How to create a hybrid animal

In this tutorial I will teach you how to create a hybrid animal. You will need two images, one with a reptile and one with a hypo. We will use these two:

Save this image in your PC and open it with Photoshop. (File-Open-…)
Search for an image with a hypo. You can use this one as it’s really good.
We’ve used an image that is already transparent, but it’s possible that you don’t find such images if you want to use other animals. You can take any image and use Polygon Lasso Tool to select only what you need.

In photoshop, in the document that you’ve already opened the image with the reptile, and from the upper menu, File – Place.. – Select the image – Place – Enter.

Right-click on the new layer – Rasterize Layer to have access to all the settings.
Change the opacity of the layer with the hypo at 80% to modify the size/position as precise as possible
Press CTRL+T and move/spin the head aproximatively where the reptile’s head is. The, with SHIFT pressed (to keep the proportions), from a corner, change the size too so that it will match with the reptile’s head size.
Now that you’ve placed the head where it belong, change its opacity back to 100%. We now need to match the colors of the hypo with the reptile. Having selected the layer with the head – click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer – Color Balance.
Having check Midtones, add the next values: 0,+50,- 100
Then check Highlish 0,+15,0
Finally, right click on the new layer – Create Clipping Mask
Select the layer with the head from below – click on the icon Add Layer Mask
Press D to reset the colors or choose directly Black.
*Eventually you can change the opacity of the layer to 60% to see better where to erase.
Then choose Brush Tool – Master Diameter: 70 px – Harndess – 90% and color the lower part.
Change Hardness to 50% and erase the part in the back . You can also change the size (bigger) and a smaller hardness to make the passing smoother.
Change the opacity back to 100%.
Click on the white square of the Color Balance layer.
Then, do the same with Black. Select Brush Tool, Master Diameter: 60 px, Hardness: 30% and color inside the mouth.
We can observe that there are some parts from the reptile’s head that should be erased. We select the layer Background, then Clone Stamp, right-click in the scene – Master Diameter: 68 px – Hardness: 0%, keeping ALT pressed, we click in a zone that we will add in the unwanted parts of the reptile.
The we color with Brush Tool the parts that we want to erase.
Finally, you can click on the Background layer – Merge Visible.
The, from the upper menu – Image – (Adjustments) – Auto Contrast, Auto Tone, Auto Color so that the colors will match better.

This is it. All you have to do is to try on other animals, to improve your skills.