Image preview: Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Learn how to design a stunning sneaker advert, using a variety of lighting effects.

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Final Image

This is the final image we’ll be creating. This image is inspired by the incredible works of Peter Jaworowski.

shoefinal Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Images Used

Red Sneaker Photo

Clouds

Flame

Step 1

Open up a new document (600X800px) and create a new layer called ‘background’. Fill your canvas with a linear gradient ranging from 3B3B3B to 595959.

shoe1 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 2

Now create a new layer called ’stars’. Fill your canvas with black, and then go to filter>noise>add noise. Make your settings 10%, Gaussian, Monochromatic.

shoe2 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 3

Now go to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast and increase your contrast to +30. Then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘multiply’.

shoe3 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 4

Now create a new layer called ‘cloud render’. Go to filter>render>clouds. Then change your layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’. This should give random patches of light to your image.

shoe4 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 5

Now paste in a photo of some clouds into the bottom of your canvas. Go to image>adjustments>desaturate to grayscale your clouds, and then use a large, soft eraser brush to brush away the top of your cloud photo. Change your layer blend mode to ‘hard light’ and reduce your layer opacity to 10%.

shoe5a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe5b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 6

Now create a new layer called ‘color marks’. Use a very large, soft paintbrush to paint brightly colored marks over your canvas. Then reduce this layer’s opacity to 7%.

shoe6a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe6b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 7

Now paste in a photo of a shoe. Go to edit>transform>rotate and rotate/scale it to fit nicely in the center of your canvas.

shoe7 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 8

Now go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation and reduce your saturation to -25.

shoe8 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 9

Now paste in an image of some flames onto a new top layer. Then resize/rotate your image to fit over the toe of your shoe. Use a soft eraser brush to make the flames fit the shoe better. Duplicate your flame layer 3 times to make the flames more intense, and then merge down so that you have just one flame layer.

shoe9a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe9b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 10

I want to make my flames more intense, so I go to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast and up the brightness to +100. To make the flames more intense again, duplicate your flames 3 more times, and merge down to one flame layer. Keep using your soft eraser brush to tidy things up.

shoe10 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 11

Now select a 60px white paintbrush, 0% hardness. Paint a white spot over the base of your flames. Then reduce your layer opacity to 40%. This should create a more intense light source at the base of your flames.

shoe11 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 12

Now grab your smudge tool, and set it’s strength to 95%. Select your flame layer, and smudge out parts of your flame, using a 1px brush. Try to smudge these lines upwards over your shoe.

shoe12 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 13

Now create a new layer beneath your flame and white spot layers called ‘white line’. Draw a wavy path line using your path tool, and then with a 4px white paintbrush selected, select your path tool, right click on your path line and click ’stroke path’. Once your path line has been stroked right click on it again and click ‘delete path’. This should just leave a white line.

shoe13 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 14

Go to edit>transform>skew and reduce the width of the top of this white line. Then go to edit>transform>perspective and increase the bottom width of your line shape. This should give the impression that the line is getting thinner/further away from your shoe.

shoe14 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 15

Go to blending options for your line layer and apply an outer glow effect (settings below).

shoe15a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe15b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 16

Now apply many more lines, of varying thicknesses and colors. Make sure that some of them are below your shoe layer and some go above it. To apply the same outer glow to your lines, right click on your original line in your layers palette and click ‘copy layer style’. Then right click on your new line layers and click ‘paste layer style’.

shoe16 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 17

Select your radial gradient tool, and apply tiny ‘light spots’ using the radial gradient effect. Try to make each light spot to the color of the line which it goes over.

shoe17 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 18

Now create a slightly larger light spot behind your shoe. Go to filter>blur>motion blur and blur the light spot upwards. Then dulicate this layer 3 times to make it more obvious, and merge down to one layer.

shoe18a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe18b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 19

Add several more blurred light lines.

shoe19 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 20

Select your shoe layer and go to image>adjustments>levels. Then apply the settings shown below. This should give your shoe photo a lot more intensity, enhancing the shadows.

shoe20 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 21

Now duplicate your flame layer and merge down to one layer. Then go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation and up the contrast to +20 and reduce the lightness to -20. Finally, use your soft eraser brush to brush away the top of the flames a little.

shoe21 Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 22

Now grab a watercolor brush, and apply the brush settings shown below. Then paint white brush marks over your shoe, to create a scattered effect.

shoe22a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe22b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe22c Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe22d Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Step 23

Go to blending options for your brush strokes layer and apply a gradient overlay and drop shadow effect.

shoe23a Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe23b Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

shoe23c Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

And We’re Done!

To finish up I added some text to the top right of my advert. I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial, and as always really appreciate your comments.

shoefinal Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

About the Author: Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

67 Awesome Comments: Leave Your Comment

  1. User GravatarSalmen 14th February 2009

    Awesome

  2. User GravatarEnk. 14th February 2009

    Lovely tutorial, PSDFAN rox !

  3. User GravatarTom 14th February 2009

    Cheers guys! I’m glad that you liked it.

  4. User GravatarRaSh 14th February 2009

    Woha! Awesome result!

    Will surely try it out soon! :)

  5. User GravatarTom 14th February 2009

    Thanks Rash.

  6. User Gravatarvectorss 14th February 2009

    O o awensome tut.
    Thanks for share Tom :)

  7. User GravatarTom 15th February 2009

    No worries :)

  8. Luke 15th February 2009

    Great tutorial, thanks a lot

  9. User GravatarTom 15th February 2009

    Thanks Luke, I’m glad you enjoyed it.

  10. User GravatarSineload 15th February 2009

    Very cool, Thanks

  11. User Gravatarsilentgirl 15th February 2009

    this is awesome! Im definitely gonna try it out soon.

  12. User Gravatarjoyoge designers' bookmark 15th February 2009

    nice advert tutorial thanks..

  13. User GravatarTom 15th February 2009

    Thanks guys

  14. Bruno 15th February 2009

    Wow, very nice tut! Thanks a lot

  15. roel 16th February 2009

    They are talking about resizing but if I try to resize I resize my ‘whole’ image while I target the layer I want to resize, any help would be appreciated!

  16. User GravatarTom 16th February 2009

    Hi Roel. To resize one of your images or objects rather than your entire image just tick the box ’show bounding box’ and drag in the corners of your image. Alternatively, go to edit>transform>scale and then play with the corners/edges of your image. Let me know if this helped :)

  17. roel 16th February 2009

    Thanks alot Tom

    ‘edit>transform>scale’ helped me.
    Going to try to fix it now :D

    Great tutorial btw

  18. User GravatarBen G 16th February 2009

    Sweeeet! Thanx for the slick tut!

  19. User GravatarTom 16th February 2009

    Roel: No problem mate, glad to have helped you :)

    Ben G: Thanks for the kind words.

  20. Michael 17th February 2009

    You are the best Tom. I like all your tutorials. They are very creative and helpful not necesarily in a whole tutorial but to learn different things. Keep up the Good work

  21. User GravatarTom 17th February 2009

    Thanks a lot Michael :)

  22. Zam 17th February 2009

    Im stuck at the part where u need to draw the lines. I haven’t got a clue how to make those nice wavy lines.

  23. User GravatarTom 17th February 2009

    Hi Zam. All you do is use your pen tool to draw out a pen line, then go to your paintbrush and choose the thickness/color of brush you want. Then select your pen tool again and right click on your pen line. Then click ’stroke path’. This will stroke your path line with the type of paintbrush you have selected. Let me know if this helps.

  24. User GravatarAman 17th February 2009

    Great Tutorial! I did it with a basketball which runs in the earth :D i will post it in the flickr groupe…

  25. walk 18th February 2009

    Hi. Great tutorial, but i am stuck at the point of drawing your wavy lines.
    I go on the path tool, create my wavy path, using bout 3 or 4 anchor points. Then with my paintbrush set at 4px 100 hardness i go back to path tool and right click > stroke path, set the brush option and click OK. But i get a series of dots at the anchor points. Any advice how to do it as you have?

  26. Zam 18th February 2009

    Ty Tom, it worked :D

  27. User GravatarTom 18th February 2009

    Walk: This can happen if you’re using the ‘basic brushes’ brush set as it has gaps between the brush strokes. You might also have set your brush to have gaps between it in your brush settings. Check your brush settings, and try using the ‘Square Brushes’ brush set. Let me know if this works.

  28. User GravatarTom 18th February 2009

    Zam: Fantastic :)

    Aman: Cool, can’t wait to see your piece!

  29. Mobashir 19th February 2009

    AWESOME

  30. User GravatarE-maniacs 19th February 2009

    Amazing. It is a really good tutorial

    Thanks

  31. Electric 19th February 2009

    I won’t name names but there are some sites that don’t offer this much quality in there paid tuts.

    Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

  32. User GravatarTom 19th February 2009

    Thanks Electric, that’s great to hear :)

  33. User GravatarChris 8th March 2009

    Great tutorial and awesome look – thanks for the tips!

  34. User Gravatarbrianna 14th March 2009

    Loved the tut. Very helpfull

  35. User GravatarDesigning a Stunning Sneaker Advert - Creattica Daily 18th March 2009

    [...] Designer Tom Ross puts together a step-by-step tutorial on how to design a stunning sneaker advert. [...]

  36. buddman 23rd March 2009

    sick tutorial great effect ur pretty good arent you tom

  37. cavemann 2nd April 2009

    I can’t figure out steps 13 or anything similar to it. I don’t know what the path tool is. Also can’t figure out step 22. Not even sure how to get to that screen. Cool tutorial though.

  38. User GravatarTom 2nd April 2009

    I actually recently published a tutorial showing you how to master the pen tool very easily. Perhaps it can help you.

  39. Ashton 10th April 2009

    I had problems with steps 13 and 14…I know it’s a stupid question but the path tool is the pen tool correct? and if so how do you fill in the line once you get it made?
    And with 14 do you know of a tutorial that properly teaches the skew and perspective tools? Unless I’m just a complete moron and can’t grasp the simplicity of it aha.

    Thanks for the tutorial and any help anyone can give!

  40. User GravatarTom 10th April 2009

    Hey Ashton. No worries, that’s what I’m here for :)

    For step 13 you just want to draw out a path line USING the pen tool. To fill in the line right click on you path line and click ’stroke path’ (making sure that you have a suitable brush selected).

    As for step 14 hopefully this tutorial can help you out: http://www.tutorial9.net/photoshop/using-transform-in-photoshop/

  41. User Gravatarelcodigodebarras 11th April 2009

    Thanks for sharing your knowledge; with this action you are getting an Internet more friendly for all; thanks again.

  42. User Gravatarmoih60 11th April 2009

    amazing work..

  43. User GravatarTom 11th April 2009

    Thanks! I think it’s important that we all share our knowledge with each other.

  44. Josh 14th April 2009

    That is a beautiful outcome and an amazing tut :-)

  45. User GravatarRob 14th April 2009

    Great tutorial!!!!
    Where did you find the flame image?

  46. User GravatarTom 14th April 2009

    Cheers Rob :) Try searching for ‘flame’ on sxc.hu

  47. User Gravatarvaishakh 16th April 2009

    m really awestruck by dis tut..
    but wat really irritated me TOM is that in our local mall, nike has put up a ad wid this same design , by jus replacing dis sneaker wid theirs.. bt d whole pattern is d same..

  48. User GravatarTom 16th April 2009

    Heh, thanks for the kind words. I’d say it’s pretty unlikely that Nike ripped off my tutorial though, I guess this kind of design is just popular.

  49. User GravatarseoMetuzalem 16th April 2009

    what a great tutorial! thank you

  50. User GravatarSean Smyth 18th April 2009

    Real nice effect.

    Thanks you for the tutorial! :D

  51. omar 3rd May 2009

    that was awesomme

  52. User GravatarCgBaran Tuts 11th June 2009

    Great tutorial thanks

  53. IMF 13th June 2009

    That has been really fantastic! great job and very well explained.

  54. sandra 26th August 2009

    nice tutorial, was fun realizing it!

  55. User GravatarClippingimages 1st September 2009

    Nice tutorial .. Thanks for sharing :)

  56. masoud 13th September 2009

    tank you

  57. User GravatarRada 13th September 2009

    Very helpful…but I’m worring, because I’m poor begginer in all this stuff. But YOU ARE THE MASTER….Hope to learn more from your work…thanks a lot for sharing this…your FAN

  58. User Gravatarstrony internetowe 4th October 2009

    Great tutorial!!!!
    Where did you find the flame image?

  59. User GravatartaryarL 13th October 2009

    i love this tutorials :)

  60. JannesB 11th November 2009

    Hello Tom, good tut, but I’m just a beginner and I have to make a advert for school and I really like this one. But I’m stuck at step 9. I have the flame in the top layer, but then you say that you can use the eraser tool, but I don’t understand how you get the fire like that, with the eraser tool. I tried many other things. Can you please explain how to do this or give a tut which eplains it? Thanks a lot:)

  61. john wambugu 20th November 2009

    john here from kenya am a film student ,talk about post production utilities ….mind blowing tom..keep it up

  62. mariate 20th December 2009

    i’m trying it, but i’m having problems when merging down the lawyer, how do you do it?

  63. User Gravatarviettel adsl 22nd December 2009

    It’s hard to foloow yout instrution :(

  64. User GravatarThe 50 Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009 26th December 2009

    [...] 15. Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert [...]

  65. User GravatarHeaven Ideas 31st December 2009

    Hi there! This was a nice tutorial!

    See my aproach here!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/heavenideas/3292579787/

    Happy New Year!

  66. User Gravatarjeprie 1st January 2010

    i’ve seen this concept on deviantart. i guess now i know how to create it.

  67. jackson 2nd February 2010

    great things mi like dem keep up ya…

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