Create Action Movie Poster In Photoshop

1. How to create an action movie poster in photoshop

First of all, to create an action movie poster in photoshop that is attractive, unique and impressive, you need to create a background that matches the theme of the movie, identify the focus, main part and secondary part. Specifically, you can follow the steps that SaDesign introduces below:

Step 1

Start your poster by creating a new 27 x 40 inch canvas. If you don't plan on printing this as a full movie poster, feel free to go smaller while maintaining the same proportions.

Step 2

Next, if your design is going to be printed on paper, design in CMYK Color Mode. 

If it is just for web then RGB is better for web and other electronic uses. In this example SaDesign will use CMYK for its design.

Step 3

Finally, if printing, set your DPI or Resolution to 300. This will ensure your image prints nice and sharp. If it's just for the web, the default 72 is fine. 

2. How to create an action movie poster design layout in photoshop

To highlight the theme of the film, it is necessary to create a reasonable design layout, the main characters will be in the center, large in size and the supporting characters will be smaller in size and not as prominent.

Step 1

Create a Color Fill layer and fill it with mustard yellow #d3a033.

Step 2

Take a photo of a concrete wall with a rust texture and place it on top of the Color Fill layer. If it looks like the stock image above, zoom in to show just the texture of the wall. 

Turn the texture into black and white. SaDesign suggests you can use Hue/Saturation for this.

Step 3

Set the texture layer mode to Overlay. 

Double the texture for a vibrant and realistic look. This yellow pattern will give us a look similar to a Mad Max movie poster.

Group the two textures and the Color Fill layer, name the group "Background". 

Step 4

Next, take your three main objects and extract them from their background using the method you normally use.

Because we wanted a rough, imperfect look, SaDesign used the Select Subject tool. If you need something more precise, you can use the Pen Tool and Refine Edge. 

If you only need to put one or two topics, that's fine! But try to put no more than three, otherwise it can get confusing. 

Right click then select Convert to Smart Object. This will allow you to resize all the objects as you go and not worry about losing quality or blurring.

Step 5

Here's a helpful tip when designing movie posters, especially action movie posters: Arrange the themes in order of importance and size. Here's a general guideline: 

If the villain appears on a poster, it should be the largest subject and should be the largest in size. They should be placed high up, and stand out from the other subjects.

If you are only introducing the main subject, be it a person or an object, then they should be the biggest subject. 

All supporting characters should be sized according to their importance to the story. 

So in this case, the masked man is the villain, the woman is the hero, and the child is a supporting character who is important to the story but not the hero. 

Step 6

Next, darken and adjust the contrast of all three objects using a clipped Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer.

You can use a Layer Mask to mask out any areas that seem too dark or contrasty.

Masked Man Settings

Brightness: -91

Contrast: -37

Layer Mask: Hides the edges of the mask, leaving the inside of the mask white. 

Women's settings

Brightness: 18

Contrast: 34

Layer Mask: none 

Child settings 

Brightness: 0

Contrast: 28

Layer Mask: none

Step 7

Create and clip a new layer onto the woman, set that layer to Multiply. 

Create a shadow on the lower half of her body using dark brown #201512. 

You can do this on any subject that needs more separation to stand out from the others. In this case, it helps the woman and child not blend together. 

Step 8

For the subject's hair, create and clip a new layer into both the woman's and child's layers. 

Paint using a hard round brush blue #0099c3 onto the edges of the child's hair and yellow #f7b62c onto the edges of the woman's hair. This will give it a contrasting illustration effect.

Step 9

Now create and clip a new layer into both the woman and child layers, set it to Lighten. 

Fill in the goggles using a hard round Brush set to a pale yellow #ffdb51, giving it a stylized reflection effect. 

Step 10

Finish off the subjects by giving the villain some blue glass reflections using a Curves adjustment layer. Again, choose the CMYK color profile. If you’re working with RGB, it will be different. 

Basically, you just want to make it clear that the child and the woman are on the same “team,” and the man is not. This is shown by the different colored goggles. Any similar effect will work just fine. 

Make sure each topic is in its own group, named after the topic inside. SaDesign chose to name it "Woman", "Child", and "Man".

Step 11

If your subject is skewed, like the villain in the picture, try to make them symmetrical. Here SaDesign copied and pasted the man's shoulder pad from the left to the right. Since it's armor, it doesn't need any exact blending.

This step is optional. 

3. How to use Clipping masks in photoshop

Step 1

Create a new Layer between the "Woman" and "Chill" groups. 

Using a large soft round Brush, paint teal #003943 all over the canvas, as you can see below. 

We will name and call this layer "Fade".

Step 2

Cut the dune image into the teal gradient by dragging and dropping the dune image onto the canvas, placing it above the gradient, holding Alt and then hovering between the two layers. 

When you see the box and arrow icon appear, click on it. The dune layer will clip into the gradient layer. 

Set the dune layer to 50% Opacity. 

Step 3

Adjust the dunes using Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers. 

Hue/Saturation Settings

Hue: 0

Saturation: -100

Brightness/Contrast Settings 

Brightness: -90

Contrast: 100

Step 4

Finish by creating a New Layer above the "Child" group.

Repeat the above two steps on a new layer to hide the bottom edge of the sub-image. This will be called the second “Fade” layer. 

4. How to create action movie poster design font in photoshop

Step 1

Now let’s start choosing the typography for our action movie poster. The title has 2 words so we will split the title into 2, placing each word on its own layer using the font Furiosa.

The first word is "Dust", which will be placed above the "Woman" group and the first "Fade" layer. 

The word “Town” will be placed above the second “Fade” layer.  

I used a mustard color like #c29c2e as the background layer. 

Step 2

Copy and paste the same rusty background texture from the background group, keep them in Overlay mode and cut them both from the title. 

Step 3

Create and cut a new layer into both from the header, set it to Overlay

Use a soft round Brush to paint white in the middle of each word and black around the edges, creating a radial gradient effect. 

Group each word into its own group, naming it appropriately. In this case, SaDesign named it "Dust" and "Town".

5. How to create colors for action movie posters in photoshop

Step 1

Finally, in our action poster, we have a color layer that includes four adjustment layers. These will enhance and adjust the current orange and blue color scheme. Orange and blue are great colors for action movie posters because they are high contrast and attention grabbing. 

First, create a Curves adjustment layer, with the Cyan curve pulled into the shadows. The magenta should just be pulled slightly into the shadows and removed a little from the highlights. And then create an S curve in the yellow. 

Step 2

Next, use a Levels adjustment layer to increase the contrast a bit by adjusting the transform knobs, pulling the highlights inwards. 

Step 3

Add a Hue/Saturation layer to shift the colors a bit to a warmer orange and more teal. 

Step 4

And finally, we need a selective color layer that focuses on the blacks. Add some Cyan and Magenta and remove just a little bit of the Yellow. This will give the shadows a nice cool blue color rather than a green. 

If the color layer looks too bright, group all the adjustment layers together and reduce the group's opacity. SaDesign set my Opacity to 70%. 

So above is a detailed guide on how to create an action movie poster in Photoshop. Surely with the simple steps that SaDesign has just introduced above, you will create impressive and attractive posters for your action movie. What are you waiting for, let's get started right away