Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop CS or Newer
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 to 50 mins

Step 1

Create a 450 px by 450 px document with a white or transparent background. Drag out two guides at the center of the document (for your own convenience). Now use the Pen Tool to make a shape like the one shown below.

Name this layer as “body.” Make sure you place this layer and all layers constituting the hat in a single layer-set (call it “Hat”).

While creating an irregular shape like the one above, it’s hard to keep symmetry on both sides. The easier way is to create half of the shape first.

Now grab the Path Selection Tool (A) and click on the shape. Press Command + C to copy the path and then press Command + V to paste it on the same shape layer. The copied path will be selected spontaneously.

With the Path Selection Tool (A) still selected, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal and move the path rightward until you get the required shape. Click and drag a selection to select the two paths simultaneously then click the Combine button located in the Options bar.

Step 2

You can now add some reflections to the “body” layer. To do so, duplicate the “body” layer (Command + J) and reduce it’s fill to 0%. Go to it’s Layer Style and give it a Gradient Overlay.

When you’re done with the settings, don’t click OK. Before doing so, move the gradient leftward so that you have something like that shown below.

Step 3

With the duplicate “body” layer selected, go to Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All. Grab the Gradient Tool (G) and drag a black to white gradient as directed.

Step 4

Duplicate the “reflection” layer and go to its Layer Style. Move the Gradient leftwards while applying the following changes.

Step 5

It’s time to add a shiny band on the hat. Create a shape of any color using the Pen Tool.

The band should not be flowing outside the hat’s body. Command-click on the “body” layer and go to Select > Modify > Expand, type 1px and click OK. With the “band” layer selected, click the Add Layer Mask button.

Step 6

Give the “band” layer the layer styles shown below. Move the gradient rightward before closing the Layer Style window.

Step 7

Duplicate the “band” layer and remove all its layer styles except the Gradient Overlay. Reduce its fill to 0% and make the following changes to the Layer Style. Note that this gradient is placed leftward.

Step 8

It’s time to make the top part of the hat. Use the Ellipse Tool (U) to make an ellipse like the one shown below and name it “top.”

Give it these Layer Styles.

Step 9

Duplicate the “top” layer and place the duplicate layer below the “top” layer in the layers palette. Move the duplicate layer 7px down then give it these Layer Styles.

Step 10

Make another copy of the layer and reduce its fill to 0%. Just make these changes in its Gradient Overlay settings.

Step 11

With the Ellipse Tool (U), make a black ellipse over the “top” layer.

Give the layer these Layer Styles.

Step 12

Now you need to add shadows at the required places. Create a new layer below the “top” and it’s duplicate layers. Command-click on the “top” layer and move the selection a few pixels down, then fill it with black. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, enter 5px and click OK. You’ll clearly notice that the shadow is flowing outside the hat’s body.

To fix it, Command-click on the “body” layer and with the “shadow” layer selected, click on the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers Palette (as you did in Step 4). Set the Opacity of the layer between 30% to 50%.

Step 13

A shadow can also be placed beneath the base. To do so, fill an elliptical selection with black on a new layer, reduce the Opacity of the layer to 30%. This layer must be placed below the “body” layer. Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur, make the settings as shown in the image below before clicking OK.

Step 14

On a new layer, fill an elliptical selection with black and set the Opacity of layer to 50%. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, enter 2.5 px and click OK.

Step 15

The hat is done. You can now add a wand to the hat. Create a new layer set (name it “Wand”) and hide the “Hat” layer-set by clicking on the eye to the side of it’s name in the layers palette. Use Rectangle Tool (U) to draw a rectangle and give it a Gradient Overlay.

Step 16

Add two strips at the end of the wand while giving them a Gradient Overlay of purple shades.

Step 17

To reduce the flatness of wand, add anchor points to the strips using the Add Anchor Point Tool. Move them some pixels up. Along with that, add an ellipse at the end of the lower strip as shown.

Step 18

Duplicate the “Wand” layer-set and press Command + E to merge the duplicate set into a single layer. You can now hide the original “Wand” layer-set.
With the merged “wand” layer selected, go to Edit > Transform > Rotate and rotate the wand 75 degrees CCW. Place it in a suitable location.

Conclusion

A shadow of the wand, falling inside hat’s body, can also be added to complete our image.

If the final image appears too bright or dark on your monitor then you can add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to the final image. To do so, open the final image in Photoshop then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast, use settings that please you.

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Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 2-3 hours

I’m a fan of horror, thriller and crime investigation novels, which are quite often linked with dirty and grungy covers. Two of my favorite things combined! This is the beauty we’ll be working towards:

Step 1 – Setting Up Your .PSD file

A book cover, in most cases (unless it’s an eBook) is going to go to press, which means we have to set it up correctly. There are hundreds of different book sizes, but a few that are commonly used for fiction books. One of them is 108×177mm (front cover only). Spines change width obviously depending on the length of the book, but in this case we’re going to use 26mm, giving us a total dimension of 243×180mm including a 3mm bleed.

If you’re setting up your document for a real book cover, whatever you do, do not guess the width of the spine! There’s a simple formula which can determine that width for you: you have to take the number of pages and divide that number by your text papers PPI (Pages Per Inch), which all depends on the weight (GSM) of your paper. You should be able to get that from your quote sheet, or ask your printers for it! You can use this awesome spine width calculator if you can’t be bothered to work it out yourself!

Head over to Photoshop and set up a new document; make sure your width is set to 243mm and your height is set to 180mm. Make the resolution 300 pixels/inch and set the color mode to CMYK. Hit OK!

Make sure your rulers are showing by going to View > Rulers, or press Command + R. A lot of people don’t use rulers very much, but they can come in very handy for dragging out guides later on in the project. Go to View > New Guide… and with Horizontal selected insert 3mm into the Position box. Do the same again, this time inserting 177mm into the position box. Repeat the process using measurements 3mm and 240mm, this time with the Vertical checkbox ticked. That’s our 3mm bleed added to the document – our design will go right up to the edge of the document, but for those that don’t know, when the document goes to print, 3mm from each side of the document will be chopped off.

This means the printers can assure you that there will be no white gaps on any of your documents so long as you set up the file correctly. Also, with any print project, not just this one, always keep your text at least a few millimeters away from the bleed guide, this is just to be on the safe side incase a few of your prints aren’t aligned correctly when being cut down to size. You might find it easier to create another set of guides for this, or you can do what I do and use your eyes as a guide.

It’s time to add some guides for our spine. Go to View > New Guide… and with the Vertical checkbox ticked, insert 108mm and hit OK. Repeat the last step using the measurement 134mm. Remember we’re working in millimeters, not centimeters or pixels. You should now have a nicely aligned .PSD document. Always remember to save your documents regularly!

Step 2 – Choosing a Color Scheme and Adding Some Initial Background Texture

Crime, Horror and Thriller books are often associated with grungy covers, which means this tutorial is going to use a huge handful of textures, blending modes and brushes.

I’m going to go with a blood red color scheme mixed with some warm browns, dark oranges and a pure white which will be used for the majority of the typography in our design – what color scheme you choose is entirely up to you, I suggest you play around with your design for as long as you have and see what you can come up with; after all that is the best way to learn and pick up new techniques.

Select a warm blood red/orange (#db2900) and using the Paint Bucket Tool fill your background layer. We’re going to add some texture to our design straight away. Make a new layer and fill it with white. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise… In the new window, insert 100% into the Amount field, and make sure Gaussian and Monochromatic are both selected. Hit OK.

With the new layer still selected, drag it down to the New Layer symbol at the bottom of the palette – this will duplicate the layer. Repeat the step again. Set all three layers to Overlay and using a large, soft Eraser, get rid of some of the areas on each layer. Name each layer sensibly so you can find them later; I named mine “Noise 1″, “Noise 2″ and “Noise 3.”

Already our cover is looking quite grungy, and so far we’ve only used one built in Photoshop Filter! Head over to Textur.es and download this lovely grunge texture. Insert the texture into your document by going to File > Place. Rotate it so the grungier side of the texture is on your front cover, and upscale it to the same size as your document. The easiest way to do this is by going to Edit > Free Transform or by pressing Command + T and then dragging the corners of the texture out whilst holding the Shift Key to keep everything in proportion.

Change the textures layer to Overlay, and change the layer name to “Texture 1.” Drag the layer down to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the palette to duplicate the layer. Rotate it by 90 degrees, and align it next to the spine (this should be easy if you have Snap to Guides selected – if not, go to View > Snap To > Guides). Grab the same soft Eraser we had a minute ago and erase a few areas of our duplicated layer. Rename the layer to “Texture 2.”

The joy of using textures in your work is that you can create a stunning piece of work with a very minimal amount of time, effort and resources. One texture can go a long, long way.

I’ve just realized our whole design is turning a little bit orange – not so much that blood red I was hoping for! The overlays on the Noise layers seem to have lightened our red up so much that it’s turned to orange. To fix this, make a new layer above our original background and fill it with a dark red/brown (#5c0000). Rename the layer to Background 2 and drop the Opacity to 60%.

Step 3 – Making Different Areas Look Different

When it comes to books, there are three different areas. The front covers main purpose is to advertise the book – it needs to stand out. The spine is to make the book easy to find on a shelf full of others. The back cover is to present a blurb – meaning it should be easy to read. So far, our front, spine and back look virtually the same. We need to fix that!

Duplicate your layer “Texture 2″ and select the Paint Bucket Tool. With the same dark red/brown we selected earlier, click somewhere on your duplicated layer to fill some areas. Rename the layer to “Texture Blobs” or something of your own choice. Your image should currently look like something below.

Select a large, soft Eraser, and erase out some of the inner areas of your “Texture Blobs” layer. Change the Blending Mode to Multiply, and lower the opacity to something you think is suitable for your piece; I used 20%. This should give us a dark, grungy front cover that fades into the background as it reaches the center of the page, which is where we will be featuring an object.

Make a New Layer and name it “Front Border.” We’ll be making some more darker areas where, later on, we will be presenting some text with a Spot UV overlay. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the front of your cover up to the spine.

Select a large, soft brush and change your color to a dark grey or black. In your marquee selection, paint a dark area at the top and bottom of your front cover – you could even paint a very small streak of black up the sides of your cover. Use the Eraser with a soft brush to thin out any areas you felt you applied too thick.

Change the Opacity of the layer to about 25%. Repeat the last two instructions again, this time making the border even thinner – remember to make a new layer! Name it “Front Border 2.” I also used a different color – a dark red/brown (#6f2009).

You should have more subtle grunge area at the top and bottom of your front cover now, which is suitable to present some nice typography later on in the tutorial.

Now we’re going to work on the spine of our book cover. The spine should be very subtle and easy to read, especially as we don’t have too much space to work with. Make a New Layer and name it “Spine Background.” Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the spine – this should be relatively easy because, with Snap to Guides selected, it should automatically connect with our spine guides. Grab a soft brush and using the same color we used in the last instruction, paint the bottom and top of your spine, leaving a small area in the middle. Lower the Opacity to 70% just so a little grunge shows through!

With the front cover and spine virtually complete (we will probably add a little more background texture later on!), it’s time to move on to the back cover. The back cover will have a lot of text and important information on it, so it’s important we don’t show too much texture and keep it pretty plain. We will need to display: a blurb, a couple of one-line reviews, a price, a barcode, an ISBN number and maybe an authors web address and a designers web address.

This step is pretty much the same as the last few: make a new layer and name it “Back Cover Background.” With the Rectangular Marquee Tool, select the back cover. Select the Brush Tool and choose a large, soft brush – again using the same color we used in the previous step. Brush over the back cover, leaving a small, low opacity area in the middle.

Lower the opacity of the layer to 85% and then make another New Layer called “Back Cover Background 2.” Lower the size of your brush a little (I lowered mine to 1000px) and choose pure black as your color. Repeat the same step as before, this time not going as far into the center of the back cover as we did previously. Change the layers Blending Mode to Overlay and drop the Opacity to 50%.

With your marquee selection still active, fill it with pure black on a new layer named “Back Cover Black Overlay.” Lower the opacity to 15%. This just takes a little color out of our back cover which will make it easier to present readable text.

Our back cover, compared to our spine, seems a little dark. To fix this we’re going to make our spine a little darker. Reselect the spine with the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Make a New Layer and name it “Spine Dark Background.” With the same brush as we used in the previous instruction, brush over the left half of the spine using a color from the back cover (use the Eyedropper Tool to select a color). You should have something look similar to the screenshot below:

Lower the Opacity of the new layer to 70% – you’re spine should now merge in a little more between the back and front covers.

Step 4 – Organizing Our Document!

I often take a few minutes throughout a project to tidy up my mess – it doesn’t take long when we’ve been renaming our layers throughout the length of the tutorial, but now we have a total of 16 layers it’s time to put them into some folders.

Make a total of four new folders by clicking on the New Group icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Rename them to: “Main Background,” “Front Cover Background,” “Spine Background” and “Back Cover Background.” Move all the related layers into the appropriate groups.

This was a bit of a short step, but plays a vital part in keep our document organized. If you’re not to sure what you’re doing when it comes to pre-press and you send in a Photoshop document, having a well-named layered and grouped document really helps out and ultimately means the turnaround time for your print job will probably be quicker – we all win!

Step 5 – The Typography

It’s time to add some typography! As this project isn’t actually for a real book cover, I’m going to make some names up. I’m going to use my name, “Callum Chapman” as the author, “BOOK COVER TUTS+” as the book title, “A Tuts+ Print Tutorial” as a mini description of the book, and a section of text from Tuts+ about page as the blurb. On top of all this, I’ll be making up some mini one-line reviews by several made up magazines/newspapers.

Select the Type Tool and drag a text box over your front cover. Type in your authors name, in my case I used “CALLUM CHAPMAN.” I used two separate lines for “CALLUM” and “CHAPMAN.” Select your text and change to a suitable font – I’m going to use Myriad Pro for the majority of text on my cover as it has a lot of styles such as condensed, semibold, oblique, bold, and a combination of them all together. When designing for print, try to stay clear from Faux Bold and Italic as in the end they don’t always come out as great as they could.

Change the size of the authors first name to 45pt and the size of the authors surname to 60pt – this is the time to make sure your text box is lined up with the bleed on the right-hand side of the document and the right side of your spine. Open up the Character Palette by going to Window > Character. From here we can change the leading and tracking, which is always important when it comes to typography – never bypass it! Change the Leading to 55pt – this will bring your authors surname closer to the bottom of your authors first name, but not too close! If you’ve used a different typeface or size to me, you might need to play round with these settings as they differ depending on the font and size used.

With your text layer still selected, open up the Blending Options by going to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options. Alternatively you could Alt-Click on the Text Layer and select Blending Options from the menu.

We want to add various styles to make our text really pop out from the cover. We’ll be using the following styles: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Bevel and Emboss and Stroke. The screenshots below show the different settings I used for each individual style:

Create a new layer beneath our authors name and call it “Author Shadow.” Grab the Brush Tool, and with a medium-sized soft brush, paint a black shadowed beneath the authors name.

Change the layers Blending Mode to Saturation, this will turn everything below it to greyscale. Lower the layers Opacity to 40%. The point of this step is to just make it that little bit easier to read, and makes the text pop out even more!

Repeat the previous steps to add a book title. I’m using the following text in the same text area on separate lines: “A Tuts+ Print Tutorial” and “BOOK COVER TUTS+.”

With your mini description selected, change the size of the font to 15pt. Select your mini description and book title together and change the Leading in the Character Palette to 30pt. Select your mini description and change the color to an off-white/red – I used #ffdada.

Make a new layer beneath your book title layer, and using the same technique we used earlier, brush in a black shadowed area with a small, soft brush. Remember to rename your layer – I called mine “Title Shadow.”

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Change the Angle to 90 and the distance to 250. To preview the different Distances before applying the blur, make sure the preview box is checked. Hit OK to apply the blur to our shadow.

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Change the Amount to 25, the Distribution to Gaussian and make sure Monochromatic is unchecked. Hit OK.

Change the layers Blending Mode to Overlay and its Opacity to 60%.

Using similar styles and fonts, add a few short reviews beneath the book title. I’m going to use “‘A top-notch book!’ – PSD Times” and “‘Fantastically gripping!’ – Vector Mag.” I’m going to use Bold Condensed Myriad Pro for the review, and Condensed Myriad Pro for the reviewers name.

Step 6: The Back Cover

It’s time for the Blurb on the back page. Head over to the Envato homepage and copy the brief introduction to the Tuts+ Network. Select the Text Tool in your Book Cover document and make a new text box on the back cover; make sure it’s center! Paste the introduction in to the text box. Back over at Envato, copy and paste the information under the ‘About Envato’ heading, head back to your document and paste this in, too. At the top of your text box, insert a line that will be used as an opening sentence. I’m going to use: ‘You’re about to learn how to make your very own book cover!’

It’s time to style up our back page! We want our opening line to stand out from the rest of the blurb. To do this, I’m going to use the same color we used for the mini description above the book title we used on the front cover (#ffdada). Make the selection bold and change the font size to 15pt.

I’m pretty happy with how the blurb is looking already! Change your main two paragraphs font size to 12pt. The only problem we now have is some words are being separated and split in to two using a ‘-’ symbol. To fix this, hit enter to send the word to the next line – repeat this step until there are no more unwanted hyphens.

Make sure the top of your blurb is lined up with the top of the authors name on the front page. To do this, drag a new guide down from the ruler and line it up with the top of the authors name. If they aren’t lined up, use the cursor keys on your keyboard to nudge your blurb up or down until they are aligned correctly.

Add a couple more reviews on our back cover. The easiest and quickest way to do this is to duplicate the two reviews from earlier and rearrange the new layers on the back cover beneath our blurb. With the Text Tool selected, click on the text and change the words to something different. To make sure the two reviews are centered your can drag the text box out to the very edge of our guidelines, like I have done below:

Our book cover is starting to look like a real book cover! It’s time to add some information the shops are going to require, such as a barcode, a ISBN number, a price and some other information. Unfortunately, barcodes can’t be read by scanners on busy backgrounds, so we’re going to have to use a white block. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection beneath our two reviews. With the Paint Bucket Tool, fill the selection with white on a new layer called “ISBN Background.”

Reselect the Rectangular Marquee Tool and highlight a area at the bottom of our white ISBN background. Fill the selection with the off-white color we have been using throughout the tutorial.

Grab the Text Tool and rough out some text. I’m going to use: “USD 9.99,” “GBP 5.99″ and “EU 6.99,” “Cover Design by Callum Chapman,” “Be sure to visit PSDTuts+ website at http://psd.tutsplus.com/,” and “ISBN 000-0-0000-0000-0.” Style your text – you know what to do! Make sure you use pure black, though! Instead of finding an actual barcode, just use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to produce a rectangle to use as a placeholder.

Step 7: Adding Some Interest with a Stock Photo

We’ve got two things left: The spine, and an image on the front cover. We’re going to leave the spine until the last minute – we’ll simply be duplicating, resizing and rearranging some items from the front cover to produce our spines content. Head over to sxc.hu and download this great free stock photo of an old ammo box. Once you’ve downloaded the stock photo, place it into your document twice.

Grab the Magic Wand Tool and click on the white areas of both images – hit the delete key to remove the background. If you find the Magic Wand Tool is selecting areas of the stock photo that you don’t want to remove, try lowering the Tolerance in the Magic Wand Tools options at the top of the screen.

Rename your two layers to “Ammo Box 1″ and “Ammo Box 2.” With “Ammo Box 1″ selected, go to Edit > Free Transform or press Command+T to resize the photo. Whilst holding the shift key, drag the image right out of proportion.

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay, and using the Eraser remove some of the outer areas of the image – for example the part that is overlapping the spine.

Go to Edit > Free Transform or press Command + T on the “Ammo Box 2″ layer and scale it up a little – don’t worry if it’s a little pixelated – we’re going for a grunge look and pixelation all adds to it! Change the layers Blending Mode to Hard Light. Duplicate the layer twice: Lower the first ones Opacity to 30%, and the second ones Opacity to 20%. With the second duplicated ammo box still selected, hit the Shift + Cursor Down key to move the selection down – move it a little to the right and rotate it by going to Edit > Free Transform or by pressing Command + T and dragging the corners round.

Step 8: The Spine

That’s our front cover complete! We now have to move onto the spine. Locate your authors name layer and your book titles layer – select them both and drag them down to the ‘Create New Layer’ icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to duplicate them. Rearrange your two layers so that they’re at the top of the Layers Palette. Arrange them so that they’re sitting next to each other, as seen in the screenshot below:

With the authors name layer selected, go to Edit > Free Transform or press Command + T and scale the selection down whilst holding the Shift Key to keep it in proportion. Rotate the selection whilst still in Transform Mode and arrange it neatly into the spine.

Repeat the previous instruction again with your book title layer. Once the text is on it’s side, grab the Text Tool and edit it. Delete the mini description, and spread “Book Cover Tuts+” across two lines by pressing the enter key to send any words after it onto a new line. Line the new text up with the author name.

Hopefully you’ve taken my advice and have already put our stock photo layers into a group. If not, do that now! Once that has been done, duplicate the group, go to Edit > Free Transform or hit Command + T, resize to a suitable size and rotate the selection round. Rearrange the image so it nicely fits in the center of the spine.

That’s it, we’re all done! If you’re following this tutorial for a real project, you will need to replace your barcode placeholder with a real barcode, as well as setting the file up ready for print – all printers require different settings, so it’s always best to speak to them first!

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This Plus Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips

Before the advent of computers, the movie industry relied on stop-frame or stop-motion animation to bring their monsters to life; special effect artists such as Ray Harryhausen used this technique on classics such as “One Million Years BC” and “The Valley of Gwangi“. The 1950s also witnessed a 3D movie explosion — and Hollywood’s recent 3D revival means moviegoers of today can experience the next generation of 3D technology.

In this tutorial, we’ll take inspiration from these movies of yesteryear and recreate a retro B-movie styled poster. I’ll walk you through entire creation process, step-by-step using photography and 3D renders. Then we’ll take a jump into the third-dimension — by adding effects only visible when viewed through anaglyph 3D glasses. So hold onto your seats, because stunning sights really will leap at you in 3D — just as the poster says!

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 6 hours

A preview of the final image is below.

Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside

Plus members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.

PSD Plus Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here called ‘Plus’ that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Plus and Vector Plus, too. If you’re a Plus member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the Psdtuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest Photoshop tutorials and articles.

To celebrate this knowledge exchange, iStockphoto have created a special 15% discount for Psdtuts+ readers.

Introduction

Pixel illustrations are great for making computer icons, isometric images and even whole scenes. They can be made quickly and easily using Photoshop with a couple of quick tweaks to the preference settings.

The only drawback though, is that the pixel art looks best when each pixel has been placed by hand as opposed to using some Photoshop filter. That’s right, placed by hand — I know this sounds a little crazy especially when some pixel scenes have thousands of pixels in them. But without the hand placement your pixel art can look like a bad Lo Res image, so beware!

I think a good rule of thumb before starting off is that you should be able to see your creation clearly as a group of different colored squared bricks, but then if you squint and blur your eyes you can make it out as an image. Imagine that you’re making a tile mosaic, only you don’t need any grout.

Below is a complete piece of pixel artwork, we’ll be creating some of the more basic pieces in this work.

Software

OK let’s set up for drawing. Just in case you don’t have a copy of Photoshop, there are some free dedicated Pixel drawing programs available for free download:

• Pixen (Mac)
• Graphics Gale (Win)
• Find more apps here.

I’ve had a play around with both programs, but came back to Photoshop because I’m used to the keyboard commands.

Okay, Let’s Set Up a Page

1. First open the preferences in Photoshop and set the Image interpolation to “Nearest Neighbor.”
2. Create a new Page 300 px by 300 px at 72 dpi.
3. Select the Pencil tool at 1 pixel. The Pencil and Eraser tools are the only tools you will really need.
4. Occasionally you might use the magic wand to select an area to fill, just make sure Anti Alias is off.

If you did use the brush tool at a whopping 9 pixels instead of 1, you’ll get anti-aliasing occurring and that will spoil the hard-edge pixel effect. So stick to 1 pixel. “Keep it lean keep it mean,” as my Mother used to say.

When your pixel drawing is viewed at 100% (actual size) the pencil tool at 1 pixel wide is very small, so you might find it hard to see and manipulate. An idea is to enlarge the view to 800% so you can see what you are doing. I often have a 2nd window open in Photoshop with the same screen view at 200% so I can quickly see how my drawing looks up close and also from a little further away at the same time.

We can save our working doc as a PSD file and export for web use later as a GIF file. We can also enlarge the file afterwards and turn into a TIF for CMYK printing.

Let’s Start Drawing

OK let’s have a go at drawing something like this open book. With the Pen tool draw around the edge to create your black outline. Then fill in the flat colors of the page and book mark.

Create the idea of text on the page with some single pixel lines. See how we put a slight kink in the line to give the impression of a slight curve on the page.

Lastly add some highlights down the middle of the pages and side of the bookmark. A nice little touch is a single pixel highlight at the bottom outside corner of each page, it just gives a hint of a page edge instead of being a solid block.

Once you’ve got the basics of outlines, colors, highlights and shading, you can try your hand at building other simple shapes.

Angled Pixel Lines

Pixel icons like the ones above can be designed as a series of lines that are just 90º to each other and are very much squares and rectangles. Occasionally though, you might need a line at an angle.

Something to bear in mind is angled lines look best when they are a regular pattern. If they are irregular (like those shown below), they can appear lumpy and crude when viewed small. The second example below is much smoother Isometric angles, which look great with pixel drawings, but it’s not the 30º “iso” angle you used in Technical drawing class — it’s actually something closer to 26.5º. 30º unfortunately gives a lumpy line at 100%. If you make a line that regularly runs 2 points over and 1 point up, you’ll get 26.5º.

Shall we try drawing something else that’s a little more Geometric and uses more of those line patterns?

Let’s Draw a Pixel Log

The lines down the length are easy we know how to do those now, but how about those round ends?

These two are regular patterns but are changing from wide horizontal lines down to squares and then to vertical lines. It does look a little jagged but if you blur your eyes it does look correct!

The curve on the top-right of the log end is also the reverse pattern of the bottom-left section. I often count the pixels or remember certain combinations. The pixel combo on the circle is…

• 3 squares (across)
• 2
• 111
• 222(down)
• 6
• 2
• 1

A little tricky to get the hang of at first like using bezier curves in Illustrator but you soon get a “feel” for it. The length of the log is easy: we just use the 2 along 1 up system and make the log as long or short as we want.

Smaller concentric circles on the end give a nice ring pattern and some areas of darker shading at the bottom of the log give it some depth. We’ll give the log a flat fir color to start, then to create depth, we can create dithering by placing pixels of contrasting color either side of our high light/low light lines.

You can build up the patterns and make them more complex. Careful though — the more realistic and tricky you try and get the fuzzier the image may appear if it’s destined to reproduce at small size.

I did throw in a few more random pixels on log #3 as I wanted it to have a rough look and contrast a little with the squirrel.

For the final log I worked in an area of stripped bark and a small branch. I found it best to complete one area or style first and then work more detail into it. I don’t think I could have drawn the stripped bark log with dithering pattern from scratch — instead, I just kept adding layers over top of layers. Simple stages work best!

Irregular Pixel Drawing

Let’s move onto something a little more irregular, like a Squirrel to sit on our log. For something complicated like this, it’s best to start out with pencil and paper.

First I drew an isometric square on my page to get the right dimensions. Since we’re using this particular example for editorial purposes, I used a photograph for reference. Remember that if you’re planning to upload anything to iStockphoto, you need to include any reference material that you used. Then I start to sketch. I pay particular attention to the angle on both ears and feet as I want them to follow the isometric lines.

As you can see the detail is very minimal — I just want to get the basic shape and correct angles worked out first. We’ll do the rest of the work in Photoshop.

Bring in the sketch, put on a new layer and ghost the opacity so you can see the pixels you are about to create clearly. It’s not a hard and fast rule but I find pixel drawings look best when they have black outlines.

Here I am going around my Squirrel with the pencil tool creating the black outline. One thing to be avoided is clumping up where outline pixels touch each other on more than one side. If you draw an extra square just delete it with your eraser tool (also kept at 1 pixel width, see the red circle ) it will look neater and your audience will thank you for it.

It still looks a little messy but it will shape up! Keylines inside the illustration also help to give it a bold look, just make sure they are a darkish color that isn’t black to make some contrast. Call me a radical but I went with brown on this one.

When the shape is complete fill the inner area with a nice mid tone color (soft brown) and maybe use a light color to bring out some highlights.

The black outline rule is not a hard and fast one, I did leave some black keylines below the front jaw and paw as it was getting hard to see what was going on.

Conclusion

The hand placing, removing, changing of pixels is where the skill comes in. Sometimes. But once you start to get the hang of it, you’ll be able to draw just about anything — all you need is some patience. Hope this helps, and inspires you to create great work of your own!

Additional Resources

Here are some resources for further pixel reading:

• Mark’s Pixel art tutorial (shows more detailed pixel shading and creating pixel characters called “Sprites”)
• Creating Pixel Art Painting Pixel by Pixel — Tips and Tutorials. A good list of pixel sites to visit.
• 20+ Inspiring Pixel Artists, Tutorials, and Resources – a collection of pixel art resources here on Psdtuts+.
• Some pixel files I’ve drawn and animated as gif files. See the Squirrel in action!

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Here is a link to the written version of the tutorial How to Create a Contemporary Style Illustration Without Drawing Skills and the video version is below.

I’ll take you through the necessary steps to get you on your way to creating artworks of your own. The aim of this tutorial though, is not to teach you how to rip off the style, but to show you how to create illustrations without needing to outdraw Da Vinvi. The hope is that you’ll follow and use these techniques to work within your own style!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS2
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1-2 hours

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Assets

Here are the assets you’ll need for this tutorial:

• Dinosaur
• Fish
• Red Car
• Paper Texture

Step 1

Create a new canvas. For all the settings outlined in the tutorial to be accurate you should create a canvas at 300dpi and at roughly the same size.

Step 2

Open the Dinosaur image and drag it into your working document. Use the Free Transform Tool to resize (holding the Shift key will constrain the aspect ratio) the Dinosaur image to about 150% of its original size. Then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Then desaturate the image by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Step 3

Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool and roughly draw around the Dinosaurs head. Copy the head and then press delete with the selection still active so it removes the head from the Dinosaur layer. Paste the head and use the Free Transform Tool to rotate the head -22 degrees and resize to 135%. Use the Eraser Tool to remove any areas where the background overlaps the Dinosaur layer.

Select both layers in the Layers Palette and merge them (Layer > Merge Layers). Rename the layer “DINOSAUR.” At this point it’s worth mentioning that I deleted most of the background on “DINOSAUR” using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, but you don’t have to do a particularly good job.

Step 4

Drop the “DINOSAUR” layer Opacity down to 50%. Then select the Pen Tool and set it to Shape Layers in the Options bar (Window > Options will bring it up if it’s not already visible). Select any color at this stage and start to draw a smooth shape around the head. Once you’ve plotted your first couple of points, go to the Layers Palette and drop the Fill value to 0% so that you can see the underlying layer.

Some of the Anchor Points require splitting, which enables moving the Point Handles independently of each other. To do this, draw the point and then hold the Alt key whilst clicking the point with the Pen Tool and drawing out from it.
Once you’ve closed the Path, put the Fill back up to 100% and rename the layer “DINO_HEAD.”

Step 5

Use the Pen Tool (set to Shape Layers) to draw in the rest of the limbs minus the tail. Simplify the shapes of things and be creative while doing this. I elongated the fingers for example.

Step 6

Draw in a big fat body, The overall shape of the Dinosaur should be cartoon-like. Change the Layer order in the Layers palette as shown. You should be renaming Layers as you go along, this is good practice and will cut down the wasted minutes trawling through umpteen unnamed Layers looking for something specific.

Step 7

Change the color of the Shape Layers to #7e9221 by double-clicking the color thumbnail next to the corresponding Shape Layer. Draw in the tail, it’s best to draw in a basic tail shape, then add the spikes to the same Shape Layer. Do this by selecting your Shape Layer and clicking Add To Shape Area in the Options Bar.

Step 8

Move “DINOSAUR” to the top of Layers Palette, change it’s Layer Blend mode to Multiply and it’s Opacity to 100% if it’s not already. Run a Smart Sharpen filter (Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen)as in screen grab and then adjust the Levels (Image > Adjustments > Levels).

Unlink the “DINOSAUR” Layer Mask by clicking the chain-link icon in between the Layer thumbnail and the Layer Mask thumbnail, then select the image thumbnail to edit and or transform. I used the Free Transform Tool to resize and rotate the Dinosaur image to fit it better within its Mask. I then used the Brush Tool loaded with black to fill in any parts of the texture I wasn’t happy with. The Red arrows on the 3rd screen grab indicates where those points were,

Step 9

Open the Fish image and desaturate it. Use the same Smart Sharpen settings as in Step 8 to sharpen and use the same Levels as well. Copy and paste (I used the Elliptical Marquee Tool) the Fish’s eye into the working document. Use the Free Transform Tool to resize the eye to fit the face.

Step 10

Make a selection from the eye by Command-clicking its Layer Thumbnail, then delete the selection from “DINO_HEAD” texture mask by selecting the Mask and pressing delete. Turn the “EYE” Blend mode to Multiply. Create a selection from the “EYE” layer, create a new layer and fill it with yellow. You may need to adjust the levels of the “EYE” to match with the dino texture. Rename “DINOSAUR” to “TEXTURE_HEAD.”

Step 11

Go back to the edited fish image (the original that you sharpened and tweaked the levels, etc.) and use the Magic Wand Tool to select the white background, inverse the selection (Select > Inverse) and copy and paste it into the working document. Put it into the layer hierarchy as shown.

Set the Blend mode to Multiply. Use the Free Transform Tool to rotate it -112.3 degrees, then (without applying the transform) go to Edit > Transform Warp and manipulate the grid to fit the body shape. Rename this “TEXTURE_BODY,” create a selection from “BODY” by Command-clicking its Layer Thumbnail, and use the selection to create a Layer Mask for “TEXTURE_BODY.”

Again, unlink the Mask, resize, rotate and/or warp if you need to, or use the Brush Tool to draw any missing bits in. It should now look like the last image below.

Step 12

Duplicate “TEXTURE_HEAD” and delete the Mask. Then use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to systematically select, cut and paste each limb. You can be fairly rough with this. Rename the new layers accordingly.

Starting with “TEXTURE_RLEG” turn all new layers to Multiply and position them both over their relative Shape Layers on the canvas and in the Layers Palette. Create Layer masks for each as you did for the head and body, then use the Warp Grid to manipulate so they fill the space. You’ll need to Smart Sharpen the “TEXTURE” layers as the Warp Grid softens the pixels. You may also need to draw in some bits using the Brush Tool.

Step 13

Copy “TEXTURE_BODY” and delete its Layer Mask. Rotate, resize, and Warp as before, then paint in any details with the Brush. This obviously works best with a Graphics Tablet. Rename this layer “TEXTURE_TAIL.”

Step 14

Select color #f4f2ad as your Foreground color and use the Pen Tool set to Shape Layers to draw in some teeth. Group all the teeth layers and call the group “TEETH.” Drawing in the “TEETH” has thrown up some minor changes I want to make to the mouth. Select the “TEXTURE_HEAD” layer (not it’s Mask) and use the Brush Tool to draw a black (#1f1f1f) line around the teeth so they don’t border any green.

Step 15

Open the Red Car image and cut it out by drawing a path around it or using the Magic Wand Tool. Copy and paste it into the working document. Desaturate the car and then adjust the Levels as shown below. Run a Smart Sharpen filter (with the same settings as in Step and then use the Free Transform Tool to rotate and resize it to fit in the Dinosaurs hand.

Create a selection from the car by Command-clicking its layer thumbnail, then create a new layer directly below it and fill with #d23e3e. Set the “RED_CAR” layer to Multiply. Create another layer between the “RED” and the “RED_CAR” layers and use the Brush Tool to draw in some lighter parts with the color #d9d9d9.

Finally, select all three car layers and go to Layer > Group Layers. Call the Group “CAR” and give it a final tweak with the Free Transform Tool. To get the car to fit in with the Dinosaur you’ll need to do some creative reshuffling of the Layers in the Layers palette. Check out the final screen grab to see how the top of your Layers Palette should look.

Step 16

The following step might be pretty tricky to follow. Remember these selection shortcuts and you should do alright though. To make a selection from any layer containing pixels you simply Command-click the layer thumbnail. In order to create a selection from one of your Shape Layers you must Command-click the Path thumbnail next to the color thumbnail.

You don’t need to have this layer selected to create a selection from it. In order to create multiple selections you must hold SHIFT + Command-click. This will add to the current selection, to then subtract you must hold Alt + Command-click. Look at the image below to see what happens when I make a selection from “BODY” and then subtract the “RIGHT_ARM,” “DINO_HEAD,” “RIGHT_LEG,” and “CAR.”

Step 17

Create a new layer called “SHADOWS” and set it to Multiply. Set the foreground color to #4d5622 and select the Brush Tool. Set the Brush options to 100% Opacity, 25% Flow, 0% Hardness and between 25-200 pixels depending on which area you’re working on.

Now paint onto “SHADOWS” with the selection loaded. Think about the areas which would realistically have shadows if it were a genuine 3-dimensional beastie. We’ll do the left-hand-side limbs next so create a selection from “LEFT_ARM” and “LEFT_LEG.” Then subtract “BODY” and draw on “SHADOWS” as before. Once you’ve done this, take each body part in turn. It shouldn’t take that long once you’ve figured out which selections to add and subtract from.

Step 18

Create another layer directly above the “TEETH” layers this time. Call it “TEETH_SHADOWS.” Select the color #4a4936 as your foreground color and do the shadows in the same way, but creating selections from the teeth. Turn the “TEETH_SHADOWS” Layer Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 19

Select color #c82323 as your foreground color. Then select the Pen Tool and set it to Shape Layers. Draw in a basic, cartoony flame-shape. You’ll need to split the points as you draw the outward curves to a point. Once you’ve drawn the main shape, click Add To Shape Area within the Options bar and draw in the secondary flames.

Once the red flames are done, select color #d67722 and click Create New Shape Layer (next to Add o Shape Area) and draw an inner flame. The flames look a little clean so create a layer directly above the “FLAME” layers and use your favorite grunge brushes to dirty it up a bit. I headed over to Misprintedtype.com and downloaded some of his brushes. The Dino is now finished. Phew!

Step 20

Fill the Background layer with color #f0e0c4. Then create a new layer and call it “SKY.” Select the Brush Tool and from the Option bar, load Photoshop’s standard Wet Media brushes. Scroll down to “Watercolor Fat Tip” (third from the bottom) and resize it to 675 pixels. Set the Opacity to 70% and the Flow to 30%. Set the color to #52baaf, as your foreground color, and start to paint in the background, if you have a Graphics Tablet then now’s the time to use it.

Select a darker color, #317a72 should do it, and draw over the uppermost parts of the sky. Don’t just drag the Brush around though, try short drags to keep building up the transparent paint. You want an uneven effect.

Finally, use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select the top part of the canvas making a diagonal line straight across the lower middle. Revert back to color #52baaf and draw in some bottom bits. You might want to blend the top section a bit as well by using the lighter color to paint over where the darker color meets the lighter color.

Step 21

Create a new layer and call it “FLOOR.” Invert the selection (Select > Inverse) and then fill it with color #8b9c95. Select the Brush you had been using and the color #626f6a to draw in a gradient.

Step 22

Open up the Paper Texture from Bittbox (”paper_2.jpg” is good). Desaturate it, apply a Smart Sharpen and then boost the levels as shown. Copy and paste the paper into your working document and position it at the top of the Layers Palette. Use the Free Transform Tool to resize it as shown.

Step 23

Load up the Channels palette and Command-click on the RGB channel thumbnail to make a selection from it. Click back on the Layer palette and select “SKY.” Then create a Layer Mask from the selection. Hold the Alt key and drag the Layer Mask over to the “FLOOR.” This will duplicate the Layer Mask. Finally, select the “PAPER” layer and rotate it 90 degrees. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Color Burn and reduce the Layer Opacity to around 50-60%.

Conclusion

We’re done with this tutorial. There is more you could add to this image though following similar techniques. Adding a group of fleeing people would fit the theme well. Have fun creating your own illustrations and developing your unique style.

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Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Preparation

In order to complete this tutorial you’ll need the following software:

• Photoshop CS4
• Karbaras’s IES Generator 3 (Download)
• Richard Rosenman’s Grid Generator 1.7 Plug-in
• Cybia AlphaWorks Plug-in (Download)
• 1589835-nice.IES Profile (Download)

Prior to beginning the tutorial, make sure you have installed the Grid Generator and the AlphaWorks Photoshop plug-ins, and that you’ve downloaded Karbaras’s IES Generator (a standalone app) and the 1589835-nice.IES profile.

Step 1: Setting Up the Texture PSD

This PSD will serve as a place to create certain textures used in the final layout. I find it helpful to create textures in a separate document. It’s like a sandbox for experimentation.

Make a new document in Photoshop that is 1024px wide by 1024px high at 72dpi.

Set the foreground color to #34240f by clicking the topmost color swatch in the Tools palette and entering this number at the bottom of the Color Picker dialog box. Set the background color by the same method to #825826. Fill the “Background” layer with this color by pressing Command + Backspace.

Step 2: Making the Corkboard Texture

Now go to Filter > Distort > Glass. In the Glass filter dialog box, set Distortion to 15, Smoothness to 1, Texture to Frosted and Scaling to 100%. Click OK.

Go to Filter > Render > Fibers. In the Fibers filter dialog box set Variance to 8.0 and Strength to 47.0. You will probably need to click the Randomize button several times to get a texture that has an even distribution of Step 1’s foreground and background colors. The best way to get a feel for the overall effect is to reduce the magnification of the preview image by clicking the minus sign below it until the minimum is reached, in this case 16%.

When done, click OK. The result will be similar to this:

Now go to Filter > Distort > Glass. In the Glass filter dialog box, set Distortion to 15, Smoothness to 1, Texture to Frosted and Scaling to 100%. Click OK.

Name this layer “corkboard.” The result will be similar to this:

The corkboard texture is complete. Save the PSD as “textures.psd” but don’t close it.

Step 3: Setting up the Main Layout

Create a new document that is 500px wide by 300px high at 72dpi. These dimensions are arbitrary and meant for the tutorial only. Save this document as “main_layout.psd.”

Rename the “Background” layer to “floor_color” and fill it with #1a211c. This can be accomplished by setting the foreground color in the Tools palette to #1a211c and pressing Alt + Backspace.

Step 4: Bringing in the Corkboard Texture

Go back to the “textures.psd” document. Right-click the “corkboard” layer and select “Duplicate Layer…” from the contextual menu.

In the resulting dialog, name the copied layer “corkboard” and select “main_layout.psd” as the destination document.

Go back to the “main_layout.psd” document. The new “corkboard” texture layer should appear above the “floor_color” layer.

Step 5: Resizing and Repositioning the Corkboard Texture

With the “corkboard” layer selected in the Layers palette, press Command + T, the keyboard shortcut for the Edit > Transform > Scale command. In the Transform Tool Options palette click the Maintain Aspect Ratio icon (noted with a red arrow in the image below) between the width and height fields, and enter 75.00% for the width. Press Enter twice and the transform will be complete.

Clicking the “Maintain aspect ratio” icon ensures that the layer will be scaled equally in both directions. Alternatively, 75.00% can be entered in both fields without clicking the icon; the result would be the same.

The scaling operation will cause the texture layer to shift out of position so that it’s located awkwardly in the lower right of the layout. With the “corkboard” layer selected, use the Move tool (V) and drag the texture around until it’s in a position that looks pleasing, without great variations in tone across the layout:

Step 6: Revealing the Floor Layer and Adjusting the Corkboard Color

With the “corkboard” layer selected use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to select a region that is 500px wide by about 230px high, starting at the upper left of the layout.

Click the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will add a mask to the texture layer, hiding the layer’s pixels outside of the selection.

With the floor color revealed, the corkboard texture looks a bit oversaturated. This can be corrected using Adjustment Layers.

Select the “corkboard” layer. At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the “Create new fill or adjustment layer” icon, and select Hue/Saturation.

In the Adjustments palette, set Hue to -6, Saturation to -7 and Lightness to -8.

Also, so that the Adjustment layer only affects the “corkboard” texture layer, click the Clip To Layer icon at the bottom of the Adjustments palette (it looks like two intersecting circles stacked one on top of the other). This causes the Adjustment layer to affect only the layer directly below it in the Layers palette, which is indicated in the Layers palette by a downward-pointing arrow on the “Hue Saturation” layer; the name of the layer below it will be underlined.

Step 7: Adding a Shadow Beneath the Corkboard

Make a new layer above the “floor_color” layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (indicated by a red arrow in the image below). Once the new layer is created, move it directly above the “floor_color” layer and rename it to “cork_shadow.” Layers are rearranged in the Layers palette by clicking and dragging them into position above or below other layers.

With the “cork_shadow” layer selected, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection region 500px wide by 10px high starting at the bottom of the cork texture.

Change the foreground color to black by pressing D on the keyboard (this resets the color swatches in the Tools palette to the default black foreground and white background). Next, select the Gradient tool (G). In the Gradient Tool Options palette, select the gradient preset Foreground to Transparent and the type Linear Gradient.

To be accurate, zoom in on the selection. Starting at the top of the selection, click and Shift-drag (hold the Shift key while dragging) to the bottom. In this case, Shift-dragging will constrain the Gradient Tool to the X-axis, so that the gradient is at a perfect 90-degree angle. When done, press Command +D to deselect the region.

Change the opacity for this layer to 60%. Do this either by pressing 6 on the keyboard or entering the value directly in the Master Opacity box for the layer in the Layers palette.

Step 8: Adding a Lip on the Corkboard

With the “cork_shadow” layer selected, press Command +J to duplicate it. In the Layers palette, drag the copied layer (automatically named “cork_shadow copy”) to the top of all other layers. Rename this layer “lip.”

Make sure the “lip” layer is selected and invert the color of the layer pixels by pressing Command +I. Now it will be a white-to-transparent gradient.

Flip the layer vertically by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

Nudge the layer up 9px by pressing Command + Up Arrow nine times. Now change the layer blending mode to Overlay and change the layer opacity to 50%.

Step 9: Adding a Shadow to the Floor

Make a new layer above the “floor_color” layer and name it “floor_shadow.” Make sure the foreground color in the Tools palette is black.

Using the Gradient tool (G) with the “floor_shadow” layer selected, click at the bottom of the layout and Shift-drag to about three-quarters of the way up to the bottom of the corkboard. Finally, change the layer opacity to 50%.

Step 10: Adding Floorboards

Next, we’ll add some lines to suggest floorboards. Make a new layer above the “floor_color” layer, fill it with black and name it “floorboards.”

This step uses the free Grid Generator plug-in by Richard Rosenman. With the “floorboards” layer selected, go to Filter > Richard Rosenman > Grid Generator. Adjust the settings in the Grid Generator dialog box to match those shown below:

This is the result:

Step 11: Adding Perspective and Highlights to the Floorboards

Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective. Adjust the perspective of the “floorboards” layer by dragging the handles in the upper and lower corners of the transformation box left and right (indicated by red arrows) until it looks something like the image below. Note that the handles will need to be dragged beyond the edges of the document. When done, press Enter to apply the transformation.

Change the “floorboards” layer’s blending mode to Multiply and its opacity to 30%.

Duplicate the “floorboards” layer and rename the new layer to “floorboards_highlight.” Move this layer directly below the “floorboards” layer.

Invert it by pressing Command +I, change its blending mode to Overlay and its opacity to 10%.

Finally, nudge it 1px to the right by pressing the Right Arrow once. This will give a subtle highlight to the floorboards.

Step 12: Adding an Overall Highlight to the Floor

Make a new layer and name it “floor_highlight.” Move this new layer to the top of the Layers palette, above all other layers.

Change the foreground color to white by pressing D, then X, on the keyboard (this resets the Tools palette color swatches to default and then reverses them). Select the Gradient tool (G), and change its preset to Foreground to Transparent and its type to Radial Gradient.

Starting at the center of the layout, click and Shift-drag to nearly the top edge of the layout.

Press Command +T to transform the layer. Use the top center handle of the transform region to adjust the layer’s height. Adjust its width outward from the center by Shift-Alt-dragging the left or right center handle. Press Enter to apply the transformation.

Move the “floor_highlight” layer to the spot directly above the “floor_shadow” layer in the Layers palette. Change its blending mode to Overlay and its opacity to 50%.

Step 12: Creating the Light Housing

Make a new layer and move it to the top spot in the Layers palette. Name this layer “light_housing.”

At the very top of this layer, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection that’s 500px wide by 10px high. Change the foreground color in the Tools palette to #17150e and fill the selection with this color by pressing Alt+Backspace.

Duplicate the “lip” layer by selecting it in the Layers palette and pressing Command +J. Move this new layer above the “light_housing” layer in the Layers palette and rename it “housing_highlight.”

Use the Move tool (V) to move the layer up so that its bottom is in the same position as the bottom of the “light_housing.”

Press Command + T to transform the layer. Adjust it from the top so that it’s roughly half its current height.

Step 13: Adding a Shadow Beneath the Light Housing

Select the “housing_highlight” layer in the Layers palette and press Command + J to duplicate it. Rename the layer “housing_shadow” and invert it by pressing Command +I.

Flip the layer vertically by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Then, nudge it down 1px by pressing the Down Arrow once.

Finally, change its opacity to 80%.

Step 14: Creating a Light

Launch IES Generator. At the bottom left of the application window, click the Load button and locate the “1589835-nice.IES” profile that you downloaded in the Tutorial Preparation.

Using the sliders at the lower left of the window, adjust Brightness to 1.11 and Away From Wall to 3.00 so that the image on the right side of the window looks something like this:

Step 15: Bringing the Light into Photoshop

IES Generator doesn’t have an export or save function, so a screen capture is needed to paste it into the Photoshop layout. You can use a screen capture utility if you have one. Otherwise, press Alt + Print Screen (this is a Windows key-combination which captures the active window to the clipboard). After making the capture, return to Photoshop.

Open the “textures.psd” document created in Step 1, if it isn’t already open. Press Command +V to paste the screen capture into the document. It will appear in a new layer above the “corkboard” layer. If for some reason it ends up below the “corkboard” layer, just move it up in the Layers palette.

With the new layer selected, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection around the IES image as shown:

Go to Select > Inverse to invert the selection. Fill this region with black.

Step 15: Extracting the White Pixels from the Light Layer and Positioning It

Now we’ll use the free AlphaWorks plug-in by Cybia to remove all the black from this layer, so that we end up with just the white pixels that make up the light pattern.

Go to Filter > Cybia > AlphaWorks. From the drop down menu at the upper right of the filter’s dialog box, select “LINEAR BlackOut – remove from BW lineart.” Click OK.

This will be the result:

With this layer still selected, press Command +A (Select > All), copy it, then switch to the “main_layout.psd”.

Select the “Hue/Saturation 1″ layer in the Layers palette and press Command +V to paste. The new layer will appear between the “lip” layer and the “Hue/Saturation 1″ layer. Rename it to “ies_light.”

Nudge the “ies_light” layer up 6px by pressing the Up Arrow six times. Now change this layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

Step 16: Intensifying the Light

Duplicate the “ies_light” layer twice by selecting it in the Layers palette and pressing Command +J twice. Change the opacity of the topmost copy (”ies_light copy 2″) to 50%.

The three layers, “ies_light,” “ies_light copy” and “ies_light copy 2″ make up a single effect. Collect them into one layer group by clicking the “ies_light” layer, holding down the Shift key and selecting “ies_light copy 2.” Click the icon at the top right of the Layer palette and select New Group from Layers. In the dialog box that pops up, name the group “light.” Click OK.

Now the three layers will be in a single group.

Step 17: Controlling the Extent of the Light

Select all the layers within the “light” group, and group them again by the same method described in Step 16. It’s not necessary to rename this new layer group.

Select “Group 1″ in the Layers palette and create a layer mask for this group by clicking on the “Add a layer mask” icon at the bottom of the palette. The mask will appear ahead of the group name – it looks like a white box.

In the Layers palette, click the layer mask thumbnail (the white box) to select it. Select the Gradient tool (G).

As described in Step 6, make sure the gradient preset is Foreground to Transparent and the type is Linear Gradient. Starting at the middle of the floor, click and Shift-drag to a spot approximately as shown in the image below. A preview of the mask just created will appear in the layer mask thumbnail.

Step 18: Adding a Highlight Spot on the Floor

Collapse “Group 1″ within the “light” layer group by clicking the gray arrow to the left of its name.

Select the “floor_highlight” layer in the Layers palette and duplicate it by pressing Command +J. The new layer will be named “floor_highlight copy.”

Move this new layer into the “light” group by dragging and dropping it directly on the “light” group’s name.

Press Command +T to transform the “floor_highlight copy” layer until it’s approximately 50% of its current width. Press Enter to apply the transformation. Rename the layer to “spot” and change its opacity to 70%.

Step 19: Duplicating the Light

Two more copies of the “light” group are needed. Select and collapse the “light” layer group in the Layers palette. Drag and drop it on the “Create a new layer” icon at the bottom of the palette. A copy of the group, named “light copy” will appear above the original in the Layers palette.

Copy this new group by the same method. There will now be three groups in the Layers palette named “light,” “light copy” and “light copy 2.”

Step 20: Moving the Lights into Position

With the “light copy 2″ layer group selected in the Layers palette, nudge it left 140px by pressing Shift+Left Arrow 14 times (holding the Shift key down while using the arrow keys nudges 10px at a time). Next, select the “light copy” group and nudge it right 140px by the same method.

Rename “light copy 2″ to “light_left,” “light copy” to “light_right” and “light” to “light_center,” to coordinate with their positions in the layout.

Step 21: Spilling the Lights onto the Housing

Select the layer groups “light_center,” “light_right” and “light_left.” Drag and drop them onto the “Create a new layer” icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Three new copies of these groups will appear above the originals in the Layers palette.

Press Command +E to merge the groups into one layer.

Rename the layer “spill.”

Move it to the top of the Layers palette above the “housing_shadow” layer and change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

Flip it vertically by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

Nudge the “spill” layer up 230px by pressing Shift+Up Arrow 23 times.

Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), make a selection that’s 500px wide by 10px high, starting at the upper left of the layout.

Click the “Add layer mask” icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a mask to the “spill” layer. This will restrict its effect to the light housing area.

Step 22: Adding a Shadow Behind the Lights (optional)

Next, we’ll darken the area around the top of the lights against the corkboard to give them a little more emphasis. This step is optional.

In the Layers palette, select the “lip” layer and click the “Create a new layer” icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. The new layer will appear above the “lip” layer. Rename it to “top_shadow.”

Using the Gradient tool (G), with the preset Foreground to Transparent, type Linear Gradient and a foreground color of black, Shift-drag in the “top_shadow” layer as shown:

The “top_shadow” layer needs to be masked so that it excludes the lights.

Select the layer groups “light_center,” “light_right” and “light_left.” Duplicate and merge them into a single layer.

Command-click the layer thumbnail in the Layers palette to load the layer’s transparency as a selection.

Go to Select > Inverse to invert the selection. Now select the “top_shadow” layer in the Layers palette and click the “Add layer mask” icon at the bottom of the palette.

Change the “top_shadow” layer’s opacity to 60%, and its blending mode to Overlay.

Finally, delete the “light_left copy” layer.

Step 23: Adding Text, The Final Step

As the final step, inlaid text will be added to the corkboard. Any font(s) can be used, but this example uses Arista 2.0 Light and DIN Mittelschrift. (How to use Photoshop’s Text Tool will not be covered in this part of the tutorial.)

The text layers should be placed above all other layers in the Layers palette.

In the Layers palette, double-click in the area to the right of the text layer’s name. This will open up the Layer Style dialog box.

In the Layer Style window, adjust the settings as shown.

Drop Shadow:

Inner Shadow:

Color Overlay:

Final Result

This is the final result:

Further Suggestions

I recommend that this effect be used sparingly. For example, use it only to highlight a logo in the header of a website, or to emphasize a few elements on a page.

Angling the light(s) can further enhance the effect; flipping the effect vertically gives the impression of footlights.

You can also colorize the lighting by use of a Color Overlay or Gradient Overlay layer style.

For this tutorial, I selected an IES profile that has been very popular in 3D art, as it has such a distinct appearance. For this reason it has become overused and clichéd. However, there are hundreds of other IES/photometric profiles freely available:

• ERCO Light Scout
• GE Photometric Files

Karbaras’s IES Generator also allows you to create your own profiles.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

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1,000 Graphic Elements: Details for Distinctive Designs, by Harvey, Wilson. Rockport Publishers, 2004.

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