From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

796 Giving your White Walker glowing blue eyes

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

796 Giving your White Walker glowing blue eyes

Welcome to Deke's Techniques. Now if you've seen the TV show Game of Thrones you know a striking element of the White Walkers is their glowing blue eyes. Author George R. R. Martin, the guy who wrote the books upon which the show is based, described them as quote, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, and here's where we're at now. All right, so the first thing you want to do is scroll up to the top of the list here and click on the top layer, the wrinkles layer here inside the Layers panel. And then press Control + Shift + N or Command + Shift + N on the Mac in order to create a new layer. And I'm going to call this layer black whites, because we're going to turn the whites of the eyes black. And then go ahead and click OK. And tap the D key, D for default colors, so your foreground color is black down here at the bottom of the toolbox. And then press Alt + Backspace or Option + Delete on a Mac to fill the entire layer with black. Which might seem crazy, but it's going to work out great. All right, now you want to create a copy of this layer. It's kind of ironic that we're using blackness in order to create glowing blue eyes, but it happens to work out great. So go ahead and select that tool from the top of the toolbox there. And now you just want to trace along the top of the eye, like so. And you don't have to get it exactly right, but you should try to get as much of the eye as you can. So we're trying to select the fleshy white of the eye. And then you want to press and hold the Shift and Alt keys or the Shift and Option keys on a Mac and notice how your cursor now has an X next to it. That tells you that you're going to find the intersection when you drag another marquee that's tracing along the bottom edge of the eye, like so. And you can use, by the way, the Spacebar you will have this lozenge shape selected. At which point go ahead you just want to make sure you roughly select it. And also don't worry about the fact that you're going out in the eyelids. We'll take care of that later. All right, now move over to the other pupil, press the Shift key, so that you have a plus sign next to your cursor, and drag. That way you're adding to the selection outline. Once again, you can use the Spacebar in order to relocate the shape. And then if you want it to be a perfect circle release the Shift key and then press the Shift key again. And keep that key down this time around, so that you have a circular shape, like so, and then go ahead and release. All right, now you can turn that black whites layer back on. Then select the irises layer, click on it to make it active, and drop down to the Add Layer Mask icon once again at the bottom of the Layers panel and click on it, so that we're limiting the layer to the irises. And you can see that's the case if you turn that blacks whites layer back off for a moment. All right, so just make sure that both of your irises are black, like so. And now let's turn them blue by turning that blacks whites layer back on, then make sure that your Smart Object is selected here. And what you want to do is go up to the Filter menu, choose Noise, and then choose Add Noise. And we're looking for a lot of noise in this case. So I've cranked the Amount value up to 200%, I've set Distribution to Gaussian, and we want Monochromatic noise, because that way we can colorize it later. Because notice if I turn Monochromatic off we get this very colorful noise indeed. Not what I want, so I'll turn it back on, and then I'll click OK. All right, now we don't want the noise to be this brittle, so return to the Filter menu, choose Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur. And the value I came up with is five pixels. Although four might work as well. Although four might work as well. In any event, go ahead and click OK In any event, go ahead and click OK in order to accept that change. in order to accept that change. All right, as you can see, our Layers panel All right, as you can see, our Layers panel is getting extremely full. is getting extremely full. This filter mask that we're not going to use This filter mask that we're not going to use is just cluttering the panel. is just cluttering the panel. So I'm going to right-click on it So I'm going to right-click on it and choose Delete Filter Mask. and choose Delete Filter Mask. That's the filter mask by the way, That's the filter mask by the way, we still need the layer mask, so don't throw it away. All right, now we want to turn things blue by dropping down to the FX icon and choosing Color Overlay. And I'm going to click in that color swatch and you can see I've changed the hue value to 220. I'm working with the saturation value of 80% and a brightness of 100%, at which point I'll click OK and I've set the Blend Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 100%. After which point you want to drop down to Outer Glow, go ahead and turn it on, click on its color swatch. I have slightly different values this time around. We're looking at a hue of 210 degrees and both saturation and brightness values of 100%. How did I come up with these values? Simply through trial and error. I'll go ahead and click OK. Crank the Opacity value up to 100%. We're looking for a Blend Mode, believe it or not, We're looking for a Blend Mode, believe it or not, of Normal works really well. of Normal works really well. And I crank the Size value up to 80 pixels. And I crank the Size value up to 80 pixels. At which point I'll click OK. At which point I'll click OK. Now at this point you might figure, Now at this point you might figure, you know what, Deke, this looks nothing like the effect you know what, Deke, this looks nothing like the effect in the Game of Thrones TV show, in the Game of Thrones TV show, which you've apparently never seen. which you've apparently never seen. But that's 'cause we still have a couple of steps left. But that's 'cause we still have a couple of steps left. One of which is to go up to the Layer menu, One of which is to go up to the Layer menu, choose New Adjustment Layer, and then choose Levels. choose New Adjustment Layer, and then choose Levels. And I'm going to go ahead and name this layer dots And I'm going to go ahead and name this layer dots and I'm going to turn on and I'm going to turn on Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask, Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask, that way we'll affect the contents of the active layer only. that way we'll affect the contents of the active layer only. And then you want to click OK. And then you want to click OK. And now notice this tiny little histogram right there, And now notice this tiny little histogram right there, we want to bring it out. we want to bring it out. So I'm going to start by cranking the black point value So I'm going to start by cranking the black point value up to, let's say, 98. up to, let's say, 98. It's that first value right there. It's that first value right there. And then I'll take the white point's value down to 120, And then I'll take the white point's value down to 120, should actually do us pretty well. should actually do us pretty well. At which point you can see At which point you can see that we have a bunch of white and blue dots. that we have a bunch of white and blue dots. All right, now I'll go ahead and hide the Properties panel. All right, now I'll go ahead and hide the Properties panel. And then I'll switch to this layer mask right here And then I'll switch to this layer mask right here that's associated with that noise layer. that's associated with that noise layer. And I'll go ahead and select my Brush Tool, And I'll go ahead and select my Brush Tool, which you can get by pressing the B key. which you can get by pressing the B key. And you want to right-click inside the image window And you want to right-click inside the image window and go ahead and confirm that the Hardness value is 0%, and go ahead and confirm that the Hardness value is 0%, a Size of 100 pixels might work OK. a Size of 100 pixels might work OK. But we're not going to want to paint with white, But we're not going to want to paint with white, because if you do that you'll increase because if you do that you'll increase the size of the irises, like so. the size of the irises, like so. And this assumes, by the way, And this assumes, by the way, that you have the layer mask selected that you have the layer mask selected here inside the Layers panel. here inside the Layers panel. What you want to do instead is press the X key, What you want to do instead is press the X key, so that your foreground color is black, so that your foreground color is black, and that will allow us to just paint and that will allow us to just paint across the top eyelid, like so, across the top eyelid, like so, in order to mitigate this effect a little, in order to mitigate this effect a little, and then I'll paint across the bottom eyelid. and then I'll paint across the bottom eyelid. And I'm going to do the same thing And I'm going to do the same thing over here on the right hand side. over here on the right hand side. So I'll paint across the top, So I'll paint across the top, actually I want to paint a little farther in. actually I want to paint a little farther in. And it's just a little bit across the bottom. And it's just a little bit across the bottom. And I think I want to paint a little farther in up here. And I think I want to paint a little farther in up here. And now go ahead and double-click And now go ahead and double-click on the layer mask thumbnail once again on the layer mask thumbnail once again to bring up the Properties panel to bring up the Properties panel or go to the Window menu or go to the Window menu and choose the Properties command if you prefer. and choose the Properties command if you prefer. And now just go ahead and change that Feather value And now just go ahead and change that Feather value to four pixels, once again, works out very nicely. to four pixels, once again, works out very nicely. And then hide that panel. And then hide that panel. And that is at least one way you might And that is at least one way you might go about creating those crazy blue glowing eyes go about creating those crazy blue glowing eyes using a combination of the Add Noise using a combination of the Add Noise and Gaussian Blur filters, and Gaussian Blur filters, along with a Levels adjustment layer along with a Levels adjustment layer and a couple of layer effects here inside Photoshop. and a couple of layer effects here inside Photoshop. Now we know White Walkers have creepy eyes, Now we know White Walkers have creepy eyes, but are they malignant or just plain vacant? but are they malignant or just plain vacant? Well, so far they're not quite done. Well, so far they're not quite done. Which is why if you're a member of LinkedIn Learning Which is why if you're a member of LinkedIn Learning I have a followup movie I have a followup movie in which we add more sparkling highlights to these crazy blue irises and we'll add a couple of bottomless pupils as well. If you're looking forward to next week we're going to set this guy against a cold and gloomy background. Deke's Techniques, each and every week, keep watching.

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