Bu-Build A Ba-Bomb

Let’s build a Ba-Bomb! Or something very similar, anyway. This cute little iconic fella will be an explosive hit on any website. He’ll also do a bang-up job as an avatar on your favorite forum. Ok, I promise to stop with the bad puns now. Let’s get started, before this whole thing blows up in my face (sorry).

Step 1, Open a new document, serously. I’m going to make a big Ba-Bomb, so you can see what I’m doing. Size doesn’t really matter here (it’s what you do with it).

Ok, so let’s create a new layer, then grab our circular marquee tool and make a circular selection the size of your Ba-Bomb. Ba-Bombs come in two colors, grey and red. We’re making a grey one, so grab your gradient tool and select a foreground to background circular gradient. Now pick a light grey foreground color and a darker grey background color. Fill the circle with the circular gradient. Place the lightest part of your gradient wherever you want your light source to come from. In my case, it’s the top left. Your image should now look like this:

1.jpg

Ok, now let’s create a new layer (call it “top” and we want to make an oval-shaped selection with the circular marquee tool that is about 1/3 the width of our sphere and about 1/3 the height of its width (make sense?). Move this above the sphere, since it’s going to be the top of our Ba-Bomb and, using the same colors, fill it with a linear gradient. Put the light grey on whichever side of the selection that your light source is coming from. The left, in my case.

2.jpg

Now hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. Select the “top” layer (below the copy you just created) in the layers palette and Ctrl+Click on it to load the selection. Now, hold the alt key down and press the down arrow key several times to copy the selection as we move it down. Do this until it extends part way down into the sphere, like so.

3.jpg

Now go back to each layer and apply the following layer style.

4.jpg

Also, I don’t know about you, but that top really is a little bright for me (”top” not “top copy”. I’m going to go to Image - Adjust - Brightness / Contrast and decrease the brightness a fair bit, taking it down to -70.

5.jpg

Now let’s put eyes on this guy. On a new layer (”eye” make one white oval with a darker, smaller oval at the bottom middle of the white one. Apply the same layer style as you did to the other Ba-Bomb pieces.

6.jpg

Hit Ctrl+J again and duplicate the “eye” layer. Then move that layer over to the other side of your Ba-Bomb. Set the layer mode for both layers to “Overlay” and the opacity to 80%

7.jpg

Now, the little guy needs a fuse. Make another new layer (”fuse” and grab your paint brush. For the size of the Ba-Bomb I’m making here, we want it to be about 7px wide. You’ll need to vary the size accordingly, based on the size of the Ba-Bomb you’re bu-building. Now pick a brown color, like #8c6239 (it’s a rope fuse!) and draw a curvy line from the middle of the Ba-Bomb’s top to.. wherever you want it, depending on how long you want your fuse to be. Give it the same layer style.

8.jpg

That fuse looks pretty flat. Ctrl+Click on the fuse layer to load the selection. Now go to the channels palette and create a new channel (”fuse lighting”. Hit Ctrl+Alt+D to feather the selection by 3px and then hit Ctrl+I to invert the selection’s colors (making it white).

9.jpg

Now go back to the fuse layer and check the “preserve transparency” icon in the Layer’s palette for that layer. Then go to Filter - Render - Lighting effects and use the following settings.

10.jpg

Now your little guy should look like this:

11.jpg

Alright, let’s set him on fire. Make a new layer (”spark” and grab the polygonal lasso tool. Use this to create an abstract, cartoony-looking spark shape and fill it with a liner gradient (top to bottom) going from yellow to orange (I’m using #fff200 and #ff7e00). Once that’s done, you’ll want to apply a stroke to it as well, just like you did the others. However, this time, apply the stroke to the inside of the shape instead of the outside, so that it keeps its sharpness.

12.jpg

There you have it. One finished Ba-Bomb.

Added Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 2:19 am under Drawing & Painting.