[TUTORIAL] From Day to Night

This tutorial will teach you how to transform indoor and outdoor backgrounds into a night version. Both backgrounds have slightly different requirements to achieve the right effect and variations in technique, which will be explained as we go along.

Unlike the previous two tutorials, there's no specific order I follow to convert a background from day to night. This often varies depending on the background I'm working with. The main takeaway you should get from this post is to have a rough idea of what tools I use and how.

Exterior

The easiest way to obtain a night sky is by removal of the current one in the background. When you open your image, you'll need to unlock the layer so a transparent background will appear after you've selected the area and delete it. Otherwise, that will result in a solid background and makes this task much more difficult.

Curves is a powerful and flexible tool for image color transformation. If you drag the curve above the line, it'll brighten the image. Therefore, if you drag it below the origin, the image will become darker. Towards the left and it will target shadows; pointed in the right direction and it will adjust highlight tones.

For this type of edit, you don't need to drag it too far downward.

Brightness/contrast is an adjustment tool that I utilize much more compared to curves. I find it a lot easier to achieve the shade that I want in my backgrounds without sacrificing too much color. If you continued pulling the curve line towards the bottom, the image will turn almost black.

To make your overall image neat and appear as realistic as possible, I would highly recommend working on one section (ex. grass, airport, runway, airplane) at a time. This is usually where the brightness/contrast feature comes into play because you want different values for each part of the image.

To maintain an "Episode like" background, search through the art catalog on the portal for a background that has a night sky. (This is the EXT. DESERT - NIGHT background.)

Finally, readjust the new sky background by using free transform.

Example of what my layers typically look like on Photoshop. Separate brightness/contrast values for each section of this background.

Interior

For indoor backgrounds, adjusting the curve levels by a small margin would suffice. In this scenario, the brightness/contrast tool isn't necessary because the background doesn't need to be that dark. (Unless there are no lights on.)

In cases where the background is only available in the day version, you'll also need to fix the colors that's outside of the windows. Or you can delete it and replace it with a new image. But for the sake of this tutorial, I'll explain how you can edit this part.

Normally, I begin by selecting around the window and input new brightness/contrast numbers.

To produce a night time effect, start by creating a new layer and picking a dark blue color. (Don't work directly on the background image or else you won't get the full effect required.) Then take a large brush and draw over the window. If your selection path is still on, this step will be easy to accomplish because the coloring will remain within the boundaries.

Change the opacity level and mode. Feel free to experiment around with this part. There's no need to have the exact same settings that I have in my example.

For a lighting effect, create a new layer and use a bright yellow color to draw over the lights/lamps. It's best to use a circle brush that fades out along the edges so it doesn't look harsh after you change the opacity and mode.

After readjusting the opacity values and mode, this is what it should look like.

In my opinion, this type of editing would work best in Photoshop since the other program contains several flaws. While working on transitioning a background from day to night, I would frequently catch myself changing the levels of the image adjustment tools or rearrange layers. This is the reason why I stated that I don't work in a particular order.

However, this is a major weakness of Pixlr Editor.

Pixlr Editor prohibits the creation of a new layer when you use the image adjustment tools and forces you to directly apply the effects onto the background. This can greatly hinder your work if you made a mistake or decide to change something later on. Not to mention, the quality of your background can potentially be degraded due to the intensity of the colors when you adjust the brightness/contrast or curves levels. In Photoshop, you're unlikely to run into this problem.

Anyways, I hope this tutorial wasn't too difficult to follow along. Don't be discouraged if this doesn't turn out the way you envisioned on your first attempt and keep practicing.

If you read these tutorials and decided to edit your own backgrounds, please tag me on Instagram! I'd really love to see what kind of changes you've made.