Golden compass exclusive tutorial

Sooooooo.....new tutorial =] Remember the "Golden Compass" movie? Yes? Good. If not go and Google it ^_~ Kay, the point is that now we're going to create a compass. It won't as intricate as the Golden Compass one, 'cause that would be a killer of a tutorial X__x But it will show all the basics and a bit further for creating an ancient-looking compass, and from there anyone can expand their imagination universe ^__^ This is what we'll create:

Step 1:

Create a new document, 400x400 pixels in size :) Set your Foreground color to #3a4043 and taking the Paint Bucket tool (G) fill the document with it...we need a darker background you know. Now name your layer "Background".

Step 2:

Set your Foreground color to #b86100 and create a new layer on top of your Background one. Name it "Compass Base". Then take the Ellipse Tool (U), set it to Shape Layers and holding down Shift key, drag to create a perfect circle, like this:

Step 3:

Now press Ctrl (Cmd on Mac)+T, and let's transform the little bugger of a circle :] Holding down Ctrl (Cmd), place your cursor over the top-right corner of the transform binding box, and pull it towards down-left, diagonally. Like this:

Now our compass will look like it is viewed from the side, see? Duplicate the Compass Base layer two times, so you now have 3 layers that look like..twins, oh my gosh! o.o; But even twins are different soooo.....let's rename the topmost one to "Screen" and the bottommost of the 3 to "Compass Body".

Step 4:

Mmkay, now on to the fun work ^^ Click on the thumbnail of the Compass Body layer (in the layers palette) so you have the "wireframe" selected, that gray outline you know? Click on the layer thumbnail once or twice to obtain that. Now grab the Ellipse Tool (which is still set to Shape Layers) and somewhere in the top-right of your Photoshop screen you should see a little colored rectangle from where you can change the color of the Shape, okay? Click on that, and set the color to #854906. Now click OK and move on to the Screen layer. Do exactly the same as before to change its color to #ffffff (remember you MUST have the gray wireframe visible in order for the color change to work)! Now let's move the Compass Body layer to the left-bottom a bit...not much, just about 30-35 pixels....and resize the Screen layer to about 2/3 of the body size and move it a bit to the right, like this:

Step 5:

Okay, now let's go into the third dimension ^_~ Click on the Compass Base layer (the middle one between the Screen and Compass body in the layers palette) and get into its Blending Options (either double-click the layer, or go to Layer-->Layer Styles--Blending Options) and give it these settings:

Step 6:

Now move to your Compass Body layer, and give it these Blending Styles:

To get the names of the colors, right-click on the second image from above and Copy Image, then paste it in Photoshop in a new document, and sample the colors from each of the little squares and use in your gradient ^^

Step 7:

Now your piece should look something like this:

Now, create a new layer on top of your Compass Base layer and holding down Ctrl (Cmd), click on the Compass base layer as well, so now you have both layers in a blue color in the layers palette. Now press Ctrl (Cmd)+E to merge them :) Take the Dodge tool (O), set it to a soft round brush, and to Highlights, Exposure to about 10% and Airbrush clicked. Now add some highlights in the areas selected below:

So now your piece looks something like....hmmm.well, this:

Step 8:

Now....wait, I'm going to raid the fridge for a bag of chips. Brb. ..................... Okay I'm back xP Now let's take care of the Screen layer shall we >___o Kay, create a new layer on top of the Screen layer...right-click on this new layer and Create Clipping Mask. Set your Foreground color to #ababab and then Ctrl(Cmd)+click on the thumbnail of the Screen layer in the layers palette, so that you will get a selection of it. Now, on the Clipping Mask layer that we just created, go to Edit-->Stroke and give it a setting of 15px, and Center....and give it a niiiice gray Stroke =) Mooooo-vin' on. Keep your selection and go to Filter--->Blur--->Gaussian Blur. Give it a setting of about 5. Then click OK. Duplicate the layer that you just used Blur on and with the copy as your active layer (it'll be blue in the layers palette) press Ctrl(Cmd)+F twice. Merge the two gray blurred stroke layers and press Ctrl(Cmd)+F once more.

Step 9:

Then...hmm..then you should have a heavily blurred, light gray layer. Duplicate it, c'mon, faster, chop-chop! >__o Hehehe, kiddding ^_~ Take it slow.....set the newly-created copy to Multiply....and feel free to deselect ^_~ Name the two shadow layers "Inner Shadow 1" and Inner Shadow 2" This is what you should have till now..or something close, anyway:

Step 10:

Moving on, there's still work to be done :) Set your Foreground color to #c5993b. Then click on the Screen layer...and create a new layer on top of it (this new layer would be between the Inner Shadow layers and the Screen layer, and it is a Clipping Mask to the Screen layer just like the Inner Shadows). Name this newly created layer "Inner Border". Move it on top of the Inner Shadow layers, but make sure it is still a clipping mask. Ctrl(Cmd)+click on the thumbnail of the Screen layer to get its selection. Then click on the Inner Border layer to make it your "working on" one. Go to Edit-->Stroke, Center, 15px. Then press Ctrl(Cmd)+T to transform it ^_~ Hold down Ctrl(Cmd) and positioning your cursor over the bottom-left corner of the transform rectangle drag towards the bottom-left, like this:

Step 11:

Get into the layer's Blending Options and give it these settings:

Now, your stuff should look something like...this:

Step 12:

Now create a new layer on top of all your others. Name it "Gold Circle Inside". Obtain a selection of your Screen layer and then go to Select--->Transform Selection, and skew&resize it to obtain something similar to this:

Then press Enter to confirm your transformation and go to Edit-->Stroke, give it a 5px, Center stroke. After which....hmmm...after which take a break xD Grab a drink =] And when you come back give your "Gold Circle Inside" these styles:

Step 13:

Now obtain a selection of your "Gold Inside Stroke" layer. Create a new layer above it and set your Foreground color to #652e09. Then take the Gradient Tool (G), set it to Foreground to Transparent and drag on the new layer you just created from the rightmost point of the selection to...the center of it. Like this:

Deselect. Set the layer to Multiply blending mode and lower its Fill to about 40% then, holding down Ctrl (Cmd) and clicking on the Gold Circle Inside layer in the layers palette (so now you have both of them in a blue color in the palette), press Ctrl(Cmd)+E to merge them. Now, let's take a second and see, for those who don't know, why we take the trouble of selecting both layers before merging them. That we do because if we would simply Merge Down without selecting both, the top-most layer would "borrow" the layer styles of the bottommost, see? So our newly-created shadow would ....vanish....borrowing the gradient layer style of the layer below it. And we don't want that, do we? ^_~ .................................Mooo-vin' on :) Make a new layer and move it just under the Gold Inside Stroke one. Next, set your Foreground color to #652e09 and obtain a selection of your Gold Stroke thingy....and go to Edit-->Stroke, with the settings Center, 2px. Deselect, set the layer to Color Dodge and lower its Fill to about 30%.

Step 14:

Okay, now pay attention to this step, it is a bit more....about tiny details. But then again, tiny details make great art, right? ^___~ Let's start... Take the Elipse tool (U) and make a new layer on top of all your others which you'll name "Center Pin". With the Ellipse Tool, hold down Shift key and drag to create a perfect circle at the center of the Screen. Not very large, just a tiny one, like this:

Next, get into its Blending Options and give it these settings:

Gooooooooooooooood................mmmmm...next we need to get rid of the layer styles, so we can skew our layer without the Layer Styles getting all rearranged, okay? So ...do what we talked about in the previous step: create a new layer on top of it, hold down Ctrl(Cmd) to select both layers in the layers palette and then press Ctrl(Cmd)+E to merge them...and ta-daaaa, no more scalable layer styles =D Okay, once you've done that, press Ctrl(Cmd)+T to transform it and holding down Ctrl(Cmd)...and positioning your cursor over to top-right corner of the transform binding box, drag to the bottom-left corner, like this:

Good!

Step 15:

Now get rid of the Center Pin's layer styles by the merging method which we did in the previous step, and taking the Dodge too with a soft brugh, Highlights, 20% and Airbrush on, click a bit on the top-right part of the Pin to give it a highlight ^^ Liiikeeee....thiiissss:

Okay, not duplicate the Center Pin layer and name the bottommost of the two "Center Pin Body". Move it a few pixels to the bottom-left, like this:

Let's give it a shadow now....with these Blending Styles settings:

Step 16:

Sooo...how far are we into this tutorial? Well, about 50% done I'd say :) Let's look at what results we have till now:

Okay, now let's take care of the ..."hands"? >w< The pointers of the compass, I mean..of course. So. Make a new layer, and move it so that it is between the Center Pin and the Center Pin Body layers. Take the Polygonal Lassoo tool (L) and create a triangular selection, like this:

Step 17:

Set your Foreground color to #c5993b and taking the Paint Bucket tool (G) fill the selection with color...yeaaaa, okay now deselect. Give your pointer this Style:

Go into this layer's Blending styles and modify the angle of the Gradient Overlay to 60 degrees.

Step 18:

Make a new layer on top of everything you have in your Layers Palette so far. Now obtain a selection of your top-pointing pin. Set your Foreground color to #ea1505 and take a round, hard brush of about 40 pixels in size, click once at the pointer's tip, like this:

Then lower this layer's Fill to about 60% Now this is what you should have...or something close:

Step 19:

Let's embellliiiish the center now ^___^ Obtain a selection of BOTH your pointers. This is done by Ctrl(Cmd)+Shift+clicking on the layers' thumbnails in the Layers palette. Create a new layer and move it right under the Center Pin Body layer. Okay, now fill your selection with...any color really...and give it these layer styles:

Duplicate your layer 2 times, so now you have 3 copies of the same thing.

Step 20:

Now choose one of these copies and use Ctro(Cmd)+T on it to Transform...and Skew, rotate and resize it so that it looks like this:

Transform the other 2 copies of the thingy so that in the end you get somehting like this:

Step 21:

Now let's take care of the letters, okay o.o Can't have a compass without them! =D So. Go and download the PR Celtic Narrow font from http://www.dafont.com/pr-celtic-narrow.font and install it. Go back to your Compass afterwards and create a new layer and move it under all your pointers layers (including the ones we created in the previous step). Type a capital N in...any color you want, size 30pt . Move it and transform and skew it so that it looks and is positioned like this:

Now do the same with the East (E), South (S) and West (W), but make the E and W size 24 and place them outside of the inner golden circle. So that you get something similar to this:

Step 22:

Now let's create the Triangles =D Lol, I promise, we don't have..very..much more to work on this xD; Okay, take the Polygon Tool (U) and set it to Shape Layers. Give it 3 sides, and Smooth Corners/Star UNCHECKED! Kay, now create a small triangle. Transfor/Skew it to get something like this:

After which, make 3 more triangle shapes, on 3 different layers, for each of the other letters....so that you get something similar to this:

Next, give your layers these blending styles:

Step 23:

Now press Ctrl(Cmd)+click on each of the 4 layers to select them in the layers palette and merge them all into one. Then obtain a selection of your Screen layer, press Ctrl(Cmd)+Shift+I to inverse selection and press Delete. Deselect and obtain a selection of your Inner Border layer, press Delete. This will delete all the parts of the arrows which go beyond the white of the Screen. Like this:

Step 24:

Name this layer "Arrows". Create a new layer on top of the Arrows layer and right-click on it --> Create clipping mask. Set the clipping mask to Multiply blending mode. Set your Foreground color to #361f0f and taking the Brush Tool (B) set to ahard round brush, add a few shadows where the arrow side meets the inner ring or the border of the screen. Then give this a Filter-->Blur-->Gaussian blur of 1.

Step 25:

Next, create a new layer and move it under the Arrows one. Obtain a selection of your Arrows and fill this selection on the new layer with the color #361f0f Give it a 1 Gaussian Blur and Transform it by shrinking so that the Arrows look like having a 90 degrees shadow, like this:

Step 26:

Now let's make the chain...to take a break from th screen hehehe. Make a new layer and move it under everything else...except the background. Move it so that it is just above the background layer. Name it "Loop" Take the Pen Tool (P) and set it to Paths....and make a loop, like this:

Set your Foreground color to #d2974b and set your Brush tool to 5px, hard, round. Click on the Pen Toll again, and go Right-click--->Stroke Path. You should get something like this:

Step 27:

Give your Loop layer these blending styles:

Now create a new layer above the Lop one and obtain a selection of the Loop.....then take the Gradient tool (G) and set it to Foreground to Transpatent, Linear Gradient. Set your Foreground color to #4f3116 and drag from the bottom of the selection to its middle, almost, like this:

Set the layer to Multiply blending mode and lower its Fill to about 70% Pffffffffffffffffft! Okay, only a little more to go ^^

Step 28:

Now, let's take care of the chain. Take this picture (save it to your disk) and open it up in Photoshop. Go to Edit-->Define Brush Preset. Name it "Chain Brush 1"

Then click it and go to Brushes tab in the top-right part of the screen, and add these settings:

Now click on the Create New Brush icon at the bottom of the little pop-up brushes window I screenshotted above (the icon the looks like a square) and name it "Chain Brush 2" . The Chain Brush 2 will retain the settings we gave it above.

Step 29:

Dundundundun....almooost there...pffft. Lesse. Hmm...okay, make a new layer and move it Just below the Compass Body one, so it is above the Loop layer. Name the new bugger "Chain". Take the Pen tool (P) and set it to Paths...and make a path like this:

Then right-click-->Stroke Path. This is what you should be getting:

Step 30

Now give your Chain these settings:

Then, the chain needs some escaping from its layer styles ^^ So do the "get-rid-of-styles-but-keep-their-effects" method we went through earlier, by making a layer on top and merging by selecting both layers. Then, go to Filter-->Sharpen-->Sharpen two times. NOW! Let's give our chain some shadows ^___^ Make a new layer on top of the Chain one and right-click on it--->Create Clipping Mask. Set it to Multiply. Set your Foreground color to #29140e and take a round brush, with hardness about 75% and brush lightly where the chain disappears "under" the compass (if you need, you can use the Smudge Tool (R) to modify the look of the shadow according to your liking). Like this:

Step 31:

Okay. Now, let's move on. Now we'll add the finishing touches to the Screen ^___~ Make a new clipping mask layer on top of the Screen layer. Name it "Margins Shadow" and move it above all the other Clipping Masks the Screen has. Take the Magic Wand tool (W), and set it to a Tolerance of 2, Anti-Alias and Contiguous checked, Sample All Layers must be UNCHECKED. Okay, now click on your Inner Border layer to make it your working on one. Take the Magic Wand and click "inside" the border (on the canvas). you should be getting this selection:

Go to Select-->Transform Selection and resize/skew/etc your selection so that it is an exact outline of the white screen visble. Then set your Foreground color to #3d1e12 and go to Edit-->Stroke, give it a Center, 7px. Deselect, give it a Gaussian Blur of 2 and then press Ctrl(Cmd)+F three more times, to repeat the filter 3 times. Set the layer to Multiply and lower Opacity to about 50%.

Step 32:

Okay, now create ANOTHER...yea I know...pfffttt..yea another new Clipping mask on top of the other Clippers Screen layer has...mmkay. Good. Take the Magic Wand tool (W) and do the exact same thing we did before...only this time to get the selection of what is inside the Gold Inside Stroke layer. Like this:

Okay, now, go to Select-->Modify-->Expand-->1px. With the foreground color set to #3d1e12, take the Paint Bucket tool (G) and fill the selection. Set the layer to Overlay, lower its Opacity to 90% and deselect. Then, duplicate the layer once, and taking the Eraser Tool (E), set it to a soft, round brush with 10% Opacity and brush away most of the right part of the copy layer. Like this:

Lower the layer's Opacity to 60%.... Then duplicate it and lower the new compy's Opacity to 35%. Yepeee, we've finished the middle xD Now what you have should be...this:

Now, take the Burn Tool (O) and add a bit of burn to the bottom-left chain, so it looks more realistic..and.....TA-DAAAAAAA! =D Ready ^^ Of course, now you can go on and add a background to it, or go even further and give the Compass itself more details, rust, anything you might think of ^^ Here's what I did to mine:

Hope you liked the tutorial :) See yah next timez piratey! >__o