Looking for guidance on replicating a style

[cold kindle]

Hey all, I'm working on some graphic design for a friend but I need some help. I'm trying to get a similar result to the last attached image, but it's not going too well.
I've attached my layers panel and my current image, and the image I'm going for [last attachment]
I'll list below some of the pain points I'm having:

1. The halftone dots. My current process is:
   > Select >Focus Area, then;
   \Make New Layer -> Create [White 100% -> White 0%] gradient > Filter >Pixelate >Color Halftone

I can put this in between the layer with the focus image and the layer's gradient adjustment and works. However, the result here is not exact to the one in the image. The one in that image has no funky transparency business going on. How did he do it?

2. I downloaded a texture and right now I just have it as a super layer with "Soft Light" blending. Is this the right way to do this? The goal image seems to probably be using a mask? Should I do this instead?

3. Does the line in the goal image have some sort of beam effect on it? Or am I imagining things? I tried recreating it with a line + a radial gradient stroke and mine doesn't seem to have that glow/shine the goal image seems to have.

[edgy flame]

Hi, your colors are muted. Are you in RVB? The overlay they handed might have strong highlights and they might have used the overlay blending mode. (Or there are two overlays/clipped layers)

[cold kindle]

RVB?

Are you perhaps under the assumption I want to copy the color from the last image? Not at all.

[cold kindle]

The texture image definitely does have a lot of white space

[edgy flame]

RGB sorry got autocorrected

[cold kindle]

Yep it’s RGB

[edgy flame]

Well, your colors are muted, it is more difficult to get them look blown up. There seems to be a slight linear gradient mask in the bottom image, that matches the area where the overlay clips some of the colors thanks to its blending mode.

[south elk]

Gave +1 Creative Carma to @cold kindle (current: #314 - 5)

[cold kindle]

“look blown up”?

gradient mask in the bottom image
do you mean from the boy’s shirt to his head?

[edgy flame]

Yes the colors at the top of his head are clipped, thought that it was what you were looking for.

[edgy flame]

Yes, or it is just the layer they overlaid that has less saturated colors in that area.

[cold kindle]

oh. that wasn’t exactly on the agenda but now that you mention it I could do that too

a gradient mask does seem like the best way to go about that

hold on

[cold kindle]

here is the image without the overlay

I guess the colors do look muted

[edgy flame]

Try also hard mix.

[cold kindle]

for the overlay? sure

what about the other problems

[cold kindle]

i will wait for @fair meteor to wake up..

[edgy flame]

What is “the line” you mention in question 3?

For Q 1can you show the gradient layer alone?

[fair meteor]

I'm at a bit of a loss as to the goal. You just want to overlay the halftone patter over the character image? Is that it? Or is there some other design goal that I'm missing?

[cold kindle]

sorry for not being clear.

[cold kindle]

here is the gradient layer and the gradient I used

correct me if I'm wrong but in the goal image the transparency drop off is more "sudden"?. I think I can get this done by further closing the gap in the gradient. as for keeping the decreasing dots size.. I have no clue

[cold kindle]

kind of. I want this + advice on best practices for texture overlay + a pair of eyes for question 3

I feel like my line doesn't stand out as much?

[fair meteor]

I suppose what I'm asking: is the halftone pattern supposed to correlate to transparency? Like it trails off to transparent leaving only sparse dots at the bottom?

[cold kindle]

yes

it's meant to look like the effect is fading into the character and a size gradient matching a transparency gradient would be nice

[fair meteor]

Then I suppose that a matching halftone pattern would be put on a Layer Mask so that it defines the transparency.

Seems complicated but its probably do-able.

[cold kindle]

hmm

if i end up going a layer mask with a transparency gradient as pe suggested

it wont go to 0% opacity

so the dots will end up going all the way to the character's head instead of stopping early

or am I misunderstanding?

[fair meteor]

I don't know. Depends on how it is set up. I can't really wrap my brain around this. I'm almost certainly not understanding the goal here.

Sorry

[cold kindle]

the goal is to replicate this image

the exact half tone effect they have going on here

[fair meteor]

That isn't necessarily defining the transparency though. That pattern is blue and white. The background is white. So it can just be white and not transparent.

That's much easier than trying to make the halftone define the transparency of the layer. That's difficult.

Unless you end up merging the entire thing together and using Advanced Blending > Blend If on the Layer to drop all of the white. Then you can use whatever background color behind it (maybe)

[edgy flame]

You have faded a halftone of similar dot sizewhile it seems that, in the image, the halftone gradually changes size. Create a gradient that you convert to halftone.

[edgy flame]

It seems to have the same outline as the text, maybe with another slightly blurred copy underneath

[cold kindle]

sure

[cold kindle]

blur might be what I'm looking for. i'll try this out and see what it looks like

[cold kindle]

i can give this a go after. i'm all ears on how to move the dots change size over length

[edgy flame]

The dots change size according to the darkness of the underlying image.

[cold kindle]

ahh I see

so make a new layer > transparency gradient mask > apply dots?

I’ll give it a go

[edgy flame]

No transparency, regular gradient, black to White or grey to off White, make some tests. Sorry, I assumed it was a known fact.

[cold kindle]

this is what I'm doing at the moment. what's wrong?

[cold kindle]

my god graphic design that looks good is nothing easy

I tried a new technique but it looks 🤢

[edgy flame]

Try a longer gradient; drag from the top. Do not hesitate to work in another file, and use the gradient as a mask, or a clipping layer, you’ll have more flexibility than working on a small section as you did.