Design a 1950s Pulp Sci-Fi Movie Flier

Choose File → New, set the unit to Pixels, and create a 1200 × 1600 document with a white background.

Add a 60 px safe zone so nothing crowds the trim:

1. Click the top ruler at 60, 600 and 1140.
2. Click the left ruler at 60 and 1540.

Rename Layer 1 to Sky. Pick the Gradient tool, open Advanced… and set four stops:

• #120A2E at 0%
• #3B1553 at 38%
• #B23A6B at 72%
• #F7953F at 100%

Then drag a Linear gradient from the top of the page straight down to y 1180.

A smooth gradient looks digital. Choose Filter → Posterize…, set Levels to 9 and apply. The sky breaks into flat bands, like a limited run of spot inks. The dithered edges between bands help the print feel, so leave them.

Add a layer called Stars. Draw a marquee over the whole page, fill it with mid-grey #808080, and press Cmd+D.

1. Choose Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 100, Mono and Gaussian.
2. Choose Filter → Threshold… at 173. Only the brightest noise survives, which gives you about half a percent of white specks.

Set the layer's blend mode to Screen so the black disappears.

Stars shouldn't show near the glowing horizon:

1. Click Add Mask on Stars, then click the mask row to edit it.
2. Drag a white-to-black Linear gradient from y 450 down to y 1000.

Add a layer called Sparkles. With the Lasso, draw a few thin four-point stars and fill them with cream #FFF3D6. Give the layer an Outer Glow in the same cream (Size 14, Opacity 70).

Add RingBack (leave it empty for now), then Planet:

1. Elliptical Marquee a 440 px circle at (620, 210).
2. Fill it with a Radial gradient from #9BF0DC through #2FA39A and #124A5E to #081028, dragged from the upper-left of the circle so the light comes from there.
3. On a PlanetTex layer, select the same circle and run Filter → Clouds (Scale 6). Set it to Overlay at 55% for weather.

For craters that catch the light, work on a Craters layer. Fill each crater ellipse with light teal #5CCFBE. Then fill a slightly smaller dark ellipse #0A3441, shifted up and to the left. That leaves a bright crescent on the lower-right rim, the wall that faces the light.

Add a Shade layer. Select the planet circle again and drag a Radial gradient of #050818, transparent up to about 42% and 95% opaque at the edge. Start from the lit upper-left and drag toward the lower-right. Set it to Multiply.

One pass is too gentle, so Layer → Duplicate Layer it. Duplicates can land offset by 10 px, so check the copy's position and nudge it back with Shift+Arrow keys if needed.

Finally, give Planet an Outer Glow in #6FF0D8 (Size 44, Opacity 55).

A ring passes behind the planet at the top and in front of it at the bottom. Draw it twice:

1. On RingBack (below the planet), fill a 600 × 150 ellipse with #F4C77E. Choose Select → Shrink… by 22 px and press Delete. Add a thin inner ring in #E8795A the same way.
2. Add RingFront above the shade layers and draw the identical rings.
3. On RingFront, marquee the top half of the ring and press Delete.

Only the front half is left on top of the planet.

Use the same marquee on both ring layers so they turn around the same centre. Draw a Rectangular Marquee from (530, 345) to (1150, 515) and switch to the Move tool. Drag just outside a corner handle to rotate about −16°, then press Cmd+D to commit. Repeat on the other ring layer with the same marquee and angle.

Create a group called Saucer and three layers inside it:

• Dome: a 170 × 116 ellipse with a radial gradient from #E6FFF8 to #0C4660. Add a lime ellipse #D9FF7A under where the body will sit for the engine glow.
• Body: a 420 × 72 ellipse with a vertical chrome gradient: #F4F7FF, #AEB6CC, a dark band #4E546C at 50%, #D9DEEA, then #2A2E42.
• Ports: seven small #FFE36A ellipses along the rim, with an Outer Glow in the same yellow.

Give Dome a soft cyan Outer Glow too.

Click Ports and choose Layer → Merge Down, then do the same on Body. Merging bakes the glows into the pixels, so the saucer turns as one piece. Rename the result UFO. Marquee it with a few pixels to spare, then rotate it −12° with the Move tool and press Cmd+D.

Make a Landscape group and drag it above Saucer in the Layers panel.

1. Mesas: lasso a flat-topped mesa skyline from the horizon down to the bottom of the page. Fill it with #4B1E5E and add an orange Inner Glow (#FF9A4A, Size 7) to rim-light the tops.
2. Screen: marquee the frame (826, 1020, 308 × 124) and two posts, and fill them with ink #1A0B24. On ScreenFace, fill a cream panel #FFE9B8 inside it and give it a soft Outer Glow.
3. The movie: on ScreenEye, stack ellipses to paint an alien eye: pale sclera, green iris #3FBF3A, a lighter inner ring #B8F020, a black slit pupil and a white glint. Give it a red Stroke of 4 px.

Add a Ground layer (a lassoed band in #1A0B24) and a Cars layer. Lasso one tail-finned sedan silhouette in near-black #07020C and add two round wheels.

Marquee the car, press Cmd+C and then Cmd+V right away. The paste lands in place on a new layer above. Drag it into the next spot with the Move tool, press Cmd+D, and Merge Down. Repeat for a third car.

Press Cmd+V straight after Cmd+C, before clicking any other layer row. See the note at the end.

Black cars on dark ground disappear. Give Cars a 2 px Stroke in #FF9A4A so the sunset catches their edges. You'll lift them onto the horizon line in the last step.

On a new Abductee layer, draw the same car at almost twice the size. Keep it under the saucer, around (345, 1110). Rotate it −22° so it tips nose-up. Add a pale green Inner Glow (#D9FF7A, Size 8) so the beam seems to light its edges.

On a Beam layer:

1. Lasso a cone from the saucer's underside down to the ground (about x 258 to 704 at the bottom).
2. Fill it with a Linear gradient from #F6FFC0 at 95% opacity to #B8FF5A at 25%.
3. Add a radial glow ellipse where it hits the ground.
4. Run Gaussian Blur at 6 px and set the layer to Screen.

For light streaks, add BeamStreaks. Fill the same cone with black, then run Filter → Fibers (Variance 30, Strength 40) and Motion Blur (Angle 78, Distance 40) along the beam. Set it to Screen at 45%.

Drag Abductee above both beam layers so the car stays a crisp silhouette.

Create a Title group and drag it above Landscape. Add a raster layer TitleBase inside it, and keep it active whenever you create new text.

With the Text tool, set Bowlby One SC at 184 px in #FFD83A. Type INVADERS, and in a separate layer, YUGGOTH!. Check the Text panel's Letter spacing is 0, because it remembers the last value you used.

Centre both lines horizontally with the Move tool:

• INVADERS: glyph tops at y 560
• YUGGOTH!: glyph tops at y 836

1. Click Rasterize Layer on both text layers.
2. Merge INVADERS down onto YUGGOTH! and rename the result TitleBlock.
3. Marquee the whole block. Switch to Move, click Perspective in the options bar, and drag the top-right corner inward about 36 px.

The top-left corner follows symmetrically, and INVADERS foreshortens as if it were further away. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Style the merged block once so both lines match:

• Stroke: #1A0B24, Width 7
• Drop Shadow: #C8102E, Offset X 14, Offset Y 19, Blur 0, Spread 0, Opacity 100

The shadow is cast from the glyphs, not the outline. The stroke covers the first 7 px of it, so offset it well past the stroke width to get a chunky extrusion.

With TitleBase active, type from in Yellowtail at 120 px in red #E0102A. Centre it at about (600, 773), in the gap between the lines.

Then:

1. Rasterize it.
2. Add a cream Stroke (#F4E6C0, 5 px) and a small hard ink Drop Shadow.
3. Rotate it −8°.
4. Drag it above TitleBlock in the Layers panel.

Rasterize rotated text first. A live text layer that you rotate with the Move tool loses the rotation on its next edit.

On a Burst layer under the title, lasso an 18-point star:

• Centre (182, 1140), outer radius 122, inner radius 96
• Fill #1FA59A, with a darker #14786F disc in the middle
• Yellow Stroke (5 px) and a hard ink Drop Shadow

Keep the points clear of YUGGOTH's red shadow.

Drag an area text box and type SEE IT IN / SHOCK-O- / SCOPE! on three lines in Bangers 40 px, centre-aligned, in #FFD83A. Move it until its bounds are centred on the disc. Then Rasterize it, add a 3 px ink Stroke, and rotate it −12°.

Use centre-aligned area text boxes that span the safe zone, 60 to 1140:

• Top line: Fjalla One 36 px, letter spacing 8, in #F4E6C0, flanked by two small lassoed stars.
• Tagline: Bangers 48 px in cream, two lines.
• Showtime: TONIGHT · 8 PM · 35¢ A CARLOAD in Fjalla One 60 px in title yellow.
• Credits: Fjalla One 25 px, two lines.

Create the lowest text box first and work upward. That way a click never lands inside an earlier text box. Space the blocks evenly, about 24 px apart, and keep the last baseline above y 1540.

Duplicate Sky as SkyDots and make sure it sits exactly at 0, 0. Run Filter → Halftone… with Dot Size 12, Angle 45 and Softness 1, then set it to Multiply at 30%. The dots read as coarse printing without fighting the art.

Stack these layers at the very top of the document, above the Title group:

1. Grain: mid-grey fill, Add Noise 30 (Mono, Uniform), Overlay at 40%.
2. Foxing: Filter → Clouds (Scale 4), Overlay at 18%.
3. PaperTone: fill with cream #E8D9B0, Multiply at 25%.
4. Burn: a Radial gradient from the centre outward, transparent to 62% and then #2A1004 at 60% at the edges, set to Multiply.

On a Creases layer, draw two 4 px Brush lines in black just right of the centre (x 603 and y 803). Draw two in white just left of it (x 599 and y 799). Run Gaussian Blur at 2 px and set the layer to Soft Light at 55%. It looks as if the flier spent a summer folded in quarters.

Step back and check every element against the guides:

• Top line and stars: nudge down 18 px so their caps sit inside the safe zone.
• Badge: nudge both layers 15 px right.
• Showtime and credits: nudge up 6 and 12 px so the credits end at y 1535.
• Credits colour: add a cream #E2D3AA Color Overlay so they read on the dark ground.
• Cars: move up 40 px onto the horizon, so they read as silhouettes against the mesas. Lasso a purple #4A3560 window into each. On a Taillights layer, add red #FF2A3A dots with a red Outer Glow.

Hide the guides with View → Show Guides and export with File → Quick Export PNG.

A known issue to avoid: pressing Cmd+C on one layer and then clicking certain other layer rows can erase the clicked layer. It's being tracked in issue #964. Until it's fixed, paste straight after copying, and save your project often.