Photoshop Design

Create a Feathered Crow Illustration

2009-05-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 13th in Illustration, Photo Effects by Constantin Potorac

In this tutorial, you'll be taken through the process of creating this crow illustration. The tools and resources you will be using are just a few so this will be great practice for you to achieve real nice results while using a limited number of resources. Let's get to it!

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to the full Psd files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Preparation

I have used a few images from stock.xchng and also used some brushes and images from DeviantArt. Take a look at the images you will be using before you start: feathers1, feathers2, feather3, crow, texture1, texture2, brush1, brush2, you can also find a lot more feather brushes on DeviantArt. And let's not forget the most important feather feather4.

Step 1

First of all, open up a new document. I have made my document very big and also used 300dpi so I can print it later. Now import paper texture1.

Step 2

Next desaturate the texture and then double-click the layer to enter the Blending Options Panel. Here you need to set the Mode to Overlay, Opacity 80%, Gradient as White to Black and Scale it to 129%.

Step 3

Import the second texture and from that texture extract only the crack. Desaturate the layer, then using the Eraser Tool (E) erase the excess.

Step 4

Cut out the crow from the image and import it to your document. Next, examine your stock image and decide what will be changed and what you need to keep from this original image. For the moment, make the image look better by darkening it. To do so first duplicate the "crow" layer, desaturate it and then set the layer to Multiply and lower the Opacity down a bit.

Step 5

Duplicate the layer again. Set it to Multiply again and set it to 40% Opacity. Also, you need to add some more shadows and light to the image using the Burn and Dodge tools (O).

Step 6

For the moment we are done with the first step of editing the crow. Now, group all the layers with the crow. Next create another group on top of that because another series of edits will be applied here.

The crow is taking shape but we need to make it look better. Darken the crow some more by duplicating the last layer you created in Step 5. Now let's bring the blue eyes back. Do this by creating a mask on the "crow" layer you just duplicated and brush over with some black to reveal the eye color. You could also make a selection and use some color settings to make them pop out as well.

Step 7

Now that we have the crow almost ready we need to start adding some brushes around it. Create a new group below the crow. In this group make a layer for each brush group. You do this so you can move each group in different places if you notice something is off. Look at the images below for reference.

Step 8

In this step, continue to add feathers, but this time you need to extract the feathers from the images provided. Open the image you want to extract the feather from and go to Select > Color Range. Select the color you want with the Eye Picker Tool. Sometimes the result can be a total mess, but you must try and get the most of your feather. Inverse the selection, copy it, then duplicate it. As you can see in the image below, I have used this piece two times and covered a good chunk with them.

Step 9

Continue adding more feather brushes behind the crow and also over the crow this time.

Step 10

Continue and add more feathers around the crow till you cover all the empty parts. Also, add another crow but this one will be smaller and reversed.

Step 11

At this point you have finished with the brushes. Next, use the same extraction technique for the feather images and get each one out of its background. This is the most difficult part of this tutorial as extracting feathers can be difficult. Below is an example of the extraction process for one of the feather images:

Erase part of the image that has a close color to the feather.
Use the levels and make the feather whiter. Use Select > Color Range and copy the feather.
Transform the image to Black & White and inverse it (Command + I), then duplicate it and set the duplicate to Multiply.

Step 12

Now that I have extracted that feather I will use it on the crow's head and add some more brushes next to it.

Step 13

Next use the same stock feather image and create a punk hairstyle (punk feather style).

Step 14

Now we'll add more feathers falling from the crow. Again, extract these feathers out of the background using the same technique as before, then place each feather into place.

Conclusion

In the end, add a few shadows for some of these feathers just to add a little more depth to the illustration. You can also play a little with the colors and curves, then you're done! I Hope you liked the tutorial and had a great time working on this. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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How to Create a Hellacious Flaming Skull in Photoshop

2009-05-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Source: http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 14th in Photo Effects by Designious

In this tutorial, we'll go through all the steps of creating a flaming skull in Photoshop. We'll be using some images we shot ourself of flames, and a stock Designious vector skull to get us started. This tutorial covers some relatively simple steps and some clever photo manipulation techniques. Let's get to it!

Final Image Preview

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

Step 1

For this tutorial, I used Photoshop CS3, a skull from Designious.com (you could choose to use a free skull though, such as Skull Vector Pack 1) and some hi-res flames images. The high-res image files are available to Psd Plus members in the download pack. Though non-members are certainly welcome to shoot your own flame photos or find some stock to use here, so you can follow along.

To get things started, create a new document 210mm by 290mm with a 100% black background.

Step 2

Copy (Command + C) and paste (Command + V) the vector from Illustrator to Photoshop as pixels.

Step 3

On a new layer create an ellipse filled with dark red (#4c0400) that surrounds the skull. Next, apply a Gaussian Blur of 250px (maximum value), and place that layer under the skull.

Step 4

Let's prepare the skull for the flames. Select the white color from the skull. (Select > Color Range) and fill it with an orange-yellow color(#f9ae31), except the teeth and mandible that will be filled with light red (#e82b19).

Step 5

Select the red area using Select > Color Range and then contract using Select > Contract > with 4 px, then and Delete.

Step 6

Select the yellow color. Next use a Brush with Toll on 250-300 px, Hardness of 0, Opacity at 10-15%, red for the color (d02207), and gradually color from the interior towards the exterior, until you get a skull with a bit of glow.

Step 7

Lets try to add some volume to the skull. Use the Eraser Tool with a diameter of 200px, Hardness of 0, and Opacity of 70%, and erase some of the red. Here we establish the lighter and darker parts of the skull so we can see some volume.

Step 8

Now double the Skull layer. Select the skull closest to the background and apply a Gaussian Blur of 8-10 px to create a glow.

Select the area under the nose including the teeth. Now grab a 80px Brush with a color of red (#d02207). Brush color on the right and left sides creating a soft gradient that ads depth to the lower part of the skull.

Step 9

Now that we have a hot skull on our screen, let's start the fire! Open the files with the flames and prepare each of them to be used on our image as follows:

A. Open the flames files.

B. Go to Select > Color Range, and select the darker area of the background. Next, Invert the selection (Command + Shift + I).

C. Go to Select > Modify > Feather, and set to about 20px. Then drag and drop them into our main skull document.

D. Set the blend modes to Screen or Lighten.

E. For the flames that will have other flames on top of them, we'll need to adjust the color Balance. You can do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance (Command + B).

Step 10

Use the Free Transform Tool (Command + T) to arrange each flame into the desired position and the desired proportions.

Step 11

Notice that the teeth area looks a bit darker than the rest of the skull so using the Brush Tool(B) and yellow (d02207) you lighten some parts of the teeth so they can blend better with the flames.

Step 12

Use the Smudge Tool (R) on the flames near the eyeballs to make them touch the skull so that you create a smooth transition from the skull to the flames.

Step 13

Use the Smudge Tool (R) to make the yellow parts of the skull blend with the base of the flames.

Step 14

Use the Smudge Tool again in the red areas from the shadow where you try to draw a contour going towards the dark areas.

Step 15

Use the Dodge Tool (O) to enhance the glowing effect on the edges of the skull.

Step 16

Use the Burn Tool to work on the shadow areas of the contour so you can smoothen the passes from light to dark.

Step 17

Now for the smoke. To create the smoke, use the same flame images and apply the same techniques you did in Steps 10 and 11 to them. The difference here though is that you'll need to desaturate these images to make them look like smoke. You can do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > Desaturate (Command + U), then set it to -100 for Saturation, and -16 for Luminosity.

Step 18

Now lets apply a 2px Blur filter on the smoke so it blends better. Do this by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Conclusion

Now the sparks! Using a Brush of 3px with 100% Hardness and 100% Opacity you start drawing the sparks. You can alter some of them using the Smudge Tool (R). And that puts the finishing touches on this image.

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How to Create a Van Icon in Photoshop

2009-05-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

Source :http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 16th in Illustration, Interface by Constantin Potorac

This is another icon I have created with Negreu Andreas. We wanted to create an icon that can be used for a game maybe or a Mac app of some sort. Before we started we searched the web for photography with similar vans, then made some ideas, and a quick sketch. After that we started working. Let's review the process!

Final Image Preview

Step 1

First of all you need to make a quick sketch of the icon you have in mind. It doesn't need to be very artistic (I know ours is not) but it must illustrate a simple idea of what you will create.

Step 2

Create a new layer, then use the Pen Tool (P) to trace the rough sketch and create a final shape of the car.

Step 3

It is time to add some color to the car. Use this code #ff6d00, then into a new layer start painting the color. Place the layer below the sketch you made in Step 2.

Step 4

Now you need to erase the excess color using the Pen Tool (P). After you made the path around the car, simply press Command + Enter and transform the path into a selection, then in the end press delete.

Step 5

Create a new layer and in this layer you will have to select the windows, tires and a lower bar of the car. Now fill them with black.

Step 6

Next create a peaceful hippie logo. Use the Ellipse Tool and the Rectangle Tool (U). First, create the circle then extract part of the circle with the same tool. Next use the Rectangle Tool and create the three lines.

Step 7

After you finish creating the logo, merge those three layers. Now double-click on the layers thumbnail to enter the Blending Options. THen apply some Bevel and Emboss and a Gradient Overlay.

Step 8

Let's create the spotlights. Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), first create a new layer then Right-click, select stroke, and use 3px for the stroke. The color used for this stroke is #7a7a7a.

After you have achieved the shape you need, double-click the layer to enter the Blending Options and add a Bevel and Emboss with the settings shown below. Repeat the step for the other spotlight.

Step 9

Now it is time to start adding some gloss on the spotlights. Create a new layer then make a selection inside one of the spotlights. Use the Radial Gradient Tool set to White and Grey as shown below.

Step 10

Create a new layer and make a new circle using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Use a white to transparent Linear Gradient and apply some gloss, like in the image below. In the end, repeat these two steps for the other spotlight. Also, decrease the Opacity of this layer to 80%.

Step 11

In this step we'll create the bumper. First, create a new layer and name it "bumper." Now use the Pen Tool (P) to make a path and transform the path into a selection. Next, fill the layer with the same orange and desaturate the layer.

Using the Burn Tool (O), brush over the lower side of the bumper. Also, if you want to, you can add some soft noise to make it look more real.

Step 12

Now we'll add some simple lines that will define the car's shape better. Using the Pen Tool, draw two paths like below. Set the brush to 1px and black. Next duplicate each line two times, press Command + I to inverse the color and make them white. In the end, place them beside the black strokes. You can also use the Eraser Tool (E) with a soft brush and erase the line heads.

Step 13

Repeat Step 12, but this time you need to create these lines in a different area of the van. After you create the black stroke, duplicate it and move it above it. Also, transform it into white by inverting the colors. Use the Eraser Tool and softly erase parts of the line.

You also have to create another similar line like the white one, but this time leave it black and move it below the first one. Also, you should add a soft shadow using the Burn Tool on the orange layer.

Step 14

Next you need to change the color of the hood. Create a new layer and name it "Hood." Now make a selection as shown below and fill it with #006c00.

Step 15

Let's add more gloss on the hood. Make a selection like in the image below. Next, use the Radial Gradient Tool set to White and Transparent to create a new layer. In this layer drag from left to right to obtain something similar to the image below, then duplicate the layer and move it to the other side.

Step 16

Add another gloss on the bumper by creating a new layer, then make a selection like in the image below, and fill the selection with white. Now set the layer Opacity to 60%. Next, duplicate the layer and move it to the other side.

Step 17

Add a gray light on the bumper using the same techniques we've covered. Then duplicate the layer and move it to the other side.

Step 18

It is time to work on the tires. Create a new layer, and use the Lasso Tool make a selection like in the image below. Fill the layer with #424242. Then using a soft black brush, draw over the edges of the layer.

Step 19

Continue creating the break-apart for all the elements. Look at the image below for reference. Also, use the splatter brush for greater effect.

Step 20

In this step, we'll add some more gloss to the hood. Make a selection as shown, and then use a white to transparent Radial Gradient to create the gloss. Use the Eraser Tool and remove the excess gloss. Also, set the layer to 90% Opacity.

Step 21

Create a new layer and make a selection using the Pen Tool. Fill the selection with white, then set the Opacity of the layer to 70%.

Step 22

Create a new layer again. In this layer, use a black brush to add a soft shadow.

Step 23

Using the Pen Tool stroke a 1px black line as shown.

Step 24

Create two more glossy layers on top of the van.

Step 25

Now we need to create the smaller spotlights. First of all, we'll create a red circle with a black stroke and a white inner glow of 1px for both. Rasterize the layer then apply another white stroke. Then using a white soft brush, add the glossy effect.

Step 26

It's time to work on the windshields and make them transparent. Use the same techniques as before: create new layers, make selections, fill selections with white, and then erase or decrease opacity.

Step 27

Now we'll add some more reflections to the glass. These lights are supposed to be the reflection of neon.

Step 28

Repeat Step 27, but this time make the reflection on the side windows.

Step 29

In this step, you'll create the mirrors. Create a new group and a new layer and name it "mirror." Fill the layer with the color, then start adding new layers for each reflection, light and shadow applied.

Step 30

Add the shadows below the car using the Brush Tool and Eraser Tool.

Step 31

In the last step, we'll create the windscreen wipers.

Step 32

Using Icon Composer and Candy Bar add the icon to your favorite application.

Conclusion

Hope you learned some new techniques and had fun while doing so. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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Create an Out of Bounds Fantasy Illustration

2009-05-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Source :http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 20th in Illustration, Photo Effects by Constantin Potorac

Here is another illustration I have worked on with Toma Alin Gabriel. Worked on this piece with a lot of images and I would also like to thank the photographers for giving us permission to use their stuff. In this tutorial, we will take you through the process of creating a fantasy scene, make water pour out of a painting, make some sort of a absorption effect and end up with a really nice looking color. The main idea behind this surreal illustration is that we are actually in a painting and the painting on the wall is the real world, the world where our vulture tries to escape.

Final Image Preview

Video Tutorial

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

Preparation

Before you start take a look at the images we'll be using: Bird Cage by Marcus J. Ranum, pedestals by Marcus J. Ranum, couch by Tattoomaus78, Vintage Mandolin by fotovizions, Old Dark Room by Geek-Stock, Wooden frame by Geek-Stock, Vintage Grunge Texture by Anne, Waterfall by xPhate, Water by RosalineStock, texture by cgtextures, painting by night-fate-stock, Harris Hawk 3 by sxc, golf ball by sxc.

Step 1

Open the Old Dark Room image provided by Anne. This room looks pretty freaky already but you want it to have more cracks. To do this, import the Vintage Grunge Texture and resize it using Command + T.

Set the texture layer to Multiply and erase the edges using the Eraser Tool (E) so that it blends in. Also, you will need to use the Burn Tool (O) on the image to darken it some more, and then desaturate the image to obtain a better result. The texture will blend in just perfectly.

Step 2

Import the frame into the scene and cut it out of its background using the Pen Tool (P). Select some parts of the frame and using (Command + J), duplicate them. Next, enlarge the frame. After you place each layer into place, merge them all together. Using the Clone Stamp Tool (S), clean up the frame so that each piece you have create will blend in with the others.

Step 3

Now that you have your frame ready we need to add some color effects. Change the Hue/Saturation to: Hue -25, Saturation -60 and Lightness 0; Levels to 17, 1.00, 255; Vibrance to -26 and Saturation -53. Follow the images below for reference.

Step 4

Now that we have set the frame color, we need to make some serious cracks on it. For this you will have to use a cracked texture that you can find on cgtextures.

Set the texture over the frame and set it to Overlay and Opacity 50%. Cut the texture layer so that it is only over the frame or simply make a selection of the frame and mask the texture. Duplicate the layer two times. In the end merge the crack with the frame and add some final adjustments: Brightness/Contrast 0, -40 and Exposure -0.80, Offset 0.0000, Gamma 1.00.

Step 5

Next you need to add a picture in the frame and create a painting. For this use the image created by painting by night-fate-stock. Position the image behind the frame and rotate it a little bit.

Apply some Vibrance adjustments to the painting: Vibrance 26 and Saturation -30. Merge the painting and frame. Now use the Transform Tool (Command + T), then chose Distort to pull the corners of the frame to create something like in the image below (you need to give the impression that some force is absorbing from there). Set the Exposure to -1.00 and for the Color Balance Midtones set the Yellow and Blue to -10.

Step 6

Import the couch by Tattoomaus78 image. Next, Use the Pen Tool (P) to cut it and remove it's background. Next you need to add some color adjustments so that the couch will blend in with the rest of the composition. For Levels use 17, 1.00 and 255; for Vibrance use Vibrance 21 and Saturation - 16; for Exposure -0.50, Offset 0.0000, Gamma 1.0; for Hue/Saturation change only the Saturation to -60.

After you position your couch, Command-click on the "couch" layer to make a selection around it, then create a new layer above it. Now use a black soft brush to draw on the corners and edges of the couch. Then set the layer Opacity to 80%.

Step 7

Now you need to add some more shadows for the couch. First, create a new layer and place it below the couch layer. Next use the same black brush tool to add some spots behind the couch, and in the end set the layer's Opacity to 50%.

Make another selection of the couch and create a new layer. Use the same technique as before to add some black spots on the couch. Also, use the Burn Tool (O) in some places, then in the end set the layer to Soft Light and Opacity to 90%.

One last thing here is to merge these layers. Next, use the Transform Tool to change the shape of the couch a bit, just pull the right corners to make it look like a black hole is sucking everything in it's path.

Step 8

This step will be more interesting. So for this, you need to import some water into your document. Use the Waterfall by xPhate image.

Use the Lasso Tool (L) to make a few selections of the water, then place them into your composition. In some cases, you will also need to use the Transform Tool (Command + T) and deform the pieces you import so that they combine and blend in nicely.

After you place each piece in the right place, desaturate each piece of the water, then set them to Lighten and Opacity 80%, or just experiment and chose the settings you consider to work best for you. Also, in some cases you will need to use a soft Eraser Tool (E) and soften the water.

Remember to use small parts of water like in the last image in this step. Position these pieces in places like the couch and floor, painting, the end of the painting, and the rest of the edges that look a bit strange and in need of some more water. You are actually recreating a waterfall in this step, and it can take a long time until you reach your goal.

Step 9

Now you need to work with another water image. This image will be used on the floor. Place the image in the composition using the Transform Tool, then you need to pull the lower corners a little so that there will be some perspective visible and desaturate the layer.

In the end, set the layer to Screen and Opacity to 60%. Finally, use a soft brush for the Eraser Tool, and erase the lower left and right parts to make it blend in. Another good tool to use here is the Burn Tool (O); use this to darken some parts of the water. You can also play a little with the Saturation (-40) and Exposure (-0.40).

Step 10

It's time to add another object in the scene, which is the Vintage Mandolin. After you cut out the mandolin from it's original background, import the image into your composition and place it on the couch. Be sure to place it as though it looks like it's floating above the couch.

Duplicate the "mandolin" layer and then double-click on it to enter the Blending Options. Here chose Color Overlay and set it to Black. Next move the "black mandolin" layer below the original one. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp. You need to modify the shape of the shadow a little so that it looks like it's morphing with the shape of the couch. Finally, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and chose a 3px radius. Now set the layer to Overlay and Opacity to 60%.

In the end, make the mandolin look as old as the rest of the objects in the composition. To do this, change the Brightness to -26 and Contrast to -8; Saturation to -44; Vibrance +26 and Vibrance Saturation to -8.

Step 11

Let's add another object, which is the pedestal. Cut it out using the Pen Tool (P) and then place it in you composition, behind the couch layer.

Use the Burn Tool (O) set to a low Opacity, and draw over the pedestal to make it look darker. Another great technique to make objects look darker is to duplicate them, desaturate them, and then set the copy to Multiply.

Now that you made your pedestal look darker, you need to create some cracks on it to make it look old. Now create a new layer and place it lower then the pedestal. In this layer, draw using a black brush and create something that looks like the shadow of this object.

Apply a soft blur to the shadow, then set the layer to Multiply, and set the Opacity to 70%. One last thing you need to do to this pedestal is to add the cracks. Use the same texture and technique as you used for the wall. Also, use the Burn Tool if you consider some sports to be too light.

Step 12

Cut the second pedestal using the Pen Tool and then import it into your document. Resize, rotate and place it on the left side of the screen slightly going out of the document.

Let's make its colors look the same as the first one. Change the Vibrance settings to +17, Saturation -35; Hue 0, Saturation -8, Lightness 0; Brightness -8, and Contrast -17.

Same as you did with the first pedestal, you need to add the shadow and cracks. For the shadow repeat the same steps used for the mandolin shadow. To create the cracks, use the same texture and techniques applied to the wall and first pedestal.

Step 13

Time to insert another image in the composition. This time we will add a Bird Cage and later on you will also add the bird that actually escaped from the cage and flies straight for the painting attempting to escape into the real world.

So after you finish cutting the cage out of its background, import it into your document and transform, rotate and position it in the top-right side of the image.

Duplicate the layer and then double-click the new layer to enter the Blending Options. Now go to Color Overlay and set it to Black. In the end, set the duplicated layer to 50% and the original cage layer to 85%.

Step 14

Next you need to add some Adjustments to the cage. Set Vibrance +26 , Saturation -8; Levels 8, 1.00, 255; Hue 0, Saturation -30, and Lightness 0.

One last thing to do is to create a gate for the cage. Using the Pen Tool, make a selection like in the image below. Copy it into a new layer, then use the Transform Tool to make it look like it is part of the cage.

Step 15

After you cut out the golf ball, import it into your composition. Now resize it and place it above the first pedestal. It will look like it's levitating above the pedestal Play around with the brightness/contrast settings and make it a little lighter.

Step 16

It is time to add the last object and that is the bird. Cut it out using the Pen Tool, then place it into the document between the painting and cage to give the impression we are looking for, which is the bird has just escaped from the cage and flies straight at the painting.

Also, you need to duplicate the bird and move it somewhere over the couch. Also, fill it with black, apply some blur ,then lower the Opacity to 70% or lower. Doing this creates the bird's shadow.

Step 17

Next add some final adjustments to the bird. Set Levels to 20, 1.00, 255; Hue/Saturation to 0, -40, 0; Vibrance to +20, -30; Brightness/Contrast to 0, -30.

Step 18

It is time to start creating the break-apart effect. For this use the Lasso Tool (L) and select small pieces of the painting. For the moment, drag them a little (not too far though). Repeat this step until you get something like in the image below. Also, you can use a slash brush to make the effect more powerful. You can find some really great brushes at cgtextures in the splatter section.

Step 19

Continue creating the break-apart for all the elements. Look at the image below for reference. Also, use the splatter brush for greater effect.

Step 20

Use Topaz Adjust with the Portrait Drama effect. This will bring out more details in the image.

Step 21

Next use Adobe Lightroom and apply the settings from the image.

Step 22

Next you need to save the image as a JPG and open it in Photoshop. Duplicate the layer and go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur, set it to 5px and Zoom. The last step is to create a layer mask, then use a black soft brush to mask some parts that are more important, like the center of the image and objects.

Step 23

If you want, you can stop at this point, but we will take you through the process of adding a really cool color effect. Open the JPG and darken the image a little by changing the Levels settings.

Step 24

Select the Green Channel and press (Command + A) then go to Edit > Copy. Select the Blue Channel and go to Edit > Paste and then select the RGB Channel.

Step 25

And final step is to create a new Adjustment Layer set to Curves and look at the image below for reference.

Conclusion

Hope you learned some new techniques and had fun while doing so. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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A Comprehensive Introduction to the Type Tool

2009-05-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 21st in Tools & Tips by Alvaro Guzman

Who doesn't know the Type Tool? This is maybe one of the most powerful and useful tools of Photoshop. We've all used it at least once, but do you know all its potential? That's why I decided to write a comprehensive guide about Photoshop's Type tool, including do's and don'ts of the most important features of this tool.

The Basics

Type is the Photoshop tool to create vector outlines and mathematical shapes to define the symbols of a typeface. It's located on the standard Tool Bar as a tiny T. The keyboard shortcut of this is the letter (T), and if you hold click over that tool (or Shift + T several times) you'll see four options: Horizontal Type, Vertical Type, Horizontal Type Mask and Vertical Type Mask.

Horizontal Type Tool: This enables the tool to create horizontal standard text (left to right and top to bottom).
Vertical Type Tool: Enables the tool to create vertical text (top to bottom and right to left), useful to write in oriental languages like Japanese or Chinese, or if you want to experiment with typographic design.
Horizontal Type Mask Tool, Vertical Type Mask Tool: Creates a Quick mask using the Type shape as a Selection. We'll see more application of these modes shortly.

Once you've select your desired Type Tool, you'll notice the mouse cursor changes into the standard Type cursor, something like an I, this means the document is ready to put text on it.

Creating a Type Layer

There's two ways to create a text layer, which are Point and Paragraph Type:

Point Type: This option will create a Type layer into a single line, the break lines must be placed by you hitting Return or Enter in the keyboard.
To create a Point Type layer select your desired Type Tool (Horizontal or Vertical text), and click one time with the cursor anywhere you want to put the text in. Then just start writing, when you have finished to add the text you can either click the tiny Commit button on the Option bar, hit the Enter key on the numeric pad of your keyboard or just hit Command + Enter.

Paragraph Type: This option will create a Text layer with text wrapping into a bounding box. Is pretty useful for both print and web design. To add a Paragraph layer you must create the bounding box first. You can Click and Drag the cursor diagonally until you've got your desired size.

Doesn't matter if there's a background image, or any other object, the Type tool will create a new layer for the new text. Besides, you can easily switch between Point to Paragraph type or vice versa by going to Layer > Type > Convert to Paragraph Text / Convert to Point Text.

Resize and Transform

Obviously, you can resize and transform each text layer as any other, do it by using the Move Tool (V), selecting the layer and Showing Transform controls. Anyway this kind of transforming will stretch, enlarge, or badly distort the type shape.

If you really want a good result on a Paragraph Type layer, you must do the following: Select the Type tool, and click over the Paragraph text, then go to one of the transform handles and click and drag to resize the box, the text will automatically reflow inside the new box. Shift-drag to preserve the proportion or keep a constant rotation increment, Command-drag to scale the type, Command-drag on a center handle to skew the type box, and Option-drag to resize the box from its center.

Character Options

Basic Formatting

It's time to move forward. After typing some text, you obviously want to change the font face, color and more, this is really simple. First show the Character window by going to Window > Character. The Character window has several Options to format characters, following there're some examples about formatting Font Family, Style, Size and Color (you must double-click on color sample to see the color picker). After committing the type, you can either click on the text miniature in the Layers panel and change the entire text layer format or with the Type tool selected, click on the text layer you want to edit, make a selection and change the character format of the selected text.

Kerning and Tracking

You can easily customize both Kerning and Tracking in Photoshop. Select a text layer or make a text selection and look in Character window for the Kern and Track values.

You're able to customize the kern (space between specific pairs of characters) by selecting between Metrics Kerning or Optical Kerning. Metrics will automate adjust kern using the included pairs of the font you're using. Optical will adjust the kern based on the font shape. Besides you can customize the kern values by typing a numeric value (positive or negative) in the Kerning field or select one of the presets.

Tracking is very similar, just set a numeric value (positive or negative) to increase / reduce space between the letters. Besides you can combine both Kern and Track to obtain a nice result.

Vertical and Horizontal Scaling

Scale the text layer both horizontally and vertically by changing the Scale values in the Character window. Just as advice, I almost never use those scaling values because when you distort a typeface you're distorting the shape itself, and sometimes creating an undesirable result, look at the image below, the nice Century Gothic's 'O' character is a perfect circle without scaling it, and it turns into an oval when you change the scaling values. Besides notice the shapes aren't regular, i.e. the line width is wider at top and bottom of the 'O' character when you change the vertical scaling.

Baseline Shift

This is very useful when you want to make your text layer fit somewhere, such as around an image. Change this value to move the baseline of a text selection above or below the baseline of the rest of the text layer.

Faux Bold and Faux Italic

Photoshop has the option to auto create a Faux Bold and Italic variation for any typeface, pretty useful sometimes, but you must take special care in order to distort the type shape as little as possible. Below there are examples of Faux Bold on the Arial typeface, which isn't distorting the type shape that much, but applying Faux Italic on Myriad Pro actually distorts the original italic style of the typeface (look at the 'a' character for example).

Font Variants and Text Decoration

You can easily customize the font variant, Capitalizing all the characters, or convert it to Small Caps. To do so, just select a text layer, or make a text selection, and click on the respective button in the Character Window. Besides, you can edit the text decoration as Underline or Strikethrough.

Anti-aliasing, Where and When

Anti-aliasing produces smooth-edged text making the text borders blend into the background layer/image. There're four anti-aliasing options: Sharp, Crisp, Strong and Smooth, and obviously the option None. Often, you must apply some anti-aliasing to every text layer in your design for easily reading in particular into Serif typefaces. There're some exceptions when you should set None as anti-aliasing value, i.e. when you're adding sample text for web design content, when using a pixel typeface, etc.

Leading

Either in both Point or Paragraph text layer you can adjust the leading (vertical space) between lines. Leave it as an automatic value by selecting (auto) for the Leading value, or type a custom value to adjust the space by yourself.

Paragraph Options

Basic Alignment

Since a Paragraph Text Layer can contain multiple lines, formatting them is very important for the quality of any design, that's what the Paragraph window is about. Open it by going to Window > Paragraph. Create a paragraph text layer, type something, commit the text and click on the layer miniature to activate the options for the entire text. Alternatively, you can make a text selection by using the Type tool, and apply paragraph formatting only into the selected lines of your text layer.

Of course, the basic feature on Paragraph text is Align. You can easily customize the alignment (Left, Center, Right or Justify) by clicking on the icons in the Paragraph window, besides there are three more options for Justify Alignment, changing the alignment of the last line of the text layer or the selected text (Left, Center, Right).

To customize the Justify alignment, go to the Paragraph palette menu and click on Justification, there you'll be able to configure Word and Letter Spacing, Glyph Scaling and Auto Leading percentages.

Hyphenation

The settings you choose for hyphenation affects the horizontal spacing of the paragraph, making it wider or stretching it, depending on the words of each line. To apply hyphenation into a Paragraph Text Layer, just choose the language in the Character Window, and activate Hyphenation in the Paragraph window. To disable Hyphenation, just uncheck the option box in the Paragraph window.

Most of time the automatic Hyphenation will work just fine for you, but sometimes you'll need to customize it. To enable advanced Hyphenation options click on the Paragraph panel menu and select Hyphenation. You'll see the following options:

Words Longer Than # Letters: set the minimum number of characters for your hyphenated words; i.e. if you set a value of 5, the word 'photo' will be not hyphenate, but if you set the value '3' you'll get 'pho-to.' The default value is '2.'
After First # Letters and Before Last # Letters: specifies the minimum number of characters at the beginning or end of a word that can be broken by a hyphen, i.e. if you set any of those values as '1' you could have an undesirable hyphenation, such as "h-ello" or "actio-n." By default both values are set as '2.'
Hyphen Limit: set the maximum number of consecutive lines on which hyphenation may occur.
Hyphenation Zone: set a distance from the right edge of a paragraph.
Hyphenate Capitalized Words: prevents hyphenation of capitalized words.

Indent and Space Between Paragraphs

Indenting is quite easy. Just select a text layer, or make a text selection, and write or slice both left or right Indent values. You can indent a text selection left or right, or indent the first line of a Paragraph as shown in the second image below.

Besides, you can easily add space between paragraphs (before or after) in the Paragraph window, just type a custom value in the Space Before or the Space After paragraph.

Warp Text

One of the most powerful features of the Type Tool is the capability to Warp any text layer according to your particular needs. To Warp a type layer double-click on the Text Layer Miniature and click over the Create Warped Text button in the Options Menu. You'll be prompted to select a Warp Style orientation (Vertical or Horizontal), then you'll have three sliders to increase or decrease the values of Bend, Horizontal and Vertical Distortion. Below is a single example of how to warp Point text by using Arc Warp and different values of Bend and Distortion.

Of course you can Warp a Paragraph Text Layer as well, see the image below. It shows a simple way to get the famous "Star Wars" intro effect just by increasing the Vertical Distortion and with the help of a small Gradient Layer Mask.

Warping text is really funny, try it with different warp options. There're a few restrictions though, you cannot Warp a Text Layer if you applied previously Faux Bold, or Faux Italic styles in the Character panel.

Type on a Path

You can create a type layer that flows along a work path created by using the Pen Tool or Vector Shape Tool. To create a Type on a path, first draw a path by using the Pen Tool, then select the Type Tool and place the cursor anywhere on the path, you'll see the shape of the cursor changes the baseline for an S shaped line. Click on the path and write some text.

Path on a Shape

The process to add a text layer on a vector shape is the same. First, ensure the vector shapes is selected, do this by using the Path Selection Tool to select the shape. Once the path is visible, select the Type Tool and click anywhere over the path and write something. You can edit any Character option, a good example is increasing the Baseline Shift a little bit to create a space between text and shape.

Edit Type on a Path

Sometimes you'll need to change the orientation and position of the type on a path. For this, select the Path Selection Tool, place the cursor over the text until you get a little black arrow on the type cursor, then Drag the cursor below the baseline to flip the type. Use the same method to flip the text and place it inside a shape. Obviously, you can add any layer style to the text layer and this will continue being editable.

Convert Type into Shape

Several times we'll need to be able to change or modify the shape of a character, for several purposes, like logo design, Photoshop makes this easy. Just create a text layer or select one and go to Layer > Type > Convert to Shape. This tool will convert the type into a Vector Layer Mask, which can be edited as any other vector shape. You can also create a Work path by going to Layer > Type > Convert Work Path.

Type Mask Tool

Finally, you can do most of the described features of the type tool, but using Selections instead type shapes. For this click and hold on the Type Tool until more options appears. There select Horizontal (or Vertical) Type Mask. By selecting this tool you'll be able to create a quick selection with the shape, which is pretty useful on either Layer Mask or Quick Mask mode. Below is a small example of a word written using the Type Mask Tool. I used that selection to create a Layer Mask over a picture.

Conclusion

Type tool is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop. With practice you'll become a master after playing with characters and paragraphs. There are no limits of what you can create with this wonderful tool.

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Professional Tips for Improving Photoshop’s Performance

2009-05-21T23:19:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 24th in Tools & Tips by Kajik

In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at the Photoshop Preferences to increase our Performance. With more and more features and important improvements, Photoshop gets more effective than ever. On the other hand, depending on the Photoshop version, features for working with 3D imagery, motion-based content, and advanced image analysis, greatly increase the requirements of both Graphics and Hardware.

There’s nothing worse than being detained from your workflow because of performance deficit. That’s why you should check out this tutorial to work more efficiently without wasting your time and improve your workflow and designs!

What you'll learn

First, we’ll take a look at the Photoshop requirements and the basics on how to increase performance without touching Photoshop. Later we’ll jump into Photoshop and take a look at the Preferences and how to set them up wisely. Since I’m currently working and experimenting with the new Photoshop CS4 version, all settings or images apply to the latest version. There could be some minor differences to other releases, but most of these tips are all-purpose. Let’s take a look at what you’ll learn:

Basics

The first thing which comes to one’s mind is the CPU, Memory and Hard disk, but with the current release Adobe designed new features to additionally take advantage of your display card’s GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to accelerate performance. New features like: Smooth display at all zoom levels, Animated Zoom tools, Rotating the Canvas, the Pixel grid or the possibility to move colors matching to the GPU, require additional performance and adjustments.

Photoshop GPU features

Preparation

The first thing to do, is to update your display card’s driver and DirectX since we are working with images, motion graphics or 3D objects. Unfortunately, we don't have much control over the Video-RAM, but we can update the drivers to help the system utilize the given power.

A clean and ideal system and up to date operating system is a must-have. The second step is to defragment your hard drive and close all unnecessary processes other than Photoshop. Most of the time you can’t even see any difference or increased performance, but you can use the built-in monitoring tools (MAC: Activity Monitor, Windows: Task Manager) to experiment, control and understand what happens.

Making sure the basics are properly processed, should give us a good foundation before jumping into Photoshop. You can take a look at the different tools and resources which I think should help you get started.

Photoshop Requirements

It is obvious, that your PC or Mac should definitely meet the standard requirements. This tutorial won’t help you increase performance where no performance is available. Instead, we'll try to allocate memory, set scratch disks, change the properties in different sections and monitor our processes to make use of wasted performance. Nowadays, it shouldn’t be a problem to find, buy and work with a decent system, so we won’t talk about hardware and what system to choose. But feel free to leave a comment, if you have any questions.

With different Photoshop versions to choose from, you should think about why you are using the current version or why you want to upgrade to a specific version. If you are only working with still images and don’t plan or need to integrate 3D objects or any other special features, you should think about getting the standard version. On the other hand, users who work in these areas should consider buying or upgrading to the extended version. Each version has special requirements besides the general requirements, which will later affect the performance on your system.

Photoshop Preferences

Now it’s time to jump into Photoshop. The default configuration are neither bad, nor perfect. Each one of us has different needs and a different workflow, that’s why we’ll take a look at all the different settings to make sure each one of us is happy.

Since some features are not necessarily required like the Zoom or smoother Hand moving feature, we’ll try to disable different features or plug-ins to reduce the launch time, optimize other preferences and make the most of our RAM and even more. Open the Preferences by going to the Photoshop menu (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (PC) and let's start.

After the Preferences Window opens, you'll find a simple and easy to choose list on the left side. These are the different sections that we'll work off. You can access these sections from the General Preferences Window as we did or by selecting them directly by going to Edit > Preferences > Section (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Section (Mac).

General

The first General section helps you configure some of the more common features that affect the workflow. You should spend some time experimenting with these settings to find the best solution for you. The flick panning is a good example. Although it's a cool feature, it's not necessarily speeding up your work. You can simply disable the features and later enable them whenever you want to use them. Note, that the changes take effect the next time you start Photoshop.

Color Picker

Let's you choose between Windows, Mac or Adobe Color.

Image Interpolation

Let's you choose between Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear or Bicubic, which focus on different ways of constructing new data points within the current range.

Options

Some of these features heavily rely on RAM. Try to experiment with the options to keep a little dynamic while disabling unimportant features, which are intended to catch one's eye instead of being useful.

History Log

History Log is disabled by default, but it could be useful in some cases. By enabling it, Photoshop will log all your steps while working and save them in an external file. This could be interesting for tutorial writers or anybody who wants to track one's workflow. Note, that this feature will require additional RAM.

Interface

This section provides different options for interface style and management. By playing with these settings, you can style, dynamically open, close or move different panels or palettes.

General

These options help visualize the interface for easier navigation and better understanding.

Panels & Documents

If screen size doesn't permit you to display all needed panels at the same time, you should choose to remember panel locations and close or collapse your panels when clicking away. That way you'll increase your workspace. Note, Photoshop needs to store the information in the RAM which will affect the performance.

UI Text Options

Let's you choose your Interface language and font size.

File Handling

File Saving Options

Each time you save a file, Photoshop adds additional information or even small thumbnails for better compatibility and preview. The more information you add to your file, the bigger it will get. You can set the options to Ask for better control. Photoshop will then ask you what to do before saving your file.

File Compatibility

You can additionally experiment with the options for RAW-files and Version Cue. The Camera RAW Preferences provide useful options like the RAW-file Cache size or TIFF / JPEG Handling. You should spend some time experimenting with these settings considering your Camera and workflow.

Version Cue

If you want your projects to be compatible to Version Cue, you should enable the feature, otherwise disable it for smaller file size.

Recent Projects

At the bottom of this section, you'll find an option to set the the number of projects you want to be listed in the recent file list (File > Open Recent).

Performance

Our main focus in this tutorial is the performance. So far, we were able to increase performance slightly. This is the place where we can boost our performance dramatically. Setting everything to the maximum isn't the best solution. Therefore, read the following paragraphs which should help you decide.

Memory Usage

The first and easiest way of increasing Photoshop performance is allocating more memory to Photoshop by moving the slider to the right. RAM is one of the main requirements besides your processor speed and hard disk space. Depending on your system, Photoshop will be able to work with up to ~1,6GB Ram (32-Bit) or up to ~3,2GB (64-Bit).

Most of the modern PC Systems are 64-Bit ready, so if you ever wondered why you can only use ~1,6GB (32-Bit) or 3,2GB (64-Bit), though you have 4GB or more, you should consider an upgrade to a better OS and the 64-Bit version of Photoshop. As you can see, upgrading your RAM only increases performance when working with the proper OS and Photoshop version. When planning an upgrade, always remember that your OS and other processes need RAM too.

History & Cache

By default, Photoshop saves 20 history states. It is difficult to weigh whether you should decide in favor of history states or performance. If this is the first time you’ve heard about the history states or rarely use them, you can set it to 5 or 10. Other users should keep an eye on their workflow to find the best level.

You should consider Image-cache, when working with high-resolution images. Caching Images decreases time needed for updating the image while working in different zoom levels. Photoshop creates images with lower resolution which are used to update quickly. The higher the Cache level, the more levels Photoshop will create for you to display. Which will require more RAM. You can set your value between 1 and 8. I recommend using this feature when working with high-resolution images. When working with smaller images, it's not necessarily required.

Scratch Disks

When your computer doesn’t have enough RAM to perform an operation, Photoshop uses free space on any available drive to save special files. Photoshop provides the functionality to set up to four scratch disks, which are similar to virtual memory.

By default, Photoshop uses your primary hard disk as the scratch disk. You should change that, because it can slow down performance if your operating system uses it to for its virtual memory needs or space is limited. You should prefer internal hard disks instead of external or removable drives, but make sure you set the scratch disk to a defragmented hard disk which has plenty of free space and high revolution.

Photoshop requires at least 1GB of free disk space, but more is better. With a maximum of 64 EB you should be able to boost your Performance using scratch disks, that's for sure. In most cases one or two extra drives should be sufficient, but investing in a powerful RAID systems should definitely increase your performance when working on bigger projects with huge file sizes.

GPU Settings

Photoshop automatically detects your display card. If it is OpenGL compatible, Photoshop will give you the option to enable OpenGL Drawing. By clicking on Advanced Settings, you'll have additional options for better OpenGL control.

Advanced Settings

The Advanced Settings window should give you an insight on what the GPU is capable of and what its tasks are.

Cursors

I've never touched this section and I think I'll never change the appearance of the cursors. I don't think this will affect the performance, instead this is just an extra option Adobe offers designers to customize their Photoshop appearance.

Transparency and Gamut

Transparency Settings

Allows you to select a transparency grid size and to choose a color scheme for the transparency grid which shines through your layers.

Gamut Warning

As soon as an image moves out of the CMYK color space, this color will mask the specific areas.

Units and Rulers

Units and Column Size

This section allows you to change the different measurements for units, types, rulers or column size. For example, change your type measure from points to pixel or vice versa. Depending on the final output, you should prefer pixels for screen output or pica, inches or points for print.

New Document Preset Resolutions

When creating a new document, Photoshop asks you what resolution to work with. You can set the default values here.

Point / Pica Size

Choose between PostScript or Traditional.

Guides, Grids and Slices

You can't create high quality designs and layouts without using guides, grids or slices. They help you align and measure your designs perfectly. Different Images with different colors could cause problems detecting the guides in the image. This sections gives you some options to customize your guides, grids and slices for better visualization.

Plug-Ins

Each time you launch Photoshop, it loads Plug-Ins and presets with it. Some of them are useful, some not. We can temporarily disable Plug-Ins which we rarely use and enable them at a later time whenever needed. To disable a plug-in, navigate to the Plug-Ins folder inside the Photoshop install folder and then insert a ~ in front of the plug-in name.

Plug-Ins Folder

By organizing your Plug-Ins in folders, and adding them to this section will, it will ensure better control and better performance. You can later disable the whole folder instead of searching for the single Plug-Ins.

Extensions

Adobe Kuler is one of the cool extensions integrated into Photoshop. By disabling these options, Kuler won't be able to connect and download the color schemes from the Kuler network. If you aren't using any of the extensions, you can disable this feature and save some RAM in the background.

Type

This sections of no importance for any notable increase in performance, but offers options for Quotes, Text types and Preview sizes. This is another section where I wouldn't change anything. You could change the size of the Font Preview Drop-down menu, but that could cause delays.

Tips and Links

Thumbnails and Snapshots

Each layer has its own Thumbnail to preview what's on the layer. You can change the size of the thumbnails or even disable them. I wouldn’t disable them, but if you are working on a slow system with less RAM you should definitely consider smaller thumbnails.

In addition to the History states, Photoshop offers Snapshots which are very useful, but they are stored in your RAM which makes Photoshop slower. Again, if you’ve never used this feature, then you can disable it.

Layers and Channels

The number of layers and alpha channels in your file can also impact on the size of your file or the time needed to save it. By deleting empty layers or merging them together, you can minimize your file size and the time needed for saving and opening the files.

Fonts and Styles

If you like to add hundreds of Fonts to your library, Photoshop will require more time to load all the fonts while it starts. It's better to clear out unused fonts. You should try out some font management utilities like Suitcase (Windows and Mac OS) or Font Agent (Mac OS). This also applies to brushes, gradients, custom shapes, styles, patterns and other freebies you download. Clearing your lists will definitely help shorten launch time.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial was useful for you. Feel free to leave a comment, if it helped increase performance on your system. I'll try to answer your questions, should there be any. Thanks.

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How to Turn Humdrum Photos into Cinematic Portraits

2009-05-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com
Apr 27th in Photo Effects by James Davies

There are a plethora of ways to treat a portrait for a myriad of uses, but that is for another feature. Let's tackle adding drama or a cinematic quality to a regular, humdrum portrait. Let's even throw in a little bit of faking HDR. That way if you work on a project that requires a stunning shot without the stunning photography, you'll be able to cobble something together using your mad skillz!

Final Image Preview

This tutorial is for intermediate Photoshop users. Take a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below. View the final image below or a larger version here.

Video Tutorial

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

Asset Preparation

The images I've used are: The man, the cloud, the water drops 1, and water drops 2. As always feel free to use your own images, however you may need to tweak the settings of any of the steps to get the right effect with different assets.

Step 1

Open the man image from iStockphoto and separate him from the background. Use whichever method you're comfortable with, I would usually use the Pen Tool, but I'll be honest, as he's got no hair to worry about and the background is white I kinda cheated. I used the, ahem, Magic Wand Tool to select the white. I then Feathered the selection by 1 pixel (Select > Feather), expanded it by 2 pixels (Select > Modify > Expand) and hit delete 2-3 times until the white halo disappeared. Call this layer "MAN." Select the Dodge Tool, set the Range to Highlights and the Exposure to 15% and run it over the Iris a couple of times. This should bring the eyes out a bit.

Step 2

Open up the cloud image from sxc.hu and import it into the document underneath the "MAN" layer. Resize it to about 130% and drag (Use the Select Tool, hold Alt and simply drag the cloud around the canvas) three duplicates. Overlap them as in the image below. Then select the eraser, set as a large soft-edged brush, and run it along the hard-edges where the cloud layers meet.

Step 3

Finally, select the Clone Tool, set it to a large (around 400 pixels) soft-edged (0% hardness) brush and clone out the obvious pattern repetitions. Choose multiple source points to avoid more obvious patterns.

Step 4

These next few steps are a lot easier if you have access to a graphics tablet, however you can still do it with a mouse. Create a Curves Adjustment Layer just above the "MAN" layer and check the box that's marked Use Previous Layer to Create a Clipping Mask. Set it up as shown and call it "CURVES_DARK." Select the "CURVES_DARK" layer mask and fill it with black, this should hide the effects of the Curves.

Select the Paintbrush Tool and set it to 0% Hardness, 15% Opacity and 65% Flow. Change the Brush size to suit the part of the image you're treating. Obviously the bigger the brush, the smoother the transition. Set the Foreground Color to White and begin painting directly on the Layer Mask. Some areas require more work than others so don't be scared of going over some patches several times.

Check the image below for approximate brush sizes to use. Cover both the skin and clothing. There is no exact science to this, it's a lot of trial and error.

To get the finer details you'll need to reduce the brush size right down. The eyelashes as an example required a 3 pixel brush, but I increased the opacity to around 40 percent. I did the same with the wrinkles and other hard-edges.

Ultimately, your Layer Mask should resemble this (press Alt and click on the Layer Mask to see where you've painted on the mask). I didn't quite do enough on the Mask and there are three ways to rectify this. Option 1 is to double-click on the Layer Thumbnail (this is represented, in this case, by a circle that's half black and half grey). Adjust the Curves to produce a darker result. Option 2 is to continue painting on the Layer Mask, but you risk messing up your good work. Option 3 is to duplicate the Curves Adjustment Layer, then you can scale back the effect by tweaking the Layer Opacity.

Step 5

Again, all you peeps with a graphics tablet are going to find this a lot easier. Create another Curves Adjustment Layer above "MAN" and "CURVES_DARK" on the layer palette. Check the box that's marked Use Previous Layer to Create a Clipping Mask and call it "CURVES_LIGHT." Pull the upper part of the line upwards to lighten the image. Note: How much you manipulate the Curves layers (including "CURVES_DARK") affects how much you'll need to draw on the Layer Mask and how much you'll need to tweak the overall exposure later on.

Fill the "CURVES_LIGHT" Layer Mask with black and Draw directly onto it with a soft-edged brush loaded with white. Again pick the brush size and opacity to match the area you're treating. If you overdo an area, load your brush with black and go over the problem area.

You're looking to paint over all the areas where there are highlights. To strengthen things like the wrinkles, you should paint light next to the dark but not over it. Paint up to hard-edges with a small brush and then away from it with a large brush to diffuse the transition.

Alt-click on your Layer Mask thumbnail to see where you've painted on it. It should resemble the image below. Note the Layers palette as well, all my layers are currently on Normal at 100% Opacity and Fill. The little arrow next to the Layer thumbnail signifies that it's using the lower layer as a clipping mask.

If yours don't, then select the "CURVES" layer and go to Layer > Create clipping mask. To mask off any areas you require a hard-edge such as the bottom of the nose, simply draw around it using the Pen Tool, turn the path into a selection and paint onto the appropriate Layer Mask.

Step 6

Create a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer above "MAN," "CURVES_DARK" and "CURVES_LIGHT." Use the underlying layers as a Clipping Mask. Set the Gradient Map as shown below and then change the Layer Blending Mode to Soft Light and the Opacity to 75%. Now you could tweak the hue/saturation, play with the channel mixer and add a nice studio-esque background and stop there for now. But let's carry on and add some real drama to this.

Step 7

Add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer below "MAN" and above "CLOUD." Input the darker color as #164370 (a darkish blue) and the lighter color as #e2dc9a (a muddy yellow). OK this, then set the Layer Blending Mode as Soft Light and change the Layer Opacity to 68%. Add a Curves Adjustment Layer directly below the Gradient Map. Adjust as shown and then change the Layer Opacity to 60%. Your Layers palette should that shown below.

Step 8

Add a new layer directly above "CLOUD" and fill it with 60% black. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay (it should disappear). Select the Burn Tool and set to a big brush (917 diameter, 0% hardness), set the Range to Midtones and the Exposure to around 15%. Then burn around the corners to create a vignette. Call the layer "VIGNETTE" and adjust the Opacity to suit. Mine ended up at 77%.

Step 9

Create a new layer directly above "MAN" (using "MAN" as a Clipping Path) and another directly below the "CLOUD_CURVES" and "GRADIENTMAP" layers. Call the new layers "WHITEGLOW." Select the Paintbrush Tool, load it with white and work on the layers as shown below. Create a soft, white glow below the man to lift him from the background. Then create a white glow above to bleed light from the background over the subject. Follow the pink path as shown, then go over a second time.

Step 10

This next step is a stylistic choice as we're going for a stylized look. However, if you want a more naturalistic finish you can skip this part. Select all the layers currently linked with "MAN."

Then go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges and set up as shown.

We want to knock out the midtones on this so go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and set up as shown.

Then change the Layer Blending Mode to Screen and drop the Opacity down to around 34%. Duplicate this layer and set the duplicate Blending Mode to Overlay, change the Opacity to around 13%. I also masked off areas around the chin on the original Glowing Edges Layer (Screen, 34%).

Step 11

Duplicate the "CLOUD" layer and drag it above the "GLOW_EDGES" layers. Apply a 2-3 pixel Gaussian Blur, then set the Layer Blending Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 50%. Take a soft-edged Eraser and delete all parts of the cloud that spill over the face and details. Duplicate the layer and drag it until you get a fairly even coverage of mist at the bottom of the image. Call these layers "CLOUD_BLURRED."

Step 12

Download the water drops 1 image from sxc.hu and open it. Go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 180 degrees. Erase the bigger ball of water and the broken balloon part.

Then select the Burn Tool, set it to Shadows with an Exposure of 35% and run it along where you've erased. This should give a more realistic blend.

Paste it into your document directly above the "CLOUD_BLURRED" layers and set the Blending Mode to Screen. Position on the shoulder so that the condensed drips line up with the mans shoulder. You will need to rotate it to fit. Then drag a duplicate of this layer along the shoulder, rotate and fit. Call these layers "DROPS_RIGHT."

Duplicate both "DROPS_RIGHT" layers and with the duplicates selected go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Rotate them to fit the line of the shoulder and rename them both "DROPS_LEFT."

Download and open the water drops 2 image from sxc.hu. We only want the drops here so delete the Balloon and the denser part of the water (Eraser and then Burn Tool). Paste into the Working document, change Blending Mode to Screen. To get smaller bits of spray simply resize to make them smaller.

To get drops of rain, drag a duplicate and resize bigger. Make several copies until you get a good spread. Use the Clone Tool to get a more precise covering. Then group the layers, select the group and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all. Use this Mask to soften the impact of the rain, remove any drops covering detail and give it an overall clean up.

Step 13

Create a new layer directly above the "WATER_DROPS" group (the rain and stuff) and call it "STARBURST." Fill it with 60% black and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and set up as shown below.

Then go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Apply a Zoom blur as shown. The Blur center should be just on the mans shoulder. If you don't hit that, then just reposition the layer and resize it so it fills the entire canvas.

Finally, adjust the Levels as in the image below and set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. As 60% is pretty much an overlay neutral color, and the levels are well balanced out, it shouldn't affect the whole image. Add a Layer Mask to mask out any areas that you don't want rays. I masked out parts of the face and shirt.

Step 14

Create a new layer directly above "STARBURST" and call it "FAKE_RAIN." Fill it with 60% black, add noise (as you did for "STARBURST") and then resize it.

Then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.

Bring up the blending options (click the f symbol in the black circle at the bottom of layers palette) and pull the black Layer Slider across to 130.

Apply a Small Gaussian Blur.

And a Smart Sharpen filter.

Finally, tweak the Levels and set the Layer Blending Mode to Hard Light.

Step 15

Duplicate "FAKE_RAIN," call it "FAKE_RAIN_BGROUND" and move it below the "VIGNETTE" layer on the layers palette. Rotate it 10 degrees or so and change the Layer Opacity to 75%.

Step 16

Create a new Gradient Map Adjustment Layer directly above "FAKE_RAIN." Set the darker color as #075053 and the lighter color as white. Then set the Layer Blending Mode to Color with an Opacity of 55%. Add a Layer Mask (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All), grab a large soft-edged brush, load it with black, reduce brush Opacity to 20% and paint over the face area a couple of times.

Step 17

Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer directly above the Gradient Map you just created. Pull the Saturation slider down to -68% and OK it. At this staged I added a Layer Mask and masked off some of the red tie using the a soft-edged brush at 25% Opacity.

Step 18

Add a Curves Adjustment Layer above that and set up as shown below. It's looking pretty moody now, time to add the finishers on this.

Step 19

Create a new layer above the three new Adjustment Layers and call it "OVERLAY_DODGE/BURN." Fill it with 60% black and change the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. Using the Dodge and Burn Tools we're going to further boost some highlights and a couple of shadows.

Here's how it looks with the changes.

Here's roughly what your "OVERLAY_DODGE/BURN" layer should look like on Normal Blending Mode. Notice that some areas are whiter than others, those areas have been painted on more times than the darker parts. Layering it up is the key to a smooth and natural transition.

Step 20

As a little salad garnish I've added a lens flare. Fill a new layer with black. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and pick 105mm prime. The default settings should be fine. Set the lens flare Layer Blending Mode to Screen and position it above the shoulder. It's worth mentioning that I also applied a small amount of noise, followed by a Gaussian Blur (around 4 pixels) and then a smart sharpen (around 150 at 7 pixels).

Step 21

Select all of your layers and duplicate them. Merge all the duplicated layers into one, making sure you leave the originals untouched. Duplicate the merged layer and name one "HIGH_PASS" and one "INVERTED." Select "HIGH_PASS" and go to Filter > Other > High Pass. OK a 2 pixel pass and then set the Layer to Overlay. Mask off any sections you feel are too strong, I did the starburst area a little.

Step 22

Select the "INVERTED" layer and desaturate it (Command + Shift + U). Then invert it (Command + I), apply a 40 pixel Gaussian Blur and then set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. It's a little much so drop the Layer Opacity to around 45% or whatever you're comfortable with.

Conclusion

You should be left with a highly editable image. Adjust Layer Opacities, fine-tune Layer Masks, play with Adjustment Layers or even turn visibility of some of the layers off. Even without the rain and the clouds and whatnot, what you're left with is a way to make portraits punchier. View the final image below or a larger version here.

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Create an Asian Inspired Illustration with Impact

2009-05-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com

Apr 28th in Illustration by Alex Beltechi

While creating things from scratch is an awesome way to showcase your style and technique, using stock photos is an easier way to add impacting detail to your work. To be able to do all that, we'll be using various ways to separate photos from their backgrounds, manipulating them and altering the overall lighting, contrast, and color balance to finish off this complex illustration.

Final Image Preview

Here's what we'll create today. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Introduction

When it comes to creating this sort of work, it's all about building your piece step by step.

I started out by wanting to use a model photo. I wanted a simple and impersonal posture and found this asian model on istockphoto. It's the photo that gave me my theme, so I started looking for things I could use with that.

I decided to focus on Japanese culture, so bonsai trees and pagodas were an obvious choice. Wanting to include some kind of floral theme, I found enough orchids on sxc to use as an important part of the piece.

As a first attempt, I used mostly the same resources as in the final version, but made one crucial mistake -working at a small scale. While the document size was not at all small, the large overall size of the elements made the piece cluttered and too in your face. It was an easy fix: Crop Tool, select all, drag the box out a bunch, out with (some of) the old, and in with (a bit of) the new.

While all the objects in my first attempt seem to be fighting over hierarchy, the second piece spreads out all the elements, so that they all lead to the central part, the model's face. Her dark hair also makes it easy to draw attention, so I avoided using too many dark shades of colors in any other parts.

From a compositional point of view, the piece has clusters of colors that eventually balance out: Blue water at the lower left; blue sky at the top right. Red flowers and monument on the left; red large pagoda on the right. They strike a balance because they are all grouped in a two by two order.

Any imbalance in color will ultimately become a focal point, and whether or not it conflicts with what you want the viewer to be looking at, is up to how you plan your piece.

Rather than spending time beforehand, I created this balance along the way. Once I included an element, I was sure to create its counter measure. Slowly, the piece developed itself into what it is now. It's an organized improvisation that you refine with every step forward.

A good way to see if your piece is balanced well compositionally, not only chromatically, is to desaturate it. Here is a black and white version I made using a Channel Mixer set to Black and White with a Green Filter (RGB). It will show you if certain parts are too dark or too light and help point out any unintentional focal points.

Step 1

First, get this istockphoto and open it in Photoshop. If you're keeping my document settings (listed later), buy the large format version. In this step, we'll separate the model from the background. Unfortunately, it's red, which will interfere with her lipstick, makeup, and even skin tone if not handled properly.

It's nothing we can't fix though, so open the photo in a PS document. Double-click on the background layer and name it something to turn it into a regular layer. Use the eyedropper tool (I) to select the photo's background color and go to Select > Color Range. Use an appropriate fuzziness that will cover as much of the model as possibly. Don't worry about part of the face showing up, we'll take care of that in the next few steps.

Step 2

Open your channels menu (Window > Channels). Inside you will see all the available channels of the image. The red channel contains all red pixels, and the other two correspond to their own colors. The RGB channel is all in one.

In an ideal case, the background of the photo would be a green screen. If so, it would be better to make a selection of the green channel, instead of using a Color Range Selection. In case you want to combine channels, or make them interact somehow, go to Image > Calculations. There you can add, subtract or blend mode a channel on top of another.

Step 3

Enter Quick Mask Mode (Q). A new channel will now appear, which is our quick mask. Make all the other channels invisible (RGB, R, G, B). You'll now see a silhouette of the model - the one created with the Color Range Selector.

Step 4

All the white areas represent a selection, so we need to make sure that the inside part of the silhouette is completely black. Grab the brush tool (B) and paint with black inside, to cover any white sections.

Step 5

Exit Quick Mask Mode (Q) and click on the small icon in the layers menu to make it a mask.

Step 6

Now open a new Photoshop Document. It's a (very) odd size: 28.45 cm by 17.64 cm at 300 ppi (3360 px by 2084 px). Bring in the cut out model. We'll now do a little touchup. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer) and make it a clipping mask (Command + Alt + G).

Step 7

Add a Curves adjustment layer too.

Step 8

To simulate an overexposed look, we'll add glows on lots of elements. Double-click on the model's layer to add a few layer styles. Use the settings below.

Step 9

Cut out this flower with the Pen Tool and place it behind the model. Add the appropriate layer style.

Step 10

Duplicate it and add a few more.

Step 11

Add some above the model too.

Step 12

Download this photo, cut it out and place it behind the model. In a new layer underneath the flower, paint a red glow. Change its colors by following the next step.

Step 13

Add these Adjustment Layers: Hue/Saturation and Selective Color, using the settings shown below.

Step 14

Duplicate the red orchids and move them to the other side. Change their colors with these Adjustment Layers and add a blue glow on top.

Step 15

Find the "model" layer and create a few new layers as a clipping mask. Paint a shadow from the flowers on her right shoulder, a light glow on her head and fill her pupils with black (paint with a black, soft brush).

Step 16

Get this eye photo and make a selection of it with the Marquee Tool. Feather it (Select > Modify > Feather) and copy it in a new layer. Place it on top of the model's pupil, duplicate it and place it on the other side. Don't flip the second eye, rather free transform it (Command + T), warp it and move the center of the grid until the pupils correspond with the model's previous eyes.

Step 17

Add an Adjustment Layer for both of the eyes.

Step 18

You could chose to leave this out, but I wanted a more impersonal look. Paint a light green soft dot over the iris on a separate layer.

Step 19

Now get this istockphoto of a bonsai tree and get ready to go mad separating it. Some things are great to have isolated on white. I'd rather have this one on a different color. Highlights are more difficult to select than alienated colors because you're selecting white, you can (and will in this case) heavily interfere with the object's own highlights. Select white as your foreground color, and go to Select > Color Range. Use the settings shown below - don't forget to tick the Invert box.

Step 20

Go to the Channels menu, press Q, make the quick mask channel visible and other invisible. Use the brush tool (B) on white to paint in areas that have dark accents and should be entirely white, like the bark and portions of the foliage. The brush should be about 95% in Opacity.

Step 21

Once the tree mask is completely white, press Q again and add a layer mask. To do this, you need to double-click the background layer and transform it into regular layer.

Step 22

Simulating the same overexposed effect, add some blend modes to the tree.

Step 23

Duplicate the tree, flip it and place it behind all the other layers.

Step 24

Get this photo and isolate it just like the bonsai tree. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer to make it brighter, and thus more faded into the background.

Step 25

It's time for a background. Get this photo and place it behind all the layers. Erase anything that goes past the Pagoda's roof (toward the right side).

Step 26

Add a white large glow with the brush tool (B) on the top left side, and fade out the horizon's mountains in the same way.

Step 27

Now add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer and make it a clipping mask for the scene.

Step 28

Add the photo again on the other side, with the same Gradient Map applied.

Step 29

Now trace this photo with the Pen Tool and copy its selection in a new layer. Most importantly, keep both layers (which includes the background you copied it from) and position them in the document. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer for the copied layer, as a clipping mask. In the screenshot below, the background photo is not visible.

Step 30

Make the background photo visible and add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. Also, erase all the sides and leave the bottom in so that it creates a reflection on the other water photo.

Step 31

Download this stock photo and this one as well. Trace, copy, and place them in the scene. Add blending modes just like you did on the flowers.

Step 32

We'll now make a few color adjustments in the following few steps. Select the top of layer of the entire document, and make a few Adjustment Layers. First, a Curves and Hue/Saturation.

Step 33

There are quite a few ways to change the colors in any given piece in Photoshop. You can use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, Channel Mixer, Photo Filter, Color Balance, Selective Color, etc. My personal favorite is the Gradient Map, and it's what we'll use right now. To create one, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. After creating one, select the proper gradient from the menu, and drag the layer's Opacity to 20%.

Step 34

Add another Gradient Map, but with a different gradient and a different blending mode for the layer, use Overlay.

Step 35

And as a final element, I wanted to add some kind of personal graphic. Create an elliptical shape (U) that's much larger than the document shape. Its color is irrelevant.

Step 36

Double-click its layer to add these blending modes. The first thing to do is to drag the Fill Opacity to 0 in the Advanced section of the Blending Options menu (first thing you see).

Step 37

After adding those, add a few more across the layers with different colors. To change to a different color, edit the Drop Shadow from the previous step.

Final Image

Finally, I added a few soft white glows over the branches to give it more realistic lighting. With that, the piece is now finished. Thanks for reading, everyone!

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How to Use Depth of Field to Create Portraits with Blown-Out Backgrounds

2009-05-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

Source :http://psd.tutsplus.com
May 1st in Photo Effects, Tools & Tips by Sara Gray

Photographers can benefit by learning some camera and shooting principles that will improve their results. A strong photograph has a clear subject, and using depth of field to create a blurred background is one of the classic ways to isolate and play up the subject.

An understanding of this will also allow you to adjust your photos to create natural looking depth of field effects in Photoshop when needed. Let's look at seven such principles and techniques that will help you with adjusting depth of field to focus the subject in your photos.

Step 1 - Understand Depth of Field and Aperture

Depth of field is important to understand before jumping in and using it as a tool to create different images. Depth of field is created in the camera through the differing use of aperture. Aperture is the setting that controls how far open the lens gets when an exposure is taken. If the lens opening is small, the camera is able to bring many things into focus, even if one is significantly further behind another. However, when you shoot with the aperture wide open, the field is reduced and the camera can only bring a narrow depth of field into focus.

The first photograph below was taken with a small aperture opening (although that's represented as a large number in your settings) and the second is taken with a wide-open aperture with a limited depth of field.

Aperture is used throughout photography to establish focus in a photograph. For instance, if you'd like a photograph of a single individual, but the background is full of other people, it will distract from the focus of the photo. A larger depth of field is used when all the details in the photograph are important to the viewer.

Step 2 - Set an Appropriate Distance

One way to ensure that you're using depth of field to differentiate between your subject and the background is to allow ample room between them. That may mean placing your subject further away from a solid background, like a curtain, wall or studio backdrop, or creating more distance between them and any other object behind them.

A commonly-used example of this is to make sure that your subjects don't have trees or other vertical objects coming out of their heads when they're directly behind the subject. You can obscure objects like trees with a shallow depth of field. Also, the more space you put between your subject and the background, the easier it will be to blur everything behind them. Five to ten feet is usually plenty, but if you have a lens that shoots at a very open aperture, like a f/1.2-f/2.0 range, you can be closer and still obscure the background.

Step 3 - Use Selective Focusing

It's often the goal when shooting with a wide-open aperture to obscure the background and not the subject, but you can also use a very open aperture to obscure parts of the subject. For instance, you can focus very closely on an eye and blur out the subject's hair, hands, or feet. In the example below, a sharp focus was attained on the hair, but the rest of the face is in soft focus. Keep in mind that it's often necessary to use manual focus mode with this technique since you're doing precision focusing.

Step 4 - Delineate Background From Foreground

If your goal is to create a crisp, clean portrait with an in-focus subject and an out-of-focus background, you should be shooting wide-open with your lens, but probably not go below f/1.8. Below that aperture, you'll start to lose focus on one side of the face if the head is at all tilted.

Here are examples of how to achieve an ideal depth of field for a crisp portrait. Notice in the first photo there is an even focus across the face, but in the second photo only the front of the face is in crisp, clean focus.

Step 5 - Understand the Difference Between Lenses

The numbers discussed above are all relative depending on what lens you're using to photograph your subject. Depth of field changes based on the lenses you're using and based on how far your camera is from the subject when you take the picture. When using a lens with a longer focal length (for instance, 85mm vs. 50mm) your depth of field will be deeper. This means you'll be able to bring more into focus when shooting. When you shoot closer, with a 50mm lens, your depth of field will become shallower and will grow shallower still as you move toward your subject.

Step 6 - Keep Subjects on the Same Plane

When blurring the background with a wide-open aperture and shooting a group of people, it's important to make sure their faces (and especially eyes, where focus should always be spot-on) are on the same plane. This means they're all the same distance from the camera, or else some faces will be more in focus than others and distract. It's tough to shoot a wide-open portrait with more than about three people because of this factor, and remember that if you're involving more people in a group photo, it's usually wise to adjust your aperture closed a bit so that you can pick up all the faces in a sharp way.

Step 7 - Enhance Background Blur in Photoshop

If you were dealing with a group, a difficult subject or a situation that didn't allow you to blur the background as much as you wanted to, there is a way to enhance that background blur in Photoshop.

Step 8

After opening your photo, use the magnetic lasso tool to select your subject, making sure to match very closely the edges of the subject without grabbing chunks of the background.

Step 9

Select inverse, so you have the entire background selected.

Step 10

Use the Gaussian blur function on the background to adjust the background to a fuzzier state. Don't crank up the blur too hard, however, or you'll get a halo around your subject and the photo won't look natural. For this photo, the Gaussian blur is adjusted to a radius of 5.0.

Step 11

Choose Deselect to see the finished product

Conclusion

Understanding these principles and techniques will improve your results. Have fun shooting and prepping your photographs in Photoshop!

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How to Create a Richly Ornate Typographic Illustration

2009-05-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com
May 4th in Text Effects by Alex Beltechi

When looking for top quality content, you're usually forced to pay for your resources. They're generally better and easier to work with, and offer a wider range of use. Sometimes though, you can find the same level of quality at zero cost, and it's exactly what we're going to do today. We're going to create a detailed illustration with free gifts and self made goodies.

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the illustration we'll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below. Be sure to view the larger format, as there are details you miss at small sizes.

Video Tutorial

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

Introduction

I love doing type treatments. Out of all the designs I've created so far, it's typographic illustrations that have always taught me a lot, mainly because I've usually tried to make the most of Photoshop and Illustrator's tools. You are practically forced to create most of it from scratch, so how much you polish your design determines how good it will be.

In this tutorial, I went for a decorative look, by firstly choosing a typeface: Ayosmonika. I've used it before, and this time I wanted to go for a more flat look. The font seems very organic to me, so I sought and found a good online resource, the ornate pattern freebie. It's got lots of rich detail, so it's enough for what we want.

My initial colors were violet and yellow, but they seemed out of place. I later decided to go with a wood texture, and bronze shades (new and aged) for the decorative elements. These colors would give me an old-world look, so even though it's not how it began, it is how it ended.

Step 1

The first thing we'll do is create a very large wooden texture. Getting the same result may be difficult, so just try to obtain something that looks like a wood texture. Start up Photoshop and create a new document. Make it big; somewhere around 6000 px by 6000 px (300 ppi).

Select a dark brown (#48403a) as the foreground color and a lighter version (#ac9f92) as the background color. Fill the document's background with the foreground color (#48403a) and go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Change the settings (Variance of 12.0 and Strength of 34.0) and randomize it until you get something similar. Playing around with the settings can help.

OR: If you're a Graphic River user, you can download a similar texture from my Wood Texture Pack.

Step 2

We'll now give the fibers more depth and a darker color. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Once you created it, change its layer Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 50%.

Step 3

Now create a new blank layer and fill it with the color #633a1c. Set the layer's Blending Mode to Multiply.

Step 4

And finally, select the Gradient Tool (G). Choose white as the foreground color, and create a white to transparent white gradient from top to bottom. Change the layer Opacity to somewhere around 10%. Select the entire canvas (Command + A) and copy the merged file (Command + Shift + C).

Step 5

Create a new Photoshop document using a landscape A4 canvas (29,7 x 21 cm at 300 ppi). I created mine in CMYK format, so if you want the colors to make any sense, make sure you select CMYK, not RGB.

Now add the type to this new document. Download this free font and type in each letter on a separate layer. The color doesn't matter, as it will be replaced by a texture. I chose different shades of green just to show the layer order.

Step 6

Now double-click on the letter "T" layer and add these effects. Here are the color codes for each of them: Drop Shadow set to #000000; Outer Glow set to #476454; Bevel and Emboss Highlight set to #f09629 and Shadow set to #45293c, and Stroke set to #466454.

Altogether, your effects should look like the image below.

Step 7

Copy the layer style (right-click on layer and go to Copy Layer Style) and paste it over the rest. Also, create a large ampersand behind all the letters.

Step 8

Create a new blank layer above the letter "T" and make it a clipping mask. Place the wooden texture inside.

Step 9

Create another blank layer as a clipping mask above the texture. Make a selection of the "T" layer (Command + Click on the layer icon) and contract it by seven pixels (Select > Modify > Contract).

Step 10

Fill it with white and blur it slightly (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).

Step 11

Change the Layer's opacity to 40% and select the eraser tool (E). Make it about 80% soft and erase the bottom part.

Step 12

Get this and this screw. Cut them out with the pen tool and desaturate them (Command + Shift + U). We'll use the first one for large screws and the second for smaller ones. Place one of the large ones in the middle of the "T" and apply the effects shown below.

It will now look like it's holding the "T" in place.

Step 13

Do the same to create the smaller one and place these screws on all the letters.

Step 14

Now you'll need this free ornate pattern. Open it in Illustrator and double-click on the flourish detail (not the pattern). Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a white part of the detail. Change its color to #486554, Copy it (Command + C) and paste it (Command + V) into the Photoshop file as a Smart Object.

Step 15

Now add this layer style shown below.

It looks odd now, but it will be better once we add the second color.

Step 16

Create a new blank layer as a clipping mask and paint (#74cdd8) with a soft brush the tips of the flourish detail.

Step 17

Group the layers (Command + G) and duplicate the group, then position it accordingly.

Step 18

Place a large one on the bottom.

Step 19

Add a few smaller ones that appear to come out of the large one underneath. Try to keep an orientation that feels natural and organic.

Step 20

Add the final ones too.

Step 21

As usual, we'll adjust the colors and contrast of the document with good ol' Adjustment Layers. Add the first one by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map.

Step 22

Now add a Selective Color Adjustment Layer and use the Colors drop down menu to get to Blacks.

Step 23

I thought the composition needed a touch of another color, so let's add some orange. Duplicate one of the floral patterns and make it smaller. Delete the bright cyan and paint with this color instead: #f7db58.

Step 24

Add a few more.

Step 25

Now, make a selection of each letter and paint with the same color.

Step 26

Go back to the Go Media Illustrator file and double-click the ornate pattern this time. Select the white part, and make it black. Copy it and go to Photoshop. Create a new document and keep the Clipboard size. Paste the pattern into the new document that should be an exact fit. Make the Background layer invisible and go to Edit > Define Pattern.

Step 27

Create a new blank layer above the wood texture background in our illustration. Select the Bucket Tool, and click on the drop down menu to paint a pattern. Select the newly created one and create one in the blank layer. Add the layer styles shown below.

This is what you should see at 100%.

Step 28

Create a new layer, make it a clipping mask and paint with a very large, soft shadow a few white glows near the center. Keep the Opacity low so that they don't become too obvious.

Step 29

Use the same orange to paint a few subtle glows in a few places, just like in the previous layer.

Conclusion

Finding the right resources can be a great way to eventually create your own typographic illustrations. It's like learning from others before you do everything by yourself. In time, you'll be able to create details that are not only of the same or even better quality, but also something that reflects your style. And hopefully, I'll be able to write a tutorial about that some day! You can view the final image below. Be sure to view the larger format, as there are details you miss at small sizes.

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Creating a Shoe Advertisement Poster Using Floral Elements

2009-05-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com
May 5th in Designing by Constantin Potorac

In this tutorial you'll learn how to create an advertisement poster for your personal shoes. When working on an advertisement you must pay attention to all the details as you publish your poster and prepare it for the whole world to see. Another important thing about advertisements is that you need to work hard on all the details and do everything you can to make the product look better and as attractive as possible.

The rest of the concepts you create for the poster will just attract more eyes, but if your product does not look great, and if it is not the focal point of the composition then you may fail, the possible customers will just turn around and look at the next poster. Let's get started!

Final Image Preview

Preparation

Before getting started take a look at the images we'll be using: Vector Pedestal, Floral Elements, Vector Pattern, Pedestal, Vintage Wall, Shoe.

Step 1

First of all create a new document. If your intention is to print this poster at a large size, you might want to consider creating the document using a large size and 300 dpi. Fill the background with #6a360f.

Step 2

Create a new layer on top of the background and fill it with black, then go to Filter > Render > Clouds (make sure your foreground and background are black and white). Then set the layer to Soft Light and Opacity to 50%.

Step 3

Import one of the vintage textures into your document. As you will see, the image is not big enough. You need to duplicate it and place it below the first one so that you create a bigger texture. Merge the two layers and set it to Multiply and Opacity at 70%.

Step 4

Next, create a new layer. Then use the Gradient Tool (G) set to radial and black to create a gradient.

Step 5

Import the Vector Pattern from deviantART. You will also have to rebuild the pattern to make it bigger (duplicate it a few times then put each piece together). In the end set the layer to Soft Light and Opacity to 10%.

Step 6

Open the Pedestal image and select one from those two images. Use the Pen Tool (P) to select the pedestal and cut it. Move the pedestal to your document and place it in the lower side of the image. Use the Burn Tool to strengthen the shadows.

Step 7

Import the Vector Pedestal into your document and place it exactly on top of your first pedestal. Next, create a mask for this layer and mark the upper part, then set the layer to Multiply.

Step 8

Now we'll start adding the floral elements. In the link provided there is a folder with five different Floral Elements that you can use parts of to create your composition.

For this step, the Pen Tool (P) will help you cut out what you do not need. Also, the Burn Tool (O) will help you add shadows and a lot of masking.

Step 9

Add another black gradient over all the layers created at this point. Set the layer to Multiply and Opacity to 78%.

Step 10

Import the shoe image to your document. Use the Pen Tool (P) to extract the shoe, then place it above the pedestal. You will also have to remove the logo and place your own logo there using the Clone Stamp Tool (S). Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and there you need to select the Blue color and move the sliders until you get a dark grey.

Step 11

Now use the Pen Tool (P) to trace the other shoe. Then set your brush to 2 px and the color black. Create a new layer and stroke the path.

Step 12

Now use the Pen Tool (P) to select the shoe and after you cut it place it over the stroke. Set the layer to Multiply and Opacity to 70%. Duplicate the layer and follow the directions below.

Step 13

It is time to add some more floral elements. Start up by adding one floral over the shoe. Now mask the flower like below.

Step 14

Next add another shadow in the right side of the shoe. Mask it like it would come out of the shoe.

Step 15

Again as you did with the above flower, add some more flower elements below the shoe.

Step 16

Add two more flower elements at the top of the image, then add some blur to them and you are finished with the floral elements.

Conclusion

In the end, you can duplicate everything you have done so far except for the last floral elements and background and place them behind the original pedestal. Give them some blur and darken them using the levels settings. By creating two more pedestals behind the original one, your illustration looks like it is viewed in a shop and that the products are placed on some special shelves of some sort. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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How to Create a Sparkling Fantasy Photo Manipulation

2009-05-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com

May 8th in Illustration, Photo Effects by Oliver Cereto

In this tutorial, we're going to create a photo manipulation using different techniques. We'll be adjusting each layer and element to make a compact final image. We'll be using multiple photos and a handful of effects to create this work. Let's get started!

Final Image Preview

Step 1

The first step is to create a background for our image. This time we'll use a simple combination of different textures using the blending modes. Just open the first texture and the second one over the first. Now change the mode of this last one to Multiply and the Opacity to about 40%, then Merge them.

Step 2

Now duplicate your layer, Desaturate the upper one and use the Eraser Tool (E) to delete parts from the upper left zone. Use the Motion Blur in this layer like in the sample image below, merge the layers, and finally add some magenta and blue using Image > Adjustments > Color Balance.

Step 3

Now grab this image of a woman. Cut her out from the original picture and paste in the center of the new image. We are going to modify her color and light using the blending modes again.

From the beginning we have in mind that we want the light falling from the upper-left corner of the image, so we have to show this in the girl and her lights and shadows. First, let’s go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and add some more saturation to the image.

Now duplicate our layer with the girl, and with the upper layer selected go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and add more brightness. Change the mode of this layer to Screen and the Opacity to 58%. Finally, you can delete (using a blurred brush and a Layer Mask or the Eraser Tool) the darker parts (under her arms and hair).

Duplicate our first layer with the girl again and move it over the other. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and make it darker. Pay attention to the shadows in her dress, don’t be worried by her face or others zones at this point.

When you have some good details in the shadows of the dress change the Layer Mode to Linear Burn and use the Layer Mask or the Eraser Tool again to delete the zones that you don’t need to be dark, like her face, the light zones in her arms, etc. Now merge the Layers of the girl.

Finally, use the Burn Tool (O) to make the zones darker than you need. I retouched her hair and some details in her face.

Step 4

The face in our image doesn’t look too big, but it still seems a little pixelated, we can fix this using the Smudge Tool (R). Select it with a small brush (about 16 px) and the strength set to about 30%, and use it on her skin with small strokes in the direction of her features. You can use the Blur Tool (R) to help with this process, but use it carefully because we don’t want the face out of focus.

Step 5

Now let’s duplicate our girl layer and add some Cyan, Green and Blue to the lower one. Go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and change the settings to those shown below.

Change the Layer Mode in the one on the top to Hard Light, the Opacity to 40% and use the Layer Mask or the Eraser Tool to delete most of the image, just leave some of its warm tones on the left side, where the light is falling over our model. Merge the layers with the girl and finally go to Image > Brightness/Contrast and add a little more of brightness.

Step 6

We’re going to create the shadow of the girl in the easiest way. Just create a new layer over the girl and use the Brush Tool (B) with black selected to draw some uneven horizontal lines under her feet and her back.

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use a horizontal blur with about 760 px. If you need some more shadows over the girl just supplicate the layer, erase the shadows that you don’t need, and merge the layers.

Now let’s add a transparent shadow falling over the background. Just duplicate the "girl" layer, fill it with black (for example, go to Levels and make it dark) and move it to the position shown below. Then make it a little smaller using Free Transform (Command + T) and add a Gaussian Blur (Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur) of about 21 px.

Change the Layer Mode of the shadow to Soft Light, the Opacity to 75%, and finally erase the lower part of the shadow.

Step 7

Now create a new layer, select the Brush Tool (B) again with black selected and a blurred blush, then draw some dark zones, as shown below.

Go to Filter > Motion Blur and add the settings shown below. You can use the filter twice or more if you prefer.

Change the Opacity to about 70%, erase some parts if you consider it necessary and change the Blending Mode to Multiply. If you want to add more shadows in some parts just repeat the process painting in other places.

Step 8

Now, in a new layer use a smoke brush with a white color selected and put it behind the girl. You can use Gaussian Blur to make it out of focus.

Step 9

Now we’re going to create some subtle rays of light in the corner of our image. You can draw some lines and use the Motion Blur, but we can do it with the same brush that we´ve used for the smoke. Just duplicate some of these layers and apply the Motion Blur (Filters > Blur > Motion Blur) with the settings shown below.

Now move the layer to the corner and repeat the previous step with another brush. Use Free Transform (Command + T) to change the angle of the rays. I used three different layer for the light to get a good result.

Step 10

Now grab an image with ribbons in it. Open the new image and select the ribbons, as shown below.

Copy and paste them into our image and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Modify the settings as shown below.

Finally, use the Burn Tool (O) to make darker the zones in the ribbon that are not touched by light. You can adjust levels or other settings to get a perfect color and light.

Grab some more ribbons from another similar image. Select them and paste them into our image, then change the color/saturation, and use the Burn Tool (O) in a similar way as in the previous step.

Add the shadow for this last ribbon falling over the girl's dress. There are a lot of ways to make it. For example, draw a black stripe, use Gaussian Blur, change the opacity and the blending mode to Multiply, much like we did in previous steps.

For the shadow of the second ribbon, duplicate this layer, fill it with black and apply a Gaussian Blur.

Change the blending mode to Soft Light and erase the parts that you don’t need.

Finally, I add a new ribbon and a new layer of shadow under the model.

Step 11

Now let’s add some flower imagery. This is a simple cut and paste process. The only important thing is that you change the levels or colors little in the images as needed.

Use some stock images of flowers to add behind the girl. You can download these images: 1, 2, and 3.

The only remarkable details are some shadows added using the brush and some Gaussian Blur, then change the color in one of the images. To make this just go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, select yellow colors, and change the Hue bar as shown.

Add a flower image in the hand of the girl. To integrate it in the image select the layer of the flower and draw a black shadow in the upper part, then use the Gaussian Blur again (Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Now change the opacity of the layer if it's needs. Create a new layer under the flower and paint two little shadows, use blur again using a subtle Gaussian Blur, and change the opacity as needed.

The system to add the other flowers are always the same. It’s easy and it only requires that you choose good stock images. For example, it’s important that the light in the flowers is logical and respects the light source of our image. If light come from left, don’t use images with the shadow in the right. It’s really simple, you just need cut them, and correct them a little with Levels as needed.

Step 12

Now let’s add some rays of lights flowing from the hand of the girl. To make this, select the Brush Tool, select a hard brush with a size about 8 px and white as the foreground color. Now select the Pen Tool (P) and select in the upper part the option of Paths.

Now draw a curve similar to the one in the image and press the right button on your mouse, then select Stroke Path. In this new menu select Brush and check the Simulate Pressure box.

Press OK. Now press the red button on your mouse again, and select Delete Path. In this layer, select Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay. Add a gradient from black to blue as shown below. Then select Outer Glow and add a blue glow.

Now add a Gaussian Blur to the layer. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and add 2,5 px.

Now duplicate the layer and change the position of the new one.

Select the Brush Tool again and use the smoke brush with a white color. Draw some of smoke and select Edit > Transform > Warp to adjust the curve of the smoke as needed.

For the other ray of light I’ve used the same steps as those above.

Step 13

Now create a new layer, use a brush with a white color to draw a stripe, and then use a blur on it. Finally, change the blending mode of this layer to Overlay. Then you can move it over the ribbons to simulate shine.

For the rays behind the girl use the same system. After you’ve created one of them, duplicate it and move until you’ve done something similar to the sample below. Finally, add the smoke as you’ve done previously.

With these simple ideas I’ve created different points of lights marked in red in the next below. With a mark in blue you can see another ray of light that I’ve drawn using the previous steps.

Step 14

Now that we’re finishing the image, we just need to add details to make it more attractive. For example, let’s use some petals to decorate the image here and there. Use some flowers too and put them in our image as if they’re flying. To make the movement effect just go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Cut another ribbon, paste it in the right corner of our image and add a Motion Blur. Then go to Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Drop Shadow and add the setting shown below.

Add another ribbon in the bottom of the image and repeat the Motion Blur.

Step 15

Finally, let’s add some Adjustments Layers. Go to your upper layer and then to Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Levels. Modify the settings as shown and repeat the process with Color Balance and a Gradient Map. Then change the opacity in the Gradient Map layer to 9% and in the Levels layer to 75%.

Conclusion

The final image is below and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Have fun applying these techniques in your own work!

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How to Place a Fantasy Creature in a Misty Landscape

2009-05-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Source :http://psd.tutsplus.com

May 11th in Illustration, Photo Effects by Alvaro Guzman

This time I've got for you a photo manipulation tutorial. We'll grab several photos and create this fantasy mock-up of an unreal creature. We'll learn several non-destructive techniques, apply photo filters to adjust the lighting, and of course a little bit of the creative process involved on this piece. Let's get to it!

Final Image Preview

Video Tutorial

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

Before Getting Started

First, look for inspiration. For many years I fell in love with the PS1 game saga "Final Fantasy" and their fighting creatures that the characters ride named Chocobos, huge chickens very powerful in battle . I wanted to make this Chocobo as real as possible. Besides I imagined that in this fantasy world there wasn't stronger material than a chocobo's egg, and imagined the warriors using those shells as reinforcement for those creatures. The idea was crazy but nice and I decided to make it. From there everything was just looking for the right photographs, here's the list:

A wild rooster thanks to jaybergesen.
An egg thanks to Chris 27 from stock.xchng
A rider from stock.xchng
A horn (because the chicken itself doesn't looks that unreal) from stock.xchng
Some clouds from stock.xchng.
And a background landscape, this castle thanks to hislightrq was perfect.

This isn't a basic tutorial, so I'll skip the elemental instructions, such as "go to Filter > Blur > Blur." This tut is perfect if you want to try your first photo manipulation because is an easy design and you can always add more details either if you create your creature from scratch or download the source PSD file. How long does it take to make? It took around three hours including the searching time.

Step 1

Let's get it started. Open the castle picture, then delete the little lamb by using the Clone Tool, if you're not familiar with this tool take a look at this basic tutorial. Once you have deleted the lamb, double-click the layer miniature to make the "background" layer editable, name it "Landscape", and save the document with any name you choose. Hide the "Landscape" layer for awhile.

Designing the Creature

Let's get started with creating our creature.

Step 2

Open the wild rooster picture, then use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select the rooster shape. Copy the selection and paste it into the main document in a new layer named "Rooster," which is above the "Landscape" layer. The layers' order is very important in any manipulation work.

Step 3

Open the egg picture, select it by using any method, you can grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool or the Pen tool to create an elliptic shape, either way is fine. Copy the selection and paste it on the main document into a new layer named "Egg." Place the egg just over the Rooster's body - covering it. Obviously, you can Free Transform both the "egg" and "rooster" layers to make them bigger or smaller in this step.

Step 4

Now add some cracks to the egg. Select the "Egg" layer and add a Layer Mask > Reveal All... then, select the Layer Mask in Layer's Palette by clicking once on its miniature. Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, draw some cracks on the Rooster's neck, wing and legs and once you make a selection fill it with black (#000000). Feel free to make the cracks as you want.

Step 5

Now let's fix the egg lighting. Since the main source of light came from the left side of the design, we'll add some shadows and lights to the egg to make it match with the overall light, we'll fix the rooster's lighting later.

I like this technique to add lights and shadows because is the optimal over any picture. Anyway, it's a little bit complicated and takes more time than only applying Dodge and Burn to the image. You must create two copies of the "Egg" layer, edit the levels of "Egg copy" to make it darker and "Egg copy 2" lighter. Place the lighter copy above the "Egg" layer and the darker copy below the "Egg" layer.

Step 6

Grab a big and soft black (#000000) Brush, then select the lighter Layer and paint over the Layer Mask. Hide some areas of the lighter layer to show more of the normal layer. Then, select the non-edited layer and with the same brush paint over its Layer mask. This way you'll hide some areas of the normal layer and showing this way a little bit of darker layer.

This is a variable process, so try and try until have your desired result. Finally, merge the three layers into one, I'm adding them into a folder for further reference and merging a copy of it and hiding the originals.

Step 7

Since the resultant egg is a little bit over saturated, we'll use the Sponge Tool to desaturate it.

Step 8

Let's put some feathers above the egg shell. For this, duplicate the "Rooster" layer, place it over the "Egg copy" layer and apply a Layer Mask > Hide All to it. Then using several sizes of both black and white Brushes on the Layer Mask, make visible some feathers over the egg shell. Don't forget that our main source of light is on the left of the design. Take care to put the main shadows on the opposite side of the light source.

Step 9

Create a new layer below the "Egg copy" layer and name it "Egg shadows." Now use a soft black (#000000) brush, with Opacity and Flow at 75%, and paint some shadows behind the egg. Using a smaller Brush, paint some shadows behind the "Rooster copy" into a new layer named "Feathers shadows."

Step 10

Select the Dodge Tool and set an irregular Brush (Any chalk brush is perfect), then set the Range as Midtones and Exposure to 35%. On the "Egg copy" layer dodge the borders of the cracked egg.

Step 11

Now we'll add the rider. Open the rider picture and using the Lasso Tool copy the shape of the rider. Paste it into a new layer named "Rider" on the main document. Also, add rooster, egg and shadows layers into a new folder named "Rooster." Resize the "Rooster" folder to make it a little bit smaller to match the rider size. Put the Rider just on the rooster's back.

Step 12

Next, use a white (#FFFFFF) brush to paint over the wing's layer mask to reveal some little areas of the wing, try to create a nice join between the wing skin and body skin. Also, improve the wing shape especially on the wave next to the body.

Switch the brush size making it smaller or bigger anytime you need to. Finally, use the Eraser Tool to fix some details on the Rider, like the feather, the borders of the chair, or deleting some areas of the leather reins.

Step 13

Let's add some reins. You can either find a picture and extract the reins or create them from scratch. I'll create them from scratch. Create a new layer named "Reins" below the "Rider" layer. Now using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, create an elliptical selection on that layer. Next with the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, click on the Subtract From Selection option on the Tool's Options Panel.

Select another ellipse, which is smaller than the first one, and try to obtain a nice curved selection like the second screenshot of the image below. Once you have it, use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the selection with black (#000000). Then, Free Transform the rein to match it perfectly with the contour of the rooster's neck.

Step 14

Add to the rein a subtle Gradient Overlay (#000000 - #010101) and an Inner Glow (#5C5C5C).

Step 15

Duplicate the "Reins" layer a few times and free transform them to place them anywhere you like. Put all the copies into a new Group named "Reins," duplicate the folder, and merge the copy. Put the merged copy "Reins copy" below the "Reins" layer. Now move the copy a few pixels up and to the right, then apply a 2px Gaussian Blur to create a shadow effect for the reins.

Step 16

Now it's time to add the rider's shadow over the egg shell. Duplicate the rider layer and place the copy behind the original, then move the layer a few pixels to the right. Adjust the "Rider copy" Lightness value to -100 in the Hue / Saturation panel.

Hit Command + F to reapply the last Gaussian Blur Filter (2px), as shown Step 15. Using a soft eraser delete the shadow of man's head and chest, and leave only the shadow over the rider chair and egg shell. Finally, change any Fill or Opacity value of the "Rider copy" layer to 75%.

Step 17

Following add more details, we'll add some feathers over the reins. Duplicate the "Rooster" folder and merge the copy, place it above the "reins" folder. Apply a Layer Mask > Reveal all. Now with the work of several sizes of white and black soft Brushes, make visible only a few feathers over the reins and over the egg's cracks if you want to. Besides you can add a little drop shadow to the "Rooster copy" layer, but that's optional.

Step 18

Now we'll add another freak detail to the composition - a ram horn. Open the image and select only the horn, then paste it into a new layer above everything else. You can use the Clone Tool to delete the little fur over the horn.

Now apply a Layer Mask > Reveal All to the "Horn" layer. Use a big, soft, black brush to paint on the layer mask. This will merge the horn over rooster's head. Next, Burn the horn to add more intensity to the shadows.

Step 19

Once more we'll add a shadow to a piece of the image. Duplicate the "Horn" layer. Turn down its Lightness to -100. Transform it a little bit to make the shadow bigger than the original shape and apply the Gaussian Blur filter twice.

Change the Blend mode of "Horn copy" to Multiply and turn down the Opacity to 85%. As a final detail, duplicate the "Horn" layer and put the copy just above the "Landscape" layer, move it a little bit up to create the second horn.

Step 20

Let's review another optional step. Since the "Rider" layer is sharper than the "Rooster" layer, you should go to Filter > Sharpen >Unsharp Mask, then set the values shown below and apply the filter to the "Rooster" layer.

Mock-up the Creature on the Landscape

We'll be working on Mocking-up the creature on the landscape in the following steps.

Step 21

It's time to put the creature on the landscape. Make the "Landscape" layer visible, then put all the layers but "Landscape" into a new folder named "Rider." Duplicate the folder (it's a good idea to save your non-merged layers either in folders or Smart Objects for further editing), merge the copy and place it on top of Layers Palette. Name it "Rider" as well and hide the folder. Resize the "Rider" layer and place it wherever you like. Finally, add a Layer Mask > Reveal All to the "Rider" layer.

Step 22

We'll need to adjust the lighting one more time to match the scene. Duplicate the "Rider" twice, name the first copy "Rider Light" and adjust the Levels to make it lighter. Put it above the "Rider" layer. Name the second copy "Rider Dark," adjust the levels to make it darker, and put it below the "Rider Light" layer.

Step 23

Using a big, black Brush, paint some black areas over the "Rider Light" Layer Mask, this way you'll show a little bit of the dark layer. Repeat the process of painting over the "Rider Dark" layer mask to make some areas of the plain "Rider" layer visible. Finally, Merge all three layers into one.

Step 24

Next we'll add the Rider shadow on the grass. For this select the "Rider2" layer, press Command + A to select all and Command + C to copy the image. Create a new layer named "Rider Shadow" and select it. Then go to Filter > Vanishing Point and create a plane as shown in the image below. If you have any doubt about using this filter, then take a look at this basic tutorial first.

Now paste the clipboard over the plane and place it wherever you like, in this case it's a really stretched plane, so the shadow is stretched as well. Once you have it in a right place, turn down the layer's Lightness value to -100 for Hue/Saturation options and apply a 3 pixels Gaussian Blur to that layer.

Step 25

Let's move forward with the shadow. I've experimented with several ways to make the shadow looks real. This time I tried this process and liked the outcome. Select the "Rider shadow" layer and change its Blend Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity to 75%.

Now duplicate the layer and set its Blend Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 45%. Following. Duplicate the "Rider Shadow" once more, distort it making it wider by using the Free Transform options, commit the transform. Now set its Blending Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 25%.

Step 26

Now it's time to add some more shadows. Put all the "Rider shadows" layers into a folder and name it "Rider Shadow." Add a new layer on top of the "Rider Shadow" layers and name it "Shadows" (yes, I know that I'm really bad with layer names). On the "Shadows" layer, using a small soft Brush, paint the shadows of the Rooster's claws on the grass.

Now add another layer named "Shadows," but this time above the "Rider 2" layer. Use this layer to paint hard shadows opposite the light direction. Set the layer's Blend Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 75%. Command-click on the "Rider 2" layer to create a selection of the rider shape, then Invert the Selection and delete the extra shadows of the "Shadows" layer.

Step 27

Let's add some more details. Select the "Landscape" layer and Grab the Clone Tool. Set the clone source somewhere in the grass, then select the Sample value to Current Layer. Create a new layer named "More grass" and start painting a little piece of grass over the Rooster claws.

Add a Dramatic Environment

In the next few steps, we'll work on adding a dramatic environment.

Step 28

First, add a Hue/Saturation layer and turn down the saturation a little bit. Then add a Gradient Map adjustment layer that goes from black to white. Change its Blending mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 30%.

Step 29

Let's add some clouds and a cold fog. Paste the clouds picture into a new layer named "Clouds" above the "Landscape" layer. Apply a Gradient (black to white) layer mask to hide the bottom of the clouds. Then change its Blending Mode to Multiply and the Opacity to 75%.

Step 30

Since the "Landscape" layer is a little bit over saturated on the blue Channel, We'll use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the background a little bit. Edit the Master Channel by turning down its saturation to -30. Then edit the Blue Channel setting the Saturation to -100 and Lightness to -30. This way you'll get a darker landscape and a misty sky.

Step 31

Since the chicken is a little bit over saturated, we'll use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer as well, but this time only for the rider. For this let's merge the layers: "More grass," "Shadows," and "Rider 2." Name this merged layer "Final Rider."

Now add the adjustment layer above the "Final Rider" and Option-click between the adjustment layer and "Final Rider" layers to apply the adjustment only for the layer below. Finally, let's add a Gradient Map (black to white) adjustment layer to increase the dramatic effect on the entire design. This makes the effect not that intense. Set the Gradient Map's Blending Mode to Overlay and turn down its Opacity to around 30%.

Step 33

Let's add the mist. Paste the clouds picture into a new layer above the "Clouds" layer and name it "Mist 1." Stretch the clouds height a little bit, as shown below.

Apply a Layer Mask > Reveal All and use a big, black brush to paint over the mask to hide the hard borders of the mist layer and fade it out merging the landscape. Finally, change its Blending mode to Lighten and Opacity to 50%.

Step 34

More mist is needed. Duplicate the "Mist 1" layer several times creating multiple copies. Free Transform each one to make it wider or higher, even add some of the "Mist" layer above the "Final Rider" layer to create the illusion that the fog is in front of the creature as well. Feel free to hide or reveal more areas on each Layer Mask to hide or show some particular background areas.

Step 35

To add a cold effect, add an Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Choose Color and set this value to #00415F, set the Density to 50% and place the filter just below the top Gradient Map layer.

The Final Mock-up

Be sure to save your work. Flatten the image and save it somewhere else, but don't overwrite the original document. With the flattened image you'll have a unique layer named "Background." Duplicate it and apply to the copy a Gaussian Blur of 2px. Then Duplicate the blurred copy and hide it.

On the visible blurred layer, apply a Layer Mask and fill it with a Radial Gradient (white to black) to make visible only the sides of the blurred layer, hiding the center of the blur image. Then make visible the top blurred layer and change its blending mode to Overlay and its Opacity to 35%. Then you can crop or resize the image as you wish.

Conclusion

That's it, though it isn't an easy process, as I'm sure you've noticed. Your outcome may be very different than mine. I hope you've enjoyed reading this tutorial and found it useful to improve your photo manipulation skills.

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Use Over 40 Advanced Keyboard Shortcuts to Create a Reflective Timepiece

2009-05-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com

May 12th in Tools & Tips by Tavis Glover

This tutorial will teach you basic to advanced keyboard shortcuts, all while designing an amazing timepiece! We can't cover all of the keyboard shortcuts in this tutorial, but there are over 40 essentials here to give you a great start! Let's get started on the way to being a super efficient designer!

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Well, to get things started off right, let's make a new document with the dimensions of 2304 pixels by 1708 pixels, and 300dpi. These dimensions worked great while creating this tutorial, so let's stick with them!

Next we'll set some guides. Be sure your snap feature is turned on View > Snap (Command + Shift + Colon key). Unfortunately there is no visual aid to show that it is turned on. Press Command + R to display your rulers, then use the Selection Tool (V) to drag a guide from the left and top rulers, ensuring they snap to the center of the artboard. Press Command + Colon key to hide any Guides at any time.

Don't worry, if you make a mistake, just press Command + Z to undo. If you make a few mistakes, just press Command + Option + Z to step back to where you were. Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff!

Here's an interesting trick. Change the background of your artboard by selecting your favorite color, grabbing your Paint Bucket Tool (G), then Shift-clicking on the artboard. Cool right?

Step 2

Lets work from the bottom up, kinda like a painting. First lets create a nice blue gradient for the background. Select the Gradient Tool (G), select radial from the gradient choices. When choosing your colors, you can use #3e5198 for the foreground, and #222d53 for the background.

The effect we want is a lighter center, and a slightly darker outside. This creates more visual interest, rather than just a plain solid color. Once you have your colors selected, simply click and drag from the center of the artboard to the right edge and release.

Step 3

For Psd Plus members, Drag in the supplied "concreteTexture.jpg" image that is found in the "source" file in this tut's member download, or grab a texture you prefer off the net. Make sure it is on a layer above the "background." Scale (Command + T) and adjust as needed. Set the color mode to Overlay (V, then Shift + or -), and reduce the Opacity of the layer to 30% (V, then 3). This will give us a nice subtle effect.

Here's a quick note on Opacity and Fill. The number pad (1 = 10%, 2 = 10%......0 = 100%) will change the Opacity or Fill (press Shift and number to change Fill) to whichever tool is selected. If the Selection Tool (V) is active, then it will adjust the layer. If the Brush Tool (B) is selected, then it will adjust the brush. The same goes for the Gradient and Paint Bucket Tool (G).

Step 4

Create a new layer and name it "Main Clock." Select the Circular Marquee Tool (M), and drag from the center of the artboard out towards the edge. The trick is to press Option+Shift while dragging. This will constrain proportions and create a marquee from the center, out.

Leave some free space on the top and bottom. Press (D) to change to the default colors. Next, press Option + Delete to fill the marquee with your foreground color. Deselect the marquee (Command + D). Don't like the color you just filled the circle with? Pick a different color and press Shift + Option+ Delete and see what happens! The transparency is preserved!

Select the Main Clock Layer and the "Background" Layer by Command-clicking each layer (if a marquee appears, that means you clicked on the layers thumbnail. Oops!) Press (V) for your Selection Tool, then align the circle by pressing the Align Vertical Centers, and the Align Horizontal Centers. This is a precautionary measure to make sure everything lines up later down the road.

Filling Note: If you press Command + Delete, the marquee will fill with the background color. An easy way to remember which one does which is to observe on the left side of your keyboard, the Option button is on the left of the Command button (just like the foreground and background colors).

Step 5

Now we get to add some effects. Double-click on the "Main Clock" layer to open up the Layer Style dialog box. Enter the following adjustments (everything else can remain as the default setting):

Drop Shadow: Opacity = 65%, Angle = 90 (make sure Global Light is checked), Distance = 49, and Size = 79.
Inner Shadow: Opacity = 65%, Distance = 0, Choke = 12, and Size = 38.
Inner Glow: Blend Mode = Color Burn, Color = #a32025, Size = 111
Bevel: Technique = Chisel Hard, Size = 81, Soften = 14, Highlight Mode Opacity = 45, and Shadow Mode Opacity = 45.

Step 6

Here comes the fun part! Let's create the numbers for the face of the clock. Select your Type Tool (T) and click anywhere to make a text field. Type in the number 00 (a nice round number to help us align everything) and make sure the text is center aligned. The size should be approximately 40pt (to increase or decrease the size of the font use Shift + Command + <>). Helvetica Neue Font was used, but almost any font will work. Click your check mark box to accept the changes.

Now let's align this text to the background, the same way we did in the previous step. Command-click the text layer and the background layer , then use the align tools to ensure we are directly in the center.

Step 7

Next, Shift-drag the text box to the top of the circle, and let it snap into place. It should be half on, half off of the top edge of the "Main Clock." Aligning it this way will give us a nice visual, letting us know that everything aligned properly.

Once in place, press Command + T for the Free Transform Tool. Your anchor will be in the center of the transform box. Shift-drag it down to the center of the circle. Zoom in (Command + Plus key) if you need to be more precise. Change the angle to 30 degrees and click the check box to accept the changes.

Now press Command + Option + Shift + T eleven more times to repeat the transform and make a new layer via copy. Wow, that's amazing!

Step 8

Adjust the number to read correctly by selecting the layer, then pressing Command + T. Grab the bounding box corner and rotate it into place while holding Shift. Edit the text by double-clicking the text layer and entering the appropriate number.

Note: Using the bounding box to rotate the numbers into place is the quickest way, but you have other options as well. Try rotating it 30 degrees, then click the check box to accept the changes. Now press Command + Shift + T to repeat the transform. Keep doing this until the number is in place. Now you can select a different number layer and use the same keyboard shortcut. Neat!

Once all of the numbers are correct and can be read properly, select all of the numbers by Shift-clicking the entire set of numbers. Press Command + G to group all of the numbers together. Name the group "Numbers."

Step 9

Now we want to make a copy of all of the numbers to one layer. Option-click the eye on the "Numbers" group. This will turn all of the other layers off. Press Command + Option + Shift + E to stamp everything visible to a new layer via copy. Name this layer "Merged Numbers."

Now turn on the other layers by clicking on each layer eye. You can keep the group "Numbers" turned off. The reason we made a copy is to keep an editable copy of the numbers, to apply the effects to only one layer which reduces file size, and to learn a great shortcut!

Step 10

Resize the Merged Numbers layer (Command + T), so it fits inside the clock as shown below. Be sure to hold Option + Shift while dragging to constrain the proportions to the center.

Apply effects to the "Merged Numbers" layer. Use the settings indicated below. Don't be afraid to choose your own settings either. Make it your own!

Here are the settings used:

Outer Glow: Opacity = 56, Color = #a32025.
Bevel: Style = Pillow Emboss, Size = 24, Soften = 8, Highlight Mode Opacity = 30, and Shadow Mode Opacity = 30.
Gradient Overlay = #ffffff, #c8c8c8, #ffffff, #c8c8c8, #ffffff (refer to image below) Click New to add this gradient to the presets field because it will be used in Step 13).

Step 11

Create a new layer and name this "Hour Hand." Use your Custom Shape Tool (U) and choose the pencil shape from the drop down menu at the top. This looks most like a clock dial. Drag out a shape to make it look like a short, thin hour hand. Press Command + T, then hold Shift while rotating the hand so it is straight up and down. Position it towards the center to help you measure the next hand.

We need a longer minute hand now. Duplicate the layer by pressing Command + J. Rename this layer "Minute Hand." Select the Square Marquee Tool (M) and drag a square around the upper part of the hand. Now press Command + T and drag the hand so it is a little longer than the other one. Doing this will keep our pointed area proportional between the two hands.

Step 12

Turn off the visibility of the "Minute Hand." Drag the "Hour Hand" up so the end is within the center guides. Press Command + T, rotate it holding Shift, then move the anchor point to the center guides (zoom in if necessary). Rotate the hand to the location of your choice (sometimes the anchor can't be edited until the object is rotated). Now do the same with the "Minute Hand."

Step 13

Use the settings below to style both hands. The "Minute Hand" will have slightly more distance in the drop shadow, so it appears to be above the "Hour Hand." Here are the settings:

Drop Shadow: Opacity = 55, Distance = 11 (14 for the "Minute Hand"), Size = 13.
Inner Shadow: Opacity = 42.
Bevel: Technique = Chisel Hard, Size = 9, Highlight Mode Opacity = 55, Shadow Mode Opacity = 55.
Gradient Overlay: Use the same color of gradient that was saved in Step 10, Angle = 96.

Step 14

Adding some light spots to the clock hands will make our effect even more realistic. Create a new layer and name it "Highlights." Press (D) for your default colors, then (X) to switch to white.

Press (B) and from the brush menu (if you are using CS4 you can use the following shortcuts) select a brush diameter of 150 (Control + Option-click-drag), and a hardness of 0% (Control + Option + Command-click-drag). Set the Opacity to 30% (press 3). For earlier versions of PS, use the Bracket keys to adjust the diameter, and Shift + Bracket keys to adjust hardness.

Paint the white spot anywhere you can see it. Now select a Brush Diameter of 50, with 0% Hardness. Set the Opacity to 60% (press 6). Click once in the center of the previous highlight.

Now select your Circular Marquee Tool (M). Drag a circle around your highlight. Press (V), now click inside the marquee to cut it and reposition it. Find a white part on the "Hour Hand" and try to center your highlight to the upper edge of the hand (it depends on where you put your hands, but remember the light source is coming from the top).

Before you deselect, Option-click and drag a new copy to a highlight on the "Minute Hand," and the upper edges of the numbers 7 and 12. Now you can deselect, and pat yourself on the back for making it this far!

Step 15

Add your company logo if you would like. Just drag it into your document, making sure the logo layer is below both hand layers. Position it, then use Command + T to resize it.

Copy the layer style of the numbers by right-clicking and selecting Copy Layer Style, then right-click on your "logo" layer and select Paste Layer Style. Decrease the bevel effect until it looks more realistic (Bevel: Size = 5, Soften = 0).

Step 16

Hold the hands together by creating a center piece. Create a new layer and name it "Center." Command-click on the "Main Clock" layer thumbnail to create a marquee. Fill it with any color (Command + Delete), Deselect the marquee (Command + D), resize to the center (Command + T). Don't forget to hold Shift + Option to constrain the proportions to the center.

Now copy the "Main Clock" layer style, and paste it onto the "Center" layer. Make a few minor adjustments as shown below. The drop shadow distance should be a little more than the "Minute Hand" layer because it is above both hands:

Drop Shadow: Distance = 19 and Size = 13.
Inner Glow: Uncheck this effect.

Step 17

Let's create the cover now. Create a new layer and name it "Cover." Command-click on the "Main Clock" layer thumbnail to create a marquee. Press (D) for default colors, then press Command + Delete to fill it with white. Deselect the marquee (Command + D). Lower the layer opacity to 20% (V, then 2).

Resize (Command + T, then hold Shift + Option-drag) the "Cover" layer to fit a little inside the beveled edge of the "Main Clock." See the image below.

Create a Layer Mask by clicking on the button at the bottom of the Layer Panel, select your Gradient Tool (G), make sure Linear is selected, then choose the same gradient from Step 10. Now click on the Layer Mask to select it. Zoom out if necessary, and drag a gradient from the upper left corner of the image, down to the lower right corner. This effect will had some variation to the cover and make it appear to be a more reflective surface.

Step 18

Now we need to continue to build up the glare effects to make the "Cover" look more realistic. For those of you who have watched my Glass Ball Tutorial on YouTube, this step will be a breeze.

Create a new layer and name it "Glare." Command-click on the "Cover" layer thumbnail to create a marquee. Press (D) for default colors, then press Command + Delete to fill it with white. Deselect the marquee (Command + D). Lower the layer Opacity to 40% (V, then 4)

Transform the "Glare" layer by pressing Command + T, then Shift-dragging from the bottom and bring it above the center line. Shift + Option-drag from the right side to squeeze the layer, then Shift-drag from the top to squeeze it down into place. Use the image below for reference. Make sure the glare is covering the number 12, as shown.

Step 19

Create a Layer Mask for the "Glare" layer. Select your Gradient Tool (G) and make sure the Linear Gradient is selected from the gradient field above. Choose default colors (D). Select the Layer Mask, then drag a gradient from the bottom of the circle to the top. Instant Glare! We still have some polish to add though.

Default Colors Note: If you are on a layer, the letter D makes black the foreground, and white the background. But, if a Layer Mask is selected, and D is pressed, then the default colors are reversed. Just press X if you need to swap them.

Step 20

Create a new document by pressing Command + N. Let's make this a square document. The size should be 7 inches by 7 inches at 300dpi.

Double-click on the background layer,then press OK to unlock the layer. Fill the layer with black (try to use those shortcuts you learned in the previous steps). Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare, then select the 105mm Prime option at 110%, and press OK.

Lets Fade the Filter we just applied. Press Command + Shift + F. Lower the Opacity to 90%.

Fade Filter Note: This shortcut is only accessible directly after a filter is applied. It's great for lowering the Opacity or changing the blending mode of a filter without affecting the pixels it is sitting on top of.

Step 21

Go to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates. Select Polar to Rectangular, and press OK. Whoa, what happened! Don't worry, it's going to look great I promise!

Now flip it vertically. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertically. Now go back to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates. This time select Rectangular to Polar, and press OK. Wow, now look at that! Did I keep my promises or what!

Step 22

All you have to do now is cut out the fat. Create some quick center guides like we did earlier. Choose your Circular Marquee Tool (M), then drag a circle from the center out to the edge of the glare. Be sure to hold Shift + Option while dragging.

Now press Command + Shift + I to inverse the selection. Press Command + X to cut out the fat.

Step 23

Shift-drag your creation into your clock document so it is centered.

Resize the reflection by pressing Command + T and Shift + Option dragging it to the same size as the "Cover" layer. Rotate the reflection so the beads of light are at the top, and aligned to the center. Accept the changes by pressing the Check Mark.

Rename this layer to "Flare," and make sure it is above the "Glare" layer. Press (V), then hold Shift and press the Plus or Minus keys to cycle through your layer modes. Soft Light works best in our case.

Step 24

We need to add more pop to the glare at the top. Command-click on the "Glare" layer thumbnail to create a marquee. Select the "Flare" layer, then press Shift + F6 to bring up the Feather Selection dialog box. Type 100 pixels and click OK. This will fade our flare and blend it more.

Now make a new layer via cut by pressing Command + Shift + J. Now set the Blending Mode to Screen (V, then Plus or Minus keys). Rename the layer to "Flare2."

Step 25

We better add one more lens flare for good measure. Create a new layer and name it "Flare3." Command-click on the "Cover" layer to get a marquee. Fill it with black and don't deselect the marquee yet. This will confine our lens flare to the pixels inside the marquee.

Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare. This time choose 50-300mm Zoom, and position the flare crosshair on the left side so all of the reflections are aligned from left to right. Select 110%. Press OK.

Deselect the selection (Command + D) and press Command + T to rotate it so the brightest part is centered at the top. Accept the changes. Now set the layer mode to Soft Light.

Step 26

A few more lighting effects and we are done. Create a new layer above all of the others and name it "Inner Rim." Command-click the "Main Clock" layer thumbnail to create a marquee. Fill the marquee with white (D, then Command + Delete). Deselect the marquee (Command + D). Press Command + T to reduce the size to meet the inner edge of the "Main Clock" Bevel as shown.

Let's cut out the fat. Command-click on the "Cover" layer (make sure the "Inner Rim" layer is still selected). Press Command + X to cut out the center.

Reduce the layer Opacity to 70% (V, then 7). Create a Layer Mask. We need to fade the effect now. Select your Gradient Tool (G), Default Colors (D), (X) to inverse default colors, and Shift-drag a Linear Gradient from the center of the clock down to the bottom of the clock.

Step 27

Create a new layer and name it "Outer Rim." Command-click on the "Main Clock" layer to create a marquee, and fill with white (D, then Command + Delete). Deselect the marquee (Command + D).

Now select the "Inner Rim" layer and Command-click on the layer thumbnail. Press (W) for your Wand Tool, and Shift-click the center of the marquee. This will get rid of the middle part that we don't need. Now click back on the "Outer Rim" layer and cut out the fat (Command + X). Set the layer Opacity to 80% (V, then 8).

Select your Gradient Tool (G), and choose Radial Gradient. If the layer mask is selected, press (D) for your default colors. Shift-drag up from the top of the "Outer Rim." You will have to drag about 3-4 inches above the clock. Zoom out if necessary. This will give us a nice hot spot on the top of the clock, which is closer to the light source.

Step 28

Create a new layer and name it "Shadows." Fill it with black. Set the layer mode to Soft Light (V, then Shift and use the Plus or Minus keys). Now create a Layer Mask, choose your default colors (D), select your Gradient Tool (G), then Shift-drag a Linear Gradient from the bottom of the image to the center of the clock. This will add a little more depth to our image by fading the light.

Conclusion

Wow, you did it! Great Job! Hopefully this tutorial has helped you and will make you a quicker, more efficient Photoshop designer.

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