Photoshop Tutorials

Create a Vector Style Illustration in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:08:00 +0000

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create an illustration of a model. We'll be creating it in vector style, though using Photoshops Burn Tool to add some dimensionality to the illustration. By the end you'll have enough information and practice to create your own. Although, it doesn't require any special ability you should be proficient in the use of the Pen Tool. Drawing skills would also help, as well as a tablet, though it's not necessary.

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Before we start we need to find our inspiration. For this tutorial, I used this photograph I found at Stockvault. After downloading the image, open it in Photoshop.

Step 2

You'll be using many layers to create this artwork, so try to keep everything organized. Create a new layer over the image and name it "Head." Then grab your Pen Tool (P), and make sure it's set to Paths.

Step 3

Hold Ctrl + Space to select your Zoom Tool. Then zoom into the model's face. Trace the outline of her face. Don't worry about the parts covered by the hair. They'll be taken care of soon. After finishing, select the color #decfb8 and fill the shape.

Step 4

Create a new layer over the "Head" layer and name it "Hair." Repeat the same process you did with the face. Then take care with the inner side of the hair, as it will define the shape of her face. Don't worry about all hair details yet though. Then fill the shape with black.

Step 5

By now you should have something similar to the image below. It's strange so far, but we'll make it nice.

Step 6

Create two more layers under the "Head" layer and name them: "Body" and "T-Shirt." The "T-Shirt" layer should be over the "Body" layer, and both under the "Head" layer.

Repeat the same process. Beginning with the body and neck, and fill the shape with the same color as the head. Notice it's only important to correctly draw parts that won't be covered by the other layers. Then create the "T-Shirt" and fill it with a light blue.

Step 7

Now a tricky part, the Eyes. Maybe you would like to create a Layer Set only for the eyes, since we're going to use many layers. Create a new layer called "Eye." Then Zoom in and draw the shape around both eyes. Then fill it with white.

Step 8

Create a new layer, and name it "Iris." Draw the path around the iris and fill it with black.

Step 9

Create a new layer, and name it "Eyelash." Draw the path around her eyelash to contour the eyeball. Fill it with black. Use the Eraser Tool to erase all the white areas that surpass the Eyelash area.

Step 10

Create a new layer, and name it "Retina." Draw the path around the retina and fill it black.

Step 11

Create a new layer, and name it "Highlights." To give the eye a little more life, select the highlights on the iris and fill them with white.

Step 12

Now we'll give the eyes a little depth. Select the "Head" layer. Draw paths around the eyes. Right-click the path and choose Convert Path To Selection. Grab the Burn Tool (0) and set it's Exposure to around 25%. Darken those areas trying to follow the picture's intensity.

Step 13

Go a little further and darken the area around the eye using the Burn Tool.

Step 14

Go back to the "Eye" Layer and create a layer called "Eyebrows" above it. Create a path around the eyebrows and fill it with black.

Step 15

Now you're finish with the eyes, so create a new layer outside the "Eyes" Layer Group and call it "nostrils." Create a path around her nostrils, right-click to transform the selection. Then fill it with the same color you chose for her face. Open Curves (Command + M), and push the curve a little bit down to darken the color.

Step 16

Select the "Head" layer. Draw a path around the bottom edges of her nose. Open Curves (Command + M), and push the curve a little bit down to darken the color.

Step 17

Still on the "Head" layer, select the Burn Tool (0). Then darken the areas around her nose to give it form and depth. Use the picture as a reference.

Step 18

Create a new layer at the top and name it "Mouth." Then draw a path around her mouth and fill it with #fcb09e.

Step 19

Draw the contour around the darker area in the middle of her mouth. Right-click to make it a selection, then open curves (Command + M) and darken it a little.

Step 20

Select the "Head" layer. Then draw a path around the lighter skin area on the upper part of her mouth. Use the picture below as a reference. Open Curves (Command + M), and lift the curve a little to lighten the area.

Step 21

To finish it use the Burn Tool to darken shadow areas around her mouth in both the "Head" and "Mouth" layers.

Step 22

With the Burn Tool still selected, select the "Body" layer and darken the shadow areas in her neck.

Step 23

With the "Body" layer still selected, use the Pen Tool to select the shadows in both her armpits. Then right-click to transform it to selection, open Curves (Command + M), and darken those areas.

Step 24

Select the "T-shirt" layer. Then use the Pen Tool to draw around the upper lighter part of her t-shirt. Right-click to transform it into a selection, open Curves (Command + M), and lighten those areas.

Step 25

With the "T-shirt" layer still selected, the use Pen Tool to draw around the shadows in her t-shirt. Right-click to transform it into a selection, open Curves (Command + M), and darken those areas. Then use the Burn Tool to give it some finishing touches.

Step 26

Select the "Hair" layer. Then use the Pen Tool to draw around the fringes and give more detail to her hair. Fill it with black.

Step 27

Command-click the "Hair" layer to select it. Use the Down and Right Arrows to move the selection a little bit down and to the right, as in the picture.

Select "Body" layer and use the Burn Tool to make the hair shadow on her body. Do the same in the "Head" layer. Then use the Burn Tool to create some more shadows on her face. Use the picture below as a guide.

Step 28

Select the "Body" layer and use the Pen Tool to draw around the shadows on her arm. Right-click to transform it into a selection, open Curves (Command + M), and darken those areas.

Step 29

Create a layer under the "T-Shirt" layer. Select the black bra on her right shoulder and fill it black.

Step 30

Create a new layer under all the others. Fill it with a cool colored gradient background and you're done! This tutorial shows you how to simply create vector style illustrations and use the Burn Tool to add a bit of depth, softness, and interest to the illustration. It's a quick and effective style for you to use in your own illustrative work. You can view a larger final version here.

Create a Sleek Illustration that Fades from Line Art to Color

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:01:00 +0000

In this tutorial, you will work with a few images you chose and you will create a nice looking illustration. The idea behind this illustration was to create a war between reality and line art. I tried to make this one simple, but at the same time to make it look good. I hope you enjoy the tutorial and try it with your own tools and stock.

Final Image Preview

This style is reminiscent of the art of Jurryt Visser. It blends line art and photography into a seamless whole.

Step 1

First create a new document that is 1100 pixels wide by 1500 pixels high at a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. For this project I will use a texture that I like very much. I would like to thank the author of this texture Princess-of-Shadows for putting this together. Now, move the texture into your document.

Step 2

Next you need to select the images you will use for this design. I bought three nice images that you might be familiar with 1, 2, 3.

Let's start with image 1, and using the Pen Tool (P) you need to create a path around the dancer.

Step 3

Now that you finished creating the path you need to set your brush size to 1px and Hardness at 100%. Next create a new layer and name it "contour1." Next, using the Pen Tool (P) right-click then select Stroke Path, select the brush and make sure the Simulate Pressure is not selected. Also, you need to make the stroke black.

Step 4

Now that you have created the stroke do not delete the path. Next you need to press Command + Enter to transform the path into a selection and then you need to press the Add Layer Mask button. This will hide the background around the dancer. In the end move the dancer and stroke layers into your document.

Step 5

Select the "countour1" layer and using the Pen tool (P) you will need to draw paths all over the dancer. You will need to draw these paths along the shadows or follow the lines of the cloths and then stroke the paths with a 1px black brush. The result is called line art.

Step 6

Create a new layer below the "countour1" layer and name it "color1." Command-click on the "Dancer1" layer to make a selection, then you need to fill the "color1" layer with this the color #f7eedd. Also, you need to link these to layers so if you move one the other one will follow.

Step 7

You need to repeat the line art for each image and place them onto the document. Don't just throw them in there, you need to maybe do a sketch first and position each image right.

Step 8

If you followed the instructions so far you should have the layers in this order.

Step 9

Now that you have the line art behind the dancers you will need to mask some parts to make some kind of transformation. Select the Layer Mask of a dancer and simply use the Brush Tool (B) set to black, and draw over the part you want to hide.

Step 10

Next, duplicate the dancers, scale them and move them as you wish, but keep in mind that you need to arrange them in a nice composition. In my case, you can see that I have placed six more dancers. Also, I have masked the original dancer images and left only the line art visible. I did this because in the next step we will bring some parts of the dancers back over the line art.

Step 11

First thing to do before you start to give the line art some life is to make a selection over the part you want to mask.

Step 12

Next, use a splatter brush. You can find some very useful brushes here: DeviantArt or PSDTUTS User Feed Link. Use a black color for the brush and start drawing over the mask and reveal some parts of the dancer. Also, to achieve a really nice effect, decrease the Opacity of the brush to 20%. This way you will build the effect gradually and it will look more interesting.

Step 13

Repeat Step 11 and 12 for each dancer you created. Also, control your composition and if you do something that does not look right, don't be scared to erase and do the effect again and again until you're satisfied with the final result.

Step 14

So far you should have something close to what I have done, which has some movement and a balanced composition.

Step 15

Next we'll add just a few crows to the image to fill it a bit more. I used these two images: 1 and 2.

Now that you have the two images, apply the same steps as you did with the other images. This means you will need to cut them, create the line art for both images, duplicate them as many times you think it is necessary, and make the faded effect using the splash brush.

Step 16

Now that you are finished with the birds and dancers you can put them in separate folders just to keep everything clean.

Next use another stock image sxc. Cut and duplicate this feather as many times as you think it is necessary because you will use this to add some more graphic elements. As you can see, I did not put too many, just a few are enough to give the illustration an extra feeling of movement.

Step 17

Next, create a new folder on top of all the layers and name it "circles." Also, create a new layer into this folder and use my settings for the Brush Tool (B) and the same color you used for the line art #f8efde.

Now that you have set your brush, start drawing a few circles around the working space. Be careful not to overdue them.

Step 18

Create a new layer over the circles you just created, then Command-click on the circles layer to make a selection. Next, you need to be over the new layer you created, use the Lasso Tool (L) and Right-click, then select Stroke. Set the Radius to 1px and color to black, also make sure you set it to Center.

You can repeat this step and make more transparent circles. It is up to you.

Step 19

Next, we'll create a new layer and again draw some circles, but this time use different settings and a different color #8bb687.

Step 20

Repeat Step 19, but this time use a different color and make the circles in the opposite direction #99a3b4.

Step 21

Finally, set both layers from Step 18 and Step 19 to Color Burn.

Conclusion

In the end you can add some more spots if you want to, also add your logo and you are done. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

Useful Applications for the Clone Stamp Tool

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Maybe the Clone Stamp Tool is one of the most known tools in Photoshop, but have you ever wondered: what else can I do with the cloning stamp than duplicating pixels and hiding objects? These two short tutorials will show you some new uses for this wonderful tool.

Part One, Cloning a "Baby" Car

The Basics

The Clone Stamp Tool is an awesome feature of Photoshop. It has been a part of the application for quite some time. The way to use this tool is really simple. First, select the brush type, choose the area you want to duplicate. Next press and hold only the Option key, and then click one time over the area that we call the Clone Source. Finally, just paint anywhere you want it.

You can clone from only one layer or several layers selecting the sample combo box. Also, you can paint the clone source on the original layer or into a new one. This tool is well known as the object remover, see the image below for a sample of the tool in action, which shows us how to remove a small cloud from a picture. Simple right? Let's go to something a little bit more complicated next.

Step 1

First, open your original picture. I'm using this one of an old white truck, then Go to File > Save as... and save it somewhere as a PSD. I pasted the image into a new document at 1422 pixels by 1024 pixels, but you can work in the original file size.

Actually, my picture looks a little bit purple, so I'll fix this by using two Adjustment Layers, a Selective color adjustment, only the blue color, and a Level Adjustment layer. Why adjustment layers? Well this way all the adjustments will be applied to any other layer on the document, but without distorting your original image. Name the image layer "Truck."

Step 3

Now select the "Truck" layer in the Layers Palette and select the Clone Stamp Tool. Set the brush at around 50px and set the Hardness to 0%. Now to select the cloning source Alt-Click somewhere on your image, a good point is just at the top left of the truck. Also, go to Window > Clone source to show the advanced options.

Step 4

When you have selected your clone source, create a new layer above the "Truck" layer and name it "Mini truck." Go to the Clone Source window and mark the Show Overlay checkbox. This way you'll have a transparent copy of your clone source. Try moving your brush here an there to see how it works.

Now in the Clone source window, change these values W: 30% and H: 30%, this way you'll be resizing your clone source to 30% of the original size. Next, place the clone transparent overlay on a proper place and start painting until you duplicate the entire truck. Remember, you'll be painting on the "Mini truck" layer.

Step 5

Now very carefully, using the Eraser Tool, delete all the dirt areas cloned around the "Mini Truck".

Step 6

Now using the Burn tool, burn some areas of the "Mini truck" layer.

Step 7

I'm adding two more Adjustments layers: a Exposure adjustment and a Gradient map (Blending Mode set to Linear Burn).

Part One Conclusion

And that's it, just to improve the distance sensation, blur the "Mini tuck" layer just a little bit by going to Filter > Blur > Blur.

Part Two, Straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

Everybody knows the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast due to a poorly laid foundation. But now we have Photoshop to fix that leaning using only the Clone Stamp Tool.

First, find your favorite image of the tower, I've found this one. Open it and save it as a new PSD file somewhere. I pasted the image into a new document 1000 pixels by 1500 pixels, but you can work with the original file size.

Step 2

I'll increase the highlights levels of the tower. You can adjust your image according to your needs, or just skip this step if you're using another picture.

Step 3

Once you have your image ready, create a new blank layer above the "Tower" layer and name it "Straight tower."

Step 4

Now select your Clone Source. Select the "Tower" layer and Option-click anywhere at top the left of the tower. Ensure that the Clone Source window is open, just go to Windows > Clone Source to show it.

Step 5

Draw a vertical guide to see how your going to modify the tower. In the Clone Source window mark the Show Overlay check box to see the clone source translucent preview. Now here's the trick, just change the Offset angle to around 4,0º. You'll see how the preview is straight now. Do not click anywhere and go to next step.

Step 6

Select the "Straight Tower" layer and just paint over, start from the top of the tower to the bottom, you'll see how the original tower disappears. Stop painting when you get close to the buildings.

Step 7

Continue cloning but be a little bit more carefully around the tower's base. Reduce the size of the Cloning Brush to clone the borders, nevermind if you clone a little bit of sky over the background buildings, we'll fix it later.

Step 8

In this picture, there's a couple with a baby, clone them too, you'll just move there position a little bit. Again, don't worry about the details yet.

Step 9

Now let's fix all the details. First, we'll improve the sky next to the tower, for this select the "Tower layer", change the Clone Brush size to 7px, set the Offset angle to 0, and select the Clone source somewhere over the sky. Next, select the "Straight tower" layer and paint the sky. Do the same for the buildings, the fence around the tower, or everywhere you'll find any imperfection. Remember, set the Clone source on the "Tower" layer and paint on the "Straight Tower" layer.

Step 10

You can see the difference in the image below. Then you can Flatten the image and save it as another .jpg file.

Part Two Conclusion

Simple right? You can try this technique on another building. How about leaning the Eiffel Tower instead?. It's up to you now!

Tutorial Conclusion

The Clone Stamp Tool is one of the most useful features of Photoshop, as much for photo editors as for graphic designers. There's no limits for the applications of this wonderful tool!

Creating A Fantastic Fantasy Night Sky In Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:02:00 +0000

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create cartoon-style clouds using Photoshop and a bit of Illustrator.

Step 1

Create a new document. Double-click on the background layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. Select Gradient Overlay. For the colors, use three colors: pink, blue, and black. Select Radial for the Style.

Step 2

Create a new layer and rename it to"ps clouds." Make sure that the foreground is white and the background is black. Go to Filters>Render>Clouds. Tip: Hold the "Alt" key to create a stronger effect.

Step 3

To create the clouds we will use the Brush Engine. Create a new Folder and name it "cloud." Select the Brush Tool and set the brush properties as shown below. The secret is the spacing and the Size Jitter. After that, you can save the brush.

Step 4

We have the brush—now lets create the cloud style. Create three new layers inside the "cloud" folder, and name them "front," "middle," and "last." Double-click on the "front" layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box and select Gradient Overlay, Bevel and Emboss, and Inner Glow. Copy the Layer Style and apply to the other two layers.

Step 5

Using the brush we created, start painting the clouds. Tip: The volume will be created using the layer order, like in the image below.

Step 6

After you've painted your cloud, select the folder and convert it to a Smart Object. Duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to Multiply. Group the two layers and rename it to "Cloud 1."

Step 7

Repeat Steps 4, 5, and 6. It's not necessary to repeat the Layer Style steps though, just Copy and Paste the Layer Style. Create four clouds and place them like in the image below.

Step 8

Select any cloud folder and convert it to a Smart Object. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay. After that duplicate the layer and group the two layers. Rename the group to "clouds back."

Step 9—Rainbows in Illustrator

In Illustrator select Ellipse Tool (L) and create a circle. Set the Stroke weight to 40px with a purple color.

Step 10

Start adding more strokes to the ellipse, increasing the weight by 40px so there will be a 40px purple, 80px cyan, 120px green, 160px yellow, and 200px red. After that copy the vector and go back to Photoshop.

Step 11

Back in Photoshop, paste the vector and choose Paste as Pixels. After that, using the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the white part of the rainbow and delete it. Then convert it to a Smart Object and group it. Rename the group "rainbow 1."

Step 12

Place the rainbow between two clouds and using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), select the part of the rainbow you want to hide. Then select the group (not the layer), and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection and hide that area.

After that you can duplicate the "rainbow 1" group in order to create another rainbow.

Step 13

Create four new layers and paste on them the same Layer Style we used for the clouds. Select the Brush Tool and create another brush like the images below. Then create small clouds where the rainbows touch the clouds at the beginning and end of the rainbows.

Step 14

Create a new layer beneath the clouds and rainbows. Fill it with black and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Again select the Brush Tool and create another Brush in order to create the stars.

Step 15

Repeat step 14; however, this time select a circle shape instead of the star. Reduce the size of the brush, and create the rounded stars.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we used mostly the Brush Engine and Layer Styles. It's amazing what you can do using only those two features! Here we created clouds but by changing some settings, we can create a completely different effect.

Advanced Glow Effects

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Advanced Glow Effects

In this tutorial, we're going to create some really sharp-looking glow effects using a combination of layer styles, the Pen Tool and Color Blending. The end effect is quite stunning and hopefully you'll pick up some tips you didn't know before.

Step 1:

As with pretty much every tutorial I've ever written, we begin with a radial gradient. This one is pretty harsh and goes from a reddish brown color to black. Here are the exact color codes:

Foreground color - #922f00
Background color - #000000

Step 2:

In this tutorial, we actually need a pretty intense center, so what we'll do is duplicate the layer we just made and set the one above to a blending mode of Color Dodge. There are a few types of blending modes, darkening ones, lightening ones, colorizing ones and inverting ones. Color Dodge is probably the strongest of the lightening ones. As you can see in the screenshot, it produces a pretty full-on center.

Step 3:

Now in our glow effect, it helps to have a nice textured background. So we are going to create a sort of smoky haze. To do this, create a new layer, then make sure you have white, #ffffff, and black, #000000, selected as your background and foreground colors.

Then go to Filter > Render > Clouds. This will give you the same random cloud pattern as above.

Step 4:

Now set the opacity of your layer to Overlay and 30% transparency. In some instances this would be enough, but for our needs we want it even smokier looking!

So go to Filter > Sketch > Chrome and use default settings of 4 and 7 for detail and smoothness respectively. Actually you can probably mess around with those if you want, but the defaults seem to be fine.

When you're done, the result should look a lot smokier (once its overlayed at 30% transparency that is). You can see the result in the background of the next screenshot.

Step 5:

Now before we can start making glows, we need to have something to glow. Here's where we break out the pen tool. If you have used the pen tool much I suggest playing around with it a little. There are some tricky things you can do with shortcuts, but for this tutorial you don't need those.

In fact all we want to achieve are some nice curves. Fortunately this isn't too hard. I find the trick is not to use too many points. Instead rely on the Pen Tool's natural curving and drag the mouse out for each point so you get a big angle. In this S-curve shown above, I've only used three points, the starting point, the end point and one in between to give it the bend.

Step 6:

Once you have a nice curve, create a new layer. Then click on the Paintbrush Tool (B) and choose a very thin, hard brush. As you know, soft brushes are the blurry ones and hard brushes are more solid. In this case I suggest using a thickness of 3.

Note that you can have any color selected as your brush color because we'll go over it with a layer style shortly.

Step 7:

Now switch back to the Pen Tool. You must switch tools in order to do this next bit.

Then right-click and select Stroke Path. A little dialog box will appear as in the screenshot. Choose Brush and make sure there is a tick next to Simulate Pressure. This is important as it will give your curve tapered ends which will make it rock!

Next right click again and select Delete Path.

Step 8:

You should now have something like the above. Just a thin, cool swishy thing.

Step 9:

Now we add some glows. The easiest way to make our glows is to use layer styles. And the best way to tell you what layer styles to use is to tell you to download the sample Photoshop PSD from the bottom of this page and then open it up and look through them there.

In a nutshell, I've added two sets of glows. To do this I first use Outer Glow and then because I want a second glow, I change the Drop Shadow settings so that it becomes a glow (you can do this by reducing the Distance and changing the blend mode to something like Color Dodge)

Oh and also I've used a Color Overlay to make the item white so that its like the center of an intense glow.

Step 10:

So now you have the same line but with a cool glow coming off it. The beauty of using a layer style is that you can copy and paste it to other layers. To do this you just right-click the layer and select Copy Layer Style then create a new layer and right-click and choose Paste Layer Style.

Step 11:

So now repeat the same process a couple of times to make more squiggly lines.

In this instance, I made one a little thicker by changing the paint brush size before I did the Stroke Path bit of the process. I also made a third line and erased part of it and sorta made it join the other two to look like a cool triangular shape.

Step 12:

Here I've added some text in and applied the same layer style to the text layers.

It's important to pay lots of care and attention to your text. When you're first starting out, use simple fonts and play with spacing between letters, words and sizes. You can achieve a lot with just some small tricks. Here I've contrasted the three words by making Glow a lot larger and in regular casing, then made Advanced and FX much smaller, with greater space between the letters and all caps.

You can control spacing with text using the Character window. If it isn't already open go to Window > Character and it should appear. Mess about with the different settings until you learn what each controls.

Step 13:

Now we add some particles. To do this, create a new layer then select a tiny paint brush - size 3 - and just paint some dots on. It helps if they are clustered towards the center of the glow so that it looks like they are emanating from there.

You can make some of the central ones larger by doubling over on them with a second paint brush dab.

Then paste our Glow layer style on to that layer too!

Step 14:

Now that's looking pretty cool, but it will look even cooler if we give it some subtle coloring instead of this super gaudy red.

So create a new layer, and using a radial gradient, draw a blue to white gradient as shown.

Step 15:

Then set that layer to a blending mode of Color and change the opacity to 50%.

You'll see that it turns the image kind of bluish. I think that's looking much cooler already, but just to go that extra step I also created a couple of extra layers, one with some faint yellow and one with faint purple. You can see them in the screenshot above.

I set each layer to blending mode of Color and thin opacities so that they all fade together.

Step 16:

And there you have it: advanced glow effects with a cool color blend and subtle smoky background combined make for a pretty great effect.

Just remember to experiment with settings and try applying the glow to different things to see how it turns out. And try different color combinations, some surprising combinations turn out really beautiful. Good luck!

Photorealistic Coloring Techniques

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:45:00 +0000

In this tutorial we will color a black and white photo using gradient maps, solid colors, and the Color blending mode. Using these techniques, you will be able to hand color any black and white photo in a way that looks photorealistic.

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Double-click on the background image to make it an active layer. Create a new group by clicking on the little folder icon located at the bottom of the layers palette and put the layer in the group. Name the group "girl". Draw a path around all the hard edges of the girl. This includes the face and the shoulders. Don't worry about the hair for now; we will do that separately. Save the path. Make a selection of the path by holding Command-clicking on the path thumbnail in the paths palette. Hit Alt+Command+D and Feather the selection by 0.5px. Apply the selection as a mask on the "girl" group.

Step 2

Disable the mask on the "girl" group by holding Shift-clicking on the mask thumbnail. Now in the Channels palette, duplicate the red channel by dragging it to the New Channel button at the bottom of the palette. Apply a harsh curve, like the one below, to separate the hair from the background as much as you can.

Step 3

Hit Command+I to invert the red copy channel. Re-enable the mask on the "girl" group. Load the selection of the red copy channel with your background color set to white. Hit Delete(backspace) to fill the selection with white on the "girl" mask. If you hit Alt+Click on the mask thumbnail, you can see the mask as a channel. Clean up anything that looks as though it shouldn't be there, like that line between the hair and the face.

Step 4

Now let's start to add some color using a Gradient Map. In the "girl" group, make a new Gradient Map adjustment layer just above layer 0. Hit OK without doing anything and set the Gradient Map layer's blending mode to Color. Now double-click on the Gradient Map's layer thumbnail to open up the settings again.

A Gradient Map uses the grayscale data from the image below it to apply the gradient that you create. The left side of the gradient represents the darkest parts of the image. The right side represents the light parts. We need to make a gradient that represents what the woman's skin tone might look like from dark to light. I used the gradient below.

Step 5

Draw a path around the eyes. Load the selection of the path and Feather it 0.5px as we did before. Make a Curves adjustment layer just above the skin layer. Then lighten the eyes a little bit. Now make a Gradient Map layer just above the curves layer and hit OK before adjusting any settings. Set the new Gradient Map layer's blending mode to color. Now hit Alt+Command+G to apply it as a clipping mask to the curves layer. Now change the Gradient Map's settings to a pink-to-white fade like below.

Step 6

Draw a path around just the iris of the eye. Note that we need only the path to follow that one curve between the iris and the whites because the adjustment we are making will be applied as a clipping mask. Load the selection and Feather it 2px. Make a solid color adjustment layer just above the Gradient Map from the previous step. Then set it to a dark faded green. Hit Alt+Command+G to apply it to the same clipping mask you made earlier. Set the blending mode of the green layer to color. You might have to go back and adjust the green until you get a color that looks real.

Step 7

Repeat all the previous steps for the lips, except for this one we'll leave the blending mode of the Gradient Map to Normal, and set the layer's Opacity to 65%.

Step 8

We need to get more variance of color in the skin tones to make it look more real. I made some selections around the eyes, nose, and cheeks. Then I feathered them 20–40px, created solid color adjustment layers, set the blending modes to Color, and brought the Opacity way down to 10-20%. Below you can see my selections as quick masks. The layer palette shows the colors I used for the different areas. As you can see I used some red to add some blush to the cheeks, some red around the nose, mouth and eyes, and some blue to go on the bags of her eyes. These small details make all the difference.

Step 9

Make a loose selection around the face and neck and feather it 50px. Make a curves adjustment layer just above the 'skin' Gradient Map that we made earlier. I just went in and tweaked the colors a bit to get a little more color variation in the skin tone. You can download the curve file I used here.

Step 10

Now we need to make a selection of the hair. I used the path that I saved from Step 1. Then I modified it a little to line up with the hairline's shape and softness. I did this by using Quick Mask Mode(Q), and using brushes of various sizes and softness to match the hairline.

Make a new Gradient Map adjustment layer at the top of the "girl" group. Make the gradient a similar to the image below. I left the blending mode at Normal for this layer.

Step 11

Make a selection of the shirt. Then make a new Gradient Map adjustment layer. Hit OK and set the blending mode to Color, as we have done before. Edit the gradient so that it looks something like the one below. You will have to play around with the gradient until you get a good separation between the green and white stripes.

Step 12

Choose a Sky image. I used one I shot myself, but there are plenty of stock images you could use. Bring it into the document below the "girl" group. Hit Command+T, and size it to fill the frame. It looks good, but notice that our hair mask still isn't really looking that good against the blue background. The hair turns a muddy gray in the transition between hair and sky. To fix this, make a new blank layer just above Layer 0 (the image of the girl). With a large and soft black brush paint over those areas with an Opacity of 15-25% until the transition looks better.

As an added bonus, I applied the techniques from the Super Quick and Easy Facial Retouching tutorial to smooth out her face a little bit. As you can tell, I decided to make her red haired, but you can make your gradients whatever color you would like. She just seemed like a redhead to me. Here is the final image.

Create a 60’s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:40:00 +0000

In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to create a retro 1960s psychedelic concert poster. This tutorial relies heavily on the use of the Warp Tool, but includes a few other techniques as well. Let's get started.

Step 1

Create a new document with a poster-like size ratio. Visualize how you want the document to be laid out and draw some rough guides with the Brush Tool (B) on a new layer called "guides". I drew several different compartments that will each contain a different piece of text and one that will contain an image.

Step 2

Make a solid color adjustment layer and fill it with a deep purple. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool(U). Set the radius so that you get a nice rounded edge that you like. Make sure that you set Make Work Path As Checked on the property bar. Now click and drag to make your border. Grab the Pen Tool (P), and while holding Command, click and drag to select the path. Then click in the Subtract Path button on the property bar. Then make a solid color adjustment layer and fill it with an orange color.

Step 3

Now to set the first bit of text. I used a font called Hobo Std for mine. Grab the Text Tool (T) and click anywhere in the canvas. Then type your text. Hit Command+T and scale the text up so that it fits the first compartment. Hit enter to set the transform. On the Layers Palette, right click on the text layer and select Convert to Shape. This turns the text into paths.

Step 4

Go Edit>Transform>Warp and warp the text to fit the compartment. I find it's easiest to start with the corner handles and then adjust the others afterwards. The Warp Tool can take some getting used to, though it's fairly intuitive. Play around with it until you get a good result. Repeat this step for all the text compartments.

Step 5

Now let's go back in and change the color on some of this text. First, I want some of the text to have a stroke. Make the fill color on the 'with special guests' layer white. Then set the layer's blending mode to Multiply. Double-click on the layer to the right of the layer's name to open the Layer Styles Palette. Give the layer a stroke with the settings below. Go ahead and change the colors on the other text to whatever you like. Also, apply a stroke to some of the other text.

Step 6

Many of these old posters were screen printed. Lets give ours a little of that effect. Load the selection of the 'Lumedia' layer by Command+Clicking on its vector thumbnail. Hit (M) for the Marquee Tool. Then hit the arrow keys to move the selection down and to the right. Now hit Alt+Command+Click on the same layer thumbnail to subtract from the selection. Make a new solid color adjustment layer just above the original text and fill it with your secondary color. Set the Opacity to 75% and give it a nudge so it doesn't line up correctly. That way it will look more handmade.

Step 7

The thing that is really going to make this look good and realistic is some texture. I have a paper texture that I got from BittBox that will do nicely. Copy the texture into the document. Then put it at the top in the Layers Palette. Set the blending mode to Linear Light and set the Fill to 25%.

Step 8

Now let's move on to our image that will fill the rest of the poster. I got an image of a female singer from iStockphoto. Duplicate the blue channel by dragging it to the New Channel button at the bottom of the Channels Palette. Apply a harsh curve to it that looks something like below. Do the same to the red channel. Now invert each of the two new channels you made by selecting them and hitting Command+I.

Step 9

Make a new Solid Color adjustment layer and fill it with the lightest color that you used in the poster. Load the selection of one of the channels you made by holding Command-clicking on its thumbnail in the Channels Palette. Make a new Solid Color adjustment layer above the previous one and fill it with one of the other colors from the poster. Do the same with the remaining channel that you created and fill it with the remaining color from the poster.

Now on each of the masks on the solid color adjustment layers, apply a threshold. Go Image>Adjustments>Threshold and drag the slider until you get the detail that looks good to you. Do the same for the other mask on the other color.

Step 10

Now, let's get back to the poster. With the Pen Tool (P), draw a path around the blank area of the poster. Make a new group by clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. With the path highlighted, hit the Add Layer Mask button twice to apply the path as a vector mask.

Conclusion

Now drag the three color fill layers from the singer image over to the poster document and put them into the group that you just created. Scale the image to fill the space as you see fit. I flipped mine horizontally to make it fit better.

Our final 1960s psychedelic-style concert poster is below. Have fun with these techniques and this style of design.

Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Ever wanted to make text out of grass? Well with Photoshop you can. In this tutorial we'll create a rather cool-looking grass-text effect using a photo of grass, the Pen Tool and a bit of patience.

This is the first of a five-part set of tutorials where we'll use Photoshop to make text out of all sorts of things. So let's get ready to Photoshop!

The End Effect

I like to begin tutorials by showing where we're going. So without further ado, here is the final grass-text image.

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)

More Photoshop Type Coming Next Week!

Create a Vector Lighter

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:24:00 +0000

Step 1

Instead of the background, we will first build all the base vector shapes using the Pen Tool (P). All vector shapes will reside on their own layers.

We need to place a reference image which can be downloaded FREE from StockXchange here. Doing so will make it easier to follow along with each step I describe.

In Photoshop begin with the basic setup, which in my case was destined for lithographic output.

Create a new transparent document with the settings below of 99mm x 200mm at 300dpi. Place your reference image in the middle of your new document, and name the layer. In fact, as you go through these steps, ensure you name all your layers. Above your reference layer create a layer set and name it "base lighter". This layer set will be where you keep your main vector shapes.

Step 2

Using the Pen Tool (P), in shape-layer mode, begin to construct the lighter into sections (eight total), using the reference image for rough guidance. It doesn't have to be exact the first time because shape layers are further editable using the Pen Tool and its associated tools. The color-coded image below indicates layer ordering, which is important. The main plastic case is at the bottom. The very top has a text layer for a bit of personalization. I chose my screen name "apepp" using the font Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold.

For now, color each vector shape layer with shades of black to white to easily distinguish between them. To do this, double-click the layer thumbnail in the layers palette to access the color picker. Once all your eight shapes are created, remember to keep things tidy by pressing the Shift key and selecting each vector layer, then drag them into your layer set ("base lighter") created in Step 1.

Layer Set Tip: Creating a layer set can also be achieved by pressing the Shift key and clicking the layer set icon. All your previously selected layers will automatically fall into a new layer set and kept in their original stacking order. The other way is to use "Command/Apple + G".

Step 3

For the flint "Wheel" layer, use the Polygon Tool (Shift + U ) in shape-layer mode, and set the number of sides to approximately 35. Click and drag to an appropriate size. While the mouse button is still held down, hold the space bar and move it into position. Then release the space bar and further adjust the size if required. When you release the mouse, the layer will be created. This layer needs to be somewhere underneath the metal case.

Step 4

Once you have created the above, hide the layer set "base lighter". Then begin (in much the same way as above) to create the inner sections (five total) as indicated in the image below with the Pen Tool. Again, position these elements into a layer set by Shift-selecting each layer and pressing the layer set icon in combination with the Shift key. Don't forget to name this layer set "Inners".

Step 5

We need to add a "Label" layer below the "Divider" layer. This label is stuck on the other side of the main plastic casing. Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool (Shift + U) in shape-layer mode, enter a Radius of 10px, drag out the shape, and position roughly in the middle. Press Command/Apple + T to transform its rotation slightly to the right by dragging just outside of the top-right control handle.

Step 6

The last part for the inner section is the "Fluid" layer. Create this using the Pen Tool (P) in shape-layer mode (a touch short of the plastic case edges) and move it above the "Tube" layer. Color the "Fluid" vector layer with something like #282828 and change the layer mode to "Soft Light". Changing layer blending modes can also be done by pressing "Shift" and using the + or – keys.

Step 7

Now for the background effect. First hide both the "base lighter" and "Inners" layer sets. Create another layer set called "BGround" or something similar. Add a new layer to this layer set, then choose Filter > Render > Clouds. Press "Command/Apple + T", change the anchor point to the top row via the proxy image in the toolbar. Then type into the height field "140mm", and press the return key to commit this adjustment. Change the layer mode to "Soft Light" and the Opacity to 35%. If you quickly type 35 on your keypad, the opacity will change. Name this layer "Smoke".

Step 8

Still on the "Smoke" layer, double-click the space right-hand side of the layer thumbnail to bring up the layer effects dialog to apply an "Outer Glow". This is to simulate a table edge with light being diffused off the surface. Change the default yellow to white by clicking the yellow square under the noise setting. The other settings are as follows:

Step 9

Under the "Smoke" layer, create a new layer called "Light". Select the Gradient Tool, set a new gradient by clicking the gradient preview in the top toolbar, set the left bottom slider to black #000000 and the right-bottom slider to a blue/gray #78828c, and the mid-point slider to 80%.

Drag in the direction of the green arrow identified on the image below, from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner of the "Smoke" layer created earlier.

Step 10

Now that we have all the essential elements built, we can begin to give depth to the base lighter using layer styles. Turn on the layer set "base lighter" and from top to bottom we'll add the layer effects required. Before that, we will color each vector object as follows by double-clicking the vector layer thumbnail as highlighted below. Do also check the "Red Casing" blending mode is set to "Hard Light", and make sure all other layer modes are "Normal".

Color each one as follows in the number field at the very bottom of the color picker dialog:

Layer "Metal Hole" = #0a0b0a

Layer "Metal Groove" = #ffffff

Layer "Black Top" = #0a0b0a

Layer "Metal Case" = #969696

Layer "Gas Control" = #0a0b0a

Layer "Wheel" = #c8c8c8

Layer "Gas Button 1" = #0a0b0a

Layer "Gas Button 2" = #0a0b0a

Layer "Red Casing" = #a00000

Step 11

To add layer effects, double-click the area just to the right of the layers name and apply the settings as follows:

...layer "apepp" (or your own custom engraving) stroke...

Note: also set this layer's Fill Opacity to 0% in the layers palette. You can also do this in the layer style dialog by clicking on "Blending Options", top of the list in the left-hand panel.

...layer "Metal Hole" stroke...

To edit the actual gradient, click on the gradient preview as shown on image below to reveal the Gradient Editor.

...layer "Metal Groove" gradient overlay...

...layer "Metal Groove" stroke...

...layer "Black Top" gradient overlay...

...layer "Metal Case" gradient overlay...

...layer "Metal Case" stroke...

...layer "Gas Control" stroke...

...layer "Wheel" gradient overlay...

...note to also set blend mode to "Multiply"...

...layer "Wheel" stroke...

...layer "Gas Button 1" stroke...

...layer "Gas Button 2" gradient overlay...

...layer "Red Casing" gradient overlay...

...note to also set blend mode to "Overlay"...

Step 12

Ok, you got this far, so well-done.

We're in the home stretch now, and to launch ourselves down that way further, reveal the layer set "Inners". Check that the layer "Fluid" has the blend mode set to "Soft Light".

Now, just like the beginning of Step 10, we will color each vector shape as follows:

Layer "Black Slot" = #000000

Layer "Connector 1" = #000000

Layer "Connector 2" = #1e1e1e

Layer "Fluid" = #282828

Layer "Tube" = #1e1e1e

Layer "Divider" = #000000

Layer "Label" = #2d2d2d

Step 13

As for the layer styles, only three items need them, and they are:

...layer "Connector 2" gradient overlay...

...layer "Fluid" gradient overlay...

...note to also set blend mode to "Overlay"...

...layer "Fluid" stroke...

...layer "Tube" gradient overlay...

Step 14

It's really coming together nicely now, and hopefully the same for you too. But what's a lighter without a flame?

The flame is simply made of two vector shape layers. Grab the Ellipse tool (in shape layer mode), and draw the largest "Flame Outer" first. Make sure it is pure white too. The flame also needs to be below the "Base Lighter" layer set so it sits under the metal casing.

Duplicate the "Flame Outer" layer (press Command/Apple + J) and scale it down by pressing Command/Apple + T and dragging the control handles around until you are happy. Press the Enter key to commit this change and name this layer "Flame Inner". Set this layer's Opacity to 50%.

In the image below, you will see both elements. I have shaded the "Flame Inner" in grey so you can see the two separate shapes clearer, but they both need to be pure white for when we color them.

Step 15

Double-click the "Flame Inner" layer to bring up the layer styles dialog and set them as follows...

...layer "Flame Inner" satin...

Note: also set blend mode to "Color Burn" and the contour to "Gaussian"...

...layer "Flame Inner" gradient overlay...

Also set the far-right opacity slider to 0% as in the image below on the gradient...

Step 16

Double-click the "Flame Outer" layer to bring up the layer styles dialog and set them as follows:

...layer "Flame Outer" outer glow...

...note to also set the far-right opacity slider to 0% as in image below on gradient.

...layer "Flame Outer" gradient overlay...

Also set far right opacity slider to 0% as in the image below on the gradient.

Step 17

OK, it is pretty much there now, and for the finishing touch, we need that faithful reflection on the table. We'll use an easy technique that many use as often as drop shadows.

Select both the layer sets "base lighter" and "Inners" by Command/apple-click. Drag these sets to the new layer icon at the foot of the layers palette. This will create copies of the sets fully intact, preserving all layer stacking orders within the sets. The copies will also remain selected, so as they are, press Command/Apple + G and those sets will become grouped.

Still with this new group selected, add a layer mask via the Add layer mask button at the foot of the layers palette, then name this new group to "Reflection".

Finally press Command/Apple + T and right-click within the transformed area to select the central anchor point in the proxy preview.

Then select "Flip Vertical" as in image below and press the Enter to commit the change.

Step 18

Now select the layer mask created in Step 17. With the Gradient Tool, set a white-to-black gradient and drag from the bottom to where the arrow finishes in the image below. Set the layer set opacity to 80%.

Conclusion

Here is the final composition. If you wanted to, you could go on to make the flame animate in Photoshop CS3 by way of the Animation window.

Digitally Paint a Fantasy Tree Scene

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Make a new document with the dimensions of 1024px by 768px. Fill the background with (#8CC2FF) color. Then add a gradient from the bottom to the middle with the color #CFECFE, and set the gradient 100% to transparent. This will be our sky, of course you can choose any other light blue color for the sky, or even plan a night scene, but then remember there would be different lighting and contrasting dark colors.

Step 2

In this step we'll make the clouds. It's a simple and fast technique with a pretty effect. The secret is to choose the right brush. Below you can see which brush you should pick. The red lines simulate my mouse. The color of the clouds is white. Remember to paint each cloud on a different layer.

Step 3

So far the clouds don't look amazing. Let's fix that. We can use the eraser tool with a round soft brush 35-45px and set the opacity to 10-20%. Softly erase the bottom-right part of each cloud.

Copy the "clouds" layers twice. Then place those copied below the originals. Then apply a Gaussian blur filter to them. Then move them a little down and toward the right. You can lower the opacity of the clouds to make them appear further away. Once your clouds are done, arrange the sky.

Step 4

The Clouds are done! Next, choose where your light source will come from. In this case, the light source is from the sun, even though we cannot see it.

Tip: don't place the light source behind the main object because it will be too dark. You can make it only a specific type of image.

Think about atmosphere and light sources in your art. My sun isn't placed very high because it's Autumn. Let's look at some Light Theory:

Light and camera: The brightest area on an object isn't every time in the same place for all cameras.
Light intensity: The second ball is too bright. It looks flat and loses the color on top.
Shadows: Shadows on objects shouldn't be brighter than the object itself. Also, remember that other objects (even objects like grass) can reflect the light.

Step 5

Choose a hard black brush 2px and start to plan the main object. The sketch shouldn't be so precise, just play-around the edges. I know it's hard to do it with a mouse, but be patient. The sketch is very important.

Step 6

Set the opacity of the sketch layer to 10%. Grab a hard-edged brush or the marquee tool. Then fill the grass area with #719126 color.

Now choose the brush shown below. Set the color to #90B033, resize it to about 15-30px (The smaller the better the effect), and start to paint. I simulate my mouse moves on the second image with the red line shown below. Remember to paint from top to bottom. That eats a lot of time, true, but who said that digital painting is fast and easy? Try to do your best and you will achieve a better effect than by just brushing around.

Rotate this brush vertically, set the angle to about -134 degrees, and make edges on bottom. We should add lightning effects and shadows, but we will add that toward the end of the image.

Step 7

Fill the ground area with a color of #5C4E43. It's a middle tone between the lightest and the darkest color. The shadow will be very strong, as light will be very feeble. Remember that the ground is hidden by other parts of object so it has to be very dark. The first thing you should do is plan the lights and shadows.

Step 8

To paint on the layer we need to lock transparent pixels. Then choose a hard edged brush (size: 13px, opacity: 20%) with the settings and colors as shown below. Then paint with a dark color and then add a light one in places. In the end give three or four clicks in the lighter areas with a very shiny color. TIP: Don't hold the mouse button all the time, try to paint by clicking with fast moves.

Step 9

Let's look at some Color Theory for Warm and Cold colors.

The same gray color looks different on different backgrounds. Remember that orange and red colors add a warm effect to an image, and blues will add a cold effect to an image.

Step 10

Choose a hard brush with a size of about 19px. Use the settings shown below. Tip: Avoid soft brushes in digital painting. Blending colors with hard brushes looks more naturalistic and eye-catching.

The red arrows show the direction of my mouse. The red color simulates my brush movements. With this technique fill the tree with a dark brown color. You can use my color palette (middle color), or make your own.

Tip: Of course it's better to use more than only two or three colors in blending, but I describe only the basics here. Tip 2: When you have an active brush tool, hold ALT and Click on the color from our "mini palette" layer to change color.

Step 11

At this point, we can hide the "sketch" layer. Now it's all about adding dimension to the tree. Remember about planning lights and shadows. The upper part of the tree will be hidden by leaves, so it should be very dark.

Now You can paint first with the darkest color, then add some shines. Brush same as in the previous step. Brush with a low opacity (about 10-15%). You can select Lock transparent pixels to not care about painting outside the trunk of the tree. Paint a few times in the same area to make it brighter or darker.

Remember what I told in Step 4 about reflections. TIP: Don't use the burn or dodge tools, as they won't give you the colors you need.

Step 12

Compare this image with the one above. They look different, but the differences are only a few details. I added some depth and shines to the hole in middle of tree. I added some shadows under branches. Also, I upgrade the hardest shines. Five minutes of work here makes the tree more realistic.

Step 13

Now we should improve the roots. They look plastic, and the grass looks flat. To make it looking more natural use the eraser tool and choose a grass brush - same as in Step 6. Then delicately erase the lower parts of the roots.

Step 14

Well, I decided to add more details to the ground. For this, set dark color and choose the same brush as in Step 10. Set the brush diameter very small at about 2-3px. Then paint on the bounds of the colors. Then set the color to something shiny and paint lines from the center to the outside around the root.

Step 15

Choose the grass brush (Step 6). Let's add shadows on the edges. Pick a darker color than the base grass color. Consider choosing a color that is much darker (my choice is #313819). The brush opacity shouldn't be so high (about 10-15%). The brush size also should be small (10-15px). Now lock transparent pixels and paint in the shadows. Paint a few times in the same area to make the shadow harder.

Step 16

With the same brush add shadows to the grass behind the tree in relation to the light source. The shadow under the tree should have hard edges and be darker. Remember about shadows behind the roots.

Step 17

Keep the same brush, but change the color to something very shiny (my choice is #AECA66). Now softly (yes, softly, because we will add another light brushing shortly) paint on the grass.

Step 18

Choose the same brush as below, and set the color to a very light yellow (could be even #FFFF00, my choice is #E9EB29). Start to paint the hard-lighted parts with an opacity 15-30% and flow 50%.

Step 19

A lot of work behind us! Now it's time to add the leaves. In fact it's the easiest part of painting. We are just brushing around the branches. The hardest thing here is to choose the right colors.

We'll cut the leaves into three parts: the darkest, the midtones and the lightest. I'm balancing in red tones because it's autumn in this digital painting. Notice that the dark color is under the branches. My colors are: Dark #982C1F, Midtone #BD4428, and Light #F44830.

Step 20

Now it's time for some small elements. First, we will add shadows to the leaves. Use the same brush as in previous step, but use the settings shown below.

For the grass use a color of #232323. After painting that you can apply a little gaussian blur. Then set the opacity of the layer to 75%. After that, make some falling leaves. Use the same brush as in the previous action, but set it to a small opacity of 20-40%. Set the colors the same as those on the tree. The last part of the small elements are the ground pieces. Still with the same brush, but resize it to 8-10px, choose a very dark color, and set the opacity to 10-20%.

Now we are about to add some shadows on the leaves. Hold CNTRL + Shift and Click on all "leaves" layers. Now create a new layer for the shadows that are on the top of all the "leaves" layers. The choose a big soft brush with 100px diameter, a dark color, and 20% opacity. Then start to make shadows on the leaves. After painting, change the blend mode to multiply. This will add some shadows also on the tree.

Step 21

We can add some small details like cables that come out of the tree. Choose one base color. Then paint a cable and give it a shadow and one or two light shines. Set the brush spacing to 1% and the brush size 3-4px. We can use the pen tool for this operation, or paint cables by hand with fast moves. For adding shadows we can use the burn tool, or by blending options (inner shadow).

Step 22

Add a little red color to the grass. It doesn't matter which brush, but I prefer the leaves brush. Set the brush to a small opacity, standard settings, and a color of pure red. It's autumn, so the grass should take on a burnt hue. A red color will give us that effect.

Step 23

I decided a to change the background little. In autumn, colors should be reddish, as we made the grass. Click on channel mixer and change the settings, as shown below. Make sure the layer blend set to lighten.

Final image

Here we are! We have done the whole image! Digital painting can take a lot of work, but I hope you will enjoy creating the final product. Let me know if you want to see more tutorials on digital painting like this one.

Make a Floating in Air USB Key Illustration

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:07:00 +0000

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Let's start by creating a New Document which is 1000 pixels wide by 1000 pixels high, set the Resolution to 300 pixels/inch, and the Background to white. Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then set the style to Fixed Size with a Width of 100 px and Height of 240 px. Drag four guides around the selection, as shown in the below image, then Deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 2

Create a new layer and name it "Front B." Set the foreground color to 55% gray. Get the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set it to Fill Pixels and Radius to 30 px in the Tool Options set. Draw a rounded rectangle as shown below.

Step 3

Now we'll clear the guides by going to View > Clear Guides. Hit Command + T to enter the Free Transform mode, set the Vertical Skew to -30 degrees, and apply it. Hit Command + T again and set the Rotation to -30 degrees. We could have skewed and rotated the layer at the same time. The reason why we did it in two steps is that it gives cleaner results. You can have a look at the below image for a comparison.

Now we need two horizontal guides. Drag and snap one to the top and one to the bottom of the transformed rectangle. This is not our final perspective angle, but it's easier to build up the USB key this way, then we'll rotate the whole thing again to achieve our final perspective look.

Step 4

Duplicate the "Front B" layer and name it "Front A." Move the "Front A" layer 30 pixels left. You can do it by using the Arrow keys on the keyboard when the Move Tool is selected. While holding Shift, press the Left Arrow key three times. Apply a Gradient Overlay layer Style with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 100%, Gradient set at Black to white, Style of Linear, Angle set to 90 degrees, and Scale set to 130%.

Step 5

Now we need to connect these two rounded rectangles. Go back to the "Front B" layer in the Layers Palette. Get the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make a selection, as shown in the image below. Make sure the guides are visible. Fill the selection with 55% gray, then Deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 6

There are some unwanted pixels, lets get rid of them. Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, set the Style to Normal, and make a selection, as shown below. Move the selection 1 px down and hit Delete to clear the area. You can move the selections by using the Arrow Keys on the keyboard as long as a Marquee Tool is active. Now make a rectangular selection this time at the bottom. Move the selection 1 px up and hit Delete again.

Step 7

Now we'll apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style to the "Front B" layer with these settings: Blend mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 65%, Gradient set at "Steel Bar" (which is in the Metals Set), with a Style of Linear, Angle set to -30 degrees, and Scale at 110%. Also, you can adjust the position of the gradient by dragging while the Gradient Overlay dialog is still open. Adjust the position like in the image as well.

Step 8

Command-click the "Front A" layer thumbnail to load the selection. I moved the selection 400 pixels right. This will define the length of your USB key, so you can change it if you want a longer or a shorter one. Create a new layer and name it "Back." I filled the selection with color #ee3232, but you can choose a different color according to your own taste.

Now create another new layer and name it "Body." Fill the selection with 15% gray. Deselect by hitting Command + D. Make the "Back" layer invisible, as we'll need it later. Drag and place the "Body" layer above the "Background" layer in the Layers Palette.

Step 9

Now we'll extrude the body as we did for the front part. Get the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make a selection as shown, then fill it with 15% gray. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Step 10

Get the Rectangular Marque Tool and make a selection aligned to the upper guide, as in the image below. Move the selection 1 px down and clear by hitting Delete. Make another rectangular selection, this time at the bottom, move the selection 1 px up, and hit Delete again to clear the disturbing row of pixels.

Step 11

Now we'll apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style to the "Body" layer to achieve the rounded corner. Use these settings: Blend mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 65%, Gradient set at Black to White, with a Style of Linear, Angle set to 90 degrees, and Scale set at 18%. Move the gradient down, as in the below image. You can do it by dragging while the Gradient Overlay dialog box is open.

Step 12

Go to the Layer Palette, then drag and place the "Back" layer just above the "Background" layer. Move the "Back" layer 20 px right using the Right Arrow key. Next, get the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make a selection, as shown below, then fill the selection with red (or your own color) to extrude the back part of the USB key. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Get the Rectangular Marque Tool and make a selection aligned to the upper guide, as we did before. Move the selection 1 px down and clear by hitting Delete. Make another rectangular selection, this time at the bottom. Move the selection 1 px up and hit Delete again to clear the disturbing row of pixels.

Step 13

We need to apply a Gradient Overlay to the "Back" layer with the same settings as we used for the "Body." Now right-click on the "Body" layer in the Layers Palette and choose Copy Layer Style. Right-click the "Back" layer and choose Paste Layer Style.

Step 14

Create a new layer above the "Front B" layer and name it "Highlight." Grab the Line Tool, set it to Fill Pixels, and set Weight to 8 px. Choose white as your Foreground Color, and draw a straight line, as in the below image. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, apply with a Radius of 5 px.

Now we have the highlight, but we should delete the exceeding part. Command-click the "Body" Layer Thumbnail to load it's selection. We should also select the back part, so Command + Shift-click the "Back" Layer Thumbnail to add to the selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 15

Create a new layer above the "Body" layer and name it "Reflection." Grab the Gradient Tool, set the Gradient to black to white, and fill the layer with the gradient from left to right. Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves and tweak the curve as shown below. This is my favorite way to make reflections. Then hit Command + T and rotate the "Reflection" layer 30 degrees. You'll see why we're doing this later.

Now because we want that reflection to be seen on the "Body" part, we need to get rid of the rest. Command-click the "Body" Layer Thumbnail to load the selection. Command + Alt-click the "Front B" Layer Thumbnail to subtract it from the current selection. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. Hit Command + D to Deselect. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay.

Now get the Eraser Tool. Make sure the mode in the Tool Options is set to Brush. I set the Brush Master Diameter to 215 and Hardness to 25%. Erase the area below the rounded corner.

There are some painted pixels outside the canvas because we filled the whole page and then rotated the gradient. We can't see them at the moment. In the final steps we'll rotate the USB key and these pixels will be a problem so to get rid of them. Go to Select > All, then go to Image > Crop.

Step 16

We start drawing the plug. Command-click the "Front A " layer to load the selection. Create a new layer above the "Front A" and name it "Plug." Fill the selection with 25% gray. Deselect by hitting Command + D. Hit Command + T to enter Free Transform mode, set the Vertical and Horizontal Scales to 56%, and apply.

Step 17

Duplicate the "Plug" layer and name it "Plug Front." Move the "Plug Front" layer 150 pixels left. Drag two guides from the upper Ruler and snap them to the top and bottom of the "Plug" layer. Go back to the "Plug" layer in the Layers Palette, get the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and make a selection as in the below image. Fill the selection with 25% gray, then deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 18

Get the Rectangular Marque Tool and make a selection aligned to the upper guide, as shown below. Move the selection 1 px down and clear by hitting Delete. Make another rectangular selection, this time at the bottom, move the selection 1 px up, and hit Delete again to clear the disturbing row of pixels.

Step 19

Command-click the "Plug" layer Thumbnail, this will load the selection. Get the Gradient Tool, set the Gradient as Foreground to Transparent, set Foreground Color to black, and Gradient Style to Linear. Drag it, as shown below, to fill the selection with a black to transparent gradient. This will make the upper part of the plug darker, which is going to help us achieving the metallic look.

Hit Command + D to Deselect. Apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style with these settings: Blent Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 50%, Gradient set at Black to White, Style of Linear, Angle set to 90 degrees and Scale set to 18%. Move the Gradient down until it fits on the rounded corner, as in the below image, while the Gradient Overlay dialog is still open.

Step 20

Create a new layer above the "Plug" layer and name it "Plug Reflection." Get the Rectangular Marque Tool and make a selection, as in the image below. Get the Gradient Tool. Set the Gradient to Silver (it's in the Metals Set.) Set the Gradient Style to Reflected and fill the selection starting from the middle to the left. Hit Command + D to Deselect. Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert to get the negative.

Step 21

Hit Command + T, then Scale the reflection a bit horizontally and rotate 30 degrees. Now we want to reflection visible only on the plug. So we'll define the "Plug" layer as a Clipping Mask for the "Plug Reflection." You can do it by Alt-clicking the line between these two layers in the Layers Palette. Get the Eraser Tool. Erase the area below the rounded corner of the plug. Also, set the layer Blending Mode to Screen.

Step 22

Create a new layer above the "Plug Reflection" layer and name it "Plug Highlight." Get the Line Tool, set it to Fill Pixels, and set Weight to 4 px. Also, set white as your Foreground Color. Draw a straight line, set Weight to 2 px and draw another line, as in the below image.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, apply with a Radius of 1.5 px. Command-click the "Plug" layer to load the selection, then go to Select > Inverse and clear by hitting Delete. Set the "Plug Highlight" Layer Opacity at 60%.

Step 23

Now we'll make the hole on the plug. Command-click the "Plug Front" layer to load the selection. Go to Select > Modify > Contract and contract the selection by 2 pixels. Create a new layer above the "Plug Front" layer and name it "Plug Hole."

Fill the selection with 25% gray and apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style with these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Opacity at 40%, Gradient set at black to white, with a Style of Linear, Angle set to -90 degrees, and Scale at 13%. Move the gradient until it fits on the rounded corner of the plug.

Step 24

Create a new layer named "Plug Hole Shadow" just above the "Plug Hole" layer. Grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool, select an area as in the below image, and fill with black. Hit Command + D to Deselect. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 15 pixels. Command-click the "Plug Hole" layer, go to Select > Inverse to inverse the selection. Clear by hitting Delete. You should adjust the Opacity of the layer to your taste as well.

Step 25

Create a new layer above the "Plug Hole" layer and name it "White." Command-click the "Plug Hole" layer. Get the Rectangular Marque Tool and move the selection, as shown below. Command + Alt + Shift-click the "Plug Hole" Layer Thumbnail to intersect the selection, then fill the selection with white, and hit Command + D to Deselect. Move the "White" layer 5 pixels right. Drag horizontal guides and snap them to the top and the bottom of the "White" layer.

Step 26

Create another layer below the "White" layer and name it "White Top." Get the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make a selection, as shown below. Fill the selection with 20% gray. Command-click the "Plug Hole" layer, then go to Select > Inverse to inverse the loaded selection. Hit Delete to clear the part outside the hole. Go to "White" layer in the Layers Palette and hit Delete again. Hit Command + D to Deselect.

Step 27

Select the Layers in the Layer Palette, as shown below. Go to Layer > Group Layers (Command + G.) Name the group "Plug Bottom." Now duplicate the "Plug Bottom" group and name it "Plug Top." Go to Layer > Merge Group. Make the "Plug Bottom" group invisible for now.

Step 28

Now we'll make the reflection of the plug on the body. Duplicate the "Plug Top" layer, name it "Plug Reflection," and drag it above the "Front A" layer in the Layers Palette. Move it right, as shown below. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 3 pixels. In order to mask the reflection, Alt-click on the line between the "Plug Reflection" and the "Front A" layers in the Layers Palette. You can change the opacity of the layer as you wish.

Step 29

Let's continue tiding up our layers. Select all the layers except the "Background" and "Plug Top" layers and "Plug Bottom" Group. Go to Layer > Merge Layers (Command + E.) Rename the merged layer as "Body."

Step 30

Now we'll make the two small holes on the plug. Create a new layer on the top of the layer stack named "Hole." Get the Rectangular Marque Tool, set Style to Fixed Size, and Width and Height both to 26 px. Make a selection as shown below. Fill the selection with 65% gray. Hit Command + D to deselect.

Hit Command + T and set the Horizontal Skew to 30 degrees. This will fit the perspective of the holes to the perspective of the plugs. Get the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make a selection, as shown in the bottom left image below. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U), and set Lightness at +100% to make the selected part white.

Command-click the "Hole" layer to load the selection. Move the selection 1 px left and 1 px down. Command + Alt + Shift-click the "Hole" layer again to intersect the selection with the layer. Fill the selection with black. Also, deselect by hitting Command + D.

Step 31

Duplicate the "Hole" layer. Now we have two holes and they should be aligned properly. You can get help from the right or left edge of the plug. After aligning properly, select both hole layers and position them as shown below.

Step 32

Now get the Text Tool. I set the font as Trebuchet MS with a size of 35 pt. Make your Foreground Color #ee0055, then type your text. Hit Command + T and set the Horizontal Skew to 30 degrees and apply. Rename your text layer as "Text." Apply a Gradient Overlay to "Text" layer using these settings: Blend Mode set to Screen, Opacity at 50%, Gradient set at Silver, with a Style of Linear, Angle set to 30 degrees, and Scale set at 75%.

We'll also apply a Drop shadow with the following settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 60%, Angle set to 90 degrees, and Distance and Size set to 2 px.

Step 33

What we have now is our USB key. What we don't is the reflection. Our key will be floating in the air, and the bottom of it will be reflecting on the surface. And the bottom part of the key is slightly different from the top of it.

Duplicate the "Body" layer and name it "Body Bottom." Now select the "Hole Copy," "Hole," "Text," "Plug Top," and "Body" layers, then go to Layer > Merge. Name the merged layer "USB," and make "USB" layer invisible for now.

Step 34

We'll get the Text Tool again, make your Foreground Color #ee0055, and type your text. Hit Command + T and scale the text to fit on the plug. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to mirror the text. Hit Command + T and set the Horizontal Skew to 30 degrees and apply. Rename your text layer as "Text."

Apply a Gradient Overlay to the "Text" layer using these settings: Blend Mode set to Screen, Opacity at 50%, Gradient set at Silver, with a Style of Linear, Angle set to 30 degrees ,and Scale set at 75%.

We'll also apply a Drop shadow with the following settings: Blend Mode of Multiply, Opacity set at 60%, Angle set to 90 degrees, and Distance and Size set to 2 px.

Make sure that one of the visible layers is selected in the Layers Palette, then go to Layer > Merge Visible. Name the merged layer "Reflection." Now you should have three layers: "Background," "USB Final," and "Reflection." Now we're almost done.

Step 35

Now make the "Plug Bottom" group visible. Open the group and delete the "White Top" layer. Go to the "White" layer and move it up, as shown below. Command-click the "Plug Hole" layer to load the selection, go to Select > Inverse. Hit Delete to Clear outside of the hole. Deselect by hitting Command + D. Go to the "Plug Hole Shadow" layer in the Layers Palette. Hit Command + T and rotate the layer 180 degrees, and make sure that it still fits in the hole.

Step 36

We'll now place the USB sign on the plug. I drew one and you can get it here. Open the "USBsign.png" file and get the Move Tool and drag the logo into your "USB Refleciton.psd."

Hit Command + T to enter Free Transform mode, rotate the logo -90 degrees, scale to fit on the plug, and apply. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to mirror it. Hit Command + T again and set the Horizontal Skew to 30 degrees. Place it on the plug and set the Layer Opacity to 60%.

Step 37

Close the "Plug Bottom" group. Select the "Plug Bottom," "Body Bottom," and "Text" in the Layers Palette and go to Layer > Merge Layers. Name the merged layer "USB Reflection." Make sure that "USB" layer is on the top and all the layers are visible.

Step 38

Select both "USB" and "USB Reflection" layers in the Layers Palette, hit Command + T, and Rotate -30 degrees. Grab the Move Tool, then move the "USB Reflection" layer down, as shown below. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 3 px. Also, set the Layer Opacity at 20%.

Step 39

Duplicate the "USB Reflection" layer and name it "Shadow." Hit Command + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog. Set the Lightness to -100 to make the shadow black. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 40 px. Set the Layer Opacity to 50% and move the "Shadow" layer up, as in the image below.

Conclusion

Finally, I scaled them down a bit and applied a gradient to the background. And this is the end of another tutorial. I hope you're happy with your own USB key illustration and had some fun! You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

Adding Reflections To Sunglasses

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Step 1: Select One Of The Lenses

We need to work on one lens at a time, so let's begin with the lens on the left (our left, her right). To complete the work on the other lens, all we'll need to do is repeat the same steps we're about to do. First, we need to select the lens, so select around the outside of it using the selection tool of your choice (Lasso Tool, Pen Tool, etc.):

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Select around the outside of the lens on the left using the Photoshop selection tool of your choice.

Step 2: Create A New Blank Layer

With the lens selected, click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new blank layer above the original Background layer, which is the layer that contains our original image:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Add a new layer by clicking on the "New Layer" icon.

Photoshop adds a new layer above the Background layer and automatically names it "Layer 1". Double-click directly on the layer's name in the Layers palette and rename it to "left lens" to make it easier for us to keep track of what we're doing (it's always a good idea to name your layers):

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: A new layer is added above the Background layer. Rename the layer "left lens".

Step 3: Fill The Selection With Black On The New Layer

With the "left lens" layer selected (the currently selected layer is highlighted in blue in the Layers palette), press the letter D on your keyboard to reset your Foreground and Background colors if necessary so black becomes your Foreground color (white becomes your Background color), then use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection we made with black:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The left lens now appears filled with solid black.

Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) when you're done to deselect the selection.

It looks like we've filled the left lens with black, but since we're using layers and we've filled the selection on a layer above the Background layer, our original image isn't affected at all. The black filled selection area and the original photo are completely separate from each other.

Step 4: Drag The Second Image Into The Document

At this point, we need to bring in the image we're going to be using as the reflection in the sunglasses, so open your second image in Photoshop if it's not open already and have both images displaying in their own separate document windows on the screen (you can cycle through the various screen modes for each document by pressing the letter F on your keyboard). Press V to quickly select Photoshop's Move Tool, then simply click anywhere inside the second image and drag it into the sunglasses document:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Use the Move Tool to drag the second image into the main sunglasses document.

If we look in our Layers palette, we can see that the second image has been added on a new layer above the "left lens" layer. Double-click on the layer's name and rename it to "left reflection":

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The second image has been added on a new layer at the top of the Layers palette. Rename the new layer "left reflection".

Step 5: Create A Clipping Mask

Currently, the image on the "left reflection" layer is blocking much of the sunglasses image from view. What we want is for it to appear only inside the left lens, and we can do that easily by using the "left lens" layer as a clipping mask for the "left reflection" layer above it. What this means is, the only area of the tropical beach photo that will remain visible is the area sitting above the black-filled area on the layer below it. Any areas of the tropical beach photo that are sitting above any transparent areas on the "left lens" layer below it will be hidden from view.

To create the clipping mask, with the "left reflection" layer selected in the Layers palette, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and choose Create Clipping Mask, or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+G (Win) / Option+Command+G (Mac). Either way turns the "left lens" layer into a clipping mask for the "left reflection" layer above it, and the tropical beach photo (or whatever photo you happen to be using) is now sitting nicely inside the left lens:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The tropical beach photo now appears inside the left lens.

If we look in our Layers palette, we can see that the "left reflection" layer now appears indented to the right, with a small arrow pointed down towards the "left lens" layer below it, which indicates that the "left reflection" layer is now being clipped by the "left lens" layer:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Photoshop's Layers palette showing the "left reflection" layer being clipped by the "left lens" layer below it.

Step 6: Resize And Reposition The Image With Free Transform

Now that our reflection image is inside the left lens, let's resize it and reposition it. We can do both of those things at once using Photoshop's Free Transform command, so press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the second image. Even though we can only see the part of the image that's inside the lens, Photoshop places the Free Transform box and handles around the actual dimensions of the image. If you can't see some of the handles because they're outside of the viewable area inside the document window, press F on your keyboard to switch your view mode to Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar, which will allow you to see all of the Free Transform handles (press F a couple more times when you're done with Free Transform if you want to switch back to the document window view mode). Then simply drag any of the corner handles inward to resize the image. Hold down Shift as you're dragging to constrain the proportions of the image, and hold down Alt as you drag if you want Photoshop to resize the image from its center:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Resize the image by dragging any of the corner handles. Hold "Shift" to constrain the image proportions and "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) to resize the image from its center.

If you need to rotate the image, move your mouse outside any of the corner handles. You'll see your mouse cursor change to a curved line with a small arrow on each end. Simply click and drag with your mouse to rotate the image.

To move the image, click anywhere inside the Free Transform box and move the image around with your mouse. Just don't click on the small target icon in the center, otherwise you'll move the target icon, not the image. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation. Here's my image after moving and resizing my tropical beach photo inside the lens:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The image serving as the reflection has now been moved and resized.

Step 7: Add An "Inner Shadow" Layer Style

Let's add a bit of a shadow to the reflected image so it looks like it's part of the lens and not just sitting on top of it. Click back on the "left lens" layer in the Layers palette to select it, then click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Click on the "left lens" layer to select it, then click on the "Layer Styles" icon.

Select Inner Shadow from the list of Layer Styles that appears:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Select "Inner Shadow" from the list.

This brings up Photoshop's Layer Style" dialog box set to the Inner Shadow options in the middle column. I want my shadow to appear mainly in the top right corner of the lens so I'm going to set my Angle to 65°. You may want to set yours to a different angle. Set the Distance option to 1 px and lower the Size option down to about 3 px:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Change the Inner Shadow options circled in red above.

Here's my lens after applying the Inner Shadow:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The left lens now has a subtle shadow appearing from the top right corner.

Step 8: Apply The "Spherize" Filter

Right now, the image we're using for our reflection is completely flat, but most lenses have a slight curve to them, so let's add that slight curve to our reflection image. Click on the "left reflection" layer in the Layers palette to select it. Then hold down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) and click directly on the thumbnail for the "left lens" layer in the Layers palette:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Select the "left reflection" layer, then "Ctrl-click" (Win) / "Command+click" (Mac) directly on the "left lens" thumbnail in the Layers palette.

This will load a selection around the lens back into the document:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: A selection around the left lens now appears back in the document.

We're going to be applying the Spherize filter to the "left reflection" layer, and by loading this selection first, this allows us to apply the filter only to the area inside the selection, rather than applying it to the entire layer.

Now that we've loaded the selection, go up to the Filter option at the top of the screen, choose Distort, and then choose Spherize. When the Spherize filter dialog box appears, select Horizontal Only for the Mode option at the bottom, then use the slider to raise the Amount to around 25-30%. I'm going to raise mine to 30% since her lenses seem to have quite a bit of curve to them:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Photoshop's Spherize filter dialog box.

Click OK when you're done to apply the filter and exit out of the dialog box. Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) when you're done to deselect the selection. Here's my image after applying the Spherize filter to the image inside the left lens. The difference is subtle, but it's usually the small things that make the difference between something that looks realistic and something that doesn't:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The image after applying the Spherize filter to the photo inside the left lens.

Step 9: Duplicate The "Left Reflection" Layer

With the "left reflection" layer still selected, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) to duplicate the layer. A copy of the layer, which Photoshop names "left reflection copy", appears above it in the Layers palette. Click on the new layer's name and rename it to "multiply" (you'll see why in a moment):

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Duplicate the "left reflection" layer and rename it "multiply".

Step 10: Set The New "Multiply" Layer To Be Clipped By The "Left Lens" Layer

When we duplicated the "left reflection" layer, Photoshop created a copy of it for us but left us with a small problem. The original "left reflection" layer is being clipped by the "left lens" layer below it, but the copy we just created is not being clipped, which means it's not being confined to the inside of the lens and is currently just sitting there on top of the original image. All we need to do to fix that is do the same thing we did with the original "left reflection" layer. Either go up to the Layer menu and choose Create Clipping Mask or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+G (Win) / Option+Command+G (Mac) to clip the "multiply" layer to the "left lens" layer so the only part remaining visible is the area inside the lens. We can now see in the Layers palette that both the original "lens reflection" layer and the "multiply" layer are being clipped by the "left lens" layer below them:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The Layers palette showing the "left reflection" and "multiply" layers being clipped by the "left lens" layer below them.

Step 11: Change The Layer Blend Mode To "Multiply"

The reason we renamed the new layer to "multiply" is because we're going to change it's layer blend mode to Multiply, which is going to enable us to darken the image inside the lens so it's not so bright. To do that, simply go up to the blend mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and select "Multiply" from the list:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Change the blend mode of the top layer to "Multiply".

As soon as you change the blend mode, the image inside the lens appears much darker:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The image inside the lens now appears darker after changing the blend mode.

If you find the image inside the lens now appears too dark, simply go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette and lower the opacity of the "multiply" layer until you've brightened the image back up to the point where you're happy with the results. Or, if you want to make the image even darker, click on the "left reflection" layer to select it and lower it's opacity value. By lowering the opacity of the "left reflection" layer, you begin to mix in some of the solid black from the "left lens" layer below it (which is why we filled our lens selection with black earlier in the tutorial). Here I've lowered the opacity of the "left reflection" layer to 80% to mix in just a hint of the black from the "left lens" layer:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Lower the opacity of the "multiply" layer to brighten the reflected image back up, or lower the opacity of the "left reflection" layer to darken it even further.

My reflected image now appears even darker, giving the lens a tinted look to it:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The reflected image inside the lens is slightly darker, giving the lens a tinted appearance.

It's entirely a judgment call on your part how dark to make the reflection, if you even want to darken it at all.

Step 12: Select The Gradient Tool With A White-To-Transparent Gradient

To finish off our work on the left lens and give it a bit more of a three dimensional, curved appearance, let's add a highlight to it, as if the sun is reflecting off of it. I'm going to add it in the top right corner of the lens. To do that, we need the Gradient Tool, so select it from the Tools palette or press G to select it with the keyboard shortcut:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Select the Gradient Tool.

We want to add a white-to-transparent gradient, so press the letter X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors, making white your Foreground color. Then with the Gradient Tool selected, right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) anywhere inside the document to bring up the Gradient Picker and select the gradient second from the left, top row:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Choose the white-to-transparent gradient from the Gradient Picker.

Looking to learn Photoshop? How about beginner Photoshop tutorials? You'll find free Photoshop tutorials and Adobe Photoshop tutorials at Photoshop Essentials.

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Step 13: Load A Selection Once Again Around The Lens

Hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click directly on the thumbnail for the "left lens" layer in the Layers palette to once again load a selection around the lens:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: "Ctrl-click" (Win) / "Command-click" (Mac) directly on the "left lens" thumbnail to again load a selection around the lens in the document.

Step 14: Add A New Layer At The Top Of The Layers Palette

Make sure the top layer (the "multiply" layer) is currently selected in the Layers palette, then click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new blank layer above all the others. Rename the new layer "highlight":

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Add a new blank layer at the top of the Layers palette and rename it "highlight".

Step 15: Drag Out A White-To-Transparent Gradient On The "Highlight" Layer

To add the highlight, I'm simply going to drag out a white-to-transparent gradient on the "highlight" layer, starting from the top right corner of the lens and extending downward diagonally towards the center:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: Dragging out a gradient from the top right corner of the right lens down towards the center.

Release the mouse button and Photoshop draws the white-to-transparent gradient, adding the highlight to the lens. Since we had a selection around the lens, the gradient is confined to the area inside the lens. Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to deselect the selection. Here's my image after adding my highlight in the top right corner of the lens:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The highlight added to the left lens.

Step 16: Repeat The Same Steps For The Other Lens

We've completed work on the left lens. Now we just need to add the reflection to the right lens, and to do that, we simply repeat all the steps we've just done for the other lens:

Select the right lens
Add a new layer and name it "right lens"
Fill the selection with black
Drag the second image into the sunglasses document and rename its layer "right reflection"
Create a clipping mask to clip the "right reflection" layer to the "right lens" layer below it
Use Free Transform to resize and reposition the image inside the lens
Add an "Inner Shadow" layer style to the "right lens" layer
Apply the "Spherize" filter to the "right reflection" layer
Duplicate the "right reflection" layer and rename it "multiply"
Change the blend mode of the duplicate layer to "Multiply"
Lower the opacity of the new "multiply" layer to brighten the image back up or lower the opacity of the "right reflection" layer to make it even darker.
Add a highlight in the top right corner of the right lens with the Gradient Tool and a white-to-transparent gradient

Keep in mind as you're repositioning the image in the right lens with the Free Transform command that the reflection in the right lens should be coming from a slightly different angle than the reflection in the left lens, so to make things look more realistic, adjust the position of the right reflection so it appears a bit off center from the left one. Once you've repeated all the steps for the right lens, you're done!

Here, for comparison, is my original image once again with the original reflection in the sunglasses:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The original image once again.

And here, after repeating all the steps for the right lens, is my final result. When repeating the steps for the right lens, I only lowered the opacity of the "right reflection" layer to 90% rather than the 80% I lowered the "left reflection" layer to, and the reason for it is that her face seems to be tilted away slightly from the direction of the sun so I made the reflection in the lens closest to the sun appear slightly brighter, again just to add a touch more realism:

Photoshop Sunglasses Reflection: The final result.

And there we have it!

Electrifying Glow Album Art

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:53:00 +0000

In this Photoshop tutorial we will use the pen tool, paths brushes and brush dynamics along with a neat little trick using thresholds to create a cool album cover look. This tutorial is a bit involved and assumes that you are proficient enough in Photoshop to follow along without me holding your hand. That being said, lets jump right in.
1
I took this photo at a show The Killers played at Madison Square Garden in New York this past summer… packed house, great crowd… anyway, here’s the photo. The image is included in the lesson files available for download at the end of the tutorial. Lets first start by drawing a nice curvy path with the pen tool that we’ll use as our main wrapping glow line. In the Paths palette be sure to rename the path so you don’t loose it when we create a new one.

2
Create a new layer called "First Stroke" and switch to the Brush tool. Choose the 5 pixel round brush with hard edges, set the foreground color to white and click back to the Pen tool. Now simply Right-Click (Mac: Control-Click) anywhere on the path and choose Stroke Path. When the dialog box pops up choose Brush and Simulate Pressure. The pressure simulation will ensure that the stroke tapers off at each end.

3
With your tool of choice remove the sections along the stroke that should be behind your subject. I use the Pen tool.

4
Add an Inner and Outer Glow as shown below. The blue color I’m using in both styles is #6d9bff. This will be the only layer style we’ll be using and we’ll copy and paste this one onto subsequent layers as we go.

5
Duplicate the "First Stroke" layer, clear the layer styles and add a 6px Gaussian Blur. This will add an additional glowing effect around the original stroke.

6
Create a new layer called "Particles", activate the Path we created earlier and switch to the Brush tool. Choose a round brush of 3 pixels with a hardness of 0%, then under the Brushes palette set Shape Dynamics and Scattering to the following. (*note: make sure your foreground color is still white)

7
Switch back to the Pen tool and stroke the path just like before, then remove the overlapping sections. This time the eraser tool will probably be the easiest way to remove the overlapping dots. Copy the layer style from the "First Stroke" layer and paste them into the "Particles" layer. (*note: This can be done easily by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key while clicking and dragging the style icon from one layer to the other.)

8
Create a new layer called "Second Stroke", create a new path similar but not the same as the original with the Pen tool (or duplicate the earlier path and change it a little) then repeat steps 2-5 but this time use a 3 pixel brush and reduce your Gaussian Blur to 3 on the copy layer. Play with a lower opacity on these layers until the effect looks right to you and don’t forget to copy the layer style onto the "Second Stroke" layer.

9
Now that the glow effects have been completed it’s time to really have some fun with this image. Click on the Background layer and duplicate it by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Choose Image>Adjustments>Threshold from the main menu and use a setting around 85. This will obviously vary depending on your application of the technique.

10
Grab the Magic Wand tool by pressing W and then click anywhere in the field of black. This may not have selected all the black if there are isolated pockets so choose Select>Similar from the main menu to ensure all the black pixels are selected. Invert the selection by pressing Command-Shift-I (PC: Ctrl-Shift-I) then drag the layer to the trash and select the Background layer. (*note: your selection will still be active.

11
Duplicate the selected area by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). This will create a new layer with just the selection copied onto it. Call this layer "Partial". The selection will be gone and it won’t look like anything has happened, so create a new layer between the "Partial" layer and the "Background" layer, call it "Black" and fill the entire layer with black.

12
Click back to the "Partial" layer and use the eraser to remove all those annoying artifacts outside the artwork that we want to keep.

13
For my finished image I added the graphic as an CD album cover.

Photoshop Button Maker

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:00:00 +0000

In this simple tutorial, we're going to create a clever little way of making little buttons using a couple of layers and one interchangeable image layer. As always you can download the sample PSD at the bottom of the tutorial to follow along and copy layer styles out of.

Step 1:

Start by drawing in a colored background. I've used dark brown/greys here and used a subtle radial gradient. Then in a new layer, draw a circle and fill it with a color. It doesn't matter what color you use; I've used green here.

Step 2:

Next we are going to apply some layer styles. We're using two types of Inner Shadow (one using Inner shadow and one using Inner glow). Also we have a subtle Gradient Overlay and a Drop Shadow and a bit of Satin. I've chosen these to try to make the object look 3D by using shadows at the edges curving away and a radial gradient to make it look like light is hitting the middle. The satin is just to add a bit of extra something!

Anyhow, rather than going through the exact settings, just download the source and right-click the layer to Copy Layer Style.

Step 3:

This is what the circle looks like with the layer style applied, kind of cool!

Step 4:

Next using the Circular Selection Tool, we draw an ellipse which is longer horizontally than it is vertically (as shown). Create a new layer and draw a radial gradient from white to transparent in it. Note that you want to drag the gradient so that total transparency occurs outside of the selection (i.e. the white part has a bit of a sharp cut off when the selection area ends).

When you're done, rotate the ellipse by about 30 degrees. This is our main highlight.

Step 5:

Now duplicate the highlight layer. Switch the first one's visibility off for a moment so you can see what you're doing, and then hold down Ctrl and click on the second highlight layer to select its pixels. Then hit the down and left arrows a few times and press delete. This should leave you with a thin bit of highlight (as shown).

Step 6:

Switch your first highlight layer back on. Then duplicate the second highlight and rotate it down the bottom left as shown. And now you have your button style!

Step 7:

So next we want to make the button interchangeable. To do that, we simply get the main green layer and set the Fill to 0%

Fill is a bit like Opacity except that if you make something 0% Opacity then you make the layer styles transparent too, whereas if you make it 0% Fill, the layer styles are still visible. This is perfect for us because we get rid of the green, but still have everything we need to make our buttons. Now all we need to do is slot something underneath.

Step 8:

So I grabbed a British flag and you can see it here underneath the button and how the 0% Fill is working.

Step 9:

All you need to do is hit Ctrl and click on the circle layer to select that sized circle, then press Shift+Ctrl+I to invert the selection, go to the flag layer, and hit delete. And you're done! One button!

Step 10:

I then created a few extra buttons using some random pictures. Oh and the "Button Maker" font I used is called "Dynamoe" in case you are wondering!

Super Shiny Pencil Icon

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:54:00 +0000

The Pencil is one of the visual metaphors most used to express creativity. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw a pencil icon. We'll have a look at gradients, selection tools, and basic transform operations. Let's have some fun with this.

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. As always, the layered Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

Create a New Document 950 pixels wide by 600 pixels heigh, set the Resolution to 300 pixels/inch, and the Background to white. Make a rectangular selection with a Style of Fixed Size, a Width of 400 px, and Height of 100 px.

Step 2

Drag and snap guides to all edges and vertical center of the selection.

Step 3

Open the gradient picker and select the "Steel Bar" preset from the drop down menu. If you can't see the preset in the list, click the triangle button on the right and select "metals" from the list. Click Append. Create a new layer and name it "Body." Fill the selection with the gradient from bottom to the top of the selection.

Step 4

To make our pencil more reflective go to Image > Adjustments > Curves (Command + M), and adjust it as in the below image.

Step 5

With the selection still active, create a new layer and fill the selection with the color #d60005, then set the layer Opacity to 60%. Name the new layer "Color."

Step 6

Right click the "Body" layer and duplicate it. Name it "Metal" and move it to the top of the layer stack. Select the Rectangular Marque Tool, set style to "normal," make a selection as in the image below, and hit Delete. Drag a guide from the left ruler and snap it to right edge of the selection.

Step 7

Select the Elliptical Marque tool and make a selection from point 1 in the image while holding down the Alt and Shift keys. Right-click inside the selection and choose Transform Selection, then set the Horizontal Scale to 50%, and hit Enter twice to apply. Hit Delete to delete the selected area. This will give our pencil a perspective look.

It's a good idea to save it because we will need this selection later. Go to Select > Save Selection. Name the selection "Ellipse."

Step 8

With the Marque tool still selected, drag the selection towards the right edge of the "Metal" layer. Drag another vertical guide until it snaps to the center of the selection.

Step 9

Pick the Rectangular Marque tool, then while holding down the Shift key, make a selection as shown below. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete.

Step 10

While holding down the Command key, click the "Metal" layer to load the selection (Click on the thumbnail of the layer, not on the layer name). With any selection tool selected, move the selection 4 pixels right. You can do it by pressing the Right Arrow on the keyboard 4 times.

Go to Select > Inverse. While holding down the Command + Alt + Shift keys, click on the "Metal" layer. Alt + Shift combination is for intersecting the already selected area and the new selection that we're going to make. The new selection is the metal part because we're holding down the Command key as well. So the metal part and our current selection will be intersected. Using this selection make a thin line on the metal part selected. Use these lines to make the bumps.

Step 11

Copy and paste the selection into a new layer and name it "Bump." Apply a Gradient Overlay and Bevel and Emboss with these settings. To make it slightly bigger than the metal layer, hit Command + T, and set the Vertical Scale to 102%.

Step 12

Duplicate the "Bump" layer and move the copy 6 pixels to the right. Repeat this step once more to make a total of 3 bumps. Select these 3 layers and merge them (Command + E.) Duplicate the merged layer to create another set of bumps and place it as you like.

Step 13

Duplicate the "Metal" layer and name the copy "Eraser". Drag the "Eraser" layer below the "Metal" layer. Move the "Eraser" layer about 60 pixels right. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command + U.) See the image below for the Hue/Saturation settings.

Duplicate the "Metal" layer again and name the copy "Shadow." Drag the "Shadow" layer below the "Metal" layer. Hit Command + U and bring the lightness to -100. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 0 and Distance to 5, then apply it. Now we can merge the layers related to the metal part of the pencil. Choose "Shadow," "Metal," and Bump layers, then Hit Command + E to merge them.

Step 14

Create a new layer and name it "Tip." Using the Polygonal Lasso tool make a selection, as in the image below. Fill the selection with a light yellow orange. Move this layer down below the "Body." Go to Select > Deselect to loose the selection (Command + D).

Step 15

Select and Duplicate the "Body". Name the new layer "TipGradient." Move this layer to the top. Hit Command + T, then set the scale and position as in the below image. Hit Command + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box and use these settings: Hue set to 33, Saturation set to 53, Lightness set to +37, and Colorize Checked.

Step 16

Drag "TipGradient" layer down below the "Body" layer. Hold down Alt and click between the "TipGradient" and "Tip" layers.

Step 17

With "TipGradient" layer selected, go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and adjust the perspective like this.

Step 18

Go to Select > Load Selection, and load the selection "Ellipse." Position the selection as in the image, then Delete the selected area from both the "Body" and "Color" layers.

Step 19

With the "Color" layer selected, create a new layer and name it "Wood." Press D on the keyboard to change the Foreground and Background colors to black and white. Press X to make foreground white. Fill the selection with white. Then go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Use 10 for both variables. Hit Command + T, rotate it 90 degrees counter clockwise, and scale it as shown below.

Step 20

Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and adjust the perspective as shown. Set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 60%.

Step 21

Get the Elliptical Marque tool and make a selection, as shown below. Select the "Wood" layer and hit delete. Select the "TipGradient" layer and hit Command + U, then set the Saturation to -100. Hit Command + L and apply these settings. This will make the tip darker and high contrast.

Step 22

Now we're about to finish. Select all the layers except the "Background" layer and Hit Command + E to merge them. Rename the layer as "Pencil." Duplicate the "Pencil" layer and name it "Reflection." Drag the "Reflection" layer below the "Pencil" layer.

Duplicate the "Reflection" layer again, and name it "Shadow." With the "Shadow" layer selected hit Command + U and set the Lightness to -90. Hit Command + T and scale it to three-fourths of its height. Choose the "Reflection" layer, then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

Step 23

With all layers selected except the "Background" layer, hit Command + T, and rotate them -30 degrees. Move the "Shadow" and "Reflection" layers as shown below.

Step 24

Choose the "Reflection" layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a Radius of 3 and set the Opacity to 60. Choose the "Shadow" layer, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a Radius of 7 and set the Opacity to 80.

Step 25

With the "Reflection" layer selected, add a Layer Mask using the Add Layer Mask button, which is located at the bottom of the Layer Palette. Fill the mask with the Gradient tool, from white to black, which makes the shadow vanish.

Step 26

With the "Pencil" layer selected, apply a Gradient Overlay with these settings.

Step 27

That's it! You can change the position and also change the background color if you wish. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

Green garden with Spiders

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:48:00 +0000

First step is to create blurred grass in the background. Set foreground color to dark green, background color to black. Then switch to gradient tool (G), make sure that current gradient is green-to-black, select Radial gradient (on top bar), then draw a big gradient from center to the edge of image.

I found a stock photo of grass and decided it will be good for background. Paste the image into your file...

... then resize it to fill entire image, desaturate (Ctrl-Shit-U) and apply Gaussian Blur (found in Filters menu - Blur) with large setting (50-100 pixels).

Set this layer opacity mode to Overlay.

Now let's create some black leaves in the background. It is very easy - set foreground color to black, then use Pen tool (P) to create some simple shape of a leaf.

Create some more leaves, then set their oapcity mode to soft Light and opacity to 30-40%. They are only for background and should be barely visible.

Now we need the main leaf, where the story will happen. Set foreground color to vivid green, then in the new layer, use Pen tool to make the shape of the leaf (I wanted it to twirl a bit).

Here is how the completed shape layer looks.

Apply a bit of layer effects:
- Inner glow (white, opacity = overlay 50%)
- Drop shadow (black, overlay 20-30%)

Duplicate the layer, send it backward the layers palette (behind the original green layer), change its color to darker green (almost black), and move the shape itself a bit down - it will give leaf some depth.

Select green layer with leaf again, then make new layer above it, and Create Clipping Mask (from Layer menu, or Ctrl-Shift-G). Use large soft Brush tool (B) with white (and then black) colors to add highlights and shadows to the leaf.

Set this layer opacity to Overlay, 30-40%

Then create another new layer, fill it with grey, and apply a lot of Noise (Filters menu).

Create Clipping Mask for this layer too (Ctrl-Shift-G), so that this layer is also masked by leaf shape. Then, find Smudge tool (hit Shift-R until you see the finger icon), open Brush settings dropdown, select 4th brush from the end of default brushes set, set Strengh to about 50%.

with short mouse movements, smugde the noise in the direction of leaf growth.

Do not stop until all noise is smudged :-)

Finally, set this layer opacity to Overlay 40-50%

In new layer, set color to gray and with Pen tool, make a shape that overlays the bottom part of leaf.

Create Clipping Mask for this layer too (Ctrl-Shift-G or Layer menu), set opacity mode to Overlay, then open layer effects and add some Inner Glow effect (black, opacity mode = soft light, size = 40-60px)

Using the same technique, create more leaves!

Now we need some threads that spiders will hang on. In new layer, use small (1-2 px) hard white brush and draw several threads.

Set layer opacity mode to Overlay, then open layer effects and add Pattern overlay (blend mode = overlay, opacity around 50%, use any pattern that looks noisy).

Now it is time for a spider. It is very easy too: with Shape tool (U), make a green circle (hold Shift to make circle, not ellipse).

Apply the following layer effects:
- Drop shadow (blend mode = overlay, black, 1-2px)
- Inner Glow (white, overlay, 1-2px)
- Gradient overlay (white-to-black, blend mode = overlay, opacity 30-40%)

That was a head. Create another bigger circle, apply the same layer effects: this is a body.

Add 2 small white circles, open layer effects and add Gradient overlay (white-to-black, blend mode = normal, opacity = 20-30%)

...and yes, 2 smaller black circles inside!

In another layer, use Line tool (U) and add some legs

Hmm, I thought that legs look better with some lighter circles in the endings.

Ta-da! Spider is ready.

Now that you know how to make a spider, why not add some more?

The most interesting part is a water drop. In new layer, with grey color, create a circle (use Ellipse tool, U, and hold Shift while making a shape). then switch to Direct Selection tool (A or Shift-A), and click on the bottom point of circle. use keyboard (Up arrow) to move it up a bit.

Change layer blend mode to Overlay, open Layer effects and add:
- drop shadow (black, multiply, 40-50%, 1px)
- bevel and emboss (both highlight and shadow are white, overlay, highlight opacity: 10%, shadow opacity: 60-70%, size = 0px)

now, hide this layer (but keep it selected), then open Paths palette, right-click on the path and in the menu click Make selection...

Create new layer, send it backward the layers palette, then create merged copy of the selected area (Ctrl-Shift-C then Ctrl-V). Apply some Gaussian Blur to it (Filters menu - Blur), 2-3 pixels.

Create another new layer, send it backward the layers palette (behind the merged copy), then use soft black brush (B) and make a spot. Transform it (Ctrl-T) to stretch it horizontally.

It will be the shadow from water drop.

Make original water drop shape layer visible again, then create new layer above it, and draw a grey circle like shown here: bigger and aligned to bottom of water drop.

Here goes the interesting trick: set layer blend mode to Overlay, then open layer effects and add Gradient overlay. Set gradient blend mode to overlay too, opacity to about 70%, style = radial, reverse. But we will need to modify the gradient itself, and here is how...

click inside gradient - Gradient Editor will open. Choose black-to-white gradient (3rd in default set), then find the black slider on bottom-left of gradient, grad it a bit to the right, then click on empty space where black slider just was: new slider will appear. Change its color to grey.

Apply this gradient, then Create Clipping Mask with previous layer (Ctrl-Shift-G). Boom! :-)

Add another highlight: in new layer, with white soft brush (B), add a dot, then transform it (Ctrl-T) as shown here,...

then set its blend mode to... you guessed it, Overlay!, opacity to 30-40%, and again, Ctrl-Shift-G (Create clipping mask)

Add another highlight...

...set blend mode to overlay...

then let's make another nice reflection. Create new document (square, about 200x200 px), with transparent background, switch to Shape tool (U), choose Polygon, set sides=4, then open Options, check Star, and set Indent sizes to about 85%. With these options, add a star near top-left edge of image.

Rasterize the layer (Layer menu - Rasterize - Shape), then go to Filters - Distort - Spherize - apply about 50-60% effect. Repeat if needed.

Now copy-paste the star, transform it as needed (scale down and rotate), then set its blend mode to overlay.

Another nice highlight: return to the original shape layer with water drop, duplicate it (Ctrl-J), bring copied layer forward in layers palette (make sure that all clipped layers remain clipped). Then change its color to white and scale down a bit (Ctrl-T).

Using Path Selection tool (A), select the path, duplicate it (Ctl-C, Ctrl-V), move new path a bit to top-right, scale up (Ctrl-T) and click Substract button (2nd fo the 4 buttons on top bar)

Then, as always, set blend mode to Overlay, and opacity to 40-60%. The water drop is ready!

Make as many water drops and you like!

The very last touch is to make reflection of falling spider in the water drop. Make all layers invisible, except the layers belonging to falling spider. Select bottom half of it, copy merged (Ctrl-Shift-C).

Create new document (square), paste (Ctrl-V) and Flip Vertically (from Edit menu - Transform)

Go to Filters menu - Distort - Spherize, and apply the filter. Adjust % to your liking (60-70 may be enough).

Switch to Eraser (E), select large soft brush, and remove bottom part of image.

Now, select all (Ctrl-A), copy (Ctrl-C), close document, paste into our artwork document, and set blend mode to Overlay!

That's all!
You can view original wallpaper here:

Also, registered users can download Adobe Photoshop PSD file here: (for educational purposes only)

Thanks! I hope you found it useful.

CD Cover Design

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:37:00 +0000

In this tutorial we learn some original Photoshop techniques through the creation of a CD cover. Some useful methods of enhancing workflow and efficiency are shown like using smart objects. The image we are creating will be in the style of some of the Ministry of Sound CD’s. We will explore a creative use of the displace filter in order to distort some of the image.

Introduction

The image that we will create will be in the style of some of the Ministry of Sound CD’s, we will try and mimic one particular image by Jeremy Somers which can be found here.

Step 1

Start by creating a new document with dimensions; 912×912px, feel free to use a different size but you may need to use different settings later on in the tutorial if you do. Fill the background black by hitting D to set default colors then hitting Alt+Backspace to fill the layer with the foreground color. Now for the text shown below we are going to create each word in a different layer as this will give use more flexibility. Hit T to select the text tool the click where you want the first word to begin and type it in capital letters in white. Highlight the text then go Window>Character to bring up the character editor. Here you can mess around with your text to get it looking similar to the image below. For the font I used Helvetica but other sans serif fonts like Arial will work also, make sure you decrease the character spacing and also alter the size to suit. DO the same with the other two words and arrange them like so.

Step 2

Select all the text layers in the layers panel then right click and select convert to smart object, if you’ve never used smart objects before then now is a good time to read up on them. By converting this to a smart object we can work on it as if it a single layer but have the layers within it still fully editable by double clicking on the smart object’s thumbnail. With the smart object selected, click on the layer mask button in the layers panel. We are going to hide parts of this text using splatter brushes, if you don’t have any splatter brushes then you can download loads for free here. Select the layer mask and with black as the foreground color and a splatter brush selected click on the image. Use splatters of different sizes and opacity until you have something that looks like the image below.

Step 3

Create a new layer then convert this also to a smart object. Now go Filter>Render>Clouds then Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a radius of 20px. Now you will notice that since we converted this to a smart object we can now go back and edit the values of the filters we used by double clicking on them. It is a good habit to get into to convert anything to a smart object that you are going to add a filter to. Add a clipping mask between this smart object and the text smart object by holding Alt and clicking between them.

Step 4

Now add a levels adjustment layer and also a hue/saturation adjustment layer and make sure both of these are clipped like the clouds layer.

Step 5

Create a new layer and set the foreground color to white. Select the line tool then using weights between 1px and 4px draw lines at 45° by holding shift. Make sure that you have something that resembles the image below. Hide all the other layers except this one and the background now go File>Save As and save the file as something like dmap.psd. You can now unhide all the other layers then delete the one with the lines in it.

Step 6

Select the text smart object then go Filter>Distort>Displace, use the default settings then hit OK and choose the file you saved in the last step (dmap.psd).

Step 7

Select the brush tool then hit F5 to open the brush editor, now mimic the settings shown below.

Step 8

Create a new layer then use the eyedropper tool on part of the text to get a color. Use this color and the brush you made in the last step to draw bubbles coming from the text like so. Do this a few times around the letters then change the opacity of this layer to 50%.

Step 9

Below I’ve shown what mine looked like at this point, you’ll notice that I’ve added a few extra details like the floral designs, feel free to use any brushes you already have to add details like these.

Step 10

Create a new layer then using the line tool draw some thick lines at 45° in different shades of gray like in the image below. You’ll notice that I hid all the other layers just to make it easier to see. Now would also be a good time to organize your layers into groups.

Step 11

Grab the smudge tool and use a large soft brush to smudge some of these lines, use the image below as a reference.

Step 12

First convert this to a smart object then in the same way as we did with the text in step 2, add a mask to this layer then use some splatter brushes to hide parts of the line.

Step 13

Add a displace filter to this layer using the settings shown below and the same map as before.

Step 14

Create a new layer above this layer then using the brush tool with a soft brush, brush some bright colors onto the layer like in the image below.

Step 15

Create a clipping mask between the color layer and the smart object with the lines in it. Put these two layers within a group then move the group to directly above the background layer if it isn’t already there, lastly unhide all the other layers.

Step 16

Using the same brush as we did in step 8, draw some more bubbles in a new layer, make these ones slightly larger than before.

Step 17

Double click on this layer to bring up the layer style panel then add an inner bevel using the settings shown below.

Step 18

We are going to use the same technique as in step 14 and 15 to color these bubbles so first create a new layer then brush on some bright colors.

Step 19

Next just create a clipping mask between the color layer and the bubbles layer.

Step 20

I thought it would be a good idea to show how smart objects can be used effectively to increase the efficiency of your workflow and also leave layers fully editable. First find the smart object which contains the text then double click on the thumnail next to it. A new document should open with a transparent background and the white text on it. Since the text is quite hard to see create a new layer, move it to the bottom of the layer stack then fill it black.

Step 21

Create a new layer at the top of the layer stack then using the ellipse tool, draw a white ellipse over the letter O like shown below. Here you can also add some more text in like I did. Feel free to add some more elements in at this point.

Step 22

Now hit Ctrl+S to save the document, you have to do this or the changes will be disregarded, then hit Ctrl+W to close the document. When you back to the other document you will notice that the changes you made have updated this image.

Step 23

The last thing I did was to put in a logo in the top left and I was finished. Below I’ve shown what my layer stack looked like.

Sparkling Girl

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Sparkling Hot Girl in Photoshop

I’ve seen some very nice images mixing photos with light effects and sparks. If you go to flickr in those Photoshop and Graphic Design groups you will see images with this effect. There’s a designer, I think he's Brazilian, who has some amazing designs using this style, his name is Leandro Demetrius and it’s really worth checking his work out.

Anyway, in this tutorial I will show you how to create an image using this technique. It basically mixes some techniques from tutorials like Magic Lighting Effect, Amazing Photoshop light effect in 10 Steps, and the latest Create the MSNBC header effect.

Step 1

Create a new document, mine is 800x600 pixels. After that double click on the background layer to open the Layer Style dialog box and add a Gradient Overaly. Select Radial for the Style and use a dark red to black for the colors

Step 2

Select a nice photo, in my case an amazingly hot girl from the 30 Color and Pattern Inspiration Bikinis post. Select the Pen Tool (P) and start creating a path with the shape of the woman. Later we will convert this path to selection to mask the girl.

Step 3

After you create a path with the shape of the woman, go to the Path palette, right next to the Layer Palette. You will see the path with the girl’s shape. Click on the dotted circle icon at the bottom of the box to create a selection from the path.

Step 4

Back to the Layer Palette, select the girl’s layer and then go to Selection>Refine Edge. This command will allow us to adjust the selection in real time with some nice settings like feather, smooth, contras, and others. Make some tests with a black background. When you have a good selection click ok. After that go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Step 5

Lets increase the contrast of our girl, go to Image>Settings>Brightness/Contrast. After that reduce the layer like the image below. Then add a bit of noise. Filter>Noise>Add Noise.

Step 6

Group the girl layer so it will be inside a folder on the Layer Palette. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), set the feather option to 30px and create a elliptical selection like the image below. Now select the Folder instead of the girl’s layer and after that go again to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. We will add the mask to the folder and everything inside the folder.

Step 7

Double click on the girl’s layer to open the Layer Style box. Select Outer Glow. For the Blend Mode use Color Dodge and for the size set 35px. After that Duplicate this layer and go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Use 43º for the Angle and 155 for distance. Make sure that the blurry layer is behind the normal layer.

Step 8

Create a layer, not inside the folder anymore. This layer has to be behind the girl. Then go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.

Step 9

Create another layer, behind the clouds’ layer. Now go to Filter>Render>Fibers... Use 13 for the variance and 4 for the Strength. After lets add another filter, this time Motion Blur, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. The angle will 90º and for the distance use more than 300px like the image below.

Step 10

First rotate the layer. Then select Lasso Tool (L) set 30px for the feather and create a selection like I did. Then one more time go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. After that double click the layer to open the Layer Style box. In the Layer Style’s first screen set the Fill Opacity to 60%, then add a Gradient Overlay, use the rainbow colors.

Step 11

Here it’s all about brushes. But first create a new Folder in the Layer Palette and set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. After that create the layers you want to be light inside of this folder and using white color. You can even add some different shapes and apply gaussian blur to create those rays of light.

Conclusion

This is one of those designs that looks a bit complicated when we see it at first. But when you start working on it, it turns out to be much easier than we thought. You can add different light colors, more or less sparks, or even explode some parts of her body. Well that’s another tutorial I will write about.

Text Effect Quickies: Bubble Text

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:13:00 +0000

In this Text Effect Quickie, we’ll create an easy to use layer style that will quickly transform ordinary text into bubble styled font, perfect for use in underwater scenes.

This is a Text Effect Quickie — a tutorial that teaches an effect quickly, yet is an effective technique that can be used time and time again.

What We’re Making

This tutorial will show you how to produce text that will appear as shown in the graphic below.

Before getting started, you may want to find a suitable font for this effect, as not all fonts will necessarily look right when this style is applied. You want a font with rounded edges — no sharp corners.

Step 1 - Background

This effect really works great on top of dark backgrounds, but will also work fine on lighter backgrounds (so long as it’s not too light, as the effect itself makes things brighter). Go ahead and create a new document, and fill in the background with a color of your choice (or #2d3134 if you’d like to borrow our background color).

Step 2 - Set the Type

Using the Horizontal Type Tool, set some text in the document with your font you downloaded earlier. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but make sure you set your Text Color to White.

Set this layers blending mode to Darken. This will make your text disappear from the canvas.

Step 3 - Setting Up the Style

Go into your text layers Blending Options (Right Click Layer > Blending Options).

Apply the layer effects shown below, making any modifications as needed.

Drop Shadow

A Drop Shadow helps create contrast between our text and the imagery behind the text. It’s not necessary for the effect, but does help over busy backgrounds.

Inner Shadow

Inner Glow

These values may need to be adjusted to compensate for the size of your text. Larger text may require a larger size in the “Elements” settings.

Bevel and Emboss

This Layer Effect may also require some adjustments to compensate for text size.

Satin

Gradient Overlay

For our Gradient Overlay, we’re using a White to Transparent gradient.

Touchups

This layer style works very well on more than just text. You may want to try using the Ellipse Shape Tool to add some bubbles surrounding the text, and applying the style to them as well.

You can also add in some smaller trailing bubbles with a small 1-3 pixel white brush rising to the surface if you intend to use this effect in an underwater scene. If you’d like to see some other touch-ups I added to our final version, feel free to download the Bubble Text Effect PSD!

Create an Amazing Nike Logo

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:54:00 +0000

In this tutorial we will use some images and play with Blend Modes and Color Adjustments to create a really cool Ad in Photoshop.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I used 1920x1200. After that select the background layer and go to Layer>Layer Style>Grandient Overlay. Use #150b06 and # 321c0f for the gradient colors, Radial for Style and Normal for Blend Mode.

Step 2

Create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Make sure that the colors were black and white for the foreground an background.

Step 3

Change the Blend Mode of the Clouds layer to Color Dodge.

Step 4

Select the Eraser Tool (E). Use a regular brush. Change the Hardness to 0% and use a big size. Now erase some areas, just leave the center like the image bellow.

Step 5

Place the logo and aling it in the center of the document. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Outer Glow. Use #fffde2 for the color, Color Dodge for the Blend Mode, 80% opacity, 18% for the Spread and 18 pixels for the Size. That will create a nice glowing logo.

Step 6

This tip was from my friend Cameron, he sent me this image and told me that it would be a nice way to create some effects like the Hejz work. You can download the image here.

Step 7

Cut an area of the image and paste it in your document. Rotate and resize it to fit with the symbol. After that change the Blend Mode to Screen.

Step 8

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Increase the black and the a bit of the white of the image. That's necessary to match the colors of the image with the backgournd.

Step 9

Go to Edit>Transform>Scale, reduce the size of the streaks. Then go to Edit>Transform>Warp. Move the grid to make the streaks follow the symbol.

Step 10

Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation. Increase the Saturation and the Hue. Reduce the Lightness.

Step 11

Duplicate the sparks layer. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. Then resize it and adjust the position like the image below.

Step 12

Copy another art of the original Photo and paste it in your document. Repeat the steps 8, 9, and 10.

Step 13

Repeat again the Steps 8,9, and 10 to create a tail to the symbol, like the image below.

Step 14

Now lets create some stars, I have explained this in other tutorials so I won't spent too much time again. Basically just create a new layer and fill it with black. Make sure you have black and white for the background and foreground colors. Then go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use Gaussian for, 15% Amout, and Monochromatic. Then change the layer's Blend Mode to Screen and go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Increase the black and white levels untill you get nice stars. Then just repeat the same steps again in this same layer.

Step 15

Here it's just to illustrate the idea I had of this golf player that hit the ball and the ball was the commet thing. So I used a photo from iStockphoto.com, you can buy it here.

Step 16

Place the golfer in your image and align it at the botton of the page. Also select the Brush Tool, use #d88c4d for the color and with a big brush, very soft create a light behind the player. Use 25% Opacity.

Conclusion

Now just add some texts and other small effects like the glow behind the golf club. This sort of exercise is really cool because we can learn a lot from how to create some effects or famous brand styles such as Nike, Apple, Adidas, and others. These companies have their own style so you can play with that in order to learn how to reproduce that in your own design.

Click on the image for a full preview

Fantasy light effects in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:17:00 +0000

Fantasy art scenes are usually handled with a liberal sprinkling of Photoshop plug-in fairy dust – but you don’t have to slavishly follow that route. By creating your own brushes in Adobe Illustrator, and using scanned elements with Photoshop, it’s a simple process to create otherworldly scenes that are alive with glow effects and shafts of virtual light.

This masterclass takes a standard stock model – a super high-resolution version is included on the cover CD, or you can use your own – and applies layers of light and vector shapes to generate the main image shown left.

During this masterclass, you’ll learn to wrap your source image into a multitude of layers that add a fantastical theme to your art. The key here is to tread softly. When recreating fantasy light effects, soft brushes and fine application is the order of the day. Anything that’s too heavy can ruin the look.

The masterclass also draws on a element that some Photoshop users are reluctant to explore – that of physical art then added to the composition. Here, Murilo uses tools such as a toolbrush and screwdriver in addition to digital design tools to create the whirling snow effect.

Obviously, the final result is down to you, but you should also experiment with colours and blends once you’ve mastered this technique to create your own look. The best thing is you can create images like this without using a single plug-in.

01. Open the file ‘wonderland.psd’ supplied on this month CD and create a new top layer. Fill the canvas with pink (C12 M30 Y0 K0) and change the blending mode to colour. Next, create another layer and select a soft round brush. Change the colour to a gold tone (C20 M15 Y65 K0) and set the brush size to 300px. Single-click on the middle of the canvas and resize this layer before you move to the top of your image for a smooth colour transition.

02. To create a snow effect, you have to get your hands dirty. Get an old toothbrush, and dip it directly into the paint (but wait until it starts to dry – if your brush is too wet you can’t control where you throw it) To get depth in your illustration, shake a few, larger drops onto the paper first. Then, using a tool such as a screwdriver, quickly raking across the bristles, releasing the paint in a spray. Alter the speed of release and distance from the paper to created varied splatters. Alternatively, open the file ‘painting.jpg’ supplied on the CD.

03. Scan the painting into Photoshop, and select Image>Adjustments> Desaturate. Go to Image>Invert, then select Image>Adjustments>Levels and increase the contrast, changing the input values to 60, 1, 244. Choose the best parts and import to your illustration.

04. Change the blending mode to screen, and move this layer to the top. Open the file ‘model.psd’ and move the model to your illustration under the snow layer. Copy parts of the painting layer and place these mainly over her hair. It should be applied as a very soft detail that will help to blend her to the rest of the image.

05. Now let’s create the heaviest ray of light. Create a new layer, and then make a rectangular selection from side to side and fill it with a white-to-transparent gradient. Make another selection as shown in the picture and hit delete. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 50 per cent. Rotate the layer and move it behind the model.

We’ll now make softer rays of light to place over the model. On a new layer, create a selection with the same size as the one described in Step 5, then select a soft round brush and set the size to 2,500px. Brush outside the selection so it will look like the light is fading out from the top to the bottom of the selection. Duplicate the layer, flip vertically and move a bit lower. Merge both layers, resize, and duplicate them as you wish. As well as the snow layer, it should be applied as a very soft detail over her.

07. Next, open Adobe Illustrator and create a custom brush. To do this, use the Elipse tool and create a symmetric oval shape as shown here.

Using Photoshop and Illustrator, it’s possible to create a fantasy scene using brushes and blur effects to their fullest.

08. With the Selection Tool, select the point on the right side of that circle and drag it out to the right. Select the Convert Anchor Point tool (Shift+C) and click on the anchor point you dragged to get rid of the handle bars and make it a sharp corner. Do the same to the other corner.

09. With the shape still selected, go to Effects>Warp>Flag and set the horizontal bend slider to 100 per cent. Select Window>Brushes and open the Brush palette. Move this new shape to the brushes window and select it as a new art brush.

10. Start drawing a few shapes as shown and apply the brush you have just created. Try to make smooth lines and change the stroke size if needed. Copy your best shapes to Photoshop and go to Layer>Style>Outer Glow, and change the size to 150px and the blend mode to Colour Dodge.

11. Have some fun experimenting with different settings and layer opacity. There is no limit to your creative freedom so always try different things. Once all the light’s shapes are done, change the layer order, moving some of them in front of the model and others behind the model.

12. Create a new layer and change the blending mode to Colour Dodge. Select a soft round brush and set the colour to white. Go to the Brushes menu and change Spacing to 70 per cent, Size Jitter to 55 per cent and Scattering to 480 per cent. Start brushing areas on the canvas, altering the diameter of the brush and other settings as well.

13. The image now is almost complete. Select a white soft brush and start placing various sized dots around the image on a new top layer. Pay attention to the model’s edges that don’t sit well with the rest of the image. This will help you create a convincing lighting effect.

14. For the final touch add more elements to your illustration. Butterflies? Fairies? Why don’t you try to put some vector and hand-drawn elements? Put some dreamy music on and start thinking about elements which could fit to the subject. This is a very good creative exercise. Film is another great source of inspiration. When you think your illustration is done, flatten your image, convert to CMYK and go to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen. You may have to increase levels and saturation as well.

Swirl Mania in Illustrator & Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:13:00 +0000

In this tutorial I will show 4 ways to create swirls, and by mixing them you will learn some very powerful techniques that will allow you to easily make tons of different styles of swirls and crazy sperm vectors.

1st Way - Arc, Circle, and Path tool

Select the Arc Tool and create an arc. You can change the arc's properties by holding the mouse button and pressing the UP and DOWN keys for the angle of the arc, SPACE to move it, and ALT to change the center point.

Now create an ellipse using the Ellipse Tool (L).

After you create the arc go to Object>Path>Outline Stroke. The stroke will be converted to a shape, the select the Direct Selection Tool(A).

2nd Way - Blend Tool(W)

Create 2 circles, one will be the start and the other the end points of our swirl. Then select the Blend Tool (W) and click on the small circle and after that on the big circle. Double-click the Blend Tool icon to open the Blend Options, there you will be able to change the spacing of the elements and the orientation. Select Specified Distance and use 1pt, for the Orientation use Align to Path.

The spine is the path along which the steps in a blended object are aligned. By default, the spine forms a straight line.

To adjust the shape of the spine, drag the anchor points and path segments on the spine with the Direct Selection tool.
To replace the spine with a different path, draw an object to use as the new spine. Select the spine object and the blended object, and choose Object > Blend > Replace Spine.
To reverse the order of a blend on its spine, select the blended object and choose Object > Blend > Reverse Spine.

You can test different styles for the blend, like adding a dark stroke with some light color.

3rd Way - Spiral Tool

Select the Spiral Tool and create a spiral, you can change the style of the spiral by holding the mouse button and some keys like CMD/CTRL, ALT, SPACE, UP, and Down.

You can go to Object>Path>Offset Path and specify the offset to 3pt, you will create a uniform spiral. But if you want to make the start point smaller than the end or vice-versa, you can use the spiral as spine for a Blend.

4th Way - Twirl Tool

Create an ellipse with the Ellipse Tool, after that select the Twirl Tool and double click on the icon to open the Twirl Tool Options. Deselect the Simplify option and use 10 for detail. Then go with the center of the twirl tool over the edge of the circle and press and hold the mouse button to create a spiral.

Mixing Techniques

Step 1

Create the first swirl using the first technique. Use a very long line with a circle at the end.

Step 2

Duplicate the swirls and resize it, repeat that to create another one, so you will have 3 swirls.

Step 3

Create a spiral applying the 3rd or 4th technique, actually you can do that with blends too.

Step 4

Create another swirl this time make the circle or much bigger.

Step 5

Duplicate the new swirl, resize and make it a bit smaller than the other like the image below.

Step 6

Duplicate again the swirl, now go to Object>Transform>Reflect. Change the color to yellow.

Step 7

Create a new spiral like the image below, then duplicate it again resize it like and place it above the other spiral.

Step 8

Keep adding swirls.

Step 9

Now we will add some 3D effects using the Mesh Tool (U). This tool allows us to apply multiple gradients to one object. Just select the object then with the Mesh Tool click where you want to add a new color.

Here in our swirl we will create a highlight area and a dark area. Repeat the process to the other swirls.

Step 10

With the Pen Tool create two lines following the shape of the tail of our "sperm" shape, then apply the Blend Tool with 5 Specified Steps. After that duplicate and resize the blend and use it on the other swirl

Step 11

Add more shapes and apply the Mesh Tool. Duplicate the yellow swirl and make it really bigger like the image below.

Step 12

For the spiral add a gradient from pink to cyan, then go to Effect>Stylize>Inner Glow... Use Screen for the Mode, 75% Opacity, 5pt Blur and Center.

Step 13

For those stripes following the spiral we will create a brush. To do that is really simple in Illustrator. Just create a rectangle and drag and drop it in the Brushes Palette, then in this case select New Pattern Brush. Use the image below for reference.

After that create a spiral exactly like the one you want to add the stripes, and apply the brush.

Step 14

Select the spiral without the Brush Stroke and copy it. Then select the spiral with the stroke and go to the Transparency Palette (Window>Transparency). Double click the area next to the thumbnail, it will create a new thumb all black, select this thumb and paste the spiral. It will create a mask, just move the mast to align it with the original spiral. It looks complicated but it's easier than the explanation ;)

Step 15

Use the blend tool to add more elements and details to some shapes.

Step 16

Create more swirls using the techniques we've seen before and just change the sizes and colors. After that group all swirls.

End result in Illustrator.

Step 17 (Photoshop)

Create a new document and place your image, I used a photo from http://sxc.hu and 1440x900px for the document size.

Step 18

Copy the swirls in illustrator, the group with all swirls we have created, and paste it in Photoshop. Select Paste As Smart Objects. After that go to Layer>Layer Style>Bevel and Emboss, use the image below for reference.

Step 19

Duplicate the layer and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical, and reduce the size of the layer and move it like the image below. After that select the 2 layers and convert them to Smart Objects and rename it to "Swirls"

Step 20

Duplicate the new "Swirls" and rename it to "Swirls Glow", then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, use 3px for the Amount, place it behind the "Swirls" and change the Blend Mode to Hard Light

Step 21

Duplicate the "Swirls" layer again and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal, again reduce its size and move it like the image below. Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, use 3px for the amount again, but don't change the blend mode.

Step 22

Duplicate the "Swirls" layer one more time and this time just rotate it like the image below. Then go again to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, however this time use 5.5px for the Amount and reduce the opacity to 70%

Conclusion

Just place your logo and that's it. You can add more elements, you can even copy and paste each element separately and apply different layer styles to each swirl. There are many options and tons of different results from these methods, now it's all about trying different combinations.

3D typographic effects in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:54:00 +0000

3D typographic effects in Photoshop

Taking 3D objects into Photoshop is going to get more popular thanks to the latest release of Photoshop Extended. But you don’t need Adobe’s latest high-end version of Photoshop to create some unique 3D effects – this masterclass works for Photoshop CS and above.

In it, type-effects guru Nik Ainley shows how to create the above image. The key is to create the letters in a 3D package first as individual characters, then bring them into Photoshop for further post work.

Through clever use of Photoshop’s masking tools and layers, Nik has created type with characters that weave in and out of each other. The characters’ faces also provide a handy canvas for further effects, such as patterns, gradients and lines.

01. Start by producing each letter separately in a 3D program, which Nik did here in Xara 3D, and import them into a Photoshop document. Keep each letter in its own layer, and then arrange them around each other, in whatever way looks good to you.

It might seem odd to create 3D text in this way, but Photoshop offers a lot more control than a 3D program and you will be able to produce a larger than life effect. To save time, the PSD file with the 3D text is included on this issue’s CD.

02. One advantage of working in Photoshop is that letters can appear to be both behind other letters while having parts in front of them at the same time. To achieve this effect, you need to mask parts of individual letters to make it appear that they’re behind others.

To mask part of a letter, start by adding a layer mask to the appropriate letter. The next step is to select which letter you want to appear in front – in the screen above, we’re making the E appear as though it’s partly in front of the H.

Select its outline by Ctrl+clickingon its layer thumbnail. Using the brush tool, brush black onto the H’s layer mask. It should now appear that the bottom tip of the E is in front of the H. Repeat this for as many letters as you like.

03. Next, you’ll start working on the lighting and shadows, starting with adding shadows onto the F. Create a new layer above letter F. To make sure the shadows fall only on the letter, give it a mask.

The shape of the mask must correspond to the shape of the F, minus parts masked off in the previous step. To do this, Ctrl+click on the F layer’s thumbnail, then Ctrl+Alt+Shift click on the layer mask’s thumbnail to get the intersection of the two. Now select your new layer and add a layer mask. It should be the same shape as your selection.

04. Using a large soft brush – say 70px – brush black onto this layer around the parts of the letter that should be in shadow. In this case, the top bit that falls behind the R and the bottom that falls behind the S. Repeat this process for each layer and you should end up with a lot more depth.

05. With the shadows on the letters done, now we need shadow on the background. Create a new layer below all of the letters. Select the outline of all your letters, and fill it with black. Run a Gaussian blur on this layer. Now, use a Warp Transform to pull it downwards slightly so it seems that the letters are floating above the background. Blur again, and drop the layer’s opacity if the shadows seem too harsh.

06. Next, add some more-controlled shadows beneath the layers to give greater depth. Create a new layer above your first shadow layer and, using a soft 50px brush, add black into this layer. Where you add it is down to what looks good. Add more underneath the base of the letters to give the impression that they’re standing up vertically.

07. Now start working on the actual letters. The first step is to isolate the front face of each letter, using either the magic wand or pen tool. When you have a face selected, create a new layer above your letter but below the letter’s shadow.

Fill it with whatever colour you want, but make it slightly darker and duller. If you have masked off part of the letter in step 2, you will need to duplicate the letter’s mask to your face layer.

08. To style each letter face we are going to use layer styles. The exact settings are really down to personal taste, but the basics are something like this: Inner Shadow: Color dodge, white, opacity 15 per cent, distance: 0px, size: 45px Inner Glow: Screen, white, opacity 75 per cent, size 2px Gradient Overlay: Soft light, black to white, opacity 100 per cent, angled to make the letter lighter at the top, darker at the bottom. Satin: Color dodge, dark grey, opacity 50 per cent, distance: 20px, size: 40px

09. Once you have got something you are happy with we are going to start working on the sides of each letter.

10. Next, you need to change the colours and lighting of the sides, as well as get them to look more consistent with each other.

To do this, you need to use Photoshop's adjustment layers. Start by selecting the outline of the F shadow s layer mask and creating a new gradient map adjustment layer just below the face layer.

11. Now it’s possible to stack additional adjustment layers above and below the layer created in step 10 to change the lightness, contrast and colours as much as you like. Next, copy the adjustment layers onto each other letter and go through making small adjustments to get a more consistent colouring.

12. To give a little extra gloss, run Filter > Artistic > Plastic wrap on the body of each letter with the settings Highlight strength 14, Detail 1, and Smoothness 14. After each filter is applied, fade it to a soft light blending mode (Edit > Face).

13. Now to bring all the colours together to give a more harmonious feel, add some adjustment layers right at the top of the image. Start by applying the same gradient map as before using a soft light blending mode at 50 per cent opacity.

14. Try different adjustment layers to get the right colours and balance. Add curves layer to lighten it, a photo filter layer to add more red, and a colour balance layer to add more orange.

Add as many or as few as you like to get the effect you want. As a final tweak, mask all these adjustment layers so that they didn’t have so much of an effect on the background colour.

15. From here you can do as much or as little as you want. Add more details to each letter, add more highlights and shadows, change the colours, whatever you can think of. This example has a few more details, but you can take it much further.

Creating Energy Spheres in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:53:00 +0000

For this tutorial you’ll want to find a photo of someone doing something that looks a bit larger than life. I used this photo that I found at the stock photo website Stock Exchange. For this tutorial you’ll need a photo that you want to manipulate and some special brush sets which I downloaded from here.

This will be the final result.

1. Download the brush set and install it.
2. Now I’ll show how to take a child with a big imagination and turn him into the powerful being he imagine himself to be.
3. We’ll start by creating a new layer on top of our original and filling it with black. Next we want to select Filter >> Render >> Lighting Effects >> Lens Flare
4. Use the 105mm Prime with the Brightness setting of your choice.

5. This will create a bright flash. Move it to the point where you want the ‘energy ball’ to appear.
6. You may notice that when you move it, you can see the edges of the layer. To rectify this, select the layer and add a ‘Layer Mask’.
7. Select default colors (white and black). With the layer mask selected, use the Gradient Tool >> Radial Gradient >> Reverse and drag from the center outwards. This will mask everything in a sphere around the center.
8. Set both of these layers to the ‘Hard Light’ setting.
9. I like to use the Image >> Adjustments >> Photo Filter to make the colors “pop”. I also used this setting to make the lens flare a bluish color. There are other ways to do this so experiment with your options.
10. Using the Brush set we installed earlier we want to apply them to the energy balls. I used the color black, with the layer’s Blend Options set to ‘Overlay’.
11. With this layer selected, set the Layer Style settings like so:
12. Using the same technique that we used in Step 7, we want to mask the edges of our brush layers.
13. To create the ‘arc of light’ we’ll use paths. Select the ‘Ellipse Tool’ and change it from ‘Shape layers’ to ‘Paths’. Now, draw a large circle or ellipse that includes both energy flares.
14. Once the arc is drawn we want to stroke it (no jokes please). Select a brush that’s very small, maybe about a brush with a 5px diameter and use the color white. Go to ‘Paths’ right click on the selected path, and select ‘Stroke Path’. Check the ’simulate pressure’ option, this will give the ring a bit of perspective with a heavier stroke on one side and a lighter stroke on the opposite side.

15. Repeat this step twice. Each time use a different brush setting that is bigger than the one before it. I started with the 5px brush, then I used a 45px brush followed by a 100px brush. Each time use a different color. The topmost (bigger) arc should be set to ‘Linear Dodge (Add)’ with an opacity of 35%. The middle layer should be set to ‘Overlay’ and the original (the white one) should be set to ‘Linear Dodge (Add)’.
16. I grouped these together then, using the technique from Step 7 again, I use layer masking to block one half of the sphere I created.
17. To create the energy ‘tendrils’ that are leaping from the arc. Duplicate the grouped folder from Step 16. Then merge the group or folder into one layer. Select Filter >> Liquify and distort the arc to look like it should for your image. Secondly, we’ll select Filter >> Distort >> Ripple and tweak it to look a bit more like electricity.
18. Now we’re done. Outside of some techniques that I used to make the image more polished, this completes the tutorial.

In the Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (lol with fun) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:30:00 +0000

Most of us can remember spending afternoons as children looking up at the clouds and seeing all sorts of things from people, to trains, to dragons, limited only by how far our imagination could take us. In this tutorial, we're gonna go back to our childhood and put our dreams and imagination back in the clouds where they belong.

Final Result Preview

In this example, I'm going to attempt to place this statue of a woman into the clouds. For the sake of brevity, I'll explain how I assembled her arm and hand, as the same method can be applied to the rest of the image to complete the piece. I started by loading up the image of the sky, then importing the image of the statue into this document. Using the Transformation Tool, I dragged the statue layer roughly where I wanted it in the composition.

I then set this layer's blend mode to Screen. This gave me the base for my clouds I'll work around. Then using the Transformation Tool, I resized the figure to a size I felt fit the composition well, then clicked Enter to confirm the decision.

Now came the hard part. Assembling the actual figure from portions of the clouds. I'd do this in many segments. For example, I started with the shoulder area of the figure. Judging by the contour of the figure's shoulder, I'd try to find an area of the clouds that closely resembled the shape of the shoulder. I then cut and pasted this portion of the clouds onto a new layer, but keeping my statue's Screen layer on the top layer.

Using the Statue as a guide, I used the Transformation Tool to resize and rotate my copied cloud segment to fit the direction and shape of my original figure's shoulder. Then, using the Eraser Tool set at 0 Hardness, I softened the edges to help them blend better into the scene.

I continued this process until the main part of the figure's arm was complete, then I merged these cloud segments together by holding Ctrl and selecting the cloud layers I wanted merged from the Layers Palette, then selecting Merge Layers under the Options drop-down menu. Because I wanted the clouds to encompass the highlighted areas of the figure, I erased the portions of the clouds to expose the sky in the figure's shadowed sections.

Next, I assembled the figure's hand. Because I wanted to keep the details of the hand, I kept all the finger's isolated. To do this, I needed to find an area in the original clouds that most closely resembled the shape of the fingers. I selected this area with the Lasso Selection Tool and copied it onto a new layer.

Then I continued the same process as I did for the arm using the Transformation Tool to situate this segment onto the finger area, making sure I leave the sliver of sky in between the fingers visible to keep each finger isolated.

After the arm and hand were completed, I needed to soften some of the grainyness still apparent from the statue's stone texture. Using the Liquify Tool set at 2 for Pressure, I dragged the tool in circles directly on the statue layer to soften the edges of the statue to blend it better with the clouds, and blur the visible grain.

This is what my figure looked like after I had completed this same process for the rest of the statue. I could leave it at this, but I wanted to add a little more pop to the image.

I wanted to slightly darken the shaded areas of the figure a little more. So I selected the Paintbrush Tool with black as my foreground color, 12% Alpha, and 0 Hardness, I painted in these areas to darken them on a new layer above the statue's Screen layer. Then I set this layer's blend mode to Overlay and dropped this layer's Alpha to 33%.

Then, I selected white for my foreground color and on a new layer, and with the Paintbrush Tool still selected, I painted in the edges of the clouds to enhance the brightness of these areas to create a stronger highlighted effect.

I noticed that my figure was now covering most of the sun rays that were peeking out from behind the clouds in the original image. For a final effect, I wanted to bring these rays back into the image to create the appearance they were emerging from behind my newly created cloud figure. sing the Lasso Selection Tool, I created a rough selection of the rays from the original layer, and pasted it onto a new layer behind my cloud layers. Using the Transformation Tool, I dragged this selection to the right to appear behind my figure. Then using the Eraser Tool set at 0 Hardness, I softened the edges to blend into the original sky.