Tutorial – Reptilian effect!

Submitted by Olieng on Monday, 16 June 200822 Comments

In this tutorial were going to morph part of a human face into a reptilian like creature equipped with eyes and skin, no texturing involved just a simple “Multiply” layer blend.

Download the PSD here.

The PSD contains three layers.

1. Orginal – which is the layer with the subject’s face.

2. Eye – Reptilian eye

3. Skin – Reptilian texture

Were basically going to combine all these three layers together while sustaining a realistic reptilian look.

This is really really simple, it shouldn’t take more than a mere 10 minutes to complete.
The most difficult part has already been completed for you which is finding the right subject, texture and objects.

You can duplicate this tutorial using any other texture whether it be wood, snake scales, dirt or concrete textures.

Remember to tweak it accordingly, make sure the skin tone, color overlay, look and feel of your image is correct so your outcome will look great!

Also remember to work with high quality images! Blurry pixelated images leaves a bad taste on my mouth! =P

1. Creating the face mask layer.

In order to place our “Eye layer” correctly on the image we will need to make what I call a face mask layer in which the eyes are hallowed out so that any image behind the eye will appear.

Take the polygonal lasso tool and begin to draw out the eyes like the sample below.
With a perfectly drawn selection go to “select” and “Inverse”. This will invert your selection.
Copy and paste this layer on top of your original layer and name this layer “face mask”.

2. Eyes

Now you have a face mask layer with the eyes hallowed out.

Go to your Layers pallet and make the “eye”layer” visible by checking the eye icon beside it. Now your image will appear to have a reptilian eye.

3. Face mask drop shadow

With the new eyes in place notice it just looks like it’s been cut and pasted on there, adding a drop shadow to the face mask layer will make it appear more realistic.

On your Face mask layer double click the layer and open up the Styles menu. Add a drop shadow with the setting below. Since were making our skin green give it a green color and a blend mode of “Multiply”.

4. Reptilian skin

Here is the final part which is also the funniest part.

Make the skin layer visible by checking the eye icon on the side.
Give the skin layer a blend option of “Multiply”.
Double click the skin layer and give it a Color Overlay of Green with a Blend Mode of Soft Light.

4. Final Product

You final product should look similar if not identical to the one below.

22 Comments »

Lucky
1:56 pm on June 18th, 2008
cant wait to see this one. THat is tight bro.
Hamlito
7:27 am on June 24th, 2008
Will there be a tutorial to show how to make it for the whole body?
Olieng
9:16 pm on June 24th, 2008
Hamlito,

That’s a good idea, maybe a future tutorial idea.
PHILIP
9:42 am on June 25th, 2008
olieng what program did you use? if it was photo shop what
verison was it?

please reply
Reptilian Effect | HowtoGeekGuru
1:57 pm on June 25th, 2008
[...] View Reptilian Effect (0) Comments »Tags: Reptilian Effect [...]
Olieng
3:10 pm on June 25th, 2008
Philp,

I currently use CS3 but this effect can be duplicated with any version of Photoshop.
PHILIP
11:05 am on June 26th, 2008
olieng

can you show us how to do that one of GSP on your front page the one with fire and spider man
please
hafaball
10:21 pm on June 29th, 2008
I’m new to photoshop, and wasn’t sure how you went from the white lady to the reptile so quick. I’m trying to use the same technique except using stone, because no other way seems to be very good for what I’m trying to do :/
Olieng
4:34 am on June 30th, 2008
Hafaball,

The psd that goes along with the tutorial has the reptile texture already in it, just follow the steps given. If you wanted stone effect just replace the reptile texture with a stone texture.

Example: Stone effect image.
dranreb
12:31 am on July 2nd, 2008
can you show us how we can change a human body to a reptile one?
Edo
9:14 pm on July 6th, 2008
Nice one. really like how my turned out usually i don’t do these tutorials i just make things by my self but this one is very good. Nice job. and thanks for the simple tutorial.
Mafaioz
8:04 pm on July 7th, 2008
awsome tut, here is my version of it,
http://milw0rm.mafaioz.com/test/reptile.jpg
Olieng
8:10 pm on July 7th, 2008
Mafaioz,

Sweet! love the colors!
Mafaioz
10:09 pm on July 8th, 2008
i made another one, cause i read the one with the stone issue, so i made it with a metal face,

http://milw0rm.mafaioz.com/test/metal.png
Olieng
1:08 am on July 10th, 2008
Mafaioz,

There you go! great work.
jean
6:58 am on July 24th, 2008
muy bueno el efecto, es un muy buen aporte, que siga asi este blog, no comento mucho, pero lo reviso siempre.
fractalfrog
4:37 pm on November 5th, 2008
In step 4 when you give the skin layer a blend option of “Multiply” it also applies the skin texture to the eye and it creates a strange looking result.

What you need to do is to create a layer mask on the skin layer so it doesn’t effect the eye.

Also, you have two step 4 in the tutorial
Murali
3:00 am on January 2nd, 2009
Thanks Nice tutorial!!
Plz Suggest a Good picture search site for beginners like me.
Olieng
1:32 am on January 3rd, 2009
Murali,

If you want to practice on random images your best bet would be to search on Google images.
male
5:33 pm on February 16th, 2009
wow! nice easy tutorial!!!
I wonder if I can make it out for the whole body?
How to do that? (was it similar, or there are some differences in the method?)
photoshop king
6:17 pm on March 3rd, 2009
are there user enteres tutorials as well?
Reptilian effect! | Pixel-Paradise
5:36 am on April 2nd, 2009
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