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Modify Source

How To Modify Your Source Picture For Your Custom Card

Supplies:

. Flatbed Scanner . Graphic Editor (Photoshop) . Patience

Images can be downloaded off the Internet, though most will be of low resolution due to file size. But you can always use a pixel program to scale the image to 300 dpi. This can make the image blurry, depending on how Big the original is. Any Star Wars book you’ve been using as source material for your customs will have the kind of images you want, or even an existing action figure card.

In this tutorial we will be turning a white clone trooper into the grey Coruscant clone trooper. Below you see Original image (white background), Our reference picture, Our Coruscant clone trooper and the finished custom card.

1. SCANNING SOURCE IMAGE/ERASING BACKGROUND: After the scan is done, modify it by playing with the contrast, levels and sharpening tools. Then copy and paste the entire picture into a new layer, turn off the original and begin cutting out the background. I order to help you see what you are doing better, below the image layer create another layer and fill it with the color black. When you turn off the black layer see a clear background (the white and grey boxes).

2. ADDING THE GREY MARKINGS TO THE CLONE TROOPER: As you can see on the picture above, I have placed each grey part on a different layer for better control. Using the reference picture as a guide begin tracing I.E. the belt using the Lasso tool. When done copy and paste into a new layer and call it “belt”.

Double click on the “belt” layer and check the “color overlay”, then click on that line. On pulldown choose “Multiply” and choose the grey color you want. “Opacity” should stay at 100%. You will use this method to do the rest of the grey markings, each on their own layer.

3. SAVING FILES: Save your layered file as a psd. Now you want to create a version without layers but with a transparent background. Now link all your layers, go to Layer / Merge linked, Save as and choose “png” type and save. Once you have your custom card template ready open the png file copy and paste into your template.