Tutorial9 - Tutorial Bliss.

Create a Surreal Environment Using a Photo

Tyler Bramer — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:00:09 +0000

Lately, it has become popular to manipulate photos to create intense surreal environments. This tutorial will show you some of the ways to create such environments.

Surreal

A dream-like or bizarre feel or look when compared to reality.

Finished Example

Let’s take a look at a finished example of a surreal environment.

Step 1 - Selecting a Photo

After browsing some free stock photos at stock.xchng, I finally decided on a picture of a road surrounded by daisies.

Road Image

Step 2 - Think of Some Concepts

Now that I have my photo, I need to think of what I want to add to make it surreal. Since it is a curved road, I thought some vibrant tubes of light would create a nice effect. Also, since there were so many daisies, I wanted to make them appear to glow. I also wanted to add some more excitement into the empty sky.

Since I’m going to want some bright daisies and some glowing tubes of light, I’ll keep in mind that I may want to darken all the other parts of the photo.

Step 3 - Fixing the Background

I don’t like the tractor marks in the left field of daisies, so I’m going to use my Clone Stamp Tool to clear them away. I’ll do the same for the tracks in the upper field too.

Step 4 - Adding the First Beam

Create a path that winds up the road using the pen tool. Make sure that it extends below the actual document some, so that the end isn’t rounded. Select a 19px hard brush and set the Size Jitter Control to Fade, and give it a value around 400 or 500. Then, set the Minimum Diameter to 10%.

With your pen tool selected, right click and select Stroke Path. Select Brush from the drop down menu and make sure Simulate Pressure IS checked.

Fade Brush

You may have to experiment with different values on your Fade in order to get it to fit the size of the path.

Step 5 - Adding Layer Styles

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

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

Outer Glow

This will create a glow off of the tube of light. I used #ff0000.

Inner Glow

This will create a lighter color starting from the center of the tube. I used #f75151.

Satin

This will help to structure the shape of the tube.

Color Overlay

This will replace the color of the tube with red. I used #ff0000.

Step 6 - Add a Unique Glow

Our red tube is looking a little boring and not very vibrant. SO LETS BRIGHTEN IT UP!

Duplicate your red tube (Right Click Layer > Duplicate Layer). Then, convert it into a Smart Object (Right Click Layer > Convert to Smart Object), so that we can easily apply and remove filters.

Now, lets apply the following filters:

Reticulation (Filter > Sketch > Reticulation)

Make sure you have black as your foreground color and white as your background color.

Chalk and Charcoal (Filter > Sketch > Chalk & Charcoal)

Make sure you have black as your foreground color and white as your background color.

Plastic Wrap (Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap)

Finally, set the layer to Color Dodge and set the Opacity to 44%.

Step 7 - Intensify the Glow

Create a new layer and make a selection of your red tube (Ctrl+Click Thumbnail). Set white as your foreground color and set a dark red color like #7c0707 as your background color.

Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Then, go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. By pressing Ctrl+F, you can now keep applying the previous filter you applied. So press Ctrl+F a few more times to apply Difference Clouds until you end up with a result you like (be sure it is red and white). Now, set the layer to Linear Dodge and lower the opacity until you get an effect you are happy with.

Step 8 - Adding Sparkles

Grab a 3px brush and apply the following brush settings.

Then, on a new layer, brush some white sparkles all down the red tube. Then do the same thing with a nice red color. After, lower the opacity of the layer to 40-50%.

Step 9 - Adding More Colors

Repeat the process with some more colors, and use layer masks to make them twist above and below each other. If you place all the layers for the green tube, for instance, into a new group, then you can create a layer mask on the group, and it will apply it to all of the green tube layers!

Layer Masks

A layer mask limits the visible area of a layer, without erasing it. Any area on the layer mask that is white, is visible. Any area that is black, is not visible. Any gray areas will change the opacity depending on how light or dark they are.

Step 10 - Filling the Sky

In order to create the effect in the sky, we need to create our own brush.

Create a new document that is 50×50px. Create a new layer and delete the background layer, since we want the background to be transparent. Then, create a rectangle that is 10px wide by 40px high. Then, duplicate it and rotate it 90 degrees (Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees). Once you’ve got your shape, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset.

You can close the new document now that you have your brush. Select your brush, and set your foreground color to #335776 and your background color to #6084a5. Then apply the following brush settings:

Brush Tip Shape

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Color Dynamics

Other Dynamics

Add a layer mask to the layer after you brush in some plus signs. This way there is a transition from the full sky to the empty sky, and will be easier on the eyes.

Step 11 - The Darkening

This image looks pretty decent as it is, but its going to look even better when the background items are darkened. This way, the lights will have more attention and focus in the scene.

Create a new layer above your background. Fill it with black and set it to Overlay. By creating a layer mask and hiding the area of the layer over the daisies, we can make them appear to glow.

Get Creative

Even after you achieve a great effect, spend some time trying to improve it. It is rare to achieve the greatest outcome possible in one try. You may even want to start over from scratch, keeping in mind what you liked from before and what you want to change or include!

You can grab the PSD Download here!

Our Favorite Tutorial Indexes, Directories and Feeds

David Leggett — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:14:11 +0000

Whether you’re a reader, or a publisher looking for a place to publicize your tutorials, this collection of our favorite Tutorial directories is sure to please!

The Tutorial Index Giants

Good-Tutorials

Good-Tutorials was originally a site dedicated to building the largest Photoshop Tutorial index in the world. Over the years, it has gradually added more and more tutorial categories, and remains to be one of the largest Tutorial Indexes out there.

Pixel2Life

Pixel2Life is probably THE LARGEST Tutorial Index on the planet, currently listing over 40,000 tutorials in various categories. They’ve always been quick to add new tutorial topics, and have a wonderful community always willing to lend a helping hand to beginners.

Tutorial Outpost

One of our other favorite Tutorial Indexes would have to be Tutorial Outpost. While they may not be as large or busy as G-T and P2L, they certainly have come to be very well known, and they update on a frequent basis with new tutorials.

User Link Feeds

PSDTUTS User Link Feed

Wait… PSDTUTS? They’re not a Tutorial Index… Oh, but they have such a lovely User Link Feed! Anyone can go and quickly submit a link with a quick blurb, and if it meets up to standards, PSDTUTS will share it with their loyal readers! Not necessarily all of their links are tutorials, but you’ll definitely come across some top quality articles if you keep an eye on their feed!

VECTORTUTS User Link Feed

Look familiar? VECTORTUTS is a sister site to PSDTUTS, and has a feed of its own geared towards Vector design (ie: Adobe Illustrator Tutorials).

Digg-like Link Sharing

Design Float

Design Float is probably the top Digg clone out there for anything Design related. They don’t simply focus on Tutorials, but the audience there seems to float them up quite often.

Design Bump

Design Bump is quickly growing, and already causing quite a stir in the Design community. They have a category completely dedicated to Tutorials, making them a wonderful resource for learning.

Pixel Groovy

Pixel Groovy is a Digg-like clone dedicated entirely to Tutorials. All of the content is screened by viewers before making it to the front page, allowing only the top tutorials to be featured.

Fresh, New Faces

Photoshop Lady

Photoshop Lady is a collection of the Top Free Photoshop Tutorials from around the web, all in one place. The site is updated daily, and features some wonderful features, such as the ability to easily save your favorite tutorials to revisit later! This one is definitely one of our new favorites!

Think2torials

Think2torials makes things super simple when it comes to submitting new tutorials, and the folks who run the site help you out in the process of creating a thumbnail. This is an index worth watching!

Growing Fast!

Tutsbuzz

Becoming one of the top tutorial directories out there is a tough job, but Tutsbuzz is one of the few sites out there that seems capable of doing it. The site is managed by a seemingly very active group, and is constantly updated with new tutorials under several categories.

Crop Factor (Focal Length Multiplier)

Fredrik Silverglimth — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:00:50 +0000

The Crop Factor is a term that can be heard quite often in the world of digital photography. What does it mean that a camera has a crop factor of 1.6x and how does it affect your focal length? We try to untangle this issue and describe it as clearly as possible.

The subject of crop factors and focal length multiplier can be a bit confusing and hard to understand at first — I will try to explain it as simple as possible but yet informative enough for you to get the entire picture.

The size of the sensor is what controls the crop factor, and it’s always compared to a 35mm film size. So when people talk about Full Frame they are talking about cameras that have a sensor the same size as a 35mm film (24×36mm).

As you can see in the illustration above, a body with a crop factor captures only the center part of the image. The image itself is round because that’s what the lens produces, and the sensor only picks up the light that reaches it. A full frame sensor will capture edge to edge of what the lens capture.

It’s important to know that the crop factor changes the field of view, it doesn’t actually change the focal length, since that is something that is decided by the design of the lens. The same results could be produced by taking a photograph with a full frame camera and crop it to only show the center — however it would require a camera with a good enough sensor that such a small crop would still produce a good quality image. These high-end sensors are currently only found in the top of the line cameras from Nikon and Canon.

What it also means is that the perspective doesn’t change with the crop factor, if you stand on the same spot and take a photograph with a full frame camera with a 50mm lens and then take another photograph with a 1.6x crop factor camera you will get the exact same perspective (the 1.6x camera will however not have the same view of field).

When people say that a 50mm lens is the natural focal length they talk about perspective in relations with the human eye, and as stated above, this is the same even on cropped bodies, a 50mm lens still produces a natural looking photograph. To test this, use a 50mm lens and look through the viewfinder with one eye and have your other eye open, you will notice that the perspective looks the same for both eyes, no matter if you’re using a cropped body or not.

Lenses designed for Crop Factor cameras

To counter this issue, most lens manufacturers have designed some lenses that are only meant to be used on cameras with a crop factor (i.e. not on full frame bodies). These lenses often produces a smaller image circle so if they were used on full frame bodies they would create a black edge, much like circular fish eye lenses do. Since the problem with crop factor is mainly negative with wide-angle lenses it’s almost entirely that focal range that has designated digital lenses.

Here is a list of the name camera manufacturers call their digital only lenses.

Canon — EF-S
Nikon — DX
Sony — DT
Pentax — DA
Sigma — DC
Tamron — Di-II

One thing to remember is that the crop factor is still in use even on these cameras and you must multiply the given focal length to get the “correct” focal length. For example, Canon has an ultra wide EF-S lens that has a focal length of 10-22mm, on a body with a 1.6x crop factor the focal length corresponds to a 16-35mm. So don’t believe that you do not need to multiply the focal length just because you have a lens designed from cropped bodies.

How it affects your photographs

There are both positive and negative affects with the crop factor, let’s talk about the positive aspects first.
To get the “correct” focal length you need to multiply the focal length with the crop factor. When I say correct I mean the focal length that the lens acts like, not what it truly is. My camera has a crop factor of 1.6x and that means that a 50mm lens is a 80mm lens (50×1.6=80). It also means that a 100-400mm lens is actually a 160-640mm lens. That’s a very good thing in most situations. You loose 60mm on the short end but gain 240mm on the long end — rather significant. With telephoto lenses the crop factor is often desirable, since it extends your “reach” quite a bit.

Another positive affect is that almost all lenses are much sharper in the middle and softer on the edges. How can this be a good thing? Well with a camera that has a crop factor you only get the center of what the lens sees (unless it’s a lens designed for crop factors as described above). So with a crop factor you only get the center and therefore the best performance from your lens.

Now over to the not so good aspects of the crop factor. Wide-angle lenses, this is a big minus on the bodies with smaller sensors. As the example above, the 10-22mm ultra wide turns into a 16-35mm lens, and for example a 17-40mm lens turns into a 27-64mm lens. You simply do not get the same wide angles with a crop factor, the edges are cut off and field of view is more limited.

Another negative affect is that the extra focal length you gain also means that you increase the risk for blur due to camera shake. The rule that you should have a shutter speed of 1/focal length is no longer true. For this rule to be true you first need to multiply your focal length with the crop factor of the body.

Full frame camera often have a larger viewfinder as well. When I’m comparing my old 35mm film camera with my 1.6x crop DSLR it actually makes me a little bit sad inside. The viewfinder on the 35mm camera is so large and bright where as the DSLR’s viewfinder is although bright still very very small.

There is one more thing a smaller sensor affects, but it would be hard to classify it as either good or bad. Different sizes of sensors change the depth of field. A smaller sensor will give you greater depth of field (more in focus) and a full frame sensor will give you a narrower depth of field (less in focus). If this is good or bad is dependent on what you desire, either you want as much as possible in focus or you want to isolate your subject as effective as possible.

I hope I didn’t confuse you too much. This is an important part of digital photography to understand, at least the very basics of it.

Last Week(s) on Tutorial9

David Leggett — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:21:34 +0000

Phew! What a week! Terribly sorry for being away so long folks, but I am happy to announce that we’re running back on schedule, and things are back to normal here. In case you missed anything recently, read on!

First off, let me thank our awesome sponsors for keeping things moving while we were on that bumpy ride. Aside from our readers, Tutorial9 wouldn’t be possible without the help of these folks.

W3 Markup - Slicing PSD to HTML, CSS, XHTML, Skinning and Theming
Branch Interactive - Interactive Development for Graphic Design, Advertising, and Marketing Firms
Site Grinder - Photoshop plugin for turning your designs into websites with no coding involved!

You may have noticed last week that we were not able to make any updates. While I’ll spare you from the long version of the story, I will say that we’ll take proper measure to avoid such conflicts in the future. The important thing now is that things are looking good for Tutorial9’s future.

We’ve got a pretty good line-up for you ready to be served, and you ought to catch a tutorial or two this week! In case you missed the tutorials from 2 weeks ago, here’s a quick roundup for ya!

New Photoshop Tutorials

3D Pixel Stretch Effects

Stretching a single line of pixels is an easy way to create special digital effects in graphic design. By taking this technique a step further, we can create wonderful, vibrant 3D effects right in Photoshop!

New Photography Tutorials

Before you Buy: Choosing a Camera Bag

Camera bags can be one of the most difficult pieces of equipment to choose. No camera bag is made to fit every occasion so I will here talk about some different types of bags and cover a few points to consider.

Blackberry to the Rescue

Folks, before you do anything — eat, sleep, start that next tutorial, buy me my next coffee (actually, you can do that first…) — go get yourself a Blackberry or another similar phone with high speed capabilities. Having one on me spared quite a few nightmares last week, including saving some poor guy $1600. Without my Blackberry handy, Tutorial9 may have gone up in flames recently, making this device worth every single penny spent on it.

Blackberry ought to come up with a new tagline… like, “Blackberry. Stopping scammers from fake selling Tutorial websites to innocent Sitepoint members since 2008.”

No Updates this Week. We’re not for sale!

David Leggett — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:38:29 +0000

Sorry folks. Due to complications, there will be no new posts this week. I sincerley apologize for the inconvinence. Everything is ok, so don’t worry about me or Tutorial9. I will be out of touch for the remainder of the week.

Before you Buy: Choosing a Camera Bag

Fredrik Silverglimth — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:00:59 +0000

Choosing your next lens or camera is often quite easy, you often know what you want, but when it comes to choosing a new camera bag at least I can be confused and have a really hard time deciding. I will talk about different types of bags, and go into some more detail on a specific model in each category.

Shoulder bag — LowePro Nova 5 AW

Shoulder bags make accessing your gear easy and quick, often a good choice for urban photographers. They come in all different shapes and sizes, many of them have the great feature of not looking like a camera bag, which is often appreciated since it attracts less attention from ill-willing citizens. I would recommend brands like Domke and Crumpler if this is what you’re looking for.

The LowePro Nova 5 AW does not fit the above description, it’s a rather large bag and bulky. I personally dislike shoulder bags because I’m not an urban photographer. When I take a bag with me it’s often because I go on long hikes for several hours and shoulder bags tend to be tiresome and not the best solution for my style of shooting.

I use the Nova 5 as a storage bag and it’s a bag that I take with me when I’m going to be shooting on one location and not move around a lot. As you can see it can swallow quite a large amount of gear, in the picture above I have 6 lenses (1 large, 3 medium and 2 small lenses) as well as my Canon EOS 350D with attached grip. Also stored in the main compartment are a set of extension tubes and several filters, in the front compartment I have memory cards, spare batteries, an air blower and other assorted stuff.

Quick access backpack — LowePro Slingshot 200 AW

If you’re looking for a backpack with quick access, look no further, the LowePro Slingshot 200 AW is perfect for most situations. It’s small enough to not be in your way, and the “sling-feature” makes accessing your gear easy. How it works is that the bag only has one shoulder strap and you can flip it from your back to your waist with a single pull. LowePro also has a series of backpacks that have the same features but uses two shoulder straps called Fastback (the design is obviously a bit different but the idea is the same).

The Slingshot comes in different sizes, the 200 being the medium model and it is surprisingly roomy inside. It’s easy to rearrange the dividers and design your own interior, I have it arranged so that I can access all my gear fast and don’t need to open the zipper all the way. In the main compartment in the picture above I have 4 lenses (1 large, 1 medium attached to the camera and 2 small lenses), my 350D with grip and a set of extension tubes and memory cards. In the small front compartment I have spare batteries and some filters. In the top compartment I have a pocket book, a notebook, a flashlight and an air blower.

If you rearrange the dividers I’m sure you could be able to fit in 1 or 2 more lenses, but access might not be as easy that way — it’s all up to you to form your camera bag the way you want it. The bag also make use of LowePro’s Slip Lock system which means that you can attach extra lens cases on the outside of the bag.

I highly recommend this backpack.

Backpack — Kata R-103

A true backpack is a great choice if you go on long hikes or travel between photo sessions, as well as longer travels such as with airplanes. It’s not as accessible and quick as the other options above, but it’s far more comfortable and your gear is more safe with most backpacks (they often have better and more padding) and most backpacks have room for more equipment as well.

The company Kata that among other things make military armor also makes this backpack, the Kata R-103. This is a company that knows a thing or two about protection and how to keep your camera gear safe. And I must say, I trust that my camera gear is safe when it’s in this bag, the design is sturdy as a tank but still rather lightweight.

This is the most comfortable backpack I’ve ever used, non-photo related backpacks included. I have walked for hours with this bag and attached tripod on my back (total weight 24lbs/11kg) without actually feeling that I was carrying something. The design of the bag is amazing to say the least, you have a quick access zipper to be able to pick up the camera without opening the whole main compartment. Using this zipper you will also be able to access the storage pocket that is in the lid, this is where I keep my memory cards and spare batteries.

The main compartment is not as deep as many other backpacks, which means that most lenses will have to lay down in this bag, only smaller lenses will be able to stand up so to speak. This results in a bit smaller main compartment than most other backpacks, so this bag might not be the best choice if you have several larger lenses. In the picture above I have 5 lenses (1 large, 2 medium and 2 small), my 350D with grip as well as some filters. That is the content of my main compartment, in the lid I keep my batteries, memory cards, rain cover, remote control as well as some other assorted stuff. There are two smaller pockets on the front of the camera where I keep an air blower, extra quick release plate for my tripod as well as a flashlight and lens tissues.

On the backside of this bag there’s also a compartment for a laptop, up to 15″. This is a great feature that makes it easy to take your photo lab out on the field. When I’m not storing a laptop in this compartment I use it for documents or an extra sweater.

So all in all I think you will find that most, if not all, of your equipment will fit in this bag. And as I said earlier, it comes with a tripod mount to be attached on either the front or one of the sides. The R-103 uses Kata’s EPH system, which means that you can combine several Kata products and attach to each other to maximize your customizability and space. This bag is stated to be within the carry-on restrictions for airplanes, but if you plan on traveling with this bag, make sure about the size restrictions on your airport since they can vary quite a bit.

I highly recommend this backpack, it’s one of the best photo related purchases I’ve ever made.

Lens Case — Canon LZ1324

Lens cases are designed to carry just one lens, and they are a great option if you want to take an extra lens with you when you’re shooting. Another great usage for these cases are when they are attached to either a camera bag or a harness of some sort (more on this later). Lens cases are also a great way to keep your lenses safe during travels, but be sure to use a case that fits your lens. There are so many different sizes and it’s important to get the best possible fit to avoid having a lens that rattles around in there.

Camera Vest & Harness

A vest is a well-used alternative to a bag, it keeps all your equipment within arms reach. With its large and many pockets you can often fit the same amount of gear that you would in a small to medium backpack. Another alternative is the harness or belt on which you can attach several lens cases or smaller bags. This gives you more customizability than a vest and also keeps your equipment more protected, but a harness is often bulkier and more expensive.

Vests can be found in most photo stores (don’t know any good brand) and harnesses you should look into are LowePro’s and Think Tank’s.

Weather cover

For me weather cover is essential, as you can see in the picture above, all my camera bags comes with weather cover (lens case excluded). The two LowePro bags have their rain covers sewed into a compartment in the bag and can’t be removed. The Kata bag has a loose rain cover that can be taken off and left home if you like too, it even comes with an alternative silver side for reflecting sun, this side can also double as a light reflector which is a nice touch.

I would never buy a camera bag that didn’t have rain cover, but then again I live in a country where rain can come any day, anytime of the year. If I’m out hiking or taking a bike ride I don’t want to find myself hours from my home/car and nowhere to find cover, but if you’re not in these situations it might not be such an important factor for you. Choosing a camera bag is all about your needs, your equipment and photographing style.

Carrying a tripod

A tripod can be a real pain to carry with you, and this is the most common reason why so many photographers leave their tripods at home where they do no good. There are several good tripod cases and bags, but I myself find these a bit bulky or unnecessary. I do one of two things, either attach a shoulder strap to the tripod and carry it without a case or attach it to my backpack. Just remember, a tripod will not help you improve your photos if it’s left at home, so find the best solution for you to be able to have it with you every single time you might need it.

3D Pixel Stretch Effects

David Leggett — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:26 +0000

What We’re Making

In this tutorial, we’re going to stretch a single line of pixels to create beautiful 3D designs. You can get a glimpse of the design we’re going to make in the preview below:

Step 1 - Getting Started

Go ahead and create a new document (you may want to aim for something above 500×500px just so you have some breathing room for your work). Fill your background layer with a nice blue (#152935), or another color of your choice.

Now, go grab 3 photos that are filled with vibrant colors. I’ve included some pictures you’re welcome to use from here. The actual contents in the picture do not matter, we’re just interested in the color!

You can go ahead and open the photos in Photoshop, we’ll be using them soon.

Step 2 - Fade to Black

Create a new layer.

Using a large (500px), soft (0%), black brush with the Brush Tool, create a large black circle towards the center of your canvas. This will be used to help add depth to our design later on.

Step 3 - Selecting the Pixels

We need to copy a single row of pixels from one of our images. To do this, we’ll use the Single Row Marquee Tool (located underneath the Rectangular Marquee Tool).

In one of your photos, use this tool to select a row of pixels, and then copy (Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C) that row. Paste the copied row into your design in a new layer.

Step 4 - Transform a Row into a Rectangle

Using Transform, vertically stretch this row of pixels into a rectangle that is a bit more manageable in the canvas area. You should also horizontally shrink your pixels so that you have a rectangle of stretched pixels.

Stretching your row of pixels horizontally may be difficult without zooming in since you’ll only have a 1px bounding box to work with. An easier way to adjust this is to simply type in the values (something like 75%) for the transform in the options bar.

Step 5 - Duplicate, then Stretch Again

Duplicate this layer of stretched pixels. and then transform your new layer so that it’s quite longer than the original. It should remain the same width.

Step 6 - Creating the 3D Effect

We’re going to apply another transformation to our new layer. This time, it’s a bit more complicated, but I’ll try to make it very simple to follow.

First, align the bottom pixels of your new layer with the top pixels of your first pixel stretch layer.

Go into Free Transform Mode (Ctrl + T).

Grab the top middle handle, and drag it downwards to shrink the layer vertically. The two layers should still meet one another.

Hold Ctrl and click and drag the top middle handle again so that the top of the layer being transformed is offset from the bottom of said layer. The bottom of the layer should still touch the top of the first pixel stretch layer.

Finally, Hold CTRL + Alt + Shift and click and drag one of the top outer handles inwards so they meet in the center. This will give the illusion of a 3D box moving back into space.

Step 7 - Shading

We need to add shading to our new subject. I’d like to have it appear as if it is coming forth out of the dark center of our design. To accomplish this, we’ll be using Photoshop’s Brush Tool some more.

First, we’ll shade the front of our box using a soft, medium size (100-200) brush. Create a selection around the layer contents of your first pixel stretch layer (Ctrl + Click Layer Thumbnail).

Using a Black brush, paint around the edges of the box to give the illusion of lighting in your design.I especially focused my lighting towards the bottom edges of my box to make the light appear as if it came from slightly above.

Try to paint using just the edges of your soft brush so that the shading lightly darkens the box rather painting it completely black.

Now move this layer ABOVE your diagonal pixel stretch layer.

Select the layer contents of your diagonally stretched layer (which is now below your rectangle layer). Expand this selection by one pixel (Select > Modify > Expand).

Using a large, white brush, paint along the bottom of this layer to differentiate between the rectangle layer. Then, using a large, black brush, fade out the back of this layer so it blends into the background.

Step 8 - Repeat

Using different images (or at different parts of the same image even), create several more 3D blocks to create more interesting designs. Here is a combination I put together with the images provided at the beginning of this tutorial:

Vary the angles at which things extrude to give your design greater 3D perspective. You could also try making your blocks extrude from the bottom rather than the top!

Step 9 - Making Colors more Vibrant

After finishing the design shown above, I was not satisfied with the vibrance in the color. To make things brighter, I merged all of my block layers (Select them all in the Layers Pallete, then Layer > Merge Layers), applied a light Gaussian Blur (Filter > Gaussian Blur), and set the layers blending mode to Color Dodge.

Step 10 - Adding Texture

With texture, this design may look much nicer. Check out our Tutorial for adding Texture in Photoshop in just 3 simple steps. After finding a suitable paper texture, I achieved the following results:

Grab the PSD

As always, you’re welcome to grab the Photoshop Document to check out how we put the whole composition together!

Download the 3D Pixel Stretch PSD

Add Visual Texture 3 Easy Steps

David Leggett — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:00:48 +0000

The use of textures in design are incredibly important in defining a surface. While we can not create actual tactile textures in digital design, we can create the visual illustion of 3D texture. This Tutorial aims to show you an easy way to do just that.

Step 1 - Find a Suitable Texture for your Design

Perhaps you have a photo that you’ve taken yourself, a texture you’ve designed, or maybe you’ve found a free texture to use online. Whatever the case may be, you’ll need a texture to work with.

If you need help finding a texture, we’ve got a large collection of 99 Free Stock Textures which you’re welcome to browse through!

Once you find a texture, Copy > Paste it into a new layer in your design. The texture layer should usually be on top of every other layer in your design (or at least the layers you want to apply the texture to).

Transform the Texture to fit your canvas.

Step 2 - Desaturate

Desaturate your texture layer (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate). We only want to apply the texture over our design, not the color from the texture.

Step 3 - Set to Overlay

Now, set this layer to Overlay. This will screen (brighten) all of the shades brighter than 50% gray in your texture, while multiply (darken) any shades darker than 50% gray, thus giving the illusion of light passing over your design for a more tactile appearance!

Adjust the opacity of your texture layer to increase or decrease the intensity of the effect.

June’s Tutorial Roundup

David Leggett — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:00:25 +0000

It’s summer here, and while the warm weather can be enjoyable, at times it becomes a bit unbearable. That’s OK though, cause it gives us plenty of time to find some incredible tutorials and other links from around the web!

Our Tutorial Picks

Each month, we try to pick tutorials that are outstanding in quality and usefulness. We tend to pick tutorials that encompass design, although we let a few others slip in if they are really great! If you found any that we may have missed, feel free to share them in the comments!

Create a Designer Font in Illustrator

Isaac’s got a great method for enhancing your type using Illustrator. Definitely worth a look, as well as his brand new endeavor over at Makeeda!

Trendy Geometric Lines in Illustrator

You may have seen our Retro Rainbow Curves Photoshop Tutorial recently published at Tutorial9, but Blog Spoon Graphics has a much easier way to replicate the effect using Illustrator!

Super Cool Frilly Bits Typography

Fabio runs through a powerful technique for adding that final creative touch to your typography, and man, it looks great.

The Making of Mystic

Nik Ainley of Shinybinary knows a thing or two about Photoshop, as he demonstrated over at PSDTUTS recently. Watch and learn as he walks through the creation of a digital materpiece.

Simple, Organic Shapes in Adobe Illustrator

Veerle answers a reader request for creating some awesome organic shapes using Adobe Illustrator. It’s so simple, yet so stunning and beautiful all at once.

Sleek Phone Advertisement Photoshop Tutorial

Isaac has written an awesome tutorial in the past here at Tutorial9 for creating an awesome product ad in Photoshop, and we found the techniques shown in this tutorial to be just as intriguing!

Tilt-Shift Photography Photoshop Tutorial

Tilt-Shift Photography can result in some very interesting effects, but may not be something everyone has the equipment to accomplish on their own. With this simple Photoshop Tutorial, you can start creating your very own Tilt-Shift style photographs!

Create a Watercolor Vector Flower in Illustrator

Use Illustrator to design your very own watercolor vector flower illustration. This informative tutorial will guide you through the entire process of turning an ordinary photograph into a vector illustration.

Wood Inlay Text Tutorial

Learn how to create a Wood Inlay effect using wood textures over at PSHero! A great effect for text and shapes alike.

How to Write and Effective Thank You Note for Any Occasion

Put down the pen tool, and pick up a real pen! You know there’s at least one person you owe a thank you too, and this article has some wonderful tips for getting your thanks sent out!

Inspirational & Useful Picks

Being a designer can be tough. Half of the battle when creating something is simply finding a good source of inspiration. These links are intended to help get yourself motivated, help you along the way, and get the creative process rolling!

2to2

2to2 is an online portfolio featuring both commercial and art works from two designers from Poland. Some really great eye candy to see there!

Colour Tools, Palettes, Schemes, and Theory

Here’s a great collection of sites that specialize in just about everything colour related. You’re bound to find at least one of them a useful resource for your design work!

Origin and History of a Word: Design

Here’s an interesting read for you. Discover the origins of the word Design, and what makes a designer different from an ordinary artist.

300+ Vintage Style Textures and Photoshop Brushes

Remember our recent post of 99 free textures? Well Design Reviver just published an awesome collection of over 300 vintage style textures and Photoshop Brushes.

Grafikas - Non Commercial Works of Drew Europeo

Drew Europeo is an Artist. Drew Europeo makes beautiful Illustrations. We love beautiful things, thus, we happen to be very fond of Drew Europeo. Oh, and that’s basically the coolest last name. Ever. It’s just fun to say. Europeo.

Hatch: The Design Public Blog

Hatch is a Blog over at the Design Public, featuring excellence in new design, architecture, culture, and more! Worth adding to your feed reader if you’re into design!

Sugarryhme.com

The personal creative portfolio of Karol Kolodzinski and all of his breathtaking graphic design and illustrations. His last name might not be as fun to say as Europeo, but his work is truly astounding. Ok… I just wanted to say Europeo one last time.

UI-Patterns

Need a help designing your user interface? UI-Patterns probably has you covered with their extensive resources for improving your UI.

Valp.now

Valp is Maciej Hajnrich. Graphic designer and illustrator. This is his online showcase of his brilliant works.

Free Web Development Icons

Icojoy has put together a large number of free, downloadable Icons that you’re welcome to use in your website development.

Free Acrylic Photoshop Brushes

These are by far some of the best free acrylic Photoshop brushes I’ve ever come across. Grab’em, and be sure to give thanks to Jeff Gardner for making them available!

Design Critiquing

“I often notice that people are giving critique to the designer rather than the design itself…” and more words of wisdom from Veerle.

Helvetica Calendar

I want one of these, now. Check out this incredible Helvetica Calendar designed by Greig Anderson.

LOGAN.tv & Metal Gear Solid 4 Intro Videos

Gamer? Maybe you’ve heard of Metal Gear Solid 4? Well, the fact that you’re here tells us that you may be interested in meeting the folks responsible for some of the beautiful introductory videos for the new game.

Words and Thoughts in RGB

A Mini-Documentary about Color by Eduardo Morais, winner of several awards, and the only video we’re featuring in this months roundup at Tutorial9.

Typography Scarf

Not sure if this scarf will do a good job of keeping you cozy in the cold, but it’s at least the coolest looking scarf we’ve ever laid eyes on.

Vinicius Costa

A motion designer from Brazil who has worked with clients such as MTV and Nickelodeon. This is his reel of impressive works in 2008.

Find any great tutorials or links that we may have missed? Be sure to share them in the discussion below!

Last Week on T9 (6/30/08)

David Leggett — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:00:08 +0000

Tyler Bramer shares a wonderful technique for enhancing designs with a splash of color, while Fredrick offers some useful photography tips for avoiding problems in the field. We’d also like to give a big thanks to our newest sponsor!

Things rolled by pretty quickly this week. Been pretty busy with some new living arrangements, and seem to be coming down with something, but I didn’t forget about this weeks roundup! Good news for me is that it’s a relatively short update (not necessarily bad for you, our readers, as Tyler and Fredrick both posted awesome articles over the past few days)!

Also, I wanted to make sure I had a chance to thank our sponsors (including our new one from Media Lab!):

W3 Markup - Service for slicing PSD to HTML, CSS, & XHTML.

Site Grinder - Photoshop plugin for turning your designs into websites with no coding involved!

VPS Media - Xen VPS Hosting for Designers and Developers!

Seriously, without these sponsors, we couldn’t keep all this wonderful content available for free. Be sure to pay’em a visit!

New Tutorials

Add a Fresh Splash to your Design

In this tutorial, I’ll show you several techniques for enhancing a basic banner design for a product or service. These techniques can be employed to add a fresh splash to many of your designs!

Photography: Little Known Ways to Avoid Problems in the Field

Photography is all about preparation. Instead of running into problems when you’re out shooting, understand some easy ways of tackling the more common problems you may run into!

Off Topic

Anyone see WALL-E yet? Pixar really knows how to blend story and CG to create an incredible movie…

Well, better get back to Photoshop. I keep letting little things distract me from getting this new tutorial finished. Think you’ll like it. It’s got a pretty spiffy 3D effect that reminds me a lot of… *GASP* Haha, these WALL-E Easter Eggs are awesome!

Oh right… back to Photoshop…