Twilight Fans: Cullenize Your Photos!
November 14, 2009 | By
If you're a Twilight fan, no doubt you're getting ready for the upcoming movie release of New Moon. So, in celebration for those of us who drool over the Cullens and dream of joining their Veggie Vamp ranks---dream no more! I'm going to teach you how to "Cullenize" your own photos to look like you're one of Carlisle's coven!
To begin, you need a photo editing program like Photoshop, PSP, or Elements. If you don't have Photoshop, no worries! SumoPaint is a free, browser-based application (you can download it too) that you can use to create nearly the same effects as with Photoshop. Another program that's pretty good (and free!) is GIMP. Also, there are free trials for all the major image editing programs so dig around Download.com and get one there.
Before we start, please take note that you need to have a basic knowledge of how layers work and be familiar with the tools you have available in your graphics program, so I rate the skill level for this project at Advanced Beginner. There are more advanced methods and professional techniques you can use to achieve this look (like retouching and digital makeup effects that get WAY out there in the sophistication range), but I wanted to keep things within reach of most users familiar with a photo editing program, and kept the steps short so anybody can complete this project in under an hour.
You will need a good, clear photo of yourself. I am using one of my own photos for this project, and I have used it in multiple editing projects because it is clear and well-lit, and has a plain background to make life easier as I edit the photo:
Step One: Background Prep
Open up your photograph file in your photo editor, double click it in the layers tab and name it "Main". Using your polygonal lasso tool, select around the area that makes up your background and hit your delete key. Lock this layer.
Your photo should resemble something like this:
Step Two: Skintone
Create a new layer & name it "Glow". Select your paintbrush tool and in the color picker, choose a light fleshtone color (for B&W photos) or a lightest silvery blue (for color photos) and fill in all your exposed skin with the paintbrush tool. You don't have to worry about being perfect at this stage, so small gaps and crooked lines are fine. Your photo should look something like this:
Now, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.
Crank the settings all the way to 250 pixels. Lock this layer and hide it. (Hide layers by clicking the eyeball beside the layer name).
Now move back to your "Main" layer and using your polygonal lasso tool again, trace around all the areas you do NOT want to glow. These are your lips, eyes, eyebrows, and the darkest shadows on your face. If you're stumped as to how to select multiple areas with your lasso tool, look somewhere on your screen for a similar selection, as seen here:
After you've done your selecting, your photo should look something like this:
Now switch back over to your "Glow" layer, unhide it, unlock it, and with all the areas that aren't skin still traced out from the previous layer, press your delete key.
If all went well, you should be left with a few hard edges. You can fix this by going to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur again, and this time slide the bar to 5 pixels or less. This will even out those hard edges without affecting your base color much.
If you have dark hair and some of the "glow" worked it's way over and caused some discoloration, just gently erase the overflow and then go back over those edges with your Blur tool to soften them back up. Lock the layer.
Step Three: Background
Create a new layer, name it "Background", and drag it down under your "Main" layer in the Layers tab. Your background is really up to you, you can go with solid black or do some elaborate paint effects with a white outline behind you and some creative usage of the smudge tool, or just tinker and use your filters.
I've decided I'm just going with a simple black background with this photo, so I filled in the layer in black with my paintbucket tool and locked it.
Step Four: Eyes
The golden eyes are what make our favorite veggie vamps so unique, and in my opinion, getting this effect is ridiculously simple. All you need to do is create a new layer and name it "Eyes", then there are two ways you can go about this: You can either use your elliptical marquee tool and trace around your irises and fill it in with color, or if your irises are easily seen in the photo, you can just do it with your round brush tool. My irises were clearly seen, so I went ahead and used the round brush method.
Choose a size brush that is about the same size as your iris, mine was around 30 pixels. Using a dark golden brown you selected in the color picker, put a dot directly over each iris.
Now, take a golden yellow color (I really liked the mustard-like color I used here, it's not too bright and looks like "I fed a day or two ago") and a brush that is a few pixels smaller than the one you used for your iris and center a golden dot over the brown one.
The last step is the easiest one. Over on your layer's options menu, select "color" and those dots you just put down meld into a fantastic effect over your existing irises. Using your eraser tool with a round brush the size of your pupil, do a single click over each pupil to make your eye look more dynamic.
If you're at a loss as to where your layer's option menu is, look in this area of your layers toolbar:
The coolest thing about this technique is that your iris details are preserved, and the effect looks more realistic, as if vegetarian vampires with golden eyes and dazzling skin weren't realistic enough. ;) Also, if you are one of those folks who dreams of siding with the Volturi, go with black for the first "dot" and crimson for the second.
Don't forget to lock this layer.
Step Five: Finishing Touches
Now is the time to tweak everything before your final save. Since my real eyelashes lost some of their detail in the "glow" step, I added myself some digital falsies to make the visual impact of my irises stronger. You can get the brushes I used here from Obsidian Dawn, I highly recommend these brushes because they're just perfectly realistic and come in a variety of thicknesses and shapes.
And though I liked things with just my eyes being golden, I wanted to break up some of that glowy goodness and gave myself some digital lipstick. Voila Kelli Cullen!:
Just to show you how versatile this technique is, here's a before and after of a "Cullenized" press photo I created of Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Saga, or should I say Stephenie Cullen!:
I'd love to see your versions of your Cullenized selves! Send any links to hmnkelli@gmail.com or my Twitter account @HMNKelli. If you really liked this article, don't forget to give it a green thumbs up and share it with your friends!
Image Source:
TheTwilightSaga
Kelli is a mixed media artist and writer with a serious vintage hat and scarf addiction. Check out what she's up to on Twitter, or email her with your thoughts at HMNKelli@gmail.com
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