to add its shadow to the area it’s suspended over. We decided to put some shadow on the rocky column closest to it and on the ground using the soft brush set to black at a lowered opacity. Make sure you never do just one shadow – for realism, apply several layers of shadow that become darker the closer they get to the object. Don’t mess too much with the blending options when it comes to shadows, either, as they need to be almost completely black.
17
MORE MIST
As one of the final steps, you are going to add yet more mist around the floating mountain and make the vegetation around the edges a little greener. The mist will help the mountain merge seamlessly with everything else in the scene and it also enhances the surreal and mysterious mood you want the image to have. Never make your mist too white, though. Instead, use a colour in the same shade as the background, so in this case give it a green tint. Switch the mist layer to the Soft Light blending mode and set the Opacity to 30%
8
FINAL TOUCHES
Now you can play with Brightness/Contrast, Levels and Curves adjustment layers. To get focus in this artwork, you can also create a black to white radial gradient on a new layer set to Soft Light and 30% Opacity. The white circle goes wherever you want to draw focus. Create a new layer, fill it with black and go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise (12.5% and Monochromatic). Set this layer to Soft Light and just 5% Opacity. Last but not least, wrap up the image with a Smart Sharpen filter.
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