Today, I'm gonna show you a super simple way of turning your images in to
sketches or drawings using filters and blending options.
And at the end of the video, I'm gonna show you how you can use the same method
to turn your videos into moving works of art.
Let's take a look.
There are two things that you need to start off this project.
The picture that you wan to turn into a sketch and a texture for the background.
Both of which I grabbed from shutterstock.com.
But you can use an image of yourself or any texture you wish for the background.
Once both images are opened in Photoshop, if they're in separate documents,
drag either one onto the other.
And then resize as necessary.
The texture's a little bit small for this image.
So I'm gonna enter Free Transform Mode, Cmd or Ctrl+T and
then enlarge the texture until it fills the document.
When that's been done, it needs to be moved behind the image.
As the image is currently the background layer.
Double-click on the layer, name it if you wish and then press OK.
And now that it's unlocked, you can move that texture layer behind your
image by dragging it in the Layers panel.
Now we can start applying Filters.
But before you do,
you always want to convert your layer into a smart object first.
This will allow you to edit the filters even after they've been applied.
For this effect, using the Filter Gallery will make the process much easier.
You can access this Filter Gallery under the Filter menu.
Here we're able to add multiple filters at once and
see how they interact with each other before they're applied to the photo.
At the bottom right, you can see where your first filter is listed.
Selecting a new filter from the Gallery will replace the one you
currently have selected.
Under the Sketch Group, Chalk and Charcoal will be the first filter in the stack.
This will flatten out the image and give it a bit of texture.
Ten, five and one for the values works for this image.
But you may need to adjust the settings depending on the image that you're using.
Now that the first filter has been added,
pressing the New Effect Layer icon at the bottom will allow us to add a second one.
This time under the Artistic group, select Film Grain and use the values nine,
zero and four.
This will set the stage for our next filter.
One last time.
Create a new effect, and then under the Brush Strokes group,
choose Angled Strokes.
Because we now have grain on our image, the Angled Strokes filter will use that
grain to create nice hatches on your image.
Depending on how long you want the strokes,
you can adjust the values to the right.
But 50, 30 and 0 seem to work well.
At this point, the first set of filters are complete.
Now don't worry if the result looks blue or another strange shade.
This can be adjusted using an Adjustment Layer, which we'll get to in a moment.
Now to add a subtle outline around the subject,
we're going to be adding one more filter but on a new layer.
Duplicate the layer that you just worked with Cmd or Ctrl+J.
And then delete the current filters by dragging them
right onto the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
Just like before, we're gonna hop back into the Filter Gallery.
But before you add any filters, take a look at the effects stack.
Your previous filters may have been added automatically.
If they were, delete them until you're left with only one.
The only filter that we're gonna be adding for
this layer is Photocopy under the Sketch Group.
This will create a nice outline around the edges of our subject,
which can be adjusted using the Detail and Darkness sliders to the right.
I'm gonna stick to around eight for
both the values and then press OK to apply the filter.
Before we go any further,
I want to take care of the blue tint that the filter's left behind.
At the bottom of the Layers panel, click on the Adjustment Layer icon and
add either a Vibrance or a Hue and Saturation adjustment and
then decrease the Saturation to pull out the colors from those layers.
Now this will also remove the color from your Texture Layer.
If you want that color to be preserved, you can group the top two layers and
clip the Adjustment Layer to that group.
Grouping layers can be done by selecting the layers that you want included and
pressing Cmd or Ctrl+G.
Now once the layers have been grouped,
select the Adjustment Layer which should not be in the group.
And then positioning your
cursor in between the Adjustment Layer and the group.
Hold down Alt or Option.
Option on the Mac, Alt on Windows and click.
Now, only the layers within that group are affected by the adjustment.
So now that both of our layers are set up,
it's time to blend them in to the background.
For now, let's go ahead and
hide the top most layer by clicking on the Eye icon to the left.
And then select the layers that contain the sketch filters.
To blend this layer with the background, there are a few ways of doing so.
But to give you the most flexibility,
I'm gonna be using one of my favorite blending methods, Blend If.
Which can be found within your Layer Styles.
Simply double-click on the Layer and
take a look at the bottom where the Blend If sliders are.
Our main objective is to blend out the white of the layer that we're
currently on.
Which can be done using the top slider.
At the far right, you'll find the highlight control.
And by holding down your Alt or
Option key, you can split up this handle to create a smooth transition.
You'll want to drag the handle to the left until the whites of
the image are just about faded out revealing the texture in the background.
And once you have a nice result, you can accept the blend, by pressing OK.
For the second layer, which you can now unhide.
We'll want to again hop into the Layer Styles dialogue.
But this time, we're only gonna be using the basic options at the top.
The Blend Mode will be set to Multiply.
And then the Opacity can be decreased to create a more subtle outline if
you desire.
20% seems to leave this image looking quite nice.
Finally, if you want to sharpen up the overall image a touch.
You can add a Curves adjustment layer at the top of your layer stack.
This will give you more control over the shadows and the highlight.
If you want to darken or lighten up areas of your image.
And because we're using smart objects,
you can always double-click on the Filter Gallery and make changes if you need to.
So now that we've turned a still image into a sketch.
Let's look at how simple it is to do the same thing for a video.
Over on this document, I have a very similar set up.
The video which I downloaded from videasy.com is on top and
the texture is right behind it.
When working with a video in order to apply a filter to the full video at once,
you need to make sure you're working with the smart object.
Otherwise, the filter will only be applied to a single frame.
I've already gone ahead and converted this video in to a smart object.
You'll also want to reveal your video Timeline if you don't see it already.
This will show you the layers in your video project,
allow you to adjust the length of the clips, add audio and so on.
Now, just like we did for the image.
Hop in to the Filter Gallery to start adding your filters.
The first being the Chalk and Charcoal filter.
The second being Film Grain and the final filter being Angled Strokes.
Now because the video's dimensions are smaller than the image I was working on,
I'll probably need to decrease the stroke length a bit.
Once the filters have been applied, playing back the video will be
quite choppy as Photoshop needs to render each frame.
But once it's exported, it's gonna be nice and smooth.
Now that the first layer is complete.
Duplicate it, Cmd or Ctrl+J and remove the filters that are currently applied.
Hop into the Filter Gallery once again and add the Photocopy filter under
the Sketch Group to create a nice outline around the subjects.
Blending can be done the same way it was done in the first example.
For the first layer,
you'll want to fade out the highlights using the Blend If sliders.
And then for the second layer, set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
And then decrease the Opacity so that the outline isn't too harsh.
Now if you want to remove the blue tint, select both layers.
Place them in a group, Cmd or Ctrl+G and
add a Vibrance adjustment layer with the saturation set to zero.
Clip it to the group if you want to avoid desaturating the background layer.
Finally, to finish off the edit we can add a Curves adjustment layer to darken or
lighten the shadows or highlights.
Now once again,
playing back the video with this many filters will be painfully choppy.
At the bottom of the timeline,
the Arrow icon will allow you to export the video to your computer.
Give it a name.
Choose where you want to export it.
Adjust the size if you wish and then hit that Render button.
Depending on the size and
complexity of that video, rendering may take a few minutes.
But once its complete, you're gonna have a great looking video as you can see here.