VIRTUAL-TUNING TUTORIAL(PART2) – Changing the BodyKit color !

by Cucu Tudor-Ionel(crimzprod) in collaboration with Radu Matei.

Freelance graphic designer Cucu Tudor-Ionel is a student located in Bacau, Romania and currently writing tutorials based on personal projects. At the age of 13 he started working in photoshop doing virtual-tuning, and then creating different tutorials and websites in his non-existent free time.

Donors:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaeger-meister/3332691157/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fleur-design/308974077/sizes/o/

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/carbonfibre.png/

Step 1

Select the side of the donor car, and copy it (Ctrl+C) to the workspace. Use the Free Transform Tool (CTRL+T) to fit it. Use Warp (Right-click – Warp) to make the lines fit perfect (for ex. The door line)- this way you can modify the shape more precisely – but be careful on large areas, it reduces the quality of the picture. Having good donor images saves you lots of time and stress, so finding the right one is very important.

Step 2

We want to modify the color of the donor car, let’s say, to a bright orange. Go to Image – Adjustments – Hue/Saturation, and drag the Hue knob till the color’s right – let’s say -25. (watch out when using this tool, usually the more you modify the values, the more it reduces the quality).
Do these steps several times, till you have all the parts completed. Don’t worry too much about making them fit perfectly, we will work on that later on. Here are the parts that I cut and fitted on the car, trying to use the minimum of Warp tool. Also I don’t have to worry about the bumper – I am going to change it’s design.

Step 3

We’ll start making the parts fit together now. Select the areas that aren’t covered by the new paint, and use the smudge tool ( R), with high strength – like 80%, to cover them up. Adjust the area around the spoiler, the roof, the parts where the copied areas overlay, the headlights etc. Use the Warp tool to make them fit, this is the fastest way. Don’t work too much on the bumper though, we’ll get onto that later. For the headlights, copy the orange ones and fit them perfectly over the old ones. Set the layer’s mode to Hard light, and then select the Eraser tool (E) and set it to about 70px, and erase a bit around the black part. Also erase the area of the bulb, and select the area as shown below and right click-Layer via copy, we need more saturation in that part. For the far-end headlight, fill up the area with an orange color, and set it to color, then erase parts of it till it looks right.

For the top of the car, the thin part doesn’t fit, so cut it to that shape (select it, then invert the selection – CTRL I, and use the eraser tool on the edges). Invert back the selection, and use a small brush and a dark orange to brush the tip, so it looks more realistic. Brush the far end with a light color, from nearby.

Step 4

Select the air intake on the bonnet and copy it to another layer. Then take the Carbon Fiber texture attached to this tutorial, and set it to Overlay, above this layer. Angle it, so that the grooves become tighter in the far end. Now select the air intake again (CTRL – click on the layer’s icon) and then invert the selection. Press Delete, now the texture is where it should be. Press CTRL- Shift – U to desaturate the texture. Go to the intake’s layer, then go to Image- Adjustments-Curves, and modify the color curve till you get something like this.(we basically need more contrast, but everything should be a bit darker). Go to Image –Adjustments- Brightness/Contrast and lower the brightness about 50 units. Now you should have something like this, and we can move on to the details.

Step 5

The parts have lost quality due to all the modifying, so we need to fix that. Go to the side layer, then go to Filter-Blur-Surface Blur, and take these values. This also blurs the edges, so we need to work on them now.

Select the area around the blurry line, and a bit of the line, and use the Smudge tool, stroking from the outside in, to sharpen it. Don’t worry about the door line.

Step 6

Now use the Pen tool (P) to create a path, along the door line. Go to the paths tab, and select Save Path. This way we’ll remember where the door line should be.

Select the door line now, and use the Smudge tool (R) to smudge it away. Try to do this so that it doesn’t leave marks (smudge from both directions). Go back to the paths tab, and click on Path 1. This should load it up. Make a new layer, and set the Brush tool to 2px, black color, and 100% opacity. Select the Pen tool (P), right click and Stroke Path. Set it to Brush. Duplicate the layer, and go to Hue/Saturation, set it to colorize, and modify the values till you get a bright orange. Select the Move tool (V), nudge the layer (ctrl – Right/Left arrow) till this line is touching the other. Use the eraser tool on low opacity now in different parts, to make the line look more realistic. (the black line is more visible in dark areas for ex). You should end up with something like this.

To make this part look better, select the Smudge tool (R), and set it to about 20px, 30% opacity and smudge along the lines of the car.

Now sharpen all the areas on the car, using smaller Smudge brushes for smaller areas, like in steps 23-37, you should end up with this:

Step 7

Now we need to fix some reflections- the one beneath the mirror and the one from the spoiler. Select the mirror reflection, and copy it into another layer. Keep the selection, and use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to select a nearby orange color. Use the Brush tool, set to about 40px and brush along the lower part of the selection, to fit the reflection in. Go back to the side layer, select the old reflection, and use the Smudge tool to smudge it away underneath.

Step 8

To make the spoiler reflection, select an area to brush it, underneath the spoiler. Select a big brush, and a nearby orange color, and brush it. Don’t brush all over the selection, leave some gradient, to give it realism.

Step 9

We want to make the paint a bit more glossy. Select the part that should be more shiny. Go to the original car image (first layer) and right click – Layer via copy, and drag it on top of all the car parts layers. The car looks pretty cool in this 2 tones, but we need to move on. Set the layer’s blending mode to "Overlay". Select the eraser tool, set it to about 100 px, and start erasing the lower edges of the layer. We don’t need to be too precise with this step, as long as it blends right, anything goes. Make the eraser bigger and set the opacity to about 20%, and erase some of the brightness on the bonnet away. Finally set the layer’s opacity to about 85%. Now the car’s all glossy.

Step 10

For the bumper, first select it from the donor image. Transfer it to our picture, on top of the parts layers. Use the Free Transform Tool (CTRL-T) and Warp to bring it to angle. This will make it loose it’s quality, but we’ll work that out. Go to Image Adjustments Hue/Saturation and set the hue to -50. The lower part need to be more saturated. Duplicate the layer, and go to Image Adjustments Brightness/Contrast and set it to +15 brightness and about +25 contrast. Erase the top part, with a big eraser. Select a smaller-sized eraser- let’s say 65px, and the the opacity to 10-15% and start erasing on the top, to make it blend with the old paint.

Step 11

Select the part where the new bumper doesn’t cover the old one, and use the smudge tool to fix that. For the remaining part, go to the layer underneath, (the right wing layer), and smudge the line away. For the other part, select it, and go to the bumper layer and press delete. Now all we have to do is sharpen up the bumper.

Step 12

First fill the vents with black color. Select the inner right part, and smudge the black parts away by using about 10px on the smudge. Use the Brush (B) tool at 100px, black color, and brush near the slection (in the right part) to make it darker. Repeat this step for the other vents. Now to sharpen up the lines, as we did on the side, first select an area, including some of the line, and use the smudge tool, stroking from the outside-in to sharpen it. Use the same tehnique on the inside, and on the other vents. To make the licence plate part look straight, make a selection in it’s shape as it should be, and smudge from the outside-in the color. Use the smudging tehnique we used on the side here too, on the lower parts.

You should end up with somethink like this.

Step 13

Go to the background layer, and select the lower headlights from the original car, copy them intro a lyer and place it on top of the black vents’ layer. Use the free Transform tool (CTRL-T) to bring it into place. Use the eraser tool to make it blend better with the black. Set it to about 120px, 100% opacity. Select a smaller eraser- about 25px, and erase the margins. We’re done!

Step 14

We’ll erase the backwards Exige sign, with the Smudge tool (R).

Step 14

Use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to fix the part of the old bumper which is still showing.

Watch the difference !

Download the PSD

Related posts:

1. Virtual Tuning Bodykit Using Brush Techniques in Photoshop
2. How to transform a car into a chop in Adobe Photoshop
3. Learn How To Draw a Dose (Can) in Adobe Photoshop