Photoshop Tutorial: Reconstruct a Face to Make it Match a Custom Skull

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use layer masking along with the burn tool, brush tool, pen tool, and various others to recreate a face to match a skull.

The skull can be found here... but, it is also helpful to beginners who are new to photoshop.
Photoshop Cs3 used but lower versions work and higher versions certainly work! Enjoy!

Sources used:
1: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1213518
2: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/257048
3: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1210754
4: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/370383
5: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/678896
6: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1107704
7: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/656093
8: http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=6676

End result:
Reconstruct a Face to Make it Match a Custom Skull Final Image

Author:

Views: 33487

Score: 8.42 / 10

Author earned: $35

Practice tutorial

Tags:faceretouchskull

Step 1

Create a new document called Face and make the background color white with rgb color and 72 pixel resolution it should be 800 by 1000 pixels.

Open up the basic face, select the move tool and click and drag the layer into the new document.

Step 2

Then, grab the marquee tool (m) and make a selection like the one shown in the picture below and copy it to a new layer (ctrl+j). Flip it horozontally (Edit>Transform>Flip Horozontally.)

Step 3

Select the move tool (v) and use the left arrow key to move the new layer left untill the face looks symmetrical like the below picture

Step 4

Now, for the hard part for most beginners, the layer masking. With the newly copied layer active (click on it to make it active) click the icon at the bottom of the layers pallette that looks like a camera (see below picture for reference) , this is the vector mask or layer mask as more commonly said. What this should do is add a linked layer to the newly copied half of the face, now, grab a brush (b) with a hardness of 0 and make sure your foreground color is black and tour linked layer is active, go along the edges of the parts you want "erased" or masked i should say. Do not worry if you mess up, just change the color of the foreground to white and go along the edge you want back! Now merge all layers into one (click on either of the two layers and hold shift down and click the other unactive layer then right click and a drop down menu will come select merge layers option). You should have something like the below picture when you are done.

Step 5

Grab the pen tool (p) and slowly click along the outer edge of his face (the more you click the smoother it gets) when you circle around his face click back into the center of the dot you started with and right click and it should drop down options, from the options choose make selection and change the radius to .5 copy the selection into a new layer then turn off the background layer (the eye next to it.)

Step 6

Select the clone stamp tool (s), because we are going to clone out the glisten in the man's eye. To get a sample for cloning, press alt+click the mouse you will have a sample. Make sure your stamp hardness is at zero and get to cloning out those glistens. You should have something similar to the below image.

Step 7

Now open up the forehead picture. Copy the top part of his head into a new layer using the pen tool as we previously learned how to use. To bring it into the other picture, restore the forehead picture and click and hold the mouse and drag it into the other face picture. Then free transform the forehead (Edit>Free Transform) until it is proportional and also the sides of the forehead meet the sides of the head (see picture). Then erase any overhanging areas of the basic face (see picture and try to erase close to the edge).

Step 8

Now, we are going to change the color of the forehead. Grab the eyedropper tool (i) and just click anywhere on his face to get a sample (i clicked right next to his nose in the middle). Then, right click on the forehead layer and select duplicate layer from the drop down menu and with the newly duplicated layer active, ctrl+click on the layer's thumbnail to make the image become a selection and use the brush tool to make the layer the sampled color. Then set the blending option to color and merge the layers. adjust the brightness/contrast according to the below image. Then mask it as we learned how to do previously according to the picture. Now clone out areas to match the picture once again! You should have something along the lines of the below picture but don't worry if it does'nt look exactly according to the below picture

Step 9

Now, grab the burn tool (o) and set the opacity to a low setting (below 50) and the hardness to 0 also, set the options to midtowns instead of highlights (see picture). Go along the edges of the forehead area. You should have something like the below picture.

Step 10

Open up the eye picture and copy it into a new layer with the pen tool and drag it to your new face picture and resize it to a reasonable size. Then, make a selection around the iris with the pen tool and lower the hue a little (i did'nt provide an example because it's your picture...make it yours!) Now duplicate the eye layer and flip it horozontally and slide it to the other side. Then burn around the edges of the eyes and skin (see picture).

Step 11

Open up the mouth picture and once again, copy it into a new layer and move it to the new face picture. We will apply another layer mask to mask the lips into the face (see picture). Then, raise the brightness up a little according to your taste! After blending, if there's any resemblence of the previous lips, clone them out.

Step 12

Now open up the nose picture. We are kind of going back to the beginning of the tutorial in this step, we are going to select the marquee tool again and make a selection like the one shown below. Next, copy the selection into a new layer and flip it horozontally and slide it to the right. Now cut the nose out and blend the hard edge down the center with a layer mask.

Step 13

With the nose layer active, duplicate it to begin the recoloring of the nose. Take a selection from around the nose just like before with the eyedropper tool with the newly duplicated layer active, ctrl+click the thumbnail again to get the selection. Use the brush tool to color the layer and deselect (ctrl+d) set the blending mode to color. Then apply layer mask to it and mask out any unwanted areas (see below picture). Also, if you feel necessary, you can also add a layer under the nose and use the brush to add a shadow (mark the shape you want and blur it Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to a low amount). You should have something like the below picture.

Step 14

Now! open up the ear picture and resize it. Use the pen tool as you previously learned how to do to make a selection around the ear and then copy it into a new layer. Move it into the face we have been working on (note: if you still have all of these images we've cut from open, you may close them for we no longer need them). Recolor the ear the way we've learned, duplicate, color, blend ...remember?? Then add a shadow with the brush tool (start with an opacity of 100 and a hardness of 100 also and just make sure you have a blank new layer under the head and above the ear and follow along the edge of the face along the ear). Then, once you're happy with it blur it ( Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) to a low amount your preference! now duplicate the ear and flip it horozontally and slide it to the right side of the face and... whabam! you have another ear! repeat the shadow process. You should have something like the below picture.

Step 15

Next, open up the sky picture and make it your background...simple step guys!

Step 16

Now, go back to the original image, cut the neck off of the head like the below picture and free transform it until it looks realitsic on the head to YOU. Then add a shadow using the brush tool method we previously learned.

Step 17

Now, the time-consuming part of the tutorial... open up the hair picture and cut it out roughly then as before, move it to our face picture and resize it to fit the head nicely. Apply a layer mask and mask out individual strands of hair with a brush size of 1 pxl. For the hair line, make it a big brush.

Step 18

Now, after masking all of that, you have very little left to do. Grab the smudge tool and set opacity to 100, and a size of 1 pxl and a hardness of 0 click and hold down pull away from the hair line to simulate strands of hair. See picture below for clarification.

Step 19

Well we are done pretty much...if there's anything you are not happy with, you can fix them with the layer masks. also, if you feel necessary, you can overlay the skull because you have the link i hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Thanks!

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