How do you make a horde of Jedi with only one bathrobe, a karate uniform and a black sheet? Glad you asked... To make the “campus tour” sequence, we had a bunch of friends come over to my house one night, take turns wearing our only Jedi costume and pose in front of a plain black sheet. Then I had my wife Beth (who’s just happens to be a photographer) take pictures of each one. Afterward, I simply imported each image into Photoshop and applied my Secret Ninja Artboy Magic to complete each scene. Check it out...
Make Your Own Jedi
First my wife Beth took photos of our friends taking turns wearing our only Jedi costume
Then I cropped each person off of the black sheet she used for the background
Then I colorized each person’s uniform and robe to “personalize” each character
Then I added the finishing touches such as Jonathan’s “bling” and “pimp saber”
For shots with multiple people, I simply had to composite everyone in the shot together
Then I added in the backgrounds, shadows and various lighting effects to finish up
Some backgrounds were more work such as this chalkboard which I began with just a green square
Then I added a simple fade that was consistent with the direction of the light in the texture
Then I added noise to the same area to give it a little more “realism”
Then I darkened the edges, leaving the middle as-is, looking almost “highlighted”
Then I added cracks and scratches to give the board a more old and “used” look
Then I multiplied a photo of rust over the top of the board for an even more “used” look
Then I added a photo of a wood texture to another layer and cut out the center, leaving a “frame”
Next I applied a bevel and shadow effect to the frame to make it look “three dimensional”
Finally I airbrushed in the last details such as chalk lettering, an eraser and chalk pieces
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By Richard Jacobson