Create Space Creature

Use Photoshop to create a space alien.

Plan

Discuss how various animals are uniquely equipped for their surroundings. For example, animals that live at the bottom of the sea can withstand immense pressure and temperature and nocturnal bats will emit sonic waves to hear.

Ask students to research a particular planet in our solar system or give them the statistics for a make believe planet. Ask them to develop a hypothesis as to how the space alien might be uniquely adapted to that particular environment.

What kind of planet is the Space Creature from?

What characteristics are needed to survive in this environment?

Design

By hand, sketch the alien. Keep in mind the effects that may be needed to create the look you imagine.

Create

Use a picture of yourself or another person to:

1. Remove yourself from the background and create a new background showing your alien’s natural habitat.

2. Use Enhance-Hue and Saturation to change your skin/hair color.

3. Use Filter-Liquefy to change the size of your facial characteristics.

4. Use the Clone tool to add or remove features

Present/Evaluation

Give a presentation to show your alien and explain why you chose specific features for your creation. Use the provided Rubric to allow for standardized evaluation according to specified criteria.

Extension

Students can write an explanation citing three adaptive features, or have students deliver an oral report to the class.

Software Instruction

Adobe Photoshop

1. Open Photoshop

2. File

a. Open the picture to be edited

3. Right click the layer titled BACKGROUND and duplicate layer. You can leave it titled Background copy and simply click OK.

4. Click the eyeball on the layers pallet to hide the background layer

5. Remove the background

a. OPTION 1, FOR A SOLID BACKGROUND: Use the magic wand to select the background. Note: You may need to choose the Add to Selection option and keep selecting the background to get it all selected.

b. OPTION 2, FOR ALL OTHER BACKGROUNDS: Use the magnetic lasso tool to select the object.

6. Choose the Select tab and Inverse the selection. (You should have “marching ants around the object and the outside perimeter of the picture.)

7. Make sure you are on Background copy layer (it will be blue)

8. Hit the Delete button, the background will now be a checker board pattern to indicate a transparent background.

9. On the Select tab, Deselect to get rid on the marching ants.

10. Click the Filter tab

a. Liquify to begin the alien transformation.

Several tools in the Liquify dialog box distort the brush area when you hold down the mouse button or drag. The distortion is concentrated at the center of the brush area, and the effect intensifies as you hold down the mouse button or repeatedly drag over an area.

Forward Warp tool Pushes pixels forward as you drag.

Reconstruct tool Reverses the distortion you’ve already added, as you hold down the mouse button and drag.

Twirl Clockwise tool Rotates pixels clockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag. To twirl pixels counterclockwise, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Pucker tool Moves pixels toward the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Bloat tool Moves pixels away from the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Turbulence tool Smoothly scrambles pixels. It is useful for creating fire, clouds, waves, and similar effects.

Liquify tool options: In the tool options area of the dialog box, set the following options:

Brush Size Sets the width of the brush you’ll use to distort the image.

Brush Pressure Sets the speed at which distortions are made when you drag a tool in the preview image. Using a low brush pressure makes changes occur more slowly, so it’s easier to stop them at exactly the right moment.

Reconstruct Mode/Revert Used to revert to the original image.

11. Click OK to accept the transformation. Booohahaaaaa

12. On the Image

a. Adjustments

i. Hue/Saturation, change the hue of the image to your desired color.

ii. Click OK

13. Use the Clone tool to add or remove features.

a. Set a sampling point in the image to be used as a reference to create a new cloned area.

b. Select the Clone Stamp tool , then check the settings in the options bar. Make sure you have a brush size appropriate for the job. The following settings are fairly typical:

c.

d. Hold down the Alt key — the cursor will change to a target. Click the point you wish to use as a sampling point, such an eye. This will be used as the reference point for cloning

e. Click and draw where you want the cloned image to appear. As you draw, a cross will appear on the original image while a corresponding circle appears where you are drawing

14. Add a background by first opening your background image

a. Use the Move tool to move the entire image to your alien

b. A Crosshair will appear along with the arrow

c. Move the Crosshaired arrow to your alien image

d. When you see the + let go

e. Move the new background layer called layer 1 below the background copy layer. Simply grab the layer with the pointed finger and pull it down into position.

f. Close the image you used for the background without saving.

15. File save as

a. Format- change the extension to JEPG, this will save your image as a picture fill.

Look! My alien lives in a dark habitat and needs 3 large eyes to see!