Cosmogony Reloaded by Emi Haze
In this tutorial Emi Haze shares his workflow for creating his masterful piece, Cosmogony Reloaded. Emi had this piece featured in the Adobe Photoshop 25th anniversary “Dream On” Oscars Spot during the Academy Award Oscars 2015!
Final image:
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Photoshop offers various methods of masking. Pixel / bitmap masks and vector masks are two of them.
Pixel masks determine opacity values based on a raster image with grayscale values that correspond pixel for pixel to the original layer. This makes them ideal for masking complex photographic imagery (e.g. the hair on a model or leaves on a tree). Pixel masks allow 100 shades of gray, which correspond directly to opacity percentages. The ability to vary opacities is unique to pixel masks, making them an invaluable tool.
While pixel masks can be easily modified, they aren’t ideal for every situation. Because of their raster format, scaling them can cause unwanted artifacts and interpolated bluriness. Smooth curves and perfect edges can also be tricky to create when painting a mask. Under such circumstances, vector masks would be preferable.
Creating a pixel mask is as easy as selecting the layer or layer group and clicking the “Add Layer Mask” button at the bottom of the layer’s palette. A second thumbnail will be added to the layer, giving you a preview of the mask. By default, this will be entirely white. However, if you happen to have a selection active when creating the mask, the selection will be used to define the grayscale values of the mask.
Once a mask is created, it can be edited as if it were any other pixel data by clicking on the mask’s thumbnail. You can then paint in black to hide areas or white to show them.
Vector masks pick up where pixel masks fall short. By defining the mask’s shape using paths, vector masks provide a superior level of finesse and flexibility. They’re ideal for defining shapes with clean, crisp lines, such as interface elements.
The disadvantage of vector masks is that they are unable to vary pixel opacities; they are basically either 0 or 100. For this reason, many masking jobs require a hybrid implementation. By using a vector mask to define the solid edges and a pixel mask for the more complex areas or for varying opacities, you can effectively extract objects while maximizing flexibility.
To add a vector mask to an existing layer, simply Command + Click the “Add Layer Mask” button at the bottom of the layer’s palette. If a path is currently active, the mask will be created using it. Otherwise, the mask will be empty. Paths can then be added, subtracted or modified by clicking the mask’s thumbnail.
Nice, but not enough explaination on the items used (brushes, images, etc)