Very large warship in the Sevastopol port (c) #960318 : Alexandr Stepanov, 123RF.com
to a night vision navy battle scene complete with embellishments like explosions, muzzle flashes and missile smoke trails!
Part A : Adding the night vision goggles effect
Open the image:
Duplicate a copy of background layer as “warships” (Ctrl+j). Remove those celebratory ornaments on the warships with the clone stamp tool.
Duplicate “warships” as “night” and tune down the brightness. Image > Adjustments > Curves. Drag the points similar to example below:
Invert “night” (Ctrl+I).
Set its blend mode to “Difference” and opacity to 75%.
Create 2 new layers (Shift+Ctrl+n) and fill it with green (#005b00).
Ensure foreground color is green (#005b00) and background color is black before proceeding.
For the first layer of green, rename it as “noise”. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Grain and apply settings as shown:
Change blend mode to “Color Dodge”.
For the other one, rename it as “scan-lines”. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Texturizer and apply settings as shown:
Change blend mode to “Color Dodge” and opacity to 25%.
Arrange the layers so that “scan-lines” are on top of “noise” layer.
Add in an adjustment layer on at the top. Layer > New adjustment layer > Photo filter. Select a similar shade of green and apply the settings as shown:
Part B : Muzzle flash of artillery guns.
Create a new layer as “flash”. Drag a square box using the rectangular marquee tool.
Filter > Render > Clouds.
Change its contrast by altering its levels (Ctrl+L).
Choose a patch of clouds that resembles a muzzle flash and roughly erase its surrounding.
Set its blend mode to “Screen”.
Re-position “flash”.
Move the “flash” layer below “noise” to convert its color to green, and re-size it to bigger (Ctrl+T).
Change its contrast to increase the intensity of the flash. Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.
Part C : Create a Missile.
Duplicate “flash” and rename it as “missile”.
Elongate the object so that it resembles a rocket by transforming it.
Zoom in to the tip of “missile”.
Erase the tip to a rounded shape similar to below:
Using a small white brush, draw a line with 50% opacity. This will be our missile.
Part D : Smoke trail of the Missile.
Create a new layer on top of “missile” as “trails”. Drag a rectangular box.
Filter > Render > Clouds.
Then, apply Filter > Render > Difference clouds.
Re-apply this filter (Ctrl+F) a few times.
Transform its shape so that end of the smoke looks loose.
Select a soft erase and erase the sharp edges.
Increase intensity of the trail by adjusting the levels.
Lower the opacity to 50%.
Merge “missile” and “trails” together. Set its blend mode to “Screen”
Re-size it.
Apply Filter > Distort > Shear. Dragging a box around the object aids in applying the Shear filter.
We will get something like this:
Duplicate, transform, and arrange those missiles in whichever way you like.
Copy another instance of “flash” and re-size it.
Erase the bottom part and make sure it the bottom is flat, in-sync with the ship’s silo deck.
Use the smudge tool to drag a trail further up, almost touching the missile that we created just now. We are now done with missiles.
Part E : Recreating flames.
Create a new layer under missiles layer. Drag a rectangular box, and render clouds.
When done, apply Difference clouds a few times (perhaps in the region of 10 times).
Next, render clouds again. This time, apply Edit > Fade and fade it at 50%. We will have a nice blend of Difference clouds and clouds that forms our smoke.
Use a soft eraser to erase the sharp edges.
Using same method, create more smoke and this time transform it to form bigger patch of smoke.
Set this bigger patch to 50% opacity.
Create a third patch of smoke and set its blend mode to “Color Dodge” and opacity at 50%. This creates an intense fire on the ship.
Erase areas that are deem too excessive. I would focus on areas like the conning tower or the deck.
Part F : Overall look.
We shall create some lighting here. Go to “night” layer. Create a Curves Adjustment (rename it as “lighting”) layer and clip it to “night”. Slowly drag the curves to a similar output as below:
With the “lighting” layer selected, click on the masking icon. For areas that we want to be brightened, brush it with soft black brush.
I focused on areas which are supposedly well lit from muzzle flashes, flames, flare, etc. Result:
We are going to alter the overall contrast and hue for this image. So, create 2 new adjustment layers (Curves, Hue/Saturation) and bring them both to the top. Apply settings as shown below:
And we’re done! I’ve added in some extras in my final image!