Halo by Jason Hahn
In this Photoshop tutorial, Jason Hahn will show you how he created this image from photos of 4-inch toy figures from the video game, Halo. After transforming the background, he constructs the background, including fog, an alien planet, and the ground on which the figures stand. Then he adeptly unifies the composite by blending all the elements together. For some finishing touches, he adds shadows beneath the figures, back-lit them, and added some light flares. This tutorial is a real treat and will inspire you to want to work with some figures on your own to practice and hone your Photoshop skills.
This tutorial contains both a written and video component.
Final Image:
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Okay, let’s start with the fact that, although I’ve HEARD of Halo, I’ve never played the game nor watched any movies or shows about it. So my piece is probably wrong in a lot of ways if one is being totally true to Halo. I just tried to follow your instructions and do the best I could with material that’s way out of my comfort zone. I’m 57 years old and female which may explain why I’ve never done any Halo-ing. Apologies to old ladies who may play and really enjoy such adventures. Thanks for an interesting challenge and you may have taught me something I hadn’t learned this whole time, how to blend and what the blending options are and how to find the specialty brushes. Thank you very much indeed!
Loved the tutorial. I learned so much. Although I love Halo, I had a different idea for this and since I am working with an older version of Photoshop, I didn’t have all of the filters needed in the final steps. I have been looking for the perfect backdrop for this image of Sir Lawrence, this was perfect timing. Thank you.
PS: I was hard pressed for time. I wanted so much to post this on time, but decided to spend the extra time assuring the composition would be what I wanted rather than submitting it before it was finished….
Hahaha! These interpretations are so funny! I hope everyone had fun with it and learned a few things. Of course, not the best PS tutorial by any means, but just something fun for practice when you don’t have a model to shoot with for the day.
Thank you Andrei for using my image for one of the challenges. Super cool!
I was super excited to do this particular challenge, after spending many hours playing the games in this series with my kids. I love the Master Chief, and if I could have found a decent Hunter pic I would have had one sneaking up from behind. Thanks for making a truly fun tutorial, Jason!
This was an interesting tutorial, in that it does not follow the traditional method of stepping-out the process. I kind of appreciated this as it made me think a little more about what I was trying to accomplish, and had me work with my knowledge of Photoshop. I tried using Channels for making my initial selection of the dudes, which turned into a fairly time-consuming effort. Jason’s suggestion of Quick Selection work much faster and got good results, especially after lowering highlight, raising shadows, lowering saturation and raising clarity. After making my selection, I think I should have returned the settings somewhat normal, as it was a little bright. The cityscape wasn’t included in the download, but in the end, wasn’t really necessary. I felt the moon should be in the background, which I adjusted. For the life of me, I couldn’t get the shadows of the men to work properly, although some other posted images manged quite nicely – another skill I need to work on. It took me a while to figure out I need’ed the Nik pack for the Color Effects 4 and Analog Effects filters, but now I have them! 🙂 Overall, I liked the tutorial and learnt some new things. Kudos to Jason for taking his shot of a toy set and making a pretty cool image!
Super tutorial.
Really well explained.
Thank you