Photographer Paul Aresu shot an ad campaign for footlocker in the late 90's. Having shots leftover, he wanted to use some for his portfolio that were totally unique and creative. Naturally for a basketball theme, I came up with the idea of having a ball as a brick and a ball on fire. Both are terminologies used in the playground as metaphors for not being able to make a shot (brick) and for being hot handed and making a lot of shots go in ("he's on fire"). The one Iʼll be focusing on is the cracked brick ball.
To make the ball look like an actual brick, I had Paul Aresu take element shots of bricks to use. After opening the file into Photoshop, I used the black arrow tool (V) to drag the image into the basketball file. I then imported the bricks into the file onto a new layer over the ball.
Now all you need to do is make the bricks in the shape of the ball. For that, I used the pen tool (P) to trace over the ball and seems. Once the shape was made with the pen tool, I saved the pen path by double clicking on the “work path” layer in the paths window and saved it. This enables me to have separate and moveable brick shaped panels.
The next step was to make a selection of the path by pressing “command” + clicking the saved path at the same time. To make each panel separate and movable from one another, I used the lasso tool (L) and held “option” to subtract parts of the selection I didnʼt want.
With just that one panel selected, I went back to my brick layer and add a “layer mask” to just show that part of the image, which is located at the bottom of the layers window.
I then duplicated the same layer (command + J), rotated the image so it wouldnʼt repeat patterns (command + T + rotate with the mouse) and masked out each panel to a different create the brick ball.
For the seem, I used a different element shot, this time of concrete so it would contrast from the red brick.
Now that the basics are over, I would have to crack the ball and make it look realistic. In order for that, I would need references to look at. Luckily I have the Internet. After finding a few good images, I dragged them into Photoshop and created alpha channels of the cracks to overlay onto the ball. If youʼve never used the alpha channels, make sure you practice and perfect using it. For those that donʼt know, the alpha channel is another way of creating a selection for an image that you wouldnʼt be able to make using the pen tool (P) such as hair, or in this case, cracks. Youʼre not always going to find the perfect shot, so you might have to piece together cracks and edit them to fit the ball.
Once I found and created a good crack, I copied and flattened the brick ball by clicking each layer I needed while holding shift and then pressing (option + command + E).
I then made a selection of the crack from the alpha channel by clicking on the “load selection” button on the bottom of the alpha channel window. The next step I clicked my new copied and flattened layer and erased just the cracks from the brick ball by pressing delete.
With the cracks in place, I made a selection around each piece of a ball that wasn't touching another piece using the lasso tool (L), and copied (command + C) and pasted (command + V) onto its own separate layer. I then turned off the layer I was copying from and rearranged each piece of the ball in a way that looks like itʼs crumbling.
The layout is complete and the last part is to make the ball look 3D. It was a little frustrating at first, but once I finished the first piece, all the rest became easier. For each part of the brick ball, I would need to duplicate the layer (click on the layer, press command + J) 2 or 3 times for the perspective. 1 part would be the front of the ball, while the other layers would be moved underneath that layer and shifted over behind and to the side using the black arrow tool (V) to give it depth. For separation, I used an adjustment level to darken the duplicated layer by pressing (option + the “adjustment layer” button) at the bottom of the layers window and clicking “levels”.
Holding the option button while clicking “levels” prompts a window, which would enable me to link the levels layer directly to a highlighted layer.
Repeat the process until all the pieces are finished.
The last part that I needed to finish was the black seem. Duplicating the concrete I used earlier (command + J), I added a mask with black to cover the image with the “add layer mask” button, right next to the “adjustment layer” button, and used a paint brush (B) with white on the mask to let that portion of the image show through. This is where knowledge of angles and perspectives come in handy.
To add the finishing touches, I created pieces of debris and chunks of the brick ball scattered on the floor and next to the ball. The same technique is applied from the black seem. Using an element of a large brick, I placed it underneath the ball and gave it a black mask to cover the entire brick. Using a paint brush (B) again, I drew little rocks and debris on the mask.
To give it the 3D shape and depth, I could have used the same technique as earlier, but that requires too much time. Instead, I used an “adjustment level” to darken up the sides and bottoms of the rocks and chunks by pressing (option + “adjustment layer”). I did this step 3 times, to darken the rocks overall, another time just for the sides, and the last time for the bottom of the rocks. I did this step numerous times until I had the right amount of debris.
Whatʼs left to create is the shading and shadows to make it look realistic. For the brick ball, I used an “adjustment layer” levels to darken the sides and bottom of the ball by moving the black slider darker. Levels automatically add a layer mask, so I filled it with black to cover the effect (hold option + click on
the mask) to see the mask, and fill with black (shift + delete).
Now on the same mask, I used the paint tool (B) with white and brushed in sides of the ball where the shadow would be. The same technique was used to add a darker shadow for a little bit of the edge and for the highlight in the center.
For the drop shadows underneath, 3 layers were used. For the debris, a new layer was made (command + shift + N) filled with black with a black mask at 50% opacity (“add layer mask” + holding “shift + delete”).
With a white brush tool again (B), painted back just enough to show a fading shadow.
For the main ball, new layers were made and using a black brush (B), painted in a drop shadow with some parts masked away to fade it properly. This was done twice, 1 for a harder shadow right underneath, and a slightly lighter and blurred shadow for the edges.
For the final overall color, the theme was brick, which means you're cold and not shooting well. Cold equated to cool, and thus a cooler color mood fit. Now pressing the “adjustment layer” button WITHOUT holding option, the first color adjustment made was a blue tinted hue/saturation on a soft light blending mode.
Next was a color balance to shift the colors cooler and bluer.
Adding a channel mixer to de-saturate the overall tone, I then lightened up certain parts that where too dark.
One more layer of levels to open up center to make a vignette, and there you have it.
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