PHOTOSHOP DESIGNS

Create Convincing Watercolor Effects Using Photoshop

2011-08-14T21:28:00.000+05:30

Preview

This is a preview of the final effect..

Step 1

Create a new document 1440×900 px and fill the background with a radial gradient white pink (#FFFFFF- #FFE0FC).

Step 2

Paste this picture of a flying crane into a new layer named “Crane”, resize it and extract it from its background.

Step 3

Download macbadshoes’ watercolor brushes. Select one of the brushes of the set and paint a pink or violet shape (#D1A7CD) into a new layer named “Watercolor 1″, then put “Watercolor1″ layer above all the others and change its Blend Mode to Color Burn.

Step 4

Use an “S” shaped brush to paint a large watercolor pink (#EFB9EB) background. Paint this into a new layer named “Watercolor 2″ this time and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 5

Next, on Brushes palette, select the Dry brushes set, and select any of them. Over Brush options, change the size to 79px, Blend mode to Overlay, and both Opacity and Flow to 30%. Then just paint over “Crane” layer here and there using several colors. Paint the shapes randomly.

Step 6

Select “Crane” layer, then go to Filters > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Dry Brush, set the values shown below and see how it looks.

Step 7

As a final watercolor detail, by using another “S” shaped watercolor brush, draw some soft pink shapes on the background.

Step 8

Add your desired text, I’m using Scriptina and Eras Light ITC.

Step 9

Finally add a texture. I’m using this paper texture form stockxchng. Paste it into a new layer above all the other and change its Blending Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 75%.

Conclusion

And that’s it, a simple and fun way to turn any picture into watercolor, try your own!.

Make a Freezing Cold Snow-themed Abstract Piece

2011-08-14T21:23:00.000+05:30

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a snow-themed large piece. You’ll learn how to plan the composition of the piece, to add elements into the composition, how to recycle the piece itself to generate more elements for the piece, how to incorporate pentools into a design and finally how to finish off and fine tune the piece to make it look great.

Put on a scarf, jacket and gloves, switch on your heater, make yourself some tea and let’s get started!

Want access to the full .PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month.

Step 1

Create a new document that is roughly 650px wide and 850px high at the default Photoshop resolution. Grab your gradient tool, and fill the "Background" layer with a radial gradient, with the foreground color as 9ab5c1, and the background color as d3dde0.

Drag the gradient fill tool fromt he middle, all the way to the right, far out of the canvas to create a smooth gradient. You should have something like this:

Step 2

Before starting the piece, we must first plan out a "skeleton" for all the elements to go on. I decided to base the piece off a zig-zagged shape flow. When trying to compose your own piece, ensure that you don’t have a composition that is simply a rectangle, square, or something boring. Use loads of edges and angles so you can have more to play around with when you start adding elements.

Using the pentool, create a few simple long shapes. I chose varying shades of blue and as you can see, I chose to make all the angles 45 degrees.

Pentool the lines vertically and then as you free trasnform and rotate a bunch of the shapes, hold down ‘Shift’ so the rotations will happen in short movements.

Composition wise, 45 degree angles help give the piece variety in composition so it’s not just one square as mentioned. Since they’re all sloping diagonally or horizontally, there is a sort of geometry created.

Step 3

I’m quite happy with the base skeleton of this piece, so now it’s time to add some elements. With the theme of this piece being snowy, I decided to add some renders of snowy mountains. I chose a stock image of people skiing on the mountain. For you, a good choice would be stock with detailed mountains that are mostly snowy, but with a few rocks. A few rocks will add detail to the piece, while too many will make it too complicated. Avoid mountains that are just rocks or just snow. The stock I chose is from cgtextures.com. If you want to use this as a texture, I suggest you make an account there and download it yourself.

Step 4

Take out the magenetic lasso tool and use the settings pictured below to render the mountain. Move the magnetic lasso tool without clicking along the edge of the mountain. The magnetic lasso should snap to the edges of the mountain. Next, create a selection of what you don’t want in your render, and hit delete. Erase the little bits that remain. The great thing about rendering mountains is that they’re meant to be rough and craggy, so a quick render in this case works and no real edge refining needs to be done. The outcome is clean-cut, as shown.

Step 5

Take the render and place it on your initial skeleton. In my composition, I decided to put the mountains against a corner. I did this because the right side of the mountain was cut off in the picture, so it made sense to put that side against an edge. Select the layer with your render, hit Ctrl – T for free transform and hold down Shift while transforming. This ensures that the render rotates the same way your pentooled shapes do.

Rotate the render until it looks good to you. I had to do a bit of erasing to make it work with the pentooled shapes. Use the eraser tool as you need it.

Step 6

Continue cutting out mountains, and putting them where you like them best. As you can see, I kept the types of mountains fairly consistent – snowy with some rocks. It’s a good idea not to put all the mountains below the pentooled lines, since that would make everything quite boring. I layered the elements so that sometimes the mountain peaks went over the pentooled shapes. Make sure that you leave space in your piece for elements that you will add later. Notice that my bottom mountain isn’t really even against the pentooled shapes. You might want to vary what you do so the piece isnt over-organised.

Step 7

At this stage, you should be confident that your base composition is good. From now on, we’ll be refining the base and adding things to what we have. My mountain shapes are looking very raw, so I duplicated each of my mountains and selected the lower layer of the two. Select > Blending Options > Color Overlay, and select a color that you used in your initial pentooled skeleton. Try not to use other colors, as we are trying to keep the color scheme quite uniform at this stage. Nudge the color overlayed-shape a few times so it gives one side of your mountain render an outline. Now we have managed to "tie in" the mountains with the shapes.

Step 8

It feels like my piece is slightly too edgey and angular. What about yours? Adding some rounder elements would make the piece work much better. I decided to fill up the blank space I left in the middle right of my composition. To start off, I made a round circle using the Shape tool, holding down Shift as I make the circle so it’s a perfect circle.

The next step is to clip-mask things into the circle. Create a new layer above the shape layer, then right-click this new layer, and select "Create New Clipping mask". Whatever you do on a clip masked area, it will only show within the perimeters of the layer below the clip masks. In this case, we want whatever we do to only show in the circle we created.

On the clip masked layer, go to Image > Apply Image and hit OK at the default setting. What you have showing in your circle is an image of the whole piece so far. I’m going to recycle the piece we have so far and use it to create new elements. I desaturate the clip masked image by hitting Ctrl + Shift + U, and move it around a little until it looks good. Next, create a new layer above the 2 layers you just worked with and also make this a clip mask. Grab a soft brush, size 300, make it black, and brush around the sides of the image. Create another clip mask layer on top, and then brush on some light blue colors. Use colors that match your piece.

You should now end up with a collection of layers that look something like this.

Three layers clip masking one shape layer.

Step 9

The next step is simply to continue adding circle shapes as elements using clipping masks like in the last step. In my other circles, I decided not to desaturate the applied image. This makes it blend with the piece much better. Experiment though! You might come across something that looks much better. Here’s my outcome. I added circles near the corners of the piece to fill up the composition, and another at the bottom left again just to spice things up.

Step 10

After using the color applied images to form the images in the circles, I realise that my desaturated applied image didn’t really work well. Instead of just changing it, I added another circle with a clipping mask on top, but this time, instead of brushing black though, I brushed white. The initial logic of brushing black was because it was under the rendered mountains. Now, however, since this circle is on top, brushing white to give it a ‘shiny orb’ effect makes sense. Unlike other elements, I made sure this one was right on top of other layers and covered significant parts of other elements. Layering properly with the correct shadows is extremely important. This gives your piece depth.

Step 11

At this stage, I’m quite happy with the weight and composition of this piece. But I’m not really happy with the overall feel of the piece – it’s really boring at the moment, with only mountains and recycled clip masks of the same image. It’s time to add a new element. I decided the piece needed something edgy, and also, as a rule, I try to include as much detail in everything I put into my piece. This is so that in the end the effect of "Fineness" shows through, and the elements arent huge chunky blocks. I decided on this stock image of an industrial plant. The stock is also from cgtextures.com.

The high spire on the right of this image is a good choice, it sticks out the most and is very usable in our piece.

Zooming in, I begin to isolate that part of the piece I want. I do this using the polygonal lasso tool. I don’t usually do this to render, however, the magnetic lasso misbehaves on this, the white in the background and the white of the pipes are way too similar, causing the magnetic lasso to cut this image quite badly. Go all the way around and close the lasso.

Hit Ctrl-I to invert your selection, which is the object you actually want. Hit Delete. This deletes off everything else and you’ll be left with a fairly clean cut-out object.

Step 12

The reason I chose a long-ish (vertical) element was because I wanted to have an element that added detail into the piece, but not ruin the shape of it. Now I’ll adjust the element and align it with my initial composition.

Aligning it with my composition means that the elements will have to be parrallel with those red lines above. This ensures that the new elements do not mess up the flow and weight of this piece. Taking the render, I hit Ctrl – T to free transform it, and hold down Shift as I rotate the render to be parrallel with my skeleton.

You might have noticed I varied the sizes of the renders and made the one at the bottom lighter and desaturated. This is to try to give variety to the elements I added.

Step 13

I’m done with adding renders and high-detail elements, so now for some simpler shapes. While I think of what shapes I should add, I’m always bearing in mind that the shape shouldn’t disrupt the flow and weight of this piece. However, I want to avoid using boring straight rectangles just to fill up the composition. I need to use something simple yet appealing. I decided on an L shape.

I started off holding down Shift to pentool a normal, L shape, but I felt was slightly boring, so I decided to curve it. For those who are newer with the pentool, you can achieve this by adding two pentool points on either side of each of the L corners and then remove the initial corner so a curve is created between the two new points you’ve made. By dragging the 2 points and by moving the curve, I’m able to make a nice curved L shape. After my shape is done, I right-click > Create vector mask.

Hint – It’s a good idea to hold down Shift while you manipulate this shape. This will keep everything straight.

Step 14

Now we have these shapes, it’s time to apply them to the piece. Again, using an L shape is a good idea, because if you rotate it 45 degrees, whichever direction the L shape points to, it will always be parallel with the flow of the piece.

Vector masks mean you can paint whatever you want to the layer and it won’t affect the overall shape of the object. I fill each layer with a dull blue and vary this slightly for each of the shapes. I take a soft brush and brush the edges of the shapes slightly white and black to make it look better. This is similar to the brushing of the orbs using clipping masks in Step 8.

Step 15

Something I do with all my pieces is to add some sort of texture. In this case, I wanted to keep the background clear, so I decdided to use splatter brushes behind the composition. The 2 brushes below I downloaded from Deviantart.com – they’re by artists quells and Osiris2735 respectively. I arranged these splatters behind the pieces so only the drippy parts show. Satisfied with some light splattering, I decide the piece needs some more effects.

Step 16

Effects serve the purpose of hiding the "rawness" of the piece, and in this case, it’ll turn a bunch of renders into an art piece. The piece has a snowy, icy atmosphere, but it’s missing something that goes hand in hand with cold mountains… clouds! I downloaded a great cloud brush pack from Deviant Art, by JavierZhX.

After that, it’s a simple matter of brushing them around the piece. Now the piece is starting to look less flat and much nicer.

Step 17

I decided that more flashy effects were needed. By luck, I just finished creating a pack of fractals withChaosScope. ChaosScope is open source software that generates colorful fractals. Below are some fractals I made with the software, which I then used in the piece. I simply desaturated the fractals by hitting Ctrl-Shift-U, and set it to a linear-dodge layer mode. The types of fractals I used are shown below. If you are generating your own fractals, be sure to use those with edges, and not smooth flowy fractals. You want to give the effects a sharp feeling.

Step 18

Looking at the piece, the "raw" parts that stand out most are the pentooled lines. They form the framework for the piece but are looking lonely right now. Using the ChaosScope fractals, align them on linear dodge to the lines so you create a sort of ‘rushed’ effect. Erase anything that looks bad with a soft brush. I get something like this.

Step 19

Time for some fine detailing. The piece is quite solid, but everything is stuck to the main frame. To fix this I added 2 small bits of detail.

Using Pentool > Elipse, I drew a circle. Hold down Shift while drawing the pentooled lines to make this circle a perfect one. Right-click the pentooled lines, and "Create Vector Mask". On the normal layer, I then go to Image > Apply Image and hit OK with the default settings. Although you applied the whole piece so far, only a little circle of it will show. Unlink the layers (as shown below) so you can move the layer or the layer mask around seperately. Below is an unlinked layer. As you can see, the chain between the layer mask and layer is gone, allowing me to move it around. The two added circles are shown below. Other than a clipmasked area, I also added a blue colored solid filled circle behind.

Step 20

For more detail, I downloaded a set of bird brushes from WingsOfAHero on Deviant Art. There are many sets of bird brushes on Deviant Art, so find one which has many smaller birds. I brushed and erased a little, and here is the outcome. I decided to add birds in the middle.

Step 21

Now to add a little more shine and detail to the piece, add some little sparkles. I like to add night sky stocks to the piece, since the stars in the sky work as good sparkles, and usually there is a glow to photos of the night sky. The flow can add shine to your piece. I used a few night sky stocks taken by a friend, but you can easily find stocks from Deviant Art. Nebula stocks will also work. I arranged the sparkles to come off the mountains, and as you can see, the sparkles are VERY slight and hard to see. Don’t worry, the sparkles will really show soon enough. In this step, I also added some random 1 px pentooled lines in parts of the piece.

Step 22

The background is looking a little flat, so going back to the background layer, I created a new layer above it and brushed the edges black with a very soft brush (I used a 1500px soft black brush). Do the same with white on the seperate layer, but brush in the middle. Set both of these layers on 35% opacity for the black and 40% for the white. This gives the effect that there is a spot light on the piece.

Step 23

Using more chaos scope fractals, I added a blue effect to the background. The type of fractal I used is slightly different though. I created more explosive, effectual fractals for this. These are desaturated before I add them.

Step 24

Finally, with everything in place, it’s time to make the piece’s atmosphere really solid. At the moment, it is slightly bright, so we will add a curves layer to darken things up. Using a curve layer on quite extreme settings, I darkened the whole piece.

I also added two gradient maps, both are black and white.

1- From Black to White – Set on luminosity – 12% – Adds a little contrast

2 – From White to Black – Set on Normal – 20% – This desaturates the piece slightly

Step 23

The piece is almost complete! I gave the piece another black and white gradient map to desaturate the blueness of the piece’s edges (again use soft brushing!), because I felt it was taking attention away from the center. After that, create a new layer, go to Image > Apply image and now you have your whole piece in one layer. Sharpen this layer and set it on 60%. And there you have a complete, polished piece.

Conclusion

I actually added some shiny effects that I made myself. These are simple to make – just draw random lines with a hard white brush, and motion blur it alot, and you get these fast, blurred effects.

And there you have it, a snow-themed abstract piece.

Hexagon Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

2011-08-14T21:19:00.000+05:30

on Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

Create an Angry Birds Parody in Illustrator

2011-08-14T21:10:00.000+05:30

Background

Step 1

So here's a sketch of this illustration...I know, pretty ugly, but the sketch is just a guide for my steps in to the final result, so I never refine it. The concept was to make a scene of reunion before a confrontation with each character dressed like classic war movies heroes.

Ok let's open Adobe Illustrator and create a A4 canvas (29,7 x 21 cm), RGB, 300 DPI.

Using the rectangle tool (the shortcut is the letter "M") create these two rectangles on the canvas.

The bigger one will be the wall and the little will be the floor, so add a lighter green fill for the wall and a darker for the floor.

Let's start with the board, first draw a grey rectangle using the rectangle tool (M).

And make a darker one inside.

Choose the rectangular grid tool, click once on the canvas to set the parameters like the ones below:

Also change its opacity to 20%, use only a green stroke, no fill.

As some of you already know, the Pig King is the main villain of the game, so I just wrote "Subject: Pig King" on the board as an identifier, I used this font .

I made an illustration of the pig king on the board, outline only, like those classic war panels. So, first draw an ellipse using the ellipse tool (L).

Make two little ones behing the bigger one on the superior left diagonal. These will be the ears and the big one will be the head. Use a green stroke and a black fill.

Use the same tool to create the eyes, make one, duplicate, reflect and place it on the other side.

The nose follow pretty much the same procedure, you just need to adjust its shape using the direct selection tool (A), don't forget to make the two cavities.

Add these details on the ears.

And let's not forget the jaw, draw it using the pen tool (P).

Let's not forget the eyebrows, make them using the pen tool (P).

A king is not a king without a crown, so draw it using the pen tool (P), then add some ellipses on the bottom to look like jewels.

Step 3

I decided to put a calendar on the wall, so let's start by making the paper sheets using the rectangle tool (M).

Add a red rectangle on the top.

Using the ellipse tool (L) make the holes, then using the rounded rectangle tool make the metal rings.

Decided to use the original Angry Birds Font to write Jun 6, why June 6? Because it's D day (Normandy landings), just an analogy.

Step 3

Also decided to create a classic dart board. First make two ellipses one inside the other like the sample below using the ellipse tool (L), make one with a black fill and a white stroke and the other using the inverse combination.

Double click on the blend tool (W) to open the panel, set spacing as specified steps and set 3 steps, now choose the two circles to get this result.

Ok, let's make another circle with the same size of the white one above this blend, let's add some monter stroke to it. Go to the stroke panel and set the align to internal, weight to 90 pt and dasehd line to 25 pt dash.

Let's make some darts, draw this shape using the pen tool (P), duplicate, reflect and use the option calledUnite on the pathfinder panel.

Now place it on the dart board.

You can duplicate it using the selection tool (V) + alt and then resize and place it around the dart board. Change the color fill so that it doesn't look boring.

Well, the background it pretty much ready, time to draw the angry birds.

Red Bird

First thing: create an ellipse using the ellipse tool (L), then using the direct selection tool (A), change the vector points till you get this messy shape.

Again with the ellipse tool (L), make this two shapes and put them on the top of the body shape.

Select everything, then access the pathfinder panel and choose the option called Unite.

Also give a cool stroke to it, I usually use the 3 pt oval brush, it's really good when drawing cartoon characters.

Using the pen tool (P), draw these wrinkles on the cockscomb.

"Is he flying, floating or something?" is a famous quote a teacher asked me once when I showed him some drawings, after that I never forgot to add shadows and a floor on my illustrations. So, make this ellipse white a really dark green fill on the bottom of the body.

Create this board stick using the pen tool (P), send it to back like his grabbing it.

Using the pen tool (P) make his belly using only this color fill.

Use the ellipse tool (L) to create these two ellipses.

Make the eyebrows using the pen tool (P).

Make the beak using the pen tool (P).

Use the ellipse tool (L) to make the iris.

So I wanted to make him more angry, so I add this two shapes using the pen tool (P) on the bottom of the eyes, to look like he's staring at you.

Of course, I added this dark red shapes to cover the eye parts that were left.

And added these circles using the ellipse tool (L), they are stains this birds has.

Make these black fill shapes using the pen tool (P) to create his tail.

I confess that Charlie Sheen's Top Gun inspired me to add this stripe on the head. Ok, so you can either draw it using the pencil tool (N) or the pen tool (P).

Add these wrinkles using the pen tool (P).

Add this little ball using the ellipse tool (L) to look like a knot, then make the stripe part using the pen tool (P).

Repeat it again and just send the other part to back.

The Big Brother

You're going to follow basically the same steps to draw these and the other birds, so this one will be a lot easier. First make this fat round shape doing the same procedure used on the red bird.

Using the ellipse tool (L) maek his shadow with a dark green fill.

Copy the stick from the previous bird and place it like this.

Make his belly using the pen tool (P), I added some wrinckles on some parts.

I just copied the previous bird beak and adapted a few things on this one.

Create the eyeballs using the ellipse tool (L).

Don't forget the iris.

This eyebrow is way more thick then the other birds, because he should look like a really grumpy guy, ha! Create it using the pen tool (P).

In order to look like a 80's commander, let's make a classic green beret using the pen tool (P).

Don't forget to add a little star using the star tool.

I know, this is quite boring, but you will have to create this dark cirlces around the eyes usgin the pen tool (P) to give him a tired look.

And also add these "time stains" on his body using the ellipse tool (L).

Copy and paste the same tail used on the other bird.

Make this wrinckles using the pen tool (P).

Now place this two buddies on the scene just like this.

Yellow bird

Make a triangle using the polygon tool with the settings bellow:

Use the smooth tool to make the edges softer.

Add a dark green shadow cirlcle bellow the body using the ellipse tool (L).

Make the eyeballs and iris using the ellipse tool (L).

Use the pen tool (P) to create the beak.

Use again the same tool to create the white belly fill.

And to create his eyebrows.

The tail of this specific bird is not like the others, is more wil I would say. Draw it using the pen tool (P).

Let's draw a cap for this bird, first make the base using the pen tool (P).

Then make the flap using the same tool.

Add some hair here, you can copy his tail and just ajust it, adding and taking vector points of it.

Add this little black piece in order to look like it's an adjustable plastic snap closure in the back.

Copy the star from the big brother's beret, place and adjust it here.

Let's put some depth on this scene: Select the whole yellow bird, go to effect > blur > gaussian blur.

Set the gaussian blur to 9 pixels.

Now place him in front of the big brother.

Blue Bird

This bird is pretty simple to create. First make a circle using the ellipse tool (L).

Make another two ellipses and place them on the top of the body shape.

Access the pathfinder panel and choose the option called Unite.

Add a dark green shadow, create it using the ellipse tool (L).

Use the pen tool (P) to create the beak.

The eyes are pretty squeezed, you can draw them using the pencil tool (N).

Add some iris on them.

Don't forget the wrinckles on the top, add them using the pen tool (P).

Make the tail using the pen tool (P).

He's got this orange circle around the eye, add this using the pen tool (P).

Let's give him a badass staring looking, just add these two eyelids using the pen tool (P).

Just to make things more classic I added some these war painting on his face using the brush tool (B), use a black/white charcoal brush.

Add these two dog tags using the rounded rectangle tool .

These trick is really cool: make a line of dots with the approximate width of a chain to pu on the birds neck. Group and drag it to the brush panel.

Choose to create a new art brush.

It will be placed among the other brushes, then you will need only to select and use the brush tool (B).

We're going to add the same ammount of blur on this one, so go to effects > blur > gaussian blur.

Set the gaussian blur radius to 9 pixels .

Now place him in front of the red one.

White Bird

Ok guys, I promess you this is the last one, ok? So, make this egg shape by creating first a ellipse using the ellipse tool (L) then adjusting it using the direct selection tool (A).

Add the dark green shadow on it's bottom.

Ok, looking on that way it may look weird, but this is the tail of this bird. Draw it using the pen tool (P).

Make the beak using the pen tool (P).

The following things will be all created using the pen tool (P): cheeks, eyeborw, belly.

Watch for this helmet or he may look like a pan.

Add some stripes using the pen tool (P)

You can copy the stripe from the red bird or just make it all over again, is up to you.

Add some hair on the back of the helmet.

And some little points on the top of the helmet, use the brush tool (B) for this one.

Blur again guys, go to effects > blur > gaussian blur.

This one will be a bit more intense, so set the radius to 20 pixels.

And place him on the center of the scene like this.

Final Step

No kidding, this is the final step hehe so after making all the illustration we need to add some interesting lightning on it. Let's make a lamp, first draw a circle using the ellipse tool (L).

Make this hsape using the rectangle tool (M).

And tis one using the pen tool (P).

You're going to make this big trapezium using the pen tool (P), make sure it fit outside the canvas.

Set it's opacity to 40%.

Then go to the transparency panel and choose the blending mode called Overlay.

Using the rectangle tool (M) make a big rectangle that fit over the canvas. Add some radial black and white gradient to it.

Go to the transparency panel and choose the blending mode called Multiply. That's it guys, hope you achieve it.

Conclusion

Well, I hope you had fun doing this tutorial. Don't worry If you didn't complete all of it, just learning how to draw at least one of these birds is already a lesson. I hope I helped you guys on having a better understanding about characters, depth and lighting. That's it, have fun and take care.

STUNNIG 3D EFFECT IN 30 MINUTES

2011-08-14T20:53:00.000+05:30

Announcing the first tutorial of a new series!

Together, with a pinch of this and a dash of that, weâ€™ll figure out how to create this cool effect in just 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 normal, everyday Photoshop
1 set of real 3D text.
1 large black canvas (1600Ã—1200px)

Step 1: First, we’ll need something written in 3D. We have two possible variations:

If you prefer a bit of Mac spice, use the command “Extrude and Bevel” in illustrator. This tutorial from PSDUTS may help you through it.

If you swing more toward a Windows flavor, Xara3D is another. If you don’t have Xara 3D, have no fear. We always come prepared: click on the thumbnail below to download a sample.

Step 2: Place the 3D text and rename it as “3D Text”. Then, with the Magic Wand Tool select the face of the letters and cut that part as you can see from the screnshoots below.

Step 3: With me so far? Now comes the fun part. Make two copies of this layer, one for backup (“3D Text Copy”) and another one (“3D Text Blur”). Set the backup copy aside to cool for a bit (aka, Hide). Leave the other two layers (â€œ3D Textâ€ and â€œ3D Text Blurâ€) on the fire and easily accessible. Turn down the heat a bit on â€œ3D Text Blurâ€; let it simmer for a while and come back to it later.

Step 4: Next, create a new layer group, rename it “Effects”, and change the blending option of this group to “Color Dodge”. Now, being careful not to disturb the other layers, reach inside this new layer group and, with a flick of the wrist, create a new layer, applying the filter “Clouds” (Filter -> Render -> Clouds) to give it that nice, puffy consistency that weâ€™ve all come to know and love.

Step 5: Dropping just below that group in your palette, create another group, this one named “Colors”. Remember that little wrist-flick technique from Step 4? Didnâ€™t get it quite to your satisfaction the first time? Well, weâ€™re going to give it a go again. As before, within this new group youâ€™ll need to create a new layer; add a sprinkle of pink, and with the gradient tool (in Radial Mode) draw a soft edge glow. After that, set the layer blending mode to the â€œLowâ€ mixer setting, or “Soft Light”.

At this point, you might see a strange pink cloud, but donâ€™t worry. All part of the plan.

Step 6: Repeat the previous step with two other bright colors, but placed differently.

Step 7: Now, for the â€œsecret ingredient.â€
Do you remember the “3D Text Blur” we set aside way back in Step 3?
Well, itâ€™s been simmering long enough! Select it now and apply a Gaussian Blur of 13 pixel radius (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur)

Step 8: Now the creative part. Add a new layer in the “Effects” group, immediately above the “Clouds”. Download a cool brush from DeviantArt and use white to trace around the inside face of each the letters.

Step 9: Still with me? Weâ€™re almost there! Carefully slide yet another new layer between the two groups (â€œEffectsâ€ and â€œCloudsâ€).
Reach for your trusty Gradient Tool (this time in Linear Mode), choose White and, holding down the Shift key, drag the Gradient tool from the outside edges of the canvas to the middle of the image.
Set your blending mode to “Saturation” and see what happensâ€¦

Step 10: Ready for another layer? Weâ€™ll need a new one in the â€œEffectsâ€ group; name it “Abstract Lights”.

Step 11: Then ctrl-click (command-click for you Mac lovers) the “3D Text” layer icon in the layer’s palette and paint inside the new selection with a custom abstract brush as we did in Step 8 (remember, use WHITE).

We provide guaranteed pass 640-822 exam with online 640-816 training and 640-863. You can also get best quality 1z0-051 along with 650-987 for your guaranteed success.

Step 12: Youâ€™ve made it. The final step. The icing on all of these layers. Createâ€¦oneâ€¦lastâ€¦layer above the “White” layer we just did.

Use a nice LARGE custom brush, like this, and draw a single Cloud above the text. Apply a Motion Blur (Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur) with an Angle of “-11? and a distance of “200? pixels.
Change the Opacity to “30%” and apply a gradient overlay with the following settings:

Voila!

There you have it. A quick, easy way to spruce up any old 3D text into something to set anyoneâ€™s mouth watering. Serve hot or cold to your friends, and watch â€˜em droolâ€¦

Enjoy!

For a bit of a twistâ€”if youâ€™re feeling a bit adventurous–above all the layers, try new custom brushes (like smoke) and repeat the last step to apply cool lights. Experimenting can be fun!

Here’s another example from my portfolio.

How to Create Mental Sphere

2011-08-14T10:49:00.000+05:30

Final Image Preview

Resources

Step 1

Open Mountain Photo on Photoshop. Go to Image > Image Size and change width to 1000px and height to 664px.

Step 2

Open Yoga Photo and copy it to Mountain Photo. Select Yoga Layer and press Ctrl+T to reduce size of photo like shown below.

Step 3

With Yoga layer selected, use the Polygonal Lasso Tool (Feather: 0 px, Anti-alias selected) to select women.

Don´t forget that we have some landscape areas inside of selection. Hold Alt button and using Polygonal Lasso Tool deselect those areas.

Press Ctrl+Shift+I to inver selection and press Delete button to clear selected area.

Step 4

Remove selection with Select > Deselect, then correct brightness and contrast with Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast:

Step 5

Select background layer (Mountain). Make round selection with Elliptical Marquee Tool on it.

Press Ctrl+J to duplicate selected area to new layer. Select content layer by pressing Ctrl and clicking on thumbnail layer on layers. Load sphere selection by going to Select > Load Selection. Then apply Filter > Distort > Spherize:

Step 6

With selection still active, create new layer above all layers and fill it with black color.

Apply Filter > Render > Clouds to this layer.

Step 7

Apply Filter > Distort > Spherize.

Step 8

Change layer mode to Screen and lower opacity to 57%.

Step 9

With selection still active, create new layer above all layers and fill it with black color.

Step 10

Deselect area with Ctrl+D an update layer opacity to 0%. After that go to Layer > Layer Style > Inner Glow and apply style with following settings:

Final Image

This tutorial is now complete. Hope you liked it!

Learn to Create Marble Text Effect

2011-08-14T10:47:00.002+05:30

Final Image Preview

Resources

Step 1

Fill the Background with the color #534d39. Place Marble Stone Texture Stock on top of the Background, and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.

Create the text using the color #b0ac97. The font used is Wrexham Script and the size is 377px. Duplicate the text layer to create two copies, and change the Fill value of the copy layer to 0.

Step 2

Double click on the original text layer to apply the following styles:
- Drop Shadow: Change the color to #585858, the Distance to 6 and the Size to 10.

- Inner Shadow: Change the color to #908c78, the Size to 13, and the Contour to Half Round.

- Inner Glow: Change the Blend Mode to Linear Light, the color to #afafac, the Technique to Precise, and the Size to 10.

- Bevel and Emboss: Change the Depth to 300, the Size to 12, the Soften to 3, and the Shadow Mode color to #6e6b5e.

This is what the text should look like:

Step 3

Now, we are going to add a glass effect to the copy text layer (the text layer on the top), so double click it, and add a Bevel and Emboss effect. Change the Depth to 250 and the Size to 7. Un-check the Use Global Light box, and change the Angle to 100 and the Altitude to 60. Also, check the Anti-aliased box for a smooth result, change the Highlight Mode Opacity value to 80%, and the Shadow Mode color to #d9d9d9.

This is what you will get.

Step 4

Create a new layer between the two text layers and call it “texture”.

Press the Ctrl/Command key, and click on a text layer thumbnail (icon) to create a selection.

Set the Foreground color to #a77d31, and the Background color to #fff8de. Fill the selection with the Foreground color on texture layer.

Press Ctrl/Command + D to get rid of the selection.

Step 5

Now, we are going to use some filters to create the Marble texture. Start with Filter > Artistic > Sponge. Change the Brush Size to 2, the Definition to 25, and the Smoothness to 5.

Go to Filter > Sketch > Chalk and Charcoal. Change the Charcoal Area to 7, the Chalk area to 10, and the Stroke Pressure to 1.

Go to Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap. Change the Highlight Strength to 17, the Detail to 14, and the Smoothness to 5.

Finally, go to Filter > Artistic > Film Grain. Change the Grain to 10, the Highlight Area to 15, and the Intensity to 10.

Step 6

Change the “texture” layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, and change the Saturation value to -80.

Final Image

And this is the final effect.

Adding 2d cut out plants and trees to architectural visualisations

2011-08-11T07:37:00.000+05:30

In this tutorial we will discuss simple techniques to quickly add 2d plants, trees and vegetation to an architectural visualisation post render in photoshop to give the visual a sense of realism. We will use masking techniques to cut out the plants and trees and a number of layer styles to blend them into the render.

1

This is the base image I am going to be working with. I rendered the image in 3DS Studio Max where I did some work on the textures; however I find it quicker to apply textures in Photoshop if I know I am only taking one rendered image from the 3d model. I have added a few textures, lights and a couple of people. I normally don’t like see-through people, however I needed to show the view down the walkway and without people it felt very empty.

2

I searched the web for an image of grass that I liked that would be my base level of vegetation. My first stops for finding images like this are cgtextures.com or flickr but as we build a larger texture library on Kropped I hope more of you will try Kroppedfirst for textures and resources.

3

I applied a layer mask to the layer then, using a black brush, started erasing the grass that did not fit in the pool.

4

Next I used a stock image of reeds to give height to my natural pool vegetation. Again I masked out unwanted areas of the texture. (for a detailed explanation on masking read the ‘Adding people to architectural visualisations’ tutorial on Kropped). I applied these adjustment states to just this texture so that it matched the colours in the scene better.

5

I repeated step 4 with the same stock image of reeds to populate the rest of the pool with higher reeds.

6

Using the same images I filled the pool in the distance with reeds too.

7

Having used the same image of reeds for all areas of vegetation I felt that it needed breaking-up a bit with a different sort of plant. I chose this hedge as it had some nice green textures.

8

Again, mask out the unwanted areas of the image

9

Looking at the image I felt it looked very flat and a bit dark. So I used a bit of an unorthodox technique, instead of carefully going over areas that needed brightening up and depth added I simple used this stock image of a concert where the lights were very bright and the colour a slight orange hint to overlay over the whole image. If I was doing an accurate image for a client I might not use this technique but this was a day or two before a final crit and I needed every minute.

10

I masked out areas of the image that were already bright to leave this.

11

I set the layer to Overlay and 51% opacity

12

I then repeated this step with the same image in different locations on the render, each time setting it to overlay and adjusting the opacity. Because I used a mask instead of erasing, if I felt I had removed too much of the ‘light’ I could simple swap black to white and unmask areas. I hope that this tutorial was useful to you, I appreciate this technique is a bit trial and error, you just have to go with what you feel works for the image.

Glowing Cube

2011-08-11T07:27:00.000+05:30

Learn how to give your night-time photos an abstract look by adding a glowing cube.
First, in Illustrator, use the Rectangle tool to draw a white square. Then go to 3D>Extrude and Bevel.
Make sure you have the Preview box ticked, then rotate the cube side-on, and adjust the Extrude Depth so that it’s the same depth as your square – therefore making it a cube.
Put the Perspective at 50%, and rotate the cube to a position that will suit where you will be placing it in your photo. When you’re done click OK.
Copy your cube and paste it into your photo in Photoshop. The photo I used can be downloaded here.
Resize it, and move it to the location that you want it.
Rasterize the layer, and duplicate it twice. Name them as I have above, and hide the bottom and top layer, leaving only the middle one visible.
Go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance and give your cube a blue tint.
Then double click on the layer thumbnail to bring up the Layer Style box. Click on Outer Glow. Set the Opacity to 20%, the Size to 30% and set the colour to white.
Next click on Inner Glow. Set the Opacity to 25, and the Size to 35% and set the colour to white.
Click OK, then take the layer’s Opacity down to 85%.
Now we’ll add a glow. Click on the glow layer, and unhide it.
Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast and set the Brightness to 70.
Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 30 pixels.
Finally we’ll add the reflection. So click on the Refelection layer and unhide it.
Move it downwards.
Set it’s Brightness to 70…
…and give it a Gaussian blur at 30 pixels.
Next go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur , set the Angle to 90 and the Distance to 500 pixels.
Change the layers blending mode to Overlay.
Here’s the final result.

How to Create a Magical Town in the Clouds Using Photoshop

2011-08-10T20:37:00.002+05:30

By Michael Vincent Manalo Aug 07, 2011

Photoshop Tutorials - Photo Manipulation

Page 1 of 9

In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to create a magical town where books are roads and whales swim under the clouds, where windmills float and magic wielders live. We are going to learn how to blend images so seamlessly that it would look like a single image using the Brush tool, the Eraser tool and several adjustment layers. We are going to learn how to make images appear when they are covered by the clouds, smoke, etc. We are also going to learn how to blend textures to an image to drastically improve the look and feel of the overall image.

Preview of Final Results

Download the PSD

Magical Town.zip | 218.86 MB
Download from FileSonic
Download from Website

Magical Town in the Clouds Photoshop Tutorial

Resources

Switzerland 01 - drakedrakedrakestock
landscape 56 - night-fate-stock
Books pack 3 - TwilightAmazonStock
Books pack 4 - TwilightAmazonStock
Witch 4 - Meltys
Texture 119 - Sirius_sdz
Paper Texture 1 - Wojtar Stock
Sperm whale 2 - hawksmont
Windmill stock 4 - shoofly-stock
Starfield brush set - gvalkyrie

Step 1: Create a New Photoshop Image File

Let’s begin by creating a new image file, go to the Menu bar and click File > New, and then input the following values on their respective fields:

Presets: International Paper
Size: A4
Width: 2480 pixels
Height: 3508 pixels
Resolution: 300 pixels/inch
Color Mode: RGB Color; 8 bit
Background Contents: White

Step 2: Create the Sky

In this step, we will be creating the desert which will serve as the foreground of our picture. To start, open the image “Switzerland 01” by drakedrakedrakestock. Once you have it open, simply activate the Move tool by pressing V on your keyboard and left-click on this image and drag it to our canvas. Move it and position it as shown on the image below:

Once on the canvas, rename this layer to: “Clouds”

Note: To rename a layer, simply double-click on the words: “layer 1” (which is our layer - clouds) to prompt a text box to appear. Once that appears, you may now rename the layer.

Now, let’s resize the “clouds” layer to fit nicely on our canvas, and to do that, activate the Transform tool by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + T while the “clouds” layer is active.

Doing this will prompt a square with little squares on the corners and sides of the image. Now, we can resize the image. See the image below on how to resize it:

The result should be similar to this:

After transforming, let us now enhance the brightness and contrast of our image. To do that, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast (make sure that the “Clouds” layer is still active).

Once the Brightness/Contrast menu is open, input the following:

Brightness: 50
Contrast: 25
Legacy: Uncheck

After hitting OK, you would see a drastic change on our image, it is much brighter now. See image below:

Next, let’s adjust the colors of the “clouds” layer. With the “clouds” layer selected, go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. Once you have the Color Balance menu open, input the following:

Color Levels: -24, +16, +63
Tone Balance: Midtones
Preserve Luminosity: Check

The result should be similar to the following:

Next, let’s give it brighten it up more and reduce the saturation a little. With the “clouds” layer selected, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and input the following:

Hue/Saturation:

Hue: 0
Saturation: -15
Lightness: +20

The result:

Now that we’re done with the “clouds” layer, let’s now change that layer’s sky. Let’s make the sky more eye-catching for our viewers. To start, open “landscape 56” by night-fate-stock. Once open, activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool by pressing M on your keyboard.

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to create a selection area over the sky of “landscape 56”. See image below:

Now that you’ve created a selection area, activate the Move tool (V) and drag it to our canvas. Once on the canvas, rename this layer to “sky”. Next, position it as shown on the image below:

How to Draw a Koi Fish in Photoshop

2011-08-10T20:32:00.000+05:30

Preview of Final Results

Download the PSD

Koi Fish.zip | 6.18
Download from FileSonic
Download from Website

Koi Fish Photoshop Tutorial

Resources

Fish Scale Patterns - Brusheezy
Swirl & Flower Brushes - Deviant Art

Step 1 Create a New Document

In Photoshop create a New Document (File>New) My canvas is 500px x 500px but you can make it any size to suit your needs.

Step 2 Flower

First we will create one of the flowers. Start by adding a Gradient Overlay to the first layer (name it 'Background')

Step 3 Petal Shapes

Create a New layer and name it 'Petal 1' make an outline of a petal like the image below using your Pen Tool.

Step 4 Fill the Petal

Right click the outline of your petal and then>Make Selection or on your Paths tab right click then>Make Selection. Fill this petal with a purple color.

Step 5 Add Contrast

On this same layer grab your burn tool (61 px soft brush, shadows, 100%) make your petal look like the image below. I used a combination of Ranges: Shadows, Highlights and Midtones to achieve this look.

Step 6 Petal Highlight

Create a New layer above this one and name it 'Petal 1 Highlight'. Grab a 42px soft brush #E5BA2A, with a Flow: 73%. Erase any areas that goes outside of the petal.

Step 7

The third thing that we will add to this petal is a darker shadow. First make a new layer above your 'Petal 1 highlight' then make a selection of your 'Petal 1' layer. Once you have done this contract it. Select>Modify>Contract by 5px like the image below.

Paint in this area with a soft brush using #2c0024 Note: Name this layer 'Petal 1 shadow'

Step 8 Repeat Petals

Repeat these steps to create the rest of your petals. I have provided images of how the process looks.

Creating a Smoke Shaped Image in Photoshop

2011-08-10T20:28:00.001+05:30

This Photoshop tutorial is a photo manipulation that shows you how to create a smoke shaped image.

Final Image Preview

Resources

Step 1

Start by downloading all photos that we will need for this tutorial. Open photos in Photoshop. Copy smoke 1 photo to portrait canvas and position smoke photo like i did below.

Step 2

Desaturate smoke image by selecting smoke layer and going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U).

Step 3

Set layer opacity for this layer to 70%.

Step 4

Rotate smoke by going to Edit > Transform > Rotate.

Step 5

Copy smoke 2 to our main canvas.

Repeat same actions with this smoke layer like you did with first one: desaturate it and set layer opacity to 70%.

Finally rotate this layer a bit by using Edit > Transform > Rotate.

Step 6

Apply Edit > Transform > Warp to replicate face shape.

Regarding face, try to shape it as similar as possible.

Step 7

Select Smudge Tool with soft-edged brush (Strength: 50%) to improve contour.

In the end we should have something like this:

Step 8

In order to depict the photo exactly, we should use several images of smoke as a rule. In this tutorial I used only three images of smoke. As layers will overlay each other sometimes, it’s worth using the Eraser Tool to remove unnecessary parts from the layers (always select soft-edged brush). On this step it’s also worth clearing the upper edge of the layer we’ve just worked with, as this edge overlays the lower layer.

Step 9

Go to third smoke image and select part of the smoke using Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Copy selected area to the main canvas and place it as shown on screenshot below.

Desaturate this layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U) and set layer opacity for this layer to 70%. Then move it to the right edge of the canvas.

Select Eraser Tool with soft-edged brush and erase edges on this layer.

Step 10

Update all layers opacity back to 100%.

Create a new layer right above background layer with portrait. Fill it with black color (#000000).

Merge all layers except background layer (portrait) by selecting layers and pressing Ctrl+E. We now have only two layers: portrait layer and smoke layer. Set layer opacity of smore layer to 50-70% and adjust contour by using Smudge Tool.

Step 11

Go back to third smoke image. Make a new selection of smoke using Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Copy selection to main canvas.

Desaturate this layer by and going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U) and set layer opacity for this layer to 70%. Transform it by using Ctrl+T and position selection like i did.

Edit layer edges using Eraser Tool.

Set layer opacity back to 100%.

Step 12

Merge all layers except background layer with portrait. Right now looking at image it seems girl has one too long neck. We can fix this by adding more smoke. Repeat same process we did before (select from smoke 3 a bit of smoke, copy it to our main canvas, desaturate and reduce layer opacity so you can clear edges of layer. In the end you should have something like i have below.

Once you are happy with result, merge all layers except background layer with portrait. We have only two layers: portrait layer and smoke layer.

Step 13

With smoke layer selected, apply Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.

Step 14

Duplicate layer with portrait using Ctrl+J and place it above smoke layer. Select the violin using the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Invert selection using Select > Inverse and remove everything inside the selection by using Delete button.

Make a new selection in the shape of violin using Polygonal Lasso Tool and remove unnecessary background using Delete button again. Deselect selection using Ctrl+D.

If you still have some problem areas with the remains of the background, they can be erased by using Eraser Tool with a soft-edged brush and opacity set to 30-50%.

Step 15

Duplicate layer with violin using Ctrl+J and apply Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.

Change layer blending mode to Soft Light for this layer and this tutorial is now complete.

PHOTOSHOP DESIGNS

Create Convincing Watercolor Effects Using Photoshop

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Make a Freezing Cold Snow-themed Abstract Piece

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Conclusion

Hexagon Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

on Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

TAGS

In 2008 I came up with a technique using the Brush Tool in Photoshop to create a digital bokeh effect. Then I mixed it with some gradient colors blended all together. The effect has become quite popular so I decided to upgrade a little bit the effect.

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Conclusion

Create an Angry Birds Parody in Illustrator

Background

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Red Bird

The Big Brother

Yellow bird

Blue Bird

White Bird

Final Step

Conclusion

STUNNIG 3D EFFECT IN 30 MINUTES

How to Create Mental Sphere

Final Image Preview

Resources

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