theKeeper
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Converting a Stock Photo Into a "Bratz" Doll.
Because of the technical nature in this type of photo manipulation, i'm going to have to assume that the user has at least an Intermediate level understanding of Photoshop. That will allow me to keep things running smoothly and not make this tutorial any longer than it's already going to be. Beginners are welcome to give this a shot. But you may find yourself running to the Help! files or your favorite Photoshop Forum intermitantly.
First we need to open the source photo. Do that now please.
Next we need make sure the source photo is of decent quality. This includes making sure levels and contrast, as well as colour are all in balance. Since this tutorial is not intended to teach those things, i trust you'll get those sorted using whatever means you have avaliable to you.
Once your photo is of decent quality, we can begin the alterations.
Aside from the quality, you'll need to make sure your subject is not angled in any way. This will make it hard to work on them. If needed, rotate your photo so the subject is in an upright position and as staright as you can make them.
First thing we need to do is make a duplicate of our photo for backup sake. Do that now.
THE NOSE
---------------
As for facial alterations, the first thing we'll address is the nose. The "Bratz" dolls all have these teeny-tiny fairy-size noses, that sit a little higher on the face than normal. To make this alteration we'll use the Liquify Tool.
Open the filter and check to see that you have a brush big enough to cover not only the nose, but a lot of the surrounding area. I made sure that when my brush was aligned so the nose was in the middle of it, the bottom edge of the brush was just within the the upper lip. Use this as a guide for yourself.
Set the brush settings to match the following:
DENSITY = 50
PRESSURE = 50
RATE = 50
The other settings will be fine as they are.
Next thing is to choose the "Pucker" tool.
I'll immediately say here that this will be a trial and error process. Because the brush tool just isn't exact enough for this. But within a few minutes you should be able to get the correct results. Just be patient.
Hold the brush central over the bridge of the nose (in between the eyes) and click and hold while you drag straight down so that the nose is in the center of the brush. Then move the brush ever-so-slightly left then right, and release your mouse button at this point. Go slowly when you do this. The brush won't have any effect unless you're moving it. So you can pause if you like during the stroke; like just before you move left then right at the end. Don't worry if it looks a little crooked either. We'll tidy the effect up with the "Forward Warp" and "Reconstruct" tools afterward.
This is the only way i can describe how to make this move that will give you the best chance of creating the nose in the least amount of time. It'll just take you a few tries at it to get the correct look. Use the example image here to see what the correct 'look' should be.?
So now... if you have the nose somewhat resembling my example image, go ahead and grab the "Forward Warp" tool now. If one nostril is larger than the other, or if the tip of the nose is slightly off center, use this tool to fix those things. You should reduce the size of the brush somewhat to make this part easier.
Now we need to address some stretching around the nose and mouth. The Pucker tool did this.
Grab the Reconstruct tool. reduce the brush to a fairly small size; just large enough to cover the tip of the nose. Leave the other settings as they are. start by positioning the brush just over the inner area left eye. Click and drag to apply the tool. Drag staright down beside the nose but don't touch the nose itself. just drag the brush around the nose on both sides. Especially beside the cheeks in the middle of the nose. Also, drag the brush over the upper part of the nose bridge and make sure to cover the inner parts of each eye.
TIP: When doing edits like this it's best to make small separate strokes as opposed to one large stroke. Because if you mess something up, you'll have to redo it all again. By using smaller strokes, you'll only have to retouch the last small stroke you made if you have to undo. Think of this as 'painting' on the changes with a small paint brush.
Ok so now, if you have the nose tidied up, we can apply the changes and move on. Do that now if you're ready.
Duplicate the layer, for a backup.
MAKING COPIES OF THE EYES
------------------------------------------
We need to make copies of the eyes for later on.
Grab the Magnifying Glass tool and select around both eyes.
Then switch into Quick Mask mode (Q key). Grab a small hard edged brush, press the D key, and paint inside the eyes; i.e. do not paint over the lashes or anything. Just the white, the iris, and the tear duct parts. When painted, press Q to switch out of QM mode then press Ctrl/Cmd+J. We need to separate the eyes now so select the right eye and press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+J.
Once copied and separated, hide these layers until later.
Leave these 2 layers alone for now. Return to the photo layer again before continuing.
GETTING RID OF UNNEEDED FEATURES
-------------------------------------------------------
We have no need of the eyes or mouth so we'll be cloning them away now.
Add a new layer.
Grab the Clone tool and make your brush 40 pixels or so, with soft edges.
Set the tool to Lighten mode and Opacity to 100% in the Option Bar. Untick the 'Aligned' option. And select the "Use All Layers" option. (We need this option because we're using an empty layer)
Alt/Opt-click the tool just below the left eye (our left) and at the outer edge. The center of your brush should align below the outside edge of the eye. And be roughly over the cheek bone.
Now position the brush over the left edge of the eye and swipe to the right, over the eye. Stop before you get to the bridge of the nose. We don't want to cover that. Set the mode to darken now and click on the remaining light parts of the eye still showing. Don't overdo this part.
Continue back and forth from Lighten to Darken until you have the eyes completely covered.
Now do the same thing to the mouth. Make your brush smaller though, it'll be easier to do. And you can switch back to Normal mode if you like, and reduce the Opacity to 50-70%. That works too. You'll just need to make a few passes over each area.
Once you have this cloning done, merge down the clone layer onto the actual photo.
(see the example image for the final result)
BRATZ-LIKE SKIN TONE
--------------------------------
We need to alter the skintone now to suit the Bratz doll's complextion.
Add a new layer above the photo layer. Then fill that layer with this colour: E79B82.
Now hold your Alt/Opt key and click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
Grab a medium sized brush with soft edges and switch your foreground colour to white. Click on the layer mask to ensure it's active, then paint over all of the facial skin area, including the neck and ears; if the ears are showing.
Once you have the new skintone showing through, reduce the layer's Opacity to around 60%. This number will be somewhat dependant on the original skintone levels of your specific photo. This is one of the reasons we wanted to balance out the overall levels before we began. If you feel it's necessary, you can still do that now.
To finish the toning, we'll add a Levels Adjustment layer above the photo. Grab the middle slider (grey point) and drag it right to about 75. Again, your photo may need more or less, so use your own judgement. You can also adjust the white and black levels just a bit too to help enhance the facial depth that was lost from colouring it (i.e. bring back some shading). Have a look at my example for comparison.
SHE NEEDS BRATZ-LIKE EYES
-----------------------------------------
Ok we need to scale the eyes now, so unhide those layers.
Put both of the eye layers into a layer group. This'll make editing them much less confusing once we start adding lots of layers. Oh and label the eye layers too for easy reference.
If you feel so inclined you can make duplicates of these layers for backups. Just hide them before we begin.
Start with the left eye. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T. Hold down Shift key down and drag the top-left corner control handle outward. Drag until the eye reaches the outer edge of the face. While doing this watch the Options Bar to see what percentage you're increasing the eye by. Then drag the bottom-right handle outward. The curve along the right side of the eye should align to the bridge of the nose. (see my example)
Once scaled, enter 15 into the rotation text box in the Options Bar, and hit Enter to apply the changes. You can also just position your mouse outside of the transform box til you see a bent double arrow cursor, then hold Shift and drag down. The box should 'snap' into a perfect 15 degree angle. Either way you do it, we need a 15 degree clockwise rotation on this left eye.
Do the same for the right eye now, but apply a 15 degree counter-clockwise rotation. While scaling the right eye try to match up the percentage to what you had for the left eye. This doesn't always work (for various reasons) but use it as a guide. And use your eyes for the final judgement.
Once scaled apply the Unsharp mask filter to each eye to bring back some detail. Set the filter to 100%/.05/0, and run it a couple times on each eye.
See my example image for the results.
DRESSING UP THE EYES
----------------------------------
Now we need to add the extra stuff to complete the look of the eyes - eye liner, lashes, enhanced colour, and some shading.
We'll start off by opening the Paths palette.
NOTE: Depending on the symetry of the face, you can just create the paths for one side of the face and duplicate then flip this path to go on the opposite side of the face.
-----------------
EYE LINER? |
-----------------
New layer.
Zoom in real close to the right eye.
Now select the Pen tool and trace along the top eye edge. Follow the eye shape close, but not exactly. We need our eye liner lines to be smooth, not wavey. Then create a separate line for the bottom. It's very important that the upper line starts left and goes right, and that the bottom edge line starts right and goes left. This will help produce the tapered line we need when we stroke the path.
Once you have the Paths drawn, name the Path layer.
Then select a hard brush about 6 to 8px in size. Open the Brush Options now.
Setup your brush as seen in my example image. The only option that may be different for you is the Fade amount. The size of your eyes dictates this setting, and you will probably have to apply the stroke and Undo it a couple of times to nail this exact number. (that's what i had to do)
Choose the Pen tool again and right-click on your canvas. Select "Stroke Path" from the menu. When the tool selection window opens make sure you have 'Brush' tool chosen, and put a tick in the "Simulate Pressure" box. Then click OK. If your liner fades out too soon you need to raise the number for the Fade brush option.
New layer.
Next we have the liner that runs along the top of the eye socket; just below the eye brows.
Using the same method, create a Path for this liner line. But make sure that these Paths start on the outer edge of the face and run inward toward the nose. We need this to be in order to get the taper effect we want on the liner. Then stroke this path but with a brush size of only 4px.
-------------------
EYE LASHES |
-------------------
New layer.
We'll use the Pen tool for the lashes also. Grab the tool again.
just as before, use the tool to draw out some funky lashes. In this case, they should be fairly large and animated looking. Don't start the lashes too close toward the nose. Start them a little less than halfway into the eye width.
Make sure to use separate paths for the upper and lower lashes. Because we need to apply the taper effect again. And speaking of that... make sure the upper lashes start inside and go out (away from the nose), and the bottom lashes start on the outside and go in (toward the nose).
(see the example image below)
Once you have the eye lashes in place, choose a hard 5 pixel brush, then choose the Pen tool and right-click the canvas. Choose to Stroke the paths. Remember, make sure "Simulate Pressure" option is selected in the tool selection dialog.
-------------------
EYE BROWS |
-------------------
Same deal as before folks.
New Layer.
Use the Pen tool here again and draw in some very simple looking eye brows.
stroke the Paths using the "Simulate Pressure" option, and a hard 6-8 pixel brush.
The eyebrows should be coloured to match the subject's hair. You can do this now.
--------------------
EYE COLOUR |
--------------------
Add a new layer just above the eyes.
Using white, choose a soft brush that fits the size of the irises.
Click 2 times exactly over top of the iris in each eye.
Then set this layer to Overlay.
-------------
MOUTH? |
-------------
And last, we have the mouth.
For this, i simply traced and coloured over the mouth of a real Bratz doll photo. This allowed me flexibility because mine is vector (paths). So i can scale it to whatever size i see fit with no quality loss.
If you'd rather draw yours from scratch by my guest. Or trace mine if you like. Doesn't matter. Just make sure you use the Pen or Vector Shape tools.
The colouring and highlights can be done however you like. Tracing and filling would be the preferred method. The highlights are simply filled shapes with the opacity reduced a little.
And that should be about it for the most part. Some small tweaks may be in order. Each photo is different so naming those would be difficult to do here. Just use your own eyes as the judge. Remember... the more details the better the overall effect will look.
------------------------
EXTRA DETAILS |
------------------------
I've also found it beneficial to add a few extra details to enhance the effect. Most of which are easy to do, and involve no special techniques. Just plain ol' Photoshop.
First we clean up the eyes. This includes harding the outline of the irises, adding some eyelid shading, adding some rouge to the cheeks, and whitening the eye whites; if need be. Plus, we'll add some freckles for character. (the next example image contains all of these extra details)
- Whitening is simple. First add a new layer. Then just create a selection around the whites of the eyes, and use the Hue&Sat filter to desaturate and lighten. Use your own better judgement for the best looking results. You know when it looks fake.
- Add a new layer. To harden/clean the iris edges, we create a circular selection around the eyes, one-at-a-time, and Stroke the selection by 1 pixels, in the center. Use a colour that is as close as possible to the natural colour found at the iris edge, and then darken it just a bit.
- Add a new layer. The last thing we do to the eyes is add some eyelid shading. Basically paint in with lack over top of the eyelids. Then reduce the Opacity til the shading starts to blend in with the skintone. My own setting ended up at 45% Opacity. Specific skin light/darkness though will vary this number to some degree.
- Add some freckles for character. Add a new layer. Use a small semi-soft brush and paint on freckles using black. Then reduce the Opacity to your liking.
- Change the hair slightly to include more saturation and highlights. Duplicate the main photo layer for this. Make sure the duplicate is just above the original. Now add a layer mask. Paint now using black over top of the entire facial area. You basically want to paint black over all the parts that WILL NOT be visible after we're done. Now open the Hue&Sat filter and jack up the saturation somewhat. alter slightly the hair colour too if you like. From what i've seen the Bratz dolls have a variety of hair colours, so we have options here.
- And last but not least, we need to add some inner shading around the face, to produce a bit more depth. Add a new layer. Ctrl-click on the layer mask you just created for that last step. Now Inverse the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and fill the selection with black. Now, before deselecting, click the "Add Layer Mask" icon on the bottom left of the layers palette. This should add a layer mask that is black except for the white area of the face. Now we just need to gaussian Blur the layer mask to produce our shading.
Now... reduce the FILL Opacity to 0 (zero). Then double-click on the layer to open the Blend Layer Options window. In there, put a checkmark beside 2 filters: Outer Glow and Inner Glow. You'll find the settings i used in the example images. Bear in mind your settings may vary due to your specific images needs. But it's a good place to start.
(see the main title image for the shading example i just explained)
It also needs to be said that i am aware of a few small 'sloppy' details in my version. But that's ok... i don't intend on doing anything special with this work. You on the other hand, may be. So try to take note of these small issues (like unclean/uneffected edges, like around parts of the hair) and attend to them. It can only help the overall effect.
Good luck and have fun!
Feel free to post your work on the boards if you like.
And if you have any questions/problems please post them in this thread.
ONLY POSTS CONCERNING THIS THREAD'S TOPIC WILL BE ALLOWED TO LIVE. ALL OTHERS WILL SUFFER A HORRIBLE DEMISE.
Because of the technical nature in this type of photo manipulation, i'm going to have to assume that the user has at least an Intermediate level understanding of Photoshop. That will allow me to keep things running smoothly and not make this tutorial any longer than it's already going to be. Beginners are welcome to give this a shot. But you may find yourself running to the Help! files or your favorite Photoshop Forum intermitantly.
First we need to open the source photo. Do that now please.
Next we need make sure the source photo is of decent quality. This includes making sure levels and contrast, as well as colour are all in balance. Since this tutorial is not intended to teach those things, i trust you'll get those sorted using whatever means you have avaliable to you.
Once your photo is of decent quality, we can begin the alterations.
Aside from the quality, you'll need to make sure your subject is not angled in any way. This will make it hard to work on them. If needed, rotate your photo so the subject is in an upright position and as staright as you can make them.
First thing we need to do is make a duplicate of our photo for backup sake. Do that now.
THE NOSE
---------------
As for facial alterations, the first thing we'll address is the nose. The "Bratz" dolls all have these teeny-tiny fairy-size noses, that sit a little higher on the face than normal. To make this alteration we'll use the Liquify Tool.
Open the filter and check to see that you have a brush big enough to cover not only the nose, but a lot of the surrounding area. I made sure that when my brush was aligned so the nose was in the middle of it, the bottom edge of the brush was just within the the upper lip. Use this as a guide for yourself.
Set the brush settings to match the following:
DENSITY = 50
PRESSURE = 50
RATE = 50
The other settings will be fine as they are.
Next thing is to choose the "Pucker" tool.
I'll immediately say here that this will be a trial and error process. Because the brush tool just isn't exact enough for this. But within a few minutes you should be able to get the correct results. Just be patient.
Hold the brush central over the bridge of the nose (in between the eyes) and click and hold while you drag straight down so that the nose is in the center of the brush. Then move the brush ever-so-slightly left then right, and release your mouse button at this point. Go slowly when you do this. The brush won't have any effect unless you're moving it. So you can pause if you like during the stroke; like just before you move left then right at the end. Don't worry if it looks a little crooked either. We'll tidy the effect up with the "Forward Warp" and "Reconstruct" tools afterward.
This is the only way i can describe how to make this move that will give you the best chance of creating the nose in the least amount of time. It'll just take you a few tries at it to get the correct look. Use the example image here to see what the correct 'look' should be.?
So now... if you have the nose somewhat resembling my example image, go ahead and grab the "Forward Warp" tool now. If one nostril is larger than the other, or if the tip of the nose is slightly off center, use this tool to fix those things. You should reduce the size of the brush somewhat to make this part easier.
Now we need to address some stretching around the nose and mouth. The Pucker tool did this.
Grab the Reconstruct tool. reduce the brush to a fairly small size; just large enough to cover the tip of the nose. Leave the other settings as they are. start by positioning the brush just over the inner area left eye. Click and drag to apply the tool. Drag staright down beside the nose but don't touch the nose itself. just drag the brush around the nose on both sides. Especially beside the cheeks in the middle of the nose. Also, drag the brush over the upper part of the nose bridge and make sure to cover the inner parts of each eye.
TIP: When doing edits like this it's best to make small separate strokes as opposed to one large stroke. Because if you mess something up, you'll have to redo it all again. By using smaller strokes, you'll only have to retouch the last small stroke you made if you have to undo. Think of this as 'painting' on the changes with a small paint brush.
Ok so now, if you have the nose tidied up, we can apply the changes and move on. Do that now if you're ready.
Duplicate the layer, for a backup.
MAKING COPIES OF THE EYES
------------------------------------------
We need to make copies of the eyes for later on.
Grab the Magnifying Glass tool and select around both eyes.
Then switch into Quick Mask mode (Q key). Grab a small hard edged brush, press the D key, and paint inside the eyes; i.e. do not paint over the lashes or anything. Just the white, the iris, and the tear duct parts. When painted, press Q to switch out of QM mode then press Ctrl/Cmd+J. We need to separate the eyes now so select the right eye and press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+J.
Once copied and separated, hide these layers until later.
Leave these 2 layers alone for now. Return to the photo layer again before continuing.
GETTING RID OF UNNEEDED FEATURES
-------------------------------------------------------
We have no need of the eyes or mouth so we'll be cloning them away now.
Add a new layer.
Grab the Clone tool and make your brush 40 pixels or so, with soft edges.
Set the tool to Lighten mode and Opacity to 100% in the Option Bar. Untick the 'Aligned' option. And select the "Use All Layers" option. (We need this option because we're using an empty layer)
Alt/Opt-click the tool just below the left eye (our left) and at the outer edge. The center of your brush should align below the outside edge of the eye. And be roughly over the cheek bone.
Now position the brush over the left edge of the eye and swipe to the right, over the eye. Stop before you get to the bridge of the nose. We don't want to cover that. Set the mode to darken now and click on the remaining light parts of the eye still showing. Don't overdo this part.
Continue back and forth from Lighten to Darken until you have the eyes completely covered.
Now do the same thing to the mouth. Make your brush smaller though, it'll be easier to do. And you can switch back to Normal mode if you like, and reduce the Opacity to 50-70%. That works too. You'll just need to make a few passes over each area.
Once you have this cloning done, merge down the clone layer onto the actual photo.
(see the example image for the final result)
BRATZ-LIKE SKIN TONE
--------------------------------
We need to alter the skintone now to suit the Bratz doll's complextion.
Add a new layer above the photo layer. Then fill that layer with this colour: E79B82.
Now hold your Alt/Opt key and click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
Grab a medium sized brush with soft edges and switch your foreground colour to white. Click on the layer mask to ensure it's active, then paint over all of the facial skin area, including the neck and ears; if the ears are showing.
Once you have the new skintone showing through, reduce the layer's Opacity to around 60%. This number will be somewhat dependant on the original skintone levels of your specific photo. This is one of the reasons we wanted to balance out the overall levels before we began. If you feel it's necessary, you can still do that now.
To finish the toning, we'll add a Levels Adjustment layer above the photo. Grab the middle slider (grey point) and drag it right to about 75. Again, your photo may need more or less, so use your own judgement. You can also adjust the white and black levels just a bit too to help enhance the facial depth that was lost from colouring it (i.e. bring back some shading). Have a look at my example for comparison.
SHE NEEDS BRATZ-LIKE EYES
-----------------------------------------
Ok we need to scale the eyes now, so unhide those layers.
Put both of the eye layers into a layer group. This'll make editing them much less confusing once we start adding lots of layers. Oh and label the eye layers too for easy reference.
If you feel so inclined you can make duplicates of these layers for backups. Just hide them before we begin.
Start with the left eye. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T. Hold down Shift key down and drag the top-left corner control handle outward. Drag until the eye reaches the outer edge of the face. While doing this watch the Options Bar to see what percentage you're increasing the eye by. Then drag the bottom-right handle outward. The curve along the right side of the eye should align to the bridge of the nose. (see my example)
Once scaled, enter 15 into the rotation text box in the Options Bar, and hit Enter to apply the changes. You can also just position your mouse outside of the transform box til you see a bent double arrow cursor, then hold Shift and drag down. The box should 'snap' into a perfect 15 degree angle. Either way you do it, we need a 15 degree clockwise rotation on this left eye.
Do the same for the right eye now, but apply a 15 degree counter-clockwise rotation. While scaling the right eye try to match up the percentage to what you had for the left eye. This doesn't always work (for various reasons) but use it as a guide. And use your eyes for the final judgement.
Once scaled apply the Unsharp mask filter to each eye to bring back some detail. Set the filter to 100%/.05/0, and run it a couple times on each eye.
See my example image for the results.
DRESSING UP THE EYES
----------------------------------
Now we need to add the extra stuff to complete the look of the eyes - eye liner, lashes, enhanced colour, and some shading.
We'll start off by opening the Paths palette.
NOTE: Depending on the symetry of the face, you can just create the paths for one side of the face and duplicate then flip this path to go on the opposite side of the face.
-----------------
EYE LINER? |
-----------------
New layer.
Zoom in real close to the right eye.
Now select the Pen tool and trace along the top eye edge. Follow the eye shape close, but not exactly. We need our eye liner lines to be smooth, not wavey. Then create a separate line for the bottom. It's very important that the upper line starts left and goes right, and that the bottom edge line starts right and goes left. This will help produce the tapered line we need when we stroke the path.
Once you have the Paths drawn, name the Path layer.
Then select a hard brush about 6 to 8px in size. Open the Brush Options now.
Setup your brush as seen in my example image. The only option that may be different for you is the Fade amount. The size of your eyes dictates this setting, and you will probably have to apply the stroke and Undo it a couple of times to nail this exact number. (that's what i had to do)
Choose the Pen tool again and right-click on your canvas. Select "Stroke Path" from the menu. When the tool selection window opens make sure you have 'Brush' tool chosen, and put a tick in the "Simulate Pressure" box. Then click OK. If your liner fades out too soon you need to raise the number for the Fade brush option.
New layer.
Next we have the liner that runs along the top of the eye socket; just below the eye brows.
Using the same method, create a Path for this liner line. But make sure that these Paths start on the outer edge of the face and run inward toward the nose. We need this to be in order to get the taper effect we want on the liner. Then stroke this path but with a brush size of only 4px.
-------------------
EYE LASHES |
-------------------
New layer.
We'll use the Pen tool for the lashes also. Grab the tool again.
just as before, use the tool to draw out some funky lashes. In this case, they should be fairly large and animated looking. Don't start the lashes too close toward the nose. Start them a little less than halfway into the eye width.
Make sure to use separate paths for the upper and lower lashes. Because we need to apply the taper effect again. And speaking of that... make sure the upper lashes start inside and go out (away from the nose), and the bottom lashes start on the outside and go in (toward the nose).
(see the example image below)
Once you have the eye lashes in place, choose a hard 5 pixel brush, then choose the Pen tool and right-click the canvas. Choose to Stroke the paths. Remember, make sure "Simulate Pressure" option is selected in the tool selection dialog.
-------------------
EYE BROWS |
-------------------
Same deal as before folks.
New Layer.
Use the Pen tool here again and draw in some very simple looking eye brows.
stroke the Paths using the "Simulate Pressure" option, and a hard 6-8 pixel brush.
The eyebrows should be coloured to match the subject's hair. You can do this now.
--------------------
EYE COLOUR |
--------------------
Add a new layer just above the eyes.
Using white, choose a soft brush that fits the size of the irises.
Click 2 times exactly over top of the iris in each eye.
Then set this layer to Overlay.
-------------
MOUTH? |
-------------
And last, we have the mouth.
For this, i simply traced and coloured over the mouth of a real Bratz doll photo. This allowed me flexibility because mine is vector (paths). So i can scale it to whatever size i see fit with no quality loss.
If you'd rather draw yours from scratch by my guest. Or trace mine if you like. Doesn't matter. Just make sure you use the Pen or Vector Shape tools.
The colouring and highlights can be done however you like. Tracing and filling would be the preferred method. The highlights are simply filled shapes with the opacity reduced a little.
And that should be about it for the most part. Some small tweaks may be in order. Each photo is different so naming those would be difficult to do here. Just use your own eyes as the judge. Remember... the more details the better the overall effect will look.
------------------------
EXTRA DETAILS |
------------------------
I've also found it beneficial to add a few extra details to enhance the effect. Most of which are easy to do, and involve no special techniques. Just plain ol' Photoshop.
First we clean up the eyes. This includes harding the outline of the irises, adding some eyelid shading, adding some rouge to the cheeks, and whitening the eye whites; if need be. Plus, we'll add some freckles for character. (the next example image contains all of these extra details)
- Whitening is simple. First add a new layer. Then just create a selection around the whites of the eyes, and use the Hue&Sat filter to desaturate and lighten. Use your own better judgement for the best looking results. You know when it looks fake.
- Add a new layer. To harden/clean the iris edges, we create a circular selection around the eyes, one-at-a-time, and Stroke the selection by 1 pixels, in the center. Use a colour that is as close as possible to the natural colour found at the iris edge, and then darken it just a bit.
- Add a new layer. The last thing we do to the eyes is add some eyelid shading. Basically paint in with lack over top of the eyelids. Then reduce the Opacity til the shading starts to blend in with the skintone. My own setting ended up at 45% Opacity. Specific skin light/darkness though will vary this number to some degree.
- Add some freckles for character. Add a new layer. Use a small semi-soft brush and paint on freckles using black. Then reduce the Opacity to your liking.
- Change the hair slightly to include more saturation and highlights. Duplicate the main photo layer for this. Make sure the duplicate is just above the original. Now add a layer mask. Paint now using black over top of the entire facial area. You basically want to paint black over all the parts that WILL NOT be visible after we're done. Now open the Hue&Sat filter and jack up the saturation somewhat. alter slightly the hair colour too if you like. From what i've seen the Bratz dolls have a variety of hair colours, so we have options here.
- And last but not least, we need to add some inner shading around the face, to produce a bit more depth. Add a new layer. Ctrl-click on the layer mask you just created for that last step. Now Inverse the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and fill the selection with black. Now, before deselecting, click the "Add Layer Mask" icon on the bottom left of the layers palette. This should add a layer mask that is black except for the white area of the face. Now we just need to gaussian Blur the layer mask to produce our shading.
Now... reduce the FILL Opacity to 0 (zero). Then double-click on the layer to open the Blend Layer Options window. In there, put a checkmark beside 2 filters: Outer Glow and Inner Glow. You'll find the settings i used in the example images. Bear in mind your settings may vary due to your specific images needs. But it's a good place to start.
(see the main title image for the shading example i just explained)
It also needs to be said that i am aware of a few small 'sloppy' details in my version. But that's ok... i don't intend on doing anything special with this work. You on the other hand, may be. So try to take note of these small issues (like unclean/uneffected edges, like around parts of the hair) and attend to them. It can only help the overall effect.
Good luck and have fun!
Feel free to post your work on the boards if you like.
And if you have any questions/problems please post them in this thread.
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