The basics of chopping

This is a somewhat tutorial for those that are having difficulty. This tutorial will show you most of the basics, so if you’re looking to airbrush Akuma166 wild style body kits, this isn’t going to help very much. Hope this helps you guys.

Merging your layers
1. One of the first things you should learn in photoshop is how to combine your layers, also reffered to as "flattening". This is a very simple process. Your main image should be in the "background" slot. If it isn't, right click it and hit "merge down".
When you copy and paste something into photoshop, it creates a new layer, which you can move seperate from your main picture. Merging layers is very simple. First, make sure your layers are in order so nothing is overlapping that you don't WANT overlapping, then right click the first box above your background image in the "layers" box and click the "merge down" button, and once you get the hang of it, you can just use ctrl+e. Hope this makes sense...
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6355/mergingiq1.jpg


Rims
1. First, let’s start with a simple car, the Nissan 350Z.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4259/350zxp6.jpg

2. Now, find a rim that you would like, preferably at the same angle as your car. Copy it and paste it into your document, then move it over the general area over the original.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5535/te37uf7.jpg

3. Now, you want to go around the rim using the Polygonal Lasso, making very small “clicks” so your edges aren’t square. Once you’ve went all around the rim, Invert it (shift+I) and hit delete. You should have something like this:
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/6713/rimcropbq9.jpg

4. You want to free transform the rim so it’s the proper size. Hit ctrl+t to free transform, then grab the handles and scale the rims to size. You’ll notice there is a bit of overlap over the fender.
http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/1619/rimresizedy5.jpg

Simply change the opacity to about half, Polyonal Lasso the fender where the rim shouldn’t be and delete it. Repeat steps 1-5 for the back rim. There you go, rims are done. The back rim looks a Tad flat, but that’s alright.Flatten the image (merge all the layers)
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/126/rimsdonedh6.jpg

Paint
1. Right click the layer in your layers box, and duplicate it. On your duplicated layer, hit ctrl+u to desaturate it
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/6900/350zdesaturatedhe2.jpg

2.Then, click image>variations and play around with the color options until you find something you want.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/7983/redselectionsx0.jpg

3. Highlight the basic shape of the car, then Invert it (shift+I) and delete.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8494/redhighlitedhs6.jpg

You should be left with this:
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/1079/red1hm5.jpg

4. Our next step is to highlight and delete all the extras that shouldn’t be red and delete them. You can do each piece individually, or highlight one, then hold shift and highlight the next one.
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/7625/extrasselectedbt6.jpg

This should be the end result.Flatten the image if you already haven’t.
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5636/paintdoneiw6.jpg

Tinting Windows
1. First off, we want to highlight the windows or whatever you want tinted.
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/6581/highlitingcv3.jpg

2. Go to image> Variations and click brightness. Lower the brightness to whatever you like, I usually stick to around 20-30 though.
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/8664/brightnessadjustnr6.jpg

3. Done.
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/1939/tinteddoneku4.jpg

Lowering
Lasso the bottom section of the car adn make a box around the rest, as shown.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8397/loweringhighlightjw3.jpg

Hold ctrl, and hit the down arrow. The car should lower itself onto the rims. If there is white spaces when done, carefully fill it in with the paint bucket. Then, crop the white space out of the top and there you go!
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/425/loweringdoneqq3.jpg

That’s all for now. More to come.

Now that is some very useful info. Thanks a lot.

This NEEDS to be stickied.

Ya but for when I started I needed more help then this could you maybe be a little more specific on how to flatten and put all layers together and everything I know how now but for the people that use your awsome tutorial.

Thanks for the comments...I added a section on flattening layers in the first post, as per your request.

Nice that tutorials awsome go check out mine on Vertical Doors please and let me know if theres anything I need to fix.

Changing the backdrop

1. First off, find a suitable backdrop that is proportionate to your vehicle. These can be found by typing a keyword into Google image, such as “street” for an example. We will try this one out for the Z. Save it and open it up in photoshop.
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/9361/streetsmd9.jpg

2. Highlight the outside of the car, and then copy it. Go back to your City scene either by minimizing your car image, or clicking “window” and finding your backdrop there, then paste it.

3. You want your car the be the focus of the image, so if it’s tiny like this picture, that won’t look good.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/862/dsu6.jpg

To solve this, we take our Car image and free transform it (ctrl+t) so it’s an appropriate size. Don’t worry if it looks very blurry or pixilated, when you apply the transformation it smoothes itself out.

Before
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8007/resizedpixelswq9.jpg

After
http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/2986/aftersmoothingov3.jpg

3.You can still see the bricks through the windows of the car, so we need to fix that. This is where things can get tricky, so take your time. First off, make sure you’re on your car layer, and copy the bricks you can see through the back window.
http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/2986/aftersmoothingov3.jpg

Then paste it and move it over whatever you would see through the back window, in this case, trees. This will act as a template.
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/3599/treemaskie3.jpg

4. Switch to your backdrop layer, then ‘trace’ your template with the polygonal lasso and copy it.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7230/highlightingtreessn3.jpg

5. Switch back to your car layer, then paste your tree section. If you can’t see it over the car, move the “tree” layer to the top of the layer box.This is hard to explain so please o by the diagram.
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/9208/layermovingjq0.jpg

Then, delete your template from step 3, then move your tree piece back where it should be, in the back window.
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/8418/backwindowtreesre7.jpg

You might want to rub out the edges of your layer with the soft eraser or it will look like it was copied adn pasted. Go into Image> Adjustment> Brightness/Contrast and adjust it so it looks realistic, depending on your window tint.
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/4676/brighnessadjustff8.jpg

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3503/350zlk1.jpg
There you go. It’s not perfect but it’s a great way to learn. Good luck!

Thats a different way to do it but its a good way did you check out mine?