Veins and Tentacles tutorial

A couple of fellow collective members had asked for tutorials on the veins and tentacles effects from my last manip, so here it is!

Since I had to experiment with the effects for the first time when I did the manips, my second attempt may come out completely differently, but the principles are the same.

We need a base image, some textures which I sourced from google image search and a brush set I also found from google search.

Here's the base image I'll be using:

These are the textures I used:

And this is the link to the brush set for the vein effects I used.

http://all-free-download.com/photoshop-brushes/veins_20598.html

Let's get started then!

I always start any manipulations with a duplication of the background layer. I NEVER TOUCH THE BACKGROUND LAYER. Whatever happens, I always have the base layer to go back to.

I'm going to start by building a mask for our subject so that the effects will affect her only. Since the background is fairly simple, I can do this pretty easily with the Quick Select Tool or the Magic Wand Tool.

It's always a good habit to use the Quick Mask Mode to check how clean your mask is, here I noticed the left shoulder wasn't particularly clean and had a quick tidy with a white brush.

Once I'm happy with the mask, I'm going to click Add Layer Mask in the Layers Pane. This mask isn't really vital, but I can now control click layer mask to pick up my subject's mask again easily. In fact I take advantage of that in the next step.

I'm going to create a group for the veins and colour effect on our subject, everything vein or colour related will go inside, and since all these effects should stay within the subject, I control clicked my original layer mask and applied it to this folder.

Now the fun begins! Let's turn our subject green by adding an Color Balance Adjustment Layer first. Tweak the settings to get the feel you'd like. I've up the green and blue as well as lowering the red. Don't forget to touch up the highlights and shadows too!

Also, since we don't want the background to turn green as well, make sure you clip the adjustment layer to the layer using the button at the bottom of the adjustment layer pane.

Next, since I'm going for an "infection spread" look, I don't really want my model completely green. Simple, use the Gradient Tool with Radial Gradient (the round one) to apply the layer mask on the color adjustment layer. Tweak the radius until you're happy. Make sure your gradient tool is on black and white as well!

Quite please with the gradient, let's move onto the veins! I've created another group called Veins, as I'll be using multiple layers. I've named by the opacity percentages, you can fine tune the values yourself, but for this tutorial I'm just going to use very standard values. Also, I'm going to set the veins group's blending mode to Multiply.

Now I've assume you've downloaded and installed the vein brushes. Let's play with the Brush Dynamics to give it some randomized effects. I've adjusted the Shape, Scattering and Transfer settings as follows:

Play with these settings yourself, they're pretty self explanatory:

• Size Jitter means the brush size randomizes based on the percentage you give it
• Angle Jitter influences how dramatically the brush is rotated by random
• Scatter Jitter dictates how wide the brush strokes randomly spread
• Count Jitter affects the frequency (thus density) of the brush
• Opacity Jitter changes the opacity range by random

I start by using a big brush that forms the overall shape of the infection spread.

Not particularly happy with it, so I have to undo and retry a few times before layering more strokes on top and bottom. Tweak your brush sizes and use different brushes in the set to add variety. Be sure to check the Brush Dynamics boxes again when you change brush though.

Now that the veins are generally in place, I'm going to go back to the color balance adjustment layer. Basically, the gradient mask completely ignores the contort of the body, especially the breasts. Time to get more hands on ;)

Go back to the Layer Mask, using a black faded round brush, I started painting away the color adjustment. Make sure you've selected the Layer Mask itself or nothing will happen!

I'm also going to tweak the veins while I'm at it, by applying a layer mask on the veins and brushing away some of the harsher lines. Note that since I've grouped all these effects under the "Vein and Colour Effects" folder, I don't need to worry about reapplying the subject mask first and just go wild with the mask brushing!

Time for some tentacles! The approach I use is a basic one here. It's quick and it gives pretty good results.

Start by drawing a long rectangle using the Shape Tool. Be sure it's set to Shape layers mode.

Pinch the top of the rectangle by holding down Ctrl-Shift (not sure what the MAC command is) and dragging the top corners towards the middle.

We now have our basic tentacle shape, time to make it wiggle! Use the Shear Distort Filter and you should get a pretty good result. Note: the shape will now be rasterized, which is fine.

We have a working tentacle!

Unfortunately it just doesn't look that creepy yet. Let's put some texture on them. Drop in the textures that we've found, reduce the opacity a little so that we can see them both at once.

Now let's transform the texture and warp it a bit to get the right look.

Stick the image on Overlay Blending Mode and it should start looking a bit slimy!

Add more textures as you see fit and play with the blending modes, but don't overdo it.

Now to get rid of the textures outside of the tentacle, we'll simply group them all together in a "tentacle" folder. Control click the tentacle layer to bring up the mask, apply it to the group layer.

Now the tentacle is looking lively, but it just doesn't look right. Time to tweak the colour and levels a bit. Use some adjustment layers on the base tentacle layer to achieve this.

Ok looking good, but still a bit flat. Create a highlight and shadow layer on top of the tentacle group.

Set the Shadows layer to Color Burn or Linear Burn (key is to experiment), get yourself a soft dark brush and start painting the shadows on top of the tentacle. Remember you don't have to be careful as the group layer mask will keep everything inside the tentacle.

I used two different brush sizes and opacity levels: a small 100% opacity soft brush for the edge and a large 50% soft brush for the general region.

For Highlights, experiment with Overlay or Soft Light Blending Modes, use a white brush and give the tentacle some highlights!

Now let's position our tentacle properly. Since I went for the Shear Shape approach, I don't have amazing control over the final shape (although you can use the Transform Tool to Warp it a bit more), it calls for some experimentations to get the right feel.

Our tentacle decided to rest on the nipple, dirty perv...

Time to add some more shadows! This time on our poor subject. I've created a shadow layer just above the subject's layer (although it should probably be above the veins layers as well) and painted some shadows already, but to get a fine fading shadow for that added depth. I'm going to use the pen tool.

Draw the path of the shadow that feels right.

You may want to tweak it slightly. Select a soft dark brush with a reduced opacity, go to the Paths Pane and click on the Stroke path with brush button at the bottom.

Ok, the path is right but the thickness is wrong. Time to revisit the Brush Dynamics tool.

Change the Opacity Control to Fade (and remove the Jitters), play with the settings to see how quickly the brush fades.

Change the Size Control to Fade as well, tweak it till you're happy. This will take some experimenting.

Much better.

From here it's really up to you. I added some more textures to the subject, played around some more and here's the final result: