Hey guys this is my second tutorial eventhough i am new to photoshop. This time i am going to show you how to create a sword slash trail effect using PS CS5.1.
So we begin by getting a stock image of choice, search google to find a decent image or there are websites where you can buy images, its your choice, here is what i used (thanks to google)
If your stock render has invisible background then create a new layer, move that layer underneath your render layer and fill it using the bucket tool with a colour which would enhance the sword trail.
Now create a new layer and you will draw a crescent on this layer, to draw a crescent select the custom shape tool from the toolbar on the left, then select a crescent shape and draw a crescent. it doesnt matter what size you draw because you are going to change it later.
Now select your crescent layer and change the shape according to your liking. To do this go to Edit>Transform>(multiple options) while the crescent layer is selected. you would have to use different options in the the transform menu to reach the desired result (rotate, skew, scale, perspective, distort etc). Play around with each option to get a hang of it. The ones i remember using were "scale", "distort" and "perspective" but it depends on your requrements and liking.
After you are doing with transforming the shape and are satisfied with the result, make a duplicate of this layer and move it below your first layer and hide it (keep it as a backup incase you mess up your shape). Now return to the visible crescent layer, choose the eraser tool, choose a round hard edge brush and start erasing the crescent upto the sword as shown in the picture (you probably have to rasterize the layer).
Now, if you think you want this kind of trail and are happy with it you can stop here and play with the layer opacity to your liking, you can continue to read to see what i did.
The next stepis to apply a layer mask to the crescent shape layer (i hope you know how to apply layer mask but if not read my other tut). Choose a round soft edge brush and black as your foreground colour, select the layer mask and start masking the slash areas you dont want. Benifit of using layer mask is you can unmask the entire layer and you are back with the original layer.
Okay after you are done with the masking and are happy with the result, the next step is to give the trail a slight fading touch, to do this select the smudge tool, again choose a soft edge round brush and take the strength of the smudge to 50%, now start smudging. Here you might run into a problem, if the shape is selected the smudge might not work but if you select the layer mask then the smudge will work.
Optional procedure. Duplicate your shape layer and apply motion blur filter to it. go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. For me these settings were correct.
Change the blending mode for this layer to soft light and 85% opacity. Now use soft edge round brush, black foreground colour and select the layer mask on the blurred layer and remove the excessive blur (as taught in my motion blur tut).
If you are satisfied with the result you are done but i found the placement of the slash a bit wrong so what i did was select both visible shape layers (as shown in the picture) and moved the image inline with the sword, after that i applied the distort transformation Edit>Transform>Distort, while both layers were selected, and adjusted the angle of the slash trail a bit.
And this is the final result.
Just so you know this tutorial is my original i did not copy it from anywhere on the internet. Hope you like my tutorial. Comments are always welcome.
So we begin by getting a stock image of choice, search google to find a decent image or there are websites where you can buy images, its your choice, here is what i used (thanks to google)
If your stock render has invisible background then create a new layer, move that layer underneath your render layer and fill it using the bucket tool with a colour which would enhance the sword trail.
Now create a new layer and you will draw a crescent on this layer, to draw a crescent select the custom shape tool from the toolbar on the left, then select a crescent shape and draw a crescent. it doesnt matter what size you draw because you are going to change it later.
Now select your crescent layer and change the shape according to your liking. To do this go to Edit>Transform>(multiple options) while the crescent layer is selected. you would have to use different options in the the transform menu to reach the desired result (rotate, skew, scale, perspective, distort etc). Play around with each option to get a hang of it. The ones i remember using were "scale", "distort" and "perspective" but it depends on your requrements and liking.
After you are doing with transforming the shape and are satisfied with the result, make a duplicate of this layer and move it below your first layer and hide it (keep it as a backup incase you mess up your shape). Now return to the visible crescent layer, choose the eraser tool, choose a round hard edge brush and start erasing the crescent upto the sword as shown in the picture (you probably have to rasterize the layer).
Now, if you think you want this kind of trail and are happy with it you can stop here and play with the layer opacity to your liking, you can continue to read to see what i did.
The next stepis to apply a layer mask to the crescent shape layer (i hope you know how to apply layer mask but if not read my other tut). Choose a round soft edge brush and black as your foreground colour, select the layer mask and start masking the slash areas you dont want. Benifit of using layer mask is you can unmask the entire layer and you are back with the original layer.
Okay after you are done with the masking and are happy with the result, the next step is to give the trail a slight fading touch, to do this select the smudge tool, again choose a soft edge round brush and take the strength of the smudge to 50%, now start smudging. Here you might run into a problem, if the shape is selected the smudge might not work but if you select the layer mask then the smudge will work.
Optional procedure. Duplicate your shape layer and apply motion blur filter to it. go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. For me these settings were correct.
Change the blending mode for this layer to soft light and 85% opacity. Now use soft edge round brush, black foreground colour and select the layer mask on the blurred layer and remove the excessive blur (as taught in my motion blur tut).
If you are satisfied with the result you are done but i found the placement of the slash a bit wrong so what i did was select both visible shape layers (as shown in the picture) and moved the image inline with the sword, after that i applied the distort transformation Edit>Transform>Distort, while both layers were selected, and adjusted the angle of the slash trail a bit.
And this is the final result.
Just so you know this tutorial is my original i did not copy it from anywhere on the internet. Hope you like my tutorial. Comments are always welcome.
