Design an Ultrarealistic Head Crack Theme with Brushing Effect

 

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

We will start with importing a stock image named anger.jpeg taken from sxc.hu

Step 2

Press W to select magic wand tool, keep Tolerence 45 and select the black area around the face. Press Ctrl + I to invert the selection and press Ctrl + j to separate the face from its background.
Keep in mind that we are not removing black background but making a selection of face. Hence don’t delete the original background.

Step 3

Now it’s time to add crack. You can download crack brushes from any websites like brusheezy.com or in inspiration category in psdfan.com. Or use brush which I downloaded it from http://hawksmont.com and http://hawksmont.deviantart.com
So let’s start to add crack brush.

The crack will look like this;

Now choose another brush and create second crack like this;

And it will look like this;

Step 4

I think this is enough to explain the method by which I created crack. Feel free to experiment with more brushes and use brushes carefully to make crack more natural and original. I used these brushes.

And our crack will look like this;

Step 5

Select all crack layers and merge them into single layer and name it “crack”. Fill this crack layer with dark red color 8e0f0c. Set blending mode to linear burn.

Step 6

Duplicate the crack layer and set blending mode to pin light. Again duplicate this layer and change the blending mode to pin light. The crack will look like this;

Step 7

Merge all the layers and name it “destroy”. Always keep a copy of all layers so that you can go back to any step and access all layers. Duplicate the “destroy” layer and set the blending mode to multiply. Rename this layer to “multiply”

Step 8

Now the image looks too saturated and reddish but crack looks perfect. So we will mask all area of face which don’t looks impressive and will show only area of crack. Now keep selected the “multiply” layer and Ctrl + click the “crack” layer which we created in step 4. This will create a selection of crack.

Step 9

Now click on the “Add vector mask” button at the bottom in the layer panel to add layer mask.

Now crack will look more realistic.

Step 10

Now it’s time to make some color correction to give it dramatic & bold look. Create an curve adjustment layer with these settings;
R = Output – 134, input – 147;
G = Output – 136, input – 129;
B = Output – 123, input – 139

Step 11

Create a vibrance adjustment layer with these settings; vibrance = -10, Saturation = +1.

Create a hue saturation adjustment layer with saturation -5

The image will look like this;

Step 12

We are in last step to complete this tutorial. Image and crack are looking more impressive and realistic but you can add some more depth to the image. Duplicate all the layers and name it “destroyed anger”, duplicate this layer and name it “black and white”. Apply black and white adjustment layer with these settings;

Select the “black & white” layer and black and white adjustment layer and merge them. Apply Gaussian blur of radius 2 pixel and set the blending mode to multiply with 20% opacity. And this is the final result.

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome: