Create Groovy Music Flyer Poster with Photoshop and Illustrator

PHOTO MANIPULATIONBy Jayan Saputra / November 17, 2014

Everyone knows how a flyer poster look like. But do you know how to create a good one with by yourself? This tutorial will show you from start to finish, how to create a music flyer poster with Photoshop and Illustrator. Follow every steps to learn how to create your very own flyer poster.

What you’ll be creating

Basically you will practice some objects selection works, using smart objects, compositing images, do some color correction and the most interesting part is integrating works between Photoshop and Illustrator. Which is include creating vector elements and 3d text. Curious? lets start now!

Tutorial Resources

• speaker by ppreacher
• megaphone by iraszi
• sky 1 by a_kartha
• guitar by tvvoodoo
• Microphone by mrhines1
• headphone by magstefan
• audio jack Image by Christian Ferrari
• earphone by HamsterDK
• music note by fangol
• sky 2 by avanzero
• dance model by intergalacticstock
• vinyl record by yunior
• sci-fi render pack by TonyApex
• fractal pack by GreenTunic
• large c4d render pack by DSLresources
• Lens Flare by PSDbox

Step 1

Open dancing girl model from inside Photoshop. Use the auto tone and auto color command from theImage menu to adjust the tone and color automatically. Or You can simply press [Shift] [Ctrl] [L] then[Shift] [Ctrl] [B].

Step 2

Now we need to extract the model from its background. The easiest way is using Magnetic Lasso toolto do the selection job.You can see my setting for the Magnetic Lasso tool in the picture below, and i suggest you also notice that the headset wire isn’t selected yet.

Step 3

The simplest way to select the headset wire is using Magic Wand tool. Just one click on the wire will do the job. Now you can copy the selected area from the Edit> Copy menu or simply press [Ctrl] [C].

Step 4

Let’s prepare a new document for the music flyer poster design. Go to File> New menu, set the widthand height to 1080×1500 px and the resolution is 150 ppi.

Step 5

Paste the girl model by pressing [Ctrl] [V] or go to menu Edit> Paste. Before making further adjustment, its a good idea to convert the girl model layer into smart object. Right click on layer 1 then choose Convert to Smart object menu.

Step 6

Next, we’ll do some image manipulation inside the smart object window. To do this, double-click layer 1 thumbnail’s and then click OK to confirm.

Step 7

If you follow step 6 correctly, we should be inside the smart object window now. What we need to do next is duplicate layer 1 then apply the desaturate command from Image> Adjustment> Desaturate. Change layer 1 copy blend mode to Overlay and reduce the Opacity around 30%.

Step 8

Click the new fill or adjustment layer button and select Curves, this will add Curves layer adjustment above previous layer. Inside the Curves Properties panel, choose Preset: Increase Contrast. The result in this step will boost the color’s contrast.

Step 9

Close the smart object window by clicking the close button. A dialog will appear, click Yes to confirm so all lthe change we made to the smart object will be saved and applied.

Step 10

Go to Edit> Free Transform menu to adjust the model’s size and position inside the canvas. Hit Enterwhen you’re done.

Step 11

Grab the Gradient tool from the Tools panel. Now adjust the gradient color from bright to dark purple, follow instruction in the picture below for details.

Step 12

To apply the gradient, click background layer first. Then drag the Gradient tool from top to bottom until the gradient fill the background as shown in the example below.

Step 13

Open the sky 1 picture within Photoshop, copy and paste it into our working canvas document. As usual, use the free transfrom command to adjust its size and place it in the half-top of the canvas.

Step 14

Desature sky 1 image by going to Image> Adjustment> Desaturate menu or simply press [Ctrl] [Shift] [U]. Change the blend mode to Overlay.

Step 15

Still in the same layer, add layer mask by clicking the add layer mask button from the layers panel. Use the linear Gradient tool again to mask the sky gradually from bottom to top.

Step 16

Add another sky 2 picture. Follow the same step as steps 15 to mask the sky 2 layer (add layer mask and use linear gradient tool to do the masking job).

Step 17

Go to File> Place menu. Select the speaker image to insert it as smart object. Adjust speaker size with the free transform menu ( press [Ctrl] [T] ) and place it below girl’s layer.

Step 18

We have to remove the white background from the speaker. To do this, hide the girl’s layer first and then click the speaker layer to activate it. Select white background and the rest of the area by usingMagic wand tool (choose the add to selection option).

Step 19

Invert the selection by going to Select> Inverse menu or simply press [Ctrl] [Shift] [I]. Convert the inverted selection into layer mask by clicking the Add layer mask button.

Step 20

Unhide the girl layer and then use the free transform command again to adjust the speaker’s size. Hit[Enter] when you’re done. Move the speaker into the right side of the model.

Step 21

Duplicate the speaker layer, then flip it horizontally by going to Edit> Transform> Flip Horizontalmenu.

Step 22

Insert megaphone picture via File>Place menu. Adjust its size until you can see all part of the megaphone and then hit [Enter] to apply. I suggest to hide the model layer for better visibility of the megaphone layer, and make sure you place megaphone’s layer under model’s layer.

Step 23

Use Magic Wand tool with the add to selection button selected and contiguous option unchecked. Click megaphone’s background (pale blue color) and then click the empty area surround it. You should get the selection result as shown in the image below.

Step 24

Use Select> Inverse menu to invert the selection areas, and then click the add layer mask button to convert selection into layer mask. Megaphone’s background should be disappear from the canvas by now.

Step 25

Drag megaphone’s layer below speaker layers. Use the Edit> Free Transform menu to change the megaphone’s size and position as shown in the image example below.

Step 26

Duplicate megaphone’s layer, flip it horizontally from the Edit> Transform> Flip Horizontal menu. Next, use the Edit> Free Transform menu to tilt the megaphone image. Hit [Enter] to apply transformation.

Step 27

Repeat Steps 26 until we get many megaphone stacked each other. In this example, i quit at the 5th duplication.

Step 28

To organize layers and to simplify layer stacks, it is a good practice to take benefit of the layer group feature. Hold [Shift] or [Ctrl] to select many layer at the same time, and then press [Ctrl] [G] to automatically group the selected layers into a new group. To change layer group name, simply double click on its group name.

Step 29

The more, the merrier. Add more music elements (vinyl plate and guitar) into our flyer poster design. To do this, simply follow step 23 to step 27 above.

Step 30

If your selection left some white colored edges around the stock images, set foreground color to black then remove it manually using the Brush tool.

Step 31

Open microphone picture. Judging from the shape and color, seems that we have to do it ‘the old way’. Create path following microphone’s shape using Pen tool. Make sure pen mode:Path andExclude Overlapping Shapes option is selected before you start creating the path. note: I assume you already knew how to use Pen tool. If not, that means you have homework to do.

Step 32

Right click with the Pen tool, choose Make Selection menu. Click OK in the Make Selection dialog.

Step 33

The path is change into selection now, copy the selected area by pressing [CTRL] [C].

Step 34

Back to our music flyer document, press [CTRL] [V] to paste microphone copy into canvas. Right Click microphone layer, select Convert to Smart Object menu . Note: by converting layer into smart object, any changes happen in that layer will not damage the image quality. This will be usefull when we need to resize image multiple times.

Step 35

Press [CTRL] [T] for Free transform command. Adjust microphone size and position as shown in the picture below, hit [ENTER] to apply transformation.

Step 36

With the same method from step 31 to 35, add more musical objects like headset, audio jack andearphone. Don’t forget to convert each layer into smart object.

Step 37

Go to File> Place menu to find and insert the fractal image into document. Adjust its size and position, then hit [ENTER]. This way, photoshop will automatically convert the fractal layer into smart object. Drag fractal layer below model layer.

Step 38

Press [Ctrl] [T] to do some transformation for the fractal image. Rotate and ajust its size as shown in the image below. Hit [Enter] to apply transformation.

Step 39

Still on the fractal layer, set the blend mode to Screen. All black dan dark colors should disappear now, leaving only fractal glows.

Step 40

Repeat step 38 – 39 to add another fractal image, or you could simply copy the layer by pressing [Ctrl] [J] and do some different placement for variation purpose.

Step 41

Go to File> Place again to insert the render pack image. Make sure you place render pack layer between fractal and model layer. Use the Edit> Transform> Flip Vertical menu to flip it vertically.

Step 42

Use the Edit> Transform> Distort to do some adjustment for the render pack. You could also use theEdit> Transform> warp command for more advance distortion purpose. Hit [Enter] to apply transformation.

Step 43

Press [Ctrl] [J] to duplicate render pack layer, then drag it below the original render pack layer.

Step 44

Add layer mask to render pack copy layer. Grab the Gradient tool, set gradient color: white to black and select the linear gradient style button. Make sure you’re still in the layer mask, draw gradient from top to bottom diagonally until half of the render pack become transparent.

Step 45

Repeat the process on step 44 for model layer, that means adding layer mask and use gradient tool to draw gradient mask on that layer.

Step 46

Go to File> Place to insert lens flare image as smart object, make sure lens flare layer is on top of model layer.

Step 47

Change lens flare blend mode to Screen to hide black color area in the layer. And then use the free transform command to upscale the lens flare size.

Step 48

For the abstract debris effect, we’ll be using render pack no.2 image. Place the image as smart object, adjust its size and position (make sure it is positioned between vinyl plate layer and megaphone layer group.

Step 49

Place musical note image as smart object. Position it on top right of the canvas and then change the blend mode to multiply to hide white background in the layer.

Step 50

Shift into Adobe Illustrator, create New Document. Any paper size will be OK, but i prefer Letter sized paper for this work..

Step 51

Draw two circles using the Ellipse tool ( hold [Shift] while drawing ellipse to get a perfect circle ). Select both circles, center align it by clicking the Horizontal align Center and Vertical Align Center button.

Step 52

Go to Object> Blend> Blend options menu. Select Spacing: Specified Steps, and insert steps value (in this example, the number of steps is 8). Click OK to confirm. Press [Alt] [Ctrl] [B] to apply the make blend command.

Step 53

Duplicate circle until you get 3 similar circles. Arrange it vertically, and vary the size for variation purpose.

Step 54

Select all circles, copy it to clipboard by pressing [Ctrl] [C].

Step 55

Back to Photoshop, press [Ctrl] [V] to paste circles from the Illustrator. Photoshop will ask the format to paste, select Paste As: Pixels, click OK. Adjust circles size and position as shown in the image example below.

Step 56

Press [Ctrl] [I] to invert circles color, and then change the layer blend mode to Screen.

Step 57

Duplicate circles layer, place it on the left side between microphone, vynil plate and speaker box.

Step 58

Back to Illustrator, delete circles until only 1 circle left. Go to Object> Blend> Expand menu. What does Expand command does? Well, here is a short description from adobe website that explain it:Expanding objects enables you to divide a single object into multiple objects that make up its appearance. For example, if you expand a simple object, such as a circle with a solid-color fill and a stroke, the fill and the stroke each become a discrete object. If you expand more complex artwork, such as an object with a pattern fill, the pattern is divided into all of the distinct paths that created it.

Step 59

Now go to Object> Live Paint> Make or simply press [Alt] [Ctrl] [X]. This will prepare circle object for a live paint works.

Step 60

Grab the Live Paint Bucket tool. Set fill color to red, then start to fill circles into red and white stripes like shown in the image example below.

Step 61

Use the selection tool to select all circles, then set the stroke color to red. Press [Ctrl] [C] to copy it into clipboard.

Step 62

Back to Photoshop, paste the red striped circle by pressing [Ctrl] [V] and select paste as: pixels. Place the red striped circle on the left bottom of speaker box.

Step 63

Using the Type tool, start creating “MUSIC” text. Choose font type as you like, but for maxikum result i suggest you to pick a bold font, for example the “gill sans ultra bold”.

Step 64

With the text still selected, go to Effect> 3D> Extrude & Bevel menu. Inside the 3d Extrude & Bevel options, adjust the 3d look as you like. I manually set the horizontal and vertical axis value to 5,Perspective: 45 and Depth: 100pt. Click Ok to confirm.

Step 65

What you get now is a pitch black 3d text. Change the text fill color to white to get a distinct 3d look. Copy the 3d text to clipboard by pressint [Ctrl] [C].

Step 66

Go back to Photoshop, then paste 3d text as pixels. Adust 3d text size and position as shown in the image example below.

Step 67

Go to Image> Adjustment> Hue/saturation. Check colorize option, then adjust Hue and Saturationvalue until 3d text color is between pink and purple.

Step 68

Use the Magic Wand tool to make selection of the text front face. Make sure you click the add to selection button and check the contiguous option before making selection.

Step 69

While the selection active, create a new layer and then add layer mask to it. This will convert the selection into layer mask. Click layer thumbnail to exit from layer mask mode.

Step 70

Grab the Gradient tool, and then set a 3 color gradient from the gradient editor. In the image example below, You can see the hex color code we use for each color stops.

Step 71

Now draw the gradient from top to bottom diagonally until you satisfied with the result.

Step 72

Make this gradient layer into a clipping mask by pressing [Alt] [Ctrl] [G]. To smoothen layer mask edges, apply the Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur command to it.

Step 73

If you need more information to tell, add more text as show in the image example below.

Step 74

Lastly, we need to unify all elements color. Do this by adding layer adjustment Color Balance. Inside the Color Balance panel, adjust the Cyan-magenta-yellow slider until you got the desired color. Well done!

Final Results