How I made the Dementors Summary:
I'm tired of so many sites using my picture. It took me 3 or 4 hours to make. Why don't they make their own? Well here's how I did it:
Article:
I promised way back in
this thread that I would give a tutorial on how I made the image that hit the web by storm.
Many of
the most popular movie news sites around the web posted my image (with my copyright removed) claiming it was "authentic" and such. Well, it wasn't. I made it.
And I didn't make it to fool anybody. I made it just for fun. To show what I thought the Dementors might look like in PoA. I mean, for heaven sakes, just read what I wrote back on April 4th, 2003, when I first added the picture
to our gallery:
Quote:
Two Dementors outside the castle. This is an image I made with Photoshop. It is NOT the real thing. I combined about 6 images together to get this look. Mostly, I borrowed from LOTR (obviously). I hope you like it! At least it will do until we get the real thing! 
I have since learned that they will look different than this pic, but it was what I imagined at the time.
Here's how I did it:
Obviously, you need to start out with some great images to combine together.
I think the Ringwraiths from Lord Of The Rings are very much like the Dementors in appearance, so I used these images of Nazgul to start off with:
from
this site 
from
this site 
from another site, but
the image on this page is similar, just lower quality (I couldn't find the original).
After finding the images I wanted to use, I took the base image, and changed the levels and curves (CTRL+M and CTRL+L in Photoshop) to give it more of a spooky look and to add the bluish haze.
Next, I had to erase the swords and armor from the original large Ringwraith image, because the Dementors are described as having "scabby hands" and obviously don't use swords.
I used the "Clone Stamp" tool in Photoshop and took pieces of the image from other areas, and painted it over the swords and armor. This was the hardest and most pains-taking part.
Some of their cloaks I also drew on with the Paint Brush and "Rub" tool.
I took the image of the bust (on top) and erased the background with the wand tool and careful erasing. I had to reverse it so the head was facing the other way.
Then I took it and blurred the edges, so it blended better with the body beneath it.
I also added some extra cloak coverings as a layer over the original Ringwraith image - mostly to cover up sloppy Cloning work, and to make arms.
Then it was time to work on the hands. Those scabby hands!
I took the last image there of the Witch King, and cut the best hand out of the picture, and started making alterations to it to make it look more scabby. This I did with the paint brush. I just painted the scabs on.
I also smoothed over them so I could reverse the position of the hand to work from the front and the back view. So as to look like two different hands (two positions). This was hard because I had to make the back of the hand look like the palm. I did it usiing shading and smoothing (burn/dodge, and blur/rub tools).
Next was the face. I cut the face out of the Witch King image and placed it on a layer above the hood. I used the Free Transform tool to place the head in the exact position, size and location to make it look realistic.
Then I had to do some erasing and add shadow to make it look like it was three-dimensionally behind and under the hood. Also, I changed the opacity of the layer with the face to 64%.
Once these elements were all in place, I needed to fix the mouth.
Yeah, the mouth was cool before - being nearly in a "kissing" position.
But I wanted it to look scarier, and to make it less like the original Witch King face.
So I just drew the mouth on by hand, using the Paint Brush tool.
Then I used the Rub tool combined with the Paint Brush to draw the lines over the mouth - to try to make it look like part of his mouth was stuck shut. Like his skin was sort of stretched across his mouth.
With some more tweeking, I was finished!
I hope you like the result!
Let me know if you have any questions. I'll be glad to go into more detail if needed.
