We already have a neat looking base car from our last Photoshop tutorial. We added some texture and some lighting to add more life to our project. Now we want to start concentrating on the smaller details, such as the eyes and the application of decals to our car.

Like anything in Photoshop, there are lots of ways to create eyeballs. But we want to use something more 'fun' and stay away from realistic - human looking peepers - so we'll create them somewhat 'cartoony'.

• First step is to create a new Photoshop file. Using a new window will make it much easier, as you won't have to work on your existing layers. Create a new file, 50X50 pixels on a transparent background.
   
• I based my eyes on a cartoon eyes tutorial. You can get a little crazy here if you want - as it's very basic and leaves alot of room for adjustment. Use the elliptical tool (press M in Windows) to draw a circular shape. It doesn't have to be perfectly round, but if you want it to be - just press Shift while creating it. Then fill that circle with white, and apply the outter and inner glow settings I have below. The color I used was 1D1D19 :
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We will continue to make our other layers in the same fashion, making each ellipse smaller to fit into one another, using whatever colors you feel best using (Obvious black will be best for viewing the pupil). The last layer is built by using the elliptical tool to make a small ellipse and filling it white. Here is what our different layers look like so far (depending on the colors you've choosen) :
  
  
• Layer 2 above is the only other layer with any applied styles. It also gets an inner glow. It gets the same settings as the white outside layer. You can read the settings in the inner glow snapshot above.
  
• Now all you need to do is merge all of your layers, and you have an eyeball for your Photoshop car alteration!
  

Now that we have the basis for our eyes, we can begin to start working with them and the other small details to bring some life to our photo. The next part will be alot of trial and error as you will have to adjust the eyes how you want them.

You will notice I made mine a little different this time too. That's the nice thing about this tutorial, you can really come up with your own creation by changing very little.

• Now we need to take that new eyeball we have and paste two of them on our car image. Then place the eyes over the headlamp assemblies.
  
  
• Blur each eyeball layer to make them a bit out of focus. You don't need too much, just enough to make them meld with the image better.
  
  
• Then comes the part of this tutorial where you will simply have to find your own way. You need to mess with Edit > Transform , and all the settings under here to get a look that you like. Here's an example of what fiddling with those settings can do for you :
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It may seem vague, but you'll just have to simply try fiddling with the skew, perspective and other Tranform settings for a while until you get something realistic. You want to keep in mind the angle of the light coming in, and the perspective of where the eyes are looking. If you decide you want to add some 'eyelids' like I did this time, follow the steps below :
  
  
• Once you have each eye properly fitted into the headlamp assembly, we'll add a dropshadow and an inner glow from the global lighting angle to create an eyelid effect. Here are my settings for both layers :

And that's all there is to the eyes. If you want, you can apply a global lighting effect with the eye layers selected to bring out certain features. This all depends on your taste - and where you are headed with your Photoshop creation.

On the next page of this tutorial, we will close up by adding some small stickers to our vehicle, adding a spoiler to the rear, and adding a custom logo layer to the hood and side panels.

Now we can add our final touches - some sponsor type stickers, a logo, and any other small details we want. I wanted to stick with a webmaster type of theme so I got some cool buttons, and used a few of them on my last car. This time I'll use a few others. Here's a few for you to use if you don't want to get them from the other site :

• The first thing to do is to convert your buttons, logos and any other images you plan on using to RGB color. You can do this by opening the image(s), and the clicking on Image > Mode > RGB Color.
  
  
• Now cut or copy the image you are working with onto your Photoshop Car file. For our first sticker, let's assume we want to put it on the front bumper. Place the sticker over the bumper, and select Edit > Transform > Rotate.
  
  
• Use the top of the bumper as your straight edge to line up the sticker. Then you simply want to scale it to a reasonable size. You should be looking like this so far :
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
• That doesn't look very realistic, so we need to blend it a bit better. Select Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options. You want a normal blend with an opacity of about 40 to get the following look :
  
  
  
  
  
  The rest of your stickers get applied in the same fashion. You just have to be patient with the skew tool in order to get the correct placement and perspective.
  
  Your logo or image gets applied in almost the same fashion.
  
  
• I'm going to add a FireFox logo to the door this time. Open up the image you want to put on your car, and ensure it is in RGB format. Place it over the area you want to put it on, and start using your Edit > Transform tools to get it in persective and the right size.
  
• Now you should be able to use Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options to adjust the opacity of your image, and make it look like part of the car. Here's what mine looks like so far, along with my settings :

And thats all the basic concepts applied to the car. You can add a logo to the hood in the same way - but will probably end up using the Distort function more to get the perspective correct. If you want to add a spoiler, you can go onto the next step in this tutorial.

We're just about done with our Photoshop makeover for this tutorial. The things you can do to a car are endless, and in the future, we'll come back to this car to do some more fun stuff with it. Let's go ahead and add a spoiler to this one and finish it up.

• You want to cut a small portion from your hood, where the bends and depth change take place. Take a look at this image for a better idea on what to cut/copy :
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Now you just drag that 'spoiler to the rear, use your Transform > Rotate to line the image up with the car top/rear. Erase the portion of the image you don't want seen, and you should end up with something like this :

There you have it - one car made to your liking. Mine didn't even come out like I had envisioned it earlier, but it's a fun process that you can do over and over again, using completely different vehicles for a unique outcome. Enjoy!