Turn a Photo into a Sketch

Quick reference

• 00:04 Today, I'm gonna show you a super simple way of turning your images in to
• 00:08 sketches or drawings using filters and blending options.
• 00:12 And at the end of the video, I'm gonna show you how you can use the same method
• 00:15 to turn your videos into moving works of art.
• 00:19 Let's take a look.
• 00:20 There are two things that you need to start off this project.
• 00:23 The picture that you wan to turn into a sketch and a texture for the background.
• 00:27 Both of which I grabbed from shutterstock.com.
• 00:30 But you can use an image of yourself or any texture you wish for the background.
• 00:35 Once both images are opened in Photoshop, if they're in separate documents,
• 00:39 drag either one onto the other.
• 00:41 And then resize as necessary.
• 00:43 The texture's a little bit small for this image.
• 00:45 So I'm gonna enter Free Transform Mode, Cmd or Ctrl+T and
• 00:49 then enlarge the texture until it fills the document.
• 00:52 When that's been done, it needs to be moved behind the image.
• 00:55 As the image is currently the background layer.
• 00:57 Double-click on the layer, name it if you wish and then press OK.
• 01:02 And now that it's unlocked, you can move that texture layer behind your
• 01:05 image by dragging it in the Layers panel.
• 01:08 Now we can start applying Filters.
• 01:10 But before you do,
• 01:11 you always want to convert your layer into a smart object first.
• 01:15 This will allow you to edit the filters even after they've been applied.
• 01:20 For this effect, using the Filter Gallery will make the process much easier.
• 01:24 You can access this Filter Gallery under the Filter menu.
• 01:27 Here we're able to add multiple filters at once and
• 01:30 see how they interact with each other before they're applied to the photo.
• 01:34 At the bottom right, you can see where your first filter is listed.
• 01:38 Selecting a new filter from the Gallery will replace the one you
• 01:41 currently have selected.
• 01:42 Under the Sketch Group, Chalk and Charcoal will be the first filter in the stack.
• 01:47 This will flatten out the image and give it a bit of texture.
• 01:51 Ten, five and one for the values works for this image.
• 01:54 But you may need to adjust the settings depending on the image that you're using.
• 01:58 Now that the first filter has been added,
• 02:00 pressing the New Effect Layer icon at the bottom will allow us to add a second one.
• 02:05 This time under the Artistic group, select Film Grain and use the values nine,
• 02:10 zero and four.
• 02:10 This will set the stage for our next filter.
• 02:15 One last time.
• 02:16 Create a new effect, and then under the Brush Strokes group,
• 02:19 choose Angled Strokes.
• 02:22 Because we now have grain on our image, the Angled Strokes filter will use that
• 02:26 grain to create nice hatches on your image.
• 02:29 Depending on how long you want the strokes,
• 02:31 you can adjust the values to the right.
• 02:33 But 50, 30 and 0 seem to work well.
• 02:38 At this point, the first set of filters are complete.
• 02:40 Now don't worry if the result looks blue or another strange shade.
• 02:44 This can be adjusted using an Adjustment Layer, which we'll get to in a moment.
• 02:48 Now to add a subtle outline around the subject,
• 02:50 we're going to be adding one more filter but on a new layer.
• 02:54 Duplicate the layer that you just worked with Cmd or Ctrl+J.
• 02:56 And then delete the current filters by dragging them
• 03:00 right onto the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
• 03:03 Just like before, we're gonna hop back into the Filter Gallery.
• 03:05 But before you add any filters, take a look at the effects stack.
• 03:09 Your previous filters may have been added automatically.
• 03:12 If they were, delete them until you're left with only one.
• 03:15 The only filter that we're gonna be adding for
• 03:17 this layer is Photocopy under the Sketch Group.
• 03:20 This will create a nice outline around the edges of our subject,
• 03:23 which can be adjusted using the Detail and Darkness sliders to the right.
• 03:28 I'm gonna stick to around eight for
• 03:29 both the values and then press OK to apply the filter.
• 03:33 Before we go any further,
• 03:34 I want to take care of the blue tint that the filter's left behind.
• 03:38 At the bottom of the Layers panel, click on the Adjustment Layer icon and
• 03:41 add either a Vibrance or a Hue and Saturation adjustment and
• 03:45 then decrease the Saturation to pull out the colors from those layers.
• 03:48 Now this will also remove the color from your Texture Layer.
• 03:51 If you want that color to be preserved, you can group the top two layers and
• 03:55 clip the Adjustment Layer to that group.
• 03:57 Grouping layers can be done by selecting the layers that you want included and
• 04:01 pressing Cmd or Ctrl+G.
• 04:03 Now once the layers have been grouped,
• 04:05 select the Adjustment Layer which should not be in the group.
• 04:08 And then positioning your
• 04:09 cursor in between the Adjustment Layer and the group.
• 04:11 Hold down Alt or Option.
• 04:13 Option on the Mac, Alt on Windows and click.
• 04:16 Now, only the layers within that group are affected by the adjustment.
• 04:20 So now that both of our layers are set up,
• 04:22 it's time to blend them in to the background.
• 04:24 For now, let's go ahead and
• 04:25 hide the top most layer by clicking on the Eye icon to the left.
• 04:29 And then select the layers that contain the sketch filters.
• 04:32 To blend this layer with the background, there are a few ways of doing so.
• 04:36 But to give you the most flexibility,
• 04:38 I'm gonna be using one of my favorite blending methods, Blend If.
• 04:41 Which can be found within your Layer Styles.
• 04:43 Simply double-click on the Layer and
• 04:45 take a look at the bottom where the Blend If sliders are.
• 04:48 Our main objective is to blend out the white of the layer that we're
• 04:51 currently on.
• 04:52 Which can be done using the top slider.
• 04:54 At the far right, you'll find the highlight control.
• 04:57 And by holding down your Alt or
• 04:58 Option key, you can split up this handle to create a smooth transition.
• 05:03 You'll want to drag the handle to the left until the whites of
• 05:05 the image are just about faded out revealing the texture in the background.
• 05:10 And once you have a nice result, you can accept the blend, by pressing OK.
• 05:14 For the second layer, which you can now unhide.
• 05:16 We'll want to again hop into the Layer Styles dialogue.
• 05:19 But this time, we're only gonna be using the basic options at the top.
• 05:23 The Blend Mode will be set to Multiply.
• 05:25 And then the Opacity can be decreased to create a more subtle outline if
• 05:30 you desire.
• 05:30 20% seems to leave this image looking quite nice.
• 05:33 Finally, if you want to sharpen up the overall image a touch.
• 05:36 You can add a Curves adjustment layer at the top of your layer stack.
• 05:39 This will give you more control over the shadows and the highlight.
• 05:43 If you want to darken or lighten up areas of your image.
• 05:46 And because we're using smart objects,
• 05:48 you can always double-click on the Filter Gallery and make changes if you need to.
• 05:52 So now that we've turned a still image into a sketch.
• 05:55 Let's look at how simple it is to do the same thing for a video.
• 05:59 Over on this document, I have a very similar set up.
• 06:02 The video which I downloaded from videasy.com is on top and
• 06:06 the texture is right behind it.
• 06:08 When working with a video in order to apply a filter to the full video at once,
• 06:12 you need to make sure you're working with the smart object.
• 06:15 Otherwise, the filter will only be applied to a single frame.
• 06:18 I've already gone ahead and converted this video in to a smart object.
• 06:22 You'll also want to reveal your video Timeline if you don't see it already.
• 06:26 This will show you the layers in your video project,
• 06:28 allow you to adjust the length of the clips, add audio and so on.
• 06:32 Now, just like we did for the image.
• 06:34 Hop in to the Filter Gallery to start adding your filters.
• 06:36 The first being the Chalk and Charcoal filter.
• 06:40 The second being Film Grain and the final filter being Angled Strokes.
• 06:45 Now because the video's dimensions are smaller than the image I was working on,
• 06:49 I'll probably need to decrease the stroke length a bit.
• 06:52 Once the filters have been applied, playing back the video will be
• 06:55 quite choppy as Photoshop needs to render each frame.
• 06:58 But once it's exported, it's gonna be nice and smooth.
• 07:02 Now that the first layer is complete.
• 07:04 Duplicate it, Cmd or Ctrl+J and remove the filters that are currently applied.
• 07:09 Hop into the Filter Gallery once again and add the Photocopy filter under
• 07:12 the Sketch Group to create a nice outline around the subjects.
• 07:17 Blending can be done the same way it was done in the first example.
• 07:20 For the first layer,
• 07:21 you'll want to fade out the highlights using the Blend If sliders.
• 07:24 And then for the second layer, set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
• 07:27 And then decrease the Opacity so that the outline isn't too harsh.
• 07:30 Now if you want to remove the blue tint, select both layers.
• 07:34 Place them in a group, Cmd or Ctrl+G and
• 07:36 add a Vibrance adjustment layer with the saturation set to zero.
• 07:40 Clip it to the group if you want to avoid desaturating the background layer.
• 07:44 Finally, to finish off the edit we can add a Curves adjustment layer to darken or
• 07:48 lighten the shadows or highlights.
• 07:51 Now once again,
• 07:51 playing back the video with this many filters will be painfully choppy.
• 07:55 At the bottom of the timeline,
• 07:56 the Arrow icon will allow you to export the video to your computer.
• 08:01 Give it a name.
• 08:02 Choose where you want to export it.
• 08:04 Adjust the size if you wish and then hit that Render button.
• 08:07 Depending on the size and
• 08:08 complexity of that video, rendering may take a few minutes.
• 08:12 But once its complete, you're gonna have a great looking video as you can see here.

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