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Making of Missing Piece

Tips about how I made the Missing Piece wallpaper ( see wallpaper ).

This tutorial is about Missing Piece wallpaper. The most important thing you need for good wallpaper is the idea 😉 So I came up with pencil sketch, which I then scanned and opened in Photoshop.

 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 1

Create new document, fill it with background color of your desire (I chose greyish blue), and apply the following filters:
– Noise (Filters menu – Noise – Add noise)
– Sponge (Filters menu – Artistic – Sponge)
– Textutizer (Filters – Texture – Texturizer)

Important! After applying each effect, immediately hit Ctrl-Shift-F (Fade) and fade each filter down to 10-20%.

 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 2

I overlayed my scanned image for reference…
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 3

Set foreground color to orange, switch to Pen tool (P) and create a shape of puzzle piece, using pencil sketch as reference.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 4

Here is the completed shape – I decided it does not need to be very symmetric!
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 5

Open Layer menu – Layer Style – Blending Options (or simply double-click on layer) and apply the following layer effects:

– Outer glow: black, size 3px, mode=overlay
– Bevel and emboss: size 2px, highlight mode=overlay, shadow mode=overlay
– Pattern overlay: choose any pattern that fits 🙂 blend mode=overlay, opacity=10-15%

 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 6

Duplicate this layer, change orange color to much darker (brown), then move this new layer down (so that it is behind original orange layer) and then move shape a little up and right. This will give additional depth to the puzzle piece.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 7

 
Well, one piece is ready! Repeat these steps and create another one…
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 8

Then again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again and again 🙂
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 9

Use hard black brush (B) to draw hands, legs and eyes.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 10

In new layer (behind brush layer), draw white eyes content with white brush. Apply some Drop shadow to it (blend mode=soft light).
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 11

Repeat for all pieces!
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 12

Shadows are very important in this wallpapers – they give convincing 3D look, without need of any 3D software. Switch to black soft brush, set brush opacity to 30-40%, and sketch the shadow.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 13
 
Set shadow layer blend mode to soft light (so that the shadow is not so strong).
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 14

Create new layer, switch to very large (100-150px) black brush, and add some more strokes to the shadow.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 15

Again, set this layer blend mode to Soft light.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 16

And finally, in another new layer, use small soft brush for some more small shadow – right below the legs. Again, set layer blend mode to Soft light.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 17

Repeat and create shadows for all pieces.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 18

The final touch is to apply some blur to upper part of wallpaper – it will create illusion of macro photo shoot. First, we need “gradient selection” – that is, selection that goes from opaque on top to transparent on bottom. Here is how:

– switch to Quick Mask (Q). Switch to Gradient tool, make sure black-to-white gradient is selected. Draw gradient from middle to top of image. You should see red mask hiding not-selected area.

 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 19

Turn off Quick Mask (hit Q again). This is approximately what selection should look like.
 
Missing Piece - making of - Step 20
 
Apply Blur (Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur, or Filter – Blur – Lens Blur) to selected image (you will need to merge your layers, so that entire wallpaper is in one layer). Experiment with blur size – 20-30px should be OK.

Missing Piece - making of - Step 21

Enjoy! See wallpaper.

That’s all!

Author: Vlad Gerasimov
URL:    http://www.vladstudio.com

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