Photoshock

Embrace the Shock

2013-06-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

Heya all!
Today's gonna be a short post including my try on typography.
It didn't turn out as good as I expected it to be, but I didn't have much inspiration this week, so, unfortunately, it is what it is.

So, this is it.
I wish I could've done it better, but it's good as it'll get.
The important note on this one that I didn't use just my Photoshop skills to do it, but writing skills, as well. Most of the words represent what Photoshop means to me and I can easily say that it has changed my view on life.
I see Photoshop as a non stop way of improving, you'll never know everything and just like in real life, all you can do is learn, experiment, express yourself and do that over and over again.
The wave represents that the technique will always be the same, but it's on you to make up new ways, may they be good or bad, they're still ways and you're still learning.

That's what I feel about my work, but it hasn't been that tough to make it, though.
I just generated a sine wave, arranged the words so they could fit in and make the shape of a sinusoid and applied some effects. I messed around with the effects for quite a while, because I was never satisfied, so I chose this one in the end.
As always, I had troubles with the background, but I stumbled upon a mix of paper and concrete textures, so I put those into play.
And that's pretty much it, I hope you've liked this week's post, if you've got any questions or anything like that, be sure to ask them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,
Shocklove <3

Typography

2013-06-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi, once again.
This post won't be a tutorial nor an exhibition of my works, but something that has intrigued me in the past few days.

I'm talking about typography. It's a cool technique dating from way back, back to the ancient times.
Typography comes from the Greek words, typos, meaning form, and graphe, meaning writing. It's a technique used to make language visible.
It might be a small, unnoticeable thing to some of you, but it includes a variety of "rules" and norms like leading, tracking, kerning, line length and typefaces (font families). Those are even used in the times we live in!

You might think typography is not a big deal, but most of things like maps, magazines and instrument panels have a standard that has to be followed to ensure readability and lower eye straining as much as possible. Think about it, you don't see the same font used in novels and Wikipedia, for example. Mostly because you have to read the novel fully to get the story and by doing that, you shouldn't feel uncomfortable and take often breaks to loosen yours eyes. But something like Wikipedia, ( a better example would be an encyclopedia or a phone book, but they don't get used that much nowadays ) most of the times, you're searching for one specific line and you're not required to read the whole text if you know what you are looking for.

Comparison of different typefaces

That's a small summary of how I get typography and it's really fascinating to me that it has such an impact on our modern world.
But typography hasn't just came to my mind like that and that's where Photoshop comes in.
While browsing, I've seen some very cool works that made me research more about typography.

I leave you with this, my try on typography. It's not the best, but I had to try it out.

It might be a bit hard to read, but if you're into Heroes of Newerth, you might get some, if not all, references. Every line in there is a voice quote of some heroes in HoN.
I will have another go on typography, so we will see how that goes on.

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it.

Love, Shock!

Tutorial: Fiery Emblem

2013-06-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
As I promised, I will show you the tutorial on how to make this emblem kind of thingy for your Facebook cover.

To get started, you're going to need to download a few things like brushes, stocks and stuff like that.

Vector Shields

You need Adobe Illustrator to open this, the main reason is so you don't lose the sharpness of the shield when you transform it.

Fire brushes

Some basic fire brushes.

Vector line brushes

A set of vector line brushes

Tempera & water color brushes

A set of brushes we're going to use for the background

Now, let's start with the cover.
Open up your shields in Adobe Illustrator.

I'm going to take this shield because it looks kinda sinister and that's what I'm pretty much going for.
Create an 850*314 canvas in Photoshop because that's the ideal size for Facebook covers, at that size it doesn't get cut or anything like that.
Just click on the shield, copy and paste it in Photoshop and set it as a "Smart Object". That way, you won't lose the quality.
Now you want to give it some color. I was going for a fiery emblem so I choose these colors:

Set the gradient tool as Reflected and you'll get something like this.

Let's add some effects to the shield so it doesn't look as plain.
I added another gradient on top so I get a cool burning effect. Select your shield layer, press ctrl + LMB and create a new layer. On the new layer, select your gradient tool, set it to black and transparent and just pull it down.

The next thing we're going to do is make it shiny, polished metal and that stuff. You can use this trick on lots of metal things and it'll look really nice.
Once again, press ctrl+click on the shield thumbnail, create a new layer and with the black color selected, press alt + backspace. You should get the exact copy of your shield, just black.
Now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, select Gaussian, Monochromatic and bring it up to 400%. Ctrl + click on your shield and go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, set it to 45° and the distance to about 50 pixels.
Set that layer to soft light and the opacity to about 50%. If you've done everything right, you should get something like this.

Now for the flames and that wicked stuff. Load your fire brush and select the one that's 297 pixels in size.What you wanna do now is change the brushes' size and color to fit it in. Don't worry if it's too big or something, we'll take care of that later.

You should start by doing this, ctrl+clicking the shield, pressing ctrl+shift+I to invert the selection and deleting the pieces that are out of the borders.
You can do that a few times and it'll make a nice some kind of a 3D effect. That should leave you with this. (I added a splatter brush at the bottom, it's not necessary, but it looks better. You can use any splatter brush.

Now, to enhance that 3D effect, we need to add some shadows.
To do that, you just select a fire layer, press ctrl+J, ctrl+click the lower layer, press alt+backspace with the black color selected. That should leave you with two layers, one after another, with the bottom one being black. Reposition the black one so it's like a shadow, down right is where I usually put them. If needed, delete the stuff that got out of borders like I explained before.

To top the shield off, we need to add some borders, make it stand out and all that. Go back to your Illustrator, take the exact same shield and make it slightly bigger in Photoshop. Ctrl+click the original, small shield and with the big shield selected in your layers, press delete to delete the inside of it.

Now make a copy of that border by pressing ctrl+J. Make one of those invisible and resize the other one so it fits your shield perfectly (at least the bottom half) and delete the top half with your eraser. Color the half-border using the alt+backspace shortcut with #e5a407. Set it to Multiply and lower the opacity to 79%.
If you got that right, you'll get this.

You can leave the other border like it is, just make sure it is on top of all the other layers.

That's the shield part. I wasn't too sure what I wanted for the background, so I just improvised.
Take your beloved gradient tool, set it to Linear and just pull it from one corner to the other.

Copy that yellow layer using ctrl+J, press ctrl+shift+U to desaturate it and move it on top of your yellow layer. Now go to Filter>Sketch>Water Paper and move the sliders until you get the desired effect. After you've done that, set it to Overlay and you should get this.

Now what you wanna do is take your tempera & water paper brush and click a few times with #ae140d on a new layer. Put the layer in between the water papered layer and yellow layer. Now set the layer to Multiply.
You can also add some black behind the shield with your brush. Just make sure to set the opacity to 15% and click a few times.

Now use your vector line brush and place it like it's coming out of the shield. Of course, it should be on a new layer, black color and be sure that you've restored your opacity to 100%. Make the layer Soft Light and that should be enough.

I've just added some shadows behind the shield so it blends in better. If you forgot, ctrl+J on your shield, paint it black, put it behind the shield and set the layer to Soft Light.

Notice how I made two layers so I cover more surface.

We're almost over, woo!
Create a layer on top of all layers and go to Image>Apply Image. Press OK and set the blending mode to Multiply. Lower the opacity the 57%. The last step you do is go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Set it to Omni and make it like the shield is glowing and the rest is kinda fading. (I usually leave everything like it is, except intensity.)

And that's it! You can add your nickname or anything if you want, it's optional.
Now you can reward yourself 'cause it took a whole lot to do it.
If you've got any questions, ask away, I'd be happy to help.
Also, post your outcomes!

Love, Shock.

It's been a while

2013-06-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone!
First off, I'd like to apologize for not posting anything in a while. I've been really busy with school and I didn't have much time to make tutorials and post on my blog. But that's about to change now, 'cause I'm done with school for a couple months and that means I'll be posting on the regular basis from now on.

I haven't neglected Photoshop, tho. I've been making some cool covers for my Facebook page and so on. You can check them out here:

Not much, but I'm going to continue posting like before. I'll also be making tutorials for one of these two covers.
I've also made a Twitter profile and I'll be creating a Facebook profile so you can tell your friends or something along those lines. I hope you've missed me and I can't wait to make some more posts.

Love, Shock

A little late

2012-04-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hello once again. Time for some new tutorials, right?
Two really cool tutorials you should really check out.

The first one is called Show me the light by Andrei Oprinca.

As you can see, it's pretty cool. A nice colorful poster that isn't that complicated. Just by using stocks you can get this nice effect. If you got some spare time, you should try this tutorial out!

The next one is called Professional Widow by the same author (I really like his tutorials :) ).

As you can see, it's an awesome tutorial. A simple tutorial, as well, using the adjustments, blend modes on the layers and some other stuff you can get the same atmosphere as in the tutorial. Add some fire and there you go, you did it

I hope you'll try them out and show me the outcomes! :)
If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I'll get on them as soon as possible.

50 Stunning Movie Posters

2012-03-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hello once again.
In this post I'm not going to post some tutorials or something like that. I'm going to show you a list of 50 really cool movie posters. It's not the usual kind of post, but it's really interesting.
Movie posters should be stunning and attention grabbing.These posters have both of those qualities, so why don't you check them out?

1. Batman: The Dark Knight

2. Watchmen

3. Taken

4. X-Men 3

5. Push

6. Gladiator

7. Day Watch

8. Sin City

9. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

10. Spider-Man 3

11. Death Proof

12. Planet Terror

13. 300

14. Walk the Line

15. Superman Returns

16. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

17. Crash

18. Ocean’s 12

19. Terminator: Salvation

20. I Am Legend

21. Star Wars Episode 1

22. War of the Worlds

23. Apocalypto

24. Narnia – Prince Caspian

25. Pan’s Labyrinth

26. Cloverfield

27. American Gangster

28. Transformers

29. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

30. A Scanner Darkly

31. Hellboy II

32. V for Vendetta

33. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

34. Bridge to Terabithia

35. WALL-E

36. Napoleon Dynamite

37. Lord of War

38. Big Fish

39. Zodiac

40. Star Wars Trilogy DVD Poster

41. 3:10 to Yuma

42. No Country for Old Men

43. Jurassic Park 3

44. The Eye

45. Iron Man

46. Dawn of the Dead

47. Halloween

48. Perfume

49. Identity

50. Pathfinder

Original link : PsdTuts

Abduzeedo

2012-03-11T07:55:00.003-07:00

Something new!

In this post I'm going to show you a cool site where you can find all kinds of tutorials and inspirational photos.

It's called Abduzeedo. It's run by quite a few people and is updated daily. Abduzeedo is a blog about design which was founded in December 2006. They post all kinds of tutorials, not just for Photoshop, but for Illustrator, Fireworks, Pixelmator and much more.
I really like this site and I've learned a lot from it. You should definitely check it out and hopefully, you'll like it as much as I did.
Anyway, I'll be posting some more sites like this one, so you can find the stuff you like and read the stuff you want. If you have any questions, post them in the comments. Thanks!

Are you ready?

2012-03-10T04:19:00.000-08:00

Today, I'll show you two more tutorials. They are simple, so don't hesitate to try them out. These are the final previews:

The first one is called "Design a Vibrant Blackberry Inspired Ad in Photoshop" by Chris Spooner.

This tutorial will show you how to make the effect they used in the Blackberry Loves U2 ad. However, you can use to enhance your ordinary photo with a cool effect. Even though there isn't much to do, you get a sick outcome. You will add some colored layers to get the blueish effect, some lens flares and brushes for the dots clusters. The tutorial has quite a few steps, but they are easy to follow so you shouldn't have a problem with that.

The second tutorial is called "Making of the Imaginary Paint Dancers" by Johnson Koh.

Looks epic, right?
Anyway, in this tutorial you will learn how to control the elements! After you download the stocks, you can go on with the tutorial. After a few adjustments on the colors and the stocks and you're done! Quite simple and easily done. So, if you're already bored, try this tutorial out and post the outcome in the comments!

If you have any questions, post them in the comments, as well. Thanks

I've been busy

2012-03-04T04:01:00.001-08:00

This morning I decided to make something. I got up pretty early, so I had plenty of time. I was surfing the web when I found a really cool photo effect that I wanted to try out myself. About half an hour later, I gathered some brushes, stocks and stuff like that. I started out with a really simple background. I took my shattered glass brush and just started clicking randomly. As soon as I realized it, it was looking pretty good. From there on, I had to create a disintegration effect. I was out of ideas, so I just kept on working with the shattered glass brush. I did a few layers of that and it look promising, I just had to implement my stock photo in it. I had to Google that, because I was out of ideas. I found out I could use the clipping mask. And that was the step that took my photo on another level. With a few final effects, I got my morning inspiration photo. So, there it is:

It may not be that professional, but I'm really proud of it. I'm accepting any criticism, so if you've got something to say or ask, do that in the comments. Thanks. :)

It's time!

2012-03-03T05:26:00.002-08:00

It's time for more tutorials!
I will show you two cool tutorials that I've found on the web. As the rest, they are not that difficult, but are very creative.
So, let me show you the tutorials!

The first one is called "How to Create an Essentially Beautiful Flyer" from photoshoplady.com
This is the final preview. Pretty cool, right?

It's a pretty cool and a somewhat colorful tutorial. There's nothing special about the steps, you'll get the colorful effect from adding new layers with some colors and changing their blend mode. It has 11 easy steps and you shouldn't have much trouble with it. Even though it's simple, you should try it out.

The next tutorial is called "Burning Wishes - Abstract Photoshop Tutorial" by Andrei Oprinca.

This tutorial is a bit more complicated, but you shouldn't have a problem with it. You'll learn how to make cool scatter effects and also, how to add a useful bottom part if your model has been cut in the middle. If you've used Photoshop for a while, you'll know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I find it pretty sick, so if you've got some spare time, try it out. It has 14 steps that are well explained, so everyone can follow.

That's it! If you decide to try them out, let me know and post an outcome in the comments. And yeah, if you've got any questions, post them in the comments and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible.

Even more!

2012-02-26T11:39:00.001-08:00

Hi!
In this post I'm going to show you two really sick tutorials. I'm not the author, but I really have to show you these, as well. So, this is how they look:

They look pretty good, don't they? You'll be amazed how simple they are.

So, the first one is called: "Use lighting effects to make a beautiful artwork" by ART-D.

This one is really cool. It'll take more time to make, but that isn't a problem, at least for me. So, the steps themselves aren't really difficult, pretty much the basics. You will use some patterns, layers with colors brushed on them and brush strokes, which are not really complicated. Anyway, when you use them all together, you get a photo like this one, a fascinating and a really interesting photo.
The tutorial has 2 pages, but the steps are detailed and you shouldn't have a problem following them. I really look forward on taking this tutorial when I get the time.

The second tutorial is " Create amazing water-drenched photomontages " by Nik Ainley.

This tutorial's outcome is pretty sick. This might also take a few hours of your time, but that's not a big deal. In this tutorial, you'll have to manipulate a lot of water splashes and stuff like that, so, if nothing, you'll get more familiar with the transform tool and the channels pallet. The tutorial has 6 pages of simple steps which are easy to follow. If I get a cool stock for this tutorial, I'll try it as well.

So, these were the tutorials. If you decide to try them out, post the outcomes in the comments, I would really like to see them. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Also, vote for my blog ( it's under the archive on the right). It takes only a few seconds, but I would be grateful forever. Thanks!

Ungodly hour

2012-02-25T16:47:00.002-08:00

Hi!
It's Saturday and it's pretty late. The reason why I'm writing this post at this ungodly hour is that I finished a photo and I'm quite proud of myself. It's a photo of 2 girls, kinda abstract I'd say. It wasn't really difficult to make, but I like the outcome. I did spend a few hours making the photo, but it payed off.
Check it out, tell me what you think:

So, that's it!
I hope you like it as much as I do.
If you have any questions, post them in the comments.

I found some more

2012-02-23T01:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday...

2012-02-19T03:53:00.000-08:00

Hello!
It's Saturday and I'm already bored. Not a surprise, tho, every Saturday is like this. Anyway, a friend asked me to make her a photo in Photoshop. She said it has to be colorful. I accepted the challenge and started doing something. I wanted to make an abstract photo or something like that. And also, she had to be on the photo. So I cut the background from her photo and started thinking. I thought for a while and then I realized that I'm going to need some brushes. I got all sorts of brushes and I just clicked all over the photo with random brushes and colors. After I found some brushes I like, I deleted everything except her and started from scratch.
Few hours later I got something. Except the dizziness from the color, I got a result. It was really colorful and I knew she would like it. So, I sent her the photo and a few minutes later I was showered with praises and virtual hearts and what not. That made me feel really good, even though it might be a bit exaggerated.
Here's the photo, I hope you like it as much as she did.

Tell me what you think about the photo in the comments!

Tutorials!

2012-02-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

Tutorial time!

Today, I'm going to show you a few tutorials that I find really cool. I won't be doing them, tho.

The first one is called "Eroded fashion portraits" by Pete Harrison.
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/?featureID=3321241#1

I really like this one, it's not just some shattered effect or something like that, it has some depth which I find fascinating. The tutorial will show you how to create depth, how to use the Color Range Tool and lots of other stuff. It isn't that hard to create, the steps are easy to follow, but you have to find a really good stock if you don't want to use this one. It won't work very well on every photo. If you wish to add something else, I'd recommend you to make something on the person, not the background, but you're free to experiment. Anyway, the tutorial is really good and be sure to try it out. Post your outcomes if you decide to make one! :)

The next tutorial is this one.
http://wegraphics.net/blog/tutorials/using-custom-photoshop-brushes-to-create-an-immersive-lighting-effect/

This tutorial is called "Using Custom Photoshop Brushes to Create an Immersive Lighting Effect" by Nathan Brown. This one is really impressive and I find it really interesting. The tutorial itself isn't that complicated, but the outcome looks so powerful that you'd think it's really complex. In this tutorial you'll learn how to create 3D ribbons, immersive lights and this epic heaven-like scene! But before you start, you'll need the Adobe Illustrator to create the ribbons. If you've got the time try this tutorial out, it's not hard, but it looks great!

If you have an epic tutorial to share, put them in the comments and let me know! Also, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, I will try to help you as soon as I can.

Logo

2012-02-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

Yup, still snowing. I really don't care about the snow today, I just hope it'll snow so much I don't have to go to school tomorrow. But that doesn't really matter.

I want to show you a logo I made for my friend and his clan. I wasn't doing anything special on my computer, I was listening to music and looking at blogs when my friend messaged me on Facebook. He wanted me to make him a logo for his clan. I said I'd do it, even though I had no experience with logos. He also mentioned that it has to be a shield-like shape. So I downloaded a shield and took it's shape.

I knew that it had to be simple. Nothing special, just a shield with their name "Team4ever".

After a few hours of looking at other people's logos I got an idea.

I created a logo that I really liked.

I sent him the logo, hoping that he'll like it, too. He didn't exactly like it, so I had to make some changes. He said I had to add more colors and take out the blur.
I tried his idea, with doubt that it'll look good. After the changes, I was amazed. It looked better then the first version. I sent him the logo and he really liked it. That really boosted my moral for today, because I've never made a logo before. So here's the final version, I hope you like it like my friend does.
Tell me which one you like more. :)

Maze

2012-02-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

So, it's snowing in Croatia. A lot. I was really bored so I fired up Photoshop. I didn't know what to do exactly, so I just stared at the blank document. I wanted to make a background for my desktop, so I started using random effects and colors. I figured I could create a maze or something like that.

So, with the snow outside, I started doing something. Since blue is my favorite color, I started with blue, obviously. A few hours later and a few pictures of inspiration, I started getting somewhere.

With a few finishing effects and touches, I was done. I felt so relieved and proud because I made something so cool and something I could use. That's what I really like about Photoshop, I can go offline in the real world and just do stuff I like and I find cool.

Check out my creation, I hope you like it as much as I do.

So, that's it. I really like it and it's already on my desktop.
I will add some more colors so you can put it on your desktop if you like it!
Btw, I would really appreciate it if you'd upvote my Reddit link.(http://reddit.com/tb/pjnlu)
Looks like this snow is pretty cool, after all.

Tutorial: Simple background part 2

2012-02-10T02:56:00.000-08:00

Tutorial!

In this post I’m going to show you how to make this slick background. Let’s say it’s the second part of the background tutorials.

Let’s get to work!

Open a Photoshop document sized 1800*1600.

Download (or make) a regular hexagon. I got one here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Regular_hexagon.svg/400px-Regular_hexagon.svg.png

Open it in Photoshop and put it on your 1800*1600 document.

Now you have to select it, but because it’s transparent you will have to select the inside by yourself. So, take your Magic Wand and click on the hexagon. While its selected, take the Polygonal Lasso Tool, hold Shift and select the inside like this. (don’t mind the layers on the left J)

Now set the foreground to black and press Alt+Enter. It will fill up your selection.

Positioning time! Make up a shape using the hexagons. You can duplicate them by pressing Ctrl+J.

I played around a bit and got this:

Now copy a hexagon using Ctrl+J and merge the rest that make the shape. You can color it if you want, it doesn’t really matter.

We’ll be deleting some of the hexagons, so take your forever alone hexagon, press Ctrl+T and decrease its size a bit. Protip: Hold Shift while resizing.

Now select the hexagon (Ctrl+click on the layer thumbnail), select the layer with the shapes and press delete. Hide the hexagon to see the result.

Now do the same with the other hexagons you’ve got. You can leave some filled as well, whatever you want. After a while I got this:

With the selected shapes layer go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur set the radius to 1px and press OK.

Now for the background. Create a new layer, take the Gradient tool and select two colors.

Select the Reflected Gradient in the upper left corner. Now make a line like this:

Now go to Filter> Sketch> Water paper. Set the values like this:

Select the shapes layer and press Ctrl+J. Put the newly created layer under the shapes layer set the blend mode to Multiply and opacity to 66%. Make it look like a shadow, so move it out a bit. Go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 4.5. You should get something like this.

Download this brush and import it in your Photoshop. http://www.brushking.eu/329/spiral-brush-set.html

Create a new layer, take a brush and make a line like this.

Set the blend mode to Soft Light, opacity to 66% and erase the edges a bit.

You can add more lines if you like.

Now create a new layer on top and apply the image (Image>Apply Image) and set the blend mode to Overlay. Lower the opacity, set it at 22%.

That’s it. You can use that for your desktop background, other pictures and stuff like that.

Post your outcomes in the comments!

Tutorial: Signature

2012-02-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

Tutorial time!
In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make an abstract signature.
It isn't complicated, but it'll require some knowledge.
Let's get started.

Open a Photoshop document, 450*150.
Fill the first layer with black. (black on the foreground and press Alt+Enter)

Now create a new layer and add a C4D render. Take one with darker colors. (if you don't have any, just google it)
I will be using this one:

To select the C4D go to Select> Color Range and click on the color on the C4D.

Now press Ctrl+U and increase the Saturation and Lightness.

After you've added the C4D, resize it a bit, so if fits nicely, like this:

Now we're going to smudge the C4D we've added. Select the Smudge tool and set the values like this.

Start smudging! Btw, don't make dots, make lines, it'll make your signature look better.

Now, add another C4D on top of the first one and set the blend mode to Screen.
I will be using this one. Repeat the same steps as above. Use a lighter C4D.
Smudge a bit more!

Now add a new layer with a different C4D. I will be using a red one. It would be okay if you smudged it in a different way than the last two.

You're nearly there!
Create a new layer.
Apply the image. (Image>Apply Image)
Now go to Filter>Blur>Smart Blur and set the values like this: radius: 3, threshold: 25, quality: low, mode: normal.

Create a new layer and select a big round brush with a soft edge. Make sure it's white. Set the blend mode to overlay and click a few times where you want the light to come from.

You can also add a gradient map to enhance the signature's looks. I used this Gradient map and I set the blend mode to overlay and the opacity to 42%.

And that's it. A cool signature for your forum posts. Post your outcomes in the comments!

2012-02-06T01:21:00.000-08:00

Yet another creation, kinda like the last one. Had a lot of fun doing it, so I hope you like it.

Simple, but cool. If you have any questions, post them in the comments.

Newest picture!

2012-02-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

My latest creation is this:

I find it pretty cool, even tho it took me a few hours to make it. I hope you like it as much as I do.
If you have any questions, post them in the comments.

Tutorial: Glowing floral

2012-02-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make this floral effect.

Open a Photoshop document. Set the size to 1800*1600.
Create a new layer and open the Gradient editor. Set the colors to #ffffff and #91dbf1. Select the radial gradient and create a small circle, just like this:

Now open the stock.psd file and click on the thumbnail on the layer panel while holding Ctrl to select it. ( http://www.2shared.com/photo/2Jvy9Rn_/stock.html )
Move it to the picture. Position it like this:

Apply the outer glow on that layer. Set the blend mode to normal, leave the opacity at 75%. Set the spread at 3 and size at 10.

Create a new layer and open the Brush properties. Select the brush called Fuzzball (It's default). Set the size at 10 and the spacing at 71%. The rest is like this.

Follow the thicker lines of the stock and create a few U-styled going out of the white hole. Add an Outer glow effect, just change the opacity to 41%, leave everything else as it was.

Create a new layer, set the colors to white and black and create a radial gradient like this.

Set the blend mode to Overlay.

Go to Layer> New Adjustments Layer> Gradient map. Press OK and set the colors to black and white. Change the opacity to Multiply.

Create a new layer and download this brush. http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/1283-Bubble-Brushes-for-Photoshop
Import it and pick the one called bubble6. Open the brush properties and set the values:
Make the bubbles seem like they're coming out of the white hole.

Create a new layer and download this brush. http://falln-stock.deviantart.com/art/Smoke-Brushes-Set-1-92730901
Just click once, once again from the hole.
Create a new layer and apply the image. (Image>Apply Image)
Set the blend mode to overlay.

Create another new layer and apply the image once more. Go to Filter>Distort>Wave and hit randomize. Apply the effect. Change the blend mode to overlay and lower the opacity to 73%.

And the final step is to go to the background layer and apply the water paper effect. (Filter>Sketch>Water Paper). Set the values like this: fiber length: 33, brightness: 45 and contrast: 80.

And that's it. Now you know how to make a cool floral effect in a couple of minutes! :)
If you have any questions, post them in the comments.

Tutorial: Pop art

2012-02-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hello once again.
Today I'm going to show you how to make this effect.

I've seen quite a few ways to do that, but I think this is the most creative one.
Let's get started.
Open your stock image. I will be using this one.

Start with selecting the person, so you can delete the background. I will be using the Pen tool.

When you've selected the person, press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection. Now press Delete. After that press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer.
Now just press Ctrl+Shift+U to desaturate it. You should get something like this.

Now press Ctrl + M to change the curves. Try to get something like this.

Now go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp mask. Get a moderate effect, don't overdo it.
We want to keep our shadows so we get an effect closer to the Andy Warhol's. To do that go to Select>Color Range. Select Sampled Colors and Selection and click on a dark spot in the picture.

Now create a new layer. With the selection active, paint it black using the Alt+Enter with black on background.

Now make the layers invisible, except the original one. Select one part of the body with your selection tool. You don't have to select it perfectly, it'll do fine if you don't exactly follow the lines. After you have selected it use the Paint Bucket to fill the selection. Use any color you like and make sure it's on a new layer.

Do the rest of the body parts following these steps.

After that merge all the layers containing the colors.
Create a new layer. We're going to make the square pattern. Fill the layer with white and go to Filter>Sketch>Halftone Pattern. Set the setting like this: (set the colors to white-black)

And the last step is to add some noise. On the dotted layer go to Filter>Noise> Add Noise. Set the settings like this, set the blending mode to multiply and fill around 20%.

Make sure your layers are like this (from the top): Shadows, Dot patter and Color. You should get something like this.

You can change the colors with Ctrl+U.

And that's it. A simple effect that looks really cool.

New stuff

2012-01-31T11:07:00.000-08:00

I'm going to show you some new pictures I've made recently. I hope you'll like it!

I doing some for my friends and some for myself. I needed to change my background. :)
I hope you like it, I will be posting some tutorials soon!

Tutorial: Simple Background

2012-01-30T06:41:00.000-08:00

In this post I'm going to show you how to make a simple background, which you can use as a desktop background or a background for a more complex picture.

Let's get started.
Open up a Photoshop document, I'll be using 1280*1024, but you can use any size you want.
Start with creating a new layer.
Now, start creating a shape with a selecting tool and then try to duplicate it and add it to the current shape. Something like this:

That should do the trick. You can add more if you want. Now you can try deleting the inside of the triangles or something like that. If you're deleting just duplicate a triangle and make it smaller using the Transform tool. Then select that triangle set it to place and delete the other triangle

Now merge all the layers you used for creating the shape.

Background:
I'm going to do something simple, but I'll explain it.
Create a new layer and open the Gradient Editor. Pick two colors, don't stick to the rules, just pick anything and see if it fits, you can always undo. I'll be using #d5c908 and #098914. Now select the Radiant Gradient in the upper left corner. You'll get something like this.

You can use something from the Filters tab. I used Water Paper.

And the final step is to work the shape and the background so they match each other. I got something like this.

I used Gaussian Blur at 1.5(Filter> Blur), Drop Shadow (Layer>Layer Style) and I lowered the master opacity of the layer.
Now I've selected the shape and I picked a splatter brush (I don't have the link, sorry) and got this effect (I used a new layer). I Motion blurred it (-21 Angle, 6 Distance) and I set the Blend mode to Overlay.

And for the last touch create a new layer and apply the image (Image>Apply Image) and press OK. Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects and set to Omni. Play with the settings a little, see what suits you. Set the Blend mode to Multiply and decrease the master opacity. And that's it.

Pretty cool, huh? You can use any shapes you want, any color, it's all up to you. If you have any questions, post them in the comments.