Fantasy Planet

Fantasy Planet

Creating fantasy-style photo manipulations, though it might look complex at first, is in fact a lot easier than it seems. And once you know the secret, it’s a lot of fun applying the effect to your personal, family or friends’ images.

A stock image of a planet is recommended for accomplishing the tutorial, but is not required. Feel free to substitute the planet image with any other.

The Gradient Tool, layers, filters, and color adjustment tools are used in this tutorial.

Step 1

Create a new image in Pixelmator. To achieve a result similar to that shown in the tutorial, use a size of 800×1200 pixels; however, feel free to use any size.

Step 2

Click to select the Gradient Tool (G) in the Tools palette. In the Gradients palette (View > Show Gradients), click the Action button and choose New Gradient to create a new gradient preset. Create a radial gradient with white, light blue and dark blue colors. Click OK.

Using the Gradient Tool, apply the recently created gradient, so that the white color appears in the middle.

Step 3

An abstract starry space background would definitely give some charm to the composition. In order to create the space background, start by applying clouds:

1. In the Layers palette, click the Add button (+) to add a new layer.
2. Choose Filter > Generator > Clouds. Set the Primary Color to black and the Secondary Color to white, and click OK.
3. In the Layers palette, change the Blending of the layer that contains the clouds to Soft Light, as Soft Light creates a soft and subtle blend between the layer and the composition.

Step 4

Once the clouds are applied, add some stars. In order to generate stars:

1. Add another new layer in the Layers palette.
2. Choose Edit > Fill. In the Fill palette, set the Color to black, and click OK.
3. Then, choose Filter > Stylize > Noise, and set the Amount to approximately 15. Make sure to select the Monochrome checkbox for the grayscale noise, and click OK.

Please note that the Noise filter looks most accurate with a 100% Zoom (View > Actual Pixels).

4. In the Layers palette, change the Blending of the layer containing the Noise filter to Screen, as the Screen mode creates a bleached effect.



5. In order to make the starry sky look more realistic, reduce the number of stars by choosing Image > Brightness and Contrast. Adjust the Brightness and Contrast values as follows: Brightness to -20, Contrast to 35 and click OK.

Step 5

Import and position a planet image into the composition:

1. Use the Move Tool (V) to position the picture of the planet. Choose any desired place that best fits in the composition of the artwork (in our case, the middle).



2. If necessary, change the size of the planet by choosing Edit > Transform and dragging the handles on the bounding box.
3. If the planet is not yet cut out from the background, use any of the selection tools to cut out the planet so that it appears on a transparent layer.

Step 6

To create a glowing planet effect:

1. Choose Layer > Duplicate Layer to duplicate the planet layer. Double-click on the duplicate layer’s name in the Layers palette and rename it “Planet Glow.” Move the “Planet Glow” layer below the original planet layer.
2. Then choose Filter > Blur > Zoom Blur and place the pointer of a rope on the center of the planet. Set Amount to approximately 25 and click OK.

Step 7

To add sunbeams to the image:

• Click to add a new layer.
• Choose Filter > Generator > Sunbeams. Drag the rope anywhere on the object and adjust the values to generate a desired Sunbeams effect that would look nice in your composition. Click OK to apply the filter.

Tip: To make the effect look precise, generate sunbeams so that the sun circle in the middle does not exceed the edges of the object, as in the example in the image below.



• Once you’ve applied the Sunbeams filter, drag the layer with the sunbeams to move it beyond the “Planet Glow” layer in the Layers palette, so that the sunbeams appear to come from behind the planet and its glow effect.
• Change Sunbeams layer Blending to Linear Burn to match it with the picture.



Step 8

1. Click to add another new layer. Drag to place it between the layer that contains the sunbeams and the layer containing the stars in the Layers palette.
2. Click to select the Brush Tool (B) in the Tools palette and change the main color in the Tools palette to white.
3. In the Brushes palette (View > Show Brushes), click on the Actions button and choose the Nature brush presets collection from the contextual menu.
4. Click to select a star brush preset.
5. Using the Brush Tool, paint on the recently added layer. Use the “[“ and “]” keys to adjust the diameter of the brush while painting.



Step 9

Enhance the look of your artwork by adding a striped overlay:

1. Click to add another new layer above the others.
2. In the Tools palette, set the colors to black and white.
3. Choose Filter > Generator > Stripes, set the Width to 2 and click OK to apply the filter.



4. In order to blend the stripes with the image, change the Blending of the layer with the stripes to Multiply, and reduce the Opacity to 20%.



Once the stripes are added to the composition, the fantasy planet picture is done! Feel free to experiment with the tutorial by using various different objects, colors or brushes.


Resources
• Pixelmator file

© Pixelmator Team Ltd.