The 'Killer Tips' Cover

A recent question from the Katy (TX) Independent School District asked how the covers of the "Killer Tips" books were done. By Scott Kelby and Felix Nelson of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), the books are available for Photoshop 7 and 6, as well as Mac OS X. The covers feature a speed limit sign, bent over in a blast of wind, with the letters and numbers being torn right off the sign.

STEP 1:
·Find a picture of a speed limit sign and add it to a larger canvas. (I'm starting with PhotoSpin's #0030006.)

·If your image isn't angled appropriately, use at Edit> Transform> Perspective.
·Use the Distort> Shear filter to "bend" the sign.

STEP 2:
·Clone over the existing limit (if desired) and add in the new "limit" on a type layer. (For a high school yearbook, we'll add the year.) You can, of course, add any text.
·Use the commands Edit> Free Transform and Transform> Perspective to align the type with the sign.
·Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the type layer and from the contextual menu, choose rasterize Layer.
·Apply the Distort> Shear filter.

STEP 3:
·Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) on the type layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette to make a selection in the shape of the type.
·Select> Feather 2 pixels.
·Add a new layer between the sign and the type.
·Fill the selection with white on that new layer.
·Change the new layer's blending mode to Screen.
·Hide the rasterized type layer to take a look, then make the text visible again.

STEP 4:
·Make the text layer active in the Layers palette by clicking on it.
·Select one of the letters to be "blown away" with the Lasso tool.
·Control-Shift-J (Windows) or Command-Shift-J (Mac) to cut that letter and paste it on a new layer.
·Use Shear and/or the Transform commands to distort the letter.

·Select another letter, cut to a new layer, and distort/transform.
·Repeat for as many letters as desired. (TIP: Note that the first E and second I are still partially "attached" to the sign.)

STEP 5:
·Add a new layer, below the distorted letter layers.
·Select the Brush tool and a soft-edged brush, the same width as the strokes of the letters.
·Set the tool's blending mode to Multiply and reduce the opacity to 50% or so.
·Paint where the shadows would fall. Try to keep the same perspective. Make sure to paint only on the sign.

STEP 6:
·Add a new layer for the dust trail. I put mine between the sign (above) and the background (below), so that the dust appears behind the sign. (The "Killer Tips" covers have the trail in front of the sign, which technically would be more accurate.)
·Make the layer's blending mode Screen.
·Paint with a light gray where you want the dust, stopping a little short of where you want it to billow or puff.
·Filter> Noise> Add Noise. Monochromatic, Gaussian, not too much.
·Filter> Pixelate> Crystalize, Cell Size 3. (This just enlarges the noise)
·Filter> Blur> Motion Blur. Angle 0 degrees, enough to spread out the noise into long streams.
·Use the Smudge tool to curl and billow the "dust."