Create an Alien Invasion Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

Step 1

Create a new document of size 3000 x 2250 pixels and
import "city.jpg" to the document. Size doesn't matter, but I suggest
you to always choose large size so that you can pay more attention to
details.

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Step 2

Before
going ahead, I prefer to visualize the scene so that I can get a
direction to start my work. For this, select pen tool and create the
main object that is arm of octopus. Make sure to turn path layer on and
save as this path to "arm1", press Ctrl + Enter and fill layer with a
bright color.

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Step 3

Repeat
the second step to create more arms of octopus and save all paths. Go
to the path palette to access these paths, select one path, go to File
> Export > Path to Illustrator and export this path to edit it in
Illustrator. Similarly, export all paths to illustrator.

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Step 4 - Creating divisions in arm

Now
open the adobe illustrator and import all paths to one file and refine
their edges and curves to make it perfect. Next, we will create segments
of arm to give it robotic look. For this, select line segment tool ( \ )
and create a vertical line of height 20 mm and weight 1 point. Select
that line segment then go to brush palette and click on new brush icon
to create new brush. Select pattern brush option and set spacing to
500%, this will repeat vertical lines uniformly to create divisions of
arm.

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Step 5

Select
pen tool and create a base lining through the centre of arm, press "A"
to select direct selection tool and edit this lining to make it perfect.
Now go to brush palette and select the new brush which we just have
created. You will see that several lines are aligned through the path
and created the divisions for the arm.

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Step 6

We
have created the divisions in the arm, but you may have noticed that
these divisions seem flat and gaping between them are larger at tip part
then thick part. To give arm depth we will increase the divisions at
tip and for this, just go to Object > Expand Appearance, ungroup them
and manually repeat divisions by duplicating lines at tip.

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Step 7

Next,
select all divisions, group them and go to Object > Expand and
expand all paths to object. Duplicate the arm, press Shift + Ctrl + F9
to access pathfinder window, select arm then select divisions and click
on minus front icon to minus divisions on front. Make sure to keep an
additional copy of arm. Repeat same procedure with all arms. We will
call arm having division to "division" and arm without division to just
"arm" to avoid confusion.

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Step 8

Import
arm and its division to Photoshop, fill them with color black, create a
new layer and Ctrl + click division layer to get its selection. Hide
the arm layer then add layer mask to the division layer, now select a
soft brush of size 100px and color #434343 and paint through the one
side of arm to make it shading, now unhide the arm layer.

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Step 9

Next,
select brush of color #787878 and create lights on other side of arm,
experiment with opacity of brush and size to get best results, again
select another brush of color #9d9d9d and create bright light to create
finer lights on arm. Be careful while creating lights and pay attention
to the direction of light and light source to create natural light.

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Step 10

Now
select a soft brush of color black and add shadows to the highlighted
areas by red color. Experiment with opacity and size of brushes to get
perfect results.

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Step 11

Next,
select arm layer and press Ctrl + click on arm layer to get its
selection then go to Select > Modify > Contract and contract the
selection to 4 pixels then add layer mask to the layer. You will get
finer divisions in arm, repeat same procedure from step 5 to step 11 to
create other arms too and place them into our scene. If everything done
right, then your result may look like this.

Step 12 - Adding demolition to buildings.

Group arm layers,
right click and convert it to smart object and rename arm to "tentacle",
again group all tentacles and name this group to "tentacles". After
placing octopus arms, we have a rough idea about which building to be
demolished and where destruction to be added. So, let's start with
centre building, select pen tool, turn shape layer on and create a
demolition area. In this area we will add destruction to the building,
name this layer to "demolition area".

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Step 13

Fill
that area to color black, import "demolished building 1.jpg" and
isolate its demolished part. Duplicate this texture, transform and flip
horizontal and vertical to extend the texture. Use clone stamp tool to
extend texture seamlessly.

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Step 14

Clip
mask this texture inside "demolition area" layer, Ctrl + click on this
layer, select a soft brush of color black and create shadows along edges
of area. Create some windows to match with building structure, so
create some window squares filled with color black then add some more
shadows to it.

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Step 15

To
make destruction more realistic we need to add some cracks to the
walls. Select brush tool, right click and load "crack1.abr" &
"crack2.abr" brushes. Select any crack brush and create cracks along the
edge of demolition.

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Step 16

Next
we will add destruction to the right side of building for this, create
another demolition area, import "demolished building 4.jpg" and clip
mask this image to demolition area. Add shadows inside the edges and
cracks outside to demolition area. Add layer mask and hide unnecessary
part of demolition.

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Step 17

Now
you can notice that after hiding right part of demolition has revealed
original undamaged part of building. Select city layer then select clone
stamp tool and clone roads and shadows of buildings in the background.

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Step 18

Open
"demolition.jpg", remove its background and place it below the
building. Add some shadows relative to our source of light, this will
give our scene more realism. Repeat this step to add demolished scrap to
other buildings too.

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Step 19

Similarly
add destruction to other buildings by following steps 12 - 18. Pay
special attention to the source & direction of lights while adding
shadows.

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Step 20

Now
we will add demolition to building behind the main buildings. Open
"demolished building 4.jpg", isolate its demolished part, which is clear
enough to extend. Duplicate this layer several times to extend this
demolition texture. Use clone stamp tool to create a seamless texture.
Rename this layer to "demolition texture 1".

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Step 21

Duplicate
the demolition texture, press Ctrl + T and transform it to place
relatively to the building. Add layer mask to the texture, click on the
mask and press Ctrl + I then hide everything. Now select a hard grungy
brush and start unmasking areas where you want to show demolition.
Duplicate the demolition texture layer and set its blending mode to
multiply with 40% opacity.

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Step 22

Select a soft brush of size 15 pixel & color
black and start adding shadows to the edges of unmasked part of
demolition layer. Add cracks to add more realism to demolition. Open the
"grunge1.jpg", place it on building and set its blending mode to
darken. Rename this layer to grunge, duplicate the layer and set its
blending mode to multiply with 10% opacity.

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Step 23

Now
we have created demolition for building, but I want it to extend it to
top to give it a completed destroyed building. Select the city layer and
remove the top portion of building by clone stamp tool so that our
demolition can be extended to the top portion of building. Create some
vertical and horizontal rectangles to make destroyed pillars of
building, duplicate them and arrange them to the top of building.

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Step 24 - Adding destruction to land.

Add
destruction to the land by opening the "grunge2.jpg", press Ctrl + T
and transform it to fit on the land. Set its blending mode to darken
color. This will create impressive destruction to the land which will
look like this. Rename the layer to "land destruction".

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Step 25

Next
we will mask octopus arms at some areas to merge it with scene. Add
layer mask to the octopus arms, hide some parts of the arm that is in
front of buildings to send it behind the building.

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Step 26

Now
when a building suddenly destroy then obviously it catches fire and
starts burning, hence to add more realism to our scene we will add some
fire. Open "fire.jpg", set its blending mode to scree and transform it
to add fire to the buildings. Due to screen blending mode, the
background is now invisible, but fire has become transparent at the
centre and to correct it just duplicate fire layer and mask all areas
except centre area, set its blending mode to normal.

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Step 27 - Adding smoke to the fire.

Select brush tool and load "smoke.abr", select the brush, press F5 to access brush options and add these settings;

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Step 28

Create
heavy smoke to the fire because in day light fire creates a lot of
smoke. Experiment with opacity and size of smoke brush to create perfect
smoke. Add more fire to other buildings by following steps 26 to step
28. Your scene will look like this.

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Step 29

To
make scene more dramatic I will create a large cloud of smoke just
above the city. For this, select smoke brush, lower its opacity to 50%
and create a smoky dome above the city.

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Step 30

Now
we will add some color correction to the scene, so create a new layer
and fill it with color #e9cf1d. Change this layer's blending mode to
soft light and opacity to 50%. Keep octopus arms to the front to make it
unaffected by coloration to the city.

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Step 31 - Adding destruction to arm.

To
add destruction to the arm, detach some part of arm from tip. Hide some
part of arm then import "junk1.jpg" & "junk2.jpg" and transform
this metallic junk to place on the destroyed portion of arm. Add shadows
to the destroyed part of arm.

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Step 32 - Creating nuclear explosion.

Open
the "explosion.png", transform and re-size it to fit into the scene.
Duplicate explosion and set its blending mode to screen with 100%
opacity. Select smoke brush, pick color from explosion layer and starts
creating mushroom of nuclear explosion. Change the color to #a1a795 and
opacity 50% and continue to creating explosion clouds.

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Step 33

Similarly
create lower part of nuclear explosion by adding smoke and clouds to
base. Use color #9ea27b and #60654c to create lower part. Experiment
with colors, size and opacity of brush to achieve best results. Add
shadows to the lower part to make the explosion prefect. Select a soft
brush of color white & roundness 60% and create glow of nuclear
explosion.

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Step 34

Create
a new layer, fill it with color #92b40b, add layer mask and hide the
area in city except sky. Change its blending mode to multiply and
opacity 10%. Next, duplicate this layer, remove the layer mask and
change its blending mode to color burn. Set its opacity to 10%, this
will add nice coloration to the sky.

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Step 35 - Adding aircrafts.

We
are about to finish this tutorial, add some military hardware like
fighter planes and bombers. Open the "fighter-plane-1.png",
"fighter-plane-2.png" and "fighter-plane-3.png", transform them and
place into the scene to make scene perfect.

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Step 36 - Adding attack choppers.

This
is the last step of this tutorial. Open the "helicopter1.jpg",
"helicopter2.jpg" & "helicopter3.jpg", isolate these helicopters and
place into the scene. Add a missile launched from helicopter, create
its smoke tail by smoke brush and our tutorial is finished here. That's
all friends! Here is the final preview of scene.

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Final Results