Photoshop - Tut : Daily Photoshop Tutorial: 08/09/08

Make your own pop art

Tutorial | Saturday, August 9, 2008

The pop art movement of the 1950s celebrated the birth of consumer culture, taking mundane things like the humble soup can out of the supermarket and into art galleries – often for the very first time.

It’s a distinctive, tongue-in-cheek style that’s still relevant today – after all, our society hasn’t got any less consumer-oriented. This means that pop art is a useful, versatile visual shorthand for 21st-Century designers, instantly evoking kitsch, with a sharp note of satire. In this masterclass,

Mark Mayers shows you how to get that pop art look using layering, the Live Trace tool, filters and some cleverly chosen images.

01. In Photoshop, open Bubble_car.tif from this month’s CD and clean up any stray pixels with the Brush and Eraser tools. Draw a closed path around the people, make a path-based selection and then hit Delete. Next, erase the number plate and bonnet logo and save the image to a convenient location

02. Open Colour_distress.jpg from the cover CD, convert it to CMYK, then save as a TIFF with no compression (see tip box, right). In Illustrator, create a new CMYK document 430-x-307mm. Make a rectangle 420-x-297mm, position it centrally and select View > Guides > Make Guides. Next, go File > Place, select the saved Colour_distress.tif and align to the guides. Label the layer ‘Placed distress’ and lock it.

03. Place the bubble car image on a new layer labelled ‘Car’. Select Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options and use the default black-and-white settings. Hit the Expand button to convert the image to vector paths and use the Direct Selection tool to select a white area. Go Select > Same > Fill Colour and hit Delete. Select the remaining black areas and fill with a deep turquoise, then enlarge and hit Cmd/Ctrl + 2 to lock the selection.

04. Create a closed path just inside the car and fill with a lime colour. Hit Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + [ to send the selection to the back. Now, draw closed paths around the outer window areas and send them to the back too. Ensure they’re still selected and Shift + Click the lime fill to add to the selection. Next click the Minus Back button in the Pathfinder palette.

05. Add further white fills for the interior, number plate, hubcap and headlights. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + [ to send these behind the turquoise artwork but in front of the lime fill. Now add some cyan fills behind the wheel and bumpers and send these backward as well. Once you’re happy, hit Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + 2 to unlock the turquoise artwork and then group the whole car.

06. Open Woman.tif from the cover CD in Photoshop and clean it up as you did in step 01. Place the saved image in Illustrator on a new layer labelled ‘Woman’ and perform the Live Trace techniques used in Steps 03 and 04. Fill the black areas with turquoise, create a white fill and send it backwards. Group it, re-size, reflect it horizontally and position as shown.

07. Now to add some modern elements: open Graphics.ai from the CD and copy the blue heart, pasting it onto a new layer beneath the car. Re-size and position it, and label the layer ‘Big heart’. Next, open Instructions.tif in Photoshop – this scan is a greatly enlarged section from a model kit. Clean up any stray pixels and save. Back in Illustrator, place it on a new layer beneath the heart.

08. Perform the same Live Trace techniques as you did on the car and woman images, and fill the remaining black with the same blue used on the heart. Set the objects’ blending mode to Multiply and adjust the opacity to around 65%. Label the layer ‘Instructions’.

09. Target your car layer and duplicate the group by Alt-dragging. In the Pathfinder palette go Make Compound Shape from the flyout menu, then hit the Expand button. This results in a single compound path with the uppermost fill dictating the appearance of the shape. Now fill with black and copy to the clipboard.

10. Create a new Photoshop document using the Clipboard as the preset. Ensure the colour mode is Grayscale, the resolution is 300dpi and the background content is white. Paste your selection using the As Pixels option and flatten. You’ll be blurring the shape in the next step – so extend the canvas by hitting Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + C, anchor the image placement to the centre and add an extra 10cm to the width and height.

11. Add a Gaussian blur of around 45 pixels, change the image mode to Bitmap, leave the output at 300dpi and under Method, select Halftone Screen. In the next dialog box, enter a frequency of 7 and an angle of 45°, and set the shape to Round. It’s worth experimenting here with alternative settings to see what you come up with – you can also save presets for future use.

12. Switch to Illustrator and delete the compound path. Place the halftone image on your car layer and repeat the same Live Trace/Expand operations, fill it with turquoise and send to the back. The file Halftone_circle.tif on the CD, was made using the same technique. Place this on a new layer labelled ‘Halftone circles’ beneath the heart, Live Trace and Expand it, and fill with blue. Experiment with opacity and blending mode I used Hard Light at 55%.

13. Create a new layer above the car and label it ‘Splots/Scribbles’. Open Splots.tif and Scribbles.tif from the cover CD, place, Live Trace and Expand them both. Ungroup and regroup elements, re-size, colour and position as desired. Making your own ink spots and scribbles will add a personal touch to your illustrations – remember to scan them as 1,200dpi bitmaps.

14. On a new layer above ‘Splots’, draw some simple graphic elements. Keep them in tune with the colour scheme and duplicate, re-size and position as required. Alternatively use Graphics.ai from the CD. Combining hand-made elements with crisp vector graphics will give your illustrations an edgy feel. When you’re done, label the layer ‘Graphics’.

15. Create a new layer at the top and place Mono_distress_1.tif, and perform the Live Trace/Expand process. This time, delete all the black areas, leaving white. Re-size, position and ungroup. Now use the Direct Selection tool to either delete areas or regroup areas and move them around until you’re happy. Label the layer ‘Distress 1’. Do the same for Mono_distress_2.tif. Continue to add/duplicate elements. I also coloured the woman’s skin, eyes and hair using the same techniques as the car.

16. To tidy things up, create a new top layer labelled ‘Clipping mask’. Create a rectangle 420-x-297mm and position using your guides from Step 02. Next, highlight the layer icon and click the Make Clipping Mask icon at the foot of the layers palette. Expand the new layer using the small arrow by the layer icon and drag all your underlying layers beneath the new clipping mask layer. This is a neat trick to preserve all your original layers using a single clipping mask.

Presidential Pattern in Photoshop - McCain vs Obama

Tutorial |

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’ll dive into a pattern inspired by the artwork in the Stephen Colbert book “I Am America (And So Can You)” (the book has some very good illustrations). The tutorial will cover creating vector artwork from a photograph, taking the vector artwork and making a repeatable pattern and then creating a groovy wallpaper that utilizes the pattern. For the pattern, we’ll pit Barack Obama versus John McCain. As one reader pointed out in the last tutorial which featured only Barack Obama, we’ll feature both canidates in the upcoming Presidential election.
Download PSD Files

Step 1: Gather resources

First we need to acquire two profile photos of Barack Obama and

John McCain. These two photos will help create vector illustrations of the candidates. For creating a wallpaper texture, we need a good paper texture.

Step 2: Setting up the photos to vectorize

We need to create simple two tone vectors for Obama and McCain and to help us in creating the vector we’ll use the Stamp filter (Filters >> Sketch >> Stamp). I removed the background quickly using the magic wand tool, and then applied the stamp filter. The purpose of using the stamp tool is to provide a rough estimate of where the paths need to follow along.

Step 3: Create vector paths

To actually create the paths, I used Adobe Illustrator instead of Photoshop. (I find Illustrator better for hardcore use of the pen tool, but if you are more comfortable with Photoshop, it’ll do the job too.) I took both photos as well as both photos with the stamp filter applied, brought it over to Illustrator, and created pen paths using the photos as a guide. I provided some detail for the jacket and tie, but for the most part, you want make the area below the neck a long rectangle. Since the Obama’s photo had him wearing a suit and tie and I want some conformity, I copied the vector and added McCain’s head to the suit and tie. I used the dark colors from the palette below I found on Colour Lovers and made the Obama vectore blue: #2140A2 & McCain red: #BB1A1A.

Using Illustrator: If you are going to use Illustrator for creating the vectors, copy and paste the four images (photos and stamped photos) from Photoshop into an Illustrator document. I made sure that each photo was on it’s own layer, and locked each of these layers. I created the Obama and McCain vector paths on their own separate layers as well. It’s a good idea to place the photos on their own locked layers because you won’t be able to edit the images in Illustrator, and you will be able to quickly turn off a photo layer at will. I created the silhouettes of the characters using a 2 pt stroke path, then create shapes filled with the correct color to show details for the candidates hair, eyes, mouth and chin.

Step 4: Creating the Pattern

Now we want to bring the vector paths back into Photoshop to create the pattern. I created a large document (3500 square pixel to be exact) so that there was space to create the pattern and also have high resolution vectors. Copy and paste Obama and McCain to their own separate layers as “pixels” (making sure they were of equal size proportions). I applied an outside stroke using Layer Styles to each candidate so that the pattern could smoothly transition from one vector to the other. Started to create the pattern by duplicating the layers and placing each vector layer above the next. Once you have a few repeats in the column pattern, duplicate the column, and make another row so that they are next to each other, but offset the pattern so that Obama and McCain are directly looking at each other.

If you’ve ever made a complicated and precise pattern, you’ll know that to make the pattern repeat correctly, you’ll need to pick a spot in the pattern, and then find that exact same spot in the pattern again. What helped me was to use the guides to dissect Obama & McCain at their noses. (To make a guide by clicking on the document ruler and drag out onto the document) To start the pattern on the left, I aligned a guide snug against the beginning of McCain’s nose. I could easily place the right end guide by finding the beginning of McCain’s nose horizontally to where it touched the other guide. For the top and bottom guides, I again used their noses to find the area of repeat.

Using the guides helped properly align the pattern as well. When I created the pattern initially, some of the face offs (when the two where looking directly at each other) where slightly off because I began manually repeating the pattern. Using the guides help reveal and solve the problem. Once you properly align the pattern and created guides, take the rectangular marquee selection tool, and create a selection along the guides. To make the pattern, go to Edit >> Define Pattern…

To apply the pattern to a layer, take the paint bucket tool, and set the fill to ‘Pattern’ and pick the pattern just made.

Step Five: Creating the Wallpaper

I created a new document at 2560 px by 1600 px dimensions. Since I wanted to tilt and reduce the pattern size, I created another 12000 x 12000 px document (yes those dimensions are correct) and filled the document with the pattern. Once Photoshop filled the document with the pattern (it took a while on my machine) I brought the layer over to the wallpaper sized document and rotated and reduce the layer.

I took a photo of aged paper and put it on top of the pattern layer. I duplicated the paper layer and set one layer to Blending mode Lighten at 9% opacity and Multiply at 46% opacity.

I then created a white layer above the pattern set to Soft Light blending mode at 28% opacity. What this does is make the colors in the pattern look more faded and worn. Then I created a new layer to darken the outer edges of the wallpaper. To give the effect of light shining in the middle, I added a radial gradient set to Overlay at 10%.

Final Result

Trendy Geometric Lines Design

Tutorial |

Starting with the design application of Adobe Illustrator create a group of vector based geometric lines at dynamic 45 degree angles, then follow the walkthrough to rough them up with brush textures in Adobe Photoshop resulting in a cool and trendy design style.

The use of angled lines adds a dynamic flair to the composition of a design allowing the viewers eye to follow them across the page. Combining this layout with colour, texture and typography can result in a cool, modern poster design.

Start the design in Adobe Illustrator, draw out a number of blocks faced up to each other filled with the colour scheme of your choice.

Select all the blocks and click the New Icon in the Brushes Palette, in the option box select New Art Brush.

Check the direction of the brush is flowing in the correct direction using the arrow buttons.

Now the brush is saved in the Brushes Palette begin drawing the geometric lines. Use the Pen Tool to draw a 45 degree line across the page, hold Shift to constrain the angle.
Click the custom brush from the Brushes Palette to apply to the striped effect.

Repeat the process with multiple lines, scaling them slightly to give varied sizes and widths.

Produce another line with the Pen Tool, but this time alter the direction of the line back on itself, remember to hold Shift to constrain those angles to 45 degrees.

Give the line rounded corners by heading to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners.

Enter a desirable radius for the corners, for my document at A4 I used 30mm to give nice flowing edges.

Position the curved line over the large straight line, matching up the colours exactly.

Use the same process to create a longer curved line, this time flowing across the document crossing the other lines, maintaining those angles.

Select the group of lines and Copy, switch over to Adobe Photoshop and setup a new document. Paste in the lines and scale appropriately to crop off the extras beyond the edges of the page.

On the background layer fill the page with an accompanying colour, I use a 20% Yellow to give a pale tint.

Sample a dark colour from the geometric lines and use a large spraypaint Photoshop Brush from my previous Photoshop Brush giveaways to place a couple of textured areas on a new layer.

Change the layer style to Multiply and drop the opacity to around 40% to tone down the texture.

Select a couple of accompanying colours from the colour selector and draw a dark to light gradient across the page, set this layer to Color Burn to bring out the colours from the layers underneath.

CTRL/CMD + Click on the geometric lines layer to make a selection, then create a layer mask on the spraypaint texture layer. Fill the selection with a 50% black to tone down the spraypaint texture beyond the edges of the main lines.

Use the spraypaint brushes to bring back a little texture to the same layer, painting in areas of white on the layer mask to bring back their visibility. This helps add a little tonal variety rather than an area of flat colour.

Duplicate the geometric lines layer and use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select an overlapping area, remember that Shift key to get that exact 45 degree angle.
Inverse the selection and paint in a shadow with a large soft black brush.

Create a new selection around the unwanted extra from beyond the lines, add a Layer Mask and fill these with black to render them invisible.

To repeat the process on a curved line use the Pen Tool instead of the Polygonal Lasso to create a flowing curve.

Right click and Make Selection from the path, do not add any feathering to ensure a crisp edge.

Add as many shadows as you see fit to add depth to the lines, feel free to download my version as a desktop wallpaper.

1680×1050 Widescreen Wallpaper

1280×1042 4:3 Wallpaper

320×480 iPhone Wallpaper

This design style works perfectly when accompanied with typography, add textual elements following the same angles and composition to create a trendy and modern poster:

Drop Shadows

Tutorial |

Dropshadows add contrast to objects, and add depth to an image. They can increase visibility, and improve readablility. However, if used inappropriately drop shadows will look cheesy.

This text has no dropshadow. It has little contrast from the background, and appears flat.

1 Creating Dropshadows using Layers

This shadow is soft, yet it ads a lot of contrast to the text, due to it's large surface area. This shadow can be created in any version of Adobe Photoshop.

To create this drop shadow:

A) In the Layers window, hold down Ctrl, and click on the layer you want the shadow applied to. In this case, it's the text object phong. This will load the layer transparency.

B) Create a new layer , and drag it under the layer you want the dropshadow on. Double click on the new layer, and name it Small Shadow.

Press D on the keyboard, to ensure the selected foreground color is black. Fill the selection Alt+Backspace, and then deselect Ctrl+D.

C) Now, Gaussian Blur the Small Shadow layer 3-6 pixels, to create a nice ambient shadow around the edges.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...
3-6 pixels

D) Drag the Small Shadow layer onto the new layer icon , to create a duplicate of it. Double click on the new layer (Small Shadow copy) and rename it Large Shadow.

Gaussian Blur the Large Shadow layer by about 20 pixels.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 20 pixels

E) Next, select the Move Tool (V), and drag or nudge the shadow down and to the right.

Finally, change the opacity of the Large Shadow layer to 80%.

Once you have the desired effect, feel free to merge the two shadow layers (Ctrl+E).

Tips: The sharpness of the shadow affects the illusion of how far away the light source is. By bluring the shadow more, you can create the illusion of a light which is farther away. A crisp shadow would indicate that the light source is near by.

Also, by moving the shadow farther away from the object which is casting it, the angle at which the light source is located can be altered.

2 Creating Dropshadows using Layer Effects

The following drop shadow only works in Photoshop 5.

In the Layers window, right click on the layer you want dropshadowed, and select Effects...

Mode: Normal
Opacity: 75%
Angle: 120
Distance: 12
Blur: 8
Intensity: 0

Mode determines the blending method that the drop shadow will be applied with. By clicking on the black box beside the Mode dropdown, you can change the color of the dropshadow.

Opacity changes how opaque the shadow will be.

Angle points to the origin of the light, which is opposite of the way the shadow will be cast. By selecting Global Angle, it will use the universal angle for all dropshadows in the image.

Distance affects the number of pixels the dropshadow will be offset from the original position of the layer.

Blur determines the number of pixels over which the shadow will be diffused.

Intensity changes the contrast threshold of the shadow. Play around with the numbers too observe it's effect.

Rounding Shapes

Tutorial |

These steps can be used for rounding shapes or anti-aliasing a jagged layer.

1
Create a new image, and on a new layer, fill in the shapes you want rounded, or use the Type tool to draw a letter.

Select the layer transparency of the layer you want rounded, by holding down Ctrl and clicking on the layer.

2
On the Keyboard, press Q to enter Quick Mask Mode.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 6 pixels

The number of pixels you blur it by determines the radius of your rounded corners.

3
Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast

Set the Contrast to about 94%, and then change the Brightness to whatever looks good.

Raising the Brightness will make the objects thicker, and lowering will make them thinner.

4
Now, press Q again to exit Quick Mask Mode, and create a new layer.

Press Alt+Backspace to fill the new layer with the foreground, and then delete the original layer.

Outline

Tutorial |

A tutorial for new users of Photoshop 4/5, on how to create outlines around text and shapes.

STEP 1

Create your text using the Type Tool.

STEP 2

Go Select > Load Selection...
Just hit OK, and it will select the outline of the text.

STEP 3

Then Select > Modify > Expand...
Change this to the value you want the outline to go outside of the text.

STEP 4

Create a new Layer under the text layer.

STEP 5

Fill the selection on the new layer with the foreground color. (ALT-Backspace)

STEP 6 (optional)

Select > Modify > Contract... the selection about 1/2 of what you expanded it, and delete that part of the layer. (DEL) Check on 'Preserve Transparency' on the layers window, and give it a nice gradient.

Chipped Font

Tutorial |

1
Create a new image, and use the Type Tool to create some text. If you are using Photoshop 5.0 or later, right click on the T icon on the text layer, and select Render Layer.

Next, holding down Ctrl, click on the text layer to select it's transparency.

Press Q on the keyboard to enter Quick Mask Mode.

2
Press Ctrl+I to invert the mask.

Now, in the menu go:

Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize...

Crystallize by 10 pixels, and hit OK.

3
In the menu, select:
Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast...

Drag the Contrast slider to 96, and Brightness to -75 and hit OK.

Press Q, on the keyboard, to exit Quick Mask Mode.

In the menu, go: Edit > Clear
Deselect Ctrl+D.

Creating Grid Lines

Tutorial |

Creating grid lines with photoshop is easy, and can be used to make your imagery look tight and froody.

STEP 1

Go into the channels window and create a new channel. Make a square selection about 20 pixels wide with the marquee tool. Fill it with white.

quick

TIP

Pressing the Alt and Backspace keys at the same time will automaticly fill the current selection with the foreground color.

STEP 2

In the menu, go:
SELECT > MODIFY > CONTRACT > Contract by: 1 pixel

Then, fill the selection with black. It will now look like a small white outlined box.

STEP 3

With the Marquee tool still selected, nudge the selection up and to the left, 1 pixel.

In the menu, go:
EDIT > Define Pattern

STEP 4

Clear the selection (Ctrl-D) and create a new channel.

Open the Paint Bucket options window and set the contents to PATTERN

Fill the new channel by clicking with the paint bucket tool, and a grid texture will magically appear.

STEP 5

Drag the grid channel onto the "Load channel as selection" button. []

Go to the layer window. Create a new layer and fill the selection. (Alt-Backspace)

STEP 6

Enjoy the attractive imagery you and your new-found skills have just created and celebrate over a steaming bowl of re-digested monkey-brains.

Wireframe Sphere

Tutorial |

This tutorial illustrates how to create a wireframe sphere, by creating a grid texture, and then using the Sphereize filter.

1
Create a new image, 800x800 pixels.

Go to the Channels window, create a new channel , and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Holding down Shift, draw a selection about 25x25 pixels.

To see how big your selection is, open the Info Palette, by going Window > Show Info.

Press D to select White as the foreground color, and then fill the selection by pressing Alt+Backspace.

2
In the menu, go:
Select > Modify > Contract... 2 pixels

Press Delete to clear the selection, and then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the selection up and to the left by 2 pixels.

Edit > Define Pattern

Create a new channel , select the Paint Bucket Tool .

Then, go to the Options palette.
Window > Show Options

Change the Contents dropdown to Pattern, and then click inside the new channel to fill it with the grid pattern.

3
In the Channels window, click on the Load Channel as Selection button.

Go back to the Layers window, and create a new layer.

Press D on the keyboard to select Black as the foreground color, and then press Alt+Backspace to fill the selection.

Ctrl+D to deselect.

4
Click and hold down the Rectangular Marquee Tool button, and select the Elliptical Marquee Tool

Holding down Shift, make a circular selection filling up most of the image.

Filter > Distort > Sphereize... Amount 100

Select > Inverse

Edit > Clear

Ctrl+D to deselect.

To get rid of the jagged edges, resize the image to 400x400 pixels,
Image > Image Size...

Anti-Aliasing

Tips |

Use these techniques when you've drawn an un-antialiased mask and you want it to be smooth.

Here is an example of what this tutorial can do for you:

Notice the jagged edge around the "Normal Burger". Using this photoshop tutorial I created a tasty burger in seconds.

You may ask yourself, "Why is phong doing this? My photoshop burgers are already tasty!" Well, you never know when this technique will come in handy, so continue.

Step 1

Draw the normal burger

Create a new image 500x500 pixels with a white background.

Grab the Marquee Circle Selection tool, and in the options window de-select anti-aliasing.

On a new layer, fill the selection with the forground color. (Alt+Backspace) Deselect (Ctrl+D)

TimeOut
Observe the jagged ugly edges of the circle. Pretend the fact that it is jagged is something you had no control over. That is when you would ACTUALLY use this tutorial.

In the Channels window, create a new channel. Fill the selection with white. Deselect (Ctrl+D).

Step 2

Blur it

In the menu go: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > 3.5 pixels

Step 3

Tweak the edges

In the menu go: Image > Ajust > Levels

Grab those sliders at the far ends and bring them close together, until you have a nice smooth edge on the circle.

Step 4

Creating the layer

On the channels window, click the "Load Channel as Selection" button.

Now, in the layers window create a new LAYER. Fill the selection

(Alt+Backspace) with the color you want your tasty burger, delete the normal burger layer and you're done.

Use these new found skills to create a tasty milk-shake.

Scan Line

Tutorial |

A step-by-step Photoshop 4/5 tutorial about how to create TV scanlines on your imagery, as demonstrated on the above header.

Step 1:
Create a new image with a your text/logo on a transparent layer. Leave about 50 pixels on each side. Background R0,G42,B100

Step 2:
Create a new channel. Create a horizontal line 2 pixels wide, and make a selection of 5 vertical pixels.

picture 8:1 zoom

Select Edit > Define pattern.

Step 3:
Create another channel, and select the fill tool. Fill Channel with Contents: Pattern

Step 4:
Make the Channel a selection by dragging it onto the circle selection icon.

Make a new layer ontop of your text. Fill the selection with Black. (Select Black as your foreground color and hit Alt-Backspace)

Step 5:
Deselect and Gaussian blur the lines layer 1 pixel. Set the opacity to 75%.

Step 6:
Create 2 duplicates of your text layer by dragging it onto the Create New Layer icon 2 times.

Gaussian Blur one of the new layers by 3 pixels, and Motion Blur the original layer about 36 pixels at 0 degrees.
(If you are using Photoshop 5 you may have to render the text layer before applying and filters.)

HINT: Use this technique on photos to make it look like you are watching them on TV.

Color Dodge to brighten your graphics

Tutorial |

Photoshop has many different ways of blending layers. Different blending modes determine how the pixels on one layer effect the pixels on other layers beneath it.

The NORMAL blending method simply filters the pixels on one layer onto the other layers, shifting the pixels closer to the top layer's color.

Different blending modes are available right under the LAYERS tab.

Color Dodge, depending on the opacity and lightness of the pixel, brightens and saturates the underlying pixels.

The NORMAL layer looks dull and de-saturated, while the COLOR DODGED layer whoops the monkey's ass.

The above pictures both have layers with COLOR DODGE blending. Blurring the layer makes a nice gradient from brightness to the background pixels. Use this effect to give your imagery a sweet GLOWING effect.

Screen Blending Mode

Tips |

Photoshop has many different ways of blending layers. Different blending modes determine how the pixels on one layer effect the pixels on other layers beneath it.

The Screen blending mode is available with all the other blending modes on the layers window. Screen blending mode brightens the underlying layers depending on how bright the screened layer's pixels are. If the screened pixel is black, it will look completely transparent. A white pixel will be white.

A screened black layer can be used to add lens flares and other bright things to a picture with the option to remove, filter or fade them.

For Example

I've found a picture and created a new new layer above it. Then filled the layer with black and added a lens flare.

ORIGINAL Image	Lens Flare with NORMAL Blending
Lens Flare on SCREEN blending	COLOR DODGE blending

Now adding any filters to the lens flare layer will only effect the lens flare. There is now also the option later on to delete the lens flare layer or change it, offering more flexibility to your photoshop files.

Conclusion

Different blending modes offer a different effect. Use the one which stimulates your optic nerves in the best way.

Beveled Metal in Photoshop

Tutorial |

This is an advanced Photoshop tutorial, which assumes solid knowledge of the Photoshop interface and features, including the lighting effects filter. If you need more experience, check out the lighting effects tutorial.

1 Create an image 500x500 pixels. Make a new layer, and fill it with a medium gray.
RGB(115,115,115)

In the the Menu, select Filter > Noise > Add Noise... Set the amount to 35, select Gaussian and check on Monochromatic.

2 Filter > Blur > Motion Blur... 75 Pixels

Then, Image > Adjust > Brightness / Contrast...
Set Brightness to -10, and Contrast to +35

Double click on this channel in the layers window, and name it Full Metal Texture

3 Create a new Channel, name it Rounded Box by double clicking on it, and build a rounded box in the center. If you don't know how to quickly make rounded objects, visit my rounding tutorial.

Create a copy of the channel, by dragging it onto the New Channel Button.

4 Next, drag the new channel onto the Load channel as selection button , so that it selects the outline of your round box.

Gaussian Blur the selection by 18 pixels by going Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 18 pixels

Then, Gaussian Blur it by 9 pixels, 6 pixels and finally 3 pixels. That's 4 blurs, people!

Invert the Selection Ctrl+Shift+I, select black as your foreground color (D), and fill the selection Alt+Backspace to get rid off the jaggies.

5 Contract the selection by 48 pixels. To do this, go Select > Modify > Contract... 16 Pixels, and repeat this step 2 times.

Then, feather the selection 25 pixels, by pressing Ctrl+Alt+D and then fill it with a medium gray of your choice.

6 Select the First Channel (the one with the rounded box, not blurred), and press the Load channel as selection button

Now, Go back to the Layers window, and right click on the layer with the metal texture on it (Full Metal Texture), and select Layer Via Copy. It will make a new layer with only the part of the texture that you had selected. Double click on the new layer, and name it Metal Texture.

Next, select the Full Metal Texture layer, and fill the whole layer over with a dark gray.

7 Go back to the Channels, and make the Rounded Box channel a selection by dragging it onto the Load channel as selection button .

Back to the Layers window, create a new layer and drag it underneath the layer named Metal Texture. Fill the selection with a medium/light gray.

Click the eye icon on the Metal Texture layer to hide it.

8 Select the layer with the Plain Gray rounded box, and in the menu select Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

Click on the image on the left for a larger version of the Lighting Effects Window.

Set the texture channel to the channel with the blurred white box, and gray section in the center (the second channel). The white parts on the channel create the high areas on the rendering, and the dark areas are lower. This channel is a height map for the lighting effects.

The values for the lighting effects are as follows:

Create 2 lights, one Spotlight coming from the top-left, and a blue Omni light coming from the bottom-right. To change the color of the light, click on the color box in the right area of the Light Type section on the Lighting Effects Window. For more help creating and managing lights, visit the lighting effects tutorial.

Gloss: 0
Material: 69
Exposure: 0
Ambience: 8
Height: 100%

Double click on the lighting effects layer, and name it Lighting Effects.

9 Near the top of the Layers window, click on Preserve Transparency and then Gaussian Blur the lighting effects layer by 6 pixels. Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...

Then, unhide the texture layer, floating above the lighting effects layer, by clicking on the empty box on the left of the layer.

Now, select the layer Metal Texture, and set the blending mode to overlay.

10 Make a copy of the layer Lighting Effects (by dragging it onto the Create new Layer button ), move the new layer above the Metal Texture layer, set the opacity to 30%, and set the blending mode to Color Dodge.

Select the layer Metal Texture, and go Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast, and drag the contrast slider down until you achieve the desired metal texture.

Put a good drop shadow on it by selecting the bottom Lighting Effects layer, right clicking on it, and selecting Effects.... Or, check out my Good Drop Shadows Tutorial.

Finally, to add to the effect, select the gray background layer, and go Filter > Render > Lighting Effects... and change the Texture Channel to None.

Check out what I've done with this tutorial:
Test 1 | Test 2

Transparent Reflecting Sphere

Tutorial |

Use this tutorial to create shiny spheres for your interfaces or to enhance your logos and whatnot. Right now it's working in Photoshop 5x, but not guaranteed for Photoshop 6. This tutorial is quite long, and complex; however, every detail is described. If you encounter any problems, try reading it more closely, or take some of my other tutorials, to ge more aquainted with Photoshop. Good luck!

1
Create a new image 400x400 pixels. Make a new layer and then disable visibility on the Background Layer, by clicking the eye icon next to that layer.

Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool (shown right), hold down Shift, and create a circular selection, taking up most of the image. Then, select RGB(100,58,9) as the foreground color, and fill the selection by pressing Alt+Backspace. Do not deselect.

Double click on the layer, and name it Sphere Shape.

2
Drag the layer Sphere Shape, onto the new layer button , to duplicate it.

Click on the little eye icon beside the original Sphere Shape layer, to hide it.

Now, to contract the selection by 32 pixels, in the menu go:
Select > Modify > Contract... 16 Pixels
and repeat this one more time.

Feather the selection by pressing Ctrl+Alt+D, by 25 pixels.

Now clear the selection by pressing Delete, and then deselect Ctrl+D.

3
Make a copy of the layer Sphere Shape Copy, by dragging it onto the new layer button, . Double click on the new layer, and rename it Glow.

Click on Preserve Transparency. Or if you're using Photoshop 6+, Lock Transparent Pixels.

Select White as the foreground color, and then fill the layer by pressing Alt+Backspace.

Set the blending mode to Color Dodge, and the layer Opacity to 70%.

4
Holding down Ctrl, click on the original Sphere Shape layer, to select it's transparency. Create a new
Layer , double click and rename it Shadow, then choose Black as the foreground color.

On the new layer, fill the selection with black Alt+Backspace, and then choose the Marquee Tool . Drag the selection up and to the left, about 60 pixels.

Press Ctrl+Alt+D to feather the selection by 40 pixels, and then clear the selection by pressing Delete.

Deselect Ctrl+D.

5
Set the Opacity of the layer Shadow to 60%, and then drag it onto the new layer button , to make a copy of it.

Set the new layer's Opacity to 15%, and the blending mode to Color Burn.

6
Holding down Ctrl, click on the original Sphere Shape layer, near the bottom of the layers. Now, create a new layer on the very top, and rename it Highlight.

Select Black as the foreground color, and fill the selection Alt+Backspace. Set the layer's blending mode to Screen, and deselect Ctrl+D.

Change the layer's Opacity to 60%.

7
Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

Change the light to an Omni, and put it's intensity to 100. Position the light in the upper-left area of the sphere, by dragging it's center, and enlarge the radius by pulling on the outer dots.

Change the Material Properties to:
Gloss: 100
Material: -100
Ambience: 0
Exposure: 0

Press OK to render the lighting effects, and then go: Image > Adjust > Auto Levels

8
Make a copy of the layer Highlight, and set the blending mode of the new layer to Color Dodge, and the opacity to 50%.

Your image will look similar to what is seen on the left. It's shiny and transparent, but not yet reflective.

Click here to download the reflecting image, save it to your desktop, and then open it in Photoshop.

Open the image of the reflecting buildings, and press Ctrl+A to select the entire image, and then Ctrl+C to copy it. Now, go back to the sphere document.

9
Holding down Ctrl, click on the layer Highlight, to select it's transparency. Now,
Edit > Paste Into

This will create a new layer, and use the selection as a mask for the building image. Double click on the new layer and rename it Reflection.

If the building image is too small for your sphere, click on the little image part of the layer, and press Ctrl+T on the keyboard, and resize the layer so it fits. Double click in the center to accept new size values.

10
On the Reflection layer, click on the thumbnail of the building image so that a small brush appears in the box
beside it.

Next, holding down Ctrl, click on the little white circle to the right of the layer thumbnail, to select the layer mask.

Filter > Distort > Sphereize... 100%

Now, deselect Ctrl+D, and set the layer's transparency to 30%, and the blending mode to Color Dodge.

Now that you have completed the sphere, use it in your interfaces, or other imagery.

If you got lost, or you need a guide for this tutorial, click here to download the .psd file
(848 Kb).

See the eyeball I created with this tutorial!

Tips
a) To make text, or a logo appear inside the sphere, place the object in the center of the sphere. Holding down Ctrl, click on the Highlight layer, to select it's transparency. Filter > Distort > Sphereize... and then change the blending mode to Color Dodge, and adjust it's transparency to reach the desired effect.

b) To change the color of the sphere, click on the layer Sphere Shape copy, and enable Preserve Transparency (Lock Transparent Pixels). Fill the layer Alt+Backspace with a dark color of your choice.

c) To make the sphere not transparent, or have a different color in the center, click on the original Sphere Shape layer, to unhide it, and select Preserve Transparency (Lock Transparent Pixels). Fill it with the color of your choice.

Metallic Tubes and Wires

Tutorial |

This is an advanced Photoshop tutorial. Do not attempt this if you are not sufficient with the basic functions of the Photoshop Interface. My Lighting Effects tutorial is recommended reading, so if you don't have experience with the Photoshop Lighting Effects filter,

1
Start with a new image, 250x250 pixels. Select a dark gray as the foreground color. Create a new layer, and with the Pen or Paintbrush tool, draw a wire shaped line on it, 15 pixels thick.

Gradual curves look nice. This may take a few tries to get right.

Name the layer Wire.

2
Make a copy of Wire, by dragging it onto the New Layer button. Double click on the new layer, and rename it Cut Wire.

Hide the original layer Wire, by clicking on it's eye icon in the Layers window. We'll use that layer later on.

Now, grab the Eraser tool, set the brush size to about 5 pixels, and cut the line up.

3
Hold down Ctrl, and click on the hidden Wire layer in the Layers window.

This will create a selection out of the layer Wire's transparency

Next, go to the Channels window, and click the Save selection as channel button .

Select the new Channel in the Channels window, then double click on it and rename it Wire Bevel.

4
Gaussian Blur the selection by 9 pixels, then by 6 pixels, then by 3 pixels, and finally 1 pixel.

AutoLevels Ctrl+Shift+L, the selection.

Then, go back to the Layers window, hold down Ctrl and click on the Cut Wire layer to select it's transparency. Return to the Channels window, click on Wire Bevel, press D to reset colors, invert selection Ctrl+Shift+I, and finally clear the selection. Del

Deselect. Ctrl+D

5
Go back to the Layers window, and select the Cut Wire layer.

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

Click on the image to the left to enlarge.

Create a white Directional light, and aim it down, from the top. Then, create a blue directional light, shining up, from the bottom.

Set the Properties to:
Gloss: 100 (Shiny)
Material: -100 (Plastic)
Exposure: 39
Ambience: -21

Set the Texture Channel onto Wire Bevel, and the height to 15.

Now, tweak the positioning and direction of the lights to achieve the desired effect.

6
Now, click on the hidden Wire layer to expose it. Click on it again holding down Ctrl, to create the selection.

To make the line 1 pixel thinner, invert the selection Ctrl+Shift+I, go Select > Modify > Expand... 1 pixel, and clear the selection Del, and Deselect Ctrl+D.

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

And set the Texture Channel to Wire Transparency.

Hit OK, add a dropshadow, and you're finished!

Reflectively Refractive Glass Filter Tutorial

Tutorial |

This is an advanced tutorial, illustrating a simple method of giving the illusion of a 3d reflection to a particular form, using Photoshop's Glass filter. It should work in Photoshop versions 5 and later. For the demonstration I will use Photoshop 7.

This method can be used in conjunction with lighting effects for slippery smooth results.

1
a) Create an image, 800x800 pixels. For reference purposes, save this image (Ctrl+S) as glass.psd.

b) Use the type tool, or create an original form, filling most of the image, preferably using a typeface with thick smooth edges.

This example is using Goudy Old Style, Extra Bold. For reference, let this layer be known as the 'Type' layer.

c) Now holding down Ctrl, click on the Type layer in the Layer Window to select the it's transparency.

2
a) In the Channels Window, press the 'Save selection as channel' button to create a channel of the selection.

b) Now, click on the new channel this created, and with the selection still in tact, Gaussian Blur it accordingly.

Might I suggest, a series of blurs in succession, so that the edges falloff very smoothly.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 9 pixels
Then blur 6 pixels.
Then blur 6 pixels.
Then again, 3 pixels.
Then again, 3 pixels.
Then finally, only 1 pixel.

The height map you create here is key to the goodness of the final effect.

Tip:

If you have My Actions loaded, this blurring process can be done quickly and easily by pressing: F8 (blur 9px), F7 (blur 6px), F6 (blur 3px), F5 (blur 1px)

c) Once you deem your blurration fit for submission, press Ctrl+A to select the entire channel, then copy it to the clipboard Ctrl+C.

d) Create a new image (Ctrl+N), of the same size (800x800), and paste (Ctrl+V) the blurred channel into it. Now, save this image as a glass_bump.psd into the same folder you are working from. You may now close it if you wish.

3
a) Download this photo by right clicking on the link then selecting 'Save target as...'. Open the image in photoshop.

Note: This can also be done by clicking on the link, so that the full image loads in your web browser, then drag the photo off the browser into Photoshop.

b)Once the image is in Photoshop, Select All (Ctrl+A), copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl+C), then go to the original image glass.psd and paste it (Ctrl+V) onto a new layer.

This will be the image which the glass refracts. Let it be known as the 'Photo' layer.

Tip:

If you use your own photo instead of this one, such as pictures of water which look cool and refreshing, make sure that it is exactly the same size as the glass.psd, or else make sure that the edges of the Photo layer go beyond he edges of the image. Also, make sure you select the whole image (not layer) (Ctrl+A) before running the Glass filter, or else there will problems with the placement of the glass refraction. You will see.

4
a) With the Photo layer selected, select all (Ctrl+A), then go in the menu:

Filter > Distort > Glass...

b) From the texture dropdown, choose Load Texture...

Then select the bump map you saved earlier, glass_bump.psd, and press OK.

These sliders are self-explanatory, though for this demonstration I will use:

Distortion: 20
Smoothness: 8

The Invert option may also produce a desired effect.

When you're done here, press OK to apply the filter.

Note: Rendering the glass filter a second or third time on the same layer (Ctrl+F) may also produce desirable effects.

The following steps are entirely optional, and should be experimented with.

5
To fit the glass refraction inside the original form, hold down Alt, then move your mouse between the Type layer and the Photo layer, until a little icon with two intersecting circles replaces the cursor, then click.

This will use the Type layer transparency as a mask for the refracted Photo layer.

To disable this, click between the layers again holding down Alt.

6
a) Holding down Ctrl click the Type layer to select it's transparency. Click on the Photo layer, then create a new layer above it.

Fill the new layer with a dark color, such as black, by pressing X (to select Black as foreground color), and then Alt+Backspace (to fill). Then deselect (Ctrl+D).

Rename this layer 'Highlight', or something to this extent.

Set the blending mode for this layer to Overlay.

b) With the Highlight layer still selected, go in the menu:

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

Set your texture channel to the bump map created earlier (possibly Alpha 1), then setup some nice lights, according to the Lighting Effects tutorial.

Channel height set to 100 'Mountainous', may or may not look hoopy.

When this is done, perhaps even change the blending mode to Color Dodge, or Screen... whatever appears the most groovy to your pulsating eyeballs.

In addition to the Photo layer, try refracting a layer of black and white scan lines to produce highly detailed moire patterns. This tutorial can also be used to create chrome looking items. Throw down drop shadows, stone textures, disgruntled dots, and hopefully better effects you've come up with by now.

Massage the pixels thoroughly, until they stimulate your eyeballs in return, and be sure to experiment until the persistantly unfolding depths of your mind push you to the brink of madness.

Stitching Photos in Photoshop

Tutorial |

This tutorial will illustrate a flexible method with which to stitch together overlapping photos into a seamless panorama.

To download images, right click on the thumbnail and select, Save image as...

Save them all into a new folder called 'photostitch'.

Adobe Photoshop CS+ has a fuction called Photomerge which does this automatically.

00.

CS Photomerge

To compile these images with Photomerge,
download them to your computer, and then select:

File > Automate > Photomerge...
Select all the files from the 'photostitch' folder and then press OK.

As this function is quite sophisticated has been designed very simple to use, it is largely self-explanitory. Drag the images from the top bar into the big white box and align them and closely as possible- Photoshop will snap them together and do the rest.

Though if you look closely at a Photomerged panorama, you will notice that the quality of stitching is clumsy, and it has difficulty integrating images with different perspectives.

Thus Photomerge is a great feature for acheiving the gross effect of the panorama, though it fails to transcend an art of stitching, which this tutorial will demonstrate.

01.

Import & Align

a) Open all of the images to stitch together in Photoshop.

b) Select the center most image, in this case pan_03.jpg, and double click on the Background layer in the Layers palette, and rename it pan_03.

• Renaming the Background layer is key to enable alpha blending with that layer.

Image > Canvas Size...
Width: 600 percent
Height: 150 percent

c) Now increase the canvas size into hugeness.

• Since there are five images being merged together horizontally, increase the document width by at least 500% to give some room to play with.

• Now select: Window > Arrange > Tile Horizontally

d) Select the

Move tool by pressing V, then drag each of the images into the pan_03.jpg document,
and align them in the right order.

e) Rename the layers in the Layers palette to coorospond to their image names.
To rename a layer, double click on it's name.

• Order the layers so that the center most layer, pan_03, is on the bottom.

02.

Overlap & Rescale

a) Select the layer pan_04 (second from the right), by holding down Ctrl (

), and clicking on it.

b) Set the pan_04 layer opacity to 50% (press 5), and move it into place so that it overlaps the pan_03 layer.

• Look for a sharp point near the edge of where the images overlap, and align them perfectly. If the alignment is close, a pattern may emerge spiralling from the center point, illustrating the difference in the their rotation.

c) The pattern of alignment projecting from the center indicates a difference in scale, so to increase the size:

• Zoom out [ Ctrl (

) +

] on the document so that it's height is fully visible.

d) Press Ctrl (

) + T to free transform the layer, and drag the reference point (

) onto the point where the two images perfectly align.

• Holding the Shift key maintains the aspect ratio while scaling with free transform,
and holding down Alt uses the reference point as the central axis.

e) So holding down Alt + Shift, drag one of the corner handles

rescaling the layer to about 105%

If the the two photos being stitched together are uneven as a result of a camera tilt while taking the photos, now is the time to rotate the image with the reference point set to their perfect point of alignment.

f) Rotate it about

-1.5º

• Press ENTER to render the free transformation.

03.

Mask & Paint

Now it is key to decide what part of each image will be used. These two images have a significant amount of overlap, and some major variations, such as the angle of the stairs, because the camera taking these pictures was rotated.

In this case, the center image (pan_03) shows the full width of the staircase, so it is better to use this one for that portion of the image.

The object to watch for here is the post at the base of the banister- it is the largest perceptable object that the two images share, and will be the point of their transition.

a) Grab the

polygonal lasso tool (Shift + L), and draw a selection around the part of pan_04 to keep.

b) Press the

Add Layer Mask button on the layers palette to create a mask that reveals only that selection.

c) Set the pan_04 layer opacity to 100% (press 0)

Now if you look at the upper part of the image, the images still do not perfectly align as this camera distorts the incoming light depending on the angle it enters the lens. In the case of most situations this is unavoidable.

There is obvious tiling happening, and a sharp line is visible where the two images border.

The sharp line could have been avoided by feathering ( Ctrl + Alt + D ) the selection before adding a layer mask, but then the tiling would just be a blur.

d) To minimize this tiling effect,
select the

Brush Tool (B), and in the Brushes palette:
set the Diameter to about 50px,
and the Hardness to 0%

• Ensure that brush Opacity and Flow are both set to 100%

e) Select the layer mask by pressing ( Ctrl (

) + \ ) or by clicking on the layer's mask thumbnail in the Layers palette.

f) Press D to select White as the foreground color,
and Black as the background color,
and then press X to swap them so Black is foreground.

g) Now painting Black on the layer mask hides pixels, and painting White reveals them. So pressing X to alternate between colors, go all the way down the seem, painting on the layer mask to hide and reveal the image, until they merge without apparent seems.

• To reveal any inconsistencies, toggle the layer's visibility.

• To toggle seeing the layer mask overlay, press ( Alt + \ ).

Now repeat Steps 2 and 3 until the whole piece is stitched!

Masking a Tree

Tutorial |

Masking a Tree

This tutorial will demonstrate how to extract a clean mask from a photo of a tree set against a blue sky, using channels and levels, and then export the final result as a transparent .png. The general concepts may be intuitively applied to other applications.

First, download the tree photo on the left, and open it in Adobe Photoshop.

01.

Balancing the Channels

Open the Channels palette to inspect the various color channels.

Color channels tell how much of each color is in the image. An RGB image like this photo will contain 3 seperate color channels, one indicating the amount of Red, one for Green and one for Blue. White in a channel means that the color value is full (255), and black is empty (0).

Look for the channel with the highest contrast edge outlining the tree. The tree should be a flat color of very low contrast within the edge, and the backdrop should be white or quite light, also with low contrast. This way it will be easy to define the tree with an Alpha channel.

Because the sky is blue, the Blue channel will work well to start the mask.	Press Ctrl+3 to inspect the Blue channel.

On closer inspection, there are parts of the trunk which are considerably lighter than other parts of the tree. They are almost as light as parts of the sky. Only the sky should be white, otherwise parts of the trunk will appear transparent once the mask is applied. Since the color of the bark is generally more Red than the rest of the scene, use the Red channel to push back the mask.
a) Make a copy of the Blue channel by dragging it onto the New Channel ( ) button. Double click on the new channel and rename it Tree Alpha. b) Then make a copy of the Red channel, and make sure that it is selected. (Ctrl+5)
c) Adjust levels on the Red copy channel: Image > Adjustments > Levels... (Ctrl+L) Input Levels: 50 / 0.85 / 222 Now the idea here is to isolate the bark-regions which are too bright in the Blue channel. Then this channel will be used as a selection to darken the Tree Alpha channel. d) Drag the Red copy channel onto the Load channel as selection ( ) button.
e) Click on the Tree Alpha channel, and then press Ctrl+H to hide the selection so we can see what's happening. f) Now significantly darken the bark region. Image > Adjustments > Levels... (Ctrl+L) Input Levels: 120 / 1.2 / 255
With this method we use the Blue channel to create transparency, and the Red channel to make it more opaque.
When compositing the tree into another scene, the sky will want to be totally transparent, and the tree solid. So bump the shadows to black, and the sky to pure white. To do this:
g) Press Ctrl+D to clear the previous selection. h) Adjust levels on the Tree Alpha channel: Image > Adjustments > Levels... (Ctrl+L) Now slowly drag the white input level downwards until the whole sky turns white, and slowly drag the black input level upwards until most of the trunk and inner tree segments appear black. These settings work well in this case: Input Levels: 30 / 1 / 145
It may take a number of tries to find the perfect balance. Be mindful of what is happening throughout the image as the levels are adjusted. If the white levels get too low, thin parts of the branches will disappear into the sky. And if the black levels get too high, the sky will glow through the edges of the tree.
i) Invert the Tree Alpha channel (Ctrl+I) so that the tree appears white, and the sky black.

02.

Applying the Mask

a) Drag the Tree Alpha channel onto the
Load channel as selection (

) button.

b) Go to the Layers palette, and make a copy of the Background layer, by dragging it onto the
New layer (

) button.

Double click on the new layer Background copy, and rename it Tree.

c) Click Add layer mask (

) on the Layers palette to add the selection as a mask to the Tree layer.

d) Hide or Delete the original Background layer.

e) Click the little black and white thumbnail on the Tree layer to paint on the layer mask.

Isolate the trunk from the background hillside.

Use the Brush tool to make the hillside transparent by painting black on the layer mask

Use the Polygon Lassoo tool to select chunks of the hillside, and then fill them with black.

Make the foreground color black ( Ctrl+D ), and then to fill ( Alt+Backspace ) the selection with the forground color.

03.

Tweaking the Edges

a) Make a new layer ( ), drag it beneath the Tree layer, then paste a scene from the project it will composited into. Or else fill the background with an average color of the scene, or make a gradient behind the tree layer, to test the mask over a range of colors.
If the tree is moving from a light sky to somthing relatively darker, there may be a noticable outline surrounding it, as if it were glowing. There are a number of ways to correct this.
01: Adjust Mask Levels
a) Click the mask thumbnail on the Tree layer. Image > Adjustments > Levels... (Ctrl+L) Now bring the shadow levels way up to minimize the glowing edge, while watching the integrity of the smaller branches. Input Levels: 120 / 1.2 / 255
A lot of the smaller branches will disappear with this technique. Although it can be effective with other images, do not use it in this case.
02: Darken the Edges
A better way to fix the glowing edges of this tree is to darken the edges just inside the mask.
a) Hold down Ctrl and click on the Tree layer mask thumbnail to select the mask's transparency. b) Contract the selection by 1 pixel. Select > Modify > Contract... 1 pixel c) Invert the selection. Ctrl+Shift+I d) Create a Curves adjustment layer, by clicking on the Layers palette, and selecting Curves... Drag the lower part of the Curve down. Press OK.
e) Holding down Alt, move the mouse cursor between the Curves and Tree layers, until the cursor changes to two overlapping circles, and then click.
Doing this creates a clipping group, so that the Curves adjustment will only effect the Tree layer. In a clipping group, the bottom layer acts as a mask for the upper layers. Curving the edges so dark may create a noticable black line around the hard edges of the tree. This may be softened by Gaussian Blurring the Curves layer mask by one or two pixels. Though blurring the Tree layer mask may produce undesirably trippy results.

04.

Exporting

The next thing to do is either copy and paste the tree into another Photoshop image, or export it as a transparent .png file so that it can be imported into other programs such as Flash or 3Ds max.

a) Hide the background layer, in this case named Scene, by clicking on the little eye icon to the left of the layer so that it disappears.

01: To export .png

b) Press C for the Crop tool, and select a box around the tree, leaving a bit of margin around the edges.

Double click in part of the selection, or press Enter to apply the crop.

c) Export the File with Save for Web.

File > Save for Web... ( Alt+Shft+Ctrl+S )

Select the Settings: PNG-24
Enable Transparency.

02: To copy and paste

b) Select > All	( Ctrl+A )
c) Edit > Copy Merged	( Shft+Ctrl+C )
d) Switch to another Photoshop document
e) Edit > Paste	( Ctrl+V )

3D Pipe Planet

Tutorial |

A planet formed by pipes in a grid pattern.

1

Create a new document, fill the background with black then create a new layer.

2

On the new layer, use the Circular Marquee tool to select a circle in the center.

3

Add a Clouds filter (Filter> Render> Clouds).

4

Use the Mosaic filter (Filter> Pixelate> Mosaic) to pixelate the image.

5

Duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J) and change the blending mode to Screen.

6

On the top layer, distort the image using the Spherize filter (Filter> Distort> Spherize) with these settings:

Amount: 100%
Mode: Normal

7

Select the middle layer and apply the same filter but with this setting:

Amount: -100

8

Add a Glowing Edges filter (Filter> Stylize> Glowing Edges) using these settings:

Edge Width: 6
Edge Brightness: 20
Smoothness: 1

9

Repeat the filter (Ctrl+F) for the other pixelated layer.

10

Merge the top two layers (Ctrl+E).

11

Colorize the layer using the Hue/Saturation tool (Ctrl+U). These are the settings I used:

Hue: 200
Saturation: 100
Lightness: 0

12

Duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J) and change the blending mode to Overlay.

13

Blur the new layer slightly using the Gaussian Blur filter (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur).

14

Here is the result that I got.

Transform Fractals

Tutorial |

I am super stoked to share this knowledge.
This one is a Jedi level trick. It is a secret, until now, known only to a few.
After you bust the learning curve on a few simple steps you will be able to turn something like this...

into something like this........... in about one minute using only the Free Transform Tool.

Crazy, huh? Very Happy

1 - Open a new document.

2 - Create/Import an element you would like to fractalize on a new layer. For this
tutorial I am using a Xavi designed symbol that Phong built in 3D Studio Max for
the pod site. Place the element in the upper left hand corner so that it has room to spiral.

3 - Learning the hot keys for the Free Transform tool is the only way to make this technique flow properly.
So, on the layer that contains the element Free Transform Copy (Control/Alt T or Command/Option T for Mac).
Once the Transform square appears around your element hold Alt/Shift or Option/Shift and scale it down a hair.
Holding those keys maintains the aspect ratio of the element during scaling.

After that step grab the center crosshairs in the middle of the square and move it
down and to the right. Then rotate the element as shown in the image below. Now hit Return.

This will give you a new layer with the changes you have made. Now for the fun part!

4 - Hold down Control/AltShift or Command/Option/Shift and hit T.
Continue to hold down those three keys and hit T as fast as you can.
Why fast? Cause it's more fun! The gif below shows what will happen.

The tool remembers the math and continues to do the same
scaling and rotation to each successive layer. Muy powerful!

5 - Turn off the background layer by clicking the eye and merge visible (Control/Shift E or Command/Shift E).

6 - Turn background back on.

7 - Click on your spiral layer and duplicate it (Control J or Command J)
Then turn off the bottom one so you can use it some other time... could come in handy.
I usually save every step in this way so that I can go back and re do anything that doesn't
work to my liking. The same holds true for the steps that are coming up.

8 - Highlight top spiral layer, and scale it down. You may rotate it or flip it horizontally if desired.

9 - Now use the spiral you have created to make another spiral. Do this by using steps 3-6.

10 - Once you have the new hybrid spiral as one layer set the layer property to Lighten.
Most hot keys work best when the Lasso tool is active. So to avoid menu hunting hit L to
choose the Lasso tool then Alt/Shift G or Option/Shift G to change the layer Property to Lighten.

11 - Put your spiral in the upper lefthand corner of the canvas and Free Transform Copy (Control/Alt T
or Command/Option T). When tool appears right click and select Flip Horizontal, then hit return and slide the
copied, flipped spiral to the right until the shape pleases your eye or fills the horizontal space of the canvas.
Hold down the SHIFT key as you do this to keep both pieces level on the same horizontal plane.

12 - Merge layer down (Contol E or Command E).

13 - Free Transform Copy, right click, Flip Vertically, slide new layer down to desired spot and Merge down.

14 - Free Transform Copy, right click, Rotate 90 dregrees either direction and Merge Down.

After darkening the new fractal:ness with Curves (Control M or Command M) and hitting it
with a little Glamour Layer action it looks like this.

This is just a scratch on the surface of the magical Free Transform Tool.
Using different layer properties, opacities and generally experimenting like crazy
yields infinite results and can make hours of your day/night disappear in the blink of your third eye.

Starbursts

Tutorial |

1
Create a new image, and in the Layers window, make a new
layer.

Now, in the Photoshop tools bar, grab the Rectangular Marquee tool.

Make one thin selection spanning from the top of your image to the bottom. Then, holding down Shift, draw a few more vertical selections spanning from the top to the bottom of the image.

2
Now, select an appropriate foreground color for your starburst. I've chosen blue.

Fill the selection, by pressing Alt+Backspace, on the keyboard.

Deselect, by pressing Ctrl+D.

3
In the menu select:

Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates...

Select Rectangular to Polar, hit OK and enjoy!

ePlastic

Tutorial |

1
Create a new image, about 800x800 pixels large. Select the blue RGB(26,104,175) as the foreground color. Use the Type Tool to create an e, and resize it to fill most of the image. Working bigger is better.

This e is created with Times New Roman Bold + Italic.

2
Holding down Ctrl, click on the layer e, in the Layers window, to select it's transparency. Next, create a new
Layer , contract the selection by about 16 pixels.

Select > Modify > Contract... 16 Pixels

3
Select White as the foreground color, and fill the selection. Alt+Backspace

Remove the selection Ctrl+D, and Gaussian Blur the layer by 16 pixels.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 16 Pixels

Then, Gaussian Blur it again by 8 pixels, and then by 4 pixels.

Note: The Color Dodge blending mode behaves differntly in versions 6+.

if ( Photoshop v. <= 5.5 )
Set the Layer's Opacity to 52%, and the Blending Mode to Color Dodge.

else if ( Photoshop v. >= 6 )
Keep the layer's Opacity at 100%, set the Blending Mode to Color Dodge, then double click on the layer in the layer's window, and deselect the red channel in the Advanced Blending box.

4
Now, hold down Ctrl, and in the Layers window, click on the layer e, to select it's transparency.

In the Channels window, press the Save Selection as channel button. Now, click on the new Channel it created.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 16 Pixels

Then, Gaussian Blur it again by 8 pixels, 4 pixels, and finally 2 pixels.

Invert the selection Ctrl+Shift+I, clear the selection with black Del, and finally Deselect.

5
Go back to the Layers window. Hold down Ctrl, and click on the e Layer, again, to select it's transparency.

Create and new layer , and drag it above the Inner Glow Layer.

Select the new layer, fill the selection with black, and rename the layer Highlights. Check on Preserve Transparency, and set the blending mode to Screen.

6
With the Highlights layer selected, go:

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

Click here to see the Lighting effects window.

Set the Material Properties to:
Gloss: 79
Material: -37
Exposure: 56
Ambience: -100

Change the Texture Channel to Alpha 1, or the channel you were working on before, and it's Height to 100. Create a directional light, Intensity 32, so that the lighting covers most of the the e, but the brightest parts are still on the edges.

When the Lighting Effects is done, Gaussian Blur the layer by 3 pixels, to get rid of the levels.

7
Now this is the step where you can use your own artistic freedom.

Image > Adjust > Curves...

The curves window will begin with a straight line. Click any place on the line to create a new point, and drag the points to move them. Use my curves (seen on the left), for the most plasticy effect.

8
Throw down a blue dropshadow (since the light is flowing through the clear plastic), and it's finished!

Tips a)
ePlastic looks great in other colors, too! Try a more desaturated blue, or dark green, and orange.

b) Adjust the contrast on the Highlights layer for a more defined reflection, and you get gPlastic

Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast

CanadaType & TypeTrust New Fonts

Font |

7 high resolution smoke brushes by ro-stock. Brushset for Photoshop 7 and higher.

Download here

Photoshop Animation Website Banner Ad Tutorial

Tutorial |

Here I am telling you about how to make Animation Website Banner Ad

[1]-First of all Open New Document of Custom size,Height & Width 370×423 pixels,Resolution 72 & Mode RGB Color

[2]-Now fill the Background with any color & then Open New Layer & create the following selection with the help of Elliptical
Marquee Tool

[3]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings

[4]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings

[5]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[6]-Now create the following Dollar Sign with the help of Text Tool

[7]-Now go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[8]-Now select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Bevel & Emboss feature

[9]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings

[10]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[11]-Now create the following selection with the help of Magic Wand Tool & after that Hide the text Layer

[12]-Now select Layer1 & then press Delete & your image should look like as shown below

[13]-Now select Text Tool & then create the following Text

[14]-Now go to Blending Options & then select Drop Shadow & use the following settings

[15]-Now select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings

[16]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings

[17]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[18]-Now go to Window>Animation & then create the Duplicate Frame with the help of Click on following Button which is indicating
by Hand sign

[19]-Now select Frame-1 & then Hide the following Layers with the help of Remove the Eye Sign which is indicating by Hand sign

[20]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[21]-Now select Frame-2 & then Hide the following Layers

[22]-Now create the following adjustment with the help of Move Tool & your image should look like as shown below

[23]-Now make the Tween Frames with the help of Click on following Button which is indicating by Hand sign

[24]-Now use the following Time settings in Tweens

[25]-Now Play the Animation with the help of Click on following Button which is indicating by Hand sign

[26]-Now go to File>Save for Web & Device & save your image

[27]-Thanks for read this Photoshop Tutorial.I hope U have enjoyed & the Final Output of this Tutorial is shown below

batch watermark photoshop

bend text in photoshop

best photoshop tutorials

Drawing Night Lamp Tutorial

Tutorial |

Here I will teach you about Photoshop Drawing Night Lamp Tutorial

Lets read & understand of the following steps

[1]-First of all Open New Document of Custom size,Height & Width 450×450 pixels,Resolution 72 & Mode RGB Color

[2]-Now Open New Layer & then Create the following selection with the help of Pen Tool

[3]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings

[4]-Now select Contour Elements & use the following settings

[5]-Now your image should look like as shown below & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee
Tool

[6]-Now Open New Layer & then fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options select INNER SHADOW
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Inner Shadow features

[7]-Now your image should look like as shown below & then rotate the following Shape with the help of Ctrl+T,Press ENTER

[8]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool

[9]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options, select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings

[10]-Now select Contour Elements & use the following settings

[11]-Now your image should look like as shown below & then create the following selection with the help of Rectangular Marquee
Tool

[12]-Now Open New Layer (this Layer should below all layers) & then fill the selection with any color & after that go to
Blending Options,select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings

[13]-Now select COntour Elements & use the following settings

[14]-Now your image should look like as shown below & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee
Tool

[15]-Now Open New Layer & then fill the selection with any color & then create the following selection with the help of
Elliptical Marquee Tool & then press DELETE

[16]-Now go to Blending Options select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings

[17]-Now select Contour Elements & use the followings settings

[18]-Now select Texture Elements & use the following settings

[19]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings

[20]-Now your image should look like as shown below & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool

[21]-Now Open New Layer & then fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Bevel & Emboss & use the
folloiwng settings

[22]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings

[23]-Now Create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool & then press Delete & after that open New Layer
& fill the selection with any color

[24]-Now go to Blending Options, select INNER SHADOW & use the following settings

[25]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings

[26]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[27]-Now make the Duplicate Layer with the help of Ctrl+J & then adjust with the help of Move Tool.Thanks for read this Photoshop
Tutorial.I hope U have enjoyed & the Final Output of this Tutorial is shown below

bubble effect in photoshop

bubble letters in photosho

Blend Techniques With Selective Color Layers

Tutorial |

1.Open an image. I choose this one.

2.Go to Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Selective Color and set numbers as below:

Your image will look like this

3.Go to New Adjustment Layer again and set numbers as below:

After this step, this is your image:

4.Then apply this texture. Set blend mode to Softlight.

5.Use this texture. Set blend option to Lighten. Then apply Layer Mask on this layer.

6.Still working on this layer. Choose Gradient Tool (G)

I choose that direction. You can choose another direction to drag. It’s up to you.

Then you will have something like this:

7.You can stop at step 6 or move on. Open a picture of a daydreaming girl. I choose this Chinese girl. Separate her from background and drag her to the picture by Move Tool (V). Her layer must be under 2 selective color layers and 2 texture layers.

8.You can stop here and add brushes and texts if you want and done. But I continue here. Go to Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Curves and set two points in the RGB setting:

It will turn darker.

9.Create a Selective Color Layer again with these numbers:

And we’ll get this. It doesn’t change much the color, it just makes the picture darker. So you can miss this step if you want.

10.Apply Waves Brush to a layer with blend mode is Softlight and Opacity 80%. Then go to Layer/Layer Style/Outer Glow like image below

11.Now, to smoother the girl, I duplicate the Chinese girl layer, set blend mode to Softlight. Next, choose the original layer, go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur and set radius about 0.4 to 0.9. Now I have.

Add some texts and brushes to your work

And here is my final result. (click on the picture below to see full size)

Photoshop Nike Sports Cap

Tutorial |

Today I am telling you about How to Create Photoshop Nike Sports Cap Icon

[1]-First of all Open New Document of Custom size,Height & Width 450×450 pixels,Resolution 72 & Mode RGB Color

[2]-Now Open New Layer & then Create the following shape with the help of ‘Pen Tool’ right click select ‘Make Selection’

[3]-Now use the following settings in Make Selection

[4]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[5]-Now Fill the selection with ‘f4ebd9′ color & then select ‘Burn Tool’ & create the following
Shading like as shown below

[6]-Now select ‘Dodge Tool’ & Highlight the some parts like as shown below

[7]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Pen Tool

[8]-NOw fill the selection with any color & then create the some Shading with the help of Burn Tool & after that create the
following selection with the help of Pen Tool

[9]-Now Open New Layer & then fill the selection with ‘fdfaf3′color & then select ‘Burn Tool’ & create
the following shading like as shown below

[10]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Pen Tool

[11]-Now fill the selection with ‘fdfaf3′color & then create the some Shading with the help of Burn Tool & your image should look
like as shown below

[12]-Now set the ‘000000′color in Forground & then set the 5 pxl Brush & then Open New Layer & create the following shape
with the help of “Pen Tool” right click select Stroke Path

[13]-Now use the following settings

[14]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[15]-Now like this create the other lines & your image should look like as shown below & after that set the 1 pxl Brush &
select fdafaf3′color in Forground

[16]-Now create the other lines with the help of Pen Tool & Brush Tool & after that Open New Layer & create the following
selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool

[17]-Now fill the selection with ‘ea7075′color & then go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[18]-Now highlight the some parts with the help of “Dodge Tool” & your image should look like as shown below

[19]-Now select Brush Tool & use the following Brush & settings

[20]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following shape with the help of Pen Tool,right click select Stoke Path

[21]-Now use the following settings in Stroke Path

[22]-Now your image should look like as shown below

[23]-Now go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[24]-Now select Stroke Structure & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Stroke Structure feature

[25]-Now like this create the others & your image should look like as shown below

[26]-Now Open New Layer & then select Custom Shape Tool & use the following shape

[27]-Now create the following shape with the help of Custom Shape Tool,select Pen Tool & then right click select Make Selection

[28]-In Make Selection Feather Radius sould ‘0′pixel,tick on New Selection & then OK.Your image should look like as shown below

[29]-Now fill the selection with any color & then rotate & little Distort the following shape with the help of Ctrl+T & then
press ENTER & after that create any Text with the help of Text Tool

[30]-See below for Final Photoshop Output.I hope this is a good tutorial & U can use these Photoshop Techniques in your
Graphics Design Project

adobe photoshop 7 tutorial

adobe photoshop bubble

adobe photoshop cs2 text

Photoshop Slime Tutorial

Tutorial |

Slime

1. Open a new file in Adobe Photoshop, size 300px by 300px (or any size, just not too small).

2. Make a new layer, and draw some black squiggly lines. Make sure they’re not too dense and they’re not at the bottom.

3. Filter- Distort- Polar Coordinates- Polar to Rectangular. This will be the basis of your slime shape, so if it doesn’t look right to you, undo a couple steps and redraw the black lines.

4. Go to Filter- Distort- Plastic Wrap, and change the settings to Highlight: 15, Detail: 9, and Smoothness: 7.

5. Go to Filter- Noise- Add Noise. The settings should be 5, Gaussian, and Monochromatic. You don’t want too much noise- just enough to add some chunky texture to your slime. ;) Then go to Filter- Noise- Despeckle and Filter- Noise- Despeckle (you’re doing it twice). This is so the noise is blurred out, but it doesn’t blur out the whole picture like a Gaussian Blur would.

6. Now we’re going to make this slime green! Press control + u to open the Hue/Saturation box and check Colorize. Change the numbers to 90, 80, and 40 (or whatever looks good to you).

7. Duplicate the layer (Layer- Duplicate Layer) and click on the bottom one. Go to Filter- Blur- Motion Blur and change the number to 90 and click ok. Now it looks like your slime is dripping! Eww!

And here’s our final product:

Photoshop Flower Design Tutorial

Tutorial |

Flower Design

1. Open a new file in Photoshop size 300 x 300 (any size works, but that’s the size used in the tutorial). Fill in the background with a lightish color.

2. Change your color to black, make a new layer, and use the circle tool to “draw” (click and drag while holding the shift key, then let go) a circle that overlaps over the whole canvas and is slightly down from the top. Change the layer style to Overlay and the opacity to 50%.

Repeat two more times, lowering where you draw the circle each time (note: they must all be on new layers!)

3. Make a new layer and change your color to white. Find a flower in the custom shapes and draw some of varying sizes.

Make a new layer and repeat with a couple bigger flowers (change to a different style flower), drop the opacity to around 20%, and change the layer style to Overlay.

4. Make a new layer and use the line tool (hold down shift) to make straight vertical white lines (1px wide) that are close together. Go to Layer- Duplicate Layer and then move each layer to a side.

5. It looks kind of weird now, but it’ll look better in a second! Pick one of the layers (I used the left side) and go to Filter- Distort- Shear. There should be a box with a vertical line in it and grids in the background. Click on the bottom right corner of the first box and the upper left corner of the last box (you’re making an S curve).

Change the layer style to Overlay.

6. Click on the other layer with the vertical lines from before, and then go to Filter- Distort- Ripple. Change the settings to -900% and medium. Change the layer style to Soft Light, and use a size 100px or so brush to erase one side of it (hold down shift so you get a straight line) so it looks like it’s fading in.

And there you have it! You can use this for pretty designs, backgrounds of things, part of a layout, etc. Here’s another example:

Photoshop Layout Tutorial #2- Bird Layout Tutorial

Tutorial |

This tutorial is going to teach you how to make a corner layout that would look best using a background with a column that matches up to the layout.

1. I’m using a picture of this cute little birdy from sxc.hu. Open the image (or any image you choose) in Photoshop and go to Edit- Define Pattern. Then make a new file about size 500 by 400 unless your picture is a lot bigger/smaller.

2. Make a new layer. Use some grunge brushes to make an area in the upper left corner that will be for your picture. Double click the layer, click on Pattern Overlay, and click on your pattern when you find it. If your brushing was too big or small, add or erase as needed.

3. Make a new layer just above the background and merge the bird layer (or whatever your picture is) down to the new layer so that it eliminates the fuss of a layer style.

4. Go to Filter- Sharpen. Duplicate the bird layer and change the blending mode to Exclusion at 30% opacity. It will look better soon!

5. Click on the first bird layer, and go to Image- Adjustments- Curves- Preset- Lighter (RGB).

6. Make a new layer over the second bird layer, and use some brushes in white to add some flair around the main object of the picture (in this case, the bird’s head). Here and Here.

7. Make a new layer and fill it with #33ff00 (lime green). Set the blending mode to Luminosity at 35% opacity.

8. Make a new layer in color #cc6699 (a subdued magenta). Change the blending mode to Darker Color and 15% opacity.

9. Make a new layer with a low-opacity white box, and use grunge brushes to erase the edges to soften it.

10. Add your site name (I used custom shapes to draw a rectangle, then I put text over it, and finally I merged the two layers and used the transform tool to angle it) or any other text.

You can also see how a layout like this would look as a blog:

Now all it needs is a background to continue down the column! (:

Photoshop Black iPod Tutorial

Tutorial |

iPod

iPods are awesome, but the black ones look the coolest, and it’s not that hard to make one from scratch in Photoshop.

1. Make a new image about 250px by 360px. Make a new layer and, using the rounded rectange tool, fill up most of the space with a black rectangle (only leave a few pixels around the edges so there’s room for shadows later on).

Apply the following layer styles (double click on the layer):
Drops shadow-
Blend mode: multiply, black
Opacity: 60%
Angle: 119
Distance: 3px
Spread: 0px
Size: 9px

So this is what you should have:

2. Next, make a new layer and drag it underneath the other one. Take a size 9px soft round brush and draw a line at the top and bottom of the ipod so only part of the line shows (the soft part). Lower the layer’s opacity to 60%.

3. Take the Polygonal Lasso Tool and draw a diagonal line from off the top of the ipod in about 30px and down off the ipod to the bottom right corner. Then just draw a line up, then across to connect the triangle.

Use the gradient tool on a new layer (standard black and white one) and draw a gradient from the bottom of the ipod to the top, holding down shift. Change the blending mode of the layer to Screen, and lower the opacity to 60%.

4. Press control and u to bring up the Hue/Saturation screen. Check Colorize and change the settings as follows, since ipods have a bluish tint:

Hue: 227, Saturation: 14, Lightness: -27

5. Make a new layer (haha, everything always goes on new layers ) and use the rounded rectangle tool again to make a black rectangle about half the size of the ipod at the top. This is part of the screen.

Adding the following settings for drop shadow in the layer styles:
Opacity: 26%, Angle: 119, Distance: 1px, Spread: 0px, Size: 1px

6. Make another new layer. Use the regular rectangle tool to draw a white rectangle over the black one, leaving a few pixels around all sides.

7. Make a new layer and make a black circle on it with the shape tool. Press control and u, check colorize, and match these settings:
Hue: 220, Saturation: 100, Lightness: 1

Now adding a gradient to the layer style with these settings (all the others set at their default):
Opacity: 23%, Angle: 119

8. Make a new layer with a small black circle in the center of the other circle.

9. Type the word ‘Menu’ in white Arial text, or Myriad Pro if you have it, and move it to the top of the outside circle.

10. With white as your color, use the polygon tool (sides: 3) and line tool (2px) to copy the shapes I have below. You could also use the font Webdings to get some of the play, forward, etc, buttons (9 is for forward, then you can just copy the layer and flip horizontally with free transform).

11. All that’s left is to add a picture of your favorite band (go Paramore!). Use the Free Transform tool to get it as close as possible to the right size, then select the parts that hang over with the Rectangular Marquee Tool and press the delete key on your keyboard. Done! =)

Photoshop Lollipop Tutorial

Tutorial |

Lollipop

1. Open a new photoshop file, any size. Click on the marquee tool and change it to a circle, then holding down shift, draw a circle on your canvas. Fill it in with any color. Drop the opacity to around 85%.

2. Make a new layer. Click on the circular marquee tool again and draw a smaller circle on top of the other one, leaving at least an 1/8 ” border on all sides. It should basically only take up the top 3/4 of the big circle.

Click on the gradient tool and go to the Gradient Editor (click on the rectangle at the top of the screen with the gradient).

Click on the second gradient (the one that’s half transparent) and change the first color to white and the second should be transparent.

Click and drag your mouse across the length of the circle in a relatively straight line. Press control d (deselect) and lower the opacity to 75%.

3. Make a new layer. Click on the circular marquee tool and draw a circle that’s about the same size as the big one, but it doesn’t have to be exactly on top of it. Then at the top of the screen with the overlapping boxes, click on the third one (subtract from selection). Now draw a circle that overlaps the one you just made so it leaves only a crescent selected. Move it to the upper left corner.

Fill it in with the same white-transparent gradient you used before, and drop the opacity to 75%.

4. Your canvas should be big enough to fit a lollipop stick. If it isn’t, just take the crop tool, select your whole canvas, then drag down the bottom arrow and double click.

Click on the background layer and make a new layer (this is just so it’s under the lollipop candy part). Change the marquee tool to the rectangular marquee tool and draw a thin, long rectangle that overlaps half of your lollipop.

Click on the gradient tool once more and make one that’s dark brown, light brown, and dark brown. Holding down shift, draw a line that goes across the width of your lollipop stick only. Press control d.

Voila!!

Also try it with a gray stick instead of brown.

Photoshop Silver Locket Icon

Tutorial |

Today I will tell you about How we can Create Photoshp Silver Locket Icon

[1]-First of all Open New Document of Custom size,Height & Width 400×400 pixels,Resolution 72 & Mode RGB Color

[2]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool

[3]-Now fill the selection with ‘d1d1d1′color & then go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[4]-Now select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Bevel & Emboss feature

[5]-Now open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool

[6]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Inner Glow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Inner Glow feature

[7]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Gradient Overlay feature

[8]-Now select Stroke Structure & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Stroke Structure feature

[9]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool

[10]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[11]-Now select Gradient Overlay & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Gradient Overlay feature

[12]-Now select Stroke Structure & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Stroke Structure feature

[13]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Polygonal Lasso Tool

[14]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[15]-Now select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Bevel & Emboss feature

[16]-Now select Satin Structure & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Satin Structure feature

[17]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Rectangular Marquee Tool

[18]-Now fill the selection with any color & then go to Blending Options,select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Bevel & Emboss feature

[19]-Now Open New Layer & then select Custom Shape Tool & use the following Shape & Settings

[20]-Now create the following Shape with the help of Custom Shape Tool,right click select Make Selection

[21]-In Make Selection “Feather Radius” should ‘0′ pixels,tick on New Selection & then Ok.Your image should look like as
shown below

[22]-Now fill the selection with ‘e3e3e3′color & then go to Blending Options,select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Bevel & Emboss feature

[23]-Now make the Duplicate Layer with the help of Ctrl+J & then Rotate with the help of Ctrl+T & then press ENTER

[24]-Now just like above step Create the Other Duplicate Layers & then rotate with the help of Ctrl+T & after that set
the 3 pxl Brush,Open New Layer & create the following Shape with the help of ‘Pen Tool’ right click select Stroke Path

[25]-In Stroke Path select ‘Brush’ & then Ok & after that go to Blending Options, Drop Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Drop Shadow feature

[26]-select Bevel & Emboss & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Bevel & Emboss feature

[27]-See below for Final Photoshop Output of this Tutorial.I hope this is a good tutorial & u can use these Photoshop Techniques
in your Graphics Design Project

animated gif photoshop cs3

animated gif using photoshop

animated photoshop

Replicate Justin Timberlake’s Lovestoned Music Video

Tutorial |

Intro

I may not be a Justin Timberlake fan (although the I Think That She Knows interlude is pretty awesome), but I can appreciate the stunning graphics in his music video for LoveStoned. This tutorial will be teaching you how to replicate some of the amazing lighting effects using in the video using nothing but good old Photoshop.

You can view the original music video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIYXHLlxD8U

Final Image

This is the final image that we will be creating:

Step 1

Create a new document (1024 X 768 px) and fill it with black.

Step 2

Paste in an image of a volume equalizer. I found this image from here (http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1016857). I selected the black background of the image using the magic wand tool and deleted it (despite it matching our main background). Then I click in the area surrounding the equalizer image and invert my selection so that only the rectangular shapes making up the equalizer image are selected. Then I fill this selection with light blue (80D2FC). To save my using the paint bucket tool and filling each rectangle shape, I create a linear gradient ranging from 80D2FC to 80D2FC at 100% and then just drag from the top to the bottom of my selected equalizer to fill all the rectangles. Finally I duplicate this layer, and go to edit>transform>flip vertical, then move the flipped image so that it mirrors the original.

Step 3

I merge my original/flipped equalizer images and then rotate the new layer by 90 degrees. Then I copy and paste this image multiple times, fitting each together until I have a very long equalizer image. I merge all layers, and resize the final image so that I have something like the image below:

Step 4

Now I duplicate my equalizer image, and go to edit>transform>scale. I use the transform options bar to move my duplicate image 200px to the right of my original - this way I can be very precise instead of needing to use the grid of judging it by eye.

Step 5

Now I use the same technique to move my duplicate image 200px to the right. I then go back to my original equalizer image and move this 200px to the left, and then repeat this step again to move another duplicate a further 200px left. Then I merge all of my equalizer layers.

Step 6

Then I go to edit>transform>perspective and drag one of the top corners of my image towards the center until I’m happy with the result. Then go squash my image vertically, as the bars were looking a little too fat and I wanted them thinner. Finally I moved my image up so that the bottom of the bars weren’t touching the bottom of my document.

Step 7

I go to layer>add layer mask>reveal all, and then drag a black to transparent linear gradient upwards, to fade out the bottom of my equalizers.

Step 8

Now I grab a large, soft, white brush and make some markings on a new layer above my equalizer layer. Then I set the layer’s blend mode to overlay. The result is a nice subtle lighting effect over my equalizers.

Step 9

Now select your equalizer layer and apply the outer glow settings shown below. Then reduce your equalizer layer’s opacity to around 50%.

Step 10

Now duplicate your equalizer layer, and move the duplicate below the original. Apply a 50px gaussian blur, and then set the layer blend mode to ‘hard light’ and reduce it’s opacity to around 30%.

Step 11

Now select your layer mask on the original equalizer layer and fade out the top of your equalizer.

Step 12

Now create a new top layer called ‘clouds’. Select all and fill it with black. Then go to filter>render>clouds. Set the layer blend mode to ‘color dodge’.

Step 13

Duplicate your clouds layer and you should get a much more intense effect. Then select your equalizer layer and select around your equalizer shapes using the magic wand tool. Then invert your selection so that the equalizers are selected. Return to your second cloud layer and hit delete, then reduce the opacity of this duplicate cloud layer to 10%. You should have an eerie looking mist around the ends of your equalizers. It’s looking pretty good so far, but the clouds have created an effect similar to the outer glow. The problem with this is that where the equalizers fade out near the bottom of the images the clouds are too obvious, and create a strange outline. We want this outline near the tops of our equalizers, so simply select a large, soft eraser brush and brush away around the bottom of the equalizers on both of your cloud layers.

Step 14

Create a new layer. Now grab your paintbrush, and set it to a large size, 0% hardness and 100% opacity and paint in some large spots of light (color: 77D1FF). Then reduce this layer’s opacity to 30%.

Step 15

Now duplicate your original cloud layer and move it above your large paintbrush layer. The layer blending mode should still be color dodge. Then reduce your paintbrush layer’s opacity to 20% and your cloud layer’s opacity to 45%. To get rid of the circular outlines from your low opacity brush markings, go to filter>blur>motion blur and apply a motion blur of around 200.

Step 16

Now paste an image of a man standing up into the center of your image. I found my image here: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/912668. Cut out the man using the magic wand tool or lasso tool. Then change the layer’s blending mode to ’soft light’ and use a large, soft eraser brush to erase away his feet, letting him subtly merge into the equalizers.

Step 17

Now duplicate your man photo layer and change the layer blending mode back to normal. Then select around the light parts of the photo, in this case his face and shirt. Then with this area selected invert your selection and hit delete, deleting the rest of the image surrounding his face/shirt. Then finally select his tie and delete this. The parts that you have deleted will allow the dark ’soft light’ layer to show through.

Step 18

Now with your light areas of the man photo layer selected go to image>adjustments>desaturate. Then apply the color balance settings shown below:

Step 19

Now go back to your original equalizer layer and select the middle bar using the lasso tool. Copy it onto a new top layer above your man photo layer and resize it so that it is about 30% of the height of your man. Then duplicate this layer multiple times, going to edit>transform>flip vertical, and positioning the images until they completely cover your man.

Step 20

Now merge all of your duplicated small equalizer layers together, and go to image>adjustments>brigthness/contrast and make your brightness -100 and contrast +100 to make your equalizer images black. We want a rough selection that follows some of the shape of these small equalizer images, but currently the image is too blurry to select around it well. To fix this I go to filter>sharpen more and then use the magic wand tool with 50 tolerance to select roughly around some of the shapes. Then I invert my selection and hide my small equalizer layer. The trick now is to delete this selected area from your man photo layer and light face/shirt layer. However, too much of each layer would be deleted if you simply hit delete - for instance you want to retain most of the face. Therefore use the eraser brush, set to around 20% opacity to erase some areas of this selection more than others. I erased the face very little, but erased the man’s shirt quite a lot. Then I selected the original man photo layer and erased some of the edges of his suit, leaving other parts untouched.

Step 21

Now create a new top layer and use your path tool to draw a winding path across your man. Making sure that your current brush is 1px in size, 100% hardness and B6FEFE color with your path tool selected right click on your path and click ’stroke path’. Then I go to edit>transform>scale and reduce the height of my path a little to squash it down. Finally I duplicate this layer and move the new layer a few pixels beneath the original. I reduce the width of the duplicate path line layer so that the lines are slightly different and distinct.

Step 22

I merge my two line layers together and then apply the outer glow settings shown below. Then I grab a large, soft eraser brush and fade out the right edge of both lines. I reduce the layer’s opacity to 80%.

Step 23

I use the edit>transform>scale tool to squash my lines vertically a little more, and the move my line layer beneath my man photo layer. Then I delete the parts of the lines that are showing through my man’s legs, making it appear that they are now traveling behind him. Now I create a new layer above my pen lines layer and using my paintbrush paint some white brush strokes over certain parts of my lines. I reduce the opacity of my brush to fade out the edges of these white brush marks subtly. Then I set this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’, giving the lines a nice lighting effect.

And We’re Done

Click the finished image below to see the full-sized version.

Model portfolio layout

Tutorial |

Open a new document in Photoshop

Then open the following texture image in Photoshop. The name of the texture is: rocks-concrete-(34).jpg
Please note that you need the high resolution texture, and not the following thumbnail

After you open the texture in Photoshop, you need to select “Move tool” , and with this tool, you can drag the texture image on your layout

document.After that you can drag , and change the size of the texture until you are happy with the placement. here it is what i have

Now i will press on CTRL+U ( hue saturation ) , and i will use the following settings

I will go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen more
Then i will press CTRL+F ( with this shortcut i will repeat the filter one more time )

This is my result so far

With Rounded rectangle tool, i will create some shapes, with different colors

Now i will add a stock image with a very beautifull girl.

I will select Polygon Tool, and i will use the following settings

I will set my foreground color to #ca0000, then i will create a few triangles, and i will place them on my buttons

on this buttons i will place some text, and some numbers

you can see that the numbers have another opacity. to change the opacity for this layer, you need to select the layer, then you can change the opacity value to 20 %

Now i will add some text, and some images on my layout alone. this is my result so far

I will create a new layer right above the texture layer. to create a new layer in that place, first you need to select the texture layer, then press on CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+N

Grab brush tool, then use a big smooth brush

with this brush make a simple point on your layout

Now you can change the blending mode for this layer to Overlay

I hope you like my final result.

As you can see a good texture image can change the overla look of the layout. If you want to

Giving a Mafia-Look to a Business Photo

Tutorial |

Print advertisements - is one of the most interesting kinds of advertisement known. It attracts your attention by means of interesting effects and bright, clever and striking slogans. One of those attracted my attention lately. We often notice interesting prints in different places. The good and reasonable combination of the idea and its clever realization brings striking effect. From time to time, when I see interesting prints, I think that it is possible to make something resembling those at home using Photoshop. My last impression is this advertisement:

I found out that this advertisement has been made by the team Stanescu/Dumitrescu/Pilat for the Mccann Erickson Agency. This print won the 8th edition of AdPrint festival in the nomination Best Use of Copywriting. So, I decided to create something of that sort and make a detailed step-by-step instruction of my work. My aim was to create special mood, which is slightly alike with that seen in original, and texture using Photoshop tools. Here’s the result:

I needed a photo of a girl to work with. I found the one necessary using the search on the www.bigstockphoto.com. I have chosen a matched photo from those presented on the website according to the query “business attractive young girl”.

The first step of my work is to create a new document with black background sized 700px by 900px. Place the photo of a model so that the girl would be visually in the centre of the document.

Now you should delete the background of the photo. To delete the background use extraction using Path tool or any other tool you got used to. Note that the cutting should be made carefully so that the photo could look good on any background of any color.

Now give the image a milder texture by means of laying Surface Blur Filter (Filter>Blur>Surface Blur). Select necessary parameters: Radius - 3pixels, Threshold - 6 levels. This effect will visually smooth the image and it will also hide slight defects of the cutting.

The next step is desaturating the image (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate). Afterwards you should deepen the image and give it some intensity. Make the light fields more intensive, as well as those dark too. Go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color. Select Colors: Blacks, set Whites to -100% and select Colors: Whites, set Blacks to +53%. Press Оk.

Now give the photo some azure, it will give your work the effect of slight coldness. Use Photo Filter (Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter). Set the necessary parameters for the Filter you use: Color#266850, Density 70%.

You should blur a little the shapes of a girl on the photo. Use Gaussian Blur Filter (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur), sized 5px. To reach the effect needed you should edit the photo using Fade Gaussian Blur (Edit>Fade Gaussian Blur). Set the following parameters: Opacity - 29%, Mode - Linear Light. Now add a little texture using Film Grain Filter (Filter>Artistic>Film Grain). Also set: Highlight Area 3 and Intensity 3.

Add more details. Duplicate layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer…), set 40% opacity and use Brush Strokes (Filter>Brush Strokes>Angled Strokes). Set the following parameters: Direction Balance 77, Stroke Length 8, and Sharpness 2. Merge Down layers (Layer>Merge Down).

Now the shapes of the girl look the way they should according to my idea. We also should point out some element on the photo to make our girl more “mafia-looking” as it was in the original. Let it be the girl’s tie in our case. So, go to the Paths (Window>Paths). Press the button and create a new Path. Use Pen tool to draw out the tie.

Click the right button of your mouse and choose Path>Make Selection. Go back to the layers (Window>Layers). Copy the selected (Edit>Copy). Then you should create the new layer (Layer>New>Layer) and paste the selected from the clipboard (Edit>Paste). Now set foreground color #000000 and background color #880000. Draw Linear Gradient from right to left.

Add some more details: give some intensity and texture to the tie. Use Noise Filter (Filter>Noise>Add Noise) sized 3px. Now add Angeled Strokes (Filter>Artistic>Angeled Strokes). Set parameters: Direction Balance 77, Stroke Length 8, and Sharpness 2.

Create new Layer (Layer>New>Layer). As a next step, create Clipping Mask (Layer>Create Clipping Mask). Now Draw Linear Gradient (Foreground to Transparent) from the bottom of the tie to its middle. Make sure that the foregroud color is #2e1b1c. Now choose a Brush sized 30px-40px and move on the left from a tie so that the left part of the tie was affected a little to get a necessary overtone.

We got the effect needed. Now we need to make a frame and add some text. Download the font and install it into the folder Fonts in Windows. Add the text (”the painted one”) sized 45px to the top.

Now you should choose the bands. Choose #e2e2e2 color and draw a line from the left top angle to the middle of the photo using 1px pencil. Then use Motion Blur (Filter>Blur>Motion Blur) with Distance 100 and Angle 0 degrees. Delete little piece on the left.

Draw a line from the right down angle to the middle of the photo using 1px pencil. To make two vertical lines use grade angle 90 degrees.

So, we seem to finish our work. We have successfully made mafia-style girl from a business-looking one. Now you see that you are able to create an interesting work on a basis of a usual photo from any clipart. You should just have enough patience, instructions from this tutorial and some inspiration. Don’t be shy - do it! J. Good luck in your work!

Speed Up Your Photoshop Workflow

Tips |

If you’re a designer, the quality of your work must be paired with a reasonable amount of time for its completion. Working under tight deadlines and the competition on the market are just a few factors that should convince you that speed is important. And then, if you can do the same work in less time, it means you can use the gained time more effectively: for planning, for self-promotion or even for some fun!

Here are a few useful tips that you can use to speed up your Photoshop workflow:

1. Use Shortcuts

The best and easiest thing you can do to work faster is to use as many shortcuts as possible. You probably are familiar with Ctrl + S and Ctrl + Z, Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V, but you could do so much more! You can use shortcuts for all the menu commands and for all the tools, and more. Whenever a menu command doesn’t have a shortcut assigned to it, you can define one with Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Alt + Shift + Ctrl + K, to be true to our statements).

Above: I have set my own keyboard shortcuts for the Shadow/Highlights and the Exposure command under Image > Adjustments. Also, I have reassigned the CTRL + P command from printing (which I rarely do, since I design mostly for the web) to the Photo Filter adjustment, which I use a lot more often.

Some of the best time-saving tools are those for navigation inside your document:

Hold down the Spacebar key to make the hand tool temporarily active and drag into your document;
Use Ctrl + Spacebar + Click anywhere in your document where you want to zoom in;
Add Alt to the previous shortcut (Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar + Click) to zoom out.

You can use these in the middle of painting, selecting, erasing, anything except for typing (true for most shortcuts), and once you release the spacebar key you are back to your previous tool.
My most used tool shortcuts (I can tell these by how faded the paint is on these much abused keys on my keyboard!)

V – the move tool (remember it by the resemblance of the letter V with the arrow)
C – the crop tool
B - the brush tool
P – the pen tool
S – the stamp tool
G – the gradient tool

Easy to remember, aren’t they?
Photoshop has a series of other shortcuts that aren’t related to a tool or a menu command, which means you can’t really read them in a tool tip. Here are some of my favorites:

Alt + click and drag to duplicate an object and position it in a different location (to simply duplicate a layer, hit Ctrl + J)
Ctrl + T for the transform controls. Then you can right click to have access to all the command from under Edit > Transform, including the very useful flip horizontal/vertical. To freely transform your object, Ctrl + click and drag on any corner of the transform controls (watch for the cursor to change from black to white before dragging).
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E: this works when you have selected the top most (visible) layer in the Layers palette, and it places a snapshot of your image on a separate layer at the top (it’s like saving a flat version of your comp and bringing it back into the comp as a layer).

For a comprehensive list of very cool and useful shortcut tricks, read this article at Web Design Wall.

2. Reuse your settings

When working with images of the same kind (as it happens often when retouching or preparing images for web), it’s very likely that you’ll need to use the same filter or adjustment with the same or close to same parameters. Then why start from the default values when you can fine tune from the previous settings?
How? Easily: use the Alt key in combination with any shortcut for adjustments or for filters. For instance, if your most recently used filter was Gaussian Blur, you can hit Ctrl + Alt + F to bring up the Gaussian Blur dialog with the setting you last used already filled in. Or, for Hue/Saturation, for instance, just hit Ctrl + Alt + U if you need to make similar adjustments with those used last time you applied Hue/Saturation.
Don’t have a shortcut for the adjustment you want to reuse? Click on the adjustment in the menu and press Alt while it’s opening (you might need a little exercise to “catch” it – if you press Alt before you click the menu option, you will close the menu).

And of course, you can always save presets for adjustments you need to apply to multiple images.

3. Use actions

Writing actions is easier than it sounds! It’s basically just recording the steps you are taking to complete a certain task in Photoshop, in order to reuse it afterwards with a simple click (or shortcut). A very simple and effective example: you’ve laid 20 web pages for a client, and you need to send them for review. Your layouts are in PSD format (because you’ll need to be able to make changes to them), but you need them all in jpeg format, so you can make a multi-page PDF file. You can open the files one by one and save them jpegs (sounds like fun, huh?), or you can open them all in Photoshop (don’t minimize them) and do this for one of them:

In you Actions palette, click the Create new action button at the bottom of the palette. Fill in the name and, if you wish, a shortcut combination. Then click Record. You will notice a red icon at the bottom of the Actions palette (it show that everything you do from this moment on in Photoshop is being recorded). Therefore, chose one of your files and save it as a jpeg. Then close the original PSD, without saving it. Back to the Actions palette, hit the square icon to stop recording. With your action selected, hit the play button for each of the remaining files and watch them disappear one by one! 30 seconds later, your jpegs are ready.

Note: you won’t be able to reuse this action, unless you want to save the files in the same folder as the one used for this action.

You can also find on the web ready-to-use actions that you can use to speed up your work. We have offered one in our Download gallery. It’s an action that I use all the time when I cut out objects for a comp because it saves me a great deal of time.
You can also run actions directly from Bridge, on a large number of images. Select your images and then choose: Tools > Photoshop > Batch. A great tool for running complex actions. Choose the action you want to run and go make yourself a cup of coffee. When you’re back, the job is done.

4. Use presets

There are numerous Photoshop presets available for free on the web and using them can prove to be a great time saver. From brushes to styles, from patterns to duotones and everything in between, these have been made available so you don’t have to start reinventing the wheel. Like glossy buttons? It can take you some time to build one up from scratch with layer effects if you haven’t done it before. If the timer is running, you might want to choose one that has already been created, and maybe tweak it until it meets your design’s needs.

DezinerFolio offers beautiful web 2.0 styles for Photoshop. Ardis Creative has started to offer resources of this kind too in the Download section. It’s not much, but it will grow with time. You can find dozens of wonderful free brushes at Brusheezy. Do yourself a favor and organize a resource database that you can turn to in times of need! Or at least bookmark these resource places and others alike.

5. Save room for changes

You certainly don’t want to start over with your design every time your boss or your client is asking you to change something… When you’re expecting changes, make a habit from working in a non-destructive manner with your layers/objects. Use adjustment layers instead of applying Hue/Saturation or Curves or anything alike directly on your image. Use the clone tool and the heal tool in a new layer on top of the one you need corrected (make sure to select Sample All layers or Current & Below in the tool’s preferences). And, if you have CS3, use smart filters.

6. Organize your Layers palette

When you’re working with very complex images, and especially when you know that others might need to work on the same file, you need to organize your layers so everything appears in a logical manner and everything is easy to find. Start with naming your layers. Names like Layer 0, Layer 39 and Layer 158 don’t say much about what’s on that layer. Organize your layers in folders. Color-code your folders for even easier identification. Lock the layers or folders that you don’t want to accidentally modify.
Note: when working with a complex image, it helps turning the Auto-Select feature of the Move tool ON, so you can click on an image and instantly identify the layer it sits on.

Stylish Dark Menu Bar

Tutorial |

Create a new document with grey color then create a new layer, use Rounded Rectangle Tool to make a selection and fill the color: #313131

Go to Blending Option of this layer, set properties as shown below:

The result of this step

Create a new layer, use Rounded Rectangle Tool to make a selection and fill the color: #313131

Blending Option this layer

The result of this step :

Create a new layer, use Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection and fill the color: #262626

Blending Options this layer

Create a new layer, use Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection like this, fill white color and adjust Opacity 10%

The result of this step

Create a new layer, make a selection, use Gradient with white color ( Radial Gradient ), drag from center of selection, adjust Opacity 30%

The result of this step

Continue to make a selection like this:

Press Ctrl+J to duplicate this layer, we have:

Continue to press Ctrl+J to duplicate layer, then move it to the top like the picture below:

Finally you will merge all layers, duplicate the button then add some texts to each button

The final result:

The Dark Knight Logo

Tutorial |

Step 1

Go ahead and create a new document (mine is 1024x900). Have your first layer named “Background” and fill it with Black.

Do a Google search for "dark knight logo" and find an image that’s large and clear enough for you to be able to trace out the Batman logo out of it. Paste it in your document and using the Pen tool (P) trace the shape. Make it white (for now, for visibility purposes) and name the layer “Shape”. You should now have something like the below image.

The Dark Knight Logo

Step 2

Time to start building the light rays behind it. Create a new layer, name it “Light” and make sure it’s below the Shape layer. Grab the Pen tool and draw a spiked shape around the logo, kind of like below.

The Dark Knight Logo

Give the layer a Radial Blur (Filter › Blur › Radial Blur) with the settings shown below (you may have to slightly adjust the brush size and strength depending on the details you are working on at one time).

The Dark Knight Logo

Step 3

Now you can either duplicate the Light layer or create a new layer with the Pen tool as described above. Let’s go ahead and duplicate the Light layer (Ctrl+J) and transform it (Ctrl+T) and right-click and select Flip Horizontal. You should now have somewhat more “light”, but the shape looks a little to symmetrical. We need more chaos in there

Grab the Smudge tool (R) and smudge the edges of the Light and Light copy layer, both inwards and outwards, until you get an effect similar to the one below. Obviously, you can keep working on the details of the “light” until you are satisfied; you can also add more layers, if needed.

The Dark Knight Logo

Step 4

Time to give the light some color. Duplicate each of the light layers (Light and Light copy). Then go ahead and select a color like #41b5ff as your foreground color. Holding down Ctrl, click on the first of the two new duplicated layers (this selects its visible pixels). Press Alt+Backspace to fill the shape with the selected foreground color. Do the same for the second duplicated layer. You should now have four “light” layers, two white and two light blue, each white layer should be below its blue copy. Select the Blending mode for each of the blue light layers as Color Burn. The result should look like the image below.

The Dark Knight Logo

Step 5

Duplicate the Shape layer, press U and at the top select its fill color as #459ccb. Rasterize the layer (right-click, Rasterize Layer), then Ctrl+click the layer thumbnail to select its pixels. Go to the top menu: Select › Modify › Contract and select a 10px value, then click OK. This selects an area inside the shape that’s “contracted” by 10 pixels. Press Delete to clear the selected area, leaving you with the 10px border.

The Dark Knight Logo

Let’s name this layer “Highlight” to try and keep everything a little organized. As a hint, it’s always a good idea to name your layers as it helps you find the correspondent layer to the shape on the screen much faster.

Apply it a Radial Blur (Filter › Blur › Radial Blur) with the same settings as before. I found it to be necessary to transform it and adjust its size a little (enlarge it) until it looks like the image below. Then, while holding Ctrl, click on the Shape layer’s thumbnail and click Add Layer Mask.This adds a mask in the shape of the (you guessed it) Batman shape. (Is that clever wording or what? :o) ). Right click on the mask and select Apply Layer Mask.

Next, add an empty Layer Mask to the Highlight layer, then duplicate the layer 4 times, making 5 identical Highlight layers, each with an empty mask.

Press D to select the default colors for background and foreground. Select the Gradient tool (G) and make it a Radial Gradient. Select the original Highlight layer and apply the gradient as arrow #1 shows below. Select the second Highlight layer and apply the gradient according to arrow #2, and so forth until the last Highlight layer.

The Dark Knight Logo

After you’re done with the Highlight layers, the result should resemble the image below.

The Dark Knight Logo

And…that’s it!

The Dark Knight logo is complete! I hope you liked creating it, as well as enjoyed the movie itself. It was hands down the best movie of 2008 and one of the best movies I can remember seeing.

Create a Complete Vexel Image Using Photoshop

Tutorial |

Introduction

Ok what you should know before starting to read this tutorial is that there are many ways to make a vexel. This is just one way that I’ve developed to make a realistic vexel using the traditional techniques.

Now let me introduce you to the concept of a vexel. A vexel is a pixel based technique that is similar to the vector technique, but the vexel technique uses vector lines to plot out the picture. To create a vexel one can use vector lines and shapes to illustrate the picture that they are using as their base.

To create the vector lines on an image we can Posterize the picture to see its vector lines, and this gives us a guide on all the lines in the image and what to trace.

Pen Tool Tutorial

The most important part of this project will be the Pen Tool (P). This will be the tool we use most frequently. If you want to make a vexel, you have to be able to use it well. I will now give a mini tutorial on using the Pen Tool.

First thing you have to do is set the correct settings of the Pen Tool in it’s options. Below is a picture of where the Pen Tool is located. And above it are the correct settings that you should have set for this tool.

Now that we have the correct settings on the Pen Tool, we have to learn how to properly use it. So there are two main ways you can use it. First, I will explain the way which simply uses the basic Pen Tool. Now in vexeling we will be doing a lot of shape tracing; So I will demonstrate how to trace a random shape with the first Pen Tool technique.

Step 1

Ok, here is the first way to use the Pen Tool. This way isn’t a 100% accurate, but its the easiest way. Now below we have a shape that we will trace with the Pen Tool. This is still a small tutorial for the Pen Tool to get us a little bit of practice.

First thing we will do is start at one of the edges. You’ll want to zoom in for more accuracy. Now take out our Pen Tool and left click on the edge. Then move our pointer to the next edge above and to the left and click again. Now this is how you trace around shapes without rounded sides.

Now you should have something like the second image below. I cropped the piece of the image that we are trying to trace first. So you’ll have two little boxes one open and one closed.

Step 2

Now move on to the curved part of the image. We still have a small horizontal part left before the curve comes, so take your mouse and click on the point right before the image starts to curve. If you want to practice with the same image you can get it through the Photoshop Shapes.

Now once you are up to the curve, put the mouse about half way through the curve and click, but do not let go. Instead, after you have clicked, drag your mouse upwards until your line matches the curve. Below is what your trace should look like.

Step 3

Now take these two simple steps and apply them to the rest of the shape. Just go around the whole shape. Once you have fully traced it, go back to your starting point and connect it by simply clicking on the open box.

Step 4

OK great, now we have a full traced object. Also, our trace is Closed meaning there are no openings and no lines that are not connected. The last step is to fill this trace. You’ll need to know this because we’ll be filling our traces with skin colors when making our vexel.

You should still have the traced U Turn shape. Next thing you do is make a new layer. Then select it and move your pointer inside the shape and right-click. Then go to Fill Path and place in any color you want, and click OK. Right-click once again and Delete the Path. This gets rid of the trace we just did and leaves our new filled object.

Step 5

We have now learned the first way of tracing and making shapes with the Pen Tool. Now we’ll learn the second which is very similar, but it uses an extra part of the Pen Tool to make its shapes more accurate. It is called the Anchor Point.

Now we have a new more difficult shape to trace. This one can also be found in the Photoshop Shape Library. This shape has a lot of curves and is perfect for using the Pen Tool with the Anchor Point. So we’ll begin by starting at the bottom of a curve and making our first point. Then drag to the opposite side of the curve and make a diagonal line.

Step 6

Use our Anchor Point to make a curve. Take our pointer and drag it to the middle of our line. Then right-click and select Add Anchor Point.

Step 7

OK, now you can see a small box in the middle of the line. Hold Command to turn your Pen Tool into a pointer. While doing this, drag the box up to the top of your curve and let go.

Step 8

We still have two parts of the line that aren’t quite traced along side our curve. So, let’s add anchor points to them too, the same way you did to the first. Use the same method of holding Command and moving them towards the curve. There you have it.

Step 9

Now you can go on and complete the rest of the shape by repeating this process. So you can use whichever technique you are more comfortable with and apply it to the vexeling process. If you are still not a 100% comfortable with the Anchor Point way of using the Pen Tool, below is another step-by-step walk through on how to make shapes.

Step 10

You are now ready to vexel your image. Only thing you need to do is pick your image out. Now not all the images you see can be cleanly vexeled. You have to find an image of a person that has all their attributes fully visible and nothing hidden behind a shadow of a fuzzy picture. For example, the image used for this tutorial is below. Also, notice the reasons I picked this image.

Now when picking your stock remember that a larger resolution is better. The original resolution of the image chosen for this tutorial is 1414 pixels by 2121 pixels. So you want something like that or bigger. Now that we have our stock, we are ready to begin the vexeling process.

Step 11

Let’s set up the picture. Once you’ve selected your stock, open it in Photoshop. First thing you should do is duplicate the original once. Then change the name of the original stock to “Original,” just so you know which one is the original. Now you have the duplicate, select it and place it over your “Original.” Then when its selected, go to Filter > Blur > Smart Blur, and use the settings below.

Step 12

Duplicate your new Smart Blur layer. Now you should have two. Hide the duplicated layer that is on top. The one in between of the duplicate and the original should stay un-hidden. Now select that layer which is in the middle this, which should be the Smart Blur layer, and go to Image > Adjustments > Posterize. This effect is very very important.

You can see that when you apply this effect you get different shapes on your stock. So you need to pick a level of around 20-25. I picked 23 because to me it just looked the best. Now when you’re trying to select your level you should zoom into the stocks skin to just see how the shapes will play out at that level.

You want a level that gives you a good flow of shapes and skin tones but does not go overboard with it. As you can see in the image below, the 23rd level gave me a nice balance of shapes that I could trace out.

Step 13

If you look closely at the colors of the skin, there are a lot of colors that you would never see on real skin, like pink, green, and blue. So we need to get rid of them.

You should still have that duplicated Smart Blur Layer. Un-hide it and then place it over the posterized image. Then set its Blending Mode to Color. This should bring all the colors to realistic skin tones. Below are the before and after images.

Step 14

Let’s make sure you’re following along. The image below shows how the layers should look at this point.

Step 15

Now! we are ready to vexel! We have set up our stock and we’re ready to get going. So the first question we should have is what should I start vexeling first? Personally, I don’t like starting with the skin because its too hard to avoid vexeling the eyes and mouth while your doing the skin.

I like to start on top by vexeling the eyes and mouth then going to the lower level and doing the face. It doesn’t matter really if you prefer to do the mouth or the eyes first, but I started by doing the lips and teeth first. So we’ll do that.

Take out our Pen Tool and make a new layer. Please remember a very important thing. Each shape should have a new layer. This will cause you to have a lot of layers. I highly recommend that you seperate all the pieces of the vexel. Meaning that you do the lips, then you make a new document and do the eyes, and so on.

If you have one document with every shape in it, then it will make Photoshop run very slow. This will cause you to mess up a lot. So remember to seperate each body part, and make a new layer for all shapes.

What you should do is Zoom in (Ctrl and +). I usually go to around 600 - 800%, but thats just me, as I prefer it to be realistic. Once you zoom in you will see a lot of shapes. Then grab your Eye Dropper Tool. This is the 2nd most important tool for vexeling.

For the lips I usually start in the middle and work my way around. After you pick a spot in the middle, look for a shape to start from. Once you have that, use the Eye Dropper Tool to get its color. The color should be your foreground color.

Now grab your Pen Tool and trace this shape. Most of the shapes are rough shapes with a lot of edges. So, do not exactly trace every edge. You should trace to look more circular and softer. Look below, I have an image of my stock zoomed in at 700%. Look at the first shape I picked and how I traced it. Once its traced with the Pen Tool, right-click and fill it with that color. And that was your first shape!

Step 16

Go to your last shape layer and Command + click on the layer. This will select it. This helps because it shows you exactly where it is. This helps when you make the next shape, as you’re not going over. Also, you’re not taking the wrong color.

Now that you have that selected, make a new layer over the last shape. Then look for the next closest shape and repeat the process. Only thing you should do is Deselect the selection by pressing Ctrl+D before you fill your new shape. Below is the process I used to get to the next shape.

Step 17

This is a repetitive technique. You should repeat this process for awhile. It’s a simple process of taking the color of a specific shape and using the Pen Tool to make that shape. So I hope you made new layers for all your shapes. After about nine shapes my lips look like the image below.

Step 18

After about twenty-five layers in you should start seeing some progression. I have my twenty-five layers shown below. You can see what mine looks like and compare to yours.

Step 19

OK, after fifty layers you should be done with at least half of the lips. Keep in mind, I am purposely avoiding the inside of the mouth and the teeth. You should do the same because this will be a seperate topic coming later. So don’t focus on the inside of the mouth if your figure in your image’s mouth is open. Just focus on the outside.

Step 20

At the end I had about ninety or more layers on the lips. Once you have it done, we’ll hide our original layers. This way, all we have is a transparent layer with our lips. Then go to Image > Apply Image on a new layer.

Now select that new layer and place it over all the lip shapes. Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. This just adds to the realism and gives it a good effect. The image for my lips is below. Once you are done with your lips you should compare it to the original picture and see if you can make small changes

Some of these changes can be changing the colors of the shapes. You can do this by selecting the shape and pressing Ctrl+U. Then adjust the Hue or Saturation. You can also use Brushes if you need to add gloss to the lips. Remember to be original and think of nice ways you can make your vexel look interesting and realistic.

Step 21

We want our layers to be organized. This is important throughout the whole project. Go to your layers and click on the folder button to make a separate folder just for the lips. Then carry all your lip shapes into that folder. Name that folder “Lips.”

Then make one for the “originals” also and one for the “Teeth” we are going to do next. After that, you should have the folder for “Lip”s on top, the folder for “Teeth” next, and the “originals” on the bottom.

Step 22

Now make a new layer inside our “Teeth” folder, which should be under the “lips” folder. Then zoom into our image and start with the vexeling of the teeth, or whatever is inside the mouth in your image.

The first thing I did here was take a dark color found inside the mouth and filled that open spot with that color. Then with a new layer I outlined the teeth and filled the outline with a common color found on the teeth. After that let’s start adding detail to the teeth and what’s in the mouth.

Step 23

For this part of the vexel I did not use the Pen Tool. For the lighting on the teeth, take a soft brush and sample another common color from the teeth of the posterized image. Then brush the teeth with a small brush. After all the brushing to the teeth was done I had about nine layers. The final image for the mouth is below.

Step 24

Ok now since we are done with our “lips” layers we should now move out to the “eyes” layers. For the eyes the techniques are slightly different, but mostly the same as the lips.

So lets make a new document since we are done with out lips. If you have a lot of layers on your lips, then make a new document so Photoshop doesn’t get too slow. Remember to carry over the folder of the originals into your new document.

Make a new folder for our “Eyes,” then we make a new layer in that folder and start the process of the eyes. Start with the bottom and work your way up. So you should definitely start with the bags of the eyes. So pick your eye, take either the right or left, and then zoom in once again around 700%. Start creating the shapes on the bags of the eyes.

Step 25

So six layers in I was done with the bags. Once you have done that you should move on to the top of the eye, which usually has the eyelashes. So start on that. In my case it was all black so it was not hard to vexel.

Step 26

Ok after ten layers I was done with the top and bottom of the eye. And now we’re ready to get into the actual eye.

Step 27

Ok now we have to outline the shape of the actual eye. Once we have outlined it we will make a new layer and fill it with a light gray color. Once we did that go and start adding some more shapes from the posterized image, just do the outsides around the pupil after 20 layers of shapes you should have something like below.

Step 28

Make a new layer over the last one you made. Then outline the actual pupil of the eye and fill it with a dark color. I filled mine with very dark green, but it depending on the color of the persons eye. Just fill it with a dark version of that persons eye color.

Step 29

Lets add some detail into the eyes. To start this by making a new layer. Then take the Eye Dropper Tool and sample colors that are in the posterized image’s eye. Then get out a small soft Brush. Make a new layer and Brush small strokes on this pupil. The colors should be ones found in the eye.

So you are pretty much painting the pupil. You want to get it realistic so paint the strokes exactly over where they actually are on the eye. Then paint the white part where the reflection comes from. Merge all those “eyes” layers and go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen.

Step 30

Add some light to the eye because mine is looking a bit dark. So make a new layer and take a small soft Brush and set it with the white color. Then brush over the middle of the eye, just one small dot will lighten up the eye. Then turn its Opacity to around 35%. This gives the eye a bit of a lighter tone to it.

Step 31

For the last part we need to add the eyelashes. Make a new layer and go to our Brush palette. Then set the main Brush to the 1px. Then we set its color to black. After, take out your Pen Tool and create a line that looks like an eyelash. Then right-click and Stroke Path. Repeat that until you have created all the eyelashes.

Step 32

Repeat what you just did with one eye, and do the same for the other eye. Below is the final result for both eyes.

Step 33

So since we finished another important part of the vexel we should make a new document. The next section we’ll be doing is the skin of the face. Now this is the longest one to do and there will be a lot of layers needed to make it look realistic.

I had about just four hundred plus layers for the face. So be ready to have a lot of layers. Zoom in around 300% on the posterized image. Then find yourself a nice spot to start. Your spot should either be the lightest or darkest part of your face. In my case, I started with the darkest part, which was the shadow coming from the nose.

Step 34

Now that we have picked our first spot, we need to find that shape and trace it out. For the face we’ll be working with layers slightly differently from how we worked with them on other parts. We’ll be putting each new layer under the one that came before it. Meaning once you make shape number 1 then shape number 2 will come under it and not over it. This helps you because you don’t have to make extra shapes to fill space and it controls the proper levels.

After making your first shape, fill it with the color from the Posterized image. Then go to its layer and Command + Click it to make the selection. Then grab your Eye Dropper Tool and take the next color selection. Make a new layer under the first and trace out its shape. Then just keep following this pattern.

Step 35

Below shows how much I did after twelve layers of work. Look at that and compare it to yours.

Step 36

If by now your skin isn’t looking very smooth, you’ll want to use something called Transition layers. Simply put, a transition layer is a layer put in between two shapes, which helps them to blend better.

Step 37

If you are still having trouble with skin colors you can look at this color pallet full of skin tones. If you’re having trouble finding those tones in your posterized image, then it will help you find the colors you need.

Step 38

OK, so below are progression pics at full-view. Then a couple of zoomed in pics at 300% of important parts. This way you can analyze the techniques used here.

Step 39

OK, now that you have vexeled the face, lets move on to the hair. Since vexeling is starting to get a bit boring and repetitive. Now if you have too many layers already in your “face” file, you’ll want to make a new document.

Now we don’t need the posterized image to do the hair. We only need the “original.” After making a new document, carry over the “original” picture onto that new canvas. Now go get your Pen Tool and look at the hair.

This technique also applies to male hair as well as a females. Look at your hair and find the one Light tone. Once you have found it, grab then Eye Dropper Tool and get its color. Now we’ll make a new layer and zoom into the hair at about 300%.

Take out the Pen Tool then start from whichever side you like (top, bottom, right left, just not in the middle). Try to make hair shapes by tracing that first light tone of the hair. Below is an example of me tracing a couple of the hair strands. And under that is an example of the light colors that can be found on the hair.

Step 40

Once you have outlined all of the light strands, right-click with the Pen Tool, and Fill in your light color. Then take the Burn Tool and kind of run over the hair strand with a soft Brush set to MidTones at about 30%.

You don’t want all your hair to be the same color. This gives it some shading and diversity. Below is the first layer of hair. I put it behind a dark background. That way you can see it better.

Step 41

The next step is very simple. You do the exact same thing except this time you work on a different shade. This time you do the midtones (the middle shade of the hair). If you want to make it detailed ,you should use about two or three different medium tones in the hair.

They should all be made on new layers under the lightest shade of the hair. Remember to use the Burn Tool on them. Also, you can use the Dodge Tool to give them a nicer glow. Below is the progression of the design so far.

Step 42

OK, the last part of the hair strands will be the darkest strands of hair. They’re usually very dark brown or black. So you should have about two, which will reinforce the hair color and give the hair some depth.

Step 43

So if your like me you’ll still have some spaces in the hair that are not filled. Let’s fix that by making a new layer under all the hair layers. Then pick a color that you see a lot in your hair image. I picked a light brownish color.

Take your Pen Tool and outline your hair, or just outline the parts that you can see through. Then fill it with that color. This should fill all the empty spots behind the hair strands.

Step 44

Now we’ll top the hair off with some shading. Make yourself a new layer over everything. Then Hide everything except the main hair. So you should have your background hidden. The only thing that should be left is a transparent background and the hair.

With your new layer selected, go to Image > Apply Image. This should give you all your hair on a new layer. Now you can use the Burn and Dodge Tool to either shade or lighten up the hair. Use a soft Brush with a 30% Midtone.

Step 45

So thats it for the hair. You can sharpen the hair if you like to, and give it a nice look. Below is what your image should look after doing the face and the Hair.

Step 46

Now this is a unique picture that I’m using because it has fur in it. Not everyones vexel image will have fur so I’ll give a quick simple rundown on how I made it. It’s very simple since you just did the hair.

It’s pretty much the exact same process as vexeling hair, but this time you have to follow the strands of fur because they bend and curve all around. So we’ll not be making shapes with the Pen Tool. Instead, we’ll be making lines with them. Get a 3px Hard Brush and take the Pen Tool out.

Trace out a line of Fur. Right-click it and go to Stroke. Also, have Simulate Pressure checked. Now do this and cover all the fur, as you did with the hair. Below is the illustrations progression.

Step 47

This is what I have so far for the Face, Hair, and the Fur.

Step 48

Now I won;t waste your time explaining how to do the arms because it is exactly the same process as the face. The only thing I’ll do is show you my progression with small tips.

Step 49

So that is the first hand. Here are pictures of the other one. Remember not to make it look incredibly detailed, as you can still leave big shapes, like the ones on the elbow of this hand.

Step 50

Now I want to focus a little bit on the watch and accessories of your vexel (if they have any). You should still use the Posterized image to do the accessories. So here are some shots of how I did the watch. Remember you can also use Brushes to enhance the color. I took some light Brushes and brushed them along parts of the watch to make it look better.

Step 51

Below is what is the finished hands with accessories. The last thing we have to get to is the clothing.

Step 52

OK, so clothing is the last step. There are no secrets with clothing. So do what you’ve been doing this whole tutorial. Below are my progression shots.

Step 53

Put everything together into one Photoshop document and that’s it! Below is the final image.

Conclusion

So I hope you learned a few things in the art of vexeling. My main tip would be to practice. I know it’s very cliche to say this, but it really does help. It might not look like it, but this is about my forth vexel. My first fully done vexel. Practice does result in success.

Also, what you should do is read more tutorials on this topic, each artist has different things to teach you and it helps a great deal.

So I want to help out as much as possible and will answer questions in the comments below. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Suggestions are welcome too.

Photoshop Tutorial - quick painting

Tutorial |

In this photoshop tutorial we are going to pain a quick painting. It was done using a mere mouse. The theme of the painting is warm seasons of the year and it has a style of a child drawing done digitally in a short time – about 20 minutes.

So let’s get going.

Create a document. You won’t have to set the CMYK color gamma.