As a passionate Star Wars fan, I chose to create a poster for a popular show within the franchise. My familiarity with the characters and story allowed me to make informed creative decisions, and the show's popularity ensured access to high-quality images for the design.
I'm going to explain here my creative process that applies to all projects published on my website.
Planning was of the essence, to understand the composition and the language of my poster.
After examining numerous contemporary Star Wars series posters, I identified several recurring features to incorporate into my design. Typically, these posters include a foreground element occupying the bottom third of the canvas, a background element situated above it and behind the central characters who are positioned in the middle portion of the canvas, and finally, the title logo prominently placed in either the bottom or top third of the layout.
While maintaining organization through color-coding, I began by positioning the most prominent elements: the composition triangle and the text boxes. The composition triangle serves as a guide for character placement, while the text boxes provide direction for locating text elements like the show's logo and cast information in a compositionally pleasing and visually accessible manner. I then sketched the foreground and background in their respective areas, which would assist me later in blending them seamlessly. Finally, I incorporated some personalized elements that could potentially add more vitality to the scene, such as spaceships or a planet in the background.
Ultimately, I am pleased with my decision to take this extra step, as it provided a reliable template that kept me on track and informed my subsequent actions.
Before embarking on my project, I anticipated that obtaining high-quality images of the characters in suitable poses for the poster would be challenging. Instead of endlessly searching for the perfect images, I opted for a different approach. I visited a website called Cap-That.com, which offers high-quality screenshots from various shows. Fortunately, I was able to locate screenshots from my target show, which provided me with great images of Boba Fett, the main character, that I could later extract in Photoshop.
I also sought images of another primary character, Fennec Shand. Finding the right screenshots and poses for her proved to be more difficult, but ultimately, I managed to locate a suitable image.
Additionally, I sourced images of other potential characters to include in the poster, just in case they were needed.
Organizing folders: Set up a dedicated project folder for files, assets, and exports to keep the project organized and easily accessible.
Concept development/moodboard: Created a document outlining potential elements and characters from the show, The Book of Boba Fett, to form a base concept.
Composition: Studied modern Star Wars series posters for inspiration and developed a base layout, focusing on foreground elements, background elements, and title logo placement.
References: Gathered reference images to help with composition and design.
Sourcing high-quality images: Used Cap-That.com to find high-quality screenshots of the main characters, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, along with other potential characters to include in the poster.
Setting up the document: Chose a resolution of 3780x4725 and used the ruler tool to place grid lines for precise element placement.
File organization: Created groups/folders for different elements, ordered logically to streamline the workflow and maintain a clean project structure.
Masking/cutting characters: Started with the main character, Boba Fett, cutting and fixing the initial image. Replaced it with a better-suited render from "Star Wars - Battlefront (2015)" after evaluating the composition.
Cutting out Fennec Shand: Sourced a suitable screencap and masked her out using Photoshop's Select Subject tool. Adjusted her brightness with a "levels" adjustment layer to better blend her into the composition.
Adding the foreground: Sourced a desert image from Unsplash, removed the sky/background, and used the composition template to place the sand dunes.
Blending the foreground with more images: Added rocky desert cliffs and mountains behind the dunes, using the clone stamp tool to fill gaps. Created a fog/sand dust layer between the dunes and mountains for a more natural blend, completing the foreground.
Adding the background: Sourced a sky image from Unsplash, placed it in the scene, and adjusted its hue/saturation to match the desired green color scheme.
Adding Boba Fett's ship and 2 suns: Used a screen grab from "The Mandalorian" for the ship and manually erased the edges. Added two suns using the brush tool and painted highlights and outer glow for depth.
Adding more plot/narrative details (Jabba's Palace): Sourced an image from the show, removed the background, and placed it near the rocky mountains. Adjusted the scale and colour for a balanced and blended appearance.
Adding more plot/narrative details (Banthas): Sourced Bantha images from the show, adjusted their colours with RGB curves, duplicated and modified the layers for variation, and placed them on both sides of the foreground.
Adding more plot/narrative details (The Train): Sourced an armed train image from the show, blended it with the scene using RGB curves and the eraser tool, and placed it in the poster.
Minor coluor adjustments: Adjusted Boba Fett's colours using the "Camera Raw Filter" to help him fit better in the scene.
Adding motion blur to the ship: Converted the ship layer to a smart object, added a directional blur filter, and used a layer mask to control the effect of motion blur while maintaining the illusion of motion and a visually appealing appearance.
Adding highlights: Added highlights to Boba Fett's armor and Fennec Shand's face by creating a new layer above each character and painting highlights with a brush tool.
Adding bloom/glow/spill: Created a new layer under the characters and used a large brush with a low flow and hardness to add glow and light spill from the suns.
Blending the title: Searched for a dust/sand/debris image, placed it under the logo/title, and used the eraser tool to blend it. Duplicated the layer and scattered it towards the sand/fog to add more texture and detail.
Minor adjustment: Created a layer between the characters and used a brush tool with a big radius, low hardness, and low flow to create a glow behind Boba Fett, providing a visual separation between the two characters.
Colour grading/post-processing: To finalize the poster, the following steps were taken: Created a merged layer of the entire image using the shortcut (Cmd+Alt/Option+Shift+E). Applied the Camera Raw Filter for color grading. Adjusted values to increase contrast, enhance vibrancy, and emphasize green and orange colours. Added sharpness (around 60%) and film grain to give the poster a more cinematic look.
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