In this tutorial I'll teach you in just a few steps how to create your own burning ground cracks. Bellow you can see the final result that you'll be able to create by the end of this tutorial:
We're going to skip the portion where we create the background. It's a simple vertical gradient going from #300000(top) to #060000(bottom) and a soft glow in the center. Start by creating a new layer on top of the background and using the
Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), create the shape of the ground crack. Next, using the
Paint Bucket Tool (G) fill in your selection with a medium orange(#b13b08). Next we'll create the gradients that will make our crack shape look 3d. Please make a note of this step that I'm about to explain because later on you may need to duplicate some of the layers we'll create to make this effect stand out more.
What we'll need to do, is make each vertical edge of the crack that we're able to see, LOOK like an edge. To be more specific, the only edges we'll be able to see, are the ones that are built at a corner of the top portion of our shape. At each of those corners, we'll need to make the edges stand out using gradients. First we'll have to pick a direction from where the light source is coming and then start shading the edges. My light source is to the left of the ground crack. Here's a diagram of what I'm about to explain:
Create a new layer above the crack's shape layer. While holding CTRL down click once on the layer holding the shape of the crack to make a selection of the crack (make sure you click on the small square inside the layer, that shows the content and not on the text). Select the
Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and while holding ALT (to remove portions of the selection) start removing portions of the selection in order to create selections of the areas where you need to apply the light and dark gradients. Make sure EACH gradient is placed on its own individual layer and the layer's Blending Mode is set to Overlay. Use the image above as a guide for this portion of the tutorial.
Each gradient needs to be a
Foreground to Transparent Gradient where your foreground is either white or black.
Now we'll add some HEAT to the ground cracks. Select a
Feathered Brush roughly 150px with the color white and add some glow to the cracks by placing a few points a little bit lower than your crack. We want the
top portion of the center of the brush to be inside the shape of the crack, and then the soft margins of the brush above the crack like water vapors. After drawing the glow dots, obtain the selection of the crack again (as explained earlier with CTRL+click on the layer) and then using your
Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) select everything above your cracks starting from its farthest to the left and right corners. CTRL+I to invert your selection and delete the rest of the glow. Use your
Eraser Tool (E) and a
Feathered Brush to smooth out any sharp edges. Once you're done, change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay and then duplicated the layer several times(3-5 times) until you feel that it looks good. Here's an example:
Next, duplicate the glow layer ONE more time and using the
Smudge Tool (R) start dragging upwards to make it look like some light rays are coming out of your ground cracks. Now comes that portion of the tutorial where you might need to duplicate the layers holding the vertical edge gradients. If needed, duplicate some of those layers and play with their alpha until it looks to your liking. At the end, to add a little bit of focus to the image, create a new layer on top of everything, fill it with black using the
Paint Bucket Tool (G), change the layer's alpha to 50% and Blending Mode to Overlay. Use the
Eraser Tool (E) with a 500px feathered brush and click ONE time in the middle to clear it up. Here's my result:
If you want to take this a step further look up on google images a picture of "ground cracks". We're looking for something that looks like a dry cracked ground and that can also be used as a texture, so no perspective images. Once you find an image you like, place it on a new layer right above the shape of the cracks. Obtain the selection of the cracks again, CTRL+I to invert the selection and then press delete. Change the mode of the layer to Overlay and using Hue/Saturation (CTRL+U) decrease the Saturation to -100 to make the texture black and white. Depending on your picture you might want to play a little bit with the brightness and contrast of the texture and also with the layer's alpha. Paste the texture again on a new layer, only this time UNDER the shape of the cracks and a little bit lower, bellow the cracks. Using your
Eraser Tool (E) and a
Feathered Brush around 150px start erasing at the top so you can only see the texture at the bottom, bellow the cracks. Change the layer's Blending Mode to Overlay again and play with the alpha until it looks good. At the end don't forget to sharpen your entire image a little bit to make it look more crisp. Here's my result:
I hope you guys enjoyed this short tutorial and if you have any questions just drop a comment and I'll be happy to help you out. Thank you for visiting our website and reading our tutorial and we hope you'll visit us again in the future! If you enjoyed our tutorial please drop us a comment and let us know! It really makes a difference!
Thanks again!
The WebDTools team.
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Posted on February 04, 2012 - 18:01
Your post is simply spectacular and I can assume you are an expert on this field. Thanks a million and please keep up the fabulous work. Thanks a lot once again.