Kuyuri Photoshop Arsenal

Space Lighting Effects

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Step 1

Create a new document, I'm using my computer screen's resolution (1440x900 pixels) so I can use it as a wallpaper later. Add a new Layer and fill it with any color then go to Layer>Layer Styles> Gradient Overlay. You can add a gradient layer as well, I simply prefer the Layer Styles.

Step 2 - Retro Colors

Create a new layer and fill it with white, then go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Change the style to RGB lights. Use Negative 60 for the Intensity, Narrow 96 for the focus, and for the other options keep the same.

Step 3

Lets add some blur, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 80 pixels for the Radius. The last thing here will be change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Doing that the RGB color will be hardly visible but later on with the other layers it will work ;)

Step 4 - Creating Stars

Creating Stars in Photoshop is something really easy. Create a new layer, fill it with black, and change the Blend Mode to Screen. After that go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use 10% for the Amount, Gaussian for the Distribution and select Monochromatic. You will have a layer full of noise, then to create the start just change the levels of the layer, go to Image>Adjustment>Levels. For the Input Levels use 65, 1.00, 99. Doing that you will increase the black so just the bigger dots will appear, also you will increase the white, making the dots that appear brighter.

Step 5 - Nebula

Now that we have the stars and the colors and some colors lets create the Nebula. To do that create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Make sure that your color were black and white for the background and foreground. Then just add some Layer Styles to do that go to Layer>Layer Style. First over the Blending Options, change the Blend Mode to Overlay. After that select Gradient Overlay. use Overlay for the Blend Mode and for the colors use a Cyan, Green, Yellow, and Red. Also change the Angle to 130º and the Scale to 49%.

Step 6 - Lens flare

First, lets create a new layer and fill it with black, however, this time, add this layer in front of the background and beneath the other layers: (Stars and Nebula). Now go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare. This effect might be the most overused ever, like some people even say that using it you wil turn your design in an amateur piece. For me it's a nice filter and, if you use it right, it will give a nice touch to your image. For the settings use 100% Brightness and use 105mm Prime for the Lens Type.

Step 7 - Rays of Light

Now lets create the "A" of ray of lights. So create a new layer in front of the Lens Flare. Then select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and create a rectangular selection like half of the height of the document. Use the image below for reference. After that select the Brush Tool (B). We will use a very big brush, 800px diameter and hardness 0%. Select white for the color and with just like a a bit of the brush inside the marquee (red circle) give a few clicks on the mouse button.

Step 8

Now it's just about duplicating, resizing and rotating. The tip here is convert the original ray of light layer to Smart Objects, so you will be able to resize and rotate in a non-destructive way. After you create the "A", change the blend mode of the elements to Screen and use 80% opacity.

Step 9 - Adjustments

Now lets just adjust some opacities, change the the RGB light opacity to 80% and you can move the gradient overlay to test different color combinations as well.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we've learned how to create a very cool light effect that we often see is some of the NoPattern designs. Of course this tutorial was just an example and now you can improve it and apply it to your needs.

Click on the image to View full size

(source: abduzeedo)

Cool Laptop Advertisement

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:14:00 +0000

Step 1:

Open up a new document 1000px wide and 600px high. Then paste an image of a laptop into your document. Create a new layer set called ‘laptop’ and put the layer containing your laptop image into this layer set.

Step 2:

Now I want to create a vanishing point for the screen of the laptop. Many Photoshop users, including myself, don’t yet have Photoshop CS2 or CS3, so this tutorial won’t utilize the useful vanishing point filter available in these versions. Instead, we’re going to manually create a fake vanishing point.

Select the screen part of your laptop using the lasso tool. Then copy your selection, create a new photoshop document, and paste in the selection. Go to image>image size and double whatever your image size is. In this case the original screen was 204px wide, so I simply doubled this to 408px.

Then paste this new larger screen back into your original document. Positioning it roughly where you think it looks good in terms of perspective.

Step 3:

Now select your line tool and a nice bright color for it and draw lines each corner of your large screen through to the matching corner of the original screen and past to a vanishing point. Do this with each corner of the laptop screen, until you have something like the image below:

Step 4:

Now duplicate your larger laptop screen and select edit>free transform. Then in the menu near the top of your screen (see diagram below) change the W (width) and H (height) percentages from 100% to 90%.

Move this resized image so that it matches up with the perspective lines that you created earlier. Be sure to place this resized screen layer behind the largest screen layer but above your original laptop photo layer.

Repeat this process of duplicating/resizing/aligning using the resizing percentages of 80%, 70%, and 60% from your large screen layer. Remember that your original laptop photo is 50% of this large screen layer.

This is how your image should look after you have created this new screens and lined them up correctly:

Step 5:

Now create a new layer set called ‘photo 1′. Paste in the image that you want to manipulate. View a grid over your image and then use the free transform tool to resize your photo to fit nicely into the grid squares. Make sure that the photo fits into an even number of grid squares for it’s height and width. In this example the photo is resized to be 8 grid squares wide and 6 high.

Step 6:

Now duplicate your photo layer, as you want to retain a copy. Be sure to hide the duplicate layer and go back to your original. Select your single column marquee tool from your selection palette (it’s under the Rectangle and Elliptical marquee tools). Using your grid click the grid line that marks the center point of your image and delete a central 1px column. Then switch to the single row marquee tool and do the same to delete a 1px line across the center of your image. You want these lines to be a little larger than 1px though, so grab your magic wand tool and click somewhere outside of your photo image. This will select all of the area surrounding the photo, but also the 1px lines cutting through it. Then go to select>modify>expand and expand the selection by 3px. Then hit delete to achieve an effect like the image below:

Step 7:

Now hide all of your duplicate laptop screens except the smallest one (the one that is 60% of the size of your largest). With your photo layer selected (the one you’ve just cut up using the grid) go to edit>transform>distort and distort the photo so that it fits exactly over this smallest laptop screen image. To fit it well you make need to reduce the layer’s opacity to allow the screen underneath to show though. The image below shows the transformed photo layer at 57% opacity, allowing some of the screen underneath to show through. Be sure to move this photo layer below the next largest laptop screen layer, so that it is mostly covered by it.

Step 8:

Now go back to your original photo layer. Duplicate it again, and using the same technique as before with the single row/column marquee tools cut it into 2X2 squares using the grid. As the image is 8 squares wide and 6 high, this will result in 12 squares each 4 grid squares in size. Again, use your magic wand tool to select the area around the photo and the lines cutting through it, then expand your selection by 3px and hit delete. Then use the distort transform tool to fit your new image to the 2nd smallest laptop screen. Remember again to move this photo layer behind the next largest laptop screen layer. The image below shows the result of this, with the photo layer again at 57% to allow me to nicely fit it to the screen image beneath.

Step 9:

Now repeat these steps, but make your squares half the size each time. So using the grid that will then be 1X1, 1/2X1/2, 1/4X1/4. To cut the photo into 1/2 and 1/4 grid square pieces I would recommend just using your judgement, but if you want to be really picky you can use rulers. Another tip is to duplicate the photo after cutting it into the squares, as this will save you having to repeat the slicing process right from the start each time.

Step 10:

Here is the same image but with all duplicate laptop screen image layers hidden and all photo layer’s with 100% opacity.

Step 11:

Now is the time-consuming part. Hide all of your photo layers except for your smallest photo layer. Use your magic wand tool set at 255 tolerance to select entire squares and delete them to leave a checkerboard effect. To do this simply go down each column deleting squares, being sure to leave a square remaining between each two that you delete. Then move onto the next column and repeat, but make sure that no squares you delete are next to an already deleted square, deleted squares should be diagonal to each other. The image below shows the various stages of doing this with each photo layer:

Step 12:

You should still have your original photo layer, as it was duplicated for safe keeping near the start of the tutorial. Duplicate the layer again, and move it so that it is the first layer above your laptop image layer. Then go to edit>transform>distort and fit the photo nicely over the laptop screen. Then hide all of your vanishing point guidelines and make sure that all of your checkerboard photo layers are visible. Seeing as all these layers are within the same layer set select the layer set and drag it to make the graphic more central in your document.

Step 13:

Right click on one of your photo squares layers and click blending options. Apply the drop shadow settings shown below. Then once this has been applied right click on the drop shadow shown in your layers palette, select ‘copy layer style’ and paste the layer style to all of your other photo squares layers. The outcome is shown below:

Step 14:

Now create a new layer set below your laptop/photos layer set called ‘background’. Hide your laptop/photos layer set. Create a new layer and fill it with a white to light gray radial blur.

Step 15:

Paste a metal texture onto a new layer above your radial gradient layer and reduce it’s opacity to 20% for a subtle textured effect.

Step 16:

Now create some bendy lines across your background using the pen tool. Be sure to have a white 1px brush selected and then once you have created your bendy pen line right click on it and select ’stroke path’. Then simply duplicate your line layer until you have multiple white lines across your background. I merged all of my line layers together and reduced the merged layer opacity to 30% for a more subtle effect.

And we’re done!

To finish things off I added some cool text. Click the image below if you want the full sized version.

(source: psdfan)

Aurora Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:55:00 +0000

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I used for this tutorial the wallpaper size of 1900x1200 pixels. Right after that fill the background layer with black and with the Rectangular Marquee Tool(M) create a selection like the image below.

Step 2 - Brush

This is exactly what we saw on the other tutorial I wrote, there are just a few differences. But let's repeat the step here.

1 - Add a new layer and fill it with gray.
2 - Go to Edit>Define Brush Preset...
3 - Rename your brush to "Rec Brush".

Step 3

Now let's edit our brush, to do that go to the Brush Engine, Window>Brushes (F5). Basically we will use the Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Color Dynamics and Other Dynamics to create the efect we want. Just follow the image below for reference.

Step 4

With our custom brush let's create the effect, add a layer and paint some rectangles. After that let's add some Layer Style. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. Use Color Burn for the Blend Mode, 80% Opacity, 120º Angle, 5px Distance, and 10px Size.

The last thing here is to repeat this step 2 more times. Like create another layer, paint some brush and add the Layer Style.

Step 5

Now let's resize the layer, just horizontally. You can go to Edit>Transform>Scale, or just press CMD+T(mac) or CRTL+T(pc). After that go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Use 90º for the angle and 155 pixels for the distance.

Step 6

Select the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a big ellipse, it will be the dark planet. Use the image below for reference.

Step 7

Now let's make some adjustments. Let use Layer Masks to delete some parts of the image and to make others darker. So first select the ellipse layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Then select the Brush Tool(B) and big brush, the regular one rounded with 200 pixels, hardness 0%, and the color black. Now just delete some parts of the ellipse (1-4). After that select the rectangles and repeat add a layer mask exactly like we did before. Again select the brush tool, it will be the same preset as the last usage, this time however, change the opacity to 20% and paint some areas to maks some retangles. (5-11).

Step 8

Here let's add some color, I will use Abduzeedo's color. So go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient. Change the angle to 90%, and scale to 80%. After that just change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Step 9

Create a new layer and fill it with black, after that go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare, use 100% for the brightness and the 50-300mm zoom for the Lens Type. Change the blend mode to Screen. You will notice that the layer is too bright, there is too much gray. So go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Then just change the Input Levels to 50, 1, 255.

Step 10

Now let's add a photo from sxc.hu, you can download it here h ttp://www.sxc.hu/photo/986801. Place it in the center of our image. You will have to rotate, and rescale it. Then just change the Blend Mode to Screen too.

After that go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal all. Let's repeat the step 7 and delete some parts of the image, do that until you get the result like the image below.

Step 11

Now select the ellipse layer and go to Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow. Change the Blend Mode to Hard Light, the opacity to 90% and select the Gradient Color. Use the default yellow and change the size to 60px.

Step 12

Create a new layer on top of the others, fill it with black and go to Filter>Texture>Grain. Change the Intensity to 66 and the Contrast to 60. After that change the layer's Blend Mode to Soft Light and 60%. You will notice that the image will get a bit darker.

Step 13

This step is not really necessary but the whole idea is add a bit of texture to the rectangles. So download the texture image from sxc.hu (http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1021346) and place it in the document, right on top of the ellipse layer and beneath the lights. After that reduce its just to make it a bit smaller. Then go to Image>Adjustments>Invert, change the Blend Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 10%.

Conclusion

There are lots of ways to create this effect, and lots of good tutorials showing how to create that type of eclipse effect, the lines, and the other light effects. But the idea of this tutorial was to mix everything to get a nice result. I hope you like it and now it's all about playing with the tool. ;)

(source: abduzeedo)

Speaker Embedded on Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Step 1

Create a new document that is 800 px wide and 800 px high at a resolution of 300 pixels/inch. Drag one horizontal and one vertical guide and snap them in the middle of the document. Fill the "Background" layer with 65% gray.

Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool, set style to Fixed Size and set Width and Height both to 220 px. Click anywhere on the canvas, move the cursor inside the selection, then move to the center of the page, and snap to the guides. Create a new layer and name it "Center." Fill the selection with color #1e2f29. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Step 2

We'll apply two layer styles to give this circle a hemisphere look. First apply an Inner Glow with these settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 100%, Color set to black, and Size set to 25 px. Then apply a Gradient Overlay using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Gradient set at black to white, Reverse checked, with a Style of Radial, Angle set to 75 degrees, and Scale set at 150%.

Step 3

Create a new layer and name it "Center Highlight." Pick white as your Foreground Color and get the Brush Tool. Single click on the areas as in the image below with 55 px, 30 px, and 10 px brushes with a Hardness of 100%. Command-click on the "Center" Layer Thumbnail to load the selection, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 16 px.

Step 4

Create a new layer and name it "Center Ring." Make sure the selection is still active, then go to Edit > Stroke. Set the color to #2e453d, set Location to Outside, and hit OK. Apply an Outer Glow Layer Style with the following settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 40%, Color set to Black, and Size set to 8 px. Then apply a Bevel and Emboss Layer Style and use these settings: Style of Inner Bevel, Direction set to Up, Size set to 7 px, Soften set to 0 px, Angle and Altitude set to 50, and Highlight Opacity set to 0%.

Step 5

Create a new layer below the "Center" layer and name it "Cone." Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool. This time set the Width and Height both to 382 px. Click anywhere on the canvas, then move the cursor inside the selection. Next, move to the center of the page and snap to the guides. Fill the selection with color #425d54. Apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity set at 70%, Gradient set at black to white, with a Style of Linear, and Angle set to -90 degrees.

Step 6

Create a new layer above the "Cone" layer and name it "Cone Edge." Command-click the "Cone" layer, and fill the selection with white. Make sure the Elliptical Marquee Tool is still selected, move the selection 1 px right using the Right Arrow key on the keyboard, and hit Delete to clear. Deselect by hitting Command + D. Get the Eraser tool, set the Master Diameter to 215 px and Hardness to 0%. Erase the upper and lower edges of the layer with one click, as you can see in the image below. Set the "Cone Edge" Layer Opacity to 40%.

Step 7

We'll do the same thing for the right edge of the cone. Command-click the "Cone" layer to load the selection. Create a new layer above the "Cone Edge" layer and give it the same name, "Cone Edge." Fill the selection with white. Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool and move the selection 1 px left using the Left Arrow key. Hit Delete to clear, then deselect. Grab the Eraser Tool and erase the upper and lower edges. Lastly, set the Layer Opacity to 40%.

Step 8

Now we'll make the reflections on the cone. Create a new layer above the "Cone" layer and name it "Reflection." Get the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection, as in the image below. Fill it with white, and hit Command + D to Deselect.

Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective, grab the top right handle of the Bounding Box and drag it down to the middle of the page before applying it. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 25 px. Command-click the "Cone" layer to load the selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to Clear, then set Layer Opacity at 50%.

Step 9

We'll make two more reflection on the cone. First create a new layer above the "Reflection" layer and name it "Reflection" as well. Get the Rectangular Marquee Tool, select a rectangular area on the right of the cone, as in the image below, and fill with white. Note that this second rectangle is bigger than the first one. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective, grab the top left handle of the Bounding Box, and drag it to the center of the page before applying it. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 25 px. Command-click the "Cone" layer to load the selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to Clear, then set the Layer Opacity at 50%.

In order to create the final reflection on the cone, make a rectangular selection in the lower part of the cone, then create a new layer named "Reflection," and fill the selection with white. Deselect by hitting Command + D. Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective, this time grab the top left or top right handle and move it to the center of the page before applying. Once more go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 25 px. Command-click the "Cone" layer to load the selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to Clear, then set the Layer Opacity at 50%.

Step 10

Create a new layer below the "Cone" layer and name it "Plate." Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool. This time set the Width and Height both to 423 px. Click anywhere on the canvas, then move the cursor inside the selection and toward the center of the page, and snap to the guides. Fill the selection with color #48685d. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise, set Amount at 2%, set Distribution to Gaussian, with Monochromatic checked, and hit OK, then Deselect.

Apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 60%, Gradient set at black to white, with a Style of Linear, Angle set to -90 degrees, and Scale set at 150%. Apply an Inner Glow and use the following settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 25%, Color set to black, and Size set to 13 px.

Step 11

Create a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "Back" Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool. This time set the Width and Height both to 534 px. Click anywhere on the canvas, then move the cursor inside the selection and in the center of the page snap to the guides. Fill the selection with color #13221d and then Deselect.

Step 12

Now lets tidy up our Layers Palette a little bit. There are layers with the same name and we're going to merge them. Select all "Cone Edge" layers and go to Layer > Merge Layers. Select all "Reflection" layers and merge them as well.

Step 13

Create a new layer on the top of the layer stack and name it "Big Ring." Get the Elliptical Marquee Tool. This time set the Width and Height both to 474 px. Click anywhere on the canvas, then move the cursor inside the selection and toward the center of the page snap to the guides. Fill the selection with color #445852. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, set the Width and Height both to 418 px. Click anywhere in the canvas, then move the cursor inside the selection and toward the center of the page snap to the guides. Now we'll clear the selected area by hitting Delete. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Step 14

Apply Bevel and Emboss Layer Style to "Big Ring" layer with these settings: Style set to Inner Bevel, Depth at 365%, Direction set to Up, Size set to 30 px, and Soften set to 7 px. Also, in the Shading controls set Angle and Altitude to 50 degrees, then set Gloss Contour to Cove - Deep, set Highlight Opacity at 30%, and set Shadow Opacity to 65%. We'll also apply an Inner Glow using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 90%, Color set to black, and Size set to 7 px.

Step 15

Create a new layer above the "Back" layer and name it "Dark." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, and in the Tool Options set the Width and Height both to 490 px. Click anywhere in the canvas, then move the cursor inside the selection and toward the center of the page snap to the guides. Fill the selection with black and Deselect.

Step 16

Create a new layer above the "Back" layer and name it "Hole." Get the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set it to Fill Pixels, and set Radius to 10 px. Next, draw a rounded rectangle, as in the image below. Make sure it is centered to the vertical guide and it is placed a few pixels above the "Dark" layer.

Go to the Layers Palette and duplicate the "Hole" layer. Hit Command + T for Free Transform mode. Move the Transformation Origin to the center of the page. If you can't grab the origin, try grabbing it with the Alt key pressed. Rotate the layer 180 degrees.

Now select both hole layers and go to Layer > Merge Layers (Command + E.) Duplicate the holes layer again. Hit Command + T and rotate the layer 90 degrees. Select both hole layers and merge them again. Duplicate the layer one more time. Hit Command + T and rotate the layer 45 degrees this time. Select the two hole layers and merge them. Name the merged layer "Holes."

Step 17

Create a new layer above the "Back" layer and name it "Outer Ring." Command-click the "Back" Layer Thumbnail to load the selection. Fill the selection with color #2a3732. Now Command-click the "Holes" Layer Thumbnail to load the selection. Hide the "Holes" layer. Make sure the "Outer Ring" layer is selected in the Layers Palette. Hit Delete to clear the selected area. Deselect by hitting Command + D, and then Delete the "Holes" layer.

Step 18

Apply a Bevel and Emboss Layer Style to the "Outer Ring" layer using these settings: Style set to Inner Bevel, Depth set at 1%, Direction set to Up, Size set to 1 px, Angle and Altitude set to 50 degrees. Apply a Bevel and Emboss to the "Dark" layer as well, with these settings: Style set to Inner Bevel, Depth set at 32%, Direction set to Down, Size set to 2 px, and Angle and Altitude set to 50 degrees. Also, apply a Gradient Overlay with the following settings: Blend Mode set to Normal, Opacity at 30%, Gradient set at black to white, Style of Linear, and Angle set to 50 degrees.

Step 19

Create a new layer on the top of the layer stack. Name it "Screw." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and set the Style to Normal. Make a selection, as in the image below, then fill the selection with 10% gray. Next, apply these Layer Styles to the "Screw" layer:

Gradient Overlay with these settings: Blend Mode set to Normal, Opacity at 80, Gradient set at Black to White, Reverse checked, with a Style of Radial, Angle set to 90 degrees, and Scale set at 115%. Also, drag the center of the gradient up and toward the right.

Inner Glow using these settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 15%, Color set to Black, and Size set to 5 px.

Drop Shadow with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 100%, Color set to black, Angle set to 50 degrees, Distance set to 0, and Size set to 2 px.

Create a new layer above the "Screw" and name it "Screw Highlight." Command-click the "Screw" layer Thumbnail to load the selection, and fill the selection with White. Make sure the Elliptical Marquee Tool is selected, then move the selection 1 px right and 1 px up using the Arrow keys. Hit delete to Clear and then Deselect. Also, set the Layer Opacity to 40%.

Step 20

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then make a selection as shown below. Create a new layer at the top and name it "Screw Dent." Fill the selection with 10% gray. Make another rectangular selection and fill it again with 10% gray. Deselect by hitting Command + D.

Apply an Inner Shadow Layer Style to this layer and use these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity set at 100%, Angle set to 50 degrees, Distance set to 1 px, and Size set to 2 px. Set the "Screw Dent" layer's Blending Mode to Difference. Select "Screw," "Screw Highlight," and "Screw Dent" layers in the Layers Palette, then merge them by going to Layer > Merge Layers (Command + E). Name the merged layer "Screw."

Step 21

Now duplicate the "Screw" layer and place one screw at each screw hole. You can drag them to copy while holding down the Alt key. Now we're going to merge all the layers except for the "Background" layer. Make the "Background" layer invisible. Make sure one of the visible layers is selected, go to Layer > Merge Visible. Now we can start making the wood texture.

Step 22

Create a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "Wood." Pick #bb9966 as your Foreground and #885533 as your Background Color. Fill the layer with the Foreground Color and go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Set Variance to 16 and Strength to 42 and hit OK. Then apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style with these settings: Blend Mode set to Soft Light, Opacity at 45%, Gradient set at black to white, Reverse checked, Style set at Radial, Angle set to 75 degrees, and scale set at 150%. While the Gradient Overlay dialog is open, move the center of the gradient to the upper right corner by clicking and dragging on the page.

Step 23

Now right-click on the PSDTUTS logo at the top of this page and click Copy. Paste into Photoshop and place it as shown. Rename the layer as "PSDtuts." Make sure the "Wood" layer is selected in the Layers Palette. Hit Command + A to Select All and Command + C to copy. Go to the Channels Palette, then create a new Channel, and hit Command + V to paste the wood texture into this channel. Go to Image > Adjust > Levels and tweak the levels as shown below.

Step 24

Command-click the Channel Thumbnail to make a selection out of the white areas, then go back to the Layers Palette. Go to the "PSDtuts" layer and hit Delete to Clear the selected areas, then Deselect.

Conclusion

Go to the "Speaker" layer and apply a Drop Shadow Layer Style with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 100%, Angle set to 50 degrees, Distance set to 10 px, Spread set to 3 px, and Size set to 27 px.

That Drop Shadow was the final step of our tutorial. Hope you learned something new and had fun. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

(source: Eren Goksel, psdtuts.com)

Bitter Sweet Symphony

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:18:00 +0000

What do you think? This one's cool right? I love the contrast. Red and blue? I thought that two colors don't fit well. I think I misjudged them. lol.

Nice work jade0307.

Splatter Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:09:00 +0000

This set of brushes is cool too. I like this brush when I'm making graffiti like posters. Suits well. Thanks Kai05 for making one hell of a brush. Lolz.

Download here:

Fractal Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:23:00 +0000

According to wikipedia, a fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity.

This kind of brush is sometimes referred to Apophysis. But they are different. The only similarity they have is, they are cool!

Download here:

Nebulae Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:18:00 +0000

When I was a child, my greatest dream is to become an Astronaut. Dream is a dream. Dream is different from reality. But this brush can change our dream into reality. I think you know what I'm saying. I like this brush. Thanks Sunira! Cool!

Download here.

Cloud Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:15:00 +0000

I was looking for some Photoshop brushes in the internet when I stumbled upon on this awesome brush.

You can download this brush by clicking here.

Delicious Apple Illustration

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Step 1

Create a new document using the settings shown below.

Step 2

Create a new layer and name it "Apple." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, make a selection as in the below image. Next, grab the Gradient Tool, then pick Foreground to Background and set Style to Radial. Make your Foreground Color #88cc33 and Background Color #005522. Fill the selection as shown.

Step 3

Apply the Inner Shadow layer style using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 75%, Angle set to -90 degrees, Distance set to 45 pixels, and Size set to 80 pixels.

Step 4

Create a new layer and name it "Texture." Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection, if the selection is not still active. Use the colors from step one and go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Next go to Filter > Distort > Spherize, and set the Amount to 100% and Mode to Normal. This will give our simple texture a spheric look. Set the layer Blending Mode to Soft Light. Now we have some texture on the apple.

Step 5

Create a new layer on top and name it "Dots." Get the Brush Tool and set the Foreground Color to #ccdd99. Also, set the Master Diameter to 5 and Hardness to 100, then create several dots by placing single clicks all around the apple.

Set the Master Diameter to 3 pixels and paint some more. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection, if the selection is not still active. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, and set the Angle to 90 degrees and Distance to 3 pixels. Now go to Filter > Distort > Spherize, set the Amount to 100, set the Mode to Normal, and apply it. Set the layer Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity at 50%. Hit Command + D to deselect.

Step 6

Create a new layer on top and name it "Dent." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection, as shown in the below image, then fill it with white and Deselect. Create another layer and name this one "Dent Shadow." Make an elliptical selection, as in the image below, and fill it with black.

Alt-click on the line between the "Dent Shadow" and "Dent" layers in the Layers Palette. Deselect by hitting Command + D. This will define the "Dent" layer as a Clipping Mask for the "Dent Shadow" layer. Now go to the "Dent" layer in the Layers Palette and set the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Go back to the "Dent Shadow" layer and apply a Gaussian Blur filter with a radius of 17 pixels. Set the Layer Opacity at 75%. The size of the dent ellipse may vary in your document, so you can adjust the Radius of Gaussian Blur filter to avoid the visible top edge of the ellipse.

Step 7

Now we'll make some highlights. Create a new layer on top of the layer stack and name it "Highlight 1." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection, as in the below image, and fill it with white. Now make a bigger elliptical selection as shown, then hit Delete to clear the selection. Deselect and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 10 pixels.

Step 8

Create a new layer on top of the layer stack and name it "Highlight 2." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with white. Now make another elliptical selection as shown, then hit Delete to clear the selection. Also, don't forget the select and clear the white piece below. Deselect and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, then apply with a Radius of 8 pixels.

Step 9

Now create a new layer below "Highlight 1" layer and name it "Black." As you can tell from the name, we are going to fill it with black. Now select "Black," "Highlight 1," and "Highlight 2" layers in the Layers Palette and merge them by hitting Command + E. Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter. Set Spray Radius to 6 and Smoothness to 14. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection, go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Set layer Blending Mode to Screen. Deselect.

Step 10

Create a new layer above the "Dots" layer, and name it "Red." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with the color #ffbe00. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 50 pixels. Next, set the layer Blending Mode to Hue. Now, deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 11

Create a new layer below the "Red" layer, name it "Yellow." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with the color #fff444. Command-click the "Apple" layer to load the selection. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 50 pixels. Next, set the layer Blending Mode to Hard Light and Opacity at 75%. Deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 12

Create a new layer on top and name it "Reflection." Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with white. We'll make a window reflection out of this rectangle. So select two rectangular areas as shown, then clear them.

Step 13

Go to the Layers Palette and add a Layer Mask to the "Reflection" layer by clicking the Add Layer Mask button. Grab the Gradient Tool, set it to Linear Gradient. Fill the layer Mask with the gradient, as you can see in the below image.

The Layer Mask is selected at the moment, click the "Reflection" layer thumbnail to go back to the layer. Now, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 8 pixels. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp, and select Arc from the presets list, then set the Bend to -20%.

Step 14

Create a new layer on top and name it "Backlight." Command-click the "Apple" layer thumbnail and fill the selection with white. Make sure the Marquee Tool is selected, then move the selection about 10 pixels left using the Left Arrow key. Now, hit Delete to clear.

Command-click the "Apple" layer again to load the selection, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 7 pixels. Hit Command + D to deselect. Grab the Eraser Tool, then set the Master Diameter to 270 pixels and Hardness at 0%. Erase the lower part of the backlight, as you can see in the below image.

Step 15

Create a new layer and name it "Stalk." Grab the Pen Tool, set to Paths in the tools options. Draw a curve for the stalk of the apple. Now, grab the Brush Tool and open the Brushes Palette. Under Shape Dynamics, set the Dynamic Control for Size to Fade. Set the Steps for Size Fade to 70 and set Minimum Brush Diameter to 20%. Under Brush Tip Shape, set the Diameter to 14 pixels and Hardness to 100%. Now, set the Foreground Color to #884411.

Go to Paths Palette, open the Paths Palette pop-up menu (click the triangle in the upper right to open) and choose Stroke Path, set the Tool to Brush and hit OK. Click somewhere outside the path in the Paths Palette. Command-click the "Dent" layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette to load its selection.

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then while holding the Shift key, make a selection that covers the upper part of the stalk. Go to Select > Inverse, then hit Delete to clear the lower exceeding part of the stalk, and deselect.

The path you have drawn is stored in the Paths Palette as a "Work Path." It stays there until you draw another path, then the new path you draw will be your "Work Path." If you want to keep the existing path before you draw a new one, you can give it a name by double-clicking on the path. Thus you won't loose it when you draw a new one. If you want the path to disappear in your document, then go to Paths Palette and click somewhere outside the path in the Paths Palette.

Step 16

Create a new layer and name it "Stalk Highlight." Grab the Brush Tool and set the Master Diameter to 5 pixels. Set the Foreground Color to white. Now go to the Paths Palette, make sure Work Path is selected, open the Paths Palette pop-up menu, then choose Stroke Path, set Tool to Brush, and hit OK.

Command-click the "Stalk" layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette to load its selection. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 1 pixel. Set the layer Opacity at 40%. Select the "Stalk" layer in the Layers Palette, then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set the Amount at 3%, set Distribution to Uniform, make sure Monochromatic is checked. Now, deselect by hitting Command + D.

Grab the Burn Tool, and using a soft brush (I set Master Diameter to 65 pixels and Hardness to 0%), make the bottom part of the stalk darker.

Step 17

Create a new layer below the "Stalk" layer and name it "Stalk Shadow." Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection, as in the image below. Fill it with black and Deselect. Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and tweak the perspective of the layer as shown.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 7 pixels, and apply. Grab the Eraser Tool, and using a soft brush, clear the top part of the shadow. Next, Command-click the "Dent" layer to load the selection. Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then while holding the Shift key, make a selection that will cover the top part of the shadow. Now go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Deselect and set the Layer Opacity to 60%.

Step 18

Now we can make the finishing touches before we merge the layers. First, I'll fill the background with the color #004400. Next, I made some minor changes. I set the Opacity of the "Highlight" layer at 85%, "Yellow" at 35%, "Red" at 85%, "Dent Shadow" at 95%, "Backlight" at 60%, "Reflection" at 55%.

I applied an Inner Glow Layer Style to the "Apple" layer to make the edges a little bit darker using these settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 30%, Size set to 20 pixels, and Color set to #003300. I also changed the "Apple" layer Inner Shadow Opacity to 45%.

Finally, I applied an Outer Glow layer style to the "Dots" layer with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 60%, Color set to #2b2b2b, and Size set to 8 pixels. Now select all the layers except the "Background" layer in the Layers Palette, then go to Layer > New > Group From Layers, and name the group "Apple."

Step 19

Create a new layer below the "Apple" group and name it "Shadow." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with black. Deselect and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 40 pixels.

Step 20

Create a new layer above the "Background" layer and name it "Light." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with the color #338833. Deselect, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and apply with a Radius of 75 pixels.

Step 21

Now we have our apple ready but it looks too much like a sphere, but you can give it an apple shape using the Warp transform. Right-click the "Apple" group and merge it. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp and distort it to give it an apple shape.

Conclusion

You'll see some distortion on the edges which are caused by the Warp transform. To get rid of them Command-click the "Apple" layer, go to Select > Modify > Feather, and set the Radius to 1 pixel. Next, go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete three or four times to clear the distorted area from the edges. And you finished!

(source: Eren Goksel, psdtuts.com)

Simulating Fractals in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:49:00 +0000

Step 1

Wikipedia define fractals as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole." There are many ways to create fractals, most involve complex mathematical formulas, or fractal software programs, like Apohpysis for example, but with our good old Photoshop we can simulate the fractals behavior using repeating shapes and some useful keyboard shortcuts.

So, let's get it started. First we'll start with a 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels document, it's huge because I'm planning to use it as a desktop background. Then, show the ruler (Command + R) and change the unit to Percent. Now, draw two guides, one horizontal and the other vertical, and place them in the middle of the document. Next, using the Gradient Fill Tool, draw a radial gradient (#095261 - #000000), which should look similar to the image below.

Step 2

Now here's the only shape you'll draw: a circle, yes I'm not kidding, everything starts from a single circle. Draw it using the Ellipse Tool, hold the Shift key to create a perfect circle, and if you want hold the Alt key to draw it from the center. The circle size is 83 pixels by 83 pixels and it's located in the middle of the document. Now, create a new folder named "Fractal" and place the circle shape inside of it.

Step 3

Let's add some depth and volume to our shape. First, apply a Gradient Overlay that goes from dark blue to light blue, with a Drop Shadow, 50% Opacity, and a 0px distance, some Bevel and Emboss, including a texture. Just follow the images below.

Step 4

Now duplicate the circle layer by dragging the shape while pressing the Alt key, then merge the circle copy with a new blank layer to keep the style proportional. Resize the copy a little bit and place it 120 degrees from the middle of the document, you can use a triangle as a guide (I drew the triangle using the Polygon Tool).

Place the copy just over one of it's corners. Repeat this twice to get three small circles around the big circle. Delete the triangle and finally merge the four circles into a new layer called "Fractal 1" (If you want leave a copy of the original vector shape just in case).

Step 5

Here comes the fun part, we're going to repeat two steps several times. This is the first one, we'll Duplicate and then Free Transform. To get the right effect we need to use the shortcut Command + Alt + T. This command duplicates the existing image and allows to free transform the copy. Do not click anywhere and go to next step.

Step 6

While holding the Shift key, resize the "Fractal 1 copy" just a little bit, then rotate the copy a few degrees Clockwise. The trick to simulate the fractals is move the Transform center to the left, right, top, or bottom, depending on your needs. This time we'll move it a lot left. Finally, hit Enter.

Step 7

Now we're going to use another useful keyboard shortcut. Press Command + Shift + Alt + T to apply Free Transform again once and see the result. What happened? Photoshop takes the previous values of the Free Transform and apply them to the new object. If you repeat this command several times you'll get a nice fractal swirl. Photoshop creates a new layer each time you apply this command.

Step 8

Now, duplicate the entire "Fractal 1" folder, then select the "Fractal 1 copy" folder and hit Command E to merge the group. Now name the resulting layer "Fractal 2", then hide the original folder. Also, move the "Fractal 2" layer some pixels down and to the right from the middle of the document.

Step 9

Select the "Fractal 2" layer, then apply the Duplicate and Free Transform keyboard shortcut from Step 5 (Command + Alt + T), though change the transformation center to the middle of the document and rotate the image -120 degrees CCW.

Step 10

Now hit the Free Transform again keyboard shortcut from Step 7 (Command + Shift + Alt + T), doing this you'll duplicate the 120 degrees rotate transformation exactly. Finally, put the three layers into a new folder named "Fractal 2," Now, duplicate the folder and merge the copy, hide the original folder, and name the merged copy "Fractal 2."

Step 11

Duplicate and Free Transform (Command + Alt + T) the "Fractal 2" layer, keep the transformation center where it is, then while holding Shift + Alt keys, resize and rotate the copy just a little bit. Try to get something like the image below.

Step 12

Change the "Fractal 2 copy" layer Hue/Saturation, use the values shown below. We'll make this one a little bit green.

Step 13

Free Transform again the layer and adjust Hue / Saturation using these values.

Step 14

Repeat the Free Transform again command (Command + Shift + Alt + T) as many times as you want, but always change the Hue and Saturation to get one green layer above a blue one. When you have finished, group all the layers into a new folder called "Fractal 3." Next, duplicate the folder and merge the copy, just like in the previous steps. Name the copy "Fractal 3."

Step 15

Add a dark Drop Shadow to the "Fractal 3" layer.

Step 16

Duplicate and Free Transform (Command + Alt + T) the "Fractal 3" layer, rotate the copy a few degrees CW, resize it a little bit making the copy smaller, and change the transformation center to the top-left, then hit Enter.

Step 17

Free Transform again (Command + Shift + Alt + T) a lot of times to get something like this. You can repeat these steps as many times as you want, but I'll stop the design right here.

Conclusion

As you can see, you can apply this technique to create a lot of abstract designs, or mixing the fractal shapes with real images to improve your outcome. It's up to you from here. Good luck! You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

(source: Alvaro Guzman, psdtuts.com)

Creating a Dramatic Winged Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:31:00 +0000

Step 1

I've always liked dragons, this time I've got the chance to create a dragon using a few real life pictures and mock-up the creature into a realistic landscape. First of all, find your pictures. The scene isn't a problem, you can use any picture, I'm using this, which is a nice ruined castle to put my dragon on it.

We'll see forward how to pick the right pictures to make a good composite. I must say that this isn't always a step by step process. I'm writing the steps according to my creative process, but you can follow your instinct to get a very similar result without following the same order.

Create a new document, 1440 pixels by 900 pixels RGB. Paste the castle picture into a new layer. Using the Eye dropper select a sample color of the sky and create a new Fill layer with that color (in this case #EAEFF5). Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all, and fill the mask with a black to white (#000000 - #FFFFFF) vertical gradient. Finally, merge both layers and name the resultant layer "Castle."

Step 2

Let's add the main part of our dragon. After two hours searching for an image that matches the castle shape I've found this beautiful picture of a baby iguana. Paste it into a new layer and make it smaller, then move the picture above the castle.

Step 3

Select the "Lizard" layer, and bring down its Opacity a little bit, maybe to 65%. Resize the picture trying to place the iguana's legs over the castle. Next comes the hardest part of the entire process: extract the lizard shape. I tried to find some easy and quick way to extract the iguana from the background using a color channel, but I didn't like the result. So, I just grab the Lasso Tool and extract the shape in a classic way. It took about twenty minutes. Also, remove a little bit of the neck skin.

Step 4

Maybe this baby iguana is the nicest lizard ever, we need to reveal its dark side though. Go to Filter > Liquify and select the Pucker Tool, then set the Brush size to 150 and Brush Density to 50, and make a few clicks over the lizard's eye to make it smaller. Also, ensure the Show Backdrop option is disable. Click OK to see the result.

Step 5

Go to the Liquify window and select the Forward Warp Tool (W). Set the brush size to 50 and Density to 50. Then start warping some little areas of the lizard's head. Pull the neck inside, make the nose wider, and the nose hole a little bit higher. Try to get something like the bottom of the image below. Since this is a test and error process you can edit the shape as many times as you want until you find the desired look. Also, you can play with the brush sizes and density values.

Step 6

The liquify process make some areas a little bit blurry, so select the Sharpen Tool (R) and sharpen the lizard's nose hole, eye, and mouth.

Step 7

Now let's add a couple of wings to our dragon. Since the dinosaurs has gone, there's no way to take a picture of a reptile wing, so we'll use the most similar image we can find, in this case a bat wing. Find your bat or download this one, then extract one of the wings. You can use the Lasso Tool this time. Try to get a piece of then bat's body when you're extracting as well.

Step 8

Go to the Liquify window and select the Forward Warp Tool (W). Then sharpen one of the points of the wing.

Step 9

Select the wing and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Then apply a Layer mask > Reveal All, and using a soft Brush paint with black (#000000) over the layer mask to hide the extra wing. Try to get something like the bottom of following image.

Step 10

Now change the "Wing" layer's Hue / Saturation by clicking Command + U. And set the following values.

Step 11

Now Warp the wing a little bit to make it stretch. To warp an image, just use the Free Transform options, click on a corner and select Warp form the menu options. Hit Return when you have finished.

Step 12

Next, Use a white (#FFFFFF) brush to paint over the wing's layer mask to reveal some little areas of the wing, try to create a nice join between the wing skin and body skin. Also, improve the wing shape especially on the wave next to the body. Switch the brush size making it smaller or bigger anytime you need to.

Step 13

Duplicate the "Wing" layer and place it behind all the other layers. Then Free Transform the second wing a little bit to make it smaller.

Step 14

Clone some areas of the second wing to hide the tendons.

Step 15

Warp the second wing a little bit just to make it look different. Then go to Filter > Blur > Blur and apply it a few times.

Step 16

At this point our dragon has taken shape, but we must improve the details. Go to the Liquify window and select the Bloat Tool to inflate the leg a little bit. Then select the Sharpen Tool and sharpen the fingers a little bit.

Step 17

Now this is an important step, using the Lasso Tool copy a big piece of the "Castle" layer and paste it above the "lizard" and "wings" layers, name it "pieces of castle." Next using the Magic Wand Tool, select the sky above the "pieces of castle" and delete it. Using a small Eraser delete the borders and try to obtain a natural effect on the wall's rocks.

Step 18

Take a look at the lighting, our dragon doesn't match with castle's lightening. Let's fix that!. First of all we need to create two copies of the entire dragon. Create a new folder, put "Lizard" and "Wings" layers on it and name the folder "Dragon", then duplicate the folder and merge the copy, do not delete the original "Lizard" and "Wings" layers because we'll using them later, just hide the original folder. Once you have created two copies of the dragon, let's change their lightening, press Command + L to adjust the levels of the first copy, and make it lighter. Then select the second copy and adjust the levels to make it darker. Then apply a Layer mask > Hide all to each copy and finally, put both copies above the original dragon on layer's palette.

Step 19

Lets grab your Brush Tool, and start painting with white in (#FFFFFF) the dragon's light copy layer mask. Paint the left areas of the dragon according to the light source (see the castle's shadows for reference), Change the brush sizes anytime you want, also if you make a mistake when painting, just switch the color to black (#000000) and paint over.

Step 20

Now repeat the previous step on the dragon's dark copy this time. Remember you'll be painting on the layer mask. When you have finished this process you'll notice the lightening is a lot better than before.

Step 21

Select the "Castle" layer, grab the Burn Tool and paint over the dark areas of the castle, just a little bit. Also, Burn the "pieces of castle" layer too.

Step 22

Put all the dragon's layers into a new folder, duplicate the folder and merge the copy, then hide the original. This is a good moment to Dodge and Burn the merged dragon. I like it just the way it is, but the front leg needs to be less saturated, so I'll use the Sponge Tool.

Step 23

Now we're gong to add a dramatic style to the sky. Use the Magic Wand Tool and select the sky on the "Castle" layer, also holding the Shift key select the sea too. Crate a new layer above the "Castle" layer and name it "Clouds1."

Set the foreground color to black (#000000) and the background color to gray (#A8A8A8), then go to Filters > Render > Clouds. Then change the "Clouds1" layer Blending mode to Color Burn and hide the bottom of "Clouds1" layer adding to it a gradient (#FFFFFF - #000000) Layer Mask.

Step 24

Now we'll need to fix some imperfections on our dragon's face. Hide the big white circles on the dragon's neck by using the Clone Tool.

Step 25

Now we'll paint some shadows over the dragon, reference Step 18. Go to the original folder and Command-click over the "Lizard" layer miniature, then hold the Shift key and Command-click the "Wing" layer. Then hit Command + Shift + I to invert the selection.

Step 26

Now use a soft black (#000000) Brush and paint some shadows areas on a new layer named "Shadows." Also, change the "Shadow" layer's Blending Mode to Multiply. By using the selection, you'll only be painting on the selected area leaving the rest clean.

Step 27

Deselect the previous selection and paint more dark areas all across the dragon's shape and over the castle. You can use the Smudge Tool to smooth your painting.

Step 28

Use a smaller brush to draw some dark details over the face, mouth, and eyes.

Step 29

Now add some light details here and there using several sizes of white (#FFFFFF) brushes. Use the Smudge Tool if it's needed.

Step 30

At this point, we have the design almost complete. Here is a trick to create a more dramatic scene. Hit D on your keyboard to load the default palette. Create a new layer above all the other layers and name it "Clouds Top." Go to Filter > Render > Clouds and change its Blending mode to Overlay and it Opacity to 85%.

Step 31

Put all your layers into a new folder named "Dragon," then duplicate the folder and merge the copy. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, set the radius to 2px and hit OK. Next, change the "Dragon copy" layer Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 35%.

Step 32

Finally, if you want to, add a new Adjustment layer > Photo Filter, select the Color option, and set the color to #D5A461.

Conclusion

That's it, try to make your own fantasy creature. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

(source: Alvaro Guzman, psdtuts.com)

Flaming Meteor Effect on Text

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:50:00 +0000

Step 1

First create a new document and fill it with a dark grey.

Step 2

Create a new layer, call it "Clouds," and using the Lasso Tool (L), make a selection similar to the one I've shown below.

Set your background color to a 50% grey and the foreground to a dark grey. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds and, holding the Alt key, create clouds. After that go to Images > Adjustments > Levels, and change the input levels and output levels until you make the clouds neither too dark nor too light (see the image shown).

This layer will be on top of the others.

Step 3

Create another layer and repeat Step 2, but this time just change the background color from 50% gray to a blue or green color. This will create a small cloud, lighter than the big one.

Step 4

Now we'll switch to Adobe Illustrator to create some text. I used Times New Roman for the font. After that go to Effect > 3D > Extrude and Bevel. Now we will create the 3D text. Rotate the object and change the perspective. You can use the same values as I did (shown below).

Step 5

Copy the 3D text and paste it in Photoshop.

Place it in the center and add some Noise (Filter > Noise > Add Noise).

Now let's change the Layer Style. First add Bevel and Emboss.

After that, let's add a Gradient Overlay.

Step 6

Duplicate the Type layer and add a Motion Blur (Filter > Blur > Motion Blur).

Set the angle of the blur to -53.

Change the layer mode to Linear Dodge (Add).

Create a Folder, call it "Typo," and move these two layers into it.

Step 7

Create a new layer and repeat the Step 2, this time using a selection as shown going out the back of the letter T. This will create the trailing smoke.

Step 8 Creating the FIRE

1 - Create a new layer and call it "fire1."

2 - With the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), create a selection.

3 - Set the background color to light grey and the background to black.

4 - Create clouds as we did in Step 2.

5 - Change the Levels to increase the contrast;

6 - Change the Hue/Saturation with Colorize selected until you get an orange/yellow color.

Step 9

Create a new layer, call it "blazes," and repeat Step 8. After that, duplicate the layer and call it "flames." Create a folder and move the Fire1, Blazes, and Flames layers to this folder and call the whole folder "Fire." It will be on top of the Typo layer.

Step 10

Select the layer "blazes" and go to Filter > Liquefy. There select the Turbulence Tool (T). Now, on the edges of the fire, start creating some blazes. Use it like you would the smudge tool.

Set 11

After the Liquefy, go to Edit > Transform > Warp and change the blaze's form to something similar to the image below. After that apply Filter > Sharpen > Sharp.

Step 12

Create a new layer and call it "yellow color."
Create an ellipse selection with 30px feather and fill it with white.
After that edit the Layer Style and apply a Color Overlay using an yellow color and Multiply for the layer's blend mode.

Step 13

The order and the Blend modes for the fire are:

Flames: Lighter Color
Blazes: Normal
Fire1: Lighten
Yellow Color: Multiply

Step 14 Sparks

For the sparks we will use brushes. Create a folder and call it "Sparks." It will be on top of the Fire folder.

Inside the folder, add a new layer.

Fill it with black and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.

Select the Brush Tool and let's create a brush.

In Brush Tip Shape, change the Diameter to 12, and increase the spacing.

Select Scattering and set Scatter to the 1000% and Control to off. Change the Count to 2 and Count Jitter to 100%.

Select white and start painting some sparks.

Step 15

Create a new layer and repeat the Step 14 but now change the Scatter Option to 0%. Start creating some single line sparks like swirls.

Step 16

Here I used the Gomedia Spraypaint brushes to create those tiny little sparks, but you can repeat the step 14 changing the Brush size only. Basically, create a new layer, put it behind the others, fill it with black, change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, see the color to white, and create the sparks.

Conclusion

(source: Fabio, psdtuts.com)

Super Slick Dusky Lighting

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:33:00 +0000

Steps and Assets

We are using a few assets including a photo from iStockPhoto and some vectors from Arsenal's Freebie Section.

Step 1:

So here's our original photo from iStock. It's a pretty gorgeous photo with great sunset lighting and contrast for us to build on.

Step 2:

First off we duplicate the photo, press Ctrl-Shift-U to desaturate the image to Black and White. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and make the image a bit brighter and contrastier as shown.

Step 3:

Now go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a mild blur of 2px.

Step 4:

Now we set the blurred black and white layer to blending mode Overlay and Opacity 50%. This gives us a slightly surreal blurring on the image. BE WARNED: This effect (blurring then overlaying) is a bit of favorite of amateurs, so go easy on it. When you do use it, make sure you fade it out a reasonable amount so it doesn't look too tacky.

Step 5:

Now the lighting is pretty nice already, but I'd like some pinkish hues in the image as it makes the image a lot warmer than bluish colors.

So in a new layer, use the Paintbucket to fill with a bright pink color. Then use the Eraser Tool with a large, soft brush and remove some areas where you don't want as much pink to shine through (this was pretty arbitrary for me and just gives the image more depth rather it being uniformly colored). We then set the blending mode to Color and 20% Opacity. Actually I did those two steps the other way around (I blended first then erased the bits I didn't want).

Step 6:

Here's the image after adding the pink.

Step 7:

Now to make the sun rays, we are going to use a combination of glowing edges and radial blurring. So duplicate the original colored layer and put it on top of all the other layers. Then go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges and use settings of 1, 11, and 15 respectively for Width, Brightness, and Smoothness.

Step 8:

Now we go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and apply settings as shown. Make sure that you have set the blur method to Zoom (not Spin). Also importantly move the Blur Center until it's roughly in the position of the image where the woman was standing, i.e. where the 'sun' is going to be. You may have to do this a couple of times to get the positioning exactly right because it's a bit trial and error.

Once you've got it, apply the Radial Blur again by pressing Ctrl+F (to repeat the last filter used).

Step 9:

Now set the blending mode for this layer to Screen.

Screen blending mode basically knocks out darker colors to only leave the lighter ones. This is the opposite to Multiply which knocks out any lighter colors and just leaves darker ones. This is really handy for when you have say a logo on a white background and you want to apply it to an image but don't want to cut it out - instead you just set it to Multiply (or Screen if it's on black).

Step 10:

To get the light looking more like sunlight, we go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and tick the box that says Colorize to add some more color to the light rays. Then move the sliders around until you get a reddish tint and press OK.

Step 11:

Now repeat the process (Glowing Edges > Radial Blur > Screening the Image) a couple of times to get more light rays as shown. Try moving the Radial Zoom filter around a little to get different casts of light to mix together.

Also as you add extra layers on you can always use the Eraser tool to remove some parts of a layer and leave others so that they blend together well. This is generally a matter of playing around with the image until it looks right. Also note that you can use Layer Masks to do this without losing any image data, but because I never used Masks when I was learning Photoshop, out of habit I still do things the old (and probably a bit dumb) way :-)

Step 12:

Next we want to add the big glowing center to the image. So create a new layer on top of all the others and get a large, soft brush and with White as your foreground color paint a blob of white over where the woman's silhouette is.

Step 13:

To this blob of white, we now add an Outer Glow of yellow set to Overlay (as shown). You can do this by right clicking on the layer and selecting Blending Options.

Step 14:

Now in your tools palette choose the Smudge Tool (R) which you can see in the image. Using your mouse, smudge your ball of light outwards. Note that in the image shown, I've done some pretty big smudges so you can see roughly what we're doing, but in reality you should make smaller, more subtle smudges.

What you are trying to do here is give it a burst of light feel. You might want to duplicate the layer and have a couple of them together which is what I've done in the sample PSD.

Step 15:

Now what sunset would be complete without a lens flare? Rather than using the filter though just create a new layer on top and draw a circle as shown and fill it with white. Set it to blending mode Overlay and about 10% Opacity. Then create a new layer and do the same with a smaller circle and repeat again a couple of times until you have a subtle lens flare as shown.

Then merge the layers together and set it all to about 30% because we want this to be really subtle!

Step 16:

Now in new layers we paste in some of our vector images. I've used a sort of swirly wing thing from Arsenal's Freebie Section and also the capital letter A from a font called Porcelain, which you can get from Misprinted Type for free.

I chose both because they have lots of lines and swirls which fits what I want to do. I also duplicated the swirly wing vector, flipped it by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, then Ctrl+T to scaled it down in the transform menu. That way its good for little details.

Step 17:

Now fit the three images together as shown. When we switch them to white, we want most of the objects to be obscured with just bits of swirl poking out the edges.

Step 18:

So now for each layer we press Ctrl+I to invert the color from Black to White and then right-click the layers and select Blending Options. Then we add an Outer Glow as shown to make them fit in with the main ball of light.

Step 19:

You should now have something that looks like the image below.

Step 20:

Now for the final touches, I've added some text using the font Chalet which is wonderfully elegant but isn't too over the top. Note that you might feel tempted to add a swirly, cursive type font for text, but this would be overkill. It's much better to contrast the complexity of the main image with a very simple and understated type treatment (in my opinion). Anyhow as you can see I've placed it near the center of the image.

Looking at the final image, I also decided it needed a little more color so I added a layer at the very top filled with a reddish color (#957070) and set it to Overlay at 30%. This warms up the image a little more, and you'll see that layer in the final shot.

Final Image:

And finally we're all done. Click the image below for the high-res version of our finished product!

(source: Collis, psdtuts.com)

Transparent Glass Lettering

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:27:00 +0000

Step 1:

BACKGROUND LAYER

To begin this tutorial, we'll first give ourselves a nice background gradient. Now while most gradients are two-color, in Photoshop you can actually make much more complex gradients by clicking on the Gradient icon in the top left. You'll get a panel showing the gradient and you can add more colors to it. In this case, I've used three colors to make a gradual change from green to a set of blues.

Multi-color gradients can make for a stunning background. I've used a Radial Gradient and centered it to the bottom right.

The colors I've used are:

Color 1 - #2e5b15

Color 2 - #103533

Color 3 - #090e13

Step 2:

Now we need a letter. I've used the letter Q because it's my favorite, particularly in this serifed style. This is from the font Adobe Caslon Pro which I suspect came with my Photoshop install--although who knows, I have way to many fonts to remember! Give your letter a nice blue- green color. I've used #41a993.

Step 3:

Now after this, I basically went through all the different types of layer styles and just experimented with them all. You can produce some really wicked combinations with a bit of trying out. The main things I did here were:

Decrease Fill Opacity to 20%. Fill Opacity makes the layer transparent WITHOUT making the styles transparent. Note that this is DIFFERENT to Opacity which just makes everything see-through.
Another thing I did was to try changing angles around, using different blending modes, and building the layers up slowly.

In any case, you can see all the exact settings by downloading the sample PSD file from the link on the top right. You can then right click that layer and hit Copy Layer Styles if you just want to paste it into your own file.

Step 4:

So here is the result of my layer styles. It's a pretty cool-looking style.

Note that I've made it look as if the light is coming from the bottom. This matches the direction of my gradient and gives a convincing look. I've then also used a fainter set of highlights coming from the other side. This vaguely matches how glass sometimes reflects light about.

Step 5:

Now hold down Ctrl and click on the Q layer to select the shape and add a white to transparent gradient coming from the bottom into a NEW layer.

You can do color to transparent gradients by clicking on the Gradient Tool in the top left and holding it down to see the whole set of gradients (as we did earlier in this tutorial). The second one along is color to transparency. It's SUCH a useful gradient. Great for this sort of glass/plastic effects in particular.

Now fade this back by changing its blend mode to Overlay.

Step 6:

Now again hold Ctrl and select the Q layer. In a new layer, again add a radial white to transparent gradient, this time coming from the top down as shown.

Fade this one out by setting its opacity to 40%.

Step 7:

Now on the same layer as in the last step, draw an ellipse with the Selection Tool and hit Ctrl+Shift+I to select the inverse. Then hit delete to remove some of that gradient that we just drew.

Basically this makes the white suddenly stop and gives us a glassy feel. Try cutting in different ways to see the different sort of effects you can make.

Step 8:

Now glass shines, so lets add some highlights to make it look really shiny. You can do this by choosing the Custom Shape Tool (U) and then in the top left click on Polygon and then on the down arrow to get options as shown. Tick Star and make sure your indent is set to 99% to make some nice little 5 pointed stars.

Now in a new layer with white as your foreground color, just add some highlighted stars liberally about. It's best to place them on the most highlighted parts of the Q to make it look like they are sparkles from those highlights.

Step 9:

And there you have the finished product: a glassy lettering style.

(source: Collis, psdtuts.com)

Old World Look Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:07:00 +0000

Here's the image we're going to be making:

Assets

To do this, we're going to need a few assets to work with. I'm using some vector shapes from GoMedia/Arsenal's Freebie Section. Arsenal is a set of vector packs that you buy which can be used in Illustrator or Photoshop. In this instance because I'm cheap, I just went to the "Freebie" section and downloaded everything there!

Additionally I needed a compass image which I got from iStockPhoto for $1. I'm also using the Nuptial Script font. I can't for the life of me remember where I got this font or if its free or not. In any case, if you haven't got that specific font you can probably find something similar.

Part 1 - the Banner

I've split this tutorial up into two sections, then at the end we bring them together to form the final image. You should download the PSD and take a look through it. This image is really pretty complicated and it will make more sense when you look at the layers!

Step 1:

So first of all, we start with a background gradient. As always I'm using a Radial Gradient, and taking some dark bluish colors.

Foreground color - #35444b

Background color - #1a2023

Step 2:

Now the next thing to do is paste in the first of our vector images. This is a sort of banner thing.

There are two ways you can do this. After you go to the GoMedia site, click on the Freebie section and you'll download an EPS document. These documents are in a vector format and ideally you can open them in Illustrator then copy+paste the vector over to Photoshop. If you do it this way, you'll get a Smart Vector Object which you can resize without losing any quality. If you do this, you may need to right-click the layer afterwards and click Rasterize Layer as we need to do some work on it.

Alternatively if you don't have/use Illustrator, then just open the EPS file in Photoshop. It will ask you how what size you want to rasterize it at. I just choose some random values and then redo it a couple of times until I have the right size. Note that once it is rasterized, you will lose information in the image when you resize, so its best to only do it once.

Anyhow here's the banner:

Step 3:

Now get the Magic Wand Selection Tool (W) and click on the top part of the banner, then create a new layer and fill it with a beige color (#dfd6b8)

Step 4:

Repeat the process with the two parts of the banner in the background (as shown below).

Next we want to roughen it up a bit, which we can do with the Burn Tool (O). In case you've never used the Dodge and Burn tools, basically they either darken or lighten an object. You use them by painting with a paintbrush and they are pretty neat tools. One handy tip is that once you have selected say the Burn Tool, then you can hold down Alt and it will switch to Dodge (and vice versa) so that you don't need to go to the toolbar and change there.

Now because we want a really gritty look, it pays to use a gritty brush. In this instance, I've used a brush I again downloaded from the GoMedia site's Freebie section. You just download them and then go open up the Brush palette, click on the little right-pointing arrow and choose Load Brushes and they should all appear at the bottom.

Once you have a nice grungy brush, just start burning the right hand side as shown. Do it in short blobs so you get a nice rough texture.

Step 5:

Repeat this process on the other side, then use a bit of Dodge in the middle. Then repeat again at the back, so that the bits towards the middle are darkened and the outsides are lightened.

Note that we are trying to simulate light here with the light source from dead ahead. So the reason we're doing it like this is that the bits on either side should be dark because those parts are turning away from the viewer. At the back, the parts in the middle are falling into folds so they would be shadowed. Of course this is just a vague approximation, but it helps with the overall visual.

Step 6:

Now hold down Ctrl and click on the layer with the top beige part to select it. Then press the up arrow a few times. Then switch back to the original banner vector layer and press Delete.

Basically we are getting rid of the top black line.

Step 7:

Now in a new layer, fill the selection with a dark blue (#283438)

Step 8:

Get out the ol' Burn Tool again and start to give this layer some texture. As before you want the edges to be slightly darker than the center, though don't make the effect too pronounced.

Step 9:

Now duplicate the beige layer from behind and move it up a little and then to the left as shown. This gives our banner an off-center kind of look which makes it superbad!

Step 10:

Next we're going to replace the rest of the vector black part with dark blue and again give it some texture. So hold down Ctrl and click on that layer to select it. Then fill it with a dark blue.

Step 11:

Now again go through and use the Burn Tool to add shadows to the parts that are going into the folds to give it a bit of three-dimensionality.

Step 12:

Next in a new layer write out some text. I wrote some random words here. Use a beige color and choose a nice font. In this case I'm using Nuptial Script.

Step 13:

Now click on the Type Tool (T) and up the top click on that T with the arrow beneath it to bring up the Warp Text options. Here we're using Arc and giving it a bend of about 43%.

Note that if you are an illustrator user you could do a Text on a Path thing in Illustrator and then copy it over and it might have less distortion on the letters. But since this is a Photoshop tutorial and not an Illustrator one, we'll just stick to PS :-)

Step 14:

Next I've added some layer styles to make the text look kind of golden. You can open up the PSD at the end of this tutorial and just copy the layer style by right-clicking on the layer and choosing Copy Layer Style. I love layer styles as you will no doubt realize if you read enough of my tutorials. The best thing to do when using layer styles is play around with every setting, there are so many cool things you can do.

Step 15:

So you should have something that looks kind of like the image shown below! Next we're going to make the background and coloring. So switch off these layers' visibility and lets get started with the background.

Part 2 - the Background

In this section, we're going to make all the other parts of the image. These kind of go around what we've already done--the best way to see the order of the layers is to look at the Photoshop file.

Step 16:

So switch off all your current layers except for the background.

Step 17:

Now we're going to add a bit of texture to the background. For this I'm using a sample texture, yet again from GoMedia/Arsenal's Freebie Section

This one is called "Rust11.jpg." Paste it in and shrink it down to size. Then set it to Overlay so that it interacts with the dark blues from our background.

Step 18:

Because I didn't think that looked dark enough, I added a layer on top of dark grey and set that to Multiply and 35%.

I should point out that with an image this complicated, you sort of have to experiment a lot and do things by eye. So often I would look at something and think, this needs to be darker, or that isn't working and take things out or put things in. Certainly when coming up with this image I didn't go through these steps in this order. Its just a convenient way to relay the information back to you. So don't think that you need to have some amazing plan in mind when you're making images, just do what feels right. The more you do, the more practiced your eye becomes at deciding whether something is right or not.

Step 19:

Now I've pasted in some more of the vectors from the GoMedia free pack. I chose some old-looking statue vectors and set them all to Multiply. Because I didn't have enough, I flipped a couple over to cover the whole page without looking like I was just repeating over and over!

Step 20:

Next I paste in the second last of our vectors from GoMedia. This one apparently is a half-tone thing. In any case it looks like shutters to me and we're going to use it for lighting. First because the vector was black, I pressed Ctrl-I to invert the color to white. You could just as easily Fill it with white, Color-Overlay it with white or select its pixels and make a new layer and fill that with white. Really there are often many ways to do the same thing in Photoshop: I guess that's what makes it such a great program!

Step 21:

Next we hit Ctrl+T to transform and rotate the vector around and stretch it out to be bigger.

Step 22:

Set that layer to Overlay and make sure its nice and big (as shown below). As you can see, it looks kind of like light streaming in from some open shutters. You won't be able to see much of this in the final image, but details like this add up to a nice complex composition in the end.

Also because light is rarely nice and sharp, its a good idea to go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a blur with a radius of say 1px just to make it a bit fuzzy.

Step 23:

Next create a new layer and using a Radial Gradient going from beige (#b58d4e) to nothing, draw from the center out to make a patch of color as shown below. Set the blending mode of this layer to Screen. This is going to be another bit of lighting.

Step 24:

Now duplicate that last layer again and we're now going to run a Wave filter over it a few times to make the lighting more dynamic. You do this by going to Filter > Distort > Wave.

I must admit I don't really understand how the Wave filter works, so I usually just move some sliders around a bit and press Randomize until I get a nice distortion - scientific I know :-)

Anyhow once you have done that, you'll see your blob becomes kind of wavy. Press Ctrl+F a few times to make it really distorted and you should get an interesting effect.

After you've done that, you could if you choose repeat the process and have a second light blob on the page.

Step 25:

Now I've added yet another vector to the image, again from GoMedia's free section. This just looks like some rough dirt, and I just added it and changed the blending mode to Overlay and 40%.

Step 26:

Next I went to some random Web page about the Bible and copied some random text and pasted it over and over. Actually looking back, I did a bit of a crappy job with keeping the lines even when I duplicated them, but that doesn't really matter, I suppose. The main thing to do is get lots of text and merge the layers together.

Then set the blending mode to Hard Light and 40%.

Step 27:

So far everything we've done should have been BEHIND the original layers from Part 1. Now create a layer ABOVE the Part 1 banner. And choose a big, fat, soft brush (say 200-300) and with black as your foreground color just paint around the edges as shown. When you're done change the blending mode to Overlay.

Step 28:

Next in a new layer choose these colors as your foreground and background:

Foreground Color - deb883

Background Color - 745222

and then go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Now that should give you some clouds, but to get a more dynamic render, press Ctrl+Alt+F. I'm not sure what this actually is in the menus, but I know that it produces clouds with a heavier difference, which we want. You should get some clouds that look like those below.

Set the blending mode to Overlay and 65%. This layer is going to give us the majority of our coloring.

Step 29:

OK, almost there now!

You should have a few layers at the top, a bunch of background layers at the bottom, and then the layers from Part 1 somewhere in the middle.

Next we're going to add the compass in. This needs to go in the middle of the layers from Part 1 because it's going to interact with them. You can see the exact order by downloading the PSD file from the bottom of this tutorial.

So using the Circle Selection Tool, I cut out the compass from its original background (remember I got this compass from iStockPhoto). It looks yellowish because we have that clouds layer somewhere above.

Step 30:

The compass looks a bit plain as it is, so we are going to soup up the colors a little. To do this, duplicate the compass layer and press Ctrl+Shift+U to desaturate it (i.e. make it Black and White)

Step 31:

Set the Black and White layer to Overlay. This gives a higher contrast look. (Actually, you can achieve the same effect a few other ways.)

Next get out the Burn Tool again and, going to the original compass layer, give it some judicious burning down the bottom and sides. Now our compass is starting to look nice and warm.

Step 32:

Then in a layer below the compass, make a black circle the same size as the compass. You can do this by pressing Ctrl and clicking on the compass layer then going back to the layer below and filling it with black.

Next go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a blur of 10px or so. This is the shadow for our compass.

And Put It Together

Finally, we put the compass + background + banner together to form the final image!

Note that there were a couple of layers I left out to keep this tutorial short (well shorter anyway). You can download the PSD to see the rest! Hope you enjoyed that tutorial, it was a bit of a monster!

(source: Collis, psdtuts.com)

Spectacular Grass Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:50:00 +0000

Part 1—The Background

This tutorial is made up of three parts—the background, the text itself, and some final extra effects. So first of all we're going to make a background. To do this we create a new document in Photoshop. I made mine 1920 x 1200 because I want this image to sit on my laptop background.

We start by drawing a Radial Gradient with the Gradient Tool (G) going from a light yellow-green (#adbf41) to a mid-range green (#328a26). I wonder if I've ever written a tutorial that doesn't start with a radial gradient. :-)

Step 2

Now for this image we want to create a really textured background, faintly resembling paper. So the first thing we need is ... a paper texture!

Happily you can grab some really awesome grungy paper textures from Bittbox and they are nice and large too, which is good because this is a huge canvas.

So I can't remember which texture I used first, but grab one, desaturate it (Ctrl+Shift+U) and stretch it over the top to fit the canvas.

Step 3

Now we set the layer to Overlay and 70% Opacity to blend the texture with our nice green background.

Step 4

Now to get a really distressed look, I then copied this layer, spun it around 180' and set it to 20%. Then I brought in a few more layers of paper texture (using different textures, mostly from Bittbox) and set them all to faint overlays, one on top of the other.

This was partly for the extra distress, but also because I realised that the textures looked a bit grainy and not small and sharp. So by combining extra textures and then fading it all back, I can get a nicer, sharper overall look.

Anyhow as you can see in the screenshot there are six layers here. Don't forget if you are a Plus member you can download the PSD file for this tutorial and take a look in there yourself!

Step 5

Now I duplicated the original background gradient, placed the duplicate layer above all the textures and set it to 40% Opacity—this tones back the texture so it's not quite so grungy!

Step 6

Now we create a new layer over the top and using a large, soft, black brush, add some black to the edges. It's worth toning back the opacity to about 30% and Overlay. You can then duplicate the layer and run a heavy Gaussian Blur over it (set to about 32px). That way the edges really soften out.

Step 7

OK, we now have a nice background!

Part 2—Grass Text!

OK, we are now ready to make some grass text. To do that, we're going to need some nice pretty grass to cut. After a lot of searching, I finally found this lovely photo on Flickr of grass.

So download the image at full-size and copy it on to your canvas.

Step 9

Next we need some type. So select a font you want to cut out with. I chose Swiss 924BT, which is fat and condensed type. I thought it looked nice and grand. And I've written the text "EARTH". That's because I'm making five of these wallpapers—earth, water, fire, air, spirit ... it's like that cartoon I used to watch as a kid, Captain Planet!

Anyways, so just set your text out in white and set it to Overlay and like 50% Opacity. This layer won't actually show in the end, it's just a guide layer.

Step 10

OK, so here's the text on top of the grass we got earlier.

Now a bit of planning! To make text out of grass, it's not going to be enough just to stencil out the grass. Rather we need it to look all rough, with bits of grass sticking out the edges. To do that, we're going to use the letter shapes as a rough guide and then trace roughly around them and periodically jut out to trace around blades of grass.

I'll warn you now, it's very tiresome!

Step 11

OK, so here we are tracing. You should use the Pen Tool (P) and frankly, if you're not handy with it before you start, you will be by the end!

Notice how in the parts where my path juts out, it sort of follows individual blades of grass. That way when you have the final cut-out they will look like pieces of grass sticking out.

Step 12

When you've finished your path, it's best to save it in the Paths Palette. You can do this by switching to that palette and then clicking the little down arrow and choosing Save Path. That way if you need the path again later, you can grab it.

Anyhow, double-click the path to get the selection and go back to your grass layer. Duplicate the grass layer so you still have more grass for the other letters, then invert your selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and cut away the excess grass. In the screenshot I've faded back the duplicate grass layer so you can see the cut out "E" part.

Step 13

OK, so here we have our "E" on the final bakcground. As you can see, it looks only slightly better than if we'd just used the letter to stencil out the grass without bothering to trace. But that's OK, what it needs is a bit more depth. After all, if that letter was really sitting there, we should see some shadow and sides to it.

Step 14

First of all though, we'll add some layer styling to give it a bit more of a three dimensional look. The styles are shown below.

Layer Style

Here's the first set of layer styles...

Step 15

Now duplicate that layer, then clear the layer style off the duplicate, so we can add some more styles. This time add the styles shown below...

Layer Style

Here's the second set of layer styles... (Note that it's 51% Opacity so it'll blend in with the previous layer)

Step 16

So this was all just experimental, and it kinda looks OK, but obviously has a long way to go. Now we'll add some shadow. For that we'll use a technique that I demonstrated in a previous tutorial, Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life

The idea is to make a three dimensional look. So Ctrl-click the grass layer and then in a new layer below, fill it with black. Then press the down arrow once and the right arrow once and fill it again, then repeat over and over until you get an effect like that shown. I think that was about 15 steps of filling.

Step 17

Now we run a Filter > Blur > Motion Blur on our shadow with a 45' angle and a distance of about 30. Then set the text to a low opacity of about 50%. You should have something that looks like the screenshot below.

Step 18

Now move the shadow layer down and to the right and magic happens! All of a sudden it looks like the letter is casting a shadow. Pretty neat!

Step 19

Now I duplicated this layer three times. Each time I erased a bit of it away so that as the shadow is closer to the text it gets darker. I set these layers to Multiply.

Step 20

So this text is looking pretty cool, but for that extra bit of depth we should add some bits of grass in the background/shadow area. Rather than cutting out more grass, we can just use this current letter transformed about so that it's not obvious that we're hacking it together.

So as you can see below I created a few pieces of grass. They are just cut up bits of our main letter.

Step 21

Now by moving those pieces into the shadow areas, we can make it look like there is grass sticking out and it's a real 3D object made from grass!

Because these new grass bits are in shadow, you might want to use the Burn Tool (O) to darken them appropriately.

Step 22

So yay, one letter down ... four to go! Good thing we didn't choose a long word like erm I don't know ... laborious!

Step 23

Using the exact same technique ... here is the A;

Step 24

and the R and T ... you get the picture.

Step 25

And finally, the whole word! The only extra thing I did here was to move the letters apart a little. Each letter is in its own Layer Group which makes moving it around much easier.

Part 3—The Finish!

Now nice as it's looking, our text is a little lonely and monotonous. So in this last section we'll add a few more elements to the design. Note we don't want to overdo it, though, because I want this to be a desktop background, so space it is important (for all my icons!).

So first up, let's add some extra text. Here I've placed a nice quote about the earth and unity taken from the Baha'i faith (that's my religion!). I love quotes, because it means we get three parts to decorate—the quote, the quotation marks and the source.

The text is in a variation of Swiss which is thinner, but still condensed. Using multiple fonts from the same family (heavy, light, etc) is a good, safe bet for keeping your type looking coherent.

So here I've set the quote to Overlay and 50%, then duplicated the text and set it to Screen and 50%. Then I've added quotation marks in the same Swiss font, but made them extra large and a bright shade of green. Finally, the source of the quote is in teeny letters and centered vertically. And, of course, the whole quote has been measured out so it's exactly the length of the main "EARTH" text.

Step 27

Next we'll add a bit of a highlight to the scene. To do this, create a new layer above all the rest, and using the Gradient Tool (G), draw a gradient of white -> transparent towards the top left. Then set this layer to Soft Light and 50%. This will turn it into a nice subtle bit of lighting.

Step 28

Now we'll add two eye-catching elements to offset all the green. These will be a brilliant blue butterfly and a little red ladybug. I used the excellent everystockphoto Web site that searches a ton of free stock Web sites for you to find two awesome images to use: Ladybug | Butterfly

Step 29

Placing the images is pretty easy. First the butterfly. We just open up the image in Photoshop, use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select all the white area, then go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by 1px to make sure we've got it all. Then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection and copy the butterfly over to our main canvas.

The ladybug I selected needs to be cut out of it's image. To do that I used the Pen Tool (P) and traced around the little guy and then just cut him out that way.

Step 30

So here are our two extras. As you can see, the lady bug looks a bit weird actually because I did a quick'n'dirty job of cutting him out. But that's OK because he's going to be tiny so you won't be able to see the details anyway.

So paste them in and then shrink them down and place them appropriately. It's best if they aren't close together, because that way they'll balance each other.

I added a drop shadow to each. With the ladybug it's a very close shadow because he's small and walking on the grass. With the butterfly, I set the distance to about 10px because he's hovering in the air and therefore the shadow lands a little ways away.

Finished!

And there we have it, one neat little composition featuring text made out of grass! (Click for the full-size version)

source: (Collis, psdtuts.com)

Cool Retro Curves

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:48:00 +0000

Step 1

Download the image at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/876777. Then place it in a new document in Photoshop. I used 1440px by 900px document size.

Step 2

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Color Overlay. Use Soft Light for the Blend Mode. Apply a Brown color (#8b5c01).

Step 3

Next, we'll create a brush that will be used to make the shapes. Select the Rectangle Tool(U) and create a black rectangle. Then go to Edit>Transform Path>Skew. After that, go to Layer>Rasterize. Use the image below for reference.

Step 4

Right-click on the thumbnail of the layer and choose Select Pixels. Then go to Edit>Define Brush Preset, and create a brush. Rename it to PSDTUTS. After that go to the Brushes Engine (Window>Brushes) and edit the PSDTUTS brush we've just created. Use the settings below.

Step 5

Create a new layer and go to Layer>Layer Style. Let's apply some styles to the layer. We will use Gradient Overlay, Drop Shadow, and Inner Shadow. After that, with the Brush Tool(B), click a couple of times to create some shapes.

Step 6

Right-click the layer on the Layers Palette. Choose Copy Layer Style. Then create a new layer. Right-click the new layer again. Now select Paste Layer Style. After that, with the Brush Tool, click a couple more times to create additional shapes.

Step 7

Repeat Step 6 again two more times.

Step 8

Select all layers we used to create the geometric shapes and go to Layer>Merge Layers. Then go to Edit>Transform>Rotate. After that resize the layer as shown below.

Step 9

Now go to Edit>Transform>Warp. Start moving the mesh in order to create a wave form. The idea is to make the lines pass in front and behind the legs. This adds to the dimensionality of the effect.

Step 10

With the Polygonal Lasso Tool(L), create a marquee selection of the leg you want to stay in front of the shapes. Then select the shapes layer, and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection.

Step 11

Create a new layer above the shapes layer and right-click on it. Then select Create a Clipping Mask. After that, select the Brush Tool (B) and a basic brush with 0% hardness. We will create a highlight on the shapes layer. Click once where you want to start the line. Then while holding Shift, click where you want to finish the line. This will create a straight line with the Brush Tool. The Blend mode will be Normal with 60% Opacity.

Step 12

Repeat Step 11, but this time use black, and from another position. Change the Opacity to 40%.

Step 13

Create a new layer in front of all layers. Fill it with white. Then go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use 4% for the amount. After that, change the Blend Mode of the layer to Multiply.

Step 14

Place another image in front of the other layers but behind the Noise layer. You can find the image I used at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/982364. Then resize the image and change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Conclusion

One of the best features in Photoshop is the Brush Engine. We can create lots of effects using it. In this tutorial we used it to create rectangular shapes similar to those seen in James White's work. You can even use rounded corners or different shapes. Play with the effect and have fun.

(source: Fabio, psdtuts.com)

Mental Wave Explosion

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:30:00 +0000

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Open a new document. I used 800x600px. Look for a road photo on the Internet. The one I used can be downloaded here. After downloading, place the photo in your document.

Step 2

Now we need a photo of a person. The one I used can be found here. Once you have your photo, it's time to extract the guy from the background. Using the Pen Tool(P) create a path like in the image below. After that go to the Paths Palette and create a selection from that path. Then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. Lastly, I named this layer "dude."

Step 3

Go to Edit>Transform>Scale and reduce the size of the guy. Then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. We do that to match the light direction.

Step 4

Go to Image>Adjustments>Curves. The idea here is to darken the guy a little bit so he will fit better with the background. Use the image below as a reference.

Step 5

Holding Cmd/Ctrl click on the mask thumb of the "dude" layer. That will create a marquee selection of the guy. After that create a new layer. Rename it to "shadow" and fill it with black. Then go to Edit>Transform>Distort and move the vertices to make the shadow in perspective. The last thing here is go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Step 6

Grab the Ellipse Tool(U). Select Paths instead of Shape Layer. Create a Circle, like the image below. After that grab the Direct Selection Tool(A) and adjust the bottom of the circle.

Step 7

Create a new layer. Rename it to "clouds." Then go to Filter>Render>Clouds. While holding Alt, click on Clouds. After that go to the Path's Palette and create a selection from the path and mask the layer.

Tip: As you will be using the Render>Clouds, you will probably need to apply the filter several times until you got the clouds just right. Keep working with it until the light and dark areas are in a good position.

Step 8

Go to Filter>Liquefy. In the Liquefy Dialog Box select the Bloat Tool (B). Then for the settings use: Brush Size 550, Brush Density 100, Brush Pressure 100, Brush Rate 60, and Turbulent Jitter 75.

Then select the Show Backdrop Option. That will allow you to see the clouds and the background. It will be necessary to use the Bloat Tool in the right place. Click a few times and deselect the Show Backdrop. Then you will see the effect and will be able to repeat it more times in the correct place.

Step 9

Change the Blend Mode of the cloud layer to Soft Light. Then create another layer and rename it to "Clouds 2" and repeat Steps 7 and 8. We will need another cloud to make it more turbulent. This time, however, use Multiply for the Blend Mode.

After that, create yet another layer. Rename it to "Clouds 3" and repeat Steps 7 and 8. For this layer use Color Dodge for the Blend Mode. The last thing here is with the Eraser Tool (E) delete some parts. This layer is used to give highlights to the clouds.

Step 10

Group the "Clouds 3" layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. After that, select the Brush Tool (B), give it a black color, and mask some parts of the clouds that are close to the ground.

Step 11

Select the "Clouds" layer and go to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen More. Then repeat this Sharpen filter on Clouds 2 and 3 layers.

Step 12

Create a new layer. Rename it to "Glow." Fill it with white and go to the Path Palette. Create a selection from the clouds path as we did in Step 9. Then mask the layer.

After that go to Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow. Use the default settings. Then go to Layer>Layer Style>Create Layer. This command will create another layer from the Outer Glow. You can delete the white layer and leave just the Outer Glow layer.

Step 13

Create a folder called "Lights." Move the "Glow" layer to this folder. Next select the "Glow" layer. Then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Then select the Brush Tool, black for the color, and start masking the glow. We need just the outline; however, some bright spots in the middle will give a nice result.

Step 14

Create a new layer beneath the clouds group. Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool create a selection like the image below. Fill the layer with black and use 40% Opacity.

Step 15

Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. After that select the Gradient Tool(G) and use a black and white gradient. Then mask the layer, like in the image below.

Step 16

Duplicate the layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Apply. Then go to Edit>Transform>Distort. Repeat the same thing we did for the shadow of the guy on this layer. Group these two layers and rename the group to "Shadows."

Step 17

Create a new layer right above the road photo. Go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Then go to Filter>Distort>ZigZag. Use 100 for the Amount and 5 for the Ridges. For the Style use Pond Ripples.

Step 18

Now go to Edit>Transform>Distort. Distort the layer until you get the right perspective. After that, change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Again, as we are using Render Clouds, the results may vary so you might need to erase some parts to make it more realistic.

Step 19

Create an Elliptical Selection like the image below. Then fill it with black. After that, create another Elliptical Selection, but smaller. Then delete that part of the layer. With the Magic Wand Tool(W) select the black part of the layer.

Step 20

Duplicate the road's layer and select it. Make sure that you still have the Marquee Selection from the Step 19. Then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. You can delete the black ellipse layer from the Step 19 or just hide it.

Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Bevel and Emboss. This is another way to create the ripple effect. You could use Displace as well.

Step 21

Go to Layer>New Layer Fill>Gradient. Use Radial for the Style. For the colors use #ddc396 and #2f1e00. Change the Blend mode to Color Dodge.

Step 22

Here I used another image from Stock.Xchng, image. Just place it on top of all layers and change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Step 23

Now let's make some adjustments. First, lets darken our Magneto dude a bit more. Select the Burn Tool(S) and burn the back of the guy. After that, change the Blend Mode of the "ripples" layer to Soft Light. You can delete some parts of the clouds as well.

Step 24

Create a new folder, beneath the "dude" layer. Name the group "power" and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. After that, create a new layer inside of this group. Then using the Brush Tool with white color, create some lights coming from the hands of the guy. Tip: use a regular brush with 0% for the hardness.

After that you create another layer. Use some brushes to add more effects. I used some abstract brushes from http://brusheezy.com. Then add a Pink Outer Glow Layer Style.

Step 25

Import the truck image, you can download it at image. Then with the Magic Wand Tool(W) select and delete the background of the photo. Leave just the truck. After that go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Move the truck to the side of the road.

Step 26

Go to Image>Adjustments>Curves and make the truck a bit darker. After that, using the Rectangular Marquee Tool(M), create a rectangular selection a bit bigger than the truck. Then go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur. For the settings use Amount 2, Method use Spin, and set Best Quality. Next go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Then use -75 degrees for the angle and 3 pixels for the Distance.

Step 27

Now we will create the truck's shadow. To do that select the Truck's layer, click with the right button of the mouse and choose Select Pixels. Then create a new layer and fill it with black. Put this layer beneath the truck layer and go to Edit>Transform>Distort. Distort the shadow to make it look more real. Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Change the Opacity of this layer to 60%.

Step 28

Group the truck and the shadow layer and rename it to "truck." Then organize your folders in the Layers Palette.

Conclusion

You can add more elements to the image, like a traffic cone or more cars. But always change the curves in order to make the objects have the same lighting. That will make the image more realistic. For some effects, there will be many other ways to achieve a similar result. Experiment with different methods of achieving an effect, like we did with the ripples. Finally, stick with the ones you think are the best for that image.

(source: Fabio, psdtuts.com)

Ad Designs with 3D Splashes

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:13:00 +0000

Step 1

Let's first take a look at the image we're creating. Click the screenshot below to view the full-size image.

Step 2

We need three boat photos taken from a high view. For this tutorial, you can substitute boats with cars, shoes, or anything else.

Step 3

Start to throw the paint from a cut plastic bottle. You can do it in front of a white wall or a green screen (if you have it) to obtain a good contrast on the edges of the splashes. The results will show better if you mix water and paint together. Be forewarned, stay away from the paint. In this attempt, we lost a cashmere pullover and a watch—irremediably stained.

Step 4

Select the best splashes you photographed. If some parts of the paint are out of focus, don't worry. It's a fine effect and it will contribute to a sense of depth in the final result.

Step 5

Use the Rapid Selection Tool or Magic Wand Tool to select the white background around the splashes. After you complete the selection process, go to Select>Refine>Edge and make some adjustments. Add Feather, Radius, and Expand or Reduce the selection until you find a nice result. Use a black background to remove excess white pixels on the edges. After that, go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection to hide the white background.

Step 6

For each splash you need to repeat Step 5 and duplicate the layer every time. At the end, you may have a multilayer file like the image below.

Step 7

Now switch off every Paint layer so we can concentrate our attention on the boats. Select the Pen Tool (P) and start creating a path in the shape of the first yacht. This is the only way to make it. Without a suitable green screen the edge becomes too complicated so you can't use any Photoshop tools to speed up this step.

After you create the path, click on the dotted circle icon at the bottom of the path box to create a selection. Select > Inverse and Delete the background (or create a mask to hide it). If your object is complicated, then your paths may take some time to create. Repeat this step with all the boat images (cars, shoes, or any images you've chosen).

Step 8

Use three different layers to work on the boats. At the end, you should have a good composition like this.

Step 9

Now the boats need some improvements. Start with the opaque glass. Select the Pen Tool (P) and create a path around the shape of the glass.

Step 10

Go to the Path Palette. Click on the dotted circle icon at the bottom of the box to create a selection from the path.

Step 11

Add a new layer called "glasses" over the boat layer and fill it with a gradient using white to black for the colors following the direction of the arrow shown below.

Step 12

For the Blend Mode use Color Dodge. Also, set the Fill Opacity to 60%.

Step 13

Repeat this step for all the boats. Now we must improve the color of the boats. Start with Select > Color range. Then pick a white point on the foredeck of one boat with the Eyedropper and set the Fuzziness to 123.

Step 14

With this new active selection, copy the white color from the boat layer and paste it into a new layer called lights over the boat layer. For the Blend Mode use Soft Light and set the Fill Opacity to 100%. Repeat this on the other boats. Now the foredeck appears brighter.

Step 15

Start revealing every single splash layer and move them below the boat layers. Keep in mind, you can put some layers of paint below one boat layer, while being above another boat layer. Mix and match until you have a nice composition, like the second image below.

Step 16

The Warp Tool is the magician of this tutorial. From the Top Menu go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Move the anchor points creating the spray from the paint waves, bringing the splashes near the hull.

Step 17

You can also create new splashes from your images by changing their shape with the Liquefy Filter. Go to Filter > Liquify. Use a medium brush to change the shape of the blue splashes.

Step 18

Your design so far should look like the image below.

Step 19

Create a new layer over the splashes. Select a brush similar to the one used in the image below. Set the Hardness to 0%. Then, with a dark blue color selected, draw shadows below the boats.

Step 20

For each boat, duplicate a splash layer near the hull. Move this new layer over the boat. Call it "reflections." For the Blend Mode use Overlay. Then set the Fill Opacity at about 60%.

Step 21

Select the Pen Tool (P) and create a path along the lower side of the yachts. Create a selection from the path. Then create a new layer above the boat layer. Fill the selection with a blue color picked from the blue waves. Call this new blue layer "Halo."

Deselect (Command/ctrl+D) and from the Top Menu choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply a Radius similar to the settings below. For the Blend Mode use Multiply. Then set the Fill Opacity to about 75%. Now you have a blue reflection on your hull. Repeat this process for every hull (which includes this step and the previous step).

Step 22

After having completed the shadow and reflection, now we'll create a light background. Create a New Layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). Call it background. Put this layer below the others. Use the Elliptical Marque Tool to draw an Ellipse.

Then Select > Modify > Feather and set the Radius to about 40px. From the Menu go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Use white for the foreground and a light blue for the background. Set the Opacity to 70%.

Step 23

Now we'll add a background using Photoshop Brushes. Select a Rounded Brush and play with options like Shape Dynamics, Color Dynamics, and Scattering to create a good distribution of random bubble patterns. On a new layer, called bubbles, draw a texture with a light blue foreground and a dark background. After this, select Color Dodge for the bubbles layer in the Layer Palette.

Conclusion

Now you can add anything you want to your advertisement design. I placed a logo and some text in the image below. Good job, your work is finished! Remember to use your software well, but also use your crazy brain. See you at the next tutorial.

(source: Alessandro Giglio, psdtuts.com)

Create Spectacular Concept Art in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Fureichi-Beru) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:17:00 +0000

What we're going to be creating

The outcome to this tutorial depends heavily on what you want to create and what's going on in your head. I collected two stock images that I thought would work together before I began from sxc.hu. Here are the links to the stock images I used: Landscape, Cityscape. You can use the same stock images I have, but I would also recommend you to experiment as that's half the fun!

Step 1

Lets get started. To begin open your canvas (I used size 1200×900px) and drag in the landscape stock. From here, pull out the Burn Tool (O) and use it to darken some areas to create some shadow on the hills below the position where the buildings will be.

Step 2

Next, drag in the cityscape stock, resize it, and position it (I lowered its Opacity to 30% in order to position it) so the buildings nest on top of the hill. You can position it where you like. Next you need to get rid of all of the parts of the stock we don't need so you have to do the tedious job of rendering around the buildings.

Step 3

Next, duplicate the rendered stock layer and flip them around a bit and position them so that they fill the rest of the hilltops.

Step 4

Now, create a new layer and apply the image: Image > Apply Image. On this new layer, take out the Burn Tool again and darken the areas where the buildings meet the hilltops to create a smoother transition and in the sky area surrounding the buildings.

Step 5

For the next step, you will need some star/planet brushes. I got mine from DeviantArt. On a new layer, select a few brushes that you like, and in two or three places add the brushing to the sky.

Step 6

Next, we are going to create a new layer and apply the image again (Image > Apply Image). Now we are going to add some lighting to this layer, so go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and select 2 0'Clock Spotlight. Play about with the angling settings until you get something that you like.

Step 7

Make another new layer and apply the image yet again. We are going to play around with the coloring now so go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. Select the Midtones radio button and in the three Color Levels boxes, enter these values: +46 +11 +13. Now select the Highlights radio button and enter these values: +26 +16 -7. Again, you can play around with these settings if you want a different look.

Step 8

Next, we are going to add two gradient maps. To do this click on the half black, half white circle on the bottom of the layers palette and from the menu select Gradient Map. In the dialogue box, select the Purple > Orange gradient which should be a default one and click ok. Set this layer to soft light and lower the Opacity to 50%. Do the same again but this time select a Black > White gradient map. Set this to Darken and lower the Opacity to 20%.

Step 9

Create another new layer and apply the image again. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, drag the slider to around 1.0 and hit Enter. I then set this layer to soft light at 20%.

Step 10

Next, we're going to play around with the depth of the image using curves. To do this, click on the half black, half white circle on the bottom of the layers palette and from the menu click on Curves. From the Preset list, select Custom. Now play around with the curves for each RGB color in the Channels list. This will have a big impact the overall look of your finished piece, so feel free to experiment.

Step 11

Next, we will sharpen the image, so go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. Lower the Opacity of this layer to 30%.

Step 12

To add a bit more depth to the image, we will add another curves layer. Set the Preset back to None and play about with the curves until you get something you like.

Conclusion

Hopefully you will find something in the tutorial useful. Remember...the only limit is your imagination, so don't hold back.

Here's the final piece

(source: Jonny McGurn, psdtuts.com)